January 31, 2020

Cognitive, Geometric Shapes, Memorization, Counting, and Colors

The teacher articulated the shapes, turned the erasable board around, and erased one of the geometric shapes. As she turned it around, she asked the children "Which shape is missing?" The same process was with the balloons. She erased one without them seeing which one, and asked, "Which color is missing?" These activities are not only fun, interactive, and educational, but they enable children to practice their thinking skills.

Annabelle focused on the different color pom poms and the egg carton colors. She matched and articulated each color together with the teacher.

Blocks/Manipulative Toys

Manipulatives are smaller-sized pieces that children can easily manipulate. We used some in counting activities in the classroom. Each type offers opportunities for tactile and kinesthetic experiences. These types of experiences are the best kind for young children because they can utilize their body’s natural need to move — the many benefits of manipulatives parallel blocks and building materials. Manipulatives often require grasping, twisting pieces together, and pulling pieces apart.

For this reason, they aide in the development of hand-eye coordination and hand strength. But the benefits don’t stop there. Manipulative toys also encourage self-talk, discussion, and language development.

Ophelia selected and overlapped four Lego Blocks as she connected them. She articulated her structure, "Stairs!" Ophelia placed three ducks on each side and expressed, "Duck going up the stairs!" Ophelia did not articulate where the ducks were going but continued putting them into precise adjustment. Size and shape are essential features that help children to decide how they want to build their structure. These blocks are stimulating, as they contribute to Ophelia's creativity and imagination as she explores.

Kieran selected only the square shapes and maintained connecting them straight.

Collaboration/Socialization

Kieran and Emily were at the manipulative center sharing the space. They were playing cooperatively, as they quietly interacted with the materials. They each were taking turns placing a puzzle piece on the puzzle board. Socialization is an integral part of early childhood. How children behave during play and how they respond to that behavior is essential to their social development.

Helping children to develop positive social and emotional health enables them to learn to use words to express their feelings. For example, the children noticed that Teagan hurt her foot, and she was crying. Annabelle placed a towel on a blue colander and articulated, "Warm, warm, warm!" and to show empathy-she set the towel on Teagan's foot. "Teagan's foot is hurting!" she said.

Teacher: "I like the way you are trying to make her feel better. Teagan, how do you feel?"

Teagan: "Better!"

Displaying good manners, communicating effectively with others, being considerate of the feelings of others, and expressing personal needs are all essential components of social skills. Children learn to empathize and interact with others.

Dramatic Play/sOCIALIZATION/IMAGINATION/COMMUNICATION

Dramatic play is the everyday make-believe games children naturally enjoy. The child might incorporate props or imagine simple scenarios. Dramatic play is vital to your child's development, supporting intellectual and verbal skills.

Teacher: "Where are you?"

Teagan: "Teagan House!"

Annabelle: "We having a party!"

Teacher: "Who is going to the party?"

Alexandra: "Me!"

Teacher: "Do you have food at the party?"

Teagan: "Yes, hot dog!"

Alexandra: "Cucumbers!"

Teagan pretended to turn on the music and began to sing. Teagan and Annabelle sang Jingle Bells.

The scene changed when two children moved the chairs, and the others followed; the chairs formed a line.

Teacher: "Where are you going?"

Children: "To the train!" Ophelia and Ericksen joined the other children.

The teacher gave each child a piece of paper, pretending to be a ticket for the train.

Annabelle: "We going to the party at Granpa Larry's house.

Science

The children are learning about objects that sink and float.

They noticed that something heavy would sink, and something light will float. However, the same shape of an object can float or sink; for example, a plastic spoon (floats) and a metal spoon (sinks). The children appeared eager, as they investigated different objects.

JANUARY 24, 2020

January 24, 2020

Counting/Color Recognition/Tall and Short

Ophelia's seemed excited to throw the color block up in the air! All the children appeared eager to see what color Lego's they were going to count. "Yellow!" they all yelled! We counted five Legos together! The teacher took the five blocks and separated them into two stacks. Then we compared which stack is short and tall.

Teacher: “Which stack is tall?”

Annabelle immediately pointed to the tall one.

Painting/Independence/Fine and Gross Motor/creativity

As they paint, they are maneuvering their hand, as well as manipulating the paintbrush. Each movement helps the children develop their fine and gross motor skills. Using a mirror creates a more exciting way of painting as they look at their reflection, developing self-recognition. Exploring and experimenting with different kinds of art activities elicit children’s imagination. Art fosters creativity, curiosity, and stimulates their thinking process as they explore and discover different ways to engage in an art activity.

Painting on different surfaces and using various tools, allows children to explore and discover different sensory stimulation. Emily used her hands to explore the orange color. She appeared curious and amazed as she rubbed her fingertips together and patted the paint. I wonder what Emily thinks as she explores the texture of the paint! She seemed comfortable as she continued examining and engaging in the activity. Then she articulated, "Wash hands!"

