Nursery Weekly Newsletter
10/5/15 – 10/9/15
Dear Parents,
It is hard to believe that October is half way over and soon we will be into Halloween and November!!! The children are already talking about what their costumes will be and excitement is in the air!
Autumn will be exploding in our classroom throughout the remainder of this month. The sights and smells of fall will be experienced firsthand by viewing the changing fall colors and walking through the leaves. We will also have a pumpkin exploration by observing the inside of a pumpkin, as well as the outside!
The children are settling well into the routine of school and are enjoying playing and learning with all of their friends.
This past week has been nothing short of a buzzing, beautiful, bluish, brilliant, blustery, batty and bedazzling week full of belly laughs!!!
During “Circle Time” we introduced the letter “Bb”, associating the sound with the letter. Examples of words were given such as bear, bike, balloon, Batman and Bilal! To further reinforce the letter we dipped blue balloons in blue paint and bounced them on a pre-cut letter B. We are creating our own alphabet books, so all letters will remain in school. Alphabet books are a great reading tool and publishing our own should prove to be a fun learning experience.
Throughout the week we passed out some bean bags and had a “rockin” good time doing the Beanie Bag Dance!!! These types of movement songs help the children develop their self-esteem, gross motor skills, social skills, listening skills and so much more. We invited them to sing, dance, balance and toss their bean bags to the beat!
There were times during the week when we got a little “batty” and allowed our amazing mechanical bat to fly around the room! The red eyed rodent flapped his wings in a most convincing manner! We also discussed bats and read the book Hello, Bumblebee Bat by Darrin Lunde. Ask your children what a bat eats (fruit & insects); what they’re afraid of (birds & humans); and how they sleep (up-side down)!
Other “Circle Time” discussions centered on Christopher Columbus. In order to give the children a better understanding of what this man actually did, we taught them that Columbus was an explorer (like Dora!) who sailed the ocean to find and learn about new lands. Ask them what the names of his three ships were? (Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria)
This past week we also had fun with a gross motor activity called bubble wrap dancing! We turned on some lively music with a strong beat and jumped to the song! What a bubble-popping blast!
Since children love to create, we had even more fun stringing a variety of fun beads. Stringing beads is a wonderful fine motor activity. It helps children improve their eye-hand coordination and their attention to task!
This past week we also reinforced the “circle” shape as well as the color “blue.” Our number focus was “zero.”
Some books we read and thoroughly enjoyed included, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle, and a Goldilocks and The Three Bears flannel board story. The children were full of suspense wondering whether Goldilocks would get caught after she barged into a bear’s home uninvited! They learned never to enter a house without permission (ESPECIALLY if it belongs to bears!) An absolute favorite this week was The Blue Balloon by Mick Inkpen. The book, like a balloon, had some special features. Several pages folded up and out enabling the balloon to grow and grow! Since balloons naturally create a fun environment, we blew one up and demonstrated how it “sings” when air escapes and how it can fly around the room….out of control!!! I thought several of the children might jump out of their skin…..when it took off! Their reactions made this activity hilarious!
At snack on Thursday we baked a batch of banana muffins!!! Cooking with three and four year olds can be a daunting task! It requires cooperation and lots of patience! Miss Cassandra and I were very proud of their focus and teamwork! It’s not easy waiting for a turn to mash and stir! The children seemed to really love the opportunity to create their own snack.
In music we learned the Letter B Song from our flip chart. As usual, the children’s response was “LET’S SING IT AGAIN!!!” It went like this….
Bb (to the tune of Ninety Nine Bottles)
Bubba’s best buddy
was Bingo the Bear.
Bubba was Bingo’s best friend.
They both lived together
on Blueberry Lane
picking big berries
in sun and in rain.
We will finish up our “Life in a Bag” presentations this week. I can’t tell you how much fun they have been. We learned so many new things about our friends and how much we actually have in common. The children learned what makes each of THEM special and unique! We shared pictures of family, pets, vacations, books, favorite foods, toys, sports, colors and activities. No one needed very much prompting. The children held up their items proudly! Thank you for helping to make this project a success for your child! To go along with our “All About Me” theme, we read some wonderful books. Parts and More Parts by Ted Arnold focused on body parts. The rhyming text in these books took a humorous look at how a little boy copes with the fact that he is apparently becoming unglued! These funny stories cracked us up! (but not literally!) We then took things a step further and did a fun activity called “Where’s the body part?” As I called out a body part (i.e.: head, eyebrow, forehead, wrist, knee etc. etc.) the children had to put a sticker dot on that part. Check out our self-labeling on Facebook!!!!
We have really been enjoying the fall weather in nursery. It’s been a great time for some outdoor bubble fun! The children scramble to hunt them down and pop every single one!
This week we will introduce the letter “Cc.” We will also be learning the number “one.” Our color focus will change to “orange.”
Halloween parties and pumpkin picking in the “Magic Pumpkin Patch” has been scheduled for October 29th and 30th. Children should arrive in costume on those days. (If they chose not to wear one, that’s fine too!) In addition to that, the school photographer will be at Red Robin on October 21st and 22nd, taking class and individual pictures of the children.
Enjoy the week!
Warmly,
Miss Joanne
October Birthdays:
Maddox John 10/4
Logan Jubraj 10/22
Dates to Remember:
October 21st & 22nd SMILE & Say Cheese Days! PICTURE DAYS
October 29th & 30th Magic Pumpkin Patch (On Red Robin grounds)
Premium Spooktacular Halloween Parties
