Spooktacular October!!!!!

Happy autumn! This month we’ll be learning all about the Fall Harvest!  We’ll be studying Apples- how they grow, how they taste, and why they’re different! We’ll study leaves and why and how the leaves change colors and fall off the trees.  We’ll collect fall treasures and make beautiful fall collages of what we find!  We’ll continue by learning about our fall animal friends- like squirrels, chipmunks & raccoons who are all getting ready for a long winter!  We’ll gather Acorns, make Caramel Apples, Jump in leave piles and of course, have our spooky spectacular Halloween Party on Friday the 28^th!!! Don’t forget to wear your costume to school that day.  We’ll parade around our parking lot and go “trunk or treating” for yummy surprises J  As always, parents are welcome to come and participate!!   

Upcoming Events:

     Family Trip to Seiple Farms!!!  

Saturday, October 15^th, 10 A.M.

Please join us for our first field trip of the Year!  At Seiple’s farms you can pick your own pumpkins, take a REAL hayride out to the pumpkin patch, enjoy food and a real working farm!  Admission is FREE!  Meet at LDCDC at 10am and we’ll leave together! It will be a great way to make Fall memories with your child.  Trip is open to friends and relatives! J 

Halloween Spooktacular!

October 28^th, 12P.M.

Wear your costume and eat yummy treats!

Please join us for both of the above activities!  Your little one will love seeing you at school and appreciate you participating!! 

Love,

Miss Jessica

August!

Dear Parents,

To finish off our summer unit, this month we’ll be learning all about our communities and neighborhoods!  We’ll start the month focusing on all the people who keep us safe! We’ll meet a real firefighter, talk about how important it is to go to the doctor- even if it isn’t always fun, and about all of the wonderful things that policemen do for us.  We’ll learn about street safety and transportation, about the public places we visit and the people who work there!  We’ll learn about how our community runs the people that keep it running smoothly and about all the services that we provide for each other in order to keep us happy, healthy and safe. 

We’ll study shapes by looking at street signs, look at maps and make lots of fun craft activities to remind us how lucky we are each and every day!   As summer comes to a close, be sure and enjoy the warm weather with your little one and to prepare for the upcoming Fall season.  If you child’s schedule will be changing in any way due to the start of the new school year, please inform us as soon as possible! 

Thank you,

Miss Jessica



Happy Summer!!!

Dear Parents,

          Summer is finally here!! Last month we were busy studying and celebrating all of the things that make summer a wonderful time of year! This month we’ll be focusing on our creepy, crawly friends that just love to bug us in the summer months… Insects!  We’ll start the month with Butterflies & Caterpillars- learning all about how caterpillars transform into beautiful butterflies!  We’ll learn about Bees and how helpful they are to us and to the environment!  We’ll talk about being nice to bees, even though they can sting us and how to be careful when they’re around.  We’ll taste and smell honey!!  During our ladybug and firefly week we’ll answer questions like how and why do fireflies light up!?  And are all Ladybugs girls!?  Lastly, we’ll learn about Spiders and Dragonflies.  We’ll talk about how spiders helps us way more than they hurt us and we’ll read the story of Charlotte’s Web and her adventures with Wilbur the pig on Zuckerman’s famous farm!  It’s going to be a very buzzy month here at Little Dreamers!  Ask your little one all about what they’re learning each day and be sure to enjoy the beautiful summer weather!

Miss Jessica

Welcome Back, Mister Sun!



Dear Parents,

This month’s Unit is It’s a Small World! Your little one will be learning all about cultures and lifestyles from around the world! From Mexico to China, your child will be emerged in diversity and difference.  On the 5^th, we celebrated Cinco de Mayo by making Tacos and enjoying yummy tortilla chips and queso!  Next week will begin our Europe and Asia unit during which the children will be making fans, tasting Asian cuisine and learning all about the differences in our countries and lifestyles.  We’ll read books to highlight Asian traditions and look at European landmarks like the Eiffel Tour, Big Ben, The Spanish Guggenheim Museum and The London Bridge!  This month is also National Reading Month and celebrates Dr. Seuss’ Birthday!  We’ll celebrate by learning all about the author’s great contribution to children’s literature- we’ll read his books, re-create his art and pay homage to his great imagination. 

As we’ve all noticed, Spring has Sprung! And thank goodness…. J  Now that the sun is shining and it’s finally getting warmer, please be sure and bring an appropriate change of clothes for your little one.  In addition, please supply sunscreen, a sun hat or anything that you’d like your child to wear while playing outside.  Also, please make sure that if your child wears sandals to school that they have a pair of socks with them or one kept in their cubbies.  Some of our activities require socks to reduce the spread of germs and we want to insure that all children can participate.

