The beautiful summer of 2012 was filled with the simple pleasures of childhood! Music and singing filled the school, and shouting and laughter rang out as the children ran on the green grass, pumped the swings, played sandcakes and excavation in the sand box, and climbed up the climbing wall to the big green slide.  July and August brought us day after day of warm, bright sunshine.  Every day the pools were filled, and the children enjoyed getting all cool and wet.  They pretended to be fish and mermaids (or mermen!) and did "cannonballs" with a big splash!  They played with toy fish and frogs, and used the watering cans to see if the teachers' toes would grow flowers!  Many days the hose would come out and it would be "raining in town" as the children ran through the "raindrops!"  Orange juice and grape juice poured into cups and placed in the freezer made a simple yet delicious treat that was eagerly anticipated each day.  Toward the end of pool time, the ringing bell would signal the boys and girls to sit on their towels for ice pops!

Weekly themes added to the fun!  "Beach Week," "Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue," "Bugs and Critters," and "Welcome to Treasure Island" were some of the topics around which we planned our activities. We made and displayed big funky sunglasses and marble painted pails and shovels to welcome the summer.  We used shells, beach rocks and plaster of paris to make beautiful sandcastings.  We made dragonflies and ladybugs and painted rocks to make turtles (The pink and purple turtles were especially lovely!)  Paper plate pirates were very cute and everyone loved creating his or her very own Jolly Roger flag! Many paint or glue projects were even  more fun than usual to create because in the summer we bring our art outdoors.  Painting at the easel is inspired when there is the beauty of nature and the sound of birds around us!

Spirals figured prominently in our Summer or 2012!  We had many to show the Shape-osaurus, and a lot of them were on seashells.  The children made collages of colorful paper spirals that looked like fireworks displays  just in time for the Fourth of July!  A curled up ponytail forms a spiral, and one day it was observed that one of our little guys has "many spirals" on his head!  Play dough snakes turn into great spirals, and a little girl's wrap sandwiches were definitely spirals! And every day when we were ready to head outside to the pools, the teachers folded and rolled the children's towels into spiral "babies" which they held and carried very carefully in their arms!  Don't forget to hold the baby's head up! 

Carnival week was fun and included games such as Laundry Basketball, Goin' Fishin', Put the Nose on the Clown (oh, that was funny!), Knock'em Down and more.  We had a visit from a real clown who looked sort of like Miss Laura except for the rainbow hair and big red nose!  The children actually watched this clown suit up and learned that underneath the makeup and big shoes, that all clowns are just regular people like a dad or a mom or even... a teacher! After playing games and earning tickets for a prize, the children enjoyed a treat of watermelon - perfect on a sunny summer day! Our Carnival Days ended with a treasure hunt.  We rolled out the treasure maps we'd made, and followed the trail of clues to the treasure - a basket of bubbles! 

As always, the time passes so quickly and our Hazel Drive summer is over.  But it will linger in our memories as a fun-filled summer tailor-made just for little boys and girls - and the people who love them! 

 ~Miss Laura, Miss Gloria, Miss Hannah and Miss Alanna

          It is hard to believe that our first complete school year is drawing to a close!  It has been a time filled with fun, love and learning.  What a joy it has been to see the children's eager faces as they jump into school activities.  What a joy to hear their stories, their laughter and their singing!  How gratifying to watch them learn and grow! How fulfilling to help them with their needs and dry their little tears!  All the staff of Hazel Drive Early Childhood Center are most grateful for having the privilege of caring for your children.  Thank you so much, families, for your kindnesses, your enthusiasm, and for sharing your lives with us.

     It has been a beautiful late spring as we've watched our surroundings turn lush and green.  We feel very lucky when we find four-leaf clovers on our playground lawn - and we've found quite a few!  One of the children noticed that one of our flowering shrubs, having shed its blossoms, had left butterfly lookalikes on the ground to be collected!  The Big Hoppers decorated the delicate petals, and they did indeed resemble little butterflies!  Just beautiful!

