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Christ the King Community Daycare
68-02 Metropolitan Avenue,
Middle Village, NY 11379
718-417-6770
www.ctkny.org
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Welcome June. We are almost at the end of another school year. Congratulations to all of our four and five year olds who will be going to kindergarten in the fall. Thank you to all of our Pre-K parents, teachers and students. Your hard work and team effort has paid off, and we are confident that your children will be fully prepared for kindergarten and much success in their future schools years.
June is a very exciting month at Christ the King Community Daycare. During the first week of June, we will have "Picnic Week." Each individual class will have their own picnics outside if the weather is nice. Keep an eye out for marching ants and buzzing bees. The children will continue to observe their butterfly and ladybug larvae. Each class received a Butterfly Pavilion with 10 to 15 larvae, which are on display in their classroom. They have been watching closely as the larvae changed to caterpillars, then chrysalis. Then they will anxiously await the arrival of the beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies. After about two weeks, they will emerge and strengthen their wings by drinking up the juice from oranges and sugar water with their proboscis. In a few days, they will be strong enough to fly away as we set them free.
Each class has also displayed their Domed Ladybug Land with approximately 10 insect-like larvae. Ladybug larvae change into the pupa stage in two days. They will remain in the pupa stage for about five days and then will emerge as adult ladybugs. The teachers will have plenty of raisins on hand, as this is what they like to eat as they strengthen their shells. They will be ready to be released by the first or second week of June.
Many of our Daycare students will be moving up to a new class in July. It is amazing to see how much they have grown and developed .The week of June 20th – June 29th will be an orientation period. Throughout this week, the children will go to their current classrooms. The teachers and children will talk about the new class, visit the new class , and meet their new teachers. Our vacation week of July 3rd - 7th, Christ the King Daycare is closed .
Everyone returning for the summer can begin in their new class the week of July 10th, which is the 1st week of our Summer Fun Program. You will receive a moving up/welcome email telling you about your child's new class and who their teachers are. We are also so proud that they are ready to move on to the next level of learning and there is no better time for learning and fun than the summer at CTK.
It is often hard to say goodbye and transition to a new room and teachers. Our teachers and administrators are here for you to answer any questions you may have and offer support if needed to help make this transition as pleasant as possible for you and your child. You child's progress report will be given out the last week of June.
We are gearing up for our Summer Program starting July 10th - Sept. 1st . Each week is packed with fun and excitement with intellectually and physically challenging learning experiences. There are weekly themes and many activities planned for the entire summer. We have special guests, live entertainment, fairs, computer games, carnivals, sports and splish splash.
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Please Note:
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The 3-K and Pre-K will be closed June 2nd for Staff Development. Daycare will be open.
- Pre-K will have their Stepping Up Ceremony on June 16th at 5:00 p.m.
- When calling the facility, please keep in mind that calls should be ideally be made between 12-2pm while the children are napping. The daycare phone number is 718-417-6770.
- Please remember to make sure your child's cubby contains weather-appropriate clothing. We also appreciate all of our parents continuing to bring in diapers and a box of wipes twice each month on the 1st and the 15th.
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Colors: Blend and Mix
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Concepts: Insects, All About the 5 Senses, Sink and Float, Picnics
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Shape: Make your own
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Letters: Z
- Number(s):
Ages (1-2) # 10
Ages (3-4) #'s 19, 20
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Science with Snugglies II
Spring time is the perfect opportunity for our babies to explore with science! Last month, we received our caterpillars and watched every day waiting for them to form their cocoons. As we observed the caterpillars, we read aloud “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” Once the caterpillars were wrapped up nice and tight in their cocoons, we placed them in their safety net. We are counting the days until they turn into beautiful butterflies. Then we will set them free!
This month we are excited to make special Father's Day Projects! We are looking forward to learning about the letter Z and the number 10 this month. We are also counting down to the last day of school and getting ready to transition to our new class!
Science with the Monkeys
The Monkeys are giving a warm welcome to June! The month of May was full of fun activities for the Monkeys! We started off the month with a Cinco de Mayo party where we opened a piñata and got to eat chips and salsa! The children also enjoyed painting pots for our Mother’s Day flowers, and welcoming our caterpillars into the classroom!
We talked a lot about insects and are learning about metamorphosis as we watch our caterpillars make their cocoons and eventually turn into butterflies! The Monkeys love to look at the butterfly life cycle diagram and talk about the different phases a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly, like in one of our favorite books, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” We had so much fun taking turns naming our caterpillar friends (Dig, Nunu, Chickee, Kiki, and Gerald) and can’t wait to see their beautiful butterfly wings soon! We will observe them for a few days and then set them free.
