The Holiday Spirit is upon us! 

Thanks to the generosity of our wonderful parents; children and teachers were in awe when they saw the advent calendar displayed at the daycare. Every morning, one of the classrooms gets to open a bag with a little surprise in it.

We were also surprised by a very generous donation of books, puzzles and other toys by the Henderson Family, a former Oak Lane family, whose daughter Lena graduated from Oak Lane three years ago. It just so happened that a few days laster, Lena visited Oak Lane with her Brownie Troop. Emma and Aaliyah, two other former Oak Lane children, were also part of the group. They all sang some songs to the children and then did a reindeer craft with them. At the end, the 2nd grade students read books to the children and then gave them the books to keep. The children enjoyed the company of the older children very much.

The highlight of the Holiday Season will be our Holiday Show with the performances of the Older Toddlers and Preschoolers. It starts at 9 a.m. and will last about 15 to 20 minutes. We hope you can all join us and stay for refreshments after the show.

Important - Christmas Week Attendance

Please take a moment to let us know if your child's schedule will be different the week of Christmas. I will be on vacation starting Monday, December 21 and will return on Monday, January 4 when the day care reopens and need to make sure that the daycare is adequately staffed. T. Margaret will be in charge during my absence. Thanks for your help!

Have you voiced your opinion, yet?

www.yellowpages.com, www.merchantcircle.com, www.childcareratingz.com, www.yahoo.com, www.local.com, www.superpages.com,

Give the Gift of Education 

Oak Lane's Annual Giving Campaign is under way  and so far we have raised $1570. This year our need is greater than ever before and we hope you will join us in reaching our goal of  100% parent participation. As a parent you also have the option of making a smaller monthly donation with your tuition. If you would like to choose this option, let us know.  

Parent Fundraising Update:
Ruby's Diner: $60
Giant Gift Cards: $100
Goodshop.com: $49

Snow Gear

The temperatures have dipped below freezing and therefore, it is very important that every child has proper clothing for going outdoors. We got outside every day except for when it is extremely cold or raining.

Your child needs:

• a heavy winter coat - lots of layers make it very difficult for the children to learn to dress themselves.
• a pair of mittens - NOT gloves 
• a hat that stays on
• proper footwear

For snow days:

• a snowsuit                            
• boots
• hat and mittens

School Closing Information is available at www.oaklanedaycare.org 

Wednesday, December 16 - Holiday Show @ 9:00
Thursday, December 24 - OLDC closed until Jan. 1
Tuesday, January 12 - Jitterbugs Music
Wednesday, January 27 - Pancake & Pajama Day @ 9 a.m.

Fruit for Snack: Stephanie Walkup
Classroom Visitor: Monique Groenhuysen, Lara Krawchuk

It's Holiday Time! Between Christmas and Hanukkah, all thoughts are festive. The Infants and Young Toddler Class have been enjoying the sights and sounds of the season. Anything with sparkles or lights is a big hit.

Ainsly, Charlotte, Eric and Scarlet even made beautiful snowflakes and snowmen. They had fun using the fingerpaint to decorate the snowflakes and were busy sponging the snow (white paint) around their snowmen. Come and see our artwork!

The young ones, Brooke, Pearl, William and Jocelyn have all been showing serious sign of growth spurts, with intermittent bursts of lots of sleep or very little sleep, lots of smiles or very little smiles. Either way, we have fun helping them have a great day at Oak Lane. William loves to gobble down his sweet potatoes. Pearl and Brooke can often be found sitting across from each other and playing together. Jocelyn started to babble and is very proud of herself when she gets out little sounds.  

The whole class has been really enjoying all the holiday music and singing. We wish everyone a great holiday and vacation. See you next year!

T. Sheila and T. Savannah

Older Toddlers

December has been a busy month. We talked about all the different holidays and made lots of crafts. We created Christmas lights with paint brushes and glitter. They will brighten up our classroom until Christmas. For another project, we used string, glue and glitter to create a surprise for moms and dads. We also used paint sticks, hex nuts and film canisters to create another holiday surprise. Can you guess what we made?

A big part of our month was spent practicing for our Holiday Show. We even have costumes. We can't wait to show you our talent!

This week Zachary's mom, Lara, came to talk to us about Hanukkah and brought us potato latkes and applesauce to try for snack. The latkers were yummy and most children ate them. Thank you, Lara!

Marianna's mom, Monica, come with some Westtown students to teach the children about Mexican Christmas traditions. The children listened to a story and then made colorful lanterns with the help of the students. At the end, all the children got to pull on a pinata and lots of goodies came out. Thank you, Monica!

T. Margaret and T. Christy 

Preschoolers

We started off December with the letter H. The children enjoyed making hippo hats and handprint snowmen. The highlight of the week was cooking and eating the Hollow Honey Beehive Bread. The children enjoyed rolling out the dough and then we braided the rolls into a beehive shape.

 Next we learned about Hanukkah. We made special menorahs and played with dreidels. We read "Hanukkah Night, Hanukkah Lights", "The Chanukah Giest" and "Celebrating Chanukah". We were happy to have Kevin's mom, Monique, speak to us aobut St. Nicholas Day. We learned about the origin of Santa Claus and then we colored pictures of St. Nicholas.

We have been practicing very hard for our holiday program and are looking forward to singing our songs to our friends and familis. We will spend the next week making fabulous Christmas crafts. We hope everyone has a fantastic holiday season. We will continue with the letter G when we return to school in January.

T. Rachel