What a beautiful May it has been! The toddlers have enjoyed exploring outside in the wonderful weather. We have had the opportunity to visit the Nature Trail and the animals around campus. To help the toddlers cool off we have been incorporating more water works both inside and outside. The toddlers have used pouring works, “catching” sea animals in the water table, and painting with water on the sidewalk. 

May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii! The Fucsia toddlers discovered different sea animals and shells and made lei necklaces to celebrate May. They also practiced a few Hawaiian words, sang songs, danced hula, and experimented with a few hula implements. The “Coconut Soap” song was often requested at circle time. This song is a fun movement song where the toddlers pretend to wash different parts of their bodies. 

May has been a lot of fun as well as providing cultural learning moments for the toddlers! The toddlers also enjoyed the opportunity to learn about different reptiles when the Reptile Man visited our school. A few of the toddlers even touched the large boa constrictor. We look forward to the continuing of beautiful weather in June and watching the finishing touches come together on our toddler playground!

March brought us a few sunny and warm days as well as cold and rainy ones. The change in temperatures and seasons can be hard for toddlers as it can create a disruption in their regular routine of transitioning outside. Once the toddlers understood that it was okay to go outside with fewer layers on or no rain pants they quickly acclimated to their new freedom of movement! 

During March we introduced spring materials and works in our classroom. A lot of works related to eggs and rainbows. A few of the popular works included scooping small eggs, sorting eggs by color, hanging eggs on a tree, and opening and closing plastic eggs. These works required a lot of focus, finger dexterity, and hand eye coordination. We have also had various egg drawing pictures available for the toddlers to choose from. 
​
April begins with Spring break! Hopefully there will be beautiful weather for all to enjoy! We look forward to more time outside including using bubbles, chalk, and washing our tools!

We have had a fun and social January! The toddlers came back from break ready and eager to work. They have enjoyed communicating with each other and having their own mini-circles in the library. “Frosty the Snowman” continues to be the most popular book with “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly” as a close second. 

The art shelf has become a very popular area. They have enjoyed choosing their own coloring pages and coloring tools as well as using scissors. The dot-a-dot markers have been in great use. The toddlers were also heavily engaged with using the scissors to cut the flubber we made. 

​The most exciting thing to happen to the toddler environment this month was our new sandbox! The children have enjoyed watching the construction and have eagerly been waiting to explore and dig in the sandbox. With all of the construction work that has been going on we decided to bring out a few tool works including a tool puzzle and a tool picture matching work. The toddlers have enjoyed comparing the works to the different tools being used on the playground. 

In February, we will have Valentine themed work available and will focus on our friendships and emotions. We will be making a friendship fruit salad as a group.

December flew by! The toddlers enjoyed all of our holiday and winter themed works and books. “Frosty the Snowman” has been a beloved book. The toddlers have even taken to “reading” the book to each other in the library area as well as singing the phonetic alphabet individually. 

A few favorite works included felt tree decorating, stamping work, sensory bottles, and hand transfer works.

One of our transfer works contained clear gems on a milk glass bowl. This work was very delicate and the toddlers have to be careful and slow while carrying it to a table. They were also able to work on their fine motor skills and concentration while moving the gems.

​As a group we made a large sensory bottle containing water, food coloring, pom-poms, and beads. The toddlers enjoyed helping to make this big work for our classroom and then being able to use it! 

During snack time the toddlers worked on spreading jam and cream cheese with a small knife as well as peeling an orange independently. Throughout January we will continue our winter theme and ringing in the New Year!

Our toddlers have grown so much over the month of November! Everyone has become more proficient in changing in and out of their rain gear and taking care of their own needs. A few friends still need a little assistance but welcome the help of their peers. We have been practicing our grace and courtesy skills including helping one another, using kind words, and saying please and thank you. During group time the most popular song requests have been “5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate” and our phonetic alphabet. The phonetic alphabet is a great stepping stone for beginning reading. During the song we identify the object and say what sound the object starts with. Several children have continued this practice into our everyday tasks by asking what various items around the school start with. 

