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A lot of our friends have the same names and the office is getting confused when we file daily seeds. We now have 3 Max's, 2 Sienna's , 2 Mia's and many common names that are duplicated as well. Please include last initial on your daily seeds going forward.
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Sarah
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Emily
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Valerie
Not pictured: Beth |
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 REMINDER The 30 minute flashing zone is just between the Loading Zone signs. Our block consists of two parking elements and a bus lane. We have all the space we are able to permit for on the block and surrounding blocks. Please be aware the "pay to park" area is not a loading zone and you will get ticketed even if your flashing lights are on. If you are having trouble finding a space to park this is a reminder of the Adams Street Garage which is open to parents for no charge for drop off and pick up.
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 | | Happy Thanksgiving to all of our Families and Friends! |
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REMINDER
Does your child have appropriate warm clothing at school? Hats, mittens, jacket, extra shirt and pants which all fit? Please be sure to check your school bag.
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Click the Gourmet Gorilla logo above to be directed to their website.
Did you know they cater for children special occasions and birthday parties and to elementary schools? | 
if you have not already!
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Greetings!
What a wonderful October we had─beautiful weather and fun for all for Halloween! Our little one's learned a lot about fall in the classroom but unfortunately Mother Nature wasn't cooperating until the end of the month to stimulate their senses outside. The warm weather really provided a tremendous tapestry of fall color if you were able to get out of the city to see it. Now the trees are almost bare and colder days are settling in. Halloween is over and many may be preparing for Thanksgiving gatherings or upcoming vacations.
As we give thanks to all of our families, we will be dedicating this newsletter to the changing of the season and preparing for gatherings. I hope you enjoy the article on eco-friendly vacations as well as, the Lesson Plan-at-a-Glance and a little bit of how to prepare your little one for adventuring into the party world.
Enjoy!
Warm Regards,
Elizabeth Geldhof
Director of Business Operations |
Halloween at LGTH
Sarah Stiltner, Assistant Director of Education
LGTH would like to thank all of the families who participated in our Halloween extravaganza! We much appreciate your participation in dressing up your child and bringing in goodies for all to enjoy. I think everyone would agree the best part of Halloween is seeing all the children dressed up in costumes. We had every costume you could think of, from a cuddly teddy bear, a clucking chicken, few football players, and even a peanut!
The children were not the only ones dressed up to show Halloween spirit. Elizabeth dressed up as Mother Earth and her sister, Kirstin, dressed up as Mother Potion. Elizabeth and Kirstin started the party in the pre-school room for a little story time entertainment. Mother Potion told a story about scarecrows, while Elizabeth assisted her. I think the children were more amazed with their decorative costumes than the story! Nonetheless, it was evident and the children had a great time. Mother Earth and Mother Potion finished off the party by passing out candy to all of the children.
The Halloween parties in our infant classrooms were very special times for a lot of families as they celebrated their child's first Halloween. It was so wonderful to walk around the infant classrooms and see all of the babies dressed up! All of the proud parents were glowing with delight as they snapped pictures of their babies dressed up for the first time! All of us were so happy we could help you celebrate such a fun occasion with you! It was also a great time for the families to get to know one another and build relationships.
We hope all of the families enjoyed the celebration as much as we did. Like always, it is such a pleasure for us at LGTH to be a part of special moments in you and your child's life. We look forward to upcoming parties at the school and seeing familiar faces to celebrate with! Next up is our Winter Wonderland party on January 7th. We are going to ring in the cold weather and the New Year by celebrating with toasty treats and hot cocoa!
** Fun pictures at the bottom of the newsletter!
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Still Growing Strong
Sarah Stiltner, Assistant Director of Education
Little Green Tree House has welcomed a few new faces to our teaching family! Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the teachers LGTH.
Whitney is the newest Lead Infant teacher in the Hemlock classroom. Whitney has a Bachelor's degree from the University of Dayton in Communications and a minor in Sociology. After earning her Bachelor's degree, Whitney decided to feed her passion for young children by attending the Erikson Institute where she earned a Master's degree in Child Development. Whitney has been in the classroom for a little over a month and has adjusted very well to all of the children and parents. She has shown a wealth of knowledge in the short amount of time she has been here and we are excited for her to continue to grow with us.
Sarah is the new Lead Infant teacher in the Bonsai classroom. Sarah is originally from Michigan where she attended Grand Valley State University. While at GVSU, Sarah earned a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Special Education with a minor in Elementary Education. She continued her education by doing work for her Master's in Early Childhood Special Education. Sarah also went on to complete three Michigan teaching certifications that include: Cognitive Impairments, Elementary Education, and Early Childhood. Sarah has previous teaching experiences that include a Lead Teacher for a pre-school classroom and also a special education teacher for 35 infants and toddlers.