As always, thank you for your support and cooperation!  Enjoy the Sunshine!

Miss Jessica 



Dear Parents,

Warm weather is just around the corner and this month we’ll be getting our Little Dreamers ready for the spring thaw!  We’ll be learning about gardening, planting, how to preserve and help our Earth and all about the Spring Season.  We’ll start our month with National Ocean Week!  We’ll learn about the beach, about life in the ocean and we’ll get excited talking about all of the fun things we can do this summer! We’ll make sand castles, study fish and wear our favorite Beach attire on Fun Friday! For week 2, we’ll be studying weather with our April Showers unit.  We’ll be learning all about how and why weather changes, about where rain comes from and we’ll celebrate National Library week with lots of fun literacy projects to keep our Dreamers reading!  In week 3, we’ll focus on flowers and gardening.  We’ll celebrate Earth day in a big way and beautify our playground by cleaning up and planting our own flower and vegetable garden! We’ll end the month with a unit on cleaning up the Planet.  We’ll learn how to reduce, re-use and recycle our waste and about other ways that we can help save the Earth and all of the creatures that live on it. 

          Please be aware of the change in the season and remember to dress your child appropriately as well as to update their change of clothes.   As always, thank you for support!

Sincerely,

Miss Jessica

Welcome to March!

Dear Parents,

March is a month of transition- transition out of the winter weather and into a beautiful new Spring Season!  At Little Dreamers, we’ll be transitioning our classrooms from guided communication and learning to a more child-inspired curriculum.  This month we’ll begin transitioning our Little Dreamers from being led in the classroom, to becoming leaders all on their own.  We’ll be helping them to create new ideas and to become more and more independent as our school year continues.  This month, is MUSIC month!! In celebrating that, we’ll be learning about different kinds of music and about the creativity process that music inspires.  We’ll learn about all of the different instruments, about making music and about music around the world.  We’ll discover our favorites and the favorites of our friends!  We’ll make our own special instruments to play together as a band and even have a guest speaker who will come in and give us a guitar lesson!  He’ll tell us what it’s like to be a full-time musician and we’ll have a fun sing-along to inspire us and get us into the music making mood J  On the 17^th, we’ll discuss the meaning of Saint Patrick’s day and learn all about the Luck of the Irish.  Our party will be held on the 18^th!  Don’t forget to wear GREEN!

With the start of Spring just around the corner, we’ll get ready with a welcome to Spring unit at the end of the month when we’ll learn about all of the wonderful things that happen in the spring to the world around us- the blooming of the flowers, the new animals that are born and we’ll welcome the sunshine to come out once again! As always, parents are welcome to join us for our sing-along on the 9^th and also for our Saint Patricks day party which will be held on Friday, the 18^th!!

Miss Jessica



Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day and there's no better time to spoil the people you love!  At Little Dreamers we'll be appreciating our friends and family with a week-long unit on Love and Friendship.  We'll kick with week off with our yummy Valentine's Day Party complete with cookies, cupcakes, Valentine making and exchange!  We'll learn about all the ways that we can be a good friend to each other and learn all the ways that we can tell our mommy's and daddy's (and Grandma's and Grandpa's, Aunts and Uncles) that we love them!!  We'll make surprises for our families, surprises for our friends, read about good manners, making new friends and about how important it is to be nice to every one around us.  We'll continue the celebration with a Mardi Gras color celebration, making masks and pasta necklaces! We'll finish up the week with a Doughnut party in honor of Fat Tuesday!  Don't forget to wear Red  and Yellow on Friday!!

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!

Miss Jessica

Fun with Red and Yellow!!!

                             

Hi Parents,

This week at Little Dreamers we'll be continuing our Color Unit by studying Red and Yellow!!  We'll be filling our senses with the smells, tastes, feelings and sounds of Color!  Preschool will be studying Red and Yellow Apples- by tasting their differences, smelling their differences and seeing their beautiful colors we'll discuss why our world is so colorful and how its possible that Nature makes so many beautiful colors! We'll listen to canary's and Cardinals and see if we can tell which one is which!  We'll touch the rough glitter of our Red Ruby Slippers and the soft Yellow paper we'll use to make our rays of Sunshine!  Preschool will be working on  handwriting by practicing the words "red," "yellow," and by writing our names! Our Toddlers and infants will be focusing on their sense of sight!  By seeing and experiencing Red and Yellow through their art projects and through sensory stimulation like Play Dough and Finger paint, our little ones will make Red and Yellow memories with their hands! 
    For Mardi Gras (On Wednesday) we'll learn the history behind the celebration and have our own party by making beautiful, colorful Pasta necklaces and wearing them around school for the day!  We'll finish the week with a celebratory Doughnut Party just like they do in New Orleans to celebrate Fat Tuesday and the joys of life (like doughnuts!!)!! 

