~*~Best Wishes~*~

What a great year this has been! Thank you all for your support and help and for allowing me to be a part of your families. The children have been wonderful and I can't wait till the New Year to continue our wonderful adventures. We have ended the year with great memories. The children may be talking to you about Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Christmas throughout these weeks ;) We have had so much fun learning new ways of saying Santa Claus and the many different traditions families around the world have for this time of year (some we will take and practice in our class, one of them being, “The Talking Stone”).

I want to wish you all Happy Holidays and best of luck in the New Year. See you all in two weeks! Photos will be posted shortly.

Much Love,
Miss Mariana

DECEMBER MEMO!

Hello Everyone! 10 more days til CHRISTMAS!!!
I just have a few reminders:

Holiday celebration & PAJAMA DAY!
Friday, December 18 (CHILDREN ONLY)

Books for the exchange must be turned in on Tuesday, December 15.

Seastars Food Drive - 12/14 thru 12/18
There is a small RED BIN in front to drop off some canned food.
Thank You!

HOLIDAY BREAK!
Coastal CLC will be CLOSED for our Winter Break
from WEDNESDAY, DEC.23 thru FRIDAY, JAN. 1
Classes will resume on Monday, JANUARY 4

Please make sure to take everything home from your child's cubby to be washed and check your child's Art file for more projects to take home.

To ring in the NEW YEAR...
We will have our Annual WINTER CARNIVAL
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2010
6:30pm - 8:00pm
Family & Friends WELCOME!
(school will close at 5:30pm. to prepare for this event)

SOCCER SHOTS!
Soccer shots will resume on Monday, January 11, 2010
If your child is still intersested and would like him/her to join for the next session, please sign up.

DECEMBER BIRTHDAYS:
1 - Mikel Reinhard (seastars)
7 - EJ Mangahas (jellyfish)
15 - Ms. Eileen

for more BABY NEWS...
Ms. Shona had her baby, please welcome

KALEB REY
December 10, 2009
7lbs. 2.oz.
19 inches

Mom(shona) & Dad(Gabe) are doing very well and are very blessed.

Have a great week!

TUESDAY MEMO!

Happy December everyone!!! Can't believe that the Christmas season is already here...where did the time go??? This month may be a short one for us but it will be lots of fun!

Book Exchnage, Santa Visit, Breakfast potluck for LUNCH and Pajama DAY!
FRIDAY, December 18 (CHILDREN ONLY)

Book Exchange - Please bring in a wrapped book worth $10.00 from your child by Tuesday, Dec.15. (for details about the kind of book, please speak with your child's teacher.)

Breakfast Potluck for LUNCH!!! What fun!!! - Sign up sheet will be posted on the Sign in / out book!

Children get to wear their PJs all day!

For some BABY News...
Parker is a big brother!
Welcome
TEAGAN ALICE CHAVEZ
12/3/09
6 pounds & 11 ounces
20" long
Paul & Taryn Chavez


Theme for the week: ABC Christmas

Have a great week!

Wednesday

Welcome back Seahorses. This week is multicultural week. We will be "traveling" around the world and learning about different places and cultures. This weeks share theme will also be be culturally related.
Have a great week!
~Miss Krystal

Harvest Time

This week the Sea Stars will be discussing what the meaning of Harvest is. We will discuss the cycle these fruits and vegetables go through and hopefully get to compare it to life itself. The children loved our discussion today and enjoyed the story "Growing Vegetable Soup."

We looked and felt different vegetables and cut them to see what they look like inside. Once we observed we sat at the art table and stamped with them! The children had a blast and are very excited about the topic.

REMINDER- Turn in your permission slips for Thursday's fieldtrip to the Farmer's Market. We are looking forward to our special cooking when we come back.

Have a wonderful week and enjoy the photos taken of the children in action.

