We hope the holidays treated you and your's well. We are getting back into the swing of things here at The Giving Tree. The children have been sharing their stories of Christmas Break and all the special things they did and received. They were super excited to come back and see their friends and we were super excited to see them! The children have been busy exploring our new dramatic play area. They love our salon setup and are so funny doing each other's hair and their own. They even have their own wash sink and salon hair dryers. If their friends don't want to have their hair done, they can always practice on our "mop wig." We rang in the New Year last week by learning all about what happens on New Year's Eve. We watched a recording of the ball drop and counted down from 10 to a big "HAPPY NEW YEAR'S" cheer. The kids made shakers and we had a big dance party to celebrate. We've been talking a lot at circle about the new month and date to reinforce the concepts.
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We hope December is treating you nice, and that you are finding yourselves on the nice list this year. The children have been spending the first part of December learning about other December holidays celebrated around the world. We have taken trips to Japan, Sweden, Canada and Europe to learn about different cultures and traditions.
The children especially liked learning about St. Nicholas Day. They made St. Nicholas hats to bring home and at nap time they even put their shoes out hoping St. Nicholas would leave some yummy treats for them. They were not disapointed. We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving break, we loved hearing the kids talk about their family gatherings and all the delicious food. We had a great time at our Kidsgiving celebration. The children helped prep the food all day and learned about cooking a turkey, made cornbread and even churned their own home made butter! They were surprised how much work they had to do to get the cream to turn into butter, but they never gave up! Well, we'd love to say that the kids devoured our Kidsgiving meal and ate everything on their plates....but we all know that wouldn't be true. They did do a great job at least trying one bite of everything and everyone found at least one thing they loved. Santa's Little HelpersFor the month of December our little munchkins will be filling in for Santa's Elves in our Holiday dramatic play center. There are boxes for the children to "wrap and deliver" an interactive board where they can light the Hanukkah Menorah and Kwanzaa Kinara and even give our snowman a face. They can decorate the Christmas tree with ornaments and garland and they can hang the stockings with care. They are loving the center and especially find it amusing to pretend to sleep as one of them places the presents under the tree for them to wake up and discover. We love seeing their imaginations take flight.
Our little munchkins have been talking a lot this month about all the reasons they have to be Thankful this year. We are thankful for our moms, and dads, and brothers, and sisters, our pets, and our toys, and our warm comfy beds. But one thing that has come up many times amongst the kids is that they are thankful for each other. This warms our hearts here at The Giving Tree. The children both young and old have formed such wonderful bonds with each other that they think of themselves as family to each other. What a huge message this sends us, especially now with the world as it is at the moment. These small gestures of love and kindness they show each other give hope to the generation growing up to be the next leaders and teachers of this world. It reminds us that judgement is taught and not born. So many "teachable moments" happen throughout our day in child care. Having mixed age groups is definitely challenging at some points throughout the day but yet also so rewarding. Our older children not only teach so much to our younger babies, but they learn just as much. They learn to share with the younger kids, to have empathy and understanding, patience and kindness. They learn to teach and to listen and in a sense they learn how to be a big brother/sister. They learn that family isn't made up of just blood, but formed through friendships as well. These little lessons and moments are what we, as staff, are most thankful for. It makes our job rewarding and fulfilling. For us, hearing that they went home talking about Cornucopias and Bridget starts with "B" is absolutely amazing, but these moments like the one below are what we are most thankful for. Next week we will be holding our very first KidsGiving Celebration. The children will be helping to prepare a Thanksgiving lunch complete with Roast Turkey, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. We will be cooking with them as much as possible and they will help us make homemade butter and rolls. We will make sure to take lots of pictures and share them with you. In the meantime from our Giving Tree Family to yours we hope you all have a wonderful, and peaceful Thanksgiving holiday.
