Sproutlings Newsletter: Week of December 16th

Events:

  • We will be closing at 3:00 PM on 12/24 and will be closed 12/25-12/27 for Winter Break
  • We will be closed 12/31 and 01/01 for New Years

Reminders:

  • Parents MUST use their key cards to enter the building. We have noticed that many parents are forgetting their key cards and either ringing the bell or waiting for another parent to let them in. Please do not “tailgate” behind the person in front of you. This is uncomfortable for parents who are trying to follow our protocol. If you do forget your card and need to ring the bell, we ask that you refrain from ringing it repeatedly. It may take a few minutes for us to get to the door as we are taking care of your children. Thank you for your help in making sure the building is secure. If you have lost your key card, please write us an email (sproutlings.info@gmail.com) requesting a new one. There is a $15 charge for all lost key cards.
  • All children in the center will be required to have a flu shot before the new year. Please provide documentation of your child’s flu shot to Kerry. Please hand in an updated Vaccination Record to Kerry each time your child receives a vaccine. A new Universal Health Record is required after each yearly physical. Blank copies are available in the lobby.

Peapod I

We have been very busy this week getting ready for the holidays.  We hope you’re enjoying our decorations Ms. Emily made with us on our windows.  We have also been moving around our room getting into all the different places.  Some of us are trying to pull ourselves up.  Things are happening!
Our transitions are going very well.  Our soon to be Peapod II’s are enjoying themselves with their new friends.
Ms. Lu read our book of the week The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore.  Our songs were “Frosty The Snowman” ☃️ and “Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah” 🕎.

Peapod II

This week in Peapod II, we practiced making animal sounds. It’s fun to moo like cows and quack like ducks. During art this week, we made footprint reindeer and snowman. Ms. Jenna made our class snowflakes that we hung in the window. For sensory we put glitter in a plastic bottle filled with water, and hot glued it closed. We love to shake it and make it look like snow is falling. We sang “Ring Around the Rosie” and read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.

Seedlings

This week in the Seedlings was thrilling! All of the Seedlings are getting into the holiday spirit by doing so many themed art projects.  We loved using the dot art makers this week. We decorated menorahs and Ornaments. Then we used trees and bell cookie cutters to stamp the paper.  We also did hand print ornaments in green and red. We had fun washing vegetables in the sensory table.  The Seedlings had a great time playing with instruments and trying to identify each instrument. We’re getting there! The children really enjoyed playing with the noodles in the indoor playground and seeing what we can make with them.  During circle time, we sang “Hanukkah, Hanukkah” and read Good night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown.

Little Sprouts

The past few weeks have been exciting with the holidays coming up! Our theme this week was Hanukkah. We read Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel by Shahar Kober and Light the Menorah by Jannie Ho. We sang “Hanukkah oh Hanukkah!” and danced around in a circle holding hands. We talked about the meaning of Hanukkah and why we light candles on the Menorah. For art, we colored pictures of dreidels and menorahs with crayons. We had lots of fun singing songs and dancing with Miss Michelle from Elefante Music. We can’t wait to see what our coaches from Stretch-N-Grow and Little Hearts are going to show us next week. Have a great holiday weekend!

Beanstalks

Beanstalks learned all about polar animals this week! We learned that polar animals are animals that live in the North or South Pole. We mainly focused on polar bears and penguins. We read If You Were a Penguin and Up in the Arctic. We worked on spelling our names and we are getting really good at it! We made snowy scenes with blue and white paint and worked on our fine motor skills by adding stickers to our pain of penguins, snowmen, and polar bears. We worked on our fine motor skills with play dough and practiced identifying shapes as we played. We practiced one to one correspondence by adding buttons to a snowman according to the number on his hat. We had so much fun exercising with Stretch and Grow.

Saplings

We had a great week in the Saplings room! This week we learned about Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. The kids learned that some families celebrate more than one holiday in December. Over the past few weeks, the kids learned holiday songs to sing at our concert! The kids did a great job Wednesday singing for the parents! Thank you to all the parents who came out to hear our Sapling class! Have a great weekend!

Pre K 4

This week in PreK 4, the children did activities to enhance their ability to recognize numbers and letters. They did this by, doing a Flip It, Make It, Build It math activity. The children needed to name the number, make it by counting out the number to corresponding squares and then build the number by stacking blocks. They worked on their letters by way of matching two popsicle sticks to complete one whole letter. The children also worked on letter sounds by isolating the first letter sound of each picture and placing the correct letter next to it. Number and letters were reinforced when the children were asked to identify and separate each into their own columns. In this activity the children also strengthened their scissor skills.

We decorated our classroom with holiday crafts and practiced for our Holiday Concert as well.

Our favorite book was The Biggest Snowman Ever by Steven Kroll. Next week, the children can look forward to a STEM activity using bells and a science experiment!