November 2015

Celeste toddlers really enjoyed the month of October. It brought some wonderful and new activities to our school and classroom. Many of the toddlers enjoyed the visit from the firemen, and a few even enjoyed sitting in the firetruck. It was great to see many toddler faces at the Harvest Festival as they fished for prizes at the booth I was working, or smiled and laughed when they recognized each other. The end of the month brought a visit from a storyteller who captured the toddler's attention with her pig sounds, and rhymes about "picking peas and putting them in a pail." In the classroom the children of Celeste have greatly enjoyed exploring the textures of gourds and pumpkins, as well as making one of the big pumpkins into a Jack-O-Lattern. The flowers and sensory items donated by parents have been wonderful new additions into the classroom as well. The children worked on using a funnel to fill a vase with wate and then carefully putting the flowers together into the vase. These wonderful bouquets have filled our room with great colors and smells and encouraged many discussions about them. Thank you again to all of the parents contributing these sensory items to our classroom!

The month of November will continue with more flower arranging works, as well as the sensory table filled with new and exciting things for the toddler's hands to explore. November also means an even greater change in temperatures, which means more opportunities for the toddlers to work on putting gloves and hats on. A basket of gloves will be brought into the classroom to allow the children even more time to work on putting their fingers into the correct spots, and accomplishing this task on their own. They get a great deal of pride out of being able to say "I did it!" The toddlers will also work on grace and courtesy skills of serving and offering each other snack. This includes introducing a tea seat in which the children can work on pouring their own "tea," as well as serving each other. The grace and courtesy also extends into helping to set the tables for lunch. November will also bring a start to our reading program with the elementary students. The elementary students will begin to visit each week, and bring new books to read and share with the toddlers. It will be wonderful to see the bond grow between the older children and toddlers.