Well Halloween has come and gone and we at The Giving Tree celebrated in style! Our little munchkins looked amazing in their costumes and had a blast marching around the backyard in our mini parade. They were so proud of their fantastic costumes. We have some of the cutest kids here at The Giving Tree. Don't believe us? See for yourself! Not only did we have a super fun parade, halloween snacks, and arts and crafts to celebrate the day, but also a FIRETRUCK! The Scotia fire department helped us end Fire Safety month by visiting with one of their trucks. The children got to see the gear firefighters use to help put out fires, the inside of the truck and also got great hats and goodie bags to take home with them. What a super awesome day! November's Weekly ThemesNov. 7-11th : Scarecrows Letter: H
Nov. 14-18th: Cornucopia of Fun Letter I Nov. 20-25th: Let's Talk Turkey Letter J Nov. 27- 1st: The Giving Tree Letter K (Shel Silverstein Week) Center Closed: November 11th November 24th & 25th Well our little kiddos really enjoyed our fire safety dramatic play center and were extremely sad to see our firetruck head up into storage till next time. We hope they will be just as excited with November's center..... Their very own Doctor's Office! Halloween FunLast week and this, we are exploring all things spooky and Halloween. Today the kids had a great time playing with our slime bags. Each bag was filled with baby wash, food coloring and some kind of creepy crawly Halloween themed surprise. They loved them and can't wait to take one home at the end of the week!
Ahhh fall, beautiful leaves, crisp morning air, fuzzy sweater mornings leading to tank top afternoons....and of course fire safety awareness month (didn't see that one coming did you?) What an important concept for children to learn about this month. Introducing fire safety can never come to early in a child's life. Whether it's stop, drop and roll or crawl to safety, or simply dial 9-1-1, introducing these concepts builds a foundation for learning in young children. Our little munchkins practiced their stop, drop and roll skills at circle time this week and boy did they do a great job! They all remembered to cover those faces and roll back and forth, back and forth to put out that fire. After rolling around we pretended we were firefighters battling our very own fire! They really enjoyed this activity and wouldn't rest until the "fire" was out! We are so excited about getting to see a real firetruck! The Scotia Fire Department will be paying us a visit on Halloween for a special treat. Stay tuned for pictures. We couldn't let the month of October go by without talking about (and playing with) the beautiful leaves outside. Last week the children made colorful leaf sugar cookies. They helped to split the cookie batter and color it different fall colors, then rolled it all back together into one big sheet. The result was a beautiful marbled fall leaf! Stay tuned next week as we start our spooky halloween-seasoned themes!
We all love receiving adorable art projects from our kids when they come home from school. Cute bears in caves, adorable scribble drawings that represent their interpretation of mommy cooking dinner, and fluffy cotton ball clouds. They line our fridges and they get stored in boxes in the basement to pull out when they are 20 and we feel like reminiscing. But there is so much more to art with children than the product, in fact the product for a teacher is the least important part of the activity. Each project is selected by a teacher for it's combination of theme representation, age appropriateness and specific skill incorporation. A simple gluing activity is so much more than meet the eye. It is a lesson in direction following, sequence, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and sometimes concept building (i.e. can you glue the bird in his home, can you place the nose UNDER the eyes) Balancing the many categories of art is important in early child care. Children should be exposed to various mediums and methods during art time equally. A week full of painting projects is leaving out so many other just as important activities. Keeping this in mind we at The Giving Tree have created a schedule of weekly activities for our art time. Each day the children will experience a new activity revolved around our theme of the week. Some days this will produce a project that they will take home, some days it will not. Below is a breakdown of our new art/sensory schedule.
We hope this schedule will give all the students of The Giving Tree, whether full or part time, a nice variation of activities during their school week. We hope you are enjoying the activities coming home. Be sure to ask your child what they made in art today! Dramatic Play for OctoberOctober is Fire Prevention Month and what better way to celebrate that create our very own fire station here at The Giving Tree! During the entire month our dramatic play area will be a fire center complete with burning building, fire truck and walkie talkies. The children will be able to practice dialing 911 on our play phones and putting out the fire with our homemade play extinguishers. They are already loving the new center.