This month, in addition to continuing our study of butterflies, the Monkeys will be learning about the Five Senses and experimenting with Sink and Float.
Science with the Bears
Last month theme, “Babies” was explored throughout all of the centers in the classroom. The students were able to engage in many multi-sensory activities. In the Science Center, the children explored different size diapers and discussed why babies need them. The children were asked, “How much water do diapers hold?” The children made predictions on how many cups of water a diaper can hold. The children had a great time guessing how much water can fit. The children decided to extend the learning by using different liquids such as juice or milk to test our predictions. The children had a great time with this activity and enjoyed helping their friends pour different liquids. Through our predictions we discovered that a diaper can hold up to 2 ½ cups of liquids.
The Bears can’t wait and sure will be to be excited to learn about our next unit of “Transformation” in June.
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Math with the Puppies
Happy June! As summer quickly approaches, we look forward to more sunny days and outdoor fun ahead! In the month of May, the Puppies enjoyed our many school activities, including Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day and, of course, our fabulous Spring Show! Some of our themes last month included learning more about insects, as well as counting to number nine.
Our theme to introduce the topic of insects to the Puppies was to read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." While a literacy lesson on its own, reading the book led to an integrated math and art project called "The Very Hungry Caterpillar Counts to Nine!" We crafted caterpillars out of colorful circles of construction paper. Integrated lessons are an opportunity to showcase a theme throughout multiple subject areas. By reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" the subjects of literacy, math, art and even science (through the life-cycle of the butterfly) were all intertwined. We counted to nine with the Puppies as each child glued the circle bodies of the caterpillar together. Our Puppies love art projects and were very excited to count (and glue) with us!
Math with the Bumblebees
Welcome June and the new season of summer. In the month of May the Bumblebees celebrated Mother’s Day and Cinco de Mayo. For Mother’s Day we created a bouquet of flowers made from recycled materials. On Cinco de Mayo we celebrated with chips and salsa with our lunch, and a pinata! The school also had its Spring Show last month. The Bumblebees had a blast performing “Wiggle and Freeze”!
The Bumblebees enjoy learning about math and we engaged in many lessons throughout the month of May. We really took time to focus on recognizing shapes. One fun activity we did was building a bug out of shapes! This took lots of imagination and colorful shape pieces. With this craft we took notice of what shapes we were using and what shapes we could create when putting them together. We also focused on comparing the shapes and pointing out when we had shapes that were the same or different, big or small, round or pointy. After we created our bugs and put googly eyes to make them come to life. Then we counted how many shapes we had. This activity let the Bumblebees practice recognizing shapes, counting, and being creative!
This month we will be reviewing our shapes, as well as learning about the number 10.
Math with the Pandas
Welcome to the month of June , as we sadly say goodbye to each other , and the end of another school year. We wish everyone much success and happiness in Kindergarten .. During the month of May the Pandas learned all about Babies! We explored this theme in all our centers and reflected on when they were babies themselves. We also discussed animal babies and how different animals are born and how they grow. After discussing which animals lay eggs and which animals don’t, the pandas played an egg hatch-match game in the math center. The children had to match the number with the correct amount on the eggs.
Another activity the Pandas really enjoyed was making our own baby food. As a class we discussed how babies first learn to drink milk, and then learn to eat baby food as they grow new teeth. For our cooking class, we mashed up various fruits such as bananas and blueberries. We also added strawberry yogurt and milk to a puree machine. After mixing all the ingredients, we tasted the yummy baby food.
Math with the Dolphins
As we welcome the month of June, we are sad to say goodbye to another wonderful school year. We wish all of our Dolphin friends much success and happiness in kindergarten.
During the month of May, the Dolphins were busy enjoying the unit theme “Babies.” Students listened to the book “Hello Baby” by Mem Fox. Then, in small groups in the Math center, the Dolphins worked on their sorting skills. The teacher supplied an assortment of baby animals that hatch. We then invited children to count them and tell how many there were. As children were successful, rearranging the animals in different arrays and with various numbers. Students counted and determined which groups of animals had more babies, and which had less. This activity helped the children to explore and develop the concept that when counting, the last number name says the number of objects there are. This concept is called “One to one correspondence “In this case, the total number of each animals’ babies.
Students also played “Egg, Hatch, Match.” Ms. Taylor gave the Dolphins paper egg cutouts. The Dolphins wrote a number on one part of the egg and drew the corresponding number of dots on the other part.
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Art with the Angels
The Angels are so happy to welcome the new month of June. We will be releasing our butterflies, learning about our five senses, and reviewing our shapes, colors and numbers to 10. We hope everyone enjoyed the Angels spectacular performance during our Spring Music Show! The children worked very hard at each practice to perform their part. Thank you to everyone that attended and showed their support.
