Snow, Snow, Go Away... 

Don't come back another day! I think it's safe to say that even the biggest snow lovers have seen enough snow for one season. This unprecedented winter with now 4 snowstorms has slowed down many aspects of our daily lives and it can be frustrating. But since we have no control over what Mother Nature brings us, all we can do is make the best out of it. As I was gazing out of my window early this morning, I spotted a beautiful red fox slowly making it's way through the snow and I realized that even the most annoying snowstorm has it's beautiful moments. And one thing is for sure....Spring will be here eventually! 

Last week, Oak Lane celebrated Chinese New Year thanks to Lynette Oh, Kai and Frederika's mom, who organized a wonderfully exciting morning for all the children. She told the story of how the animals ended up on the Chinese Zodiac and brought in various props that are used to ring in the new year. The children loved playing on the drum, which chases away bad luck. For snack, we had mandarin oranges and fortune cookies and then the children went on to make their toilet paper roll firecrackers. We finished off the celebration with a bang when the children got to stomp on large bubble wrap, which filled the room with firecracker sounds. The Chinese New Year is all about making noise and the children had no problem accomplishing that. Thanks again, Lynette! And we would also like to thank Rebecca Rakes, James' mom, for making her amazing dumplings!

The Race Is On!

Registration for our 5K Cross Country Challenge and 1 Mile Fun Run/Walk on April 18th is now open. A separate e-mail with all the event information will go in the coming days. So be sure to check you inbox for it and forward to it all your friends and family members. 

The race is also on for reaching our Annual Giving goal of $4500. So far, we have raised $3160 and need $1340 more to close the cap. Parent participation is currently at 30% and I believe we can reach 50% by the end of March.

If you have been thinking about writing that check and keep forgetting (I know, the snow can be very distracting), take a second and write yourself a note to do it by Monday or simply make a donation online via PayPal.

If you have not given it any thought yet, please do so now and know that even a small amount can make a big difference.

If you have decided not to make a donation, please reconsider because the Annual Giving Fund plays a crucial part in our budget. Tuition does not cover all the costs of caring for your child and many supporters, including former parents, grandparents and people from the community, have already supported your child's care by making a donation. Please consider joining them with an amount that is comfortable to you. 

Thank you! 

Have you "goodshopped" lately? 

If you are like most people and simply forget to go to www.goodshop.com before making a purchase online, there is a solution. It is the customized Goodshop toolbar that you can install in less than 2 minutes. Once installed, you no longer need to go to www.goodshop.com before doing your shopping online. The toolbar recognizes when you are on a website that they have partnered with and automatically puts the donation amount in Oak Lane's account. 

A great website that has partnered with Goodshop is www.diapers.com, which I use regularly. They carry almost all diapers on the market and ship them to your home within two days for free (orders over $49). They also have great deals and you no longer need to lug the big diaper packages home from the store. 

What does your child learn at Oak Lane?

Over the past decade or so, our society has decided to focus on children's academic skills for various reasons. Some believed that early learning of letters and numbers will give a child an advantage later on in school. Unfortunately, that is not the case. In order for children to engage in more formal lessons, they need to have well developed social and emotional skills. A child with frequent outburst can simply not focus on learning his letters.

So, what do we do at Oak Lane to support the development of social and emotional skills and what are age-appropriate expectations? 

The development of this skills starts in the infant room. Infants learn to regulate their emotions when they learn to fall alseep by themselves. The young toddler learns to be patient and deal with frustration when practicing his feeding skills. They also learn to wait for their turn on the teachers lap. So, even at this young age it is very important that we do not immediately come to a child's rescue and give them an opportunity to experience different emotions before helping the child. 

As children get older, they begin to interact with other children more and more and the typical parallel play of a toddler soons turns into group play with other children, which brings a whole new set of challenges. Soon after children learn the concept that something belongs to them, they are introduced to the oh so difficult concept of sharing. Forcing a child to share should never be the first response to a dispute between two children. It is important for children to learn the value of sharing and for caregivers to respect the child's desire to play with the toy. So, the best solution is usually to give the children some options such as sharing the toy in 2 minutes, playing together with it, agree to take turns, etc. While generally a lot of teacher intervention is necessary in the beginning, the children soon learn to solve the problem on their own. 

Older children such as our preschoolers are also more and more capable of communicating their feelings and talking through a problem instead of just crying. However, the children need to have learned the words needed to express their emotions and need to have been given the opportunity to do so. And that applies to children that are excited about something as well as to children that have made a sad choice. Ever voice needs to be heard and feelings need to be acknowledged in order for this kind of learning to take place. But we need to remember that even a 4-year old cannot be expected to always keep his composure and use his words. However, it is our job to help children learn this skill every day. And as with so many other things, consistency and setting a good example are key! 

Monday, March 1 - Scholastic Book Orders Due
Tuesday, March 9 - Jitterbugs Music
Wednesdays, March 10 & 17 - No Pizza
Friday, March 12 - Inservice Day - OLDC closed
Fri & Mo, April 2 & 5 - Easter - OLDC closed
Saturday, April 10 - Spring Clean-up

Fruit for Snack: tStephanie Walkup, Monique Groenhuysen

Cleaning Toys: Erik and Kelly Gasiewski

Congratulations to Ainsley and Charlotte - they have moved up to T. Margaret and T. Christy's class. After some beginning anxiety, they are adjusting well and love being with the "big kids". At the same time, we welcome Maxwell Lockledge, born 9-20-2009, to our classroom. He is a cutie and seems to like it here at Oak Lane.

Eric and Scarlet have been keeping busy with lots of indoor ball playing, music, dancing and car riding while awaiting better weather to play outside. Brooke and Pearl are enjoying their finger foods and have spent a lot of time practicing their crawling skills and are on the move now, while William and Jocelyn are observing their classmates, probably with visions of someday soon joining in on the fun.

T. Sheila and T. Savannah

Shapes, shapes everywhere! We are continuing to learn about new shapes every week. In February, we introduced starts and they sure were fun. The children sprinkled glitter on large star shape and we also made star-shaped Sheriff badges. For a special art appreciation project, the children created their own rendition of VanGogh's painting "Stary Night". And last but not least, we made starfish with star shapes and bingo markers.

Next we learned about squares. We glued corn square cereal on to a square shape. Then we made presents with ribbon and square shapes. Square Ravioli were on our menu for a special lunch one day. Yummy! We also tried our luck at making dice. It was fun counting the circles to glue on the squares.

Our week on hearts was cut short by the blizzards but we did manage to make a special present for all the moms and dads. We hope you liked them! Next we will learn about ovals and diamonds.

T. Margaret and T. Christy 

Preschoolers

We are continuing with the alphabet curriculum. The kids had a blast gluing licorice onto the letter L. We read "The Grouchy Ladybug" and made amazing lions with great manes. During M week we learned about the different kinds of money - one and five dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.

February was also full of special days. On Groundhog Day we talked about what happens when the groundhog sees his shadow. Our Valentine's crafts were delayed a bit by the big snowstorm but we caught up the following week and also learned about President's Day. For story time we read a lot of Curious George books, which the children enjoyed a lot.

Pancake & Pajama Day was much anticipated at the end of January and was once again a fun day as almost everyone came dressed in their PJ's and ate many many pancakes. Thanks to the parents that helped out.

A great time was also had by all sledding down the Lower School hill. Please continue to bring in all of the snow gear for your child as we continue to play in the snow.

This week we are continuing our alphabet journey with the letter N.

T. Rachel