December - Such a busy month. :)

It's been a busy month with a lot of cute crafts. Santa comes to visit Friday December 18, during our Christmas party. Reminder that preschool/child care is closed December 21 - December 29. Preschool/child care will open back up on Wednesday December 30th.

Santa

Today we made Santa's.... 2 children were absent today, but they can do it tomorrow. I hung them right inside the back entry so the parents see them when they pick up. I think they turned out adorable.

Bears Everywhere. :)

This week and last week our theme was Bear's Everywhere. Today all the children brought their favorite teddy bear. If they didn't have bears, they brought another stuffed animal. We read the bears and other stuffed animals a book, sang a song and decorated bear cookies. We'll have one of those for snack this afternoon. The kids had a fun time mixing up the frosting and frosting the cookies. :)

It's been a Long time.... :)

Boy have I been terrible the last month on putting in posts..... :)

We have have been very busy the last few weeks. I've taken lots of pictures and will be adding them onto photobucket for you (the parents), to view. We learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin, carved out a pumpkin.... (That was fun), and cooked the seeds we got from the pumpkin. Those tasted soooo good.

Currently we're talking about bears. Our favorite bear is the polar bear which is as tall as our ceiling. Wow...... :)

Apple Tree, Apple Tree

Our theme this week and next week is Apple Tree, Apple Tree. We read the book “Autumn is for Apples” during circle time. Our letter of the week was the letter Aa, number 3, color red and shape circle.

On Wednesday and Thursday we took a guess how many seeds were in an apple and recorded our guesses. We wanted to see how close we would come. Of course, we then needed to eat the apples. They were soooo good!

We will continue next week again with the theme Apple Tree, Apple Tree. We have some more cute projects and crafts to do.

This week our theme is Apple Tree, Apple Tree. Wednesday and Thursday, we guessed how many seeds was in an apple, documented it, and then cut open an apple and counted the seeds. As you can see by the guesses, everyone did very good. We also had to eat those apples. :)
Yummy.....

Apple Tree, Apple Tree

This week and next week our theme is Apple Tree, Apple Tree. Our letters are A & O. Numbers 3 & 4, Shape Circle and Color Red.
We had a fun time with our School Days theme the last 2 weeks, and we are looking forward to learning about apples. :)

Mondays is Show and Tell Day. If the children want to bring something, please make sure that is something that is not breakable, and small enuogh for them to carry. :)

Thanks Jean

Our 1st Week Back to Preschool

This past week sure was a busy week. We started a new little boy - Landon this week, and he is fitting in just perfectly. All spots are filled at "Treasures" and that makes for a very busy time, but we like busy. :)
We started this past week - back to preschool. The children are getting back into the routine of circle time, large and small group activities. We do try to get outside in the morning for a little bit. We are having Travel Tots come once a week on Wednesday's. This past week, they visited Ireland. The children make a little leprechaun and an Irish flag. They are having a great time back at school.
Friday Folders went home on Friday. Just take the children's creations/paperwork out and bring them back on Monday for the kids to receive a sticker.
I hope everyone is having a great week-end, and see everyone back bright eyed and busy tailed on Monday. :)
Jean

Our 1st Day of Preschool

Yesterday was our 1st day back to preschool and we had a great time! Our theme for the next 2 weeks is School Days. We leearned about the letter T and the color yellow yesterday, and our book for the week is: David Goes to School.
Today Travel Tots is coming. We have a new teacher. I know the children are looking forward to them being back.

It Has Been One Busy Week. :)

Monday we started 3 new girls, and having Micah leaving on Monday and Mason leaving on Thursday, it's been a bitter/sweet week. :)
Our new friends at "Treasures" are Jordyn, Ayanna and Maryan. All 3 little ladies are 3 years old. We will start a new friend on Tuesday. Landen.
We will be starting back with preschool next Tuesday with 2 weeks of School Days. It was nice having this week for the girls to get use to our program and I was able to do some testing to see where they are at.....
Looking forward to the start of preschool next week!

More Fall Fun. :)

I added 2 more file folder games to the Fall Fun section. :)
I will be adding 1 or 2 more...

Travel Tots!