Shapes/TACTILE Skills/Color/Creativity/Fine Motor skills/Patterns

Magna-tiles are versatile learning manipulative that are designed to develop and strengthen motor skills, including pincer grip, which is so crucial to fine motor development control. These magnetic building tiles are innovative and colorful. Children will develop spatial and tactile skills and learn basic shapes. They will build and rebuild different structures. They foster imaginative play and creativity. The unique pieces engage children in in-depth investigations.

Teagan created and maintained a pattern of three horizontal squares and four vertical squares. She made another layer using the same shapes. As she searched for another square, the teacher spread all the shapes on the table and articulated to Teagan to observe the triangle shapes. Teagan manipulated the small triangles, and with the teacher's help, two triangles were joined, creating a square. She immediately was looking for all the triangles to make more squares.

Teagan: “Rocketship! 3, 4, 6, 2, 1, blastoff!”

Cognitive/Language

Storytelling Through Drawing

As the teacher draws, the children observed her drawing and listened to a story. There is a lot of information within an illustration. They all enjoy a read-aloud session; however, when they experience the story along with the drawings, the story is made complete.

The story is about a firetruck and his day.

Who or what was stuck up in the tree?

Alexandra and Annabelle: "The cat!"

Who saved the cat?

Teagan and Annabelle: "The fireman!"

What did the fireman use to go up the tree?

Teagan: "A ladder!"

When the fireman went back to the fire station, what did he eat for dinner?

Teagan, Annabelle, Alexandra: "Pizza!"

Shape/Cognitive/Fine Motor Skills/Creativity

Kieran used a Hollow block, double unit block, and then stacked pillar blocks. He maintained a steady grip as he carefully placed one block on top of another. Kieran also stacked square shapes. He builds his first stack of blocks!

Stage 2 in block playing:

Building Begins- children will create towers and rows, either horizontally or vertically. During this stage, many repetitions in their building occur, which is basic functional play with blocks.

Kieran's interests, curiosity, and exploration will increase as he continues engaging at the Block Center and explores other shapes to build and rebuild structures.

January 17, 2020

Sensory/color and shape recognition/cognitive/language

A collage is a technique of composing a work of art by pasting on a single surface various materials. The art of making collages enables a student to use his/her imagination and create a composition that expresses their creativity. The two-step process art, applying glue and pasting the tissue paper, seemed to intrigue the students. Exploring and experimenting with the arrangement of shapes on paper helps young children develop thinking skills. I wonder if they are creating a picture or just enjoying combining shapes and colors. More children would have the opportunity to do this activity next week.

Counting/Memorization/Incorporating Colors

We do a variety of activities during circle time. Counting is one of the fun activities the children like to explore. We counted six red Lego Blocks in English and Spanish. The teacher stopped as she counted and allowed the children to continue articulating what numbers comes next. The children are demonstrating a crucial beginning math skill, one-to-one correspondence.

We also incorporated colors as the children recognized and identified the color red on the Lego Blocks. Each child looked at their clothes and expressed one color they were wearing.

Using unit blocks to measure our height!

Their height is part of their identity. The children develop, grow taller, and they each grow differently. We began measuring their height using unit blocks in September. We will all count how many blocks are needed to determine his/her height. They are also building knowledge as they count and learn the shape that is being used to identify their stature. We are measuring their height in January and their last measurement will be in May.

Annabelle-

September- 6 units and a half pillar blocks

January- 6 units and a half unit block

Creativity/Imagination/Language and Cognitive skills

Wooden building blocks provide the most valuable learning experience to children; it helps them to develop their intellectual, physical, social, and language skills. Toddlers can feel, hold, compare, match, and explore them. They learn different aspects, such as size and shape. While playing with blocks, children can experiment with the science of balance and stability by building different structures.

Annabelle: “This is the ocean!”

Teacher: “What are you building?”

Teagan: “Grandpa Larry’s house!”

Teacher: “What are you going to do at his house?”

Annabelle: “Play in the playroom!”

Teacher: “Who is going to play with you?”

Annabelle: “Teagan! Grandpa Larry is going to come in.”

Teacher: “When Grandpa Larry comes into the playroom, what is he going to do?”

Teagan: “He is going to play with me and Annabelle!”

Kieran explores and manipulates each block as he stacks them. He appears focus as he presses down firmly to secure them.

Exploring Scissors

Exploring with scissors- promotes eye-hand coordination, fine and gross motor skills, coordinate visual-motor control and visual perception, each underlining components of writing, cutting, catching a ball, and reading. The intricate levels of manual dexterity occur as children manipulate the scissors with greater intent. Each developmental skill benefits children’s growth and development. Providing young children with practice and opportunities will help to master the skill in using scissors and strengthen the small muscles.

Science/Fine Motor/Imagination/ Sensory/Language

The ingredients for making play dough is- Each ingredient is pronounce in Spanish!

Flour- harina

Oil- aceite

Water- Agua

Salt- Sal

Color- Color

The malleable properties of play dough make it fun for investigation and exploration as well as secretly building up strength in all the tiny hand muscles, making them ready for pencil and scissor control later on. Poking in objects and pulling them out of play dough strengthens hand muscles and co-ordination. As part of the simple, tactile play, the children squashed, squeezed, rolled, flattened, and poked the play dough. Each one of these different actions aids fine motor development differently, including hand-eye coordination and general concentration.