Miss Jessica

Living in Color!!

Dear Parents,

This month at Little Dreamers we'll be learning all about Color! Our infants will be exploring color through their senses.... finger paints, sand and ice cube painting will help expose our littlest ones to the colorful world that surrounds them.   Our Toddlers will be learning all of the colors of the rainbow and about the plants, animals and foods that represent each color best.  They'll be experimenting with each color individually and at the end of the month, learning what happens when colors are mixed!  In Preschool we'll be studying all of the colors on many different levels... through our senses, through our emotions and through Science!  We'll be answering questions like where do rainbows come from?  Why is snow white if Water is blue?  And we'll be making lists of how many items we can think of that represent each color!  Our letter this week is "C" for color and we'll be handwriting our names and the words "green" and "blue."

The weather is yucky again this week so stayed alert for delay and closing info.  Remember, Spring is just around the corner!! I don't know about you, but we can't WAIT! :) 

Miss Jessica 



Going Wild for Wildlife!!!

Dear Parents,

The past two weeks have been WILD at Little Dreamers!  Last week, we learned ALL about Africa! The habitats that exist there and the colorful and strange animals that roam throughout it! We focused on the patterns that we can find there like a zebra's stripes or a leopards spots!  We talked about what 'Endangered Animals are' and how we can help them even from far far away!  We looked at a map and discovered just where Africa was and talked about how long it would take us to get there if we took an airplane!!  We also studied friendship and Martin Luther King Day.  We talked about how important MLK was to us and how he helped to make sure that all of us could be friends and play together.  Our class discussed the differences that exist in the people we see around us and how even though we may look different, we're really all the same! 



This week we're heading to the Land Down Under!  Australia!! We'll learn about Aborigines (native Australians) and their cave drawings, we'll learn how they hunt with Boomerangs and make and decorate our own, we'll learn what 'Marsupials' are and talk about why they're different than any other animal in the world and why they ONLY live Down Under!  We're going to make Kangaroo Pouches, Koala masks and even look at real pictures that Miss Jessica has from her trip to Australia!   On Friday, we're going to celebrate and make a special Australian Dessert called Fairy Bread!! Yum!!



Stay warm out there!

Miss Jessica

Under the Sea!

 



This week we're diving deep into our Ocean Unit for a fun-filled adventure into the blue! We've been learning about sand and seashells, about fish and ocean mammals, and have been talking a lot about how much of our Earth is covered in Water! We've been talking about all the great things that the Ocean does for us- from providing us with water to keeping itself clean and beautiful! In the Infant room our little explorers have been touching seashells and using water play to introduce their senses to the sea through touch.  Our Toddlers have been talking about crabs and fish and sharks! They've made crabs that Jenesia says go "snap! snap! snap!" and also made hand-print Octopi that look really great hanging from our ceilings!  Our preschoolers have had a fun filled week of science and discovery.  From how seashells feel and hear to how they help make sand, our dreamers have been working hard to engulf themselves in everything from the seashore! We've made handprint coral reefs, fish prints, seashell paintings and are very excited for our Finding Nemo movie party on Friday! We're going to have popcorn and juice and yummy snacks while we watch our favorite fishy friends travel through the Ocean!  Our letter this week is 'O' and our number is: 8.  We've made lots of Octopus drawings and even practiced writing the word 'octopus' and the number '8' throughout the week! Check back next week for an update on our African Safari Unit!

Stay Warm out There!

Miss Jessica

Wacky World of Animals!

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year!  This month we’ll be learning all about the Animal Kingdom! From Farm animals to the Land Down Under, we’ll cover all of our animal friends and learn how they use their differences to survive in the wild.  We’ll learn about the food chain, we’ll learn about endangered species and we’ll talk about what we can do to protect our animal friends.  We’ll learn about the different habitats and environments and about how people are animals too!

As you’ve noticed, the snow has arrived!  Unfortunately, it’s most likely the first of several snow storms of the season so please be aware of closings and delays. Check 93.5 WSBG if the possibility for cancellation exits.  If you decide to keep your Little Dreamer home in the event of bad weather, please call the center as soon as possible to notify us of the absence so we can staff accordingly.  We appreciate your cooperation and understanding in this and ask that you be safe and stay warm throughout the snowy winter season!

Here’s to a wonderful and Happy 2011….  

Miss Jessica