From the Director’s Desk - Dickinson

As we begin the month of May, we look forward to some

warmer weather and hopefully lots of playground time!

Our teacher changes are in motion and we are getting used

to our new schedules. We welcome Ms. Michele in the Yellow Bees and are excited

to have her join the DCCC team! Thank you all for your flexibility over the last few

weeks. Here are a few things happening at the center.

Class rosters for the fall have been shared with parents. The center has decided to

do a 2.5% increase in tuition to help cover the costs for the 2017-2018 budget year.

The Waiting List has been taken off the website as the center proceeds in offering

spots for the fall in a variety of classrooms. We look forward to enrolling many new

families. Applications are welcome and prospective families are encouraged to call

the center for enrollment information. An Open House will be offered on August

11th from 3-4.

Staff Appreciation will be held on Wednesday, May 11. Families have been taking

a collection and plan to provide a lunch for all staff. This is a great time of year to

Dates to

Remember:

May 21—

2:00—4:00 Dragons II

Open House at 1250

Ritner Highway

May 26—Family

Special Event 3-5 p.m.

May 29—DCCC

Closed

May 31—Kindergarten

End of Year Program

6:30 p.m.

June 5—First Day of

Summer School-Age

Program

From the Director’s Desk

Dickinson College Children’s Center

May 2017

DCCC Spring Reminders!

Shoe safety: Make sure children wear shoes that protect their feet.

Please make sure your children wear sneakers or sandals that cover and

protect their toes. Rubber clogs and some sandals can be fun and airy,

but they may also be too flimsy or loose for running, climbing, or riding

trikes and can lead to accidents and injuries.

Sunscreen: Each child should have a bottle of sunscreen to be kept here at the

Center. Spray sunscreen is not permitted. While convenient, spray sunscreen en-

ters the air and children breathe it in to their bodies. We also apply sunscreen in-

side, and it creates quite a filmy build up on the floors at the Center. Please bring

sunscreen for your child and remember to check expiration dates before sending

them in to school.

Sun Hats: In addition to sunscreen, another good way to protect your child’s head and face

from the sun is a sun hat.

Bike Helmets: In order for the children to be per mitted to r ide bikes on the playground,

they must wear a helmet. Properly fitting helmets are important for the safety of your child

while riding. Please check your child's helmet! Providing a helmet for your child to keep at the

Center works much better than taking it back and forth from home to school.

Fundraising

Ongoing: *Shoparoo-sign up at shoparoo.com to help our center earn roo points.

Totals: Sandwich Fundraiser-$349.75

Box Tops- $223.20 Lil’ Angels Photography-$435

Shoparoo-$60.90 KidStuff Books-$575

Giant-$868.35 Turkey Trot-$5056.61

Holiday Cards-$371.50 Pancake Breakfast-$6544.61

Total: $14,484.82 2016-2017 Goal: $15,000

Current Fundraisers: Original Works Lil Angels Photography

Upcoming Fundraisers: Year Book Sale—DCCC yearbooks will be sold

during the month of May. There will be pages featuring each classroom and the events that we do throughout the year.

thank your child’s teacher for a job well done.

We are excited to be holding our annual Trike A Thon during the month of May. It is always a fun time for

the children and we are hoping for nice weather!

We will be holding an Open House on May 21st for our Summer Camp Dragons 2 (Ritner Hwy location)

from 2-4 PM.

Kindergarten Graduation will be held on May 31st here at DCCC. Thank you to all the Parents and chil-

dren for a fun and busy year!

Both Summer Camp Programs will begin on June 5th. Ms. Brittney will be moving to the Dragons 2 camp

this summer. Ms. Sarah will move right into the D1 camp. We have a number of summer staff returning

and some new substitutes as well. Please keep an eye out for the Welcome Bulletin Board for the summer

staff which will include a picture and bio about all of our extra helpers for the summer.

-Gina VanKirk, Director

Ducklings

Page 3 Dickinson College Children’s Center

April has been a fun and busy month: Our kites billowed in the breezes; our pinwheels spun; we smelled

calming lilac and we witnessed the blossoming of yellow daffodils and colorful tulips. We observed the early

preparations of the Children’s Garden and we will continue to watch its growth, water, and harvest! We

learned about all sorts of animals and we celebrated Earth Day and the Week of the Young Child. Thanks to

our parents who came in for parent-teacher conferences. We value that time to chat and share progress and

expectations for your babies, as well as plan together for transitions to new classrooms in summer.