Ophelia: “I making a birthday cake!”

Aria: “A flower!”

Aria’s flower!

Incorporating Spanish in the Classroom

I created a board with different farm animals, and during circle time, I verbalized each animal both in English and Spanish. Children are like sponges; they absorb information as they learn from their environment and each interaction. For example, I pointed and said the word horse, Annabelle immediately articulated, Caballo (horse) in Spanish. Annabelle began to ask me a few questions:

1. How do you say a teacher in Spanish?

2. How do you say a boy in Spanish?

3. How do you say girl in Spanish?

Happy Birthday, Kieran!

We celebrated Kieran’s birthday on Wednesday, January 15, 2020, together with his mother, Ying, and father, Nicholas. We sang Happy Birthday, and the children ate a special treat!

JANUARY 10, 2020

January 10, 2020

Counting/Color Recognition

We counted using pegs and selected one color. To choose the color, we used our color block, and one of the students threw the color block on the air, and orange was the winner! The teacher selected three orange pegs and counted them in English and Spanish.

Puzzles

Puzzles are fundamentally educational for young children. They come in a variety of themes: for example, shapes, letters, and animals. Children usually start with simple knobbed puzzles that are outlines of simple shapes that fit into corresponding board cutouts. Two basic skills are the building blocks for puzzles, fine motor and cognitive skills.

Manipulative Toys

Manipulative toys are toys and tools that enhance children's fine motor skills. It helps strengthen their hands and helps with eye-hand coordination. The students are learning to differentiate between short and tall concepts. The teachers like to introduce different math skills using manipulative toys. Using everyday items or items from our environment enables them to absorb information naturally.

As Annabelle engages with the pegs, she is learning about colors, to grasp, twist the pieces together, and pull the pieces apart. She made two different size structures.

Teacher: "Annabelle, which one is shorter?"

Annabelle: "This one is shorter!" (She touched the shorter one)

Annabelle's focus and observation as she constructs demonstrate how she is forming information as she learns.

Sensory/Fine Motor Skills/Creativity/imagination/LANGUAGE

Clay is an excellent sensory material for children to investigate. Most children, when given a piece of clay, are motivated to explore its inviting sensory qualities. Manipulating a piece of clay develops children’s large and small muscles. Clay fosters eye-hand coordination: they poke it, squeeze it, hit it, pick it up, and pound it down. Each time they manipulate the clay, it transforms. The child is naturally motivated and empowered to keep experimenting.

Teagan: “Sandra, look, I’m rolling the clay!”

Opelia: “Happy birthday cake!”

Emily is exploring by pressing and squeezing the clay with her fingers.

Alexandra: “Its raining sand!”

Kieran was busy scooping, touching, and filling cups of sand.

Creativity/Fine Motor and Cognitive Skills

We have been discussing different lines, but our primary focus is the straight and zig-zag lines. The children applied some glue on black paper, arranged, and selected the lines. Each collage of lines is different. We will continue talking about these lines and create collages next week.

Sensory/Science

Science helps children develop essential life skills, including an ability to communicate, remain focused, and form their own opinions based on observation. Science also helps children develop their senses and overall awareness. Children are hands-on learners, and the world around them provides so many natural opportunities. In this simple salt and ice activity, the children spread salt, and then notice how slow or fast the ice was melting. Not only is it engaging and fun, but a salt and ice activity is also a chemistry lesson that never fails to impress young children.

Teacher: “How does the frozen glove feel?”

Teagan: “It feels cold!”

Annabelle: “It feels nice.”

Ericksen: “Cold!”

Teacher: “What happens when you put salt on the glove?”

Teagan: “It melting!”

Annabelle: “It melting right there!” (Pointing to one of the fingers)

December 20, 2019

Highlights of the Week:

Sensory/Fine Motor/Creativity

The children engaged in different sensory explorations. Each promoting fine motor skills and creativity. Colored model magic, creating a snowman using white tempera paint, shaving cream, and glue, Incredible Foam-Dough (tiny colorful foam beads to create fun new textures and shapes not found in regular dough), and lightweight air-dry putty. Teagan used glittering rhinestone to adorn her structure.

Ophelia: “Happy birthday, cake!”

Ophelia was singing the Happy Birthday song as she molded the model magic and inserted the Popsicle sticks.

Building Blocks

Building with blocks provides one of the most valuable learning experiences available for young children. Block play stimulates learning in all domains of development, intellectual, physical, and social-emotional and language.

Teagan: “I’m building a street for Annabelle!”

Teacher: "Teagan, what are you building?"

Teagan: "I building a see-saw!"

Teagan wanted Annabelle to sit on the see-saw with her, but there was not enough room.

Teacher: "Teagan, Annabelle cannot sit on the

see-saw because there is not enough room.

"How can you change your structure so that Annabelle can sit with you?

(She continued looking at herself in the mirror as she sits on the see-saw)

Puzzles

These new wooden puzzles promote color and shape recognition but they also teach children about 5 different sizes. The children interacted with 5 different shapes: diamond, square, oval, triangle, circle and squares.

