Spring Is Here...

Or is it summer already??? The rainy days of March have finally passed and the children have been spending a lot of time on the playground again. Everybody is enjoying the beautiful weather but we all know it won't stay that warm. Please keep that in mind when dressing your child. Layers are best in the Spring. Feel free to leave an extra sweater or jacket in your child's cubby. And on very sunny days, please apply sunscreen before your child comes to school. With the children spending more time outdoors and doing lots of running and playing, they are very hungry by lunch time and need a well-balanced and nutrient-rich meal. It never hurts to pack a little extra. If you have any questions about clothing or food, please don't hesitate to ask.

April Events

The next three weekends are filled with more Oak Lane events and we hope you will join us:

Spring Clean-up Day - Saturday, April 10 - 9 a.m. to noon
The weather forecast is looking good for Saturday (it usually rains on our clean-up days) and I hope that we can not only do some cleaning inside but also on the playground.

5K Cross Country Challenge - Sunday, April 18
Many of you have signed up already but we hope even more of you will join us.  

Yard Sale & Bake Sale - Sunday, April 25 - 8 a.m. to noon
Reserve your space by filling out the sign-up form. If you would like to contribute something to the bake sale, please use the same form. Baked goods can be dropped off at the day care on Friday, April 23rd.

Auction

The auction preparations are under way. Donation request letters were mailed out two weeks ago and we have started to receive donation. Please take a minute and look over the list of businesses we have contacted so far. If you can think of any other businesses that might be willing to contribute to the auction, please let us know so we can contact them. We are also still looking for a volunteer to design the invitations. I can provide invitations from previous auctions to get started. If you would like to help us with this task, please let us know.

Fundraising Numbers

• Thanks for coming out! The fundraiser night at Pizza Peddler was a success with a total of $212 raised for the day care. A special THANK YOU goes out to Colleen and Rich Perrin for purchasing lunch for all the teachers that day. It was a nice treat! And we would also like to thank Colleen for organizing the event.
• The Giant Gift Card Fundraiser has raised $281.75 so far. Oak Lane purchases gift cards from Giant at a 5% discount and then sells them to paretns at the full value. Gift cards are ordered about every 4 weeks. If you would like to learn more about the program and be included in the monthly order e-mail, just let us know.
• Goodsearch & Goodshop contributions have increased by almost 400% compared to last school year (Oct. through March)! That is a great accomplishment and means that many of you are participating. If you have not installed your toolbar yet, here is the link again.
• Annual Giving Contributions have reached $3285 and 40% of parents have contributed. If you would like to make a contribution, you can write a check or do it online via PayPal.

 What can we do for you?

Now that you've learned all about how you can support Oak Lane, we want to know what we can do for you. Over the past few months, the teachers as well as Oak Lane's Board of Advisors have been thinking about how we can improve our curriculum and provide parents with what they are looking for. We have already received some valuable information from parents but want to make sure that everybody is heard. If you have an idea or would like to play a more active role in reshaping our program, we'd love to hear from you. 

One of the things that has been mentioned is a monthly calendar. So, the teachers and I have put together a calendar that lists classroom actitivities for the Older Toddlers and Preschoolers as well as events for the whole school for the month of April. We decided to make it available electronically and let you decide whether you want to print it or not. Take a look and let us know what you think.

Saturday, April 10 - Spring Clean-up
Tuesday, April 13 - Jitterbugs Music
Sunday, April 18 - 5K Cross Country Challenge
Sunday, April 25 - Yard & Bake Sale

Fruit for Snack: Stephanie Walkup

Thanks to Stephanie Walkup we also have beautiful pansies blooming in front of the day care.

Bye, bye cold and snow, even the babies are happy about the warm sunshine. Getting outside again has been a long sought after treat. Besides our regular reading time, bubbles and favorite toy playing, we've been busy with painting shamrocks and joining the big kids for Shamrock shakes and coloring Easter eggs.

One of our new girls, Melissa, made a March Lion, along with Eric and Scarlet. We welcome Melissa as well as McKenna to our class. Two great new additions to Oak Lane! Brooke, Pearl, William and Eric have been working on the signs for "eat" and "more" while they have been busy growing like spring weeds.

To be continued....

T. Sheila and T. Savannah

Older Toddlers

We finished up our work on shapes with a week about diamonds. The children made glitter diamonds and wonderful kites. During art appreciation we talked about Monet and created our own version of "Lilli Pads". They were beautiful. The children are becoming quite the little artists!

We then began an adventure into St. Patrick's Day. We painted shamrock shapes with green paint, of course, and also used paint and our fingers to create four-leaf clovers. To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, we enjoyed delicious shamrock shakes with the Preschool class. We also made Leprechaun Pudding.

Next, we started our journey through the colors of the rainbow. Red was a lot of fun. We painted strawberries, made stop signs and played "Pin the Tomato on the Vine". For cooking we made yummy red jello.

We learned about Passover and Easter and made some cute surprises using our feet for our mommies and daddies. We hope everyone liked them. We also colored Easter eggs in many beautiful colors. And to end our week, we had an Easter egg hunt on the playground.

Take a look at the calendar to see what's coming up in April.
 

T. Margaret and T. Christy 

Preschoolers

We started out in March just trying to dig ourselves out of the snow. The children had a great time sledding on the Lower School hill and climbing on the snow banks.

During O-week we made octagon "Stop" signs with which we also practiced counting and recognizing letters. We enjoyed many O-books including "Owen", "Olivia", and "Over in the Meadows". P-week was packed full of fun. We popped popcorn and played in the sensory table with corn feed. For cooking we made our own pizzas and dined on Penne Pasta. The Letter Q was quite difficult. Each child painted a felt square and we put them together to make a friendship quilt.

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day by painting shamrocks and making shamrock shakes. The weather has been fantastic so we enjoyed some picnic lunches ourside. While learning about the letter R we read "Rainbow Fish" and made beautiful glittering fish. The kids had a great time marching in a racoon parade with their hats and masks after we read "Racoon at Clear Creek Road".

During our Easter celebration the children enjoyed dying Easter eggs, going on an egg hunt and coloring many Easter pictures.

Take a look at the calendar to see what's coming up in April.

T. Rachel