<3 Miss Mariana

Hello Families,
Unfortunally I have some bad news reguarding Katrina's sister, Rica. She passed away last week and the family will be having a Memorial Service: Thursday & Friday 11/19 & 11/20 4pm-8pm @ Montecito Memorial Park & Mortuary 3520 E. Washington st. Colton,CA 92324. Mass will take place on Saturday,11/21 11am @ The Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church 115 W. Olive Ave. Redlands, CA 92373. Reception to follow after mass. Attire: NO BLACK OR RED! Her favorite color is BLUE. I am passing along the information for those who would like to attend. Please keep Katrina in your thoughts as she goes thru this tough time in her life. Thank you.

*SEA STARS FINDING THEIR TRUE SHADE*

Monday Football :)

HELLO SEA STAR FAMILIES! By the title you can guess what week we are in :) Miss Mariana isn't very football savvy but I did my research and we will learn the basics of the game, plus I think it’ll be one of those weeks were the children end up teaching me more :)

So that the children don’t end up running the class wildly we will combine it with the color brown. We will learn how to make brown and identify the different shades of brown we see around us (one example, ourselves). We had such a fun week last week experimenting with our 5 senses that we will continue to brush up on that until we run out of interest. Refer to my page to see new photos of last week and ones coming up from this week.

Much Love,
Miss Mariana




A little something we made quickly to make cars a bit more interesting :)

Tuesday Blog

Hello Everyone!! This week the seahorse class will be talking about our 5 senses: Taste, touch, smell, seeing and hearing. These senses are the topics we will be exploring this week. We will be doing a lot of hands on and sensory activities to help the children explore these senses.

Yesterday we talked about all the senses and focused on the sense of touch. We played with hair gel and put different things in it to see how they felt. We also finger painted and boy did they enjoy using their fingers to mix colors and paint.

Today we reviewed a little of what we learned yesterday and focused on Hearing. We talked about music and different things we hear. We played musical chairs while playing musical (percussion) instruments. It was a task for them to Really listen when the music was turned off so they could grab a chair. This was so much fun. (Lot's of pictures to come.)

The rest of the week we will be Exploring the remaining sense's. Please see the lesson plan for the share theme. Have a good night and a great week.
~Miss Krystal

Happy Monday Goldfish Families!

We started "Halloween Week" today with art, math, and music! I dipped little hands in white paint and we made a big mess stamping them onto black paper to make "ghost hands". We also sang "Bats are Sleeping" and used bats to help us count. I am happy to see that our class is full and all our students are back.

If you would like to sing "Bats are Sleeping" at home I've included the lyrics. I know some of you sang "Gray squirrel" with your child because when we sang it again they knew the movements! I loved it!

To the tune of "Frere Jacques"...

Bats are sleeping (put palms together on side of face like you are sleeping)
Bats are sleeping
Upside (point up) down (point down)
Upside down
Waiting for the night to come (tap your wrist like you are tapping a watch)
Waiting for the night to come
Then they'll fly around (flying motions OR when we're feeling energetic we get up and "fly" around the room)
Then they'll fly around!

We hope you will be able to join us Friday for food, games, costumes, trick or treating and fun at our Halloween celebration!

Ms. Kristen

Sea Stars exploring what they know

Hello Sea Star families!
First of all I want to thank all of you for your patience and support during this flu season! I know it is stressful to see our little ones not feeling well, and even more stressful if they are doing okay but may be exposed to all the germs. We are doing our best to keep our hands and bodies clean as well as listening to our bodies when they show signs of illness.

This week we are brushing up on "LEAVES". We began discussing fall changes a few weeks back and the children really enjoyed the topic. This week we are focusing mostly on leaves, and since we have already learned why they change colors and the rest of the changes trees go through during this season, we are using our senses to explore these changes physically. What this means is the week will be filled with sensory experiences and documentation of it: leaf hunts, wind exploration, fall smells, photographing what we see, graphing what we find etc. Please refer to our walls for new art and work by the children. Remember to always read the small prints for these are the exact words your children are using to describe what they do :]

Hope you all have a great week and keep washing those hands and covering those coughs!