I'm excited to let everyone know that Travel Tots will be back next month..... The kids have missed their travel adventures, and we will be getting a new teacher. Travel Tots will be starting up September 9. (9:00 - 10:00).

I do have them scheduled to come once a week, and the additional cost for the other weeks, I will cover. The cost will still be the same $5.00 per child, per session. (Parents will cover 2 sessions a month). Please add $10.00 a month, per child to your 1st months check. Thank you.... I know the kids will be excited....
Jean :)

Parent Aware Video Shoot

We had the Parent Aware video shoot today, and I think it went great.... The kids were perfect.... :)
We got done at 12:00. Kids go to nap at that time, so after lunch they got down late, but they were still troopers having their schedule messed with.... :)
I will find out in 3 weeks, when they get the video done, what they all used. They said I could either come to a screening of the video or they could come out and show it. I think I would like that so the kids can see themselves. I will also get a copy....
Now to relax because I stressed about it all week. :)

Painting with Chalk

We had a fun time this morning painting with chalk. First we has to break the chalk up. We did this by putting it into baggies and using our hammers from the wood center, we mashed them up... We then poured the chalk pieces into a bowl, added water and mixed it like a cake.

We had so much fun, and when we got done, lean up was so easy.

We also ran around and left our footprints all over.

We're looking for different ways to paint... :)

Messy Fun

I'm adding an art center outside in the playyard. One of the new items are the easels. There are 3 of them. I put shaving cream on them this afternoon and let the boys "paint" the easel with their hands. They practiced writing some letters also.

Clean up wasn't too bad. I had to spray them down with the hose, but they stayed pretty dry considering.

I'll be adding some play doh, real paints, and some other items. Next time I would like to bring out the food coloring for when we do shaving cream. I think they would love to see how the colors change.

Underwater Adventures

Underwater Adventures was a big hit with both the children and the adults that attended. The children started out learning about some of the different animals that lived under the sea. After their learning session, they got to go to 6 different stations scattered around a part of the play yard. There were books and puppets, flannel board with different animals, cards and plastic sea animals to match, and more.... The favorite center was where the baby shark, starfish and crab were. How fun to touch the sea creatures.... :)
I say it was a successful adventure and we didn't even get wet.. :)

I love my cement slab... :)

I use it for so much... :)
Today I drew squares wit hthe letter sof the alphabet scattered. They got to throw a bean bag and whatever letter it landed on, they got to go stand on the letter - say what letter it was and give us a word that started with that letter. They played for over 30 minutes. I was surprised...
I also had them giving me several words per letter. I have such smart kids. :)

Car Wash

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Wood Center

We checked out our wood center today with the hammer, nails and other tools. Even Wyatt got into the act with his little red hammer. Mason ended up making a dragonfly, and the others just got into the hang of pounding real nails into wood. I say the wood center was a big hit.

I love the addition of the Home Depot aprons that Home Depot in Maplewood donated.... :)

I will load all pictures on Photobucket and let you know when they are added.

Underwater World

I am very excited to let you know that Underwater Adventures from Mall of America will be coming to Treasures of the Heart Preschool and Child Care on Friday July 10. They will come from 3:00 - 4:00 in the afternoon.

Each child that attends will also receive a come-back coupon to go visit Underwater World at Mall of America, and receive free admission

Below is a description of the adventure we will be taking.... :)

Sort Out the Sea

From the clownfish in the coral reef to the sharks in the open ocean, help us sort out the faces and places you can find in the sea! In this class, students will understand that there are different places in the ocean where animals can be found, they will know animals that live in each of the places in the ocean, and they will match sea animals to their homes using felt boards. Students will touch stingray tails and jaws, shark fins, jaws, and skin, and sea turtle shells. Students will also have the opportunity to touch live animals!

Learning About Why We have 4th of July. :)

This morning we talked about why we celebrate the 4th of July. We are celebrating the birthday of the United States, where we live.

Micah and Mason made sure we knew that their birthdays are in July also.....

We did a color sheet and we also colored a flag.

We used the flag while we did the song below. We took turns marching while singing the song.

The children will bring the flags home on Thursday since I am closed on Friday. Ask them to sing the song for you and see if they remember. :)

Way Up in the Sky

(Sung to: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat")

Wave, wave, wave the flag.

