Second Harvest Food Bank

For the month of November, we asked families to bring in non-perishable food items to donate to Second Harvest Food Bank. To inspire some competition between all of our classrooms, we offered $100 in items for their classroom to the class that brought in the most items. Here are our top three classes:

 In third place having a total of 76 items goes to...



 Ms. Shancie and our PS3 friends! Great job!


And in second place with a grand total of 144 is...

Our Nursery friends! 

Our first place winner with a total of 220 items goes to our....

TODDLERS! Great job friends! Way to GO!

A special thank you to all of the families that participated in our food drive!

PS1 friends had a total of 56 items...

Pre-K had a total of 39 items and our PS2 class had 16 items donated! Way to Go Holly Tree Families! 

For more information about how you can contribute to Second Harvest Food Bank, please visit: http://www.secondharvestmidtn.org

For more information about our program visit our website at: http://www.hollytreechildcare.com

Thanksgiving Family Feast!

Today we had our Thanksgiving Feast. We had many family members come and enjoy lunch with us today!

Enjoying extra time with mommy!

Everyone Lining up for the yummy food that Mrs. Sara worked so hard on. 

PS1 having a blast with their parents and grandparents!

 Best friends having fun on this great day!

Playing with dad before nap-time!



To learn more about our program, please visit our website at
http://www.hollytreechildcare.com 

Proper Hand Washing to Help Keep Colds Away!

What is the proper ways to wash your hands? Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to complete a training on health procedures in a childcare setting. The training covered various sanitation methods and the proper way to wash hands. I would like to share with you what I discovered through my training and some other helpful things I learned on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website.

First, when and how do you wash your hands? There are many times when you need to wash your hands.  These times include: before, during and after meal prep, before and after caring for someone who is sick, before and after cleaning a cut or wound, after using the restroom, after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing, after throwing away garbage, and after playing with animals or handling their food.  Doing these few things will not only help keep you healthy, but your child as well.

How should you wash your hands? First, you need to wet your hands with warm water then apply soap. Lather your hands by rubbing them together until you have cleaned the fingers, nails, and front/backs. You should scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds before you rinse the soap off. You should leave the water running and grab a paper towel, dry your hands off, then, use the paper towel to turn off the water. This will keep your clean hands from getting re-contaminated.

It is very tempting to use hand sanitizer, however, washing your hands is the best way to kill germs according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Also, hand sanitizer does not kill all germs and it is not effective when your hands are noticeably dirty or greasy.  If you do use hand sanitizer, you should follow the same steps as if you were using soap. 

If done appropriately, hand washing is a simple thing that everyone  can do to keep themselves and their families healthy.  

For more information, about proper hand washing, please visit: http://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/when-how-handwashing.html

For more information about our program, please visit our website at: http://www.hollytreechildcare.com 

Branches Bolt

On Thursday, October 30th, we had our annual Branches Bolt! We went out to our ITERS playground and ran our mini marathon that afternoon! The children had so much fun running outside with their friends. Here is a recap in case you missed the fun! 

We had such a fun time running in our Branches Bolt marathon! 

Ms. Erica even joined in the running fun! 

This was lap number 5!

We were starting to get a little tired.

Last and final lap!

To learn more about our program, please visit our website at http://www.hollytreechildcare.com 

Exploring Pumpkin Guts!

Our Preschool 2 friends had such fun time exploring their pumpkin!

Our Preschool 3 friends wanted to pose with the top of their pumpkin 

Preschool 3 called their pumpkin "The Magic Pumpkin" 

Our Toddlers took a few minutes to warm up to the "pumpkin guts"! 

We loved exploring pumpkin guts!

To learn more about our program, please visit http://www.hollytreechildcare.com 

How To Stay Warm In Cold Weather

It's that time of year where the weather is getting colder, and bundling up becomes very important! Children have a harder time regulating their body temperature, so being extra cautious is a must when being outside! Follow these easy tips for staying warm when being outside!

• Bundle Up: The most important thing is to keep your child properly dressed. Bundle them in warm layers and make sure they wear a hat, scarf, gloves, or some other combination to keep their hands, neck, and head warm. The body gets cold faster in wet clothing, so keep little hands and feet dry. Check clothes and gloves periodically to make sure they are still dry, and change any wet clothes immediately.
• Set Limits: Keep tabs on how long your child plays outdoors while it's cold. A few hours spent outside is fine, but if it is very winy or cold, the chance of overexposure and consequent conditions like frostbite can increase. Bring your child inside every 30-60 minutes to warm them up with hot apple cider or hot chocolate. 
• Beware Frostnip and Frostbite: Frostnip is like a warning sign for frostbite, and occurs when cold temperatures damage the skin and blood vessels. Frostbite is literally the freezing of the body, from the skin in. 
• Come In And Warm Up: If you suspect frostnip, remove any circulation-restricting or wet clothing right away! Tell your child to wiggle his fingers and toes to increase circulation. Place their hand and foot in very warm water (just over 100 degrees), until the area flushes and turns pink. For other areas, place warm towels on them or cover them with blankets and let them cozy up. If they have frostbite, don't warm them by the fire or with really hot water bottles, or heating pads, as frostbitten skin is easily burned. Don't pop any blisters, and if there are lots of blisters, or if any blister is bigger than a nickel, call your pediatrician right away.

For more information on this topic, please visit, http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=10204

For more information about our program, please visit http://www.hollytreechildcare.com