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This week, we are highlighting Bitty Sprouts B, our older infant program. Our teachers in this classroom are ​Miss Cheryll​ and ​Miss Kiana​, working with children between 6 months and one year old. ​Miss Cheryll ​has cared for children for most of her life, but has been working in formal childcare for four years. Her favorite thing about working with infants is watching them grow up and learn; it is such an exciting time in their little lives! In her free time, she likes to spend time with her two pups.​ Miss Kiana ​is the newest staff member at Little Sprouts. She loves working with infants because they are easy to talk to! She loves to hike in her free time. We are so excited to have her on our team!

One new addition to Bitty B has been a set of stacking bowls. There are ten multi-colored bowls, which all connect together. Our kiddos have been enjoying stacking and unstacking these bowls in order (or not in order!). The skills utilized with this new manipulative toy include gross motor, fine motor, logic, and mathematics!

An exciting sensory experience that our older infants had over the holidays was working with salt dough – a mixture of salt, flour, and water. They were able to feel this new texture, and pressed their handprints into the salt dough to create holiday ornaments for our parents. ​Sensory activities facilitate exploration and naturally encourage children to
use scientific processes while they play, create, investigate and explore.

This week, we are focusing on Busy C, one of our three year old classrooms!

Our teachers in Busy C are Miss Marissa and Miss Sarah! Miss Marissa has been working in child care for almost three years here at Little Sprouts. Her favorite thing about working with three year olds is the stories they tell! In her free time, she likes to hike. Miss Sarah loves helping children learn and explore new topics and concepts. She is a recent transplant to Colorado, and is excited to see what our beautiful state has to offer.

One exciting skill we work on in our three year old classroom is cutting! Our Busy C friends have been getting some good practice holding scissors, using fine motor skills, hand strength, and dexterity through cutting magazines. They are able to pick and choose which photos they want to cut out, or even cut straight through photos!

Busy C recently did an exciting science project, which utilized the skills of measuring, mixing, hypothesizing, and recording data! This experiment was called ‘the dancing popcorn’. The children put a raw corn kernel in water, and observed that nothing occurred. Then, with a 1 cup scoop and teaspoon, they added vinegar and baking soda and observed. When both ingredients were added, the corn kernel danced and moved around in the bubbles. It was exciting to see the kiddos wonder what will happen, and see the results!

This week we are focusing on Bitty Sprouts A, our younger infant program, with ages 6 weeks to 6 months. Our teachers are Miss Cristi and Miss Tori. Miss Cristi has been working with Little Sprouts for six years, since we first opened in 2012! Her favorite thing about working with infants is snuggling with them! She has been married for 25 years and has three kiddos. Miss Tori has been working with children for six years and has been with Little Sprouts since August. Her favorite thing about working with infants is watching them grow! In her free time, she enjoys watching hockey and loves Harry Potter.

In this classroom, feeding, diapering, and sleeping are all on demand. Miss Cristi and Miss Tori are knowledged about each infant’s normal schedule at home, as well as how they express their needs and wants while in our care. While they are not verbal in this room, they definitely know how to communicate with their caregivers!

Recently, Bitty Sprouts A has been implementing a foldable block mirror during the day. Our smaller infants have been enjoying their ‘tummy time’ in front of this block mirror, and the older infants have been enjoying free play in front of it. This is similar to our large mirror, which is in the cozy area of Bitty A. While relaxing and playing, our infants are working on facial recognition, observing themselves, and discerning their own faces from others.

This week, our school is highlighting Busy Sprouts B, our four to five year old program (Pre-K) with Miss Sam and Miss Yomaris. Miss Sam has been working with children for eleven years – beginning her educational journey as a youth basketball coach in college. Her favorite thing about working with four year olds is seeing the results, for example when children combine their skills to work through situations. In her spare time, Miss Sam creates artwork and jewelry, and has a passion for animals. Miss Yomaris has been working with children since 8th grade, where she assisted her mother at a summer camp. Her favorite thing about working with this age is their curiosity – they are like little sponges for learning! Miss Yomaris loves being positive, and making the best of every situation!

One exciting concept that has been implemented in Busy B has been Spanish Circle Time in the afternoons. Miss Yomaris is from Puerto Rico, and shares her passion for bilingual learning with our children. During this circle time, we learn in a variety of ways. Busy B has songs about colors, numbers, and body parts, and are working on how to present themselves in Spanish (name, age, etc) through conversation. They read books in English, Spanish, and a combination of the two. This has been a great experience, with awesome results!

Earlier in the month, Busy B held a taste test of ingredients like crackers, pickles, coconut, lemon, and raisin bread. Yum! They used their math and logic skills to vote on their favorite taste, and see which food was the most popular. Check the graph out in the hallway outside of Busy B this week!

This week, we are focusing on Waddling Sprouts A. Waddling Sprouts A works with 12 to 20 month children – our teachers are Miss Sara and Miss Sabrina! Miss Sara loves working with younger children, and especially loves dancing and music time. In her free time, Miss Sara is a musician, who plays guitar and keyboard, as well as singing. Miss Sabrina has been working with young children for 6 years, and was a youth correctional officer before childcare. In her free time, she loves to crochet.

One developmental area that Miss Sara and Sabrina really strive towards for their kiddos is expressing needs and wants through sign language. Waddling A can sign the words ‘eat’, ‘more’, ‘please’, and ‘sorry’ to help express their needs. They are working on more complex signs, such as ‘baby’, ‘cracker’, ‘banana’, and more! Check out the photos below of us practicing our signs!

Waddling Sprouts A also works on fine motor skills through unique art experiences. They clipped clothespins onto cotton balls and used those as paintbrushes! Miss Sara and Miss Sabrina dipped these ‘paintbrushes’ into watercolor paint, and helped the children hold and create with them. They also used orange tissue paper, glue, and orange paint to create Halloween pumpkins recently. Look on their walls to find more fun, spooky artwork 🙂