Hold it very high.

Watch the colors gently wave.

Way up in the sky!

March, march, march around,

Hold the flag up high.

Wave, wave, wave the flag.

Way up in the sky.

The kids had a blast marching around!

Monday - August 29

We spend the lst 2 weeks doing some testing. I wanted to review and see what letters, colors, numbers and shapes the children knew plus some other things. The kids are doing awesome I'm excited to say...

Today we spend the morning making 4h of July t-shirts. They turned out awesome...

~Testing~

We're spending that next week or 2 on testing and evaluating. I like to find out every 6 months or so where the kids are with their ABC's, etc. I will give you the results of your child's process when I am done.
We have also been spending every free minute outside, enjoying the cool weather. I'm wondering if we're going to see summer soon!

Abby and Riley will be leaving the end of this week to spend the summer at home with mom and their new baby brother Gavin. We'll see them back in the fall. :)

Our Butterflies :)

Well our butterfly are all grown up and they have ventured out into the world on their own. We let them go on Wednesday and they were anxious to get out and discover the world. We were lucky that they left one at a time so that we could watch them just a little bit longer. Out of 5 caterpillars - 4 turned into butterflies. The last one stayed in his cocoon. I'm going to put that in a small jar and add it to ur science center.

Our New Toy!

Today we got a couple new sand diggers. I heard about them from another child care provider and Marie was nice enough to run out to Woodbury to get me a couple. I did put one together, and the other one I'll put together after naptime...

I wish I could buy this stuff already out together. :)

The kids did enjoy it though....

Our Butterflies Have Emerged!

Over the week-end, we had 2 more butterflied emerge from their cocoon. We have one still waiting. I know the kids will be excited. We will let them go either today or tomorrow.

~Reading Center~

I've been having problems with the throw pillows I had in the reading center. Kids have been removing them, so I ordered a little couch for the reading center, and I got it yesterday.

Here's Riley and Abby checking out the new addition to the reading center.

Of course the kids loved it. :)

Riley and Athena checking out the wood center.

Riley and Evan

Our Block Center

Our new block center and future wood center..... Mason, Evan and Ashley checked out the blocks and people.

This is where the wood center will also be. We might check that out this afternoon. I have to dig out some scrap wood from the wood pile to put in there so the kids don't use my new blocks. :)

The kids had a very busy morning.... The new kitchen and block center.

The Kids are Cooking....

Our New Kitchen!

Our new kitchen is up and running.... The kids were very excited to use the new kitchen and they were pretty good about keeping everything on the rug area. (My new rule so I'm not searching for play food all around the play yard).

In the corner is a reading center for the kids to relax and read book when they want. It's used on a daily basis. :)

Tuesday ~

Yesterday was beautiful outside. Some of the kids didn't want to go out. They thought it would be too cold, but it was just perfect. We didn't have to worry about over-heating. I got the new kitchen play set put together yesterday and I'll put the stickers on today when we go outside. I'll have to remember to bring the camera so that I can take pictures.

Side note: Travel Tos will be coming on June 3rd and June 17. Please remember to add the fees to next week's check, or you can pay in cash. Whatever is easier. :)

I will be done with monthly newsletters for the summer and I will start up again in September. I will continue of course though with the blog... :)

Our Giant Caterpillar

This week we are finishing our Caterpillar to Butterfly theme. Last Thursday we started a caterpillar project and we put it together today. The kids had fun watching our caterpillar grow and grow. I included a couple pictures. The 1st one is of the children with their part of the GIANT caterpillar... The 2nd picture is our finished caterpillar - hanging up in the dc kitchen...

I think it turned out awesome!

Our Caterpillars are now Cocoons

It is amazing..... but our 5 caterpillars have changed into a chrysalid. (cocoon). I can't believe how fast they work. In the morning 3 were still caterpillars and after naptime we checked to see how they were doing and they were all transformed. We have to be very careful with the jar now. We don't want to move it because we want to make sure they don't fall from the top. Today we're going to discuss when we think they're going to turn into butterflies. The butterflies we have are Painted Lady Butterflies. This is a wonderful project. I enjoy it as much as the children. :)

Our Caterpillars

Our caterpillars are getting soooo BIG!
They're starting to get ready to make their cocoon's. 2 of them are now hanging from the top of the cup and I'm thinking any day now all 5 will be ready....
It's so much fun to watch and I can't wait until they turn into butterflies. The kids love this part.:)

Kitchen????

