Green Our Scene Family Picnic

In honor of "Green Our Scene," Holly Tree invited all of our families for an afternoon of food, fun & soaking up the sunshine with our Annual Green Our Scene Family Picnic! Families were invited to bring picnic blankets and come eat lunch with us. We offered the attending families their choice of a salad or sandwich lunch. We took all of our children outside to enjoy this beautiful day under clear, sunny skies. After we were all finished with our lunches, that's when the real fun began! Here are some photos from the picnic in case you missed it:

Ms. April enjoys turkey sandwiches in the shade with Preschool One. I think they could all get use to this:)

The Alexander family stops to enjoy a nice picnic in the grass with Bill in our Toddler room, and Mira in our Preschool 3 classroom.

Of course, Ms. Courtney could not resist loving on our sweet toddler, Charlie.

Ms. Elizabeth's PreK classroom commented that they "love picnic day"! The rest of us definitely do too!

The Craven family stops to pose for a photo in between bites.

Preschool 2 finishes up their Capri-Suns and seems to be planning their next move.

Trey & James look towards the play equipment and think about ways to get the post-lunch energy out!

Owen decides he is ready to bounce!

 Ms. April & Chloe join in with Owen on all of the bouncing fun!

Clearly, a fun time was had by all :)

A special thank you to all of our parents that came out to enjoy the afternoon with us. We hope that everyone had as much fun as we did!

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

 Eggs-travaganza!

On Saturday April 19th, we invited the community & all Holly Tree families & friends to celebrate the Easter holiday at our Eggs-travaganza! We celebrated with games, an Easter egg hunt, fun snacks, & a visit from a very special furry friend. Here is a look at the event, in case you missed it:

Who is hopping down the bunny trail at Holly Tree?!

It's Peter Cotton-Tail! Logan & Jayson of Preschool 3 & PreK classrooms pose for a sweet photo with Peter Cotton-Tail himself!

Greetings from our welcome table! Ms. Sara & Ms Courtney flash families their beautiful smiles as they were handing out brochures, egg hunt bags, & other goodies!

The first stop for Charlie was our bubble station. Children used bubble wands of all sizes to create different types of bubbles. Of course, we had to add our famous bubble machine! No bubble station would be complete with out it:) .

Ms. Michelle is ready for our friends to come and join her around the crafts table! We had fun Easter eggs to design!

We were so happy the Thomas family stopped to see us on this beautiful day! Sophia, of Ms. Makenya's Infant 2 class & dad were soaking up the sun while mom & older brother William hit the Easter egg hunt full force!

Popcorn or cotton candy anyone? Ms. Shanice cooked up some treats for our families to enjoy!

Ms. Katelyn put her artistic skills to good use as she offered face painting & a festive tattoo station for the children to enjoy. Kaeson was excited to have an Easter egg drawn on his cheek!

Bill (top photo), Vincent- Isaac & mom (bottom photo) bounce through the day in our moon bounce! As you can see, they are all smiles here!

Let the egg hunt activities begin! Alyssa is showing mom & dad exactly how this egg hunt business works as she fills her basket with our colorful eggs.

AJ of  our PreK classroom brought the BIG bucket out for this egg hunt. It looks like he came fully prepared this year!

A special thank you to all of the families that came out and participated in this event! It was a blast!

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

S-t-r-e-t-c-h Your Child's Attention

    Young children often like to travel from one activity to the next. As your child gets older, a longer attention span will help them learn in school.You can increase your child's ability to focus with these helpful ideas:

Build Up Gradually: As a rule of thumb, your child should be able to focus for the number of minutes matching their age, plus one minute. Start there! For example, have a four year old work on putting away toys for five minutes. Also, you may want to increase a minute at a time when you feel the child is ready.

Look & Listen: Think of ways that you can turn everyday tasks into concentration activities. In the car, you may ask your child to look for words on signs that start with the first letter in their name. You can also ask your child to listen for a special word or phrase that they hear on the radio and clap each time they hear it.

