The Donut Chef

Happy Birthday Ben! Today Ben's mother, Holly, joined us to read what might become our new favorite book, The Donut Chef. It celebrates the "old-time" favorite donut vs. new, fancier types. We had a great discussion about what "old-time" means. Josh wondered if they were thinking maybe Pharaoh preferred glazed to jelly! Thanks Holly!

Trees in the Wind

Etzim means trees, and we hold this subject near and dear to our hearts. Yesterday, we all shared stories of what we saw during Sandy. Some friends saw "trees blowing, a branch on my house, a bird was flying by blowing, and a little rain. One common theme was fallen trees. Today we examined wood inside of a tree that had snapped in two. We learned some new words - spongy, decompose, We felt the spongy texture of the wood and talked about how and why things decompose. We already cut our big, rotten pumpkin and we've got a couple more to explore! 

Understanding what an illustrator does!

Today at circle time we explained to the children that illustrators are people who draw and create the pictures seen in books and that sometimes write the books as well. We discussed that all illustrators have their own style or technique. Over the next few weeks we will explore different artistic media with the children as they create books.

We read one of our favorites today, Where the Wild Things Are written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak.

Introducing "Hygientist" Nathaniel

 
 
 
 

After lunch children are asked to brush their teeth. We have introducted a 'hygientist' job. Nathaniel was our first participant. There are several steps in completing this responsibility. First Nathaniel needs to look at the list of boys and girls, take out the tooth brushes from the basket, call each person, he then assists in pouring the water over the toothbrush, and then crosses out the names of those he has already called to his 'office'. This is quite a responsibility. Thank you Nathaniel for your help. All boys and girls will be given the opportunity to assume this important task.