Sproutlings Newsletter: Week of October 21

Reminders:

  • 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. All children in the center will be required to have a flu shot no later than December 20th. Please provide documentation of their flu shot to Kerry. Thank you for helping us keep all of our records up to date!

Dates to Remember:

  • Our annual Halloween Parade will take place at 9:15 on Thursday, October 31st.. Parents, grandparents and family members are welcome to watch us parade around the parking lot. Please note that this event is for the children and there is absolutely no pressure for parents to come watch. We understand you are all working parents!
  • Have you voted yet for the New Providence Scarecrow Contest? Our scarecrow is located at the corner of South and Springfield Avenue. There is a voting box in the Sproutlings lobby for those who are interested in participating! If Sproutlings wins, we will be donating to St. Jude’s Research Hospital.

Peapods

Peapod I

This week we were very lucky that the Beanstalk class shared some of the insides from the pumpkin they carved.  We loved touching and poking the squishy insides. While playing on the floor, we’re starting to discover our friends.  We love it!  Some friends make us laugh and others help us knock down our block tower. Mid Lu read our book of the week It’s Pumpkin Day Mouse! By Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond.  Our song was “Five Little Pumpkins.”

🎃 🎃🎃🎃🎃.

Peapod II

Peapods 2 had a terrific week! The weather has been so nice and we love our time outside. It’s fun to play in the tunnel and push the toy cars. We made new sensory bottles with popcorn kernels to shake along to music. They are very loud but we know we can sing louder. Our book of the week is Little Dinos Don’t Bite by Micheal Dahl.

Seedlings

This week in the Seedlings room, we really worked on our gross motor skills. We used noodles and blocks to make archways and crawl underneath them or we would walk and bend down. We tried getting very creative with our moves! We made a hand-print french fries which was a lot of fun. We then made a class mural. We saw how our names are spelled and identified colors and shapes.

We love having the fall leaves in our sensory table. We’re still mesmerized by these leaves. Sometimes we throw them up in the air to watch them fall down. During circle time, we sang “5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” and read Apples and Pumpkins by Annie Rockwell.

Beanstalks

Beanstalks were pumpkin-crazy this week! We continued learning about trees and their characteristics. We used our senses to describe what trees look like and we learned the parts of a tree. We read A Tree for Emmy by Mary Ann Rodman and Tell Me, Tree by Gail Gibbons. We danced to “5 Little Pumpkins.” We also had tons of fun learning about pumpkins! We carved our very big pumpkin. We wanted Miss Maddie to make a scary pumpkin but instead we got a happy pumpkin. We played with the pumpkin seeds and insides and we touched the pumpkin and described what it looked and felt like.

We learned about AB patterns and worked with our teachers to practice making them. We made pumpkin play dough too! It smells so good and it feels different than the play dough we usually play with. We learned about the letter “I” and went over the letters we learned in the past. We’ve also been practicing pencil grip and using scissors correctly in class. Please work on this with us at home too! We have been having so much fun exercising during Stretch and Grow and singing and dancing with Elefante Music!

Saplings 

In Saplings this week the class continued their study on trees. We focused on the characteristics of trees in our community. As a class, we looked at the trees outside our school. We saw that the leaves are already turning colors and the leaves are beginning to fall. In large group, the kids learned about evergreen trees and deciduous trees. We learned that evergreen trees leaves never change colors and stay on the trees. As a class we made our own song called “I’m a Sturdy Oak Tree.” It is to the tune of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Ask us to sing it!

The kids explored tree parts and learned the three main parts of a tree which are the crown, trunk, and root. They learned what each part does for the trees. The stories we read this week were Tree Count by Trish Holland and Trees,Trees,Trees by Nancy Noel Williams. The kids continued working on their Handwriting Without Tears worksheets. In math, we sorted leaves by size and color. In art, the kids painted ghost and finger painted.

Pre K 4

This week in PreK 4 the children worked on adding and subtracting. They practiced by counting out spiders to a corresponding number rolled on dice and either adding them or subtracting them to their straw. We also worked on number recognition by matching pictures quantities to the correct number. The children decorated the classroom by making cotton ball ghosts for us to hang up and we read the story Ten Timid Ghosts by Jennifer O’Connell to go along with our art project.

Our class was very excited to investigate our pumpkin. We made several estimations in relation to its size, the number of ribs it had on the outside, and the amount of seeds it had on the inside. We discussed the weight and circumference as well. The children were surprised to learn our pumpkin had 328 seeds inside!

Next week the children can look forward to some fun Halloween activities as well as a parade and party!