Ok... I set up our new kitchen on Friday, and it took me an hour. I need to remember next time I put something together like this, to use my drill. :)
I got it put together and the children got to play with it for about an hour before they went home. They LOVED it, I hated it....

I decided I wanted the bigger Step 2 play kitchen (see picture)..... I sold the new one on Sunday and ordered the one I wanted. I'm so excited because I know the children are going to get so much use out of this. Bad thing, it won't fit in my shed at night, (I like to keep it out of the rain because of all the decals, and it gets so dirty otherwise), but the good news is, I'll just cover it at night with a tarp. I'm thinking I should receive the new kitchen sometime this week, and because of the holiday, I should get it together some time next week. I just have to remember... The drill. :)

New Play Kitchen

I ordered a new play kitchen the beginning of the week, and it arrived today during naptime. I gave away my old one yesterday, and I will hopefully set up the new one today after nap.
This is for outside in the play yard. I also picked up a big outdoor rug for the kitchen area. Rule is no bikes or cars on the rug. This will help the children with a visual reminder. This morning with the old kitchen set gone, we pulled out the blocks and the kids played with those and the little people. They had a blast. I think I'll end up pickingupanother rug when they want to do blocks. They were really good about keeping the blocks on the rug. I don't want to have to pick them all up all over the play yard. :)
It looks like it might rain, and I sure hope it doesn't. We want to get back outside after nap. :)

Our New Weather Center

We got outside this morning by 8:45..... We had alot of energy to burn off, so I figured that the butterfly sheet we were working on yesterday, we'll finish it next week. While outside I decided to put together the new Weather Center I purchased last year. Micah was our 1st weather man. The weather center will give us the opportunity to check the wind, if it is sunny, cloudy, windy, etc., check if it rained over night and the temperature.
Today Micah said it was sunny and windy. He circled the weather symbols and then we are going to graph the next 10 days in child care to see what the weather has been.
Saturday morning I get to go to Home Depot and pick up 5 aprons that they are going to donate to our wood center. I'm hoping to have it set up some time next week. I want to stain the "table" and a couple other things. How fun!

~Mother's Day~

I hope everyone had a fantastic Mother's Day. The children had fun the past 2 weeks getting "gifts" ready for their mom's. I always enjoy this theme because there is always so much to do. I did want to make a cook bookwith Mother's recipes, but I only got 3 recipes back out of the 10, so that idea was scrapped. Maybe another time. The next couple of weeks we're going to do doing caterpillar to Butterfly. We received our caterpillars today in the mail. The kids named them, Batman, Spiderman, Baby Wyatt, (The smallest caterpillar), Capt. Jack Sparrow and Lisa... (I have no idea where Lisa came from). I'll post a picture of our new friends sometime this week. Another fun theme... :) It will be fun to watch them turn into butterflies.

Some New Centers. :)

Over the next few weeks, I will be setting up some new "centers" outside. The bug center I did up last year was a big hit, and still is. The children LOVE looking for bugs.... and I'm cool with that... as long as they don't show me what they have captured. :)
Some new centers we will have are weather, art, block and wood centers. The wood center I am really looking forward to getting set up. I purchased hammers, safety glasses, a box of nails, and tape measurer. Loren is going to build a table from an old door. (Cut it down in size) and get me a recycle bin filled with scrap wood. I also am going to check out Home Depot and see if I can purchase those orange children aprons for the kids that they can wear while they are busy building.
Art center will include playdoh, and I purchased a 3 person art easel set last fall. Weather station will include a weather vane so we can tell which way the wind is blowing, a weather station I purchased last fall from Lakeshore and other items.
We do have a reading center outside now with a bench and a plastic bin of books. The children can also read bug books from the bug center. We're bringing some of the fun centers from inside - outside. This is going to be alot of fun.... I know the children will enjoy the new centers. :)

I think this will be a long posting. :)

I haven't added a post since April 8th... Wow... Well in my defense..... I was sick with the flu for a week and boy did that really wipe me out.