Last month, the Angels were given caterpillars to care for and observe. They were so excited to see the caterpillars change and transform into chrysalises. This month we look forward to our butterflies emerging. After a few days we will release them into our gardens. In connection with this theme, we made caterpillars and butterflies art projects. The teachers cut the curvy side of a paper plate and the children used markers to color them green. After that, they glued antennas and eyes. Each child then picked out and glued colored pom-poms to the caterpillar. Then using symmetry, we created butterflies. On one side of construction paper, the children squeezed some colorful paint. Next, we folded the paper over to squish the paint onto the other side. When we opened the folded paper, our pattern was mirrored on both sides of the paper. We added antennas to complete our painted butterflies. The Angels had so much fun making many art projects throughout the school year!
Art with the Sunflowers
Let’s give ourselves a round of applause for the success of our Annual Spring Show! The children, especially the Sunflowers, did such an excellent performance. We also would like to thank our Sunflower families for your tremendous support. We couldn’t have done it without you. Miss Mellisa and Miss Jenna truly appreciate you!
June is finally here, and summer is fast approaching! It’s hard to believe that this will be the last month of school. The Sunflowers have been working hard, learning, and having lots of fun! We can’t wait to step up for Pre-K and celebrate Father’s Day by mid-June!
As we’re coming close to the end of school year, the Sunflowers will finally learn about “changing” which is the last topic of Exploration Three in connection with the previous themes: “care” and “grow.” These last exploration series, care-grow-change, indeed help the Sunflowers comprehend the connection between a cause and its effect. When we care for a living, it will grow and flourish. For the past few weeks, the Sunflowers have been observing the growth of our caterpillars. Soon enough we will watch the caterpillars metamorphose into beautiful butterflies and release them. As an appreciation of this beautiful change, the Sunflowers will be invited to create their own hand-print butterflies in Art Center. We will use bright spring-colored paints to paint our hands. Then, we can use colorful foam shapes, googly eyes, and markers to decorate the wings once the paint is dry.
As we are exploring the theme “change” this month, the Sunflowers will be reminded about growing. During the month of May, we have learned about things that grow, the ways we grow, and how things grow. During outdoor play on the soccer field, the Sunflowers used a basketball to measure their heights while laying down on the grown. In the classroom, we also made a height chart, decorated, and taped it to the door. The Sunflowers took turns to stand next to the chart to see how tall they are. It was so interesting to discover that most of them are about 3 ft. tall! In Science Center, the Sunflowers did the mung beans on cotton balls experiment. We discussed how we, caterpillars, and our mung beans can grow bigger and taller. All of us agreed that we and most living creatures need healthy food, rest, exposure of sun, water, and rest.
Art with the Ducks
Intro/Welcome/Thank You’s
To our class,
We’re glad we were your teachers
We've come to love you so.
We can't believe the end is here.
We hate to see you go.
Remember all the fun we had
in all the things we did,
But most of all remember...
You're all very special kids!
Welcome to June! The end of our school year is here, but that doesn’t mean the learning has. The Ducks are so excited for summer to come, as it means ice cream, picnics, and swimming. This year has been a great year with all the love that has been felt from you the parents. On behalf of Miss Diana, Miss Gerry and I, thank you all so much and we will miss you!!!
During the month of June, the Ducks will be learning about change, and how their actions impact growth and change. During Center Time, the Ducks will work on an art project that produced an understanding of change. We will be mixing different colors together to witness the change, producing other colors. The teachers will give student colors such as red, blue, yellow, white and black to see which colors will make purple, green and pink. This is always a fun experiment as we wait to see the outcome of each combination.
In May, the Ducks learned about “Growing.” The Ducks read “The Tiny Seed” by Eric Carle. We learned that grass and plants start out as a seed. Then we learned that the roots start growing, then the stem grows, then leaves and finally the flower. During the story, the Ducks were asked where the best place for flowers are to grow. The Ducks all answered the window because flowers need sunlight to grow big. The story demonstrates, wonderful illustrations and a simple but dramatic text telling the fascinating story of the life cycle of a flower in terms of the adventures of a tiny seed. Each child made a flower using tissue paper, colors orange, red, green, yellow and purple. Second, they used construction paper to glue the flower on, next, they picked out the color pipe cleaner they wanted for the stem. At the end of the month, the Ducks were so proud to take their flowers they made home.
