January News: Week of January 16th
Key Card Entry
All families should have 2 key cards for entry into the building. Please notify the administration as soon as possible if you loose a key card so that we can deactivate it (there will be a $15 replacement fee for any lost key cards). When entering the building please make sure the door is closed behind you and do not let anyone you do not know into the building. Thank you for your help in this matter.
Friendly Reminder
Covid-19 Travel Policy
We are asking that all UNVACCINATED children traveling outside our immediate region (NY, NJ, PA, CT, and DE) for longer than 24 hours to self-quarantine and follow the guidelines below:
• Receive a PCR test 3-5 days after returning from travel, with day 0 being the day the child arrives back in NJ. The child should stay home and self-quarantine for 5 days after travel. The child may return to Sproutlings on Day 6.
• If the child does not receive a PCR test, they will need to self-quarantine for 10 days after returning to NJ (day 0). They may return to Sproutlings on day 11.
Children who have received the COVID-19 vaccine may attend Sproutlings the day after they return from travel, provided they are symptom-free and their COVID-19 vaccine record is provided or is already on file at Sproutlings.
If you are planning on traveling outside of the United States, please confer with Sproutlings administration for details on our international travel policies.
Peapods
Peapods
Exciting news in Peapods 1.
We are continuing to use our “signs”. A few more of us are learning how to sign “all done”, “ eat”, and “washing hands “. It seems some of us have been practicing at home as well. They are getting really good at it. Some of us are also getting close to walking, while others are up on all fours doing a crawl. It’s a very busy room!
We enjoyed many songs but one of our favorites was “Happy Birthday.” We liked it so much we played it over and over. One of our books was The Little Red Hen by Bonnie Dobkin.
Peapods II
What an awesome two weeks we have had. We started off last week with a cool shape puzzle that created some of our favorite animals. Our teachers helped us and talked about the shapes a few times before we put them into the puzzle. We have really practiced our stacking. Some of us are getting so good at it but others find it more fun to just run away with everything.
We painted a melted snowman and after the paint was all dry we paste don a snowman’s hat, eyes, buttons and nose to make it really look like he melted. We had so much fun coloring and creating amazing pictures. At the end of last week we had to say Goodbye to Ms. Nairah. We are so grateful for all she has done for us and wish her the best of luck on her new adventure.
We matched animal noses to the right animal with the help of our teachers – it was so much fun! When we were trying to match the noses to the correct animal our teachers also played some of the noises that those animals make. We got to go outside! It had been so long since we were able to play on our outdoor playground. We hope everyone has a great weekend!
Seedlings
We started off last week with blast!
We’ve been trying to go outside to our awesome playground when the weather permits and we can’t get enough of the fresh air and running around. The Seedlings are excited to have their rocket ships race all around the playground or simply hold hands and walk around with Ms. Paige. We’re going to miss those walks with her.
We’ve started decorating our room for Valentine’s Day and and are excited to have another party soon. The Seedlings had a great time painting a heart red and were great at identifying the shape and color! We also can’t get enough of our stickers and unfortunately, they appear everywhere!!
During circle time, we read Rhymoceros by Janik Coat and sang “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”. If you would like to bring in a book to share with the class, we would love to read it but make sure to label it with your child’s name! Thank you!
Little Sprouts
The Little Sprouts have enjoyed learning about Arctic animals! We loved learning the names and sounds of them. We had fun using our hands to paint polar bear faces. We liked playing with our play-dough it was good exercise for our fine motor muscles.
We have been so excited to run and play outside with friends when the weather has been nice. During circle time we enjoyed singing our Good Morning song, ABC’s, Numbers, Days of the Week, talking about the weather and about colors! We enjoyed reading Seven Weeks on an Iceberg by: Keith R Potter. Our favorite activity was the parachute!! Our favorite song this week was “The Penguin Dance.”
Beanstalks
It’s been a busy week in Beanstalks. We have been learning all about community helpers and how important they are. We read Officer on Duty by Liza Charlesworth, George Catches a Cold by Scholastic and Little Penguin Gets the Hiccups by Tadgh Bentley . We made a police car and used our fine motor skills. We danced and sang to “Hurry Hurry Drive the Police Car” . It’s been a special week as we welcomed a new friend in our class, welcome Nathan! Next week we will be learning about Chinese New Year!
Beanstalks II
Last week in Beanstalks II we talked about our ABC’s we read ABC books like Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert. We also practiced our numbers when we played a number matching game. This week we learned about snow and ice. We used puffy paint, which is made out of equal parts glue and shaving cream to make a melted Sneezy the Snowman.We tried painting with ice. Some fun books we read this week were The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright.
Pre K 3
Last week PreK-3 had a great time learning about the Arctic! We explored what animals live there and how they survive the cold! We made Narwhals and Polar Bears! We went ice fishing with the penguins and helped the penguins find the correct shape iceberg. Our favorite stories we last week were Way Up in the Arctic by Jennifer Ward and Immi’s Gift by Karin Littlewood.
This week, we have been learning about snow and ice. In the sensory bin we had fun playing with fake snow. Also helped rescue animals from the ice! After reading The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, we made our own puffy paint snow and made tracks in it.. We used sugar cubes to make igloos which was a great activity to practice some hand eye coordination! We also had fun painting with ice! It was a great week of learning! Have a great weekend!
Pre K 4
The children in PreK 4 have been learning about different animals in the Arctic. We focused on a few, learning how they spend their day and night, what they like to eat, and how each keeps themselves warm. In addition, we celebrated National Penguin Day, focusing on where penguins live and the many different types of penguin.
We wrote about our favorite Arctic animal and why it was our favorite, in our journals. This week we did an additional writing prompt on what it would be like to be a Walrus. The children finished the uppercase letter section of our HWT workbook and have begun learning how to write lowercase letters and we will continue practice on writing numbers.
We worked on number recognition and counting quantities with clip cards and mini erasers. Using Arctic animal themed cards we worked on patterns and the concept of one more and one less helping to understand early addition and subtraction.
Next week the children can look forward to a Snowman filled week!