Kimberly's Little Foot Daycare

Monday, June 1, 2015

June 2015 Newsletter

June 2015 Newsletter

Important dates to remember:

June 11th - Kimberly's Last Day

June 21st - Dylan's 1st Birthday

June 23rd - Juliet's 2nd Birthday

June 25th at 5:00 pm - Chase’s Graduation

June 27th - Mila's 3rd Birthday

May was the month of transitions here at Little Foot Daycare. As this new month begins we are happy to share with all of you that we have found our groove and feel that everything is exactly how it should be.

LaLa and I are enjoying getting to know your truly lovely children. We are also eagerly taking on the behind the scenes responsibilities of Kimberley’s daycare so that she can soon relax into her maternity leave.

We have learned the routine and have our days running smoothly. We work well under Kimberly's direction because all three of us agree that it is through support, encouragement, and genuine love that each child reaches their greatest potential.

I speak for both LaLa and myself when I say that we feel privileged to be a part of this community and will do our absolute best to fill Kimberley's role while she takes a much deserved break. As you have all witnessed she cares for your children as if they were her own. I am sure that we are all equally thrilled to make her feel comfortable as she takes the time to welcome in her new baby!

Her official last day is June 11^th and so you will notice her transitioning out over the next week. I have all of your numbers saved in my phone and a text has been sent to all of you with both mine and LaLa's number's. Please feel comfortable coming to us with any questions or concerns.

You have all been so welcoming and we look forward to getting to know each of you on a more personal level.

May Activities...

A day at the park

Our first playground trip was a huge success. There were lots of smiles as well as many triumphant moments. It was a great bonding experience for our new group.

The number 16

Your little ones are counting so high!

Metamorphosis

The metamorphosis project was such a great learning experience. The kids continue to talk about the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. It is so wonderful to watch how much they love to learn.

Dance Party At Little Foot!

It is always so much fun when we get to boogie together!

Turtle Time

Everyone really loved working on this project. Googlie eyes always make things fun J

There is always time for peek-a-boo!

LaLa and I are thankful for peek-a-boo. It has been an great way to bring joy to the children and make them feel at peace with us while we have all been getting to know one another.

Time for free play!

We really get the chance to know each other while playing with the babies, singing songs, and reading books. It is amazing to watch their imaginations in action!

The number 17

How high can we count!

The month of May was very busy but relationships have blossomed and we are ready to embrace June with with open arms and open hearts!

Thank you so much for the warm welcome!!!

Thursday, April 30, 2015

May 2015 Newsletter

We have been busy this past month with Spring projects and getting settled in with the transitions that are taking place at Little Foot. Our transitional journey, like most and respectfully expected, have been up and down. We said good-bye to Monica which was really hard on everybody; we had a really nice party in her honor and met our new teacher's Trina and Elizabeth.

Trina has been with us for the past few weeks now and most of the kids are settling in. We still have just a couple who need a bit more time but pretty soon they will also settle in and feel more comfortable with the change. Elizabeth has introduced herself to Little Foot and we look forward to having her join us gradually this month.

Important Dates to Remember:

Wednesday, May 20th - Mateo's 5th Birthday
Monday, May 25th - Closed for Memorial Day

Playdough with Trina:

Our First Project with Trina!

The kids made playdough with Katrina. We all took turns adding the ingredients to the bowl.

We even took turns smelling it too!
It did not smell like banana bread, our last activity, that was such a big hit.
After the playdough was made, we counted out 15 pipe cleaners that we used for candles.

Saparya working on her cake.

Juliet doing a really good job placing them on the 15.

After most of the kids were done, we had one who hadn't had enough ; )

Flower Garden Collage:

Elizabeth joined us .

We have been talking a lot about how plants grow. We planted seeds and are waiting patiently for leaves to sprout and flowers to bud and bloom. We have one pot that has already sprouted, but none of the others have, so we might be planting again soon.

Lots of concentration.