     We  have been learning the life cycle of the butterfly, using, of course, Eric Carle's classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar as the springboard.  The children have made caterpillars using various art media and techniques, and the Big Hoppers have artistically illustrated each phase of the butterfly's life.  Our June calendar even has the pattern: egg on a leaf; caterpillar; cocoon; butterfly; and so on!  We were delighted at the mailman's delivery of a jar of three tiny caterpillars, and have watched their progress as they ate and grew.  The children were fascinated by the cocoons that were spun:  How did those big, fat caterpillars fit into those small cocoons???  The boys and girls made their own cocoons while they waited for the real ones to open.  The children (and their parents, too!) waited patiently for five days.  What was inside our make-believe cocoons?  An alligator?  An elephant?  A giraffe?  That is very silly, those animals don't come out of cocoons!!!  Then out of the real cocoons came 1... 2............. 3... beautiful butterflies!  They emerged into their special butterfly home, because a jar is too small for flying!  We observed them for a few days, and then released them into the great outdoors where they fluttered away to lay some more eggs on leaves! 

     Remember Mr. Pumpkin from last Halloween time?   Have you noticed that he has been standing guard over the pumpkin seeds that we removed from our garden-raised pumpkin last fall?  Many of the children noticed, and it's another way of tying the seasons of our lives together.  This month, Mr. Pumpkin visited us again, and allowed us to plant the seeds that were left after our jack-o'lantern carving.  We dug the soil, filled a cup, poked two holes with our little fingers, and popped a seed in each hole.  We carefully watered the seeds, and put them out in the sun.  How exciting it was to see the little plants pop up!  Some were even wearing seed "hats!"  We transplanted some of them into our garden, and we'll tend them during the summer.  The Big Hoppers illustrated the parts of the plant, and learned about the growth of a seed using dried lima beans on cotton in clear containers.  The result was fascinating because you can see all the parts of the plant - even the roots - as it grows.

May and June bring us two specials days, one for each of two special people!  Mother's Day and Father's Day!  The children worked diligently and enthusiastically to paint their picture frames for Mom and to help wrap them up.  For Father's Day, the children painted plantable flower pots.  When the paint dried, they scooped soil into the containers and placed two little seeds into the soil.  The seeds were covered with a bit more dirt, and watered as needed.  What will grow from these tiny seeds?  Sunflowers!  Sunflowers grow very, very tall, and they are big and strong, too, just like Daddy. The children were excited about their gifts which take patience and nurturing...  Just like being a mother or father!!

The children made lots of beautiful artwork which adorned the walls for our End-of-the-Year Celebration and Show!  The Little Bunnies made colorful collages from torn paper strips, and bits of tissue paper using their fingers and eyes and imagination, and a little bit of glue (or sometimes A LOT!)  The Big Hoppers made self-portraits that were drawn with markers and accented by real yarn hair.  They wrote their names with our "no tears" adaptation of teaching writing, and it was very nicely done by all!  Everyone used tempera and brushes to make paintings that were just gorgeous, and we also had a wall of lovely crayon art. 

We enjoyed practicing our songs and dances for our show!  All of the boys and girls participated and many parents reported hearing "This Land is Your Land' or bits of "Grandpa's Farm" or "Red is Rojo..." in their homes!  And wasn't it awesome to hear them recite the Pledge of Allegiance?  What a treat to see so many children and family members at school to mark this very important day in the life of Hazel!   Our gratitude goes out to you for your warmth and kindness throughout the year and for making it such a successful year for the children!

We thank you, and wish you a very happy summer!

Miss Laura, Miss Gloria, Mrs. Shirley, Miss Donna and Miss Michele

A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR:

It is my wish to publicly thank my teaching staff for their hard work, their kindness, their patience, their loving arms and comfortable armchair laps, their creativity and their devotion to meeting the needs of all the wonderful children in our care.  We are a dedicated team, and Hazel is so blessed by your presence.  THANK YOU!!! 

