Sproutlings Newsletter: Week of August 3rd

Reminders:

• As pediatrician offices begin to see patients for “well visits,” please be sure you ask for an updated Universal Health Record for Sproutlings. Thank you for your help with making sure our records are up to date!
• If a child visits any of the states on the New Jersey restricted travel list, they are required to stay home for 14 days prior to returning to Sproutlings. Quarantine begins on the first day a child returns to NJ after travel. As a childcare center, we rely on parents’ complete transparency in order to keep our young and vulnerable population safe. Please plan vacation time accordingly.
• Beginning August 31, our hours will increase to 7:30-4:30. Children will continue to be in their exclusive pods and there will be no mixing of classes. Teachers will remain with their class.

Peapods I and  II

What a crazy week we had! The big storm on Wednesday was so exciting to watch from our classroom. We sang “Rain Rain Go Away” and clapped our hands along to the music. This week we read Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle.

Seedlings

The Seedlings had another fun week at school! We did some sensory art project with bubble wrap  and most of us didn’t know it could not used for that!  What a fun surprise!  We also did some dot art, which we can’t get enough of.  While on the playground, we are learning how to run and kick a ball at the same time. We like to add this new gross motor skill to our repertoire. During circle time we sang  “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” The Seedlings are fantastic at identifying all of their body parts. We read the  A Parade of Elephants by Kevin Henkes. Next week, we’ll be exploring farms and farm animals.

Little Sprouts

This week in Little Sprouts we talked about the farm and the types of animals that live on a farm. We read Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown and Little Blue Truck by Alice Shertle. We sang “Old Mac Donald Had a Farm” and practiced matching the animal with the sound it makes. For art, we made “muddy footprints” using our animal toys. We also had a lot of fun playing with our animal puzzles. Our theme for next week is camping. Have a great weekend and stay safe!

Beanstalks

Hello from Beanstalks! This week we learned all about the animals that live at the zoo. Many of us have been to the zoo and seen lions, elephants, bears, and monkeys . We enjoyed reading Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathman. We sang along to “The Goldfish” by Laurie Berkner. During art, we painted lions and added eyes and used scissors to practice our fine motor skills and cut out the lion’s mane. We practiced identifying the letters in our names using our uppercase magnet letters and practicing the sounds those letters make. We also used our magnetic shapes to practice identifying shapes. Next week, we will learn about plants. Have a great weekend!

Saplings

Pre K 3 went on a picnic this week!  We had fun learning a new dance called “Ants in Our Pants!”  We learned it from reading Georgie and the Ants in the Pants by Jolie Della Valle. We had fun using our dot markers to stamp letter “Ss” for sandwich. We counted ants, sewed bears and played Tic Tac Toe on our picnic blanket! We had another fun week.

PreK 4

Pre K 4 learned all about the beach this week. We discussed all the activities that can be done while at the beach. A few of the activities we discussed were searching for sand crabs, looking for seashells, making sand castles and fishing! We practiced our rhyming words while discussing what words rhyme with cat. The children also enjoyed talking all about the letter “B,” what sound it makes and what words start with the letter.

Throughout the week, the children were able to sort clothing based on whether it would or would not be worn to the beach. They were able to work on their fine motor skills while writing about their favorite activity at the beach and cutting pictures to complete a pattern worksheet. Lastly, number skills were reviewed while working on one to one correspondence.