A Week in Review....

My teacher's heart is full.  Yesterday was a near-perfect day in our classroom.  As I rotated around the room and asked children what they were working on, this is what I saw and heard.  

In the block center, "What are you ladies working on?"
"A building for all the animals to live." 

 

 

They didn't need me so I wandered away.

In the art center, there was a lot of activity, so I walked over there.  "What are you working on?  You have a lot of things on the table..."  
"We NEED them.  We are making bracelets and everyone is making them different.  Will you help me with the tape?"
"I'd like you to try first." (Child cuts the tape and attaches the edges of the bracelet.)
"I knew you could do that." Child smiles.

They didn't need me so I wandered away.

In the writing center, three children were writing in their journals.  
"What are you writing about?"
"I'm party planning.  For my mother's coronation."
Discussion ensues between all three children....

They didn't need me so I wandered away.

Dramatic play center:  children in various dress up clothes and hats are sitting on the couch, chair and at the table.  One child is hurrying from person to person pouring "coffee".
"What's happening here?"
"I need more coffee!"
"Be right there."
I watch for a few minutes but nobody really even acknowledges me. 

They didn't need me so I wandered away.

In the math center, children are working with counters and links.  

They didn't need me so I wandered away.

In the science center, play dough was being passed around the table.  Children were talking about what they were making, how to make it, and negotiating for tools and play dough. 

Magic was happening and nobody needed me so I wandered away.
  In the quiet center, a child was explaining why we all need to be a team and work together because if we don't, we won't get things done.  You can't argue with that logic.  Also, two children were admiring our Guinea Pig and laughing  because he is so lazy.  Two children were reading our Class book that we made and counting apples. 

Children were having conversations, cooperating, using their words appropriately, helping each other, thinking about what they were doing and why.  What more could I ask for?  So I wrote it all down to put into their portfolios. 

Self-Help Skills and Play....

Wow, a lot is going on in our classroom this week.  There's so much I want to talk about...I'll just do the best I can and add more later if I miss anything.

Preschool is a time for PLAY.  Not a time for worksheets, drills, or flashcards.  That is not to say that learning is not happening EVERY SINGLE MINUTE.  Examples follow:

We have started using a character-building curriculum called Baby Doll Circle Time in our classroom with awesome success.  (I can admit when I'm wrong, and I was skeptical about this, but I WAS SO WRONG!). This activity teaches empathy while we are taking care of our babies, rocking them, singing to them, dressing them, etc.  Every child loves it and participates.  I will post more pictures as I take them.

I would also like to make some comments about how proud we are of our class for beginning to take responsibility for themselves.  Their self-help skills have skyrocketed for only being in school for 3 weeks!  They are using their words with friends, calming themselves down, making decisions on what they want to do, planning their activities, serving themselves food and drinks, cleaning up after themselves and just generally taking care of themselves.  It's wonderful to see.  We are always available for support, but we are so pleased with how the class is not only taking care of their own needs, but helping other children as well.   

Our APPLE PROJECT is moving ahead quickly.  We have done so many activities with apples, I don't think I could really write about them all, but there are some I want to touch on.  We had one activity that every child participated in and did amazing things with...we made constructions of little apple pieces and toothpicks.  Great fine motor practice, problem solving and engineering.  And the discussions...!  This was a really good opportunity for the kids to use new vocabulary, ask questions, answer questions and talk about what they did.

 

 

 

We did some more apple art, stamping with the inside of the apple with apple colors.  Our art has been very mild so far, I'm hoping to get some messier projects going soon....



 

 

 

Doesn't this look like fun?  This is a sink or float activity that perfectly demonstrates scientific inquiry in preschool.  First we talked about the apples, handling them, and deciding if they felt heavy or light.  We made predictions about what we thought would happen.  We set up our experiment, tried it out, found out if we were correct or not, and revised our hypotheses if necessary.  I bet you didn't know that your children were scientists....

 

 



 

Another important skill that we want to teach our class is gathering information, and what the information actually means.  We did an apple taste test, with everyone trying a small piece of all the different color apples we had, red, yellow, green and striped.  Then each child chose their favorite, picked a matching paper apple, write their name on it and added it to our class chart. 

 

 

 

 

We do a lot of counting and talking about what this chart tells us and what it DOESN'T tell us (data analysis).  You will see a lot of charts this year from us.



APPLE PROJECT!!

We did a lot of things this week!   WE started our first big project--APPLES!!!

How can we say "APPLE" in all the languages in our classroom?

After making a chart about what we already know about apples, we thought we should make apple pie play dough, which smells really good!  Recipes are available if you would like them....

 

 

We counted and sorted and added apples, real ones and apple counters. 

 



 

 

We did some fine motor work with tongs and pom-poms, counting the red ones, the green ones, the yellow ones and how many is that all together?

 



 

 

We did a lot of literacy activities, using vocabulary cards, journal writing, and story retelling.

 

 

 

 

We planted apple seeds.  Which ones will sprout first?

 

 

We spent some time talking about "describing words", and what that means (words that tell how something looks, smells, tastes, sounds or feels), then we made a list of the describing words we know about apples.

 

 

 

Of course, we don't ONLY work on apple things, we took care of our class pet, Curly Sue...

 

 







 

We also had a big reveal of our Imagination Station Pieces for our playground.  We are only one of ten schools in the country to receive this grant and as you can see, they are pretty interesting things to work with.  The kids are having a blast. 

 

 

 

What do we do with these things?

 

 

 

Moving them around the hill...

 

 

Putting them together....

 

 

NOW WE GET IT!!!!

 

 



 



 



Here Comes EE5!!

Photos of what we've been up to for the last two weeks...

We had some really good musical moments, playing music and dancing.

Our block center has a lot of things to do.  Look at the cooperation going on here with the marble run. 

 

In the art center, we did some cool projects, this is a 1.99 salad spinner with paper in the bottom.  We squirt a little paint on the paper....

 

Spin, spin, spin, using our arm muscles...

Look what happens!

The finished products....

We learned how to do our class jobs.  This child is upset at drop-off so the Care Helpers bring their bag over to the child and offer him something to make him feel better.



 

 

Working out those finger muscles making GAK with Ms. Mandy.

 

 

I can't think of a better fine motor activity than using colored tape, the kids LOVE it, they find the end of the tape, pull it up, cut it and put it where they want it....  so many muscles get used....

We had a lot of outdoor fun.

And last, but not least, we had a visit from some friendly tigers.  They were so proud of their work!