Making Way for Winter!

Our week zoomed by with winter colors, play dough being made, and a pinata under construction. We tell the story of the pinata every day, as we touch it we wonder "is there candy inside yet?" and we begin to list all of the steps that have to be made before we have a pinata. The concept of time, today, tomorrow, yesterday-is unclear at this age to children-everything is just NOW. When we talk about the pinata the children ask every time if the party is TODAY, even though the pinata is a brown globe right now. We repeatedly tell them that they will know and be ready for the pinata party when it happens!  

We made "candle" holders with colored tissue and battery candles for our lovely lunch times. 

 There's an "igloo" in our classroom that's available for quiet reading. As you can imagine it's quite popular! Having a high interest spot like this in the classroom gives the children a challenge-how to wait, how to get a turn (we often suggest making a list, which gives another challenge!)

The pinata started with a big balloon. 

 It's a messy business with paper and glue to make a pinata.

Igloo fun! 

Writing, cutting with scissors, markers, and stencils are important in our classroom. If you're unsure about cutting something out, you can always ask a friend!

Until Next Time,

                                                                          Michele

Winter is a Comin' In!

In the PreK classroom, the beginning of cold weather and flakes of snow say WINTER (even though, officially, the first day of winter is a few days into December). We have a tradition of changing our color palette from fall earth tones to winter tones of purple and blue, white and pink, and black, to reflect the added darkness to our days and the tones of snow. We also add light, in the form of a light table, a little bit of glitter, and stories of coziness and kindness. We learn about animals in the winter, and our sensory table smells like lavender. We've also begun our kindness circles, and the children are volunteering kind words to the classroom which we write on their snowball shape.

 On Fridays, we recycle with the middle school students. The prek's take this responsibility very seriously, as you can see by their expressions. One of the 4's referred to this Friday morning activity as "garbage buddies" which might be a nickname that will stick.

 Until Next Time,
Michele

Thankful!

We had a wonderful few days of THANKFULNESS in the PreK 4 classroom. We explored storytelling following a theme of everyone helping when we practiced the story "The Enormous Turnip".  The children participated in cooking soup for the Harvest Feast, and enjoyed the process of eating together with their buddies and performing a special story and song for the crowd!  There were lots of smiles throughout our days preceding the Feast.

all the feelings!!!

spatula moves

Our student teacher brought in an exciting experiment -the children made popcorn dance! The chemical reaction of baking soda and water mixed with vinegar bounced the popcorn kernels around. 

A few of the children stayed with this activity for the entire morning. 

And then we popped our own popcorn. 

 

The unit blocks have been a revelation for the children-they love to empty the shelves and have plenty of blocks for their creations. 

 This child brought in a "walkman"- I loved watching the turn taking and calmness as the children trusted that they would get a turn-and they did!

 Chopping and chopping vegetables.

What a wonderful example for the children, as the adults and children came together to chop and prepare the soup, with lots of smiles and conversation. 

Many hands make light work!

The children came together to add the final ingredients, and set the soup on to simmer!

And finally our day is here! 

Until Next Time,
Michele