Emily is a Teacher's Aide in the Aspen classroom. Currently, Emily is earning a Bachelor's degree from Columbia College. While at Columbia, Emily is studying Music Business. Emily has previous experience working with children as a Teacher's Aid for two different Early Childhood Education centers.
Valerie is a Teacher's Aide in the Maple classroom. Valerie recently relocated to Chicago from Arizona to continue her education. While in Arizona, Valerie attended Arizona State University where she earned a Bachelor's degree in Family Studies and Human Development. Currently, Valerie is attending the Erikson Institute pursing a Master's degree in Child Development.
Beth is a permanent substitute teacher at LGTH. While subbing at LGTH, Beth helps out in many capacities in all of our classrooms. Beth earned a Bachelor's degree from Miami University in Speech communication. Soon after, Beth moved to Chicago and pursued her Master's degree in Elementary Education from National Louis University. Beth has previous teaching experience while holding an internship as a kindergarten teacher.
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Tips to Help Survive the Holiday's Erin Lyon, Director of Education
The holiday season is quickly upon us and is a wonderful time for families to get together.
Family gatherings can bring you and your family many cherished memories. However, there are often challenges when extended families get together especially when children are involved. Children feel safe, stable, and nurtured during holiday gatherings when they know what to expect ahead of time. Use these five tips to prepare your children for stress-free holiday gatherings. Excitement, anticipation, and some anxiety are normal feelings that children and adults experience as holiday gatherings approach.
- Tip 1: Let children know who will be gathered together. Make sure they know anything they are not allowed to do and what is planned for the day. While they may not always listen, let them know how they are expected to behave.
- Tip 2: Getting dressed up in special, sometimes new, clothes may lead you to caution children about getting dirty. Help your children have fun and come to the table in their "best clothes". Dress them in nice play clothes so they can have fun until just before time to eat. Then, have them change for the meal. Make sure their clothes for mealtimes wash easily. Spills happen when excitement is high. Don't forget an extra bib or two.
- Tip 3: Adults may be perfectly fine with snacks or holding off eating until the "big meal". Children need to eat healthy foods to keep up with the energy they burn. Pack a special snack they can eat and share with other children. Lunch meat roll-ups, fruit and vegetable slices are perfect, quick, on-the-go snacks. They are easy to share, too. Limit empty calories from chips, dips, and other adult snacks for happy children.
- Tip 4: Encourage a balance of quiet play with outside running and rough and tumble games. Children depend on adults to put limits and structure in playtime to keep them from pushing their bodies past a healthy balance. When the noise level and natural yelling level starts to push their adrenaline beyond the catch-up point, this is the time for a quiet story or game. Perhaps an older family member can gather the children together and share a story, or a favorite holiday movie can be shared. Start a new family tradition your children can pass on to their children.
- Tip 5: It is time for the special meal to be served. Let children know what special rules apply to their behavior. Help them practice table manners at home before the big day. Let children know when they can ask to be excused from the table. Adults may linger over conversation that is boring to children. Consider letting children eat, carry their plates to the kitchen and go to another room to play quietly. They can be called back for dessert. Excuse them again as soon as they are finished eating. If some of the children are too young to play without supervision assign "babysitting" duties to an older cousin or relative who might not mind spending time with them away from the rest of the group.
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Erin Lyon, Director of Education : Introduction
Emily Reagan, lead infant teacher, Kay Knight, assistant teacher.
Holly classroom, 6 weeks- 15 months
For a month long lesson plan the infants in the Holly classroom focused on the colors of autumn. Exposing the children to the different colors seen in autumn helps to further develop the continuously developing sight in the younger infants and helps the older infants to start color recognition.
Sight in Infants: When a child is first born they have everything necessary to see but haven't yet learned to use these resources. At first they see only in shades of black, white and grey. As they get older and grow more complex skills their visual perception and visual motor integration will increase to meet their growing needs.
By the time they are 2-4 months old infants should start to move their eyes independently with less head movement. When they start to follow objects with their eyes they are developing tracking and eye teaming skills. By 4-5 months they have learned how to coordinate their eye movements as a team and should no longer be crossing their eyes. Also, by 4 months of age infants visual systems have developed enough to allow them to see in full color and to see the exciting world around them.
By the fourth or fifth month, babies' brains have finished learning how to fuse the pictures coming in from both their right and left eyes into a single image with strong depth perception. Spatial and dimensional awareness continue to improve as baby learns to aim accurately when reaching for objects of interest. They also begin to refine their eye teaming and focusing skills as they learn to look quickly between near and far distances.
