Wee Care News
April, 2011
“Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression.”
-Dr. Haim Ginott
Label, Label, Label!
Please label everything your child brings to
Wee Care. Extra clothes, sweatshirts, blankets,
bottles, bibs, coats, hats, mittens, scarves, snow
pants and boots are all things that can get
mixed up. If your child’s name is on their things,
there is less chance for a mix up! Thanks!
4K Brochures
There are informational 4K brochures in
the Rainbow and Safari Rooms if you have
a child who will be 4 years old before
September 1st, 2011. The forms in the
brochures can be filled out and returned to
the Education Service Center. If you have
any questions, please ask!
When the Snow is Gone…
Even though it is hard to imagine no more snow outside, when
it does melt, please continue to bring your child’s boots to
school. We go for walks and play on the playground in spring,
and it can get messy!
Breakfast
We only serve breakfast until
8:00 a.m. Even if you bring
something in for your child,
it is still only served until
8:00.
Thank you!
Important Dates We Will Be Closed:
April 22 for Good Friday
May 30 for Memorial Day
July 4-8 for Fourth of July
September 5 for Labor Day
November 24, 25 for Thanksgiving
Maybe December 26
Every month we ask parents to please donate a paper
product. The paper product for APRIL is KLEENEX Thank
you!
Four Year Old Kindergarten
Next fall for the 2011-2012 school year, the school district is
starting four year old kindergarten. Wee Care has been
collaborating with the district to set up a classroom here.
There will be afternoon and morning programs. So keep in
mind that your child will be able to attend 4K here, and can
stay here for wrap around care. We do not know all of the
details yet, and will give you more information as we receive
it. If you have questions please talk to the office staff.
Our pre-school teacher, Allie, is taking a new job
in Madison. She will be a Resource Room
Specialist for 4-C. We will miss her and wish her
well.
We want to welcome Julie Jahn to our daycare
who will be working in the daycare wherever
needed for awhile until she finds her niche.
WELCOME JULIE!
Please Remember!!!
Please remember to sign your child(ren)
in and out and initial EVERY DAY! Not
only is this for your child’s teacher for
attendance, but also for the food
program, safety and state licensing
purposes. Thank you for your help!
Help us Save Paper!
If you have internet access please read this newsletter online on our website. It’s on the home
page of our website: www.weecarechild.intuitwebsites.com. There will be a link every month to
our newsletter. We will still make a few paper copies for those without internet access. Thank
you!
Weekly Schedules
Please let us know your child’s schedule every week. We need their schedule the week
prior so we can schedule our staff. It is very important to keep us updated! Please
write down your schedule instead of telling someone. The blue basket right inside the
office door is for checks and schedules.
Thank you for your cooperation!
Stimulating a Love of Reading
To instill in their daughter a love of reading, Carl and Debbie decided to hold regular story
times, beginning when she is around two years old. It is a good plan. A love of reading will benefit their
daughter throughout her life. But why wait until she is two?
From birth to the age of 4, children have a great capacity for learning language. Toddlers, ages
18-36 months, are able to follow simple stories, look at their own books, and repeat words and rhymes.
But there is nothing wrong in getting even younger children accustomed to books, sounds, letters and
words.
So start reading to your child early. Even if your child is too young to understand what is being
read or even to sit still for very long, you will be stimulating a love of reading. One of the best ways to
prepare for reading is to expose your child to activities that appeal to the senses of sight, hearing,
speech, touch and smell. Very young children are often attracted to books with sounds and books that
let them smell or feel the pictures. Soft cloth books with colorful shapes are also appealing.
Other books with sensory appeal include books with repeated rhymes and words, and picturepointing books, which you can begin reading to your child at 4 to 6 months and continue into the toddler
ages.
You can also use stuffed animals and other toys as props. Children not old enough to talk can
learn to point to a toy bunny, bear or car when you say the word. Then, you and your child can make up
a story using the animals, cars and other toys. In time, your child can make up a story on his or her own.
If you have a toddler, set a time to read every day. But also follow for more reading time if you
child asks for it. Children may be more receptive to reading if they are allowed some control over story
time. For example, if your child is old enough, let him or her chose the book you read. And allow your
child to read his or her favorite book over and over again, even if you find it boring.
You don’t want to make story time too demanding or pressured. Just have fun together so the
message you send is that reading is enjoyable.
