Dear Parents,
Well, we’re in the midst of another cold weather system!
On February 2nd, we had some “Punxsutawney Phil” educational, interactive fun! The children experienced a complete groundhog celebration! We kept the children engaged with props, stories, crafts, shadow puppets and a special groundhog snack! On Tuesday amidst mostly sunny skies, the weather prophet extraordinaire, emerged from his burrow in Punxsutawney, PA., and did NOT see his shadow! To cheers and applause the Groundhog Emcee proclaimed….“There is no shadow to be cast, an early spring is my forecast!”
Let’s hope he’s right, but if you want more snow, take heart. Phil isn’t a particularly accurate meteorologist!
After our Hogtivities ended on Tuesday, we were looking forward to some pre-game “Super Bowl” fun on Friday! Unfortunately, due to a surprise snowstorm, we missed it! Did anyone see that one coming????
This week we will shovel up even MORE fun by celebrating holidays, events and the playful letter “Pp”!
Gung-Hay-Fat-Choy! Have a prosperous and good year!!! Chinese culture is full of animals, fire-breathing dragons and yummy foods….all sure to inspire the children! The more excited and informed they are about different cultures, the more they will get out of the celebration! Monday 2/8, we have some fun activities planned as we teach the children about Chinese New Year traditions. We will launch our celebration by reading two books, My First Chinese New Year by Karen Katz and Lion Dancer:-Ernie Wan’s Chinese New Year by Kate Waters. We will celebrate the “Year of the Monkey”, with a parade around our classroom proudly displaying our dragon crafts. We will play songs that will give flavor to this happy celebration and sample some traditional foods. Since we are a peanut-free facility, the children will sample: lo-mein (buttered spaghetti), Chinese noodles, orange slices and fortune cookies! Chopsticks will be provided to help us get a “taste” of another culture! Our classroom will be transformed into an exciting learning center as we celebrate this holiday’s underlying message of peace and happiness.
On Tuesday we’ll have another excuse to party! Since Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) marks the end of carnival season, we will throw a fun celebration in our classroom with sparkling purple, green and gold decorations, festive foods and Cajun dance music! The children will put on masks, blow horns and have another wild and crazy parade! With beads, trinkets and lively spirits, we will reflect and define the cultural tradition of New Orleans! They will get a Bourbon Street experience without ever leaving Westbury!!
We continue to meet a new letter friend each week and are reviewing our shapes, colors and numbers. This week we will introduce the letter “Pp”, and look forward to discussing some famous Presidents! On Wednesday and Thursday we will have our Valentine Pajama Party! Treats will include PANCAKES, and since the children love being read to, we will cuddle up with a great book or two! Since love will be in the air, we will also celebrate by sharing cards. Please remember not to address Valentines to each individual friend. This makes the time it takes to pass them out, much quicker! There are now 23 friends in nursery.
This past week in “Circle Time” we introduced the letter “Oo”. It was explained that “Oo” is one of those letters that sometimes makes the same sound as its name. Examples of words with the “long-O” sound such as ….oval, Olaf and Obama were given. The children were then told that “Oo” makes another sound, as in words like octopus, owl, ostrich and otter. To reinforce the letter we decorated our orange O’s with little “o” hole reinforcements. We also made outrageous octopus!
Our “Circle Time” discussions taught us some fun facts about octopus, ostrich and owls. Ask your children how many arms an octopus has and what it does to make a quick escape when threatened (releases ink). Your children should also be able to tell you that an owl is nocturnal (active at night) and can’t move or roll its eyes. Because they have forward facing eyes, they must turn their entire head to see in a different direction. They learned that the ostrich is the world’s largest living bird! They can’t fly but they’re fast runners. An ostrich eye is larger than its brain! We also challenged them to use their thinking skills to recognize opposites. Ask them to name a few!
Here in the nursery we encourage music of all kinds. This past week we introduced the children to some opera! Our CD had a calming factor that was truly quite amazing. To open their ears to different forms of musical expression is so much fun, especially when we try to imitate opera stars!
Our flip-chart song for the letter “Oo” went like this:
Oo (to the tune My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean)
An octopus swam in the ocean,
swam over the waves in the sea.
It raised its arms out of the water,
and waved eight times to me.
Oh, me! Oh, my!
There it goes, swimming by… yi yi yi.
Oh, me! Oh, my!
That octopus just waved bye, bye.
“Bye”, “Bye”.
This week we will complete our “Valentine’s for Veterans”. The children will be able to personally drop the cards that they made both at home and in school, into our special mailbox. A special thanks to all parents that have made this a family project. The heartfelt wishes that reinforce the support and gratitude these brave men and women so greatly deserve will be delivered to our Veterans at the Northport VA Hospital in time for Valentine’s Day.
When we return after the break, we will look at the great contributions that Black Americans have made to our society as we celebrate Black History.
On February 24th & 25th we will close out the month with our 100th Day of School celebration!!! How is that even possible?! We will celebrate being 100 days smarter by having you and your child put together a collection of 100 things. The collection must fit into a gallon size Ziploc bag. We will display all the collections and give awards for the various categories. (See attached sheet.) In past years, some of our collections included buttons, mini legoes, stickers, cotton balls, rice, band-aids, cheerios, plastic action figures, pom-poms, golf T’s, pennies and even 100 lipstick kisses from Mommy!! ! The sky’s the limit!!! Let’s show some creativity.
Roses are red, violets are blue, happy Valentine’s Day, from all of us, to you!
Warmly,
Miss Joanne
Dates to Remember:
2/10 – Deadline for Valentine for Vets cards!
2/10 & 2/11 – Valentine, pajama, pancake days!! – WEAR PAJAMAS!
2/15 thru 2/19-Winter Recess (NO SCHOOL)
2/22-Welcome Back!
(Start bringing in 100th day collections.)
2/24 & 2/25 – 100th Day of School Celebrations!