Incorporating different food props from the kitchen center and demonstrating real food, help children to learn, and understand that shapes are everywhere, including the food we eat.

Dramatic Play

Pretend play is an essential part of children’s development. Children involved in pretend play; they are often mimicking what they’ve seen adults do. Providing dramatic play activities is a great way to engage toddlers in role-playing. Social skills are strengthened as the children interact with one another!

Through pretend play, children learn to do things like negotiate, consider others’ perspectives, transfer knowledge from one situation to another, balance their ideas with others, develop a plan and act on it, explore symbolism, express and listen to thoughts and ideas, assign tasks and roles, and synthesize different information and ideas.

Teagan: “I putting my glove on. Annabelle put on your glove. I need to wipe the baby the baby has a poop poop.”

Annabelle: “I need to change baby. You going to the doctor!”

Teagan: “I doing a great job with the baby!”

Literacy

Books and stories fill a child's mind with knowledge and...

contributes to the understanding of print concepts (left to right, top to bottom)
listening to stories assists in the development of literacy skills and language development
increase vocabulary skills
stimulate imagination
books provide children with a time for quiet and calmness
stories provoke curiosity and discussion
books provide inspirations, thought, and reflection

I believe that a love of reading is a stepping stone to becoming an enthusiastic learner and a confident reader, writer, and speaker. With confidence and enthusiasm, children can enjoy a wonderful world of learning and exploration.

The children quietly sat together, sharing the space looking at different books. Annabelle and Teagan pointed and articulated the color circles they saw in the book.

Teagan’s mom, Rachel, came to visit and shared her tradition. She read books about Hanukkah, showed us her menorah, and talked about the dreidel game. The children appeared excited and interested as they listened.

Meet Aria, our new student that will start with us on January 2, 2020

She seemed excited to explore the different centers, as she navigates the room. Teagan and Aria worked cooperatively at the block center connecting train tracks.

December 13, 2019

Today we celebrated our curriculum breakfast, which entailed how each child is growing and changing and accomplishing many milestones. Through that change, they experience independence. As teachers, we provide toddlers opportunities to promote their development and foster a positive environment where they can thrive and build confidence. Each child in the classroom brings with them divergent, interests, abilities, cultures, and families.

We shared a holiday tradition, celebrating St. Lucia, with Buckle My Shoe. We visited each classroom, singing carols, and delivering cookies. As a community, we build relationships with teachers, students, and expand our social skills. The classroom experience enriches our program for our children's growth and development. Our goal is to celebrate individuals while creating a sense of community.

Today we celebrated Alexandra's birthday together with her mom, dad, and grandma; she is two-years-old!! We sang Happy Birthday and ate a special snack.

December 6, 2019

Highlights of the Week:

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Implementing fun and interactive games and activities will facilitate the children's learning and build their cognitive skills. The teacher hid the color shakers and showed one. What color is missing? As she repeated and alternated the colors, the children appeared intrigued and curious. They each focused and articulated their guesses.

The children engaged in a fun game that consisted of color, number, and number sets. They learn to recognize and identify colors and to count using one-to-one correspondence, a vital beginning math skill for preschoolers.

SCIENCE/SENSORY/LANGUAGE/SOCIAL EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT. IT IS ALSO A GREAT ACTIVITY FOR FINE MOTOR DEVELOPMENT.

Playdough is a scientific concept that involves the mixture of different components (flour, water, salt, and watercolor (optional) that produce the playdough to change its form). The children poured, mixed, took turns, squished, poked, patted, and flatten their dough. It stimulates the children's senses while offering an opportunity to use their imagination to explore.

Teagan: “Happy Birthday, cake! I putting in the oven.”

Teacher: “Is the oven hot or cold?”

Teagan: “Is hot!”

Ericksen: “Look a tunnel!”

(He takes the Popsicle Stick and passes it through the playdough as if he is crossing to the other side)

Ericksen: “Beep, beep! Bye-bye train!

(Moving the Popsicle sticks back and forth in the tunnel)

Ericksen: “Thomas, Thomas, going to tunnel. Henry and Thomas, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 blast off.”

Fine Motor Skills/cREATIVITY

Lego blocks come in a vast range of shapes and sizes, in which small hands learn how to assemble and take apart. The small twists and turns of their hands, fingers, and arms promote coordination and dexterity. Through their manipulation, children learn about applying differential pressure; some blocks need small amounts of pressure when building, while others require a great deal. Each block is essential to ignite their imagination and develop their creativity.

Teacher: “Teagan, what you building?”

Teagan: “A boat. Somebody on my boat.

Teacher: “Who is on the boat?”

Teagan: “Mama, dada, and Teagan. Ericksen on the boat, too.”

Ericksen: “Mommy and daddy on the boat! Whee!”

Teacher: “Do boats go up in the sky or the water?

Ericksen: “The water!”

Cognitive/Fine Motor Skills

These soft matching puzzle pieces help children use their problem-solving skills by pairing and connecting the correspondent piece.

“Octopus!”

“A green turtle!”