We had a great time during our Easter Party at child care. The children graphed jelly beans. They got a small cup full of jelly beans, spearated them, and then counted each other and graphed. They did an awesome job. We also colored Easter Eggs and had a Easter Egg hunt. The kids ended up finding a bunch of candy... :)
I'm currently adding pictures to photobucket from pour Easter Party. There are a lot. I'll send an e-mail when I have them all added.

We celebrated Earth day by painting a Happy Earth Face. I think these turned out so adorable. Again, the kids did an awesome job. We learned about recyling, and we graph the items we recycled during the day. The kids are continuing with the recyling this week, wanted to squish the milk containers, and place them in the recyling bags. I love it.
This week and next week, our theme will be Mother's Day. I have a few projects I want to get done, and I don't want the kids to feel rushed. Mother's Day is a great theme.

~Boo Boo Bunnies~

Today we made Boo Boo Bunnies. They turned out adorable. The idea is if a child gets a boo boo, you can stick an ice cube in the back side. The child will then hold it against their boo boo.
We stuck an egg in the back. The children loved them...
I had to share a picture of the bunch!

Travel Tots~

Wednesday we had Travel Tots come in the morning.... The kids "traveled" to Switzerland where they learned that the people that live in Switzerland speak French, German, Italian and Romansh. The mountains are called Alps. Clocks and watches are made in Switzerland. Animals that live in Switzerland include - goats, foxes, chamois, marmots, woodpeckers, blue jays and trout and Salmon. Fondue is a fun way to eat, and they children had a pretend fondue.

Milk comes from both cows and goats, and we use it to make cheese and butter!
We also learned what a compass was and that even though it looks like a watch, a compass is different. A compass shows us what direction we are going in where a watch shows us the time.

We got to put a Switzerland sticker in our passports. Travel Tots will be back on the 22th for a Spanish lesson. I'm sure the kids can't wait. :)

Hands on Learning Fun Blog

I visited a new blog that I thought was worth sharing... :)
Hands on Learning Fun blog located at http://handsonlearningfun.blogspot.com/2009/03/manic-monday-giveaway.html

There is a literacy Bag give away. It looks fantastic and you know how I feel about literacy... :)
What a fun way to get some literacy into your child's life...
If you have a blog and want to be a follower, you can get an entry into her contest to win.
Jean

~Travel Tots

Today we had Miss Jillian from Travel Tots come. We were suppose to have Travel Tots come yesterday but Miss Jillian had car trouble and could'nt make it. We re-scheduled for today and the kids had a fun filled hour.

Today was an hour of science. We learned about birds and frogs. We got to see a real bird's nest, and found out what birds use to make a nest. We made a pinecone feeder for the birds. Decorated a bird with feathers, and pretended we were birds and drank nectar from a flower using our beaks. (Paper cup was the flower, lemonaide was the nectar and a straw was our beak). The time went way too fast.

For the month of April our Travel Tot visits are scheduled for April 18th, which we will have our 1st Spanish class and April 22th which will be a geography class. Each of the kids have a little passport from Travel Tots and each time we "visit" a country, children will get a sticker to go into their passports.

St. Patty's Day~

What a fun day......

What a surprise we got this morning when I went to open the blinds in the play room after children started to arrive... A mischievous leprechaun must have snuck in during the night... We saw small little foot prints on the window in the play room. They went across the glass, on the window sill and down the wall. We didn't think any thing of it until we saw he built a small castle with the green lego's and he also played with the green pegs. When I went to make breakfast - we found out that silly leprechaun had turned the milk and eggs to a green.

We figured he was done until one of the kids had to go bathroom... The water was also green in there and it stayed green all day... We had a very fun time, but we didn't get to see a leprechaun... :)

~End f Camping Fun

The last two weeks have been fun with our Camping Fun theme. We played some games I did up. One fun one was our Camping Fun Bingo Game. The children are learning that just because they didn't win the game, they can't still have fun. Maybe they will win the next time. We do continue to play each game until everyone has won.