We apologize for the lack of posts these last few weeks. We have been concentrating on getting the children back into our school time routine and rules. The children have settled back into the swing of things this fall with ease. They are enjoying the new centers and are doing a great job remembering the rules of these new centers. If you ask them where the cars stay they will all chime in unison "In the car center!" We have begun a new circle time routine, taking what worked from last year and tweaking what did not go over so well. The children seem to be enjoying it a lot. to lightly introduce concepts that they will learn more about in kindergarten. We start each circle with a "who is here today" activity. Each child has a letter for our Chicka Chicka tree and they find their letter each morning and place it on the tree. Their letters are different colors and have their names written on them. Right now they are using the color and letter to recognize which one is theirs, however by looking at their name each day they are starting to recognize what it looks like and how to spell it. After we count how many children have come to school today (another skill we sneak in) we sing a simple day of the week and month of the year song. This introduces the names without pressuring the children to memorize them. Our biggest change this year is our weekly concept. Each week we will focus on a new concept, starting with the letters of the alphabet and then moving on to numbers 1-10 and then shapes. This week we are focusing on the letter A. The children get to say "Hello" to the letter and sing a little song to it, then we brainstorm some words that start with that letter. Everything is done through song which helps the children remember concepts easier. Tonight when your child comes home feel free to ask them questions about circle time. Let them sing the Days of the Week to you, or even "Hello A, how are you? My name is _______, it's nice to meet you!" You'll be surprised how even after 1 week they have caught on to these songs and concepts. Upcoming Weekly ThemesSeptember 26-30: An Apple a Day
Concept: B October 3-7: "Fall"ing Leaves Concept: C October 10-14: Fire Prevention Week (visit from firetruck) Concept: D October 17-21: Pick-a-Pumpkin Concept: E October 24-28: Ghosts, Ghouls and Goblins Oh My! Concept: F We hope all our families are enjoying their last week of summer. The Giving Tree staff have been working hard this week getting ready for our upcoming school year. Our Brand New CenterInfant SpaceYou may notice our infant space has moved. In order to give both of our age groups the best space possible we decided to attempt switching the spaces. Our infants will now enjoy their day in the middle room of the center. We have added some climbing mats for them to practice their gross motor skills on a cushy surface. The rocking chair has moved to this room for cuddle time and they have a great amount of floor space to roam and explore. This switch also allows our sleeping babies to be farther away from the louder, more active toddler space. Toddler and Preschool SpaceSwitching the rooms has allowed us to create a more educational space for the preschool and toddler students. The room is now divided into specifically designated centers for play. We have created a comfy reading nook for children who want some quiet time to themselves. This space will give them a place to relax, enjoy a book and even self-soothe if they are overstimulated or tired. We have created a dramatic play corner that will rotate monthly with different themes. This month we have created a store-front/restaurant theme. We have ideas for upcoming months that include a fire station, post office, and doctor's office. Our block and car center will allow children to use their imagination to create cities, horse farms, and whatever else they can imagine with a variety of toys and blocks. This is always a favorite place to play amongst our children. Another great area we have added to this room is a manipulatives center. This area is used for more quiet, educational play. It will house our puzzles, lacing activities, fine motor and counting toys and cooperative table activities. This is a very important center for children in this age group as it prepares them for the more structured kindergarten days ahead. School Age SpaceWith all of our changes we could not forget our school age residents. They will now enjoy their very own space at The Giving Tree. Our school age children will now have a space to call their own during the day. We have included games that are more geared towards their age level, a reading corner with various books from Kindergarten learn to read all the way up to chapter books for our older readers. There will be a homework station for children who want to get a head start on their nights work, and a craft box they can help themselves to. As you can see this area has already been kid tested and kid approved!
We can't wait to see you all on September 6th. Let us know what you think about our new Giving Tree spaces in the comments below. |