UW Extension Surveys
On Thursday March 31st Kathy Hetzel from UW Extension
was here handing out surveys. This survey provides us with your
view of the ways Wee Care supports your family. The results of
this survey will be used to provide feedback to Wee Care so they
can build stronger partnerships with the families. If you were
unable to participate in that survey please pick one up in the
office. This survey is confidential so please return it to us in a
sealed envelope that we will send back to Kathy.
Week of the Young Child
Along with the school district we will be participating in the Week of
the Young Child, April 11-15. We will celebrate being a kid by joining
the school age children in the following agenda: Have your child dress
accordingly.
Monday:
Sports Day/Brewer Day
Tuesday:
Pajama Day
Wednesday:
Career Day- What are you going to be when you grow up?
Thursday:
Mix /Match and crazy hair day
Friday:
Beach Day
Toddler Room News
During the month of March we worked on our body parts, 5 Senses, and Emotions.
We learned some new songs also: The Hokey Pokey; Where is Thumbkin; Head,
Shoulders, Knees, and Toes; If you’re Happy and you Know it; and The Wheels on the
Bus.
During the week of learning about our different emotions we showed the children
different faces; happy, sad, mad, tired, and silly. We also sang the song “If you’re
Happy and you know it “using different emotion.
The next week we worked on our 5 senses. We made and tasted our own frozen fruit
pops. We smelled lemon juice, vanilla, and cinnamon. We felt different textures with
our hands. And we listened to different sounds.
For the rest of the month we worked on learning some of our body parts. We kicked
at balls with our feet, threw balls with our arms and hands, painted with our fingers,
made faces out of paper and used our shoulders to hit wiffle balls.
April Themes:
4/4 - 4/8 : Fish
4/11 – 4/15: Dirt, Worms and Planting
4/ 18 – 4/22: Easter
4/25 – 4/29: Bubbles
Ocean Room Newsletter
What great weather we’ve had so far, finally got to go outside and go for walks. I know
the weather is getting warmer, but we still need all of their outside clothing yet.
Round/Circle Shape: Talked about the circle and showed the children that circles come in different sizes
and colors. The children rolled small balls back and forth to each other and popped bubbles while lying on
the floor. We had a circle hunt around the room, trying to find what toys have circles on them. Children
enjoyed making projects like pizza, cookie and marble painting using the circle shape. We danced to
action songs, “Spin with me” and “Circle song”. March 2nd was Dr. Seuss’ birthday; we talked about him
and read a book too.
Fruits: Lots of fruit to talk about, but our main ones we talked about and did projects oranges, grapes,
bananas, strawberries and apples. The children pretended to cook with their play fruit. Made fruit out of
the scented play dough we made. Showed the children all the fruit that we were going to eat, talked
about what they were, the colors and where they grow. Cut up some fruit and had a fruit salad for snack,
most of the kids ate the grapes, oranges and bananas, the apples were not that big of a hit.
Green/Shamrocks: Made Pots of gold, tinted rice green and applied it to a shamrock, painted shamrock
with green shaving cream and made a green collage. In the sensory table we had green legos, cars and
other green items. Laid out 4 different sizes of shamrocks and matched them with the other ones. We
showed the children what happens when we put green food coloring in a glass of white milk. With one of
our snack the children had lime jell-o to eat, most of them enjoyed it. We also put shamrock tattoos on
their arms; the children thought that was the coolest thing.
Things in the Air: Talked about what the children usually see in the sky. Glued cotton balls to a picture of
a cloud, made birds with coffee filters, made airplanes and marble painting a paper kite. Matching birds to
their nest and matched airplanes to the right color cloud. We pretend that we were on the airplane with
our chairs, and brought in a small suitcase to what we should pack for a trip. We sang lots of songs about
airplanes, birds and kites.
Bugs and Insects: This week we the children will become aware of the different bugs and insects. The
learning experiences the children had this week were singing about bugs, listening to a flannel board
about “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, and created a variety of bug and insect art. We enjoyed a walk while
looking for bugs and insects on the inside.
Did You Know
Learning Shapes is a
fundamental skill kids
learn at an early age.
Recognizing the circle
shape from other
shapes.
