November 2014 Newsletter G r e a t B e g i n n i n g s C h r i s t i a n C e n t e r a n d K i n d e r g a r t e n F RO M THE C h i l d C a r e D I R E C TO R ’ S D E S K … . Ephesians 5:20 Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, As Thanksgiving approaches our country puts a focus on being thankful for the survival of the folks in Plymouth, for all that our country provides us and of course our family and friends. As Christians we know to be thankful everyday of the year and for everything in our lives—both the good and the bad because it all comes from God and it all serves a purpose in our lives. A MY BARTLETT pray their thanks to God at meal times and bed time. As they grow and develop we can teach them to take notice of the positive things in their lives, to notice them, make conscious comments about the blessings and to thank God for them. As we mature in our faith, we start to recognize that God is with us in the good Remembering to be thankful is a habit that we build over time. It all starts when children are little. We teach them to say “thank you” when someone helps them or gives them something. We teach them to times and especially as we weather life’s storms. The storms are how He draws us to Him, and helps us to grow stronger and hopefully wiser. He puts people in our path who have strength and wisdom to share with us and then He gives us the gift of being able to be there when others need help. So we thank you Lord for being in our lives, we thank you for the blessing of our loved ones and for the opportunity to grow our children in your love and to share your love with others. SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST:  November 5th—Cookie Dough delivery  November 20th—Thanksgiving feast for lunch, any parents are welcome to join us. There will be a sign up sheet in the entry way if you would like to contribute to this meal or help prepare/serve.  November 27th—Thanksgiving Day the center is closed.  November 28th—center is open, but you must sign up for that day’s attendance in the classroom. We only staff according to the number of children signed up. No last minute additions.  December 5th—Christmas Program at the Nazarene Church. Y O U N G I NFA NT WOW, it’s November already! All the leaves have fallen and gold and crimson blanket the grass! November is a special month where we celebrate Thanksgiving. A special time to give thanks for all that God has Blessed us with. In October we said farewell to our friends Lucas and Braxton. They moved up to the M I SS J E NN Y Older Infant room where they will embark on new adventures. We would like to welcome two new families to Great Beginnings. Brian and Courtney Leddy and their son, Brayden, and Justin and Mary Bresky and their son, Ty. Brayden is a happy, playful 6 month old. He was so excited to meet all his new friends. Our other new friend Ty is an adorable 3 month old who is full of smiles and loves playing under the gym. We are excited to begin working on a Thanksgiving craft our friends can share with their parents. Until next month God Bless…. O L DE R I NFAN T S There is always something for which to be thankful. Charles Dickens That is an important thing to remember on those nights of interrupted sleep, teething babies, ear infections etc. Just remember as parents you get the night shift but as caregivers we get the day shift but in multiples. You’re not alone. We’re thankful that those times are temporary and short term mostly. What an amazing group of older infants this fall. Braxton our youngest is toddling all over and wants to be in the action. Lucas will be turning one this month and I’m M I SS A N N guessing he will be walking by his big day. Ryan is my investigator. He wants to know what’s in our cupboards. He has mastered the child proof latches and has disengaged a couple of them. Claire wins the award for longest line of lingo. When I call her name, her response is often “Huh?” Jude is our sports fanatic and dog lover. He can throw a ball like no other. Boy some college needs to put dibs on him for a pitcher or for passing the football. Arnaa holds a close second to Claire for chattering. She also has a great love for books. Reading and being read to is what Arnaa would do all day if other fun things weren’t happening. I have special request for our classroom. Y O U N G T O D DL E RS Fall has made it’s appearance outside our classroom windows and definitely all over our classroom walls. The friends enjoyed doing all the crafts and watching all the colors change outside. It’s also the time of year when our turkey friends make their appearance on the hills which always gets the friends excited. The friends are starting to talk more and are constantly picking up new words. Music Class has also brought out the sing- M I SS H O L LI E ers in the class who will mumble along with whatever song the teachers sing. The month of November we’ll stick with our fall theme. With Thanksgiving this month we’ll focus on all the things we have to be thankful for, like our Mommies and Daddies, siblings and friends. I look forward to doing more fall activities and crafts and of course getting outside and enjoying the beautiful fall weather O L DE R T O DD L E R S Happy Thanksgiving! Its that time of year again, Its not difficult to see the holidays are approaching when all the stores have had Christmas decorations out since the beginning of October. I love this time of year with all the sights, sounds and smells of the season. I don't know about you , but I love the raking of leaves and the smell of burning leaves and bonfires. I seem to spend more time in the kitchen baking or cooking more comfort type foods. Plus