Miss Mariana

Tuesday Blog

Good evening seahorse families. This week we are Exploring the world of leaves. We started off the week by reviewing what fall was all about and talking about why leaves fall. We then proceeded to trace and color leaves during art and after we worked we got to toss and play with fake leaves on the carpet.Today we went on a fun nature walk around the school and collected different things that may have fallen from trees. We took the things we found on our walk and created our very own nature collage. For sensory fun we put leaves and twigs in a water table to feel how they get in the water.Tomorrow we will be continuing to investigate leaves and for art we will be painting with them. Thursday and Friday we will be adding the shape of the month, the triangle, to our leaf fun.Share day is this Friday and the theme is Leaves. Please bring any leaves or twigs you may have found outside your home. I’m sure with all our practice we are doing this week the kids should know what to look for. =)Have a great week and a good night!Miss Krystal

Jellyfish

This week we are talking about Leaves and the color Orange.

Mon,Wed,&Fri children's please bring some leaves from your yard. Thank you
Tues & Thurs It's Orange day, wear something Orange.

Thank you- Miss. Annie

Hi Goldfish Families!
It has been a busy week for the little ones (and an exhausting one trying to keep up with them)! We are having a great time with the community helpers theme with doctor/nurse collages, dental floss paintings, new songs and poems, creating a pretend library in our room today, greeting the mail carrier when we play outside in the morning, and putting out chalk "flames" on the sidewalk with water from the watering cans. They are talking more and more every day and those personalities are really coming out! They are also forming friendships with each other and it's so sweet and special that they are bonding- even if it sometimes means they're in cahoots and up to no good together!

Thank you for sharing your wonderful toddlers with me, we're having a blast!

Ms. Kristen

Hello Families I hope you week has been good so far. I just wanted to post some reminders for this week. Soccer shots has started and will be held Mondays at 9am. If anyone else is interested it's not too late to sign up. Snack will be served at 8:45 on Mondays. Earthquake kits also need to be turned in. On your child's sign in folder there is a list of the children who are missing their kits. This earthquake kit consists of a juice and a fruit/ protein bar. Please keep in mind we are a peanut free school. On Friday your child's progress reports will be sent out. The only class that does not get progress reports is the goldfish class. I also wast to thank everyone who participated in our field trip to the pumpkin patch it was a success!! I hope you have a nice rest of the week and try to stay dry.

tuesday post

Good evening Seahorse families. This week the seahorses are going to be talking about Fire safety and community helpers.
We have been preparing for our special visit from Big John The fire truck tomorrow. Yesterday we Learned about fire danger and today we talked about the special number to call in case of an emergency. 911.
The rest of the week we will be talking about community helpers such as the postal carriers, Doctors, construction workers, and etc. For share day i would like the kids to think of something that reminds them of one of the community helpers we talked about. Let them use their imagination to see what they come up with =) Have a great week and please be sure to look at the ning site for pictures from the week.

RAIN RAIN RAIN...STAY!

Hello Sea Star families! A short but sweet blog. We have finally started our phonics program! The children are eager to work on their books and little by little we will all get used to the new routine. Our theme this week is Community Workers and Fire Safety, with an addition look at the unexpected change of weather. The rain is always fun and interesting, therefor I will be bringing in surprise activities for the children and take advantage of these unplanned learning moments :]

Here are a few pictures from today's day. For community helpers we began discussing the community and one of the things all children see are restaurants and places to eat; we made our own special menus! The rest of the photos are from our outdoor play in the coming and going rain.

Thank you all for reading,
Miss Mariana

MENUS


RAIN PLAY

Big Thank You from the Sea Stars

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of you who attended the field trip. We had so much fun and it went soooo smoothly. We had a marvelous week filled with fun activities and learning moments. Pictures have been posted so please go check them out. The children were so happy and I am glad to have had the chance to share the experience with them and the rest of you.

Next week we'll be starting a new theme: "Fire Safety and Community Workers". A topic I know the Sea Stars will enjoy talking about. The curriculum will be posted Monday, feel free to look over it and add any ideas you may have. Wednesday we will have a special guest visit from the fire department :0)

After nap time and once we are done with snack we do read books together before going outside; if your children have books that apply to the topic please bring them and we can read them together. I will post a blog Monday with more information about the week and our share item for friday.