Because of our growing fascination with things that turn and move, one of our “big ideas” for May will

be “Things That GO!”….we will celebrate things that go in play, in books, songs and in our observations

around our neighborhood and campus.

This is a time when infants typically have moved away from pureed baby foods and are able to enjoy

the delights of table foods! We will celebrate healthy food choices this month with the “big idea”, “We Are

What We Eat!” We will read Eric Carle’s The Hungry Caterpillar and Today Is Monday, among other stories

about healthy foods. Now that most of the infants are self-feeding, we are beginning to eat in small social

groups of four, which is such fun and we learn so much at mealtimes together.

We will continue to offer our one-year olds some simple art materials, such as finger paints and chunky

crayons. These art activities can be fun and creative, while strengthening and training the little hand muscles.

We look forward to sharing our early masterpieces with you!

In early May, the infants will participate in the St. Jude Children’s Hospital fundraiser, a mini-trike-a-

thon with push toys on the infant-toddler playground. You will receive more information on this event and we

will request that you turn in your signed permission slip to the office. A Center-wide Family Event is sched-

uled for later in the month and we will close for the long Memorial Day weekend, which ushers in the summer

fun season. We look forward to the merry month of May together!

**Parent Reminders:

-Please send in sunhats, if you have not done so…. thank you.

Sandy, Lynn, Tory & Jody

Dickinson College Children’s Center Page 4

The theme for April was Spring has Sprung! We talked about changes in the season, ex-

plored flowers and dirt, and played outside in the beautiful spring weather. We celebrated

Earth day by painting a giant earth with our feet! We took a short walk and explored the

natural world around us. We saw flowers, bugs, and plants in our garden. We explored

simple weather concepts such as rain, sun, and wind. We created weather masterpieces us-

ing paint and glue. We spent the last week of the month celebrating the week of the young

child. We listened to music and danced on Musical Monday, created a large group mural

on Work together Wednesday, and made a yummy fruit salad on Friendship Friday!

It’s official...we are 100%, 2 year olds! So...that means we are going to be trying out the older toddler playground (by

Ms. Cheri’s office) during our morning outside time. Please make sure your child has sturdy shoe such as a sneaker or

sport sandal. The playground has much more to offer in the way of climbing. Thank you for your cooperation and un-

derstanding.

Also to add to the fun of this month, the puppies will be exploring animals. Each week we will focus on a different

“group” of animals.

We will start with farm animals where we will color a cow, glue cotton balls on paper to make sheep, finger paint

“mud” for our pigs, and make a pig nose.

The puppies will look at ocean animals next, and paint starfish with our feet and color a shark, and make a paper plate

octopus. We will have ocean animals in our sensory bin.

Then we go to the jungle to look for wild animals such as alligators, lions, and elephants. We will make paper plate

snakes and color a tiger!

If you have pets at home, bring in a picture of them as we talk about the animals we have at home. We will color a cat

and/or dog, and paint a gold fish.

Every week we will talk about what noises these animals make and where they live. We will read lots of books and

Blue Puppies

Yellow Puppies

May is going to be an adventure as we explore animals all around us! We will be talking

about our pets, wild animals, bugs, and baby animals. We will read a lot of books

about animals, make animal art projects, sing songs about animals, and pretend to

be animals. If you have a pet at home, please bring in a few pictures for us! We

are hoping to create a pet wall in our classroom. ~LACI & ALISHA

Family

Reminders:

Please

bring in a

sun hat

and sun-

screen for

your child.

Please

check your

child’s ex-

tra cloth-

ing to be

sure it is

seasonally

appropri-

ate.


Yellow Honey Bees

Wow, it is May already. We had a great April. The children loved

going for a walks looking for the bees on campus (meant a lot to us

too). We love that spring is here, which means nice weather. In April

we said see ya later to Ms. Sarah, but a great big hello this month to

Ms. Michele.

In May we will be talking about animals all around. What kind of ani-

mals do we see in springtime? What kind of animals do we see at a

zoo? What kind of animals do we have as pets?

We will start the month off learning about Animals we have as pets and the kind of animals we see when we

take a walk. We will make a chart of what pets we have at home, and do many art projects with animals as

pets.

We will move onto zoo animals the second week. We will talk about what kind of animals we see in a zoo.

We will move like zoo animals to music, and much more.

The third week we will talk about forest animals and the fourth week, we will talk about jungle animals. We

will do many fun art projects for these animals. We will make forest animals tracks. We will move like jun-

gle animals, and much more.

Reminders: If you needed to bring in sunscreen and you have not yet, please do. We will be doing a lot of

walking now that the weather is warmer, so please wear comfortable shoes on your child.

