March News – Millburn
Reminders and Notices
DROP-OFF TIMES
Early Drop-off is from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM (incremental fee applies)
Regular Morning drop-off time is from 9:00 AM to 9:30 AM.
Regular Afternoon drop-off time is from 12:30 PM to 1:00 PM.
DISMISSAL TIMES
AM children......11:15 AM to 11:30 AM promptly
PM/ALL DAY children.......2:45 PM to 3:00 PM promptly
Afterschool program begins at 3pm (incremental fee applies)
Parent – Teacher Conferences, Wed March 8th afternoon- half day session (sign-up genius
email has been sent out).
PROGRESS REPORT II will be sent home in the 3rd week of March.
SUMMER CAMP:
Information and Registration for the 2017 Alpine Summer Camp was emailed to all families
on February 16th. The camp will run from June 12th - August 4th. For the first time after
care services will be offered to 5pm in June and to 3pm in July and August ($5/hour). The
first few weeks fill up very quickly so do not hesitate to register as soon as possible.
NOTE: Please bring in a change of clothing and underwear (diapers, pull-ups) for your
child. Children still have accidents and we do not have the appropriate size clothing for all
children. Please return any clothing borrowed from the school the next day.
March Curriculum/Events
I. SCIENCE/NATURE
A. WEATHER
1. What is wind? (Air moving across the surface of the earth)
2. How does the wind form? (Warm air coming up meets cool air coming down)
3. How does rain form? (heavy clouds release water, review of the rain cycle, visual aids)
4. How do clouds form? When do we see a rainbow and what are the colors.
We also went on to explain severe weather conditions that may occur in March such as
lightning/thunder, hail, floods and tornadoes. Literature Link: What Will the Weather
Be? By Linda DeWitt (This picture book explains how a meteorologist can forecast the
weather by the use of maps, balloons, planes and wind direction to measure temperature.)
B. THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Classroom discussion of planets, stars, moon and space
Various discoveries that occurred in March (discovery of Jupiter and Uranus’ rings, first
fuel rocket launched)
C. OUR FIVE SENSES (Hearing and Tasting)
1. HEARING
A. 3 PARTS OF THE EAR:
Outer (flap), Middle (3 bones), Inner (cochlea and semicircular canals). A simple
discussion centers on how the ear functions, how sound enters the outer ear, hits the
eardrum and middle ear and changes into nerve signals in the inner ear. The signals are
transmitted to the brain to identify the sound.
B. SOUND VARIATIONS EXPERIMENT
1. Glasses or jars are filled up with different amounts of water. Sound variations will be
observed and we will “play” a song using the various sounding jars.
2. Auditory sound games and sound effects CD’s are used with the children during
auditory discrimination games.
C. SIGN LANGUAGE
Sign language is an additional way of communicating with others. All children will be
introduced and practice the alphabet and some common phrases in sign language. The
children will love to demonstrate some sign language they have learned at school!
2. TASTING
The function of the tongue, taste buds, function in the eating process, how the tongue
can distinguish between sweet, sour, bitter and salty (tasting experiment).
II. OUR WORLD/HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY
A. Alexander Graham Bell (March 10, 1847): Taught deaf children, modeled the
phone after the human ear and invented records.
1. Using 911: The children were shown how to dial 911 and what are some emergency
situations that require immediate help (choking, falling, fire, and drowning).
2. Learning our own telephone number.
We extended the history of the telephone by having the children learn their own phone
numbers in case of an emergency. They will practice their number on a telephone and
participate in related telephone activities.
B. WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH
1. Maria Montessori: first woman to graduate from the University of Rome, overview of
her childhood, passion for teaching and education and viewing vintage pictures of Maria
Montessori as a teacher in the early 1900’s.
2. Rosa Parks: Civil Rights pioneer
3. Jane Goodall: Lived/studied chimpanzees in Africa. She found similarities to humans
and wanted all to respect the importance to the chimpanzee.
4. Sally Ride: In 1983, Sally became the 1st U.S. woman astronaut to orbit the earth and
space as well as Valentina Tereshkova (cosmonaut) first Russian woman in space.
5. Mary Leakey: Led the expedition that found oldest footprints of humans from over a
half million years ago.
6. Amelia Earhart: First woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean
C. GEOGRAPHY
We will begin to introduce important sites, monuments, and structures to the children
and the country they are located in. (The Eiffel Tower, The Tower of Pisa, Big Ben, The
Coliseum, Stonehenge.)
III. ART APPRECIATION
A. Vincent Van Gogh, born March 30, 1853
Key concepts: Dutch painter, produced over 800 paintings, farm life inspiration for his
paintings, how he uses dark and dull colors to portray sadness, how he changed to
brighter colors when he moved to France and enjoyed painting various sunflowers and
fruit paintings.
Introduction to Van Gogh’s Paintings: “The Potato Eaters”, “Self Portrait”, “Sunflowers”,
“Café Terrace at Night”, “The Starry Night” and “First Steps”.
Literature Link: “Camille and the Sunflowers” by Laurence Anholt. (Explains the life of
Van Gogh seen through the eyes of a little French boy named Camille.
B. Piet Mondrian born March 7, 1872,
Abstract artist known for his use of primary colors, geometric designs and straight black
lines.
IV. MUSIC APPRECIATION
A. We celebrate Music Appreciation Month by gathering various types of music
(classical, ragtime, international, rock, reggae, etc.). When each type of music is played,
the children will interpret the music as happy/sad, slow/fast, loud/soft, tell us which
instruments they heard and the type of music they liked best.
B. Johann Sebastian Bach born March 21, 1685 (childhood and music selections).
V. SPECIAL CELEBRATIONS/EVENTS
A. March 2nd Dr. Seuss’ Birthday (his childhood, types of books, characters and
rhyming). The teachers read various Dr. Seuss’ books to the class.
B. March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day (background information, music, art activities).
C. March 20th - First day of spring (signs of spring and new life).
E. March 30th - Doctor’s Day we honor physicians and how they keep us healthy.
Doctor’s instruments will be shown such as a stethoscope, auroscope, tongue depressor and
thermometer. We will also discuss “germs” and how to stop germs from spreading.
Thank you,
Patty Stroman and Ah Young Lee - Directors