Birthdays
Hunter
April 23
* Themes*
April 4-8 Body Parts
Enjoy the Easter Holiday
From the Ocean Room
Teachers
April 11-15 Weather
April 18-22 Easter
April 25-29 Farm
News from the Evergreen Room
Spring is in full swing and the children (as well as the teachers) are happy to be outside
playing (without full winter gear). We are taking walks around the town to find all the signs of
spring; geese, squirrels, robins, cardinals, flowers, puddles ... etc.
March in Review
We learn about many uses for hats and then we made our own purple, square hats. We
are learning about lots of shapes and finding them all over. We have been on walks and found
shapes everywhere. We had lots of fun learning nursery rhymes; some familiar and some new
ones. We had so much fun on St. Pat’s Day and we had fun with our favorite TV characters. On
some of our walks we found signs of spring and we learned lots about birds. Thank you goes to
our new teacher Miss Julie for bringing in her birds for us to see & hear. Pete is blue and Sally is
green.
Ms. Bonnie and Miss Stacy
April Themes:
3 – 9 Red/Heart/Wisconsin
10 – 16 Black/Octagon/Planting
Birthday Club:
17 – 23 Brown/Rectangle/Easter
Devin
24 – 30 Pink/Pentagon/Weather
Peyton & Caden
Ella
Rainbow Room
News
Hurray winter is over and spring is here. I know it may not feel like it yet, but the
robins are back, and the tulips are starting to peek out of the cold earth. We will still
need our boots and snow pants yet, as it is still a little icy and muddy outside, but
hopefully we will be able to send them home soon.
We started off this month with our second week on dinosaurs. We talked about specific
dinosaurs and made lists of our favorites. Were learned ones with sharp teeth, long
necks, pointed horns, and crazy domed heads. As always our weeks on dinosaurs were a
fun time to explore.
We then flew into our next week with “things that fly”. We talked about and made a kite
that we actually took out and flew. We looked for airplanes in the sky and had fun
making paper ones. We looked for birds and talked about butterflies and had a great time
playing with balloons. We even made a balloon that was filled with carbon dioxide and
was heavier than the air.
We chased leprechauns our next week. We also talked about the color green. We
painted clovers and painted with green veggies. We started some flax seed and watched
as the green started to grow in just a couple of days. We talked about why we have St.
Patrick’s Day and how some people think it’s because St. Patrick chased the snakes out
of Ireland!
In our last week of the month we are gearing up for the spring and planting season. We
started some seeds and as we take care of them, hopefully they will be able to be
transplanted into bigger pots, so we can do some container gardening this year. We also
went for walks and looked for signs of spring. We counted the number of robins we saw
and looked to see if any flowers or leaves were showing yet.
Next Month: We will be starting some duck eggs in our incubator. Please feel free to
come and have a peek once it’s up and going. Our shape of the month is pentagon and
our color is brown.
Safari Room News
Spring is finally here! Hopefully it starts to feel like it soon! We still need you to bring your
child’s boots after the snow is gone because it can still be a little wet and muddy when we play outside.
Our first theme in March was wild animals. We learned more about carnivores, herbivores and
omnivores. We also found out the all animals belong in groups. One group is the mammals. We learned
animals in this group have hair, are warm blooded and give their babies milk from their body. The next
group is reptiles. Reptiles are cold blooded and have dry rough skin. The insect and spider group has
insects with 6 legs and spiders with 8. The fish group has gills, scales and fins. Then the final group of
birds have feathers, wings and beaks.
The next week we learned about farm animals. We continued to put farm animals into our
groups. We learned about cows, sheep, horses, pigs and chickens. Ask your child to sing the pigs rolling
in the mud song!
Next we learned about pets. Some of the children brought in pictures of their pets and shared
them with the class. We also made a graph of what kinds of pets everyone in our class has. We made
dog masks and learned about what we need to do to take care of our pets.
The school aged children had spring break the next week, so we didn’t have preschool.
The last week in March was spent learning about spring! We planted marigold seeds, learned
the parts of a plant and learned what plants need to live. We put some plants in our window and some
in a dark room to see if they really need sunlight to live! We also have some plants that we watered, and
some that we didn’t to see if they really need water to live!
Allie’s last day at Wee Care is March 30th. She will try to come back and visit the children. She is
started a new job in Madison for an organization called 4-C. Check them out on the web! http://4-c.org
and feel free to give her a call for any questions regarding your child(ren)!
April Themes
2 weeks of
transportation
2 weeks of people and
places in my town
Safari Teachers,
Ms. Allie and Ms. Mindi