Normal visual activities, or a child's sharpness of vision, has usually developed to 20/20 by the time the child reaches six months.
.The Colors of Autumn!
Date: September 27th - October 22nd
Objective
Over the next month, we will be focusing on helping the children of Holly distinguish between different colors! We will be exploring many of the colors we see in our everyday lives during the fall season. Through visual aids, toys, books, and art we will demonstrate and expose the children to four main colors.
Lesson Description
By the age of three months infants are able to see an array of colors. Certain colors, like red and black, are easiest for infants to see; therefore, these colors are the most visually appealing to them. Also, high contrast patterns and colors visually appeal to infants. Since all of our Holly Babes (so far) are past three months of age, their eyes have strengthened enough to be able to see vibrant colors everywhere! Color perception is acquired through experience and exposure, so it is best to expose your babies to all the colors of the rainbow!
Color of the Week
Each week of our lesson plan we are going to be studying (and wearing!) different colors:
September 17th - October 1st: Yellow
October 4th - October 8th: Red
October 11th - October 15th: Brown
October 18th - October 22nd: Orange
Cognitive Development
Pictures and photographs of objects related to fall that are typically the same color will be hung in the classroom at students' eye level. For example, an apple and a leaf in autumn can both be red. This will expose the students to the color being studied that week and also demonstrate that different objects can be the same color.
Sensory
Children will be able to explore with our sensory bottles of different colors. They will have the opportunity to hold each bottle and shake them (like always!), and the teachers will talk about what colors are in each bottle. Different items of different textures will also be brought into the room for the children to explore (tree bark, crinkly/soft leaves, etc.)
Art & Fine Motor
Children will be able to color with paint of different colors to create items for a class mobile!
Language/Literacy
We will be reading books all about different colors! We will learn not only the colors' names, but also various objects that are commonly that specific color. |
Family Highlight
LGTH loves to celebrate our families! We would like to incorporate a family highlight in our newsletters. We invite all to submit your ideas to Elizabethg@littlegreentreehouse.com. The submittals must be child oriented content or services. . |
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Eco-Friendly Choices
Elizabeth Geldhof, Director of Business Operations
As I was trying to come up with an eco friendly choice for this month's newsletter I began to day dream about a vacation!
Vacations are often an indulgence and should be considered as so in my book. But,what could I do to 1) expand my horizon to a different area of the United States or the world? (I often revisit places I have already enjoyed) and 2) be friendlier to the environment in ways that meet my lifestyle? I did an internet search on eco-friendly vacations. Wow, there are a lot of options and suggestions for places and activities I never thought to explore. I was surprised by the suggestions and I am glad I searched it ... I'm thinking out-of-the-box for my next big adventure. I don't plan on compromising on value or luxury. This new quest is to find something interesting and different from what I have done in the past but with a thought to our environment. There are many places in the world that are more conscious to their environment naturally and I may choose to go somewhere which isn't as industrialized as other places I have been previously.
The top two travel booking companies Orbitz and Travelocity have Eco-Friendly travel packages. But if you are into exploring a bit more I am sure you can find the right vacation for you and your family elsewhere on the internet as well.
Tips for Eco-friendly vacations provided by Orbitz.com
TRAVELOCITY LINK |
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IMPORTANT REMINDERS:
If you have recently moved - Please be sure to update the front desk with your current address.
If you have taken your child to the doctor's office recently please have the Doctor fax us an updated copy of vaccinations 312-492-6543 (it can be on the doctor's form - it is not necessary to have the DCFS form)
Center Will Be Closed On the Following Holidays In 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010 (Thanksgiving)
Friday, November 26, 2010 (Day after)
Friday, December 24, 2010 (Christmas Eve)
Friday, December 31, 2010 (New Years Eve)
Center Will Be Closed On the Following Holidays In 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011 (Martin Luther King Day)
Monday, February 21, 2011 (President's Day) In-training of staff*
Monday, May 30, 2011 (Memorial Day)
Friday, July 1, 2011 Center will be open 7 am - 1 pm In-training of staff*
Monday, July 4, 2011 (Independence Day)
Monday, September 5, 2011 (Labor Day)
Monday, October 10, 2011 (Columbus Day)
Thursday, November 24, 2011 (Thanksgiving)
Friday, November 25, 2011 (Day after Thanksgiving)
Friday, December 23, 2011 Center will be open 7 am - 1 pm
Monday, December 26, 2011 (Christmas Federal Holiday)
Friday, December 30, 2011 Center will be open 7 am - 1 pm
Telephone: 312-492-9876
Fa: 312-492-6543
Center Hours 7a-6p Monday through Friday unless indicated. |
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