Dance Party

The children were delighted to gather on the rug for an impromptu dance party this morning.  Rhythm, melody, and a good beat - that's all we needed to join together and move our bodies.   Ally offered her hands to Joseph as an invitation to dance together.  It's great to see the children begin to make connections with each other.

 

Fine motor fun

In the Levana class, we like to find items from nature that help us build skills we need for life.  Today, we had native corn on the table.  We used our fingers to pull off kernels from small and large cobs, building our fine motor skills.  It's hard work with small hands, but with a little focus and determination, we got the job done!  

Piper and Abby focus on their cobs as they strip them of kernels into interesting containers.

When the cobs were bare, we used different tools and containers to play with the dried kernels.  We played with them with bowls, shovels, brushes, trays, cups and funnels. We could see the different yellows, browns, and black colored kernels.  We even practiced shaking closed containers to hear how noisy the kernels can be! 

Drip Drip Drip...

At the art table today, the Haifa class found the playdoh trays! That seems like a silly place for playdoh trays to be. But that's because we weren't using them for playdoh! We were using them to create beautiful colors on coffee filters. Each child got the chance to use eye droppers in watercolor, and create colorful designs.

They will be dry by this evening, and we hope to have them on display for you at Curriculum Night!

-Alison and Sauci

Same Seats! (Just Like the Dining Table!)

In the Haifa class, we work very hard to create visual cues to help our students navigate through the day as easily as possible. One area where we noticed our students having trouble was when we came in from outside and in for circle. There was often seat switching, seat saving, and hurt feelings before we started circle, which always put a damper on what we were going to talk about. So we decided to make place cards. Each place card has the student's name and picture on it, so they can choose to look for their name, and if they cannot recognize their name, their photo is there to help them out!

We spoke to Ellen about this a lot before we chose to make these place holders. We realized that circle is something that we do everyday, it is part of our routine. And when we get into a routine, sometimes having a changing variable, like where you are sitting or who you are sitting next to, can be really hard for a preschooler. When we sit down at the dining table to eat each night, we most likely sit in the same seat out of habit, as opposed to having it assigned. So we decided to do the same for our class. We have our place holders, and we are going to keep them in the same order so that it is comfortable and predictable. Everyone is pretty close to friends, and they know where they will sit each day! It makes for a much nicer transition for everyone!

-Alison and Sauci

Want to Create a Project??

Ellen came into the Haifa classroom yesterday stocked with armloads of white felt and blue paint. She asked our students if they wanted to try a project that she had never done before. Of course they jumped at the chance!! Each child got a giant piece of white felt, and painted what they wanted on their own piece. We are adding different colors each day, and at the end of the project, we are going to blow dry the felt with hair dryers and see what happens! Our hypothesis is that the felt with start to melt, and the colors will pop! Yesterday we started with blue, today we added green, and tomorrow is pink and red. Stay tuned for the progress of our project!

-Alison and Sauci

Understanding What We Read

We have just begun our learning about fairy tales in the Haifa class. Yesterday we introduced the idea that all fairy tales start with "Once upon a time" and that they are not real. We finished our day reading Jack and the Beanstalk, a well-known but not very commercialized story. Many of our students knew the story and were captivated by the book. This morning we continued our learning about Jack and the Beanstalk by talking about what happened in the story and what the message, or what we were supposed to learn, was. We are going to do this with several known but not commercialized (read: Disney-fied) fairy tales, where we will read them and then dissect them the next day!

Several of our students added important and relavant information and opinions into our discussions today, and we were even able to compare and contrast this book with other books of the same story!

-Alison and Sauci

Enjoying the Fruits of our Labor!

Yesterday during choice time, the Haifa class experimented...with pumpkin! We made the batter and baked our own homemade pumpkin muffins, and had to wait until today to try them out. Waiting was not the easiest, but every child that tried the muffins loved them! Who knew that preschoolers would love pumpkin so much???

-Alison and Sauci