What is Thanksgiving by Harriet Ziefert

November News: Week of November 14th

Flu Vaccines

All children ages 6 months and older are required to get their annual flu shot no later than December 31st. Please submit proof of receipt to the office as soon as your child receives their vaccine.

 

Thanksgiving Weekend

Sproutlings will close at 3pm on Wednesday, November 23rd and we will be closed November 24th and 25th for Thanksgiving.

 

Travel Policy Reminder

As we approach the Holidays please be aware of our quarantine policy for unvaccinated children when travelling outside of NJ,NY, CT, PA and DE.

“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.”

Drop Off and Pick Up

Please could you make sure your car engine is turned off when you come in to drop off/pick up your child/children. Not only is an idling engine bad for the environment but it can also cause health problems especially in young children. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

 

Peapods

Peapods

Our Peapods have had a wonderful couple of weeks. They have been learning to crawl through our very colorful tunnel. Not everyone is ready to take the leap and go through it but they’re coming around. The ones who do go through really enjoy it and love to see who is waiting for them at the end.

We have also had fun with our puppets. Who knew they could talk and make funny noises? There are more of us using some of our “signs”. They are using “all done “ when we finish getting diapers changed and eating. They are very proud of their accomplishments!

Ms. Emily and Ms. Laura provided our musical selections and we had a great time with “Five Little Turkeys.” Ms. Lu read a few stories one was Five Flying Turkeys by Barbara B. McGrath.

From all of us we wish you all a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving.

 

Peapods II

Peapods II had a great 2 weeks. We started it off by creating turkey feet and hung them up on our classroom windows. After they were put up we couldn’t stop looking at them! We also got to use our magic mat! The magic mat uses water to create a picture. The water was eventually spilled all over the mat but we still had a lot of fun! A second turkey was created, but this time using dot markers! We also got to created a mural. Our teachers taped a paper on the wall but that didn’t stop us from getting some crayon on the wall.We also created a collage out of shapes!

Our teachers brought out a toy that has a string to pull, when we pull the string it selects an animal  and tells us the name of the animal and the sounds they make. That was so interesting to see and listen to!

We hope everyone has a great weekend!

Seedlings

The Seedlings had a thrilling time the last two weeks.  We loved decorating our room to get ready for Thanksgiving. We created a paper plate turkey to decorate our door.  We love  pointing to them and saying which one is ours. We also used our fine motor skills to peel stickers and match them to correct color turkey feather. It was so much fun saying the color and matching it to the sticker. We were were very proud of ourselves! The Seedlings have been working really hard on using our connector toys, we are able to connect them properly and we are making great progress!

We have been using up all of our excess energy  by running in the both the indoor and outdoor  playgrounds.  We have a lot of fun doing bear crawls while roaring!

During circle time, we read 10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston and sang our class favorite “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep”.

Little Sprouts

Little Sprouts had so much fun talking about Forest Animals and Scarecrows. We enjoyed naming all the  animals that live in the forest and loved talking about what sounds they make. We had fun using dot  markers for our scarecrow pictures and making handprint turkeys!

During circle time we sang our ABC’s, numbers, and the days of the week songs. We also had fun singing the feelings song. Our favorite activities this week were playing with the tents and talking about colors, and building towers with our big Legos!!

 

Beanstalks

The Beanstalks have been busy learning all about Thanksgiving and harvest. We talked about some vegetables that we can harvest. We also talked about Thanksgiving, how we enjoy getting together with family and saying how thankful we are for them.

We did a STEM activity  using baking soda, vinegar and corn. We were all fascinated by by the “dancing” corn We made turkeys, created beautiful prints using corn and spelled our names out on turkey tail feathers.

Books we read this week included  What is Thanksgiving by Harriet Ziefert , From Kernel to Corn by Robin Nelson and  Pete the Cat and The First Thanksgiving by James Dean.

We moved our bodies during Stretch and Grow and danced to “I am Thankful and I Know It“ and “The Floor is Lava – Thanksgiving edition“.  We want to wish all of our families a very happy and safe Thanksgiving!

 

Pre K 3 and Saplings

We’ve had a busy few weeks in PreK-3! Last week we started our study on trees! The children identified the letters in their name and glued leaves with those letters onto a tree. We’re all excited to learn how trees grow and how they change in each season!

This week we discussed what animals make their homes in trees. We also learned what is harmful and helpful to trees. In class we read, Who Lives in Trees by Trish Holland. We worked on our cooperation and taking turn skills when we played  The Sneaky Sneaky Squirrel game! The children got to rip up leaves and make their own fall tree by dipping it into glue. They also worked as a team and sorted animals that live in trees versus animals that do not live in trees.

 

Pre K 4

In Pre K 4 the children have been talking about Scarecrows and Harvest while enjoying stories such as The Scarecrows Hat by Ken Brown and Otis and the Scarecrow by Loren Long. Last week we worked on the sequential order of events as we retold the stories of the The Three Little Pigs and The Three Bears.

The children have been working on letter recognition as well as letter sounds and rhyming words. Our HWT letters were C,O,G and Q. We practiced letter formation as we wrote in our weekly journals. The children also used their imaginations to write about what they thought scarecrows do at night!

We worked on number identification, one to one correspondence, as well as patterns and graphing.

Next week the children can look forward to learning about turkeys and Thanksgiving!