MS. BARB & MS. MICHELE

sing songs. If you have any books about any of these animals, please feel free to share with us.

The puppies are doing well with one to one counting and some are beginning to recognize “their letter”. We are very

strong with our colors, and matching. We took a break from open cups for a while, but will be reintroducing them

again at snack time.

We are coming up on warmer weather and checking sunscreen, if it expires we will send it home. Please bring in a

new bottle. If your child will wear a hat, please send one in.

We don’t mind heating up items, but please have as much of your child’s lunch prepared as possible. Please review

the choking food lists, as we have been sending home items that are not approved or cut up properly. And please

check food labels for peanuts, tree nuts, or facility that process those items, we may not serve them and they will be

sent home as well.

REMINDERS:

Please wash your child’s hands when you arrive in the mornings

We like to have fun, and we get messy. Wear “school” clothes/shoes

Label lunch items, baggies, yogurt/applesauce/fruit cups, personal containers

~CATHRYN & DONNA


Blue Busy Bees

The Blue Bees have had a lot of fun learning about plants this month, as we learned about the parts of a plant

and each parts function in help the flower bloom and grow. We were very surprised to find out that many of

our fruits and vegetables were considered the stem or flower part of the plant and that we could eat them. We

had fun planting seeds and watching them as they emerged from under the dirt and started to grow taller and

taller. We also discovered that all the seeds that we planted were very different in color, size and shape. As,

the plants become taller, we will send them home to finish growing and to be planted outside at your home.

We also had fun talking about the types of vegetables and fruits that we liked and worked on making a color-

ful graph of each, although some of us liked the vegetable or fruit because of the color that they got to add to

the graph bar. Ms. Cassie, Ms. Jody and all the blue bees would like to thank all the Grandparents that were

able to attend our Grandparent’s day. It was wonderful to have you all visit and we had a great time.

Next month, we will be talking about animals near and far. We will be reading many books

about animals and hope to learn about how animals live and adapt to their living environment. We will also

be doing many fun art projects that relate to the animals that we are talking about and plan to use the sensory

table to recreate the environment that the animals we talk about live in.

Blue Bees Classroom Goals:

*Following the rules for circle-time – legs crossed, hands still, eyes on person talking, ears listening, mouths

quiet when it is someone else’s turn to talk.

*Putting away the toy that you are playing with before moving onto another toy.

*Visiting the big playground and learning the rules and expectations for playing there.

*Using kind words and gentle hands with our teachers and friends.

Parental Reminders:

*Please, if you have not already done so, bring in sunscreen for your child. We will start to apply before we

go outside both in the A.M and P.M.

*Check your child’s cubby for extra clothing for warmer weather. You may wish to bring a sweatshirt or light

jacket for your child to wear in the A.M. when it is still cool outside and in the P.M. when the sun is not so

hot and the playground is a little cooler.

MISS JODY AND MISS CASSIE


Yellow Bear Cubs

ty to meet with all of you at conferences; it is

so great to share all the growth that we have

seen in every one of these bears!

The teddy bears have welcomed Ms.

Sarah into our class as well as our friend

Maximilian!

Teddy Bear Reminders:

Please check your child’s extra clothes bin

for proper seasonal and fitting clothes!

MANDY AND SARAH

We blasted through April quickly with

some “EGGSTRA” colorful fun during our Ex-

travaganza week. We learned a lot

about saving the environment and

recycling during our weeks of

“Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle”!

To come in May we will ex-

plore gardens; what is in them,

how to make them grow, and

more! With the garden explora-

tion will come some insect ex-

ploration!

I truly enjoyed taking the opportuni-

Blue Bears

Hooray it is may and the weather is getting warmer! The teddy bears sure have enjoyed some extra

time outside in the sunshine! We enjoyed April and all the activities as we finished up balls and have fun

making them move and exploring with hem. Then we learned a lot out how to take

care of our earth, as we talked about reducing reusing and recycling. We have had

many lunch conversations on what our containers are made out of and what goes in

the trash and what does not.

As we head into May we will continue to “stay green” as we talk about plants how

they grow and learn all the different parts. We will be growing some plants and ex-

perimenting what to give them like sun water and soil and what happens when they

do not get one of the things they need.

Then we will move more to what is in the earth and dirt and look at some fun bugs and worms. We will be

making bug catchers gathering worms and probably have some fun making some squishy mud pies! We

will be getting some frun bugs we are going to explore and watch them change as they go through their life

cycle.