all the shopping and decorating , wheww makes me tired just thinking It is that you not bring anything containing peanut butter into the classroom. We have a child with a moderate allergy to peanuts and eggs. If you would happen to want to provide a treat for the classroom, please make sure it is store bought and it has the ingredient label on it. That way I can monitor and make sure of what’s inside the food we serve. Thanks for your help in this area. Themes for November Unit 1 Transportation & Byron Burton Unit 2 My Community Unit 3 Turkeys Unit 4 Weather Have a great month! before the inevitable cold and snow requires the long process of getting the friends ready to go outside. I hope all our families have a special Thanksgiving and enjoy the company (and food) of the people they are most thankful for. M I SS D E about it, but I still love it. Our thanksgiving Feast will be on November 20th. Mrs. Deanna has been introducing the friends to different instruments and genres of music. The friends enjoy banging on the drum and tapping on the glockenspiel, flipping the rain stick. They have used the rhythm sticks, danced with scarves and used the wooden egg shape shakers and we have listened to different animal sounds. The children get so excited when she arrives its so special to see. With the holidays approaching please let us know if our friends will be taking time off. We like to let teachers know their schedule so they can make their plans. I hope all our friends are able to take time and recharge their batteries as well as our parents, everyone works hard all year long. It is nice when we can reconnect with one another and enjoy some down time. Enjoy your holidays and God Bless you and your families. T HREES M I SS J A C K Y Fall has brought many changes to the three year old room. As many of you may have noticed, Ms. Di has been off work for a while. In the middle of September her husband, Dave had emergency open heart surgery. After he came home Ms. Di had a stroke. She is doing well—her spirits and faith are strong. Please continue to keep her in your prayers during her recovery. We hope to have her back by the holidays. We have spent our mornings enjoying the Fall weather. We play outside each morning for an hour. Please send a warm coat, hats, mittens and boots or extra shoes. We like to walk and run on the hills. The boys and girls love the new Kinetic Sand in our texture table—stop in and check it out, it’s like liquid sand really –it’s pretty cool! to finish up potty training ~the boys and girls are trying sooo hard to be big kids and we are almost there☺. We had a great Harvest Party, thanks again for all the treats. You know the threes, they love food! Have a great month! We are working really hard FOURS M IS S What a great Harvest Party! We had so much fun Thank you for all that you so generously shared! Your generosity made our party a true success! With November here now I’m, really looking forward to all the excitement and awareness this month brings. Learning about the first Thanksgiving and the groups of people who were there, the trials and hardships that were overcome and the fascinating facts and history involved are so exciting and inspiring. The boys and girls are so drawn to this wonderful holiday. To bring this special event in our history a little closer, I’ll be planning activities and projects such as: making butter, dyeing cloth, trading/bartering, learning “Legends of the Five Kernels of Corn,” making cornbread and creating headbands and Pilgrim hats! Though the “Thanksgiving Day” Native Americans lived in “wets,” we’ll be setting up a teepee in our book area to enjoy! The class will also explore the concept of Thankfulness during the Thanksgiving season. We’ll have a “Thankful Jar” set up in our room the month of November. A special Thanksgiving lunch...our “Feast” is being planned with turkey and all “the fixings!” The boys and girls look so cute wearing the “head gear” they’ve made to “reenact” this special meal. K I N D E RG ART E N N E W S Let your children hear your aspirations for their lives when you pray. They will know your heart. Ms. April Clark November—Christmas program practice begins!! The program will be Dec. 5, so mark your calendar. The program will be wonderful as always! Our theme for November is the “Pilgrims, Indians and Food Groups.” H E ID I For phonics in November, we’ll be introduced to Jj, Kk, Ll and a week will be spent reviewing. In math we’ll be working on estimating and working with the inch measurement. We have so much to be thanking God for this Thanksgiving season! I hope you can spend some time this season doing just that! Happy Thanksgiving to each of you! Happy Birthday Happy Birthday to Turki! Happy Birthday to Vaughn! Happy Birthday to Tim! Happy Birthday to Bri! M R S . L A Y ER We will study about the Mayflower and daily living crossing the Atlantic. We will study a lot about Indian life and customs. We will do some Indian dancing and have a Pow Wow. We also will talk about our food groups and healthy eating. Our phonics centers are zooming right along. We are reviewing our vowels daily, we are introducing more consonants and this month we will begin blending the consonants and vowels together. This is huge because in Dec. we will put the final consonants at the end of the blends and we will be reading hundreds of words!! Our math centers are coming along really well too. Some boys are making super hard patterns already this year— 42, 56 even 101 part patterns. Then of course, they repeat perfectly. Later this month we will begin writing our numerals in a very beautiful way. Details about our November field trip coming soon.