dickinson college children’s center november 2016 college children’s center page 4 november is...

It’s hard to believe we are into the month of November. As always, we have

a lot going on here at the center. Please take the time to read the newsletter

and let me know if you have any questions or concerns that I can help you out

with.

A special thank you goes out to the all those who attended the Parent Meet-

ing! Ms. Mandy did a great job in sharing the story of Mat Man! The kids

love the songs and the stories that go along with the activities. We also pre-

viewed a new program available to be used on an iPad/iPhone for the use of

daily reports and parent communication. We plan to continue to view the

many programs that are out there to see if there is one that is a good fit for the

center.

The Advisory Committee has welcomed two new college members Alyssa

Windholz and Elizabeth Toth. All members will meet in November. The Ad-

visory members meet bi-monthly and take part in providing input for the cen-

ter policies and procedures.

Fall Conferences went well. It’s always a great time to meet with your child’s

teacher and to learn about their day. This year we tried something a little dif-

ferent, we had parents re-sign their emergency forms at the beginning of each

conference. We hope that this helped make it a little easier.

The Bees are so excited that the fence around their sandbox has been re-

moved. They all enjoyed some play time in the sandbox that they’ve been

missing for such a long time.

The new security video cameras are in place, all the class rooms have a cam-

era that can now also video during naptime in the dark. The picture is so must

more clear and we now are digital, no more VCR tapes!

Thanks for your continued cooperation and support. I look forward to all the

fun things planned for the month.

-Gina VanKirk, Director

Dates to

Remember:

November 16-DCCC

Turkey Trot Fundraiser

(rain date 11/18

November 17—

Thanksgiving Feast for

children

November 23—DCCC

Closed – Thanksgiving

break

November 24—DCCC


break

November 25—DCCC


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From the Director’s Desk

Dickinson College Children’s Center

November 2016

Fundraising Ongoing: *Shoparoo-sign up at shoparoo.com to help our center earn roo points. *Giant Bonus Card-Please make sure that you have registered your card online with our school. Upcoming: *Kids Stuff Books Current: *Turkey Trot/Promotion Motion *Box Tops Totals: Sandwich Fundraiser-$349.75

2016-2017 Goal: $15,000

Center Closing Time... In consideration of our staff, the Children’s Center closes promptly at 5:30, with the Infant Room clos-

ing at 5:15, each evening. Family members should arrive at the Center with enough time to pick up

their child, gather their child’s belongings and exit the building by 5:30.

At 5:30 the main Center door will locked so please be sure to ring the bell if entry after 5:30 is needed.

If you foresee arrival past our closing time, please make every effort to call the Center office.

Turkey Trot!

10 am Wednesday, 11/16 at the Dickinson Track

(Biddle Field). Please come support the Bees,

Bears, Bunnies and Kindergarteners as they cele-

brate 2 weeks of activity and movement.

Mini Turkey Trot!

Wednesday, 11/16 at 11:15 AM on the Infant/Toddler

Playground (infants and Puppy Classes)

WINNER-Congratulations to the Blue Bees

Classroom for submitting the highest percentage of

labels to send out for the Turkey Trot! They will be

having a Hawaiian Party on 11/14 to celebrate!

Ducklings


October was a fun month! We welcomed fall into our classroom, exploring pumpkins, gourds, fall flowers

and fallen leaves and celebrating the season in song and story. We experienced our first School Pic-

ture Day and our very first Halloween! We thank Pre-K teacher Miss Mandy for organizing the annu-

al Fire Safety event.

In November, the Promotion Motion fund raising campaign will take place to highlight the im-

portance of physical activity and exercise in the lives of young children. The infants will participate

with music and floor play to promote rolling, creeping, crawling, standing, cruising and walk-

ing….they are becoming increasingly mobile by the day! We will continue nature strolls and explor-

ing our neighborhood & campus, as well as daily playground or big room playtime – please think

about the cooler weather and the need for warmer outdoor clothing and footwear. The infants will

participate in the Mini-Turkey Trot….. please join us! Those older infants who have started table

foods may also participate in the Thanksgiving Feast – more information on these events will follow

in the coming weeks. We will talk, sing and read board books all about the fall feast of Thanksgiving.

