Rain, Rain Go Away!!!  Please remember to send your children into school with snowpants, boots, hats, and mittens or gloves.  With the snow and ice melting, combined with all of the rain, the play yard is muddy and very wet!!

At the last Parent Rep. meeting, we talked about ways to recruit new families.  If you have any suggestions or ideas, please let me know.  Kristen has placed an ad on Craig's List for us and I have already received several responses to that. Our next Parent Rep. meeting will be on Tues., March 23rd @6:30PM and there is an Open House planned for Sat., March 20th 10AM-12PM.   

I will be adding coffee tins to the Pre-K and Toddler classroom for anonymous donations to the Music program and field trip expenses.  This will give everyone an opportunity to contribute what they can afford. 

On Thurs., March 25th, we take the Commuter Rail to Jim's Bagels in Gloucester.  This will be our 3rd annual trip to Jim's.  He and his staff always do such a nice job of  entertaining our Preschool and Pre-K group.  We always look forward to it.  The train trip is always exciting too!!

Denise

 Infants

Marie, Ann and the Infants are having fun with lots of floor play and the other older Infants visiting the Toddler room occasionally. 

Baby Niki has adjusted nicely to the other children and her new teachers and surroundings.  She is playing and eating with the other children.  She is moving around the room.  It is cute to see her on the floor with the other kids!  She is about the same age as Alex and Emily.

It is fun to watch Alex and Emily growing and learning.  Alex is starting to crawl and
Emily is not far behind her brother.  They are both so social and happy!  they don't want to miss anything!!

Jonas will be leaving our program in March. We will miss his smiling face :( 

Henry is beginning to walk and therefore beginning his transition into the Toddler room.  We miss Sara already :(  , but glad that she has done so well with her transition to the Toddler room. 

Toddlers

Courtney, Denise, and the Toddlers have been celebrating books and cooking .  They have been reading a Laura Numeroff book a week and doing cooking projects to go along with them.  They read If You Give a Pig a Pancake and cooked pancakes with lots of syrup.  They read If You Give a Moose a Muffin and cooked blueberry muffins.  They will be reading If You Give a Cat a Cupcake and cooking cupcakes with sprinkles. They have also been doing art projects to go along with the books. Look on the wall for the non-edible projects with a  copy of the corresponding book covers.   

March Comes In Like a Lion and (hopefully) Goes Out Like A Lamb.  Look for the hand printed Lions on the Toddler wall. At the end of the month, they will be making a lamb from melted white chocolate and chow mein noodles. 

Watch out for Toddlers cleaning up cocoa on the floor and the tables from the cocoa table.  They do love to clean and of course eat the cocoa!! Sometimes, there is cocoa everywhere!!

Keira has departed our program and she is already  missed :(  Also, Winston and Thomas will begin transitioning to the Preschool classroom in March. 

Sara has done really well with her transition into the Toddler room.  She has learned the routines well.  She also caught on quickly that "mama" is next door. 

Preschool

Robyn, with the help of Meg, will begin a new book theme with "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" which will include various art activities relating to the story.

We will be participating in a few new games this month such as an auditory discrimination lotto game (for cognitive development). charades (for gross movement) and musical chairs (for name recognition and gross motor).

We will continue to identify and label the first letter of our names through circle time activities and become more familiar with triangles and the warm color yellow.

We welcome Thomas and Winston to Pre-School who will begin transitioning this month! 

Pre-K

Amy, Kristen, and the Pre-K children have been very busy!  We've been doing letters of the week, recognizing uppercase vs. lowercase, and going to Story Hour at the Library on Tuesdays.  At circle we've been sharing lots of positive things about our friends, singing, dancing, focusing on healthy teeth and foods, and doing at least one project a day!

To keep the ball rolling, in the coming weeks we will be talking about the letters "G," "S," and any other child-inspired letter that comes our way.  Next week we will get out our passports, board the plane, and check-in with customs when we travel to Greece.  We will make a Greece flag, build coliseums, and eat some Mediterranean foods.  Ezra Jack Keats has been our Author of the month and we will conclude that chapter by reading Goggles and making our own Goggles. 

Did you know that March is National Nutrition Month?  We've been trying to introduce more healthy foods into our classroom.  The children have especially enjoyed veggies with Hummus, Oranges, Bananas, and even some of Kristen's Kale Chips.  We will continue experimenting with different healthy snacks and reiterate their importance for our children's bodies.

March is also Dr.Seuss's Birthday so we will celebrate that in line with St.Patrick's Day.  Get excited for lots of fun activities ahead!

We are all very sad to see Anika go.   We all hope she comes back to visit so we can see her beautiful smile.  

Lets all cross our fingers for more snow so we can go sledding and build some more snowmen!