November 1, 2019

On this special day, we welcomed all families to join us for our traditional Halloween Parade. During September and October, we noticed many of the children interested in Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and singing the ABC song, a lot. After bringing this observation to the attention of the children, we decided to represent the book. As we walked in our neighborhood displaying our fabulous and creative costumes, we visited a few places, Elite Gymnastics, New York Law School, Balloon Saloon, Boomerang Toys, Tribeca’s Kitchen, and The Firehouse Station. Then we returned to Buckle My Shoe for our Party!

Teagan showed the teacher the letters and tree on her shirt.

Teagan: “Brown circles! Letters!"

Teagan’s mom, Rachel, made her child’s costume and also hers. Rachel students are ducks this year! Teachers and parents are very crafty!!

Model magic is a spongy and lightweight material. Children can shape the model magic as they squeeze it with their hands and fingers. Some of the children adorned the model magic with black spiders.

In addition to decorating Ophelia’s shirt, Liselott did a fantastic job with the headpiece.

One of our Halloween traditions is to look, read, listen to Halloween books. Annabelle seems to enjoy looking at one of the books. It's Pumpkin Day, Mouse! By Laura Joffe Numeroff, with her mother, Carly. Teagan is also looking at Aaaarrgghh! Spider! by Lydia Monks. Reading is a stepping stone to becoming an enthusiastic learner and a confident reader, writer, and speaker. With confidence, children can enjoy a wonderful world of learning and exploration.

Some of the parents volunteered to read as the children listened. It was beautiful to see the parents gathered on this fun occasion with the children.

We sang our Good Morning song and a few other songs. The children like to sing, Five Little Ducks, Five Speckled Frogs, Five Little Monkeys, and they also have some favorites, ABC, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Old McDonald Had a Farm, and Baa Baa Black Sheep. The list of songs always changes as they listen and learn new songs.

Transforming our Class Pumpkin into a Jack-O-Lantern

As a class community, the teachers and children voted to decide the pumpkins' nose, eyes, and mouth shape was going to be. However, we had a tie; therefore, we put different shapes in a bag, and Janet closed her eyes and selected one. The circle shape won!

The children observed and explored the pumpkin differently. They touched the inside top portion of the pumpkin, but no one wanted to put their hands inside the pumpkin!!

Paint

Each class created a Fall Art project to display it in the schools’ window. The 1B class did a square painting using sticks.

We explore a variety of colors; however, we have investigated specific colors in depth; for example, blue and orange. We are now focusing on Yellow. Starting next week, every day, we will ask the children. What color are they wearing today? They will observe the colors they are wearing and choose their pants, shirt, or socks. Another fun way to learn about colors!

Blake from 1A joined us during the week. She seemed to enjoy exploring with her hands and fingers. Paint is a rich sensory experience. There are no cut out shapes or pictures to paint, no predetermined final product, and children can choose the tools they want to paint with.

Watercolor Paper Towel Art Activity!

Painting on paper towel promotes a new way to investigate how watercolor spreads differently than ordinary tempera paint. The children independently chose two or three different colors. They observed how quickly it absorbed and spread. After the paper towels dried, a wood embroidery ring hoop was used to display their artwork.

Exploring on cardstock paper provides young toddlers with new ways to explore watercolor. Exploring different mediums enhances their knowledge and new ways of investigating art tools.

Sensory

The teacher put cloud dough in the sensory table for the students to explore this sensory stimuli material. They studied and experienced touching the mixture of flour and baby oil. The little hands and fingers delved into the soft and warm powdery substance. The mix makes an exciting sensory experience that provides children with endless fun. The consistency of the dough appeared to be intriguing to feel and hold, as they investigated. They were busy touching, scooping, and filling cups. As they filled, they also emptied the small cups. This activity also promotes Fine Motor Skills!

Teagan: "Sandra, where is the spider!"

Sandra: "I do not know. Maybe it left the room!"

Teagan: "No! There it is!"

Kinetic Sand stimulates children's imagination and enhances their manipulative ability. It is soft, easy to shape or sculpt that impressively holds its shape. The sand never dries out, so children can create over and over again! As Alexandra explores the sand by squeezing, patting, pressing, she notices how it flows through her fingers like a slow-moving liquid, but leaves them completely dry.

We provide children with props to extend their imagination as they interact and investigate the materials. Alexandra placed a yellow teddy bear on the sand and observed the teddy descending. She immediately said, “It’s sinking!” She described the movement as sinking. Teacher: “Good observation, Alexandra!”

As toddlers grow and develop, their language and cognitive skills increase. Language acquisition is instinctive, and for most children tends to happen quite naturally. Recognizing, encouraging, and positively reinforcing vocabulary to young toddlers sets the stage for speech production and communication.

Play dough

Why Play dough is suitable for children:

-Using play dough can help children develop their social skills and language

-Play dough is great for the imagination. There is no end to what kids can pretend with play dough

-It’s great for fine motor skills. Kids need to have strong muscles in their hands for writing, cutting, and other tasks. Think of all they do with play dough to build those muscles: roll, flatten, chop, cut, poke, squish, pinch, cut, pound, and manipulate

We had a visitor, Ian, who will be joining 1A. He seemed to be intrigued as he touched and used tools to interact with the play dough. Some of his other interests in the classroom were our fish and the sensory bottles. We welcome Ian to Buckle My Shoe!

Manipulative

Annabelle took some train tracks from the basket and began building and connecting them. As children learn to interact with the train set, they learn to maneuver them to make them fit. She focuses and concentrates as she interlocks both ends, making sure it fits. She built a set of nine tracks.

Each train track stimulates Alexandra's imagination and creativity and helps facilitate optimum growth and development. Trains give children a chance to experience many forms of play. For example, children can engage in pretend play as they reenact and simulate real-life using trains, vehicles they probably have come in contact with in real life, which helps build their knowledge of the world around them.

Part of the fun is letting little ones figure things out for themselves. In the baby and toddler years, it’s all about tactile and sensory experiences as well as understanding size differentiation and object recognition.

Blake appeared interested as she connected a yellow and orange Lego block. She joined and then pulled them apart. Her facial expression was full of wonder as she noticed how she could interlock both Legos and then pulled apart. Providing time and opportunity, children learn to discover techniques.

Circle Time

Circle time entails singing songs, reading stories, and introducing activities. We counted blue Lego Blocks together in English and Spanish. We also wrote the numerical number five on the erasable board. We do not want them to memorize but to have an awareness that numbers come in different forms. (We articulate the number five, but how does the number five look like.)

Movement

Physical play improves strength, endurance, balance, and body coordination when children play. In the gym, children run, go down the slide and throw a ball. They are building muscles!

Spanish

In addition to singing Spanish songs, she read a Halloween book to the children. Even though the book was in English, she translated the words in Spanish and had some cue cards about the story. For example, a picture of a witch, bruja in Spanish. It was a great learning experience for the children.

Cooking with Diane

Diane prepared for the children, a plate full of different colors: red raspberries, blueberries, carrots, and celery. The children seem to enjoy tasting and observing the different colors that the fruits projected.

Music

The children are gradually getting accustomed to our Music Specialist. Annabelle momentarily needed comfort, and Ophelia engaged with him counting the Five Little Duck song.