Hello Toddler Two Families!
This month we have some exciting news! We have officially transitioned all of the children from sippy cups to open cups during meal times! This transition helps promote independence and self-help skills for the toddlers. Using an open cup helps children enhance their mouth muscles, fine motor skills, and coordination. During meal times, we fill a pitcher up with milk and help the children pour their own milk by using the hand over hand method we mentioned in the past newsletter. We encourage parents to practice using open cups with your children at home as well!
We have been focusing a lot this month on gross and fine motor skills. Gross motor skills involve using your large muscles such as your legs, arms, and torso. When it has been to cold or rainy to go outside, we bring in a balance beam in the classroom to help promote the children’s balance and coordination. We also utilize the large motor room that has a ton of equipment that helps enhance your child gross motor skills! The children practice walking up and down stairs, running, and balancing on different objects. We also utilize the tricycles and let the children ride their tricycles up and down the ramps.
Fine motor skills involve the use of the children’s smaller muscles such as their fingers for drawing, grasping, and fastening clothing. We help promote these skills by letting children put on their own shoes after nap, zip up their own jackets, and by implementing different activities. These activities include stickers, coloring, scooping, play-dough, utilizing the blocks/stackers in our classroom, and various other activities!
We are officially in Spring season! Warmer weather means an increase of illnesses such as the flu, allergies, and the common cold. In preparations for this we have enhanced our cleaning procedures by increasing the levels in our sanitizer and disinfectant. We wash the cots and blankets every Tuesday and Thursday. At the end of every night we sanitize the entire classroom. Throughout the day, we clean and sanitize mouthed toys. If your child is not feeling well in the morning, please try to refrain from using fever reducers. If you child isn’t well enough to get a fever reducer, then they should not be coming to school. We are asking to refrain from using fever reducers because it can mask a contagious illness. We would prefer that you let us know in the morning that your child is not feeling well and we can keep an eye on their temperature, unusual behaviors, sleeping, and eating habits. If anything with your child seems unusual we will give you a phone call or send an email to let you know how your child’s day is going. As a reminder, the centers illness policy is that your child must be fever free for 24 hours WITHOUT the use of a fever reducer. To help reduce the spreading of germs, please follow the proper hand washing procedures that are posted by the sink in the classroom.
BIRTHDAYS
One of our friends got to celebrate their birthday this month! We celebrated by singing “Happy Birthday!”
REMINDERS:
Due to COVID-19 our center is closed until further notice. Keep an eye out on emails from the CDFC regarding when we plan to reopen. We are also sending emails frequently with information about activities you and your family can do while at home. Please stay safe and continue washing your hands!
