January News: Week of January 17
Sproutlings will be closed Friday February 18th for a staff training day and Monday February 21st for Presidents Day.
Peapods
Peapods I
The Peapods have been very busy during this shortened week. We are getting in as much tummy time as we can-even though some of us don’t particularly enjoy it. Some of us are seeing the advantage of tummy time because we are now starting to creep around a bit, even if we’re going backwards. We are also discovering our animals on the walls. Pretty soon we will be able to identify them.
Some of us are are working on signing. We are working on “all done” and “eat.” Hopefully we will have it all down soon so we can start doing it at home! Ms. Laura and Ms Grace sang to us this week. Some of our favorites were “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and “I’m a Little Teapot.” Ms Lu read to us Winter Rabbit by Patrick Yee.
Peapods II
It was another great week for Peapod II. Our new friends are getting very comfortable in the new room and have adjusted to the schedule so well.
This week in we saw a finger puppet show. We love the finger puppet show. This is when we are most attentive and always ask for more stories. We also played a matching game where we had to match the right noses with the right animals. We started Valentine’s Day crafts a little early! We created a rose using our hand print in red paint. We also practiced some body movements such as: twisting, wiggling, shaking, bending and stretching. Our favorite song this week were “Baby Shark.” We can’t wait for next week. Have a great weekend everyone!
Seedlings
We had an exciting week! We loved being able to see the snow fall and we talked about how it’s cold, wet, and white. We worked on our puzzle skills. We are getting pretty good at completing a whole puzzle by ourselves! We’re quite proud of that.
The Seedlings listened to animal sounds and tried to identify that said animal. We had so much fun actually listening to the real sounds. They were thrilled to play and pop bubbles from our bubble machine. Some of us tried to catch as many as we could! We had fun decorating with our dot art markers and seeing what we can create with them.
We were able to go outside and enjoy our playground while it wasn’t too cold for us! We loved being able to enjoy the nice weather. During circle time, we sang “ABCs” and read I Love Trains by Philemon Struges.
Little Sprouts
This week the Little Sprouts classroom spent time learning about winter. We made a very special winter tree using our handprint and lots of glitter! We all really enjoyed trying out colored pencils and creating beautiful pictures with them. We read a selection of books about winter and sang lots of our favorite songs.
Beanstalks
This week during Beanstalks we learned the letter “Oo.” We explored what sound it makes and named a couple of things that start with the letter “Oo”. We continued to learn about winter. We discussed how cold it is, and what we can do with snow, such as build a snowman . We practiced how to spell our name and even created a snowman that spelled out our name . We reinforced our colors and shapes . We sang songs such as “Number Rock,” “ 5 Little Penguins” and circle time songs . We played in our sensory bin and pretended it was the winter where all the winter animals came out to play. We practiced our sign language and our Spanish by counting.
Beanstalks II
This week in Beanstalks 2, we learned about hibernation! We played a game where we had to roll the die, count bears and then put them to sleep in their cave. Beanstalks 2 friends matched numbered nuts to sleeping hedgehogs and practiced the letters in our names while finding the letter frog the correct pond to start their hibernation. We also thought hard about which animals sleep during the winter and which ones don’t. We then glued the animals to the correct side on the worksheet.
Our favorite books this week were Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman, Frog In Winter by Max Velthuijs, and A Silly Snowy Day by Michael Coleman.
Saplings
Saplings have been learning all about polar animals this week! We began the week by making fork print polar bears to represent their thick fur. We practiced measuring polar animals and counting how many cubes tall or wide they were. We also played with our sensory table which was filled with polar animals and pretend snow and water to represent their habitat. Our favorite books this week included Way Up in the Arctic by Jennifer Ward, Over in the Arctic by Marianne Berkes, and In Arctic Waters by Laura Crawford. Next week, we will be focusing on the animals that hibernate.
Pre K 3 (Miss Amelia and Miss Deanna)
In PreK-3 we learned about what hibernation is. We learned that bears, frogs, bats, and many more animals hibernate. This week we also focused on animals that migrate and adapt in the winter! Some of our favorite stories we read about hibernation were Sleep, Black Bear, Sleep by Jane Yolen, A Little Bit of Winter by Paul Stewart, Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson and Hibernation Station by Michelle Meadows. Our craft we made this week was a paper plate cave for our sleep bear. We helped the frogs find their pond by identifying letters and matching them. We also matched shapes with Mr. Hedgehog. We had a great time learning all about hibernation! We are excited to learn all about polar animals next week!
Pre K 4
This week Pre K 4 started their study on arctic animals. We focused mostly on penguins to help celebrate National Penguin Day which is recognized on January 20th. The children enjoyed learning about a penguins life cycle, facts about penguins and the many different types of penguins.
The classes enjoyed reading If I Were A Penguin, Tacky The Penguin and Penguins. A couple of the activities we did to incorporate penguins into our week included putting together different shapes to create a penguin followed by an oil and water science experiment.
Some of the other activities that were done throughout the week were based off of our artic theme. Some of these activities include arctic animal measuring cards, counting fish to see who had more the penguin or the polar bear and arctic animal number and letter sorting.
Fine motor skills and handwriting were practiced when the children completed their journals, practiced writing numbers one through ten in number order and writing the correct number to match the quantity of animals. The children also enjoyed answering the question of the day every day and completing their Handwriting Without Tears assignments.