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Music with the Bunnies
Happy June! Last month we had so much fun singing and dancing in our Spring Show. We had so much fun on stage shaking our shakers to the song "Biddy Biddy." The Bunnies were so excited to pick our favorite colors in the shakers! We loved sitting on the stage and watching our friends preform their songs. Some of the songs that the other classes preformed are songs that we listen to and dance to all the time. We also love going to the gym to practice our dance moves. Some of our favorite songs are the “Animal Freeze Dance” and “The Floor is Lava.” The Music and Movement Room is another great place for our class to go to create their own music. The Bunnies play with various instruments, discovering each instrument’s sound. We look forward to making more and more music!
Next month, the Bunnies will be learning about the number 10 and the last letter, Z. We will experiment with Sink and Float and review all our colors and shapes.
Music with the Lions
The month of May brought a lot of excitement to the Lion room as we got ready for our Spring Music Show. To prepare for the show, the Lions had Mr. Kenny and Mr. Andrew visit each week, and practiced different songs for the show. We even got to play with some instruments like the egg shakers! After listening to a variety of songs, we had to pick our favorite one to perform at the show for our families. Our Lion class is very energetic and always come up with new dance moves to the songs we listen to. When listening to “Mr. Rabbit,” the Lions started jumping in a circle like little bunny rabbits. Mr. Kenny loved it so much that we decided to incorporate it into our dance! That became our favorite part of the dance. The Lions were so excited to dance on the stage and show everyone their hard work. They even got to tie-dye their own shirts for the show! Our Lions loved their time with Mr. Kenny and can’t wait for next year's show!
The Lions love to move around any chance we get! We have always loved “The Action Song” so much that we added that to our morning meeting- but with a twist. When singing our “If You’re Ready to Start the Day” song, the Lions pick the movement or action to do ‘the Lion way.’ Each day, we pick 3 new actions or movements. We sing along and perform the actions to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” Here’s a sample to try at home! “If you’re ready to start the day, Jump Up and Down! If you’re ready to start the day, Jump Up and Down! If you’re ready to start the day, let’s do it the Lion Way! If you’re ready to start the day, Jump Up and Down!”
Looking towards June, our monthly theme is "Change." One part of change that we are looking forward to is experiencing our caterpillars turning into butterflies. We can’t wait to see the butterflies fly in the sky when we let them go! Our Lions will also be experiencing some change as they prepare to move up to Pre-K. Miss Kaitlin and Miss Melissa are sad to see them go, but wish them the best of luck and cannot wait to see them grow in Pre-K!
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Athletes in Training &
Technology Tots
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Tech and Gym with the Kitties
Hello June, what a year it has been! Throughout the year, the Kitties have enjoyed numerous activities in our indoor gym. Our class has been practicing walking up and down the wooden stairs in the gym. In addition, the Kitties have loved playing with the BIG ball. They have so much fun throwing it, rolling it, and running after it. Doing these activities such as walking, jumping, running, and catching have helped our Kitties develop their gross motor skills all while having fun.
The Kitties also love to learn through tech. When we visit the Computer Room, we love to do music and movement activities. We use tech to play some of our favorite songs so we can sing and dance together. Sometimes we play videos of various songs so that the children can learn the different movements. Some of our favorite songs to act out last month included “Baby Shark”, “One Little Finger,” “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and many more! June is also our “Goodbye” month….We are getting ready to move up to our new classes. While goodbyes can be so hard, we look forward to new beginnings filled with more learning and growing. We will miss all our Kitties!
Tech and Gym with the Chipmunks
The Chipmunks give a great big welcome to June. We are so happy to have the nice weather, as we enjoy playing in our soccer field and playground each day. This month we will be learning about “Change.” The children are all growing and changing, and they can create a change by the things they do.
During the month of May, we learned about growing and life cycles. The children really enjoyed learning about the life cycle of a butterfly since we received caterpillars for our classroom. While in the Computer Room we found a butterfly yoga video. The children learned to move their own bodies to become the egg, the caterpillar, turn themselves into a "cocoon", and, lastly, become a big beautiful butterfly!
It has been so beautiful outside so while on the playground we have been teaching the children to use their muscles to pull themselves up the "hill" on the playground. We taught the children that their muscles are still growing and that when they grow into adults their muscles will be big and strong. We have found so many fun ways to incorporate our theme of growing and life cycles into everyday activities!
Tech with the Turtles
Welcome June, and soon the end to a wonderful school year.
