Daycare News October 2013

                                          Happy Halloween 

After an amazing Thanksgiving celebration yesterday with my family I've spent a really enjoyable morning making plans for the remainder of October.  :)  What a fun and exciting month to plan for! The next few weeks will be filled with pumpkins, paint and glitter, ghosts, spiders, friendly monsters and sensory experiences.  We will have our Shake Out Earthquake Drill on Thursday October 17 at 10:17 a.m., Orange Day Friday October 25, Friendly Monster Day Tuesday October 29, Costume Parade October 25-October 31.  Wear your costume to daycare(don't worry we will not get messy or go outside in costumes!!)   We have lots of dress up costumes here for children to wear too  :)  Halloween October 31:  Lots of fun and games planned including a Halloween Scavenger Hunt!


Thanks so much for providing rain gear and warm outdoor clothing for your children. We've had some really fun times outside in the leaves and making mud soup!  Also a big thank you for remembering to sign your child in and out each day.

I am so grateful to be a part of your child's early years.  I love the work that I do!  Thank you for bringing your little ones to me,
Judy.

September 2013 Newsletter

I'd like to extend a warm Welcome Back to those returning to daycare and a special Welcome to our new families.  This year we say good bye to a few of our daycare friends as they go off to school!  I am so excited for them as they begin a new adventure in their lives!  To these families I'd like to say Thank You.  I have loved being a part of your child's early years.

 It has been a really relaxed and fun summer at Judy's Little Gems.  The weather was beautiful.  We had days and days of sun to enjoy (in a row!!)  We loved being outside playing in the water and sand, swinging on the swings and blowing bubbles. This year we tried a new location in the garden to plant our sunflower and bean seedlings (we started these inside in the spring)....And did they ever Grow!!  We had a nice visit with the animals at the Hands on Farm at the Filberg  in July and had lots of fun in August when our music and dance visitors shared their artistry with us.  Thank you to Carol Ann from Kindermusik, our young student teachers who taught us ballet, young local dancers who showed us all about Ukranian Dance and Alee who taught us some hip hop dancing.  I really appreciate these opportunities to extend our learning.


We have an exciting fall ahead of us!  Some themes we will be exploring will be:  Changing Seasons, Self Awareness/Self Help,  Friends, Community Helper: Police.  Our academic learning themes will include use of scissors, glue, pencil grip and control, writing names and numbers 0-10.  We will be focusing on pre-reading skills such as matching, rhyming, learning letter sounds, listening to and expressing ideas about stories and poems.  We will continue our calendar count to 30/31 in english and french.  We have also been learning 1-10 in Spanish!  We have started work with 100 charts and will continue exploring numbers up to 100, counting by 5's and 10's.  Let me know if your child has a particular learning theme that they would like to explore with us.  I think it is extremely important to use the children's areas of interest when planning activities!  We will continue to do our show and tell.  If your child has something they would like to share with us we would love it!! We will also have a helper of the day for calendar time :)  This month we will have 3 fun Theme Days:  Dr. Seuss Day, Tuesday September 10.  Favorites Day, Friday September 20.  Red Day, Wednesday September 25.   More info to follow on our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Judys-Little-Gems-In-Home-Multi-Age-ChildCare/234946879895518

With the changing of the seasons, I am asking that Parents ensure that the children have clothing appropriate for the weather.  At this time of year the weather can be a bit unpredictable, so please make sure that your child's backpack contains clothing for rain or sun.  Rain coats, rain pants and rain boots are needed since our backyard can get quite muddy as the fall progresses.

Thank you for all of your support, and Thank You So Much for bringing your Little Gems to me.

Judy.