During Camping Fun Bingo, when letters were called, I also asked the children to give me a word that starts with the letter. I was very impressed with the words they came up with.
We also played Zingo, read books about camping, made binoculars, and did worksheets with the camping theme. Their Friday Folders are going home today. Please make sure you take the time to check out all the fun stuff they did.

Next week our theme is going to be St. Patricks. :) Everyone have a great week-end and see you on Monday!
Jean

~Travel Tots

We had our first visit from Travel Tots today..... The children were very excited and had a great time. Today we traveled to Kenya, a country located in Africa. We learned what the people of Kenya eat, wear and what type of animals live there. (Giraffes, alligators, hippos, zebra's, elephants and other wild animals).
We learned that the people of Kenya raise cows and goats, and they bring them into their houses each night to keep them from harm. Could you imagine bringing a cow into your house?
A typeical house in Kenya is made from straw, mud and sticks. They don't have running water like us, and have to carry the water from a near by water supply. We practiced walking around with a plastic disk on our head to see if we could keep it on our head. I was really impressed at how good the kids did. The people of Kenya carry food and water on top of their head. This was very interesting.
I did talk to our Traveling Tot instructor - Miss Jullian and I did let her know we are very interested in Spanish lessons, so March 25, we will be doing Spanish.
I did send a link for Photobucket of pictures I took today during Travel Tot time. :)

Camping Fun

This week our theme was Camping Week. We will continue the theme next week, so Friday folders will go home next Friday. I would like to keep the sheets and paintings the kids did so far this week hanging up.

We also started Book It! Beginners this week. Everytime we read a book, we'll add a color crayon book marker to the bulletin board. We'll be doing this for the 2 months. At the end of each month, children will get a certificate for a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. Our bulletin board should get pretty full. :)

The books we have read this week are: Pinkalicious, Purplicious, Bailey Goes Camping, PJ Funnybunny Camps Out, A Day at Camp and our book for the week that we read each day at Circle Time: Camping Out by Mercer Mayer.

Reminder that Travel Tots will be coming on Wednesday. If you haven't paid for the $10. fee per child, per month, please pay by Tuesday. If needed, you can make it $5.00 and pay the other $5.00 before the next visit. I'm really looking forward to this...

Monday - March 2

This week and next week our theme is going to be "Camping Fun". Letter e, color green, number 7, and shape diamond. I have Friday Folders ready to go from the last 2 weeks. Children will also be bringing home a book for the month of February.

We're also going to be doing Book It! Beginnings again this March and April. We're going to keep track of the books we read and at the end of March and April, children will get to bring home a certificate for a pizza from Pizza hut. There is a information flyer in the children's Friday Folder explaining this more in detail.

Reminder that tomorrow I will be closing at 12:30. I plan on going to the state capital with other providers and the organizations that run the PEK Program and Parent Aware. They are looking to receive additional funding, and they were looking for providers that have been on these programs to give their own feedback. I personally think both of these progams were very benefical for my preschool/child care, and I would love to see the funding continue.

Farm Week

This week we are continuing our theme "Down on the Farm". Monday we learned about cows. How much they can weight, how much milk they can produce in a lifetime, and more. Did you know that cow can produce 200,000 glasses of milk in their life time? I was amazed... We also "milked" a cow. :)

I poked a hole in a rubber glove and poured some milk into the glove. I explained to the children how a farmer milks a cow by hand. We had some funny results. A couple of the kids squirted themselves. We "milked" the cow into a bowl. I wish I could have taken some pictures, but I wasn't going to let go of that glove.

Tuesday we learned that to make pink we needed to mix the colors red and white together. We needed pink for a worksheet. The kids did a good job of mixing. Their sheets turned out "pink".

Today (Wednesday) is going to be a free day. Movies, computer... free play. I am feeling under the weather and I thought this would be a great option as oppose to taking the day off. I'm hoping tomorrow I will be feeling better and back to our farm theme. :)

It's Down on the Farm Week

Actually, for the next 2 weeks it will be Down on the Farm. The children have been busy this morning and afternoon with a couple of projects and worksheets, and playing with some new games I did up. The Clothes Pin Matching game. Children take a card and say the upper case letter and then locate the lower case letter on the card by placing a colored clothes pin on the matching letter. We also are learning about mommy farm animals and baby animals. The children during small group - picked an animal to practice writing after we matched them to the right animals.
I took a few pictures of the kids playing with the clothes pin cards. They were having fun!

