Words of Peace

Words Of Peace From the PreK4 Classroom

(we hope that you have a peaceful break, and best wishes for a peaceful New Year!)

"Peace is no taking something"

"when someone is sad you can help them"

"being quiet"

"my family loves me"

"you have to share"

"you can build again"

"Peace is quiet"

"you can play with me if you want to"

"you can play a happy game that someone likes and you can say 'you can play with me'

"when someone takes something you can ask "can I have it back?"

"you can be calm"

"if your best friend is not here you can play with me"

"Peace is when someone is comforter"

"if you have a diamond in your hand that someone doesn't have you can give it to them"

"you can lay down and rest"

"don't take anything from other people"

A Week of Winter Exploration and Peace!

We  made a collaborative web, or snowflake, in our morning meeting this week. Look at all the connections!










We had the chance to be outside this week in the cold, too; exploring signs of winter, looking for ice, and for creatures that are adapting, migrating, or hibernating. We noticed a lot of little mouse holes in the field, and we know that mice adapt and look for food all winter.

The big question was, how does this ice happen? Some children thought it might fall from the sky, others thought it was pushed together. We'll be learning about it all soon!

 And we learned about snowflakes right from the source! catching snowflakes on black paper, we look closely with our eyes or with magnifying glasses.

But it's great to use all of your senses to explore snowflakes!











In other news, we finished up special Peace Presents for our 4/5 buddies and worked on our Words of Peace bulletin board in the classroom. When we asked the children what Peace meant, they had very different wonderful answers. Here are their thoughts-see if you can match them to your child by visiting the classroom!

• my family loves me
• you can build again
• you can be calm
• you can play with me if you want to
• peace is no taking something
• peace is when someone is a comforter
• don't take anything from other people
• when someone takes something you ask "can I please have it back?"
• when someone is sad you can help them
• if you have a diamond in your hand that someone doesn't have you can give it to them
• if your best friend is not here you can play with me
• you have to share
• you can lay down and rest
• you can play a happy game that somebody likes and you can say "you can play with me"
• being quiet
• peace is quiet

deep deep thoughts from deep deep thinkers

My

We have continued with our work with the book Extra Yarn   and had a knitting visitor who showed us how to make pom poms and let us explore her knitting.

 Blocks are always a part of our story in the classroom, and every day we see more collaboration( or we work towards more collaboration).

and a special shout out to these three boys who reorganized all of the dress up area on their own!

Until Next Time,
Michele

Can We Be Generous?

It turns out that yes, we can! Our language in the PreK 4 classroom has been moving towards words like "kindness", "generosity", "sharing" and "giving".  We have decided together that, in the right hands, a magic box of knitting (Extra Yarn) will always have enough yarn. We had a visit from Leigh, the PreK3 teacher, who showed us her knitting and talked to us about the tools of knitting.

We have extended our generosity towards our 3 year old neighbors this week, creating a decoration for their table made of sticks wrapped with yarn.  We wrote a card with a rhyme (composed by one of our 4 year olds:" We're glad you're our neighbor, Love PreK 4."

We experimented with color and paint and pattern this week as well, using spools, dish sponges, and packing circles to create glittery painty snow scenes.

We've connected with more books in our classroom : Jan Brett's Gingerbread Baby  and Gingerbread Friends ; both books about a little gingerbread baby who pops out of the oven and is chased, and a boy, Matti, who makes a house and friends out of gingerbread.  We made gingerbread cookies to eat, and gingery smelling playdough to use in the classroom and decorate with buttons. The children fill trays with the playdough, "bake" it, and make up stories about all of the gingerbread. Somehow, the children  have named the gingerbread "gingerbread Jimmy" and gingerbenjamin. 

And, finally, Thursday brought us an opportunity to practice being guests and customers as the three year olds hosted a "food truck."  We asked for what we wanted and counted out the pennies to purchase our food.  We made sure to use our polite language and manners, and had a wonderful time! Next, we'll have to write a thank you card!

Until Next Time,

Michele