Laura

             The children of Hazel Drive have grown noticeably even as we watch the growing all around us as springtime unfolds! We have immersed ourselves in many sights, sounds and experiences of the season!  A nature walk around our school reveals azaleas, lilacs, and new leaves in many shades.  We were so pleased to find pussy willows growing here and there around our school yard!  We asked Mr. Fix-It to climb up on his ladder to clip some for us.  Everyone enjoyed touching the fuzzy buds and learning this song:

When the first warm breezes blow, there's a little friend I know,                         

Pussy willow! Pussy willow!

When the furry buds appear, then I know that spring is near,

Pussy willow in the spring!

The Kindergarten children made chicks from plastic pastel eggs and placed them in nests carefully and lovingly made from strips of paper that they cut.  The young ones painted  paper eggs, and when dry "cracked" them with the scisssors.  A cute little chick was placed inside, and with the help of a brass fastener, was able to come out and say "Peep! Peep! Happy Spring!"  Miss Gloria brought a book that her son made  many years ago when he was in second grade.  He'd brought two little chicks home from his classroom to visit for the weekend.  The children were very engaged by the story, and wanted to hear it over and over again.  It was also used as a springboard to teach the life cycle of a chicken, but we never did answer the age-old question, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg???"  We had a lot of fun painting and displaying some very colorful foam eggs, too. 

We learned a song in Spanish about the baby chicks.  The children learned the meanings of the words as they acted out the story.  Did you know that "Peep, peep, peep" translates to "Pio, pio, pio" in Spanish?  It was very cute to hear all of the pollitos peeping for the mother hen to feed them and keep them warm!

All the boys and girls enjoyed hearing the story of the mother frog who laid her eggs in the pond.  A big piece of blue felt represented the water, and the children were fascinated to watch the many eggs turn into tadpoles and then froglets!  They also wanted to hear this story again and again. We sang "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" and the children took turns jumping into the cool water.

The Shape-osaurus returned to teach us about triangles.  Miss Laura pulled many triangular objects out of her apron pocket, including an instrument that sounds like a bell, but is simply called a "triangle!"  We played a game called "Who's That Tapping at My Window" where the triangle was passed around and everyone had a turn to play it and have his or her name sung in the song.  It sounded beautiful, and very different from when we play the game with a wood tone block.  The Shape-osaurus is very happy now because he is surrounded by colorful ice cream cones.  The cones are triangles and there are little triangular sprinkles.  Right across the room is the Hazel Drive Pizzeria with what else, triangular slices of pizza with vegetables!  Hmmmm!  Because the Shape-osaurus also like circles, we put on some pepperoni, too!  The children loved Miss Gloria's original story about a girl who receives an envelope in the mail and it is filled with triangles!  What will she do with them?

Our learning of the alphabet and letter sounds continued with the letter "R" in our ABC box.  The Big Hoppers are reinforcing their counting skills using Cheerios and other objects and are learning beginning subtraction.  Concepts such as "more than," "fewer than," and "same as" or "equal" have been introduced. The children traced and colored their hands to help them learn their left and right.  Of course, every day when we recite the Pledge of Allegiance we reinforce that concept.

Every day the children have time to play with toys and pretend, such an important part of childhood!  They use train sets, dress-up clothes, toy dishes and food, stuffed animals, dolls, cars, blocks, building toys, and their wonderful imaginations to learn and grow through play.  It is an awesome thing to observe and to participate in as well!

We keep the children moving through games, songs, dancing and outdoor play!  One of our favorite ways to break a sweat is our "Exercise Song."  We take turns deciding what the next exercise will be, for example, jumping jacks, stretching, knee lifts, sit-ups or bicycling. Then we count ten repetitions in English - - and ten more in Spanish!  We continue the exercise as we sing the chorus: " Exercise, exercise! Come on everybody do your exercise..."