Fine Motor Skills/Self-awareness/Self-identification/Language

December Self-Portraits
The mirrors encourage children to look closely at the shapes of their facial features and learn to identify the different facial features and see how they are changing. The continuous movement of the writing tool helps and builds fine motor skills and bilateral coordination skills. The tool promotes the use of the pincer grasp and naturally strengthens the small hand muscles.

November 29, 2019

Teagan's father, John, came to visit the classroom. She appeared happy to show him the different centers and activities. John sat on the rug and read a story to Teagan and her peers.

PAINTING

We always try to be creative with painting and drawing tools. It provides children with a different texture, grip, and a fun way to explore. Annabelle seemed to enjoy painting with a pipe cleaner as the handle and the attach pom pom as the brush.

She creates lines, dots and circles!

Collaborative Painting: Learning to play cooperatively together is part of their social and emotional development. Working together in a group builds communication skills and encourage taking turns, as they all use the same materials. The children painted on a square shape canvas. They selected two colors of their choice, demonstrated their different techniques when maneuvering the Q-tip, shared, and respected their space.

Some of the benefits of children working in pairs are:

-Give young learners more speaking time

-Allow children to incorporate their ideas and techniques as they paint (or glue) and use their words

-Gives them a sense of achievement when reaching a team goal

-It allows us as teachers to monitor, move around the class, and listen to the language they are producing and observe as they work together

Painting with their hands is one of the many ways toddlers enjoy exploring paint. As they move their arms and hands back and forth, they are working their fine and gross motor skills. They are also exercising their small muscles in their fingers, creating distinctive marks.

The children explored tempera paint, Glue, and Sand!

The children looked curious and intrigued as they painted, glued, and sprinkled some sand on their art piece. They are discovering different ways to use glue and different textures, as they paint and mix different items.

Our counting activities were approached differently this week. Instead of selecting a number, it was Alexandra’s turn to throw the number block. The block revealed the number two. Therefore, we counted two green blocks. Through this activity, several domains are integrated — for example, cognitive, social, and emotional development. Children are learning number recognition, counting, understanding the concept that two means two items, color recognition, and taking turns.

What color are you wearing today?

The children are having fun learning about colors in this manner. They point to all the colors they are wearing; however, the objective is to choose one color. Part of their learning process is to understand that colors come in different shades; for example, blue.

Ericksen articulated, "Blue!" but pointed to a different color. Annabelle helped him by pointing to the color blue. Ericksen appeared pleased that a friend helped him. Helping each other, and waiting for their turn, are all related to Social and Emotional Development.

BLOCKS

Teagan has been demonstrating stage 1 and stage 2 of Block Playing. Her structure is a "House," and she also articulates people live in the house as she places the people props inside each block opening. As she continues exploring, her teachers will acquire more information to discover further what the people are doing in the house.

Stage1- Carrying: The children will discover and explore how heavy and light they are by carrying them. They will explore how they feel and what shape they are. They also experience hearing the sound they make as they drop them.

Stage 2- Building Begins: Children will create towers and rows, either horizontally (on the floor) or vertically (stacked). During this stage, many repetitions in their building occur, which is basic functional play with blocks.

SPECIALIST

SPANISH

As the specialist sang Mr. Sun in Spanish, the children focused as they listened to her singing. Children learn through repetition, and many of the learning songs we implement in the classroom have repetitive lyrics that help young toddlers to memorize things. Singing is a way for children to learn letters and words in a fun and interactive way.

The Spanish specialist read one of the recent books I bought in Spanish. The theme of the book is cookies; therefore, she created cookies out of play dough. Adding props to any storybook makes it a fun and interactive read-aloud session.

As the Thanksgiving Holiday approaches, the Spanish specialist created a Thanksgiving meal out of paper, play dough, and cotton. Each item was articulated in English and then in Spanish. She also created a chef's hat, which Annabelle volunteered to wear it.

Turkey- El pavo

Mash Potatoes- Papa majada or pure de papas

Cranberry Sauce- Salsa de Arandanos

Peas- Arveja

Carrots- Zanahoria

Diane articulated and demonstrated to the children that she has brought in some pre-cooked cranberry sauce in a bowl. She added a slice of pear and pineapple to give it an extra taste. The children helped smash and mix the fruits.

The activity promotes:

- Fine motor skills, as they smash and mix

- Social and emotional development- taking turns

- Language- using words to express what they see and taste

Spanish Books (English and Spanish interpretation)

I bought a few Spanish books to share with the class. The children engage by listening, enunciating numbers, colors, and singing songs as they learn Spanish. Children are naturally curious, and learning another language in a fun and interactive way enables them to grasp the language.

We are starting a Home Fun Activity for the parents to take home on Fridays. I will probably arrange this every other week. Our first Home Fun Activity will be on Friday, December 6, 2019. It will entail in selecting one of the Spanish books displayed on the cubbies and reading it with your child over the weekend. I will add the question: Did you and your child liked the book? Why or why not? The book selected will be placed inside a Ziploc Bag with the question to take home.

November 22, 2019

Throughout the week the children sang and listened to a variety of songs and books.