Reminders:

*Please be sure to send in extra clothing that is appropriate for your baby’s size (we grow fast!) and

the cooler weather ahead. We will play outdoors each day if the temperature is above 25 degree F.

*Please take care when entering and leaving the room - close gates and doors carefully behind you -

our older infants are becoming very mobile now and we want to avoid injuries, pinched fingers, or

crawling babies escaping to unsafe areas.

*Please send in family photos, if you have not already done so. We love to talk about family mem-

bers, friends, pets and all that we are thankful for during the month of November.

Thank you!

Sandy, Lynn, Tory & Jody


November is going to be great month talking about all we have to be thankful for! We will read some

special books, sing some songs, and make a special family art project. We will talk about friendships and

color together, make a footprint collage, and practice pointing to our friends when we hear their names.

We’ll wrap up our friend week by making a fantastic fruit salad. November is also the month of our spe-

cial turkey feast, and the turkey trot!

~ LACI & ALISHA

Yellow Pups

Reminders: *Please remember to cut your child’s food and make

sure you are familiar with the choking hazard list you received the beginning of the year!

*Please place your child’s coat in the plastic bin in

their cubby.

October was a great fall celebration in the puppy room! We explored apples, pumpkins, gourds, and the

changing fall leaves. We spent a lot of time on the playground enjoying the fall weather, and even took a

walk to see the garden in the fall, and a big red firetruck! We had so much fun doing art projects! We

made pumpkins, apples, leaves, and bats. We love to make things with our hand and foot prints, and get

messy from time to time! Our harvest party was a fun morning of dancing to spooky music, singing some

fun songs, and painting


Yellow Honey Bees

Believe it or not, it’s November! The puppies will be talking about families and

friendship.

“What’s that!? Where go? There he is!!! Squirrels!” Running on the playground. We are having fun

watching them out our windows and these are some of the exciting words we hear from the children. The

puppies will also finger paint a squirrel and sing silly songs about them.

Leaves are falling. We will have fun with leaves as we paint with them, count them, identify their colors and make a

leaf collage on contact paper. We will have them in our sensory table as well and sing songs about leaves.

With Thanksgiving around the corner the puppies will be painting a friendship collage, and talk about being a nice

friend. We will also make a friendship wreath with our handprints.

Gobble, Gobble, turkeys are on the menu! The puppies will paint with feathers and make a hand print turkey and sing

some funny turkey songs, have our Turkey Trot, and enjoy a Thanksgiving feast together!

It’s not too late to bring in some family pictures (4-5) to hang on our wall. We will look at pictures of families, read

books and sing songs as we talk about the people in our family.

The puppies are still very interested in the kitchen area as we play with tea pots and food. We still like to take care of

our baby dolls and pat them. We like building towers and putting people in cars/busses. We love to sing songs and

dance!

REMINDERS:

~Turkey Trot—November 16th—stay tuned for more details!

~Thanksgiving Feast—November 17th

~Check to make sure your child has seasonal extra clothes.

~Start thinking about bringing in hats and gloves/mittens as the mornings are cool.

~CATHRYN & DONNA

We can’t believe that it is already November. We have enjoyed all the great fun

that we had in October, so I know they are going to love what November brings.

We, the yellow bees, have been taking lots of walks to help us get ready for the

Turkey Trot. Ms. Michelle will be having lots of fun activities for us to get

ready. The Turkey Trot will be on 11/16/16. Rain date will be on the 18th. So

mark your calendars.

We will be focusing on the season of fall, including the changes we observe and fall colors. We will use

different objects to paint leaves on a tree, and color animals we see most around this time of year.

We will also talk about pilgrims and Native Americans. November is a great month to talk about sharing.

How did the pilgrims and Native Americans share, and what did they share? We will talk about how we

share, and what we can share in our time. During this week we will also do some cooking!