Sunshine and flowers to you!

Miss Laura, Miss Gloria, Mrs. Shirley, Miss Donna and Miss Michele 

March was a wonderful month of laughter and learning at Hazel Drive Early Childhood Center!  We enjoyed all kinds of weather, from winter to a summer preview, as we watched in awe the coming of spring!  Mr. Ground Hog continued to draw his pictures and teach us about the signs of spring, even as we enjoyed sledding in our play yard after a late winter snow.  There are leaves growing up where the children planted tulip bulbs last fall and there are buds showing where the flowers will bloom.  The grass is greening up, and the birds have returned, singing their sweet melodies. 

Mr. Ground Hog was joined in his burrow (Miss Laura's apron pocket!) by a self-avowed "grumpy little man" known as the leprechaun.  When the children woke up Mr. Ground Hog, the leprechaun came out and complained about the "big, hairy beast" that was occupying his sleeping quarters!  Of course, the children laughed because Mr. Ground Hog is anything but!  Some children guessed that the little guy was a scarecrow, and another thought he was a jack-in-the-box.  This made the leprechaun hop up and down, upside-down, shouting in his brougue, "Don't call me a jack-in-the-box!  And don't call me a scarecrow!"  Well, it so happens that the leprechaun loves green, and soon all the boys and girls were pointing out the green on their shirts and shoes to him.  The Little Bunnies mixed blue, yellow and white to make "shades of green" which were given interesting names such as "Hop-Toad Pond" and "Spring Mist."  He also enjoyed the shamrocks on the calendar which were counting the days of March. He had a little green paper basket that was filled with yellow circles - GOLD!  How the leprechaun loved his gold - he even slept in it!  We sang a song about the leprechaun, as Miss Gloria tried to find him and his pot of gold.  We sang "I'll run and run, but they'll never catch me..." and Miss Gloria caught... Oh, no, Miss Gloria, that's one of the children!  Miss Gloria, you'd better clean your glasses!  All the children laughed as they angled to be the next one mistaken for the leprechaun! He insisted that he would not share his gold, even when Mrs. Shirley explained how nice it is to share.  We sang a sharing song to him:

It's mine, but you can have some,

With you I want to share it,

'Cause if I share it with you,

You'll have some, too!

Initially, he was unmoved.  However, after visiting our school for many days, and observing the children saying "please" and "thank you" and sharing their toys and crayons, the leprechaun softened, and one late March day the circles of gold were thrown into the air and came fluttering down, and the children collected it in their own green paper baskets.

Meanwhile, what of Mr. Ground Hog, who was still hibernating in his burrow?  He continued to emerge each day at the gentle beckoning of the children, and observe the changes in nature around us.  One day though, he said he was getting very hungry from not having eaten all winter.  Spring was almost here, and he would soon be scampering off into the woods to find some food.  Each one of the children gave Mr. Ground Hog a hug and a kiss.  We'd become very fond of him!  We know he'll be back next year when the leaves start to change.  He also said to be on the lookout for his cousin the woodchuck who might want to share our green beans again this summer!

The Big Hoppers are learning about the life cycle of the frog (rana) through instruction and craft projects.  The hands-on creation of the eggs, tadpoles, froglets and frogs (from which once again come the eggs) is a very vivid and therefore memorable illustration of yet another cycle in nature.

We sing a song about spring that all the boys and girls just love.  The children pretend to be and to do lots of things that spring brings!  Then we spell it with the big letters on display

"S- -P- -R-I-N-G!

S- -P- -R-I-N-G!"

As always, March included pretending, painting, water play and building and playing with toys.  We play many a game to help us practice our colors, learn to count, and take turns.  We use intruments to keep a beat and make melodies. And we dance and sing, sing, sing! 

Enjoy the longer days and the arrival of spring!

Love, Miss Laura, Miss Gloria, Mrs. Shirley, Miss Donna and Miss Michele