2’s/3’s April Newsletter

Greetings 2’s/3’s Families,

The month of April has been a very active one for our children. One of the most eventful weeks we have had was the Week of the Young Child! We had a special activity for each day including instrument making for Music Monday. We made banana bread/muffins for Tasty Tuesday. We made yogurt parfaits in “buckets” and worked on kindness with our story Have You Filled a Bucket Today?: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids (Bucket Filling Books) by Carol McCloud for Work together Wednesday. We tie dyed t-shirts for Artsy Thursday and created art with markers, water and coffee filters to create a tie dye print. We also created art with red and black paint and fly swatters for NIU Friday. We also had some guest readers during the week: Gibson Cima, Jasmine Young, Lance Dolan, and Adam Michels. The children displayed a range of emotions as they saw their family member reading to us from a screen. Thank you to all who read to us!
     

During our days in the classroom, we have had several activities that work all areas of development.  Some art activities we did include stickers, drawing with markers, oil
pastels, crayons and colored pencils, painting with cups, flowers, fly swatters, and the use of dot markers. During these last few weeks, we have been very interested in flowers and plants. We read some stories about flowers and plants including The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and Planting the Rainbow by Lois Ehlert. We had the opportunity to investigate sunflowers and carnations with our senses and magnifying glasses. We even had set up our dramatic play center as a flower shop! We have had flowers, different shovels, seed packages, watering cans, etc. This was inspired by our experiment of planting sunflowers.

Lastly, please find the following activities attached below. We have put together some of our favorite songs and books.  We hope your families will find these activities we do in the classroom fun to do at home throughout the summer!

Our Favorite Songs

• Freeze Dances
  • The Party Freeze Dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UcZWXvgMZEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqz4z9aQRJY&list=RDkIPVQfHyecg&index=7
  • The Animal Freeze Dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqz4z9aQRJY
  • The Dance Freeze Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1vdKfXlB_g
• Listen and Move
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j24_xH5uvdA
• Put Your Finger in the Air
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIPVQfHyecg
• Sticky, Sticky Bubble Gum
• Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
• Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-nbufIrWmM
• Animal Action
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aVO_31rNQw
• There’s a Spider on the Floor
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWBkqDhDByY
• The Floor is Lava
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbNAiN8FTfc
• Down by the Bay
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAjhLexlrDc
• Laurie Berkner songs
  • The Goldfish
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg-wnQKRHTs
  • We are the Dinosaurs
• Laurie Berkner songs
  • The Goldfish
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg-wnQKRHTs
  • We are the Dinosaurs
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPrmY7labLA

Our Favorite Books

• Puff the Magic Dragon by Lenny Lipton and Peter Yarrow
• Everyone Asks About You by Theodore Faro Gross and Sheila White Samton
• Dinosaur Pet by Mark Sedaka and Neil Sedaka
• Elephant and Piggie Books by Mo Willems
• The Pigeon Books by Moe Willems
• Footloose by Kenny Loggins
• What Does the Fox Say? By Ylvis
• When You Wish Upon a Star by Judy Collins
• Over the Rainbow by Judy Collins
• Press Here by Herve Tullet
• Mix it Up by Herve Tullet
• The Kindness Book by Todd Parr
• Have You Filled a Bucket Today?: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids (Bucket Filling Books) by Carol McCloud
• Abiyoyo by Pete Seeger
• Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang
• Singin’ in the Rain Based on the Song by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown
• John Denver
  • Sunshine on My Shoulders
  • For Baby (For Bobby)
  • Take Me Home, Country Roads
• Soup Opera by Jim Gill

*Books can be read anywhere! Take a trip to your local library and read. Look for new and different areas to read together with your children: take one outside and read together, read at your library, find your favorite spot in the house, etc.

Thank you all for a wonderful school year. It has been so much working with and getting to know you!  We hope you have a wonderful summer!

Kat and Nadine