Songs:

ABC
Mr. Sun
Old Mac Donald
You are My Sunshine
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
Five Little Ducks
Five Little Speckled Frog
Bubble Gum
Where is Thumpkin?
The Wheels on the Bus
Baa Baa Black Sheep
7 days in a week
What’s the weather?
Row, Row your boat and many more…..

Highlights of the Week:

Painting ice cubes!

In a large bin, the teacher poured ice cubes and placed two large blocks of ice. It appeared to be inviting to the children as they delved into this science/sensory activity. The children sat quietly, painting and decorating the ice for more than 25 minutes! They looked intrigued and interested as they explored.

Teacher: Is the ice-cold or hot?

Everybody: "Cold!!!!"

Teagan: "Look, Sandra, two ice stuck on the big one."

Teagan: "Why do you think they are stuck?"

She observed and continued painting the ice cubes with the paintbrush and her hands. New materials elicit curiosity, exploration, and investigation. It is essential to follow each child's pace, provide time and opportunities for them to explore.

Teagan lifted the big block of ice, and the teacher asked, Is the block light or heavy?

Teagan: “The ice is heavy!”

Ericksen: “Look, red. It’s heavy!”

The children appeared amazed when the teacher squeezed some paint on the two large ice cubes, and the paint dripped and moved with the water.

The children used squeezable paint bottles and seemed to enjoy squeezing and painting the ice with their hands or paintbrushes.

What is happening to the ice?

Teagan: "It's melting; its water!"

Collage

The children have been using glue in different activities. Squeezing the glue out of the bottle helps develop fine motor and problem-solving skills. As the children squeeze and spread the glue with a paintbrush, and then place the item of their choice on the glue area, they are gradually learning to understand the property of glue. We used recycled pouch tops and boards to create a collage. The teacher articulated the three steps for this activity, "squeeze the glue, spread the glue, and place the pouch anywhere you want” They all created unique collages!

Annabelle

Ophelia

Alexandra

Teagan

Crinkle Paper Art

Art enables children to explore, imagine, and create. Each child projects and expresses their craft differently. Last week the children completed a three-step project, gluing and placing shredded paper. In their final step, painting, they selected two out of four colors. Even though the paper was part of their art, the teacher noticed that they painted around the shredded paper. She wonders if the colors of the shredded paper, white, and brown made a difference to some of the children’s decisions.

Each stroke and movement helped to create and define their work of art. This activity promoted fine motor skills, imagination, creativity, and sensory experience.

Ericksen our new student squeezed and spread the glue lightly on the canvas. He selected some shredded brown paper and placed them on different areas of his canvas. Next week he will proceed with the third step, painting!

PAINT

Cork Painting

Painting- (the process or art using paint)- We provide different materials for children to explore. One of them is using a variety of tools to create art. Toddlers are naturally curious and enjoy exploring and discovering new ways to paint. As they grip the cork, they tap or smear the paint across their paper.

The children used four different colors and shaving paintbrushes to paint on the poster board. These brushes are similar to the traditional chunky solid wood handles used in the barbershop.

Learning to play cooperatively together is part of their social and emotional development. Working together in group collage builds communication skills and encourage taking turns as they all use the same materials. The children applied glue with a paintbrush and pasted different items on a white square canvas.

As they work together, they are sharing one canvas, space, and materials.

Blocks

Infantino sensory blocks encourage imagination. The texture promotes Ophelia to maneuver, press, select the color, and create a structure. As she manipulated each block, she connected and created two different models, vertical and horizontal. Children develop organization and critical thinking as they explore.

Manipulative

Children are exploring with their left and right hand as they paint and draw. We provide opportunities for young children to experience the hand dominance acquisition process by providing different writing and drawing tools. Also, it helps them to improve their grip and pincer grip development.

Children need to rotate puzzle boards as they have mastered others. Alexandra has not explored this puzzle board. She is concentrating and focusing on how to maneuver the shape pieces. She has to discover a technique that will work for her.

The can and pipe cleaners are similar to the colander and pipe cleaner activity. The objective is for children to try to insert the pipe cleaner through the holes. It promotes fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, and color recognition. Alexandra observed the children as they focused and concentrated on the activity.

CIRCLE TIME

Parents, extended family, and friends are welcome to read to the children. Please come and join 1B for a reading session. The children will enjoy it!!!!!

We decided to make a circle or semi-circle with the chairs during circle time. It provided the children with a different perspective as they sit, play a musical instrument, sing, and listen to a story. It seemed that the children enjoyed sitting on the chairs.

The teacher created a cube that would help the children identify colors, numbers, and the set of each number. The children seemed curious and intrigued. We are planning to create another with emotions.

Sensory/Painting

Bubble Wrap Paper is not only for packaging but is a fun, interactive, and therapeutic sensory exploration activity. As they popped, the teacher asked, "How many bubbles can you pop? Ready, lets count 1, 2, 3, 4, ....." Along with being a fun way to promote fine motor skills by popping the tiny plastic bubbles, children can paint the bubble wrap paper to create an art piece.

SPANISH

COOKING WITH DIANE

The children ate carrots, celery, and tried three different color tomatoes.

