Dear Sprout Families,
Welcome Spring and longer, brighter days. Don’t forget to spring your clocks forward on March 10th.
Please welcome Jennifer Sanchez to our classroom. Her shift will be 830-530pm. We are excited for her to join us.
In February, we had fun exploring all kinds of Boxes. We sat on, painted, climbed in, and put items in all sizes of boxes.
At circle time, we read books about boxes and everything you can do with them. Here are the books we read: Sitting in My Box by Dee Lillegard, What to Do with a Box by Jane Yolen, A Box Can Be Many Things by Dana Meachen Rav, and Not a Box by Antoinette Portis. We also sang a song about a box turtle and his adventures in a bathtub. They love singing songs with hand motions. We also had a surprise in a box that we had to guess what it was. Most of the time, it was an animal, and they would listen to the sound it made and imagine it. Everyone was good at guessing the right animal each time.
During art time, we made boxes, filled boxes, painted boxes, and put stickers on boxes. We all liked standing at the table, painting and coloring on the big boxes. They thought it was great that they didn’t have to sit in a chair to do art. In the classroom, we put boxes of different sizes in our block and dress-up area. They made some tremendous tall towers with them. They also liked to use them as a seat. It didn’t matter what size the box was; they would sit on it. We had little suitcase boxes filled with plastic bugs on the sensory table. The Sprouts would put the bugs in the box and say, “Where did it go?”
Monthly Highlights:
- Beckett had fun building tall box towers and putting the animals on top. He would tell us, “They’re up high.”
- Kruz would stack the boxes in the block area and make tall towers to knock down.
- Levi also had fun putting the safari animals on top of the boxes. He would say, “They are in their house.”
- Archer liked taking the boxes, stacking them, and then having the animals knock them over. As it fell, he would say, “Oh no. Fell.”
- Penny liked to push the boxes around the room. She would laugh and smile as she was pushing it.
- Julia also likes to push the boxes around the room. She would have a big smile on her face as she was playing with the box.
- Riley liked to sit in the box pretending to be in a firetruck. She would tell us, “I squirt fire.”
- Rowan liked to read along with Ms. Teresa as she read the circle time books. By the end of the month, he could follow along word for word.
We all had some great adventures with the boxes and can’t wait to see what fun things we will do next month.
In March, we will explore Bags and all the great things you can do with them. The Sprouts love to take the bags, fill them with toys, and play food. We are sure you have noticed their curiosity about the bags you use at home. As we study bags, they will develop fine motor skills as they open, close, and fill them. Math skills as they compare bags’ sizes; cognitive skills as they sort, explore, and use bags with curiosity and imagination; and literacy skills as they notice the words and logos on bags.
During circle time, we will read books about different bags and how people use them. We will sing a few songs about bags and what we put in them. At art time, we will make, color, paint, and decorate different bags. In the classroom, we will have bags they can fill up with things and pretend to go grocery shopping in the dress-up area with grocery bags from different markets.
Reminders:
- Please ensure your Sprout has weather-appropriate extra clothing and at least one complete set of extra clothes.
- If you have any bags that you would like to share with us this month we would love to use them. They love filling them up with many things.
Thank you for all you do and if you have any concerns or questions please feel free to come talk to us. Have a wonderful March and a very Happy Easter.
Teresa, Jennifer and Nana Julie