We will end the month with some fun frog talk.

We have been watching our tadpoles grow for a

little while and will continue to watch them as

we work our way through May and ideally

watch legs grow and release some cute little

frogs.

It sure will be a hands on month as we enjoy plants bugs worms and

frogs. It will be a great way to move into June when we start even more

hands on and fun summer lesson plans. ~ANGE & KENDRA


The saying must be true; time flies when

you are having fun because we had a

great deal of fun in April when we learned all about buildings. Dur-

ing this study, we talked about what we know about buildings and

what jobs different buildings have. We took a few walks around

campus to look at different buildings and compared buildings in our town vs. buildings in other states or

countries. We learned how to make buildings and made our own in our classroom

with a variety of materials. Did you know that there are buildings that are more envi-

ronmentally friendly than others? We found out what that means and talked about

some of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) buildings on

campus. The last week of April we started our unit on Reducing, Reusing and Recy-

cling, which will take us through most of May. In this unit we will be learning about

what people throw away, where trash goes, how trash effects our

community and how we can reuse things to create less trash in

school and our homes. We will finish out May with a unit on Bugs where we will talk about

different kinds of bugs, where they live, and what they eat.

We wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who came to our

Pigeon Palooza! We hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did!

Important Dates:

May 26th: Family Event

May 29th: DCCC Closed for Memorial Day

Looking forward to a wonderful May!

~MS. BRITTNEY AND MS. CARLY

Bunnies

Preschool Swim Lessons

(Yellow Bears, Blue Bears and Bunnies only)

Dear Families,

I am writing to let you know of a policy change that will be in effect for the months of June, July and August only.

For these months we will be waiving the 11 a.m. drop-off policy for families who choose to enroll their children in

swim lessons. Children must be dropped off at school like normal and picked up for their lesson. They should ar-

rive back at DCCC no later than 12:30 p.m.

A few reminders:

*Lunch is served at noon. If your child will be arriving back at school after that time, please plan to feed them

lunch before they return.

*In order for us to allow your child to be picked up and dropped back off please submit a copy of the swim les-

son registration form to the main office.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this change.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.


Kindergarten Dolphins

Oh, how quickly April sped by, and what a busy month it was! The kindergartners all did an amazing job

on their endangered animal T-shirts and projects and I was so impressed with their presentations to the

class. We all learned a lot about a variety of endangered animals, and it's so touching to see how passion-

ate they are about animals and about caring for our environment. You'll find some of the posters the kin-

dergartners created all around DCCC about "going green"!

We were sad to see Miss Cheri leave our class and we miss her loving presence in our Dolphin Room. But

we're also very happy for her in her new position... and we still get to see her each day in her new office!

We're super excited to welcome Miss Sarah into our classroom in May. She's got lots of great positive en-

ergy!

Speaking of energy, weather will be our science focus during the first week of May. We'll do a number of

experiments with wind, rain, and the sun's energy, so we're hoping for some varied weather days! This is

also a good time to review what we learned about keeping our bodies protected from the sun. Be on the

lookout for some sun safety posters that the children will be creating and hanging on the walls all around

DCCC, too.

A unit on space will follow our weather unit. We'll learn lots of interesting things about the planets and

will do a few fun experiments as well. We're also hoping to schedule a trip to the college's planetarium.

We'll end the month (and school year!) with a "Memories and Moving On" theme. We'll share some of our

favorite kindergarten memories and will work on our program for our Kindergarten Graduation which will

occur on May 31 at 6:30 this year. Our families are all invited to the event. There will be a slide show

highlighting some of our favorite kindergarten moments, and other specifics are in the works.

In addition to our themes, we've got a few special events in the works before the end of our school year.

We're looking very forward to the St. Jude's Trike-a-thon on May 4. Please be sure to send a bike or scoot-

er for your child as well as a helmet and permission slip.

To culminate our study about money this year, I'd like to have a little "yard sale" for our kindergartners.

I've done this in past years and it's always a really fun educational event where the children have the oppor-

tunity to use the knowledge they've acquired about money and addition to buy items that they can really

keep. To pull it off this year, however, I'll need a little help from you since I lost all of my boxes of yard

sale treasures. If you have any small items that would be of interest to a kindergarten child and you'd be

willing to donate them to our cause, please get them to me by May 12 so that I have time to price things.

The children would each bring fifty cents, and items would be priced between one and twenty five cents, so

small and relatively inexpensive items would be great! Thanks in advance for your donations!

~ MS. KATIE & MS. SARAH

Documents

From the Director’s Desk - Dickinson