This month the Turtles are learning all about transformation. We understand that transformation means to change and we have been changing from Pre-K students into students who are well on their way to becoming Kindergarteners. Since we are raising butterflies and ladybugs in our classroom, we have been pretending to turn into caterpillars, and then butterflies in the playground and soccer field. We all start by being little eggs that hatch into caterpillars and eventually rise up and stretch our wings (arms) once we become beautiful butterflies. We fly around gently and beautifully and enjoy the fresh air and sun on our faces. We also had the chance to water our beautiful flowers that we had planted a few months ago during Earth Day. It is always so nice to see how the dirt transformed into a beautiful field of colorful flowers that we can admire every time we go out into the playground. As always, we pretended to transform into various things such as animals and cars on the soccer field and we raced as these various things. At the end, we transformed back into our true selves and continue to prepare to fully transform into Kindergarteners. We are so excited to graduate!
Looking back at May, the Turtles learned all about babies! For physical education in the playground and soccer field, we talked about how babies get around. As part of our movement practices, we crawled like babies and raced to see who crawled the fastest across the finish line. Babies need to build up their large motor skills so we also practiced jumping into and out of designated areas, such as small circles and squares of the hopscotch board.
We also enjoyed celebrating Mother’s Day, Cinco de Mayo and Memorial Day.
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As the school year comes to an end, here are a few reminders we still need to be mindful of.
- Keep in mind that we are nut-free school. Please help us to maintain a nut free environment by refraining from sending any such items (nuts, peanut butter, almond butter, any items containing nut oils, etc.) to school with your children.
- Please be sure to regularly update your child’s dietary restriction and allergy forms.
- We are mandated by the Department of Health to keep record of all physicals and immunizations. Please submit these forms in a timely manner.
- Please remember to pick up your child’s medications from the nurse’s office, as they will be discarded on the last day of school. Also, medication forms for next year are available.
Additionally, please take note of the next few outdoor reminders.
- Please remember to apply sunscreen every morning and bring in a labeled bottle for your child.
- Sunhats or caps are a wonderful shield from the sun but please consider safety. Please be sure that hats or caps do not obstruct your child’s view.
- Please keep in mind your child is wearing the proper footwear. Sandals and flip-flops look adorable but may become a potential hazard for running and climbing. Please see that your child is wearing toe-enclosed sandals or sneakers.
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Angels
During snack time, Natalie told her friends “I went on an airplane!” Olivia replied, “I went home!”
Bears
While talking about babies, the children were playing in the kitchen with baby dolls. The children were talking to each other and saying that they need to take care of the babies nicely. Lucca Bella said to Mattie, Juliana and Mia, “Watch me girls because I know how to take care babies the best because I am going to be best mom, because my mom is the best mom in the world and she takes good care of me, so I know I will be the best mom so watch me!”
Bumblebees
This month we had the opportunity to raise butterflies from caterpillars! This was very exciting for the kids and each day the children would enjoy giving them names. Here is a list of some of the names the children came up with!
Spike - (Max), Jack - (Noah), Keira - (Sophia), Three - (Mason)
Apple Pie - (Eliza), Beef - (Luna)
We love our caterpillars in their cocoons now and we are looking forward to seeing them transform into butterflies!
Bunnies
Adeline saw her friend doing something wrong. She said, “No! No! Don't do that.” Then she put out her hand to try and make them stop.
Chipmunks
While discussing how the children will be growing up and moving on to Pre-K we explained that we won't be their teachers anymore. Hank looked at us and said, "But I'm going to miss you guys!"
Dolphins
Miss Taylor and Julian were playing basketball in the soccer field. Miss Taylor was dribbling and Julian made a few attempts to steal the ball. He kept missing and finally told Miss Taylor, "I think I want to play by myself with the basketball now."
Ducks
During Center Time, Jonathan Woo was coloring with a yellow crayon. He started singing, “We all live in a yellow submarine.”
Kitties
Julian was washing his hands when he heard the teacher sneeze. He turned the water off and said, "God bless you Miss Lisa!"
Lions
One morning when Avery walked into school, Miss Kaitlin said, “Hey, what’s up dude?” Jack said, “That’s not a dude, that’s Avery!”
Monkeys
While coloring one morning, Andrei stated, "My picture is beautiful just like my mommy."
Pandas
When making baby food, Teddy said, “Baby food makes you strong when you’re a baby.”
Puppies
In the gym, Jack got in the toy car and "drove" past Miss Melissa. As he "drove" by, he looked out the side window, beeped the horn and said "Bye!"
Sunflowers
When Miss Mellisa showed a caterpillar in the cup to the Sunflowers, Peyton answered with excitement, “Wow! It’s getting bigger!” The rest of Sunflowers also observed with amazement. Miss Mellisa then asked them, “What about the food?” Many of them said, “It’s getting less!”
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Turtles
After talking about how we had completed reviewing all of our letters of the alphabet, Justin said, “I wonder what new letters we are going to learn in Kindergarten because I am ready to learn more letters!”
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