We enjoyed the storytelling visit from Margaret Read McDonald and all of her funny books. The children were very engaged and laughed as they mimicked the repetitive sections throughout the stories. We have all greatly appreciated the wish list donations! The children have been excited to see the new works including the new wheely bug, dressing frames, and math work. 
​
As December nears there will be winter themed works and books as well as a few art activities for the toddlers. They will be creating a fun gift to bring home and share. We will be exploring the difference between hot and cold and have fun items to discover in our sensory bins. December is a shorter month for us as the end of the month brings winter break. We hope you all have a wonderful time with your families and Happy Holidays!

The month of October has been full of exploration and fun! The toddlers enjoyed using all of the pumpkins that were donated. We washed pumpkins, carried pumpkins, carved pumpkins, organized and compared pumpkins and gourds as well as hammered pumpkins.

​Pumpkin hammering was a very popular work! The children used a small wooden hammer to hammer in golf tees on the pumpkin. This work is a fun way to strengthen fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. 

Other works around our classroom included counting pumpkins, coloring with chalk on black paper, and transferring plastic pumpkins and acorns by tons or scooping. We have also had a lot of talk about fire trucks and vehicles this month after the visit from the firefighters and our fire drill. Recently, the toddlers have been working on putting gloves on independently.
 
Thank you to everyone that donated pumpkins and supplies to our classroom! We hope everyone had a wonderful time at HarvestFest! 

During November we will continue our fall theme and learning about the weather and leaves as they change. We will also encourage more food preparation work, self-help skills, and cleaning work as we get closer to Thanksgiving.

September has been a great start to the new school year! All of our friends from summer camp have continued through to the school year with us in the Fucsia class. We have been focusing on keeping our classroom clean and putting the work back on the shelf. Many of our older friends have been helping to push in the chairs around the classroom and return misplaced materials where they belong.

The toddlers have been working on their self-help skills including changing their slipper and shoes as well as with a few opportunities to use their rain gear! As the weather continues to get cooler we will have many more opportunities to independently change into rain and winter attire. 

Thank you to all the families that joined us at the toddler community event at Ferrel McWhirter Park! The toddlers enjoyed seeing their friends outside of school and observing all of the animals!

​We are looking forward to our school wide Harvest Festival at the end of October! 

To start our month off we will be having a visit from the local firemen! Over the month of October we will enjoy a few fall themed activities including counting pumpkins, pumpkin washing, and sensory exploration with the inside of the pumpkins. We will also be discussing the change in weather and watch as the leaves begin to change colors.

In May the toddlers greatly enjoyed working on their Mother's Day art project!  This project brought lots of laughter from the toddlers when we painted their feet.  They enjoyed picking out the colors of paint and shaking the glitter over their butterfly footprints.

We are so excited to welcome the warmer weather! This time of year is always so exciting in the toddler classroom. The warmer weather allows for more outdoor time and more water works both inside the classroom as well as outside. While out on our daily walks the toddlers love looking for new flowers, visiting the animals and watching the older children working in the garden. In the last couple weeks, we have been able to spend some time on the nature trail with our friends from Celeste. The  trail is such an amazing place for the toddlers to explore nature. They challenge themselves by climbing up and down the trails, stacking logs and walking on the wooden beams.  

The month of June brings the end of the school year.  We have several toddlers transitioning to the Early Childhood summer camps.  Although they will be missed it is also wonderful to see them so prepared to make this move!

In July and August the toddlers will continue their normal routines, but will partake in the summer camp themes in their own special way.

​The month of April seemed to fly by!  The toddlers returned from Spring break and settled right back into their classroom routines. They enjoyed working on a special Mother's Day gift, as well as a beautiful item for the  MCH auction!  Slicing bananas was a favorite work in April.  The older toddlers enjoyed peeling, slicing and serving bananas to their classmates.  We ended the month of April with our semiannual play date at Farrel McWhirter park.  It was wonderful to see all of the families enjoying the afternoon together!

In May we will be bringing in some new works for the toddlers to explore. These works include baskets of items to help distinguish sizes, sand paper letters for sounding out, and hands on materials to help understand the concept of one versus two.  Of course we are hoping for some more sunshine in May. We can't wait to get the toddlers back to the nature trail!