March 22, 2019

Literacy week is to recognize and acknowledge the importance of reading to children, and celebrating all authors.  Reading aloud to toddlers expand their listening skills, continue to associate reading with warm, pleasant feelings while learning about words and language, and make links between pictures and stories in books and things and events in their world.  They also remember and join in with repetitive rhymes and phrases.   

As we celebrate Literacy Week, we invite parents, extended relatives, and friends, to read to the class. Charles mom, Annie, read to the children one of their favorite books, Hooray for Hat!  The children wanted her to continue reading Hooray for Books! And Hooray for Today! As she read all the books, the children focused and listened carefully.  

We gradually are receiving books from our wish list.  Thank you for your donation.

Art:

Art comes in different forms. The children painted recycled egg carton with the color of their choice.

Ziploc Painting:

Charles spreads the paint with his hands and fingers, allowing the colors to move in different directions. He looked curious as he pressed, patted and noticed that he did not get paint on his hands. He continued exploring, creating an art piece of three different colors.

Painting Letters!

For literacy week we also recognized Jackson Pollock, an artist that was famous for his splatter painting effect.   The children created their splatter painting by using paintbrushes and rubber-band painting tools.  The rapid movement throws the paint from the brush onto the paper, forming distinctive thick and thin lines and droplets of color.  

Manipulative:

Children are becoming more imaginative and creative as they interact with Magna-tiles and blocks ( bristle, Lego, and unit). Their expressive and receptive language are increasing as they develop.

Nathaniel: “Look, Sandra, I making road. Where is truck?” He goes to get a truck and rolls it on the road.

We counted and articulated the colors in English and Spanish, and then demonstrated the number in a written form.

Lacing is an excellent activity for fine motor skills.

As they use different writing and drawing tools, they learn to grasp the tools differently with their fingers and hands.  These movements are good exercises for the development of the pincer grasp. 

Sensory:

Oliver's grandmother was able to stay with us a little longer after she read a book to the children. She helped mix the flour, oil, and water to make play dough!

The children were excited to explore soil! The soil is one of the natural element for planting. They squeezed, touched, clutch some in their hands to pour it into a cup. They scooped and emptied small cups. We also included some props in the soil, to make the exploration fun, exciting and realistic.

One of the children's favorite book, Hooray for Hat! by Brian Won, is a book about friendship and how to make a friend feel better when they are feeling sad.  We also have two other books by this author Hooray for Books! And Hooray for Today!  We decided to celebrate this author during Literacy Week and have a variety of hats for the children to wear and share.  

Pajama Day

Exploring Colored Clay:

Leo: “I made a worm!”

Leela: “I made a small pancake!”

Rohan took a piece of clay and rolled it back and forth creating coils. Using his hands and fingers in a back and forth motion, he created the coil thickness.  

Oliver: “Choo Choo train. Make a big, big choo train!”

Specialist:

Cooking with Diane:

For Literacy Week, Cooking with Diane was to create a caterpillar using a celery stick, representing the caterpillar and adding the other small bites on the celery.  

Soccer

Spanish

Happy Holi

A parent from 1A invited us to join their classroom at this special event. Part of their celebration is for everyone to dress in white and beautiful bright powder colors are thrown on their clothes.