March 30, 2018

We have finished the second week of Literacy week, and I want to thank all the wonderful readers.   We created a wishlist on books that we wanted for our classroom. Thank you for your contribution! 

Teaching children the importance of books is helping children develop proficient reading skills.  Reading aloud allows children to use their imagination, creativity, extend their vocabulary and use analytical thinking.    Parents and extended family members are always welcome to visit and read to the class.     The children are always eager and excited to have a visitor come and read to them.   Please join our beautiful classroom community and read to us!

We have read to the children, Hooray for Hats!, many times.  Each time they appear excited to hear the story. They are articulating what animal comes next before the teacher turns the page. 

After manipulating the model magic, pressing, squeezing, and patting it, she created a structure.  She articulated, "A boat!"

After manipulating the model magic, pressing, squeezing, and patting it, she created a structure.  She articulated, "A boat!"

Watercolor Paper Towel Art: Olivia and William engaged in a watercolor activity.   Various techniques in art promote a different sensory exploration and experience as children use materials.  Adding texture to their art with paper towel and watercolor, they can create abstract textures in their painting.  Watercolor painting has a flat art form, and you can’t achieve the same textural properties as you can with oil and acrylics. An excellent and simple way to add texture to a watercolor piece is with the use of a paper towel and crumbling it.  It's a form of adding texture to the painting as they use watercolor.  As some children opened their paper towel after allowing it to dry, they noticed how colors spread and created light and dark tones on some parts of the paper.   Using paper towels as a watercolor technique for texture enable children to explore and discover art in a different way. 

(Olivia's)

After the paper towel is dry, it's opened and placed on black construction paper and displayed on the classroom wall. 

(William's)

We sometimes have a brief circle time before we go to the gym at 9:30.  We sing the Good morning, What's the weather?, There are seven days in a week...., Old Mac Donald, and Where is green? (A color song).  Part of our counting activity, we counted together how many children were in school today (9).

How Clouds Make Rain: When water droplets continue to collect in a cloud, they get heavier and heavier. They will eventually become too heavy to float on the air.  Water droplets will fall to the earth as rain.  This experiment shows children how rain falls from the clouds! 

Materials:

• Jar
• Water
• Shaving Cream
• Droppers
• Blue Watercolor

The teacher poured a substantial amount of water and shaving cream into the jar.  Each child had a turn dispensing blue watercolor into the white cloud.  The shaving cream represents the clouds and the watercolor, rain. The children observed as the watercolor traveled through the shaving cream. It was interesting to watch the rain cloud start to let go of little blue water droplets!  I think it took a little longer than it supposed to because the teacher dispensed too much shaving cream.  We will try this experiment again when we return from the break!

We explained to the children that one of the teachers doesn't have a fish, and she would like to have one.  We talked about sharing and making a friend feel better.  Therefore, we decided as a class to give her one of ours. We voted on which fish would stay in classroom 1B and which one will go to Rachel, classroom 2A.  The red fish will remain with us because it had the highest number of votes.  We will give classroom 2A the blue fish when we return from our break.  

The children selected different hats to wear during this week.  They shared, and they also had their favorite hat to wear.  Even though we focus on children wearing them during Literacy Week, they will incorporate them during pretend (dramatic) play.  When children engage in pretend (dramatic) play, they are actively experimenting with the social and emotional roles of life.  Through cooperative play, he/she learns how to take turns, share and creatively problem-solve.  When children pretend to be different characters, they have the experience of walking in someone else's shoes.  They also build self-esteem when he/she discover they can be anything just by pretending!

Model Magic is a unique lightweight material.   It is a soft, easy to use, and extremely pliable modeling compound that lets you create keepable art, and design anything from simple shapes to intricate dioramas.  It can be reused or be air dried resulting in a smooth and resilient finish.  Model magic promotes fine motor skills, imagination, and creativity.    

The children seemed to be interested as they approached and engaged with the material displayed on the table.  The texture was inviting and intriguing, as they manipulate the material with their hands and fingers.   They touched, poked, squeezed, and selected some bright and colorful feathers and pipe cleaners for adorning.  They appeared proud of their model magic structure!  

Highlights of the Week:

We used an egg carton and different color tempera paints, to create a color recognition game. The children enjoy interacting with fuzz balls; therefore, creating a fun and learning experience allows them to absorb information simply.  Harlow, Mario, Rheya, and Edith appeared excited to recognize and identify the colors as they insert the fuzz ball into its correspondent place. 

Visiting the music wall allows children to select an instrument and create their music.  

Reviewing our facial features and body (eyes, nose, arm, leg, neck, ears, etc.),  using one of the teachers, as a model.

We see shapes in our environment, and with the different materials, we interact.   Articulating and identifying the different shapes we see, provide children with a natural manner to acquire knowledge of shapes. For example, a paper plate and a clock is a shape of a circle.  The Lego Blocks are in a square and rectangle shape.  The teacher drew some shapes on the erasable board and asked the children to erase the circle, for example.  All the children had an opportunity to identify, recognize, and learn about a shape.