Good Afternoon!

**At pickup, please check your child’s cubby to make sure there is one of the following: hats, gloves, snow pants, and boots. There are some children with multiple pieces and we’re trying to clear cubby space. Thank you!

We want to send a big thank you out to Jackson, Max, and their parents for buying two new goldfish over the weekend for our tank. This past week, we had two fish pass away so they were kind enough to ask if they could buy us some new ones. The new fish seemed to adapt fairly well today and enjoyed many, many eyes on them throughout the day!

The magnatiles were used at various times throughout the morning. Most of the time, it isn’t just the magnatiles that we use to create. Animals, both small and big, along with cars are used to create zoo’s, car shops, and houses. Open ended toys such as these allow for our imaginations to run wild. Children have the opportunity to build whatever they so choose; there is no right or wrong.

Our floor puzzles have been a hot ticket item with our older kids the last couple of weeks. The big floor puzzles focus on our spatial recognition skills as well as fine motor skills.

We needed to work with our hands early this morning so the moon sand was made available. For quite some time, we were at max capacity with four friends!

We made it outside! Even though there was no snow, we still got all the way bundled up since it was a little wet. Elijah sat at the top of the log house and commented, “There’s smoke coming out of the roof!” I told him that means our furnace is working!

A bucket of bird seed was brought out so we could finish our self-made bird feeders. We made these before Christmas break and since we were outside, we finished them up.

In large group, we read ‘Bella and Stella Come Home’. In the story, Bella and her stuffed animal, Stella, move to a new home. Throughout the story, they find out that just because it’s new, doesn’t mean it is bad.

After the story was done, we talked about rhyming words. Using the title as an example, we looked for rhyming words. Multiple friends popped up, “Bella and Stella rhyme!” After, we discussed what it means to ‘rhyme’. Each friend came up with their own example of rhyming words. Not only were we able to recognize rhyming words when we saw them but we were able to create our own!

During journal time, friends are showing interest in writing their own words. There are times when they want to ‘teacher spell’ which is where I write it down on a piece of paper and they copy it onto theirs OR we spell it together. While it’s important to spell words correctly, we need to make sure that what we’re teaching is developmentally appropriate. Developmentally, most children hear consonants before vowels. That’s where ‘kid spelling’ comes into play.

As we sound out words, the skill of hearing singular sounds comes to fruition. For example, the word ‘run’. Depending on the developmental level of the child, they may hear the consonants ‘r’ and ‘n’. Eventually, when children are ready, they will hear that ‘u’ and it will be meaningful to them because THEY heard it.

Breakfast– Cinnamon raisin bagels with butter and banana.

Lunch– Whole wheat noodles with chicken and butter, banana, and carrots/cauliflower.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt and blueberries.

Wee Sprout– Carrots.

Have a lovely night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/23