Make It a Game: Work together to make up a series of movements, adding a new movement each turn. For instance, you could begin by touching your toes. Then, your youngster has to touch their toes and add another motion, such as spinning around. The child will need to pay close attention to remember the sequence of movements.

Here are some examples of some game ideas that are great to use during times you and your child may be waiting. These are fun ideas that will help stretch your child's attention span!

1. Take the change out of your pocket and encourage your little one to sort it. Tell them the names of the coins and talk about how they are alike & different. For example, "The quarters and dimes are both silver. The quarters are big and the dimes are small."
2. Work on counting forward and even backward, depending on your child's skill level. For an extra challenge, have your child attempt to start counting at a number other than one. For instance, if you say, "7...," he would continue "8,9,10."
3. Do an alphabet search. Look around and find the letter a on a sign or poster. Take turns finding the letters in order until you find the letter Z.

Information courtesy of Resources for Educators. For more information, please visit their website at: http://www.rfeonline.com

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

Chalk & Bubble Party Day!

    With the weather warming up, who wouldn't want to spend the day outside soaking up sun? We decided to ring in the Spring season with a chalk & bubble party! We gathered bubble machines, bubble wands, sidewalk chalk, a batch of "bubble juice" (dish soap + water), and a group of excited Holly Tree children to join in on the festivities. Sounds like a recipe for fun to me! 

The Toddler and Preschool 1 classrooms kicked off the event. Layers of bubbles covered the parking lot as excited friends ran out to pop the bubbles that floated by.

 Trey from Preschool 1 shows off his bubble wand skills as he attempts to make a some BIG bubbles.

 (From left to right) Owen, Zane, & Brody jump up and down with excitement as tons of bubbles pour out of our bubble machine!

 (From left to right) Toddlers Layla, Bill, & Mason try there hand in making BIG bubbles with the "bubble juice!"

Meanwhile, at another bubble wand station, Bennett & Chloe enjoy mixing the suds!

 With a little help from Alyssa, Bennett decorates his name!

 Forget dancing in the rain, according to Ms. Jenna and Zane dancing in bubbles is much more appealing!

 Toddler Eva carefully selects her next piece of chalk that will assist her in making a masterpiece!

 Pre-k student AJ, is entirely ready to soak up the sunshine and get the Preschool/Pre-K bubble and chalk party started!

 Preschool 3 friends (from left to right), Miguel, Maddox, & Anna-Claire quickly find the source of the bubble madness and get to work on "bubble popping!"

With a little help from Preschool 2, Preschool 3, & Pre-K, I think it is safe to say we have the most decorated parking lot in the neighborhood!

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

The Week of the Young Child

    The Week of the Young Child is an annual celebration sponsored by the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children). According to the NAEYC website, "..the purpose of the week of the young child is to focus attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs." We did a variety of activities this week to observe the event. On Wednesday, April 9th, we decided to focus our attention on one of our all time favorite childhood authors, Eric Carle and one of our favorite books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Here are some of the highlights from our day:

Aidan shows us the book of the day: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, after it was read to Ms. Elizabeth's Pre-K class.

 Meet our special treat, Mr. Caterpillar! He is made up of vanilla cupcakes, colored vanilla frosting, and gummy worms! Each classroom received their own Mr. Caterpillar snack to help celebrate this special day.

I can think of some more "very hungry caterpillars" in Ms. Chelsea's Preschool 2 classroom that cannot wait to get their hands on this treat! 

Mason from our Toddler room wastes no time and digs right in!

Here is a snap shot of our "very hungry" snack time in Ms. Samantha & Ms. Katelyn's class!

Our featured "very hungry" artist: Ms. Alyssa from our Toddler class with this VERY adorable hand print caterpillar.

For more information about The Week of the Young Child, please visit: http://www.naeyc.org/woyc/faq#what

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