During the week we sang:

  • Where is Thumpkin?
  • Mr. Muffin
  • Mr. Sun
  • Where is blue? 
  • There are seven days in a week
  • ABC
  • Good Morning Song
  • Head and Shoulders........
  • Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and many more!

We also have read a variety of books.  The children are enjoying listening to the book Hooray for Hats.  A book about friendship and it also demonstrates how to make a friend feel better when they are not feeling well. We had two birthday celebrations this week, Rheya and Harry.  As their chronological age increases by one year, they are also developmentally growing.  Cognitive, physical, social/emotional, and particularly their language development is changing.  They are adding more words to their sentences and expressing their thoughts more clearly as well.  

We have been learning the color white, so today the teacher placed a variety of items with different colors inside a box.  The children were to select only something white.  As they search for an item that was white, the teacher observes how they explored and focused on the different items inside the box.   Since we started the color chart, we have noticed their interests in colors, exploring the color in a sensory bag, searching, and then placing the color item in the Ziploc bag.  The children seem to look forward that this activity.

 

Edith and Rheya engaged with the kitchen utensils, cooking pans, vegetables, and fruits props.   An empty container of milk was added to the food props.  The children appeared to enjoy having an actual container in their refrigerator.  They each took turns pouring and serving food to each other. 

Creativity and imagination take form as toddlers continue developing. The level of cognitive and language development begins to take shape.  As Harry continues exploring and manipulating unit blocks, he has moved forward to creating a horizontal row using triangles, and aligning them.  He is developing more muscle control by stacking and combining blocks.   Harry also counted each triangle by pointing to one triangle at a time.  The last triangle he is pointing with his finger is the fifth triangle.  Harry is demonstrating a valuable skill, he is counting in sequence, using one-to-one correspondence, and understanding that each triangle represents a number.  Fantastic!!

Snow Theme Shaving Cream Exploration:

Shaving cream is great for sensory exploration and provides endless opportunities for children to play and discover.  Sensory play promotes many experiences:

  • Sensory play encourages children to manipulate and mold materials, building up their fine motor skills and coordination. 
  • Sensory play uses all 5 senses, but the sense of touch is often the most frequent.  Toddlers process information through their senses; therefore, they learn as they explore.
  • Is unstructured, open-ended, not product oriented.  It is the purest sense of exploratory learning
  • Encourages imagination and creative play
  • Develop social skills: turn taking and sharing
  • Language development- experimenting with language and descriptive words

Harry was reluctant to touch the shaving cream with his hands.  We provided options for him to explore, paintbrushes with thin and thick bristles. Providing choices allows children to explore their options and feel at ease with the activity. 

Some of the children looked and observed the pictures of their families.  We counted together how many members are in their family trees, some have 3, 5, or 7 members and some have pets.  We always see big smiles when they look at their family pictures.  A family is a foundation where children start to grow and develop and continue as they enter school.  

Circle Time:

Gym:

Highlights of the week:

Rheya's Birthday:

We did some Splatter Painting:

Harry and Ellie needed help moving the box from side by side and Harlow helped both children!  Cooperative play is essential in early childhood.  It promotes sharing and working together. 

Harry's Birthday!

The children enjoyed listening to Rheya's father, Daniel, read to them.  They appeared to be very comfortable!!

We had a special visitor during the week, Rheya’s grandmother, Carol.  She engaged with us during circle time and interacted with the children during play.  We all enjoy her visit and hope she returns soon. 

Painting with Q-tips.  Each child maneuvered the Q-tip differently, creating distinctive thin strokes. Some children created lines, dots, focus on one side of the paper, or created circles. 

Color and shape recognition game is a fun and interactive activity for our toddlers.  The children used the laminated circles or the bear counters to place them on the corresponding color.  Edith recognized the color blue and placed the blue bear on the circle.  Ellis found the laminated black circle that corresponded with the black circle on the board.  

We created a wintery art piece.  We used glue, pine cones, small pine tree branches and some silver glitter.