June Newsletter

What a gorgeous, sunny morning. The sun coming through my window is shining through the water in our Aquarium and making an amazing rainbow reflection on the wall where you can see the shadows of the fish swimming through it! Beautiful. It's not hard to find beauty around us at this time of year and it is a wonderful thing to share with children. I've been making lots of plans for the next few months and am really excited to share them with the kids this summer! We will have special days, field trips and guests come in to teach/show us new things. This month our themes will be Father's Day, Oceans, Flight, World Environment Day(reducing food waste and composting), Summer(change of seasons)and Canada Day. We will also explore some Brain Games and Outdoor Games. We will continue to work on our Alphabet sounds, putting more focus on the letters that have two sounds and sounds formed by letter combinations. We are up to number 29 with our recognition and writing focus on numbers. We are working toward 50. Our French word recognition has expanded from numbers to days of the week to colours and now to animals, common phrases and pleasantries. We have recently started numbers in Spanish. Our learning really depends on the interests of the kids, so I always appreciate input from our families. Feel free to let me know if there is something that you would like me to include in the program. June 6 Yellow Day (a celebration of all things yellow!) Please wear or bring something yellow. :) P.J. Day will be Monday June 10Wear your p.js and bring a stuffie if you like. We will be curling up with our favorite stories, doing a special pj day craft and eating breakfast for lunch!Our First Day of Summer Backyard Picnic and water games will be Friday June 21.We will be serving hamburgers and ice cream this day. (vegetarian and dairy free options)Please bring a bathing suit, towel and water shoes. June 28: Our very own Backyard Canada Day Parade. Sounds like we will have lots to keep us busy this month!! We will be closed Monday July 1 for Canada Day. *Important Info* Sunscreen: Please ensure that your child/ren have sunscreen to keep at the Day Care. Please label your child’s sunscreen. Sunscreen permission forms have been going home. Sun Hats: Please ensure your child/ren has a HAT at Day Care each day for all outdoor activities to protect them from the sun. Appropriate Foot Wear for Outdoor Play: Running shoes and sandals with good grips and secure fitting front and back straps, to ensure they do not come off while walking, climbing, and running etc. PLEASE…… NO CROCS or FLIP FLOPS Thank you to all my Daycare Families for your support! I am looking forward a fun June at Judy's Little Gems :)

February 2013

First of all, Thank You!! Thank you for bringing your amazing children to me. :) Thank you for making Valentine's and treat bags, and bringing cupcakes and flowers! We have had a wonderful time celebrating Valentine's, and your children are truly pure love and joy. They teach me about love, kindness and friendship daily. Hearing the children communicate so beautifully melts my heart. Words such as, "I can help you with that", "here is a toy for you to play with!", "Are you Ok?" are common place. Wow! What kind and caring kids! This month we have focused on the letter P, Q, R, and will finish the last two weeks with S and T. We have also focused on the numbers 12, 13, 14 and will finish the month with 15 and 16. We will continue with our topic of Feelings and use it as a basis for how we recognize our feelings and appropriately act on them. Topics include: feeling angry, afraid, sad, jealous, needing attention, saying no, being helpful. We have had lots of fun with pretty Valentines art, and will will finish off the month exploring color and texture. For the week of the 18th to the 22, We will have Rainbow Days! Your child is welcome to come dressed in their favorite color or colors. This month we have also begun exploring the idea of mail. The children have made valentines and used envelopes. We will be setting up a postal system in which the children can create and deliver mail to their classmates. We will continue with our Helper of the Day, and it would be great for the kids to begin bringing a Show and Tell item from home. This is a great way for a child to develop speaking and listening skills. I won't set up a schedule, as I think that this is much more valuable to a child when they have chosen something to share on their own, without any pressure to do so. This activity will help us to get to know what is meaningful to each child in our group. I just posted some new photos on our facebook page. Enjoy!

Happy New Year!! 2013

Well, the year is off to a great start! Any resolutions? Since New Year's resolutions are sometimes short lived, I prefer to have short and long term plans and goals! I think 2012 was a fabulous year at Judy's Little Gems and I am really looking forward to another wonderful year. Thanks to all of you who help make my days so fun!! This year is beginning with an active bunch of toddlers and preschoolers. :D We will be focused on self-help skills, such as feeding, dressing, communicating needs and wants, and toileting. Our focus will also be on helping others. (fill a bucket) New this month will be Helper of The Day. This child will put out the place mats for morning snack, carry the name tags to circle, put the numbers on the calendar and use the pointer for counting, days of the week, months of the year and the alphabet. Children will learn new skills such as putting scraps in the compost, setting and clearing the table, pouring water into their cups etc. Being a helper is a great way to grow self esteem. It is amazing to see the confidence that comes with doing these important jobs and the happiness that both the helper and those she/he has helped receive.(Ask me or your child about fill a bucket!!) We will continue to work on our Alphabet, Counting, and Phone numbers and will begin to draw simple shapes to help us with letter formation and story pictures. Some learning themes this month will be winter, including sports and animals and Good Deeds. As the month progresses we may expand on these or move in a new direction depending on the interests in the group. Parents, let me know if you see play at home that your children may want to expand on or share with our group. Children learn best when their interests lead the play. Happy New Year to all of my little Gems and their families!