Blue Puppies


Blue Busy Bees

The Blue Bees have been having fun learning about apples and pumpkins and how they are alike and yet very different. We

learned that apples grow on trees and that an apple tree starts from a very small black seed. We had fun singing a song about

this and pretending that we were little seeds growing into big apple trees. Apples are also yummy to eat and can be made into

many different kinds of yummy food. Pumpkins on the other hand grow on a vine on the ground and like and apple a pump-

kin grows from a seed, but a pumpkin seed is white and very flat. Like an apple you can make many yummy foods from

pumpkins but unlike an apple you probably would not pick a pumpkin off the vine, wash and eat it just like that. We read

many books about apples and pumpkins and finished up the month of October with a spooky fun week. We had fun reading

books about trick-or-treating and had fun going on a Halloween parade on campus around the HUB where we saw many fam-

ily and friends that cheered for us. We also worked on recognizing the letters in our names, counting from 1-10 and recogniz-

ing those numbers as well. We played with two new games called “Heads and Tails and Opposites.” It was a fun filled month

of yummy treats and fun learning. We continue to work on following directions in the classroom as well as when we are in

the hallway and outside. The blue bees are all learning to use their words to convey their wants and needs to their teachers

and friends and learning to understand and respect their friend’s feelings and words. Now that we have coat weather, the chil-

dren are learning to put their own coats on with the coat flip, ask your little one to show you how it works, it is a great way

for them to learn to put their coat on independently.

Next month our theme is A Thankful Heart. We will talk about kindness and being thankful for the people and things

that we have in our lives. Our focus weeks will be: Hibernation and Migration, Family & Friends and Turkey Time. We look

forward to our annual Turkey Trot over to the football field and our DCCC Feast.

We would like to thank all the parents for taking time to come to your child’s conference and talk about what your

child has been doing and to learn about things that we will be working on with your child.

Friendly Reminders:

*Toys from home must leave with the parent or go into the child’s cubby upon arrival.

* Please be sure to check your child’s cubby for weather appropriate clothing changes.

* Be sure to label your child’s coats, hats and gloves so they do not get mixed up and end

up on another child.

~JODY & CASSIE

We have been taking lots of walks to get us ready for our turkey trot. Which we will

talk about how walking is a form of exercise. We will talk about all the different

ways we can exercise to help our bodies get ready for the Turkey Trot on the 16th.

We will continue to take walks, dance to different kinds of music, we will learn some

yoga moves, and rides bikes on the playground. We will talk about what kind of

foods are good for you to eat. The yellow bees will be really ready for the turkey trot.

During the week of the 21st, we will only have two days of school. School is closed on from 11/23 through

11/25. On the two days that we do have school we will be talking about turkeys. What is a turkey? What

noise does it make? We will be making lots of craft turkeys. When we return back from Thanksgiving break

we will continue to talk about colors, shapes, and turkeys.

Ms. Barb and Ms. Sarah are very proud of the yellow bees. They are getting really good at knowing their

colors, and shapes. Next month we will start counting more, but will continue to go over colors and shapes

every month. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break with your families

***Please continue to label everything. The weather is getting a little cooler, so please see that there is a

sweatshirt or light jacket for when we do walks, or play on the playground.

~BARB & SARAH


Yellow Bear Cubs

The Turkey Trot will be here before we

know it and we will be creating something fun to

wear to that in addition to participating in some

great activities to prepare our bodies!

With the winter weather upon us please re-

member to send in hats, gloves/mittens, and season-

ally appropriate coats. We will

go outside as long as the temper-

ature FEELs like 25 degrees or

more! Please send boots, snow

pants, and waterproof mittens in

by the end of November, so we

are ready for winter weather! Al-

so check the extra clothes bins for seasonally appro-

priate clothing!

~MANDY

We loved dressing and acting

like firefighters during fire safe-

ty week! We had a lot of fun

playing with and exploring the

inside and outside of pumpkins!

Everyone enjoyed our spooky

week and playing Trick-or-

Treat!

I loved talking with everyone at conferences

in October, and being able to communicate about

each child and the life within the classroom! I am

looking forward to watching them grow throughout

the rest of the year!

We will all become Tree

experts in November, since we will

be learning about the different

trees, tree parts, what lives in the

trees, what comes from trees, etc.

Blue Bears

What a fun filled month of October! We had a great time learning about fire safety and what we should do if we see

fire. We talked about Germs and how to keep our bodies healthy and safe. We ended with some spooky/silly cos-

tume fun.]

In November we are going to start a 3-week

study on trees. We will learn about different types of

trees why they are useful and will watch how they are

changing over the next few weeks. We will discover

what foods come from trees and have fun with some

cooking projects. We will end with finding out who

lives in trees and take another look at how the trees around us have changed.

November is an exciting month because it is when we get to enjoy the Turkey Trot. We will be sending

home information soon to see when and how you can help us enjoy this big day. We will also be filling our bellies

with our annual turkey feast!! It is one of Ms. Ange’s favorite days and it always

smells so good! We will send more details as

both of these events are closer to the date.

Please make sure you are sending your

Blue Bear with a warm coat. It is going to be

getting colder and playground fun is not as

much fun when we are cold. Feel free to send

layers so if we have warmer afternoons we can

put less on and help your child dress for the

appropriate temperature. ~ANGE & KENDRA


Wow, I cannot believe that October is over and we are moving into November! We

were busy little bunnies over the past few weeks. We spent the first two weeks in October finishing

our clothing unit. We talked about community helpers wearing special outfits to work, and different

events in which we might wear special clothing. We ended the unit with a PJ party and we made

“clothing” fruit pizzas! The last two weeks of October we started our tree unit. So far we have

talked about what we know about trees, have taken a walk around campus to see different trees and

then discussed the things we want to discover about trees.

In November, we will continue our tree unit and discover what foods come from trees, what

happens to trees in the fall and winter, who/what lives in trees and what trees do for us. We will be

doing some taste testing and some baking too!

November is busy with our annual Turkey Trot and promotion motion will start up then as

well. We will learn about how to keep our bodies healthy by exercising daily. We will have a few

days on thankfulness and kindness after we come back from Thanksgiving break.

Reminders:

-As we continue through our year try to help your children hold their crayons/markers the correct

way (we will send home a hand out)

-Also help your child practice their letter recognition at home, at the store, or when you go out to

dinner. Make it a game and they will love it!

-Please make sure that you are checking your child’s mailbox daily for important information and

opportunities to participate in our classroom.

-Check your child’s extra clothing bin to make sure that the clothing fits them and is seasonally ap-

propriate.

-Make sure you are not sending anything in for lunch that contains peanuts/tree nuts, coconut or

mango. (including items that say may contain or processed in a facility. With Ms Brittney having a

nut allergy herself, this makes it difficult for her to help your child with their lunch needs. Thank

you for taking the time to check labels.)

Important Dates:

Wednesday 11/16- Turkey trot (rain date 11/18) more information to come!

Thursday 11/17- Thanksgiving Feast for children

Wednesday 11/23-Friday 11/25- DCCC closed for Thanksgiving Break

~BRITTNEY & CARLY

Bunnies

Kindergarten Dolphins

Newsletter Title

October was quite a busy month! Our "Color Days" were enjoyed by all and the

children are doing a great job of learning to read their color words! We thank Keri,

Sam, and Alexa for coming in to share about their occupations this month. We took

a trip to Project S.H.A. R.E. where we delivered food donated by DCCC families

and got a tour of their facility.

In early November we will begin our unit on the USA. We'll be learning about some famous American

symbols and will examine some maps, photos, and points of interest in the USA, and in PA specifically.

With the election coming up, we will identify the candidates running, but won't get into any heated discus-

sions about the issues. Instead, we'll be holding our own election. Our candidates will be scarecrows (that

we'll be creating in school) and the position they'll be running for will be president of our class for a day.

Each "candidate" will present a platform describing a special day that they'd plan to implement if they are

elected. The "candidates" (with a little help from the teachers!) will give campaign speeches and the chil-

dren will then be given the opportunity to give persuasive speeches to the class about the candidate they

support. We'll hold the special day promised by the winning candidate the following Thursday. It should

be lots of fun, and hopefully the children will learn a lot, too!

Also in November we'll learn a little bit more about our American heritage and will discover how life was

different hundreds of years ago for the early settlers and the Native Americans. We'll then shift our focus

to the present and will compare families and traditions of today with those of the past.

We look forward to starting the Promotion Motion Program this month, and are really excited about hik-

ing over to Biddle Field again for the Turkey Trot!

Please be sure that your child has warm clothing for the chilly days. It'll soon be hat and mitten weather,

so please send in a set of these to keep at DCCC.

~ MISS KATIE & MISS CHERI

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