SOCCER

MUSIC

November 15, 2019

Highlights of the Week

Painting with Feathers: The idea behind "process art" is that the activity is more about the process itself than the end product. The students seemed to enjoy, dipping the feathers into the paint and tapping them onto the paper. The feathers are not as sturdy as paintbrushes but made a fascinating textured look!

As they painted, they looked curious and observed their artwork. It’s a way for them to experiment and make simple observations on their own. Some continued tapping, creating lines, or covered the paper as they stroke the feathers. Real process art is merely allowing children a wide range of materials to use and allowing them to create.

Providing opportunity, time, and materials for children to engage with to create, are the elements that form process art. Process art emphasizes the process of making art, and about the experience, the child has while they are creating.

Ophelia seemed to enjoy, dipping the feathers into the paint and then tapped and dragged them onto the paper.

Alexandra selected two colors, pink and purple. She appeared excited to explore the new painting tool, as she swiftly moved the feathers at the center of the paper.

It was interesting to see how Teagan maneuvered the feathers as she painted. She continued and maintained her strokes at the center of the paper.

Crinkle Paper! Each child projected and expressed their craft differently. For example, some applied, while others poured the glue. As they approach the next step, placing the shredded paper on their canvas. Each child selected the colors (brown or white) and how much of it they wanted to apply on their canvas. Promoting independence is critical in toddlerhood. We want them to feel confident as they make a decision. Next week, the children will perform step three, painting. The children will be selecting two colors.

Circle Time

During circle time, we do a variety of activities; for example, sing songs, read books, counting, and discuss different topics. Part of our circle time, we have included, What Color are You Wearing Today? Every day we are going to look at the clothes we are wearing and articulate one color. Then they will take the letter of their first name, for example, A for Annabelle and place it on the color stick. It's a fun way for the children to learn about colors!

ART

Along with being a fun way to promote fine motor skills by popping the tiny plastic bubbles, students can use bubble wrap for painting. Before putting the cups of paint, the students explored the bubble wrap paper. As they used their fingers to press down onto the paper, they seem to enjoy the sound the bubble wrap paper made.

They maneuvered the paintbrush in different directions to cover the plastic bubbles with paint. Painting alongside each other allows them to understand and respect their space.

For this painting project, the children used different colors and splattered the paint using a sponge-like brush. They noticed that as they tapped and pressed the brush onto the paper, it made distinctive marks. When the painting was dried, the teacher asked the children which way the picture should be displayed. Their answers were, "This way!" The teacher placed the painting on the table and had them articulate and demonstrate which angle their art piece should display.

The children observed the painting, and Teagan turned it around until she said, "This way!" and Annabelle agreed.

Painting aids children in acquiring hand-eye coordination, an essential skill in their age. This development occurs, as they learn to paint the parts that they see, making sure their hand movement is at par with their vision. Also, your child can develop mobility skills. They move their hand muscles as they touch and squeeze the paint.

The mixture contained yellow and silver paint, shaving cream, and a small amount of glue. The smoothness of the paint caused the children to have a calm disposition as they explored. Teagan enjoyed it so much that she painted her feet and Annabelle as well. They worked there for quite some time, engaging with the color.

MANIPULATIVE

Alexandra interacted with the train tracks and connected three tracks and then two tracks. Then she took them and joined them together, creating a five-track structure. It seems that she is going to continue adding tracks. People props were placed nearby for her to extend her exploration. Providing materials to continue a child's investigation, promotes creativity and imagination.

Teagan and Annabelle constructed an alignment of squares out of Magna-tiles. Teagan went to get some animal props, and they both placed each animal in a square.

These magnetic building tiles are innovative, colorful, and strengthen motor skills, including pincer grip, which is so crucial to fine motor development control.
Teagan investigates and manipulates squares and triangles. She connects them in a unique arrangement. As she observes her structure, she adds more squares, including a big square. She immediately articulated, "Look, like a computer!" She moves her fingers rapidly as if she was typing. Play involves children exploring and using their bodies and materials to make and do things and to share their ideas and thoughts. Children imagination increases when they engage, build, and associate their structures with things they see in their environment.

Teagan used specific Hollow Blocks for her structure. As she swayed her body and simultaneously moved the blocks and said, “Rocking the Baby. There in here. There going to sleep!” and began singing the ABC song. “ Teagan has created an extension to her baby doll play, building a crib! The teacher will be exploring this exciting idea.

Specialist

Spanish

Music

Due to our schedule on Friday, we had music on Thursday, and classroom 3B joined us. The children enjoyed singing and dancing as they listened to music.

Soccer

One of the children from 1A joined us for soccer. He appeared comfortable as he ran and kicked the ball. He will probably be with us every Thursday for soccer.

November 8, 2019

Highlights of the Week:

Exploring Lights

Introducing a light science activity will enable children to explore and understand that lights are everywhere, and we use them every day. Hands-on activities stimulate children’s curiosity. Light can teach children about transparency, reflections, and shadows. Using the flashlights promote interests and exploration to their young developing minds. As the teacher turns off the lights in the gym, the children will have the opportunity to explore and discover how lights work.