What a Week!

Valentine's week was a great time.... We were so busy and did some cute activities and crafts. The children had alot of fun at the Valentine party. They really enjoyed passing out their valentine's to their friends.... I did send a link on Friday afternoon to photobucket and the pictures I have added from this past week. You are able to order, so kneep tha tin mind when looking...

The next 2 weeks in going to be Down on the Farm. We will be learning about farm animals, what grows on the farm, the color pink, triangle, number 4, and letter Y. I know the next 2 weeks will be fun because this is a fun theme.

On Saturday I vendored at a child care conference and I met the owner of Travel Tots. This program was something that I have been wanting to add to my child care, but there was no teacher for the St. Paul area. Now they have a teacher in the area and I am so excited..... The children will love this program. I do have a flyer for everyone so you can read more about the program. I am going to have them come out twice a month, and it will cost each child to participate, $10.00 a month. If in the future, we want to add 2 more week, that will of course be up to you the parents. We will be starting this program in March....
Check your bins for a copy of the flyer please.

As always a busy time, but always fun..... I hope everyone has/had a fantastic Valentine's Day...
Jean

File Folder Games :)

One of the fun things we like to do at child care is file folder games. I make these up, put together, and the children can "work" on letters, numbers, color, shapes, and more. I thought it would be cute to put a couple pictures of 2 of the kids playing our new Valentine - How many? file folder game from yesterday... One is such a clown. Can you guess which one? :)

Dental Week~

February is Children's Dental Health Month, so this week we spend time learning about our teeth, songs and some projects. They are going home today with a Tooth Brushing Chart. This is good for a week. If the kids want to do it longer than a week, I have the download for the sheet on my curriculum web site under Free Downloads. http://www.123learncurriculum.com/

Tuesday was Elmo's Birthday. We read the book before naptime on Tuesday "Little Elmo's Book of Colors". The book had some of Elmo's favorite colors and at the end of the story, all the colors made a rainbow. We discussed what everyone's favorite color was. When the kids got up from nap, a few of them wanted to paint a rainbow like Elmo's. (The one at the right was done by Mason).

Some history on Elmo: Elmo is a 3 1/2-year-old Muppet who first appeared on Sesame Street in 1984. Recently, he has gained a lot of popularity among children and teens. He now has his own 15-minute segment in Sesame Street called Elmo's World. Elmo is enthusiastic, friendly, and cheerful. He has a very positive, optimistic view of himself and life. Like several other characters on Sesame Street, Elmo speaks a "monster language". He never uses pronouns and refers to himself and others by name: "Elmo wants to play." Elmo is usually seen with his best friend, Zoe. He has a pet goldfish named Dorothy. His favorite hobbies are tap dancing and playing the piano.

We had a full and busy week.... Next week our theme is Valentine's. I know we'll find some fun things to do during this week. Remember that our Valentine's Party is on Friday - during the morning hours.... :)

Snow Fun~

We're learning about Winter Wonderland. Last week and this week. What a fun way to learn about snow, then to bring it in the house and play with it. The kids thought this was fun and we really didn't get that cold. The hands got a little cold, but we had a towel to wipe out hands off, and dig back in the snow again. :)

We added aminals, cars and other toys to play in the snow. We tried to make a snowman, but no luck. The snow was to fine.

This week we'll we talking about snowmen. The book we're reading during circle time is Snowmen at Night. Did you ever wonder what snowmen do at night? Well - we found out. Ask your children. See if they remember all the fun things the snowmen do.

~Happy New Year~

Happy New Year!!!!!
It's back to "work" for all of us. We had a fantastic morning.... We are back into the swing of things with preschool. We started with our community circle. The children were glad to be back on routine. The book we are reading this week during community circle is The Mitten by Jan Brett. We will have some projects we're going to do with this book, plus we are working with the letter w, number 5, shape triangle and color white. Newsletters for January are in the kids bins along with a new contract for the year and a vacation request form. I did up the form so that when you want to request time off you will be able to use this form and I will have a record of the request. :)