Have a wonderful weekend!
Miss Mariana

Pumpkin Time

Hello Seahorse families. This week's Topic is all about Pumpkins. We have been talking about the different things we use pumpkins for, and where we find pumpkins. On Thursday we will be opening up a pumpkin to see what's inside and bake the pumpkin seeds =p This should be a really fun and messy sensory experience. Look for pictures on Friday =)
Due to our field trip Share day will be canceled this week. Thank you and have a nice week.
~Miss Krystal

~*~Pump-Pump-Puuumpkins~*~

We have started this week discussing Pumpkins. First we talked about what we already knew about pumpkins (Elijah said they are orange, Hunter said they have vines, Will told us they grow from seeds, and we all agreed they are fun during the month of October). The discussion about Halloween came up instantly and I took the chance to brush up on the subject of individuality and plant the seed of respect for other cultures and costumes. There are people that do not celebrate or like the same things we do and the kids were so interested and respectful towards the information I was giving them, as Kona said, "We are ALL special!".


After our discussion about the coming up holiday we learned the names of the different parts that make up a pumpkin. They will be able to tell you where all of these are, the poster is taped by the sea star's bulletin. Here is the list of the names we learned: Skin, Stem, Ribs, Pulp or Brains (which they loved! haha), Seeds, and Leaves. We will learn as much as we can before going to the Pumpkin Patch this Friday. We are cutting up a pumpkin tomorrow and getting more into details with the subject as the week progresses. Should be an adventurous week. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are ready for the interesting stories that will be coming home.

Miss Mariana

Pictures..

Stella with Shamoo
Stephen time to eat Shamoo

Smile Stella

Alessandro watering our plants

Run Parker

The boys.

Happy Birthday

Evan(oct 3)

Hope you have a fun birthday!!

-Miss. Annie-

They like to go see the Shamoo..

Hi Goldfish Families!

This has been a very busy week for us! We have joined our Jellyfish class for lots of singing, dancing, and activities while Ms. Annie is getting well. We are celebrating the arrival of fall with lots of activities and new music. We replaced a few of our planned art activities with some fun things the Jellyfish were doing to move things more smoothly. Yesterday we learned "The Squirrel Song" and the kids love it! You can help them learn it at home, too :)

Gray Squirrel, Gray Squirrel
Shake your bushy tail (shake your "tail")
Gray Squirrel, Gray Squirrel
Shake your bushy tail (shake your "tail")
Wrinkle up your funny nose (wrinkle your nose)
Put a nut between your toes (pretend to eat a nut)
Gray Squirrel, Gray Squirrel
Shake your bushy tail



Just a reminder- All Goldfish must have one parent come on the field trip next Friday to Tanaka Farms. No staff will be at the school during the hours of the field trip. And of course, we would love to have our little ones that don't normally come to school on Fridays join us!

Keep them washing those little hands! We are all fighting off germs this week.
Ms. Kristen

Dance Time..

E.J.
Jump Gavin

Go Anahita

Jump Zulema

Go E.J. go..

Ella

Jump..Jump...

Dancing to Mr.Sun

They had fun

Dance time..

This week we are talking about Fall and the color Red.

Thanks-Miss. Annie

Seahorses

Happy Tuesday Seahorse families!! This week we have been discussing the signs of fall and what fall is all about. After talking about the changes we will be seeing the kids are really excited to see it for themselves.

Yesterday we made hand print leaves and today we worked on leaf prints. Today's activity was a bit harder. We placed different leaves under our paper and colored over it with a crayon. Given it's small challenge i was happy to see them enjoy it.
The rest of the week we will continue to talk about Fall And the color red. Please have your child start thinking of something Red to bring to Share day on Friday. I have a few pictures i would like to share. Have a great week and enjoy!
Miss Krystal

Kala and Megan working on Free expression art.

Megan and Colter going ABC fishing.

Owen working on his apple painting

Charlotte and Maisy Playing in the Dramatic play area.

Stephen and Owen digging and playing with dump trucks.

Owen and carter working on a puzzle. Take turns boys.

One of our many visits to the bunny yard. Maisy, Megan, Charlotte, and Stephen playing very well together in the block area.

Colter, Stephen, Maisy and Owen taking a water break.

Kissing hand art project.




Good night!