Teagan shows the teacher that she could see her fingers by pointing the light towards her hand. The asked her, “What color is the light?” Teagan replied, “White!” The children enjoyed looking into the lights, observing and examining its reflection on the wall.

The teacher demonstrated to the children that the front part of the flashlight has a circular shape. As they pointed towards the wall, it displayed the shadow of a circle. Annabelle moved back and forth, pointing the flashlight towards the wall. She noticed that the closer to the wall she got, the smaller the round shape, and the farther she got, the more prominent. They all appeared curious and intrigued as they manipulated the surface of the lights, and noticed the brightness the light emitted. Light promotes curiosity, exploration, fine motor, language, and cognitive development. Children’s natural ability to explore enables them to discover ways to understand the world and their environment. We will revisit the upstairs gym to explore lights again.

Three-dimensional Art

When playing with glue, children can learn how one object can adhere to another, sometimes permanently. Children will also make choices about which objects they want to use, where to place them, and how many to include. Helping them experience decision-making skills enables them to build autonomy.

The three-dimensional art using re-purposed materials allows children to use their imagination. As they applied glue and recycled paper towel on a wooden square, they’re creating a beautiful work of art. Each differently designed, demonstrating the child's uniqueness.

When young children create and participate in art projects, they are first learning to discover an idea. They then work to bring that idea to life. Through art activities, children can learn problem-solving, effective communication when working, divergent thinking, and will develop a sense of aesthetics.

Painting

Painting on a black poster board makes the art piece vivid and the brushstroke interesting to observe. Annabelle initially started painting on the poster board and moved her arms up and down and side to side to create different brushstrokes. Alexandra incorporated some of hers, making it a collaborative piece.

The children appeared to enjoy this different process of painting. As the children moved their paintbrush across the plastic, they develop cognitively, emotionally, and physically. They are all being creative with their paintbrush, roller, or their hands. Teagan used her hands and said, "It feels warm!" Painting enables children to explore and observe how paint can work on different surfaces.

Exploring, paint, glue, and salt!

Has children manipulate drawing tools on their drawing paper, they create straight, zig-zag lines and circles overlapping each other. As Teagan draws, the green mark is a helicopter. Then she said, “I want to hang my picture up! Embracing their words are important. Therefore, her picture is on the wall!

As Annabelle draws:

“Look at this! Mommy is going to be so happy!”

Dramatic Play

Annabelle is taking a picture of Teagan, as she says, cheese. The teacher wonders if she is imitating her or someone else. Young toddlers learn from their environment and the people they interact with every day. Therefore, imitation could have happened anywhere. Dramatic play encourages young children to play freely while exploring different roles. Creative play is a great way to build your child’s communication skills in a fun and supportive environment. When children are engaged with their chosen material you’ll notice they talk to themselves about what’s happening. This, in turn, leads to building their vocabulary and developing their imagination.

They enjoy talking about fruits and vegetables and the different foods to give to their babies. We read Maisy is going Shopping. Therefore, we are planning a trip to the supermarket. Each child articulated what food we should buy:

Grocery List:

Carrots (Annabelle)

How about some bread (Teagan)

Strawberry (Alexandra)

Apple Juice (Ophelia)

This baby doll washing activity is always an absolute favorite with the children when we set it up in our classroom. It is an excellent role-play activity for developing personal, social, and emotional skills as well as being a fun water play activity for toddlers.

Ophelia: “Baby sit-up, baby all clean!”

Annabelle calls Teagan and said, “Baby has to go outside and look at the ducks. (Singing) Wipe, Wipe, the feet at Buckle My Shoe today!”

Teagan: (Singing)“Wipe wipe the back!”

Teagan: “Baby you are a baby. Oh, my baby you so heavy!

Teagan: (Singing) “This is the way we wash the baby!”

This activity promotes caring for others, showing understanding and self-care practices.

Movement

Movement is vital for young children’s development. Supports balance, coordination, and strength, support awareness of themselves and others through creative movement, and movement fosters interactions.

We will be demonstrating and articulating the first letter of the children's names on the erasable board. Gradually they will recognize and identify not only their letter but their peers.

Specialists:

Spanish

The Spanish specialist discussed different farm animals and the sound they make. They also listened to a song similar to Old McDonald's. The children were focused and listened attentively. They enjoyed singing familiar songs and listening to new ones.

Cooking with Diane

Trail Mix: Corn Chex, cinnamon and raisins.

Ms. Diane introduced the items by having the children taste and smell them.

One of the fun things about cooking with Diane is that the children participate in pouring or mixing the ingredients. Including them in activities increases their self-confidence.

Soccer- The children are having a great time learning different strategies as they increase their ability in kicking the soccer ball.

Music

Today we had two friends visiting Buckle My Shoe, Chase (the girl with the pink shirt), and Ram (the boy holding the red maracas). They seemed to be enjoying the music session as they listened to the songs and played the musical instruments.

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.

October 24, 2019

October 25, 2019

The highlights of the week:

The children created Leaf Collages!

The children created a leaf collage. A collage is a technique of composing a work of art by pasting on a single surface various materials. We collected some leaves and small tree branches for our natural collage. The children squeezed some glue on a rectangle piece of corrugated cardