We are heating up these cold days with some very fun activities…

During the first week, we will be doing lots of ice activities. We will have a large block of ice at the discovery center and the children will be able to experiment by seeing what happens when you add salt and drip water onto it. In the water table, there will be water, ice chunks, and small polar bears. At the art table, we will be painting powdered tempera with ice cubes.

During the second week, we will be having some dinosaur fun. The large dinosaurs will be in the block center, small dinosaurs will be hidden in aquarium blocks at the discovery center, and dinosaur skeletons will be in the sand table along with brushes and sifters. We will be printing with dinosaur sponges, doing dinosaur rubbings, and drawing dinosaurs at the art table. In the water table, we will be playing with clean mud (a combination of toilet paper, soap, and water).

During the third week, we will be doing a variety of things, including setting up a tent and ice fishing area in the dramatic play center, putting colored windows in the block area, using the chimalong and xylophones at the music center, and fishing with nets in the water table.

During the shortened fourth week, we will have tractors in the block area, rocks and magnifying glasses at the discovery center, splat painting and lunch sack puppets at the art center, and tubes and shovels in the sand.

January Newsletter

Our December is short but it is also packed with fun activities. Here are some things that we plan to do…

At the art table, we will be cutting and baking gingerbread people, cutting snowflakes, using texture mittens to paint, doing spin art with paint, cutting and collaging with magazine pictures, printing with pine cones, painting on large mittens, decorating paper hats with pompoms, tile painting, and beading candy canes.

At the block area, we will put out tools for two weeks and then change to matchbox cars with some “sit and rocks.”

At the dramatic play center, we will leave the grocery store up for one more week and then change back to regular housekeeping.

In the discovery area, we will have items that sink and float in water and then vinyl gloves filled with different textures such as flour, sand, rice, and beans.

In the sand table, we will put some claw-like rakes in with the current diggers and then change to cups and funnels.

In the water table, we will have toy snakes on a log in with water and then change to some sparkly streamer materials with small gift boxes in it.

At the music and movement center, we will put out sand blocks, drums, maracas, and scarves.

December Newsletter

The teachers have an exciting month of November planned even though the month is shortened by the Thanksgiving break. These are some of our center plans…

Dramatic play – will change from a restaurant to regular housekeeping to a grocery store

Blocks – adding the pretty ponies & castle then changing to puppets

Sand – wetting the sand and adding sand castle making toys; changing to sand vehicles; then trying out our new scoops and grabbers

Water – playing with field corn and measuring cups, then moving to water and scoops made from milk cartons, and finally using scoops in dry pasta

Music and movement – experimenting with tap shoes, scarves, belly bells, other bells

Discovery – experimenting with magnets, then mixing colored water in test tubes, and finally having fun with prisms, color paddles, and kaleidoscopes

Art – painting with biocolor on aluminum foil, stringing Tootie-Frootie necklaces, painting with watercolors, scraping paint with multi-edged scrapers, drawing with chalk dipped in buttermilk, printing with kitchen gadgets, puffy painting, making party hats.

November Newsletter

This is what we have planned in the month of October…

Dramatic play – will turn from the doctor’s office to a regular kitchen to a restaurant

Blocks – we will add the wooden barn with large farm animals, then change to people and community signs, then change to large tractors

Sand – we will add funnels and shovels, and then change to sifting materials and tubes, and then we will take away the tubes and hide small toy spiders

Water – we will have boats in the water, then change to large funnels and measuring cups in the water, then put a cut pumpkin in so the kids can gut it, then we will put seed corn on the cob so the children can shell it

Music and movement – we will have chimes, a chimalong, and 2 xylophones, then change to bells, triangles, and tambourines

Discovery – we have gourds, unshelled nuts, and calico corn with magnifying glasses and tongs for sorting, then we will have orange items to find in orange lentils, then we will have a texture table to feel

Art – we will sculpt with salt dough, do leaf rubbings, make bead bracelets, roller paint, finger paint, play with glurch (a glue and liquid starch mixture), decorate pumpkins with wipe-off markers, sponge paint, marble paint, face paint, collage with cooked and uncooked popcorn, and print with shelled corn cobs.

October Newsletter

We are very excited about the upcoming year at Northfield Nursery School and look forward to getting to know you and your child(ren).

Each teacher plans her own small group activities (greeting, book, and table activities); however, all the teachers coordinate to plan the centers. This is what we’ve planned for the month of September…

Blocks - cars and road signs; big trucks; truck and tractor books

Dramatic Play - regular kitchen and house set-up; doctor’s office

Discovery - sea shells and magnifying glasses; magnetic cars; balance scales with fish; sorting tray with dinosaurs; small sea shells and tweezers; sensory bottles (oil and water, water and sequins); barley with small items hidden

Sand - sand wheels and shovels; cars and trucks

Water - measuring cups; plastic fish with fishing nets; shredded paper and small boxes

Music & Movement - rainsticks, maracas, Chino blocks, small drums, ribbons, scarves

Art - painting with small brushes, cutting with scissors, collaging with tissue paper, painting with dot markers, printing with sponge shapes, playing in shaving cream, painting with Q-tips, coloring with markers on paper plates and then spraying them with water, painting with toy cars, collaging with seeds, putting paper plates on our old record player and then using markers for spin art, making booklets, writing on white paper with white crayons and then painting with liquid watercolor, cooking apple sauce, putting paper on a warming tray and coloring with the melting crayons, printing with cut apples, painting with paint and flour mixture, and painting with big brushes on apple shapes

September Newsletter