With this project we learned that each flower either has nectar or pollen and we talked about how the birds, bees and the butterflies like to come and drink, eat or collect the pollen.

Metamorphosis:

We just started on our caterpillars. We read a book about the caterpillars story and introduced metamorphosis, that change that happens with butterflies and frogs, too! Next week we will prepare some wings for the caterpillars to grow and we will also wrap them in their cocoons.

Chase liked the colors on the top.

Anna liked the colors all over and did a really thorough job.

Saparya was a little less interested in the colors on her caterpillar, she just really wanted to paint.

Friday, April 3, 2015

April 2015 Newsletter

Chase loving Dylan, preparing for brotherhood!

They say that April Showers bring May Flowers and there is no doubt that there will be some blooming taking place. There is so much transition taking place at Little Foot this month.

Congratulations to Big Sisters Anna, Mila and Sienna. Anna welcomed a baby brother about a month ago, and both Mila and Sienna welcomed a baby sister and a baby brother this past week! We can't wait to watch these new little ones grow and develop, there are a couple more that are still warming in the oven, and we are very excited about some of them joining us later in the year. We are also expecting some new grown up faces at Little Foot this month and we are saying good-bye to one that is close and dear to us.

Please join us Thursday, April 16th at 5pm for a special celebration to honor Monica Cuellar.

We will miss you Monica!!!

Monica has been with us for the past 3 years, she is part of our family, and we will all be sad to see her go. It has truly been an amazing experience working with Monica. She has made an impact on each and every one of the children that she has cared for during her time at Little Foot. We have welcomed new little faces into our classroom together with open arms, provided them with love, understanding and patience, taught them how to use the tools that make sense to them and wished them well onto preschool. Now it is our time to wish Monica well on her next adventure in life. The children have given us so much in return and I hope that Monica can take all the love, laughter, memories and lessons and think fondly of them for years to come. Thank you for all that you have done Monica, we love you and wish you well!

Katrina, our new teacher's assistant, will be visiting us starting on Tuesday this week, she celebrates her birthday on Monday, Happy Birthday Trina! She will joining us for a couple of hours everyday so that we can all get to know her. She will begin training the following week for a few hours a day and join us full time April 20th. Elizabeth, our temporary teacher's assistant, will be visiting us the week of April 27th for a couple of hours to get to know us and begin some light training a few times a week for a couple of hours. Her hours will gradually increase, as Kimberly's belly expands, and she will be starting full time the beginning of June when Kimberly starts to take it easy before the baby comes.

I hope everyone has a nice Spring Break, we'll see you soon!

Important Dates to Remember:

April 16th @ 5pm - Monica's Love Celebration at Little Foot

Colors Experiment:

For our color experiment, the kids got to get their hands dirty! We started out by talking about colors and how to make new ones. How do you make other colors and what colors do they make?

To really test the theory out about colors changing when being mixed together we put them to the test. We put the first color in one and the second in the other. The kids got to mix them up by rubbing their hands as if they were lathering soap.

After the mixing of two colors was done they got to see how the colors had change and made a new color. They were able to use the paint on their paper any way they like and all of them decided to make hand prints! We made a total of four colors that day.

Building with Blocks:

The ladies working as a team.

It was a bit wobbly.

They each took turns trying to make it taller.

It had a hard time staying in one place.

They couldn't quite get it past a certain point...

They gave up after it fell down a few times.

No worries, time for the cars.....

And the people to come out and play.

Let's Make Foam:

Ingredients:

Shaving Cream

Corn Starch

We realized that the shaving cream that we had available to us was a gel, so we weren't sure if the combination would work out. We usually have the kids pour and mix but we had to do it for them this time to test out the portions and get the gel to lather into the typical cream texture.

It worked!

A kids were a little skeptical at first.

They really enjoyed it! We explained that it wasn't for eating and the kids were in agreement...except for one (he's in the highchair above) who couldn't help but taste it! He didn't like it, we washed him up and he was ready to get back at it, and his friends were really great about reminding him "Not in your mouth!"

Snap Shots: