Thank You!

Dear 1A families,

It was such a pleasure and joy to have our lovely 1a friends, Laura and I have seen them all grow throughout the school year and have become such big girls and boys. We have have been through teething together we have been working on potty training, we have cried and laughed and enjoyed so many adventures together.

Thank you so much for your constant support and for the trust you had in us with your children. We did all we could to prepare them to the next level , we will miss them so much.

Thank you once again for all of your help we hope you have a great summer and please feel free to send pictures and let us know how summer goes.

Friday, June 7th

Laura and I would like to thank all of you for joining us for field day! Our friends sure had lots of fun enjoying each activity, snacks and of course, the popsicle!

Friday, May 31

Congratulations Pre-k

This week our friends worked on a very special art piece for our beloved Pre-k friends whom gradated today, how exciting!! We made sure to deliver it this morning, giving our friends hugs, kisses and high fives while also wishing them lots of luck.

Specialists:

As the school year comes to an end we had our last class with Hernestina this Tuesday, we didn’t only sing our favorite songs but we also received Spanish certificates!! We all officially graduated from Spanish class. We also had lots of fun Thursday with Emily singing and dancing to our favorite songs! We would like to give a special thanks to both Hernestina and Emily for helping us grow, learn and have lots of fun!

Stan’s Last Day:

Saying good-bye to a friend is one of the hardest things to do but we made sure that our friend Stan enjoyed his last day by having a small farewell party and giving Stan his gifts. We are beyond glad that we had the opportunity to be your teachers and to watch you learn and grow day by day. We didn’t only see so much growth and changes this year day by day but we hope that all the things we’ve done have helped in a small way! We will miss you Stan and we hope you come visit us!

Birthdays

This week we also celebrated the birthday of a beloved and special friend, Alice! We can’t believe how fast time flies and how fast our little friends are growing! Thank you so much to Marianna and Gustavo for coming in to celebrate this special day with us and, of course, for those delicious treats.

Upcoming events/Reminders:

Thursday June-6: Field day

Friday, June 14th: Last day of school

Friday, May 24

This week we sure got to enjoy the beautiful weather by taking neighborhood walks, visiting the dog daycare, which of course, is needless to say that our friends love and Washington Market. During our outside trips we love to sing songs to Mr.Sun and talk about the weather while also pointing out things we see! Our friends did such an awesome job this week, we didn’t only see a beautiful butterfly but we also practiced saying “Stop” to the cars while crossing the street and looking both ways. As the school year comes to an end we will try to go outside as much as possible to enjoy the beautiful weather with fun activities, therefore we are kindly asking you to dress your child appropriate for the weather and apply sunscreen if it is expected to be sunny, thank you!

BIRTHDAYS:

This week we celebrated the Birthday’s of Two special and loved friends, Una and Cleo!! We can’t believe how fast time flies and how fast our little friends are growing! Thank you so much Katie, Dj, Jasmin and Carter for coming to celebrate their birthday with us and for those delicious muffins and cupcakes, our friends sure enjoyed them and had a great time.

Parents Day:

Our friends didn’t only work very hard this week on some very special art pieces and gifts for parents but they also had such a great time doing so. Before we started this project we explained for whom it was, and they were beyond excited to start their project. While working on such project some of our friends expressed their feelings:

“I love mommy and daddy”

“I love you”

“Its for Mama and papa”

“Muah”

We would like to thank each and everyone of you for all the hard work you do and for being the amazing parents you all are!

Reminders:

There will be no school on Monday, May 27 (Memorial Day)

The Silent Auction has been extended to Tuesday, May 28th

Have a great weekend!

Friday, May 17

Artists at work

Gym time fun:

Flower Petal Sensory Play:

fishing with Hernestina:

Friday, May 10th

Our friends have been working extremely hard this week on their very special mothers day gift! Our friends started their week by creating a special mothers day card with colors and art tools of their choice, after creating our card we had the children help us in the process of folding it while also working on our fine motor skills. The next day we created a jewelry holder bowl using air dry clay, four different shaped cookie cutters were placed in front of each child we then asked them to pick their favorite! Giving children choices helps them feel like they have some power and control over what they do and it is a step in growing up, giving children the choice to pick their own cookie cutter or what book to read can go a long way.

We also did something very different with Diane this week, we made our very own rose water body/ foot soak for our mothers! The recipe is very simple; you just combine Epsom salt with a few drops of Rose water. The mixture makes for a nice relaxing soak.

Friday, May 3

Welcome back, Laura and I hope you’ve all enjoyed your summer break and are ready for what’s rest of the school year! We can’t believe it’s May already, we are amazed at how much our little friends have grown in all their domains-social emotional , cognitive, language, physical and the way their approach to learning has changed. This week our friends have been working really hard finishing up their science fair project! Earlier this week we painted our tri-fold board black followed by coper splatter paint, our friends agreed that the splatter paint was meant to be the volcanoes lava splashing. We also conducted our experiment one more time before the science fair having each child help pour the baking soda and vinegar!

Come join us this Saturday to see the amazing things your child and all the children of Buckle My Shoe have been working on, we can’t wait to show all of you the amazing things we have done. 

Upcoming events/reminders: 

Art show: May 23 & 24 

Parents Day: May 24th 

Week of The Young Child

Our week has been filled with great explorations celebrating our annual “week of the young child” hosted by NAEYC. Our busy week started off with music Monday, where we went around the school in search for any interesting instruments. Some of our friends brought instruments of their own to share with the class, Cleo brought in a guiro and a gourd shaker! During morning she demonstrated how to use these instruments before passing them around. Alice also brought in a xylophone, she also demonstrated how to use this instrument before passing it around. Thank you so much for sharing your instruments Cleo and Alice!

On tasty Tuesday our friends came in to an interesting activity, observational painting. We displayed a glass jar filled with lemons and limes along with different shades of green and yellow, as children came in they were asked to take a seat and carefully observe the jar while painting it. We must say that they did an awesome job at observing every detail very carefully, way to go friends!

Later in the afternoon we conducted a taste test of limes and lemons..

Question: “How does it taste?”

Cleo: Sour (With a smile on her face.)

Antoine: Sour (Closing his eyes)

Una: aa.. Sour (Rubbing her arm on her tongue)

Millie: Sour (Closing her eyes)

Stan: Sour (Placing it back down on the plate)

Kaiya: Sour (With a sad face)

After our taste test we made a fresh lemonade for us and our infant b friends, our friends did an awesome job at squeezing the lemons, waiting for their turn and at stirring the lemonade. All of these steps required each child to use their fine motor skills, which of course they did such an awesome job!

On work together Wednesday we worked on our science fair experiment! Our friends were beyond excited to revisit the volcano’s, before mixing the baking soda with vinegar our friends worked together to turn the vinegar red just like the lava, followed by pouring the baking soda inside the volcano. Before mixing these two chemicals we asked the children'“ what do you think will happen when we mix the baking soda and vinegar?”

Antoine: Pop!

Cleo: Pop

Una: I don’t know, Pop

Millie: Pop

Stan: Pop

Thank you all so much for joining us today and of course, for all those delicious treats! We had so much fun planting our seeds, singing songs and dancing!

Reminders/upcoming events

• There will be no school on Friday, April 19th

• Spring Recess April 19-April 26
  
  
  
  
  

Friday, April 5

We started our week with observational painting, this painting activity took observation beyond simple sensory perception and allowed children to organize knowledge and understanding. We placed an interesting lamp on the center of the table and asked children to carefully observe the lamp while painting, we discussed the different shapes, lines, colors and patterns we saw while children painted. This activity supports the children in slowing down, and learning how to record what they actually see, rather than what they think something looks like. Through noticing the details, the children’s understanding deepen and further questions are provoked.

We also spent lots of time talking about spring and the changes that are occurring within our environment. During our walk we discussed the different ways in which the tree’s, grass and weather are changing. After, we came back and got busy to work, our friends helped create butterflies for the Buckle My Shoe window display!

On Thursday we also began to talk about our science experiment, during morning meeting we showed the children three different volcano images. It is needless to say that our friends were beyond fascinated by the images! As children observed the images we described the different volcano’s and the different actions that were taking place. After observing the images the children observed a video of an actual volcano eruption. After watching this video our friends were beyond eager to make their own eruption using baking soda and vinegar!

Reminders/Upcoming events:

• Week of the young child will be the following week:

• Music Monday

• Tasty Tuesday

• Work together Wednesday

• Arty Thursday

• Special Person Friday!

Friday, March 29

Songs we sang this week:

• Days of the week

• The Wheels On The Bus

• Baby Shark

• Baa Baa Black Sheep

• Five Little Monkeys

• Five Little Ducks

• If You’re Happy and You Know It

• Apples and bananas

• Baby Beluga

• Buenos Dias

• Jump in the water
  Among many other songs!

This week we took advantage of the warm days and went for a walk/adventure, during our walk we asked our friends to pay attention to the birds, the weather the garden, tree’s, soil etc. with this we wanted to show our friends the importance and deeper power of nature. A walk outside can give endless possibilities and stimulate their minds. A walk outside gives our friends an opportunity to explore the world, every sight, smell and sound provides us with valuable experiences and learning. Different seasons provide different opportunities, this week we observed the many ways the trees are changing. Our friends noticed that the trees in WMP are now growing pink flowers! While on our way to the park our friends also discovered that when we walked past tall buildings Mr. Sun will hide, when there was no sun our friends sang “Mr. Sun” we also changed the lyrics to “hiding behind the house”.

We also had lots of free exploration in our classroom, children sure created fascinating games! Free exploration is not only fun but it also builds up creativity and ability to come up with new ideas, two children might not manipulate or explore an object in the same way. What we, as caregivers see may not always be the same thing our little friends see. Free exploration also fosters decision making, unstructured play provides many opportunities to make choices, motor planning skills is also involved during free exploration. This week our friends built a balance beam, there was definitely lots of dramatic play, light observations, and fabric play!

We also visited some of our friends previous classroom, Infant A. Our friends Una, Cleo and Antoine were beyond excited to give their friends a tour. They showed them the baby chairs and how they are used, they even demonstrated by sitting on the chairs! Our friends also took very good care of the infant A baby! We all took turns giving the baby gentle touches, having him sit on the chair and reading books to the baby.

Reminders/Upcoming events:

• The week of the young child is an annual celebration hosted by NAEYC, celebrating early learning, young children and families. This year’s event will take place April 8th-12th.

• Monday, April 8th; Music Monday

• Tuesday, April 9th; Tasty Tuesday

• Wednesday, April 10th,: Work Together Wednesday

• Thursday, April 11th: Artsy Thursday

• Friday, April 12th: Family Friday

• Also, if you happen to come across any PRET bottles please bring them in, our class will greatly appreciate it. Thank You!

Friday, March 22

Literacy week:

Young children who still do not recognize letters and cannot read even simple words for themselves, will develop pre-reading skills when they hear text aloud. Looking at the printed text and pictures children’s books as they read aloud will let your young child begin to understand reading and in the future read all by themselves! Reading daily to young children, starting in infancy, can help with language acquisition and literacy skills. This is because reading to your children in the earliest months stimulates the part of the brain that allows them to understand the meaning of language and helps build key language, literacy and social skills.

This week we focused on Sandra Boynton’s books! Sandra Boynton’s books are not only funny but they are also filled with humor and of course, Animals! We started the week with our favorite book, Moo Baa LaLaLa, we also created a cow and the following day the children pretended to be a cow!

We would like to thank Shaun for coming thursday to Celebrate Holi with us. Holi is popularly known as the Indian "festival of spring", the "festival of colours", or the "festival of love". The festival signifies the arrival of spring, the end of winter, the blossoming of love, and for many a festive day to meet others, play and laugh, forget and forgive, and repair broken relationships. This year we celebrated this festival with our infant B and 1B friends!

Friday, March 8

Songs we sang this week:

• Mr. Sun

• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

• Baa Baa Black sheep

• The Itsy Bitsy Spider

• Old Macdonald

• Days of the week

• Today Is

• Baby Shark

• If You’re happy and You Know It

• Baby Beluga

• La Lechusa

• Five Little Speckled frogs

• Emotions songs

Highlights of this week:

After having Monday off due to a snowy day we decided to create our own snow! We created our own snow with shaving cream and baking soda, mixing these two materials together until we reached the consistency that best matched the snow. Playing with pretend snow is a great sensory activity for kids, they will loved touching it and figuring out what it is or how “real” snow can be inside and not melting. Some friends even brought over plates, throwing the snow and then attempting to catch it on their plate.

We have also introduced yoga while at the gym and in the classroom, yoga is a great tool for toddlers as it is for adults. It is great for children since it is non-competitive, and teaches body awareness. They learn how the breath can help them throughout the day, in any situation. They learn to focus on the pose by learning correct body alignment, and in so doing, learn to focus on their bodies and how they function.

This week our friends also revisited the frozen Popsicle paint, this time they were aware that this was paint and not an edible Popsicle. When our friends saw the materials displayed they shouted out a few words; “Popsicle, Cold, Paint.” This activity evoked language such as “Popsicle is cold” “I want Blue” “More Please” we are amazed as to how much our little friends are talking day by day!

Our friends also explored clay once again, this time there were many materials given to them such as hammers, rollers, and containers. Children were first given a ball, they were then encouraged to change the shape, texture and size of the ball using any of the given materials. Some friends noticed that if they used the side of a roller they were able to create a circle, other friends decided to poke their fingers on the ball until it was flat

Reminders:

• Parent teacher conference will be Friday March 15, if you haven’t done so please sign up for any available time slot . Please note that there will be no school for the children

• March 18th-22nd: Literacy week

Thursday, February 28th (Our Curriculum Breakfast)

We had our second curriculum celebration/breakfast today! As the children continued to express their enthusiasm with paint, we chose to celebrate the day with two of our favorites: smush painting and mixing.

We have explored paint in numerous ways, from using a variety of paint such as, watercolor, tempera, frozen paint and finger-paint. To making our own paint with corn syrup and food coloring. We've also created our own textures with paint such as adding sand, shaving cream, salt, among many other materials.  We mixed these two substances with either a spoon or hands children are then encouraged to explore! When dry students typically find an interesting texture. 

Painting With Music

From their favorite lullaby to the song "baby shark", music captivates and entrances children of all ages and places. New styles of music, new instruments, and different rhythms and tempos offer a lot of sensory input. With music playing in the background, children focus on painting along with the song’s rhythm while creating a work of art that shows how the music makes them feel. By introducing children to new forms of music and musical elements, they’re exploring patterns through rhythm and tempo, and even getting practice at identifying emotions. We have observed that when children are exposed to Lullabies they don't only take their time but they are also cautious as to where they spread the paint and how they spread it as opposed to fast rhythm music. When children are exposed to fast tempo  they typically begin to smash the paint onto the paper and work at a fast pace. 

Reminders:

• Parent teacher conference will be March-15th
  
  

Friday, February 22

This week we had the pleasure to combine with our infant B friends! We’ve all had such a great week spending time with our old friends and sharing all the things we know by expressing empathy, leadership, and communication. Our 1A friends had the chance to share their knowledge with those who have not yet learned.

This week our friends had the benefit to:

• The learn/practice patience and understanding for those who are still learning.

• Learn empathy as they increase in their ability to understand that not everyone can learn in the same way.

• Become aware of his or her role as a leader and what it means to influence others.

Reminders/Upcoming events:

• Our Curriculum Breakfast will be Thursday, February 28th at 8:30 a.m

• There will be no school on Friday, March 1st due to professional development day

Friday, February 15

This week we have been focusing on our social-emotional domain in depth while also of course celebrating Valentine’s day. This week has consisted of hugs, kisses and lots of partner dance! We have continued to discuss the importance of gentle touches in our classroom and have introduced the feeling of empathy. This holiday brings about the opportunity for a mid-winter outpouring of love, friendship and appreciation toward those around us. We are promoting social and emotional growth in children by working together to understand the concept and practice of empathy. Defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, empathy is uniquely different from sympathy in that the practice of it doesn’t require feelings of pity and sorrow – simply understanding. Exploring empathy and the many ways in which to show it can help children deepen their understanding of those around them. 

We’ve also talked about friendship’s this week and how much we love and care for each other! Our friends gave each other many hugs along with kisses on Thursday!

Reminders/Upcoming events:

• School will be closed on Monday, February 18 and Tuesday, February 19

• Our Winter curriculum breakfast will be Friday, February 22 at 9a.m.

We hope you enjoy your long weekend!

Friday, January 8

During the course of this short week we took advantage of the perfect weather and took many walks around the neighborhood, visited the park and conducted morning meeting outdoors. There are many benefits of children playing and/or being outside some of these benefits contribute to cognitive and social/emotional development.

Unstructured outdoor play helps children learn to take turns, share and develop other positive behavioral skills. They are more likely to be inventive, explore and learn about the world around them and use their own abilities. While they are having fun inventing and playing games with friends, these interactions also help them improve communication, cooperation and organizational skills. Additionally, fresh air and free play reduce stress levels.

Mr. Crocodile & Wolf:

We have introduced a new character to the children, “Mr. Crocodile.” The children were scared of Mr. Crocodile at the beginning since he is a bit scary looking, although after several talks we explained that Mr. Crocodile is nice, sweet and loving. Mr. Crocodile loves gentle touches, hugs, kisses and high-fives. He also loves to see when the children give each other gentle touches and kisses. Using puppets can be an easier way to communicate valuable messages to children, since the communication is done in a fun and unusual manner and not from a traditional or strict position. In a group setting, puppets can be used to increase the participation level of children and add an element of fun. Children get excited when a new toy is introduced and teachers can allow them to create stories or express their feelings about a certain topic, using puppets.

Friday, February 1

Ice & Water

Last week our friends explored Ice and salt, a cube of ice was displayed in the sensory bin. Children were given salt and were encouraged to sprinkle it onto the ice, our friends were amazed when they saw how fast the ice melted! Since then Ice has been such a huge hit in our classroom. This week we’ve fostered their interest in ice by introducing activities and materials.

Frozen Paint:

The 1A classroom is exploring ice and water, this week the students explored painting with frozen paint, this was a challenge for the children since they had to paint as fast as they could before the paint melted. This activity was open-ended, not product oriented, it was the purest sense of exploratory learning. This exploration also encouraged children to manipulate and mould 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 and children process information through their senses.  They learn through exploring these.

• Self-esteem: sensory play offers kids the opportunity for self-expression because there is no right answer and children feel safe to change or experiment with what they are doing

Painting with Paint Pops:

Children were introduced to paint pops, it was amazing to see how this activity provoked language during their exploration children used the words “Cold, frozen, cut, cut it.” AT the beginning children used the paint pops to create different lines, swirls and marks on the paper, after several minutes children decided to remove the popsicle from the paint cube. Some of our friends moves the frozen cube with their fingers while others used the popsicle sticks to cut the cube!

Painting on foil paper with shaving cream:

The surface is slick so the paint dances across it, reflecting the light in the room. Using a paintbrush is fun, but when shaving cream is involved using your fingers and hands gives it a different meaning, since of course the shaving cream makes the paint puffy!

When children walked inside the classroom they were eager to get busy, we first observed and talked about the different colors that were displayed and on what they were displayed. When children were given the “Go” to paint they all stood back to observe the paint, shaving cream and foil. After several minutes of observing and analyzing the children got busy to work.

Reminders/Upcoming events:

• Tuesday, February 5: School is closed

• Friday, February 8th: Picture day Our class will be first (8:30am) please be on time

• Please email Laura and I any recent family photos, we are working on a project and would like them as soon as possible, please and thank you.

• If you happen to come across any gerber or pret bottles/contianers please save them and bring them in we are in need of these materials. Thank you!

Friday, January 25

Songs we sang this week:

• Days of the week

• Today is…

• Five little ducks

• Five little monkeys

• Five little speckled frogs

• Good morning

• Hello How are you?

• Baa Baa Black Sheep

• Twinkle Twinkle little star

• The Itsy Bitsy Spider

• Taxi

• The wheels on the bus

• Mr. Sun

This week we worked on our January self-portraits, each child was first given a mirror to observe themselves in after several minutes they were given their self portrait book along with a marker. While they worked on their self-portrait we asked if they can draw their nose, eyes, lips and hair, some of our friends went along and said “ears, teeth, head” and other friends drew on these parts of their body.

Fun Fact: Since we’ve been having many discussions about cars and vehicles we’ve noticed that the children say “beep, beep” as a form of excuse me.

There has also been a lot of diaper changes this week! Our friends have been busy making sure our babies and puppets are all clean and have a fresh diaper.

Of course 1a has the best doctors whom for the most part come in every morning and check their babies heartbeat, ears, knees, temperature and pressure! Our friends also check each other to make sure they are okay, after checking their peer they usually say “all good” followed by a choca (high-five).

Reminders:

• Picture day will be Feb-8th our class is scheduled for 8:30 am.

• February 22nd: Curriculum breakfast #2

  We hope you feel better Antoine!
  
  
  
  

Friday, January 18

Songs we sang this week:

• Days of the week

• Today is…

• Five little ducks

• Five little monkeys

• Five little speckled frogs

• Good morning

• Hello How are you?

• Baa Baa Black Sheep

• Twinkle Twinkle little star

• Among many other songs

• Taxi

• The wheels on the bus

• Twinkle Twinkle Traffic light

During the course of this week we’ve continued to talk about the different transportation vehicles we have, since of course the recycling bins have been used as different modes of transportation. Laura and I decided to expand their imagination and actually add different pictures to these bins, our bins are now Taxis, bus, cars and airplanes. This week children added puppets, babies and food inside the bins while saying “beep, beep” or “choo-choo.” Next week we will be painting paper to decorate our taxis, buses, airplanes and cars.

We also worked on our fine and gross motor skills by manipulating the clay. The block of clay was displayed on the floor with no materials around it, children were then encouraged to use their feet, toes, elbows, hand, knees, forehead or any other part of their body to manipulate and change the shape of the clay.

Block Center: We created a play town in the block area! We added wooden blocks as building, cars, people and grass. We then encouraged children to explore it!

Art: We revisited the paint we made, this time we did a group art project rather then an individual piece of art work. A blank poster board was displayed on the table and all the chairs were removed, it was really interesting to see that our friends were really concerned with the chairs being gone. As soon as we walked into the classroom our friends were worried as to where the chairs went:

“Oh no” -Una

“Sit” while tapping on the table -Antoine

“Uh-oh” -Stan

We then explained the reason for the chairs being removed from the table and displayed the different paint for the children to choose from. Our friends quickly got to work and began exploring the paint, some friends used the paintbrush while others dripped the paint onto the paper, used their hands and finger as paint brushes.

Friday, January 10

Since of course cars and vehicles have been a great interest in the classroom we have decided to focus further into it. As we talk about the different vehicles there are (eg Cars, trains, boats, trucks, airplanes and jets among others) we gave children the opportunity to decide what our box should be. Laura and I were very surprised when the children decided that our box could be everything and anything we decided it to be! We also talked about the different colors there are and gave children the opportunity to pick their own color to paint the box with.

During the course of this week our box has also been:

• a quiet space for our friend to read and relax.

• A house

• A place to hide

• A car

• Train

We have also observed that vehicles don’t only leave prints behind with paint but with flour and clay as well!

Our friends explored ice, children were first given a block of ice with cars frozen in it. It was very interesting to watch some of our friends in attempt to remove the cars! Other friends explored this block of ice by kissing it, and feeling it with their feet!

There was another science experiment that was inspired by our friend Antoine, whom was gradually adding water into our sensory bin that contained flour! Antoine quickly realized that if his hands were wet the flour will stick!

Reminders:

• Picture day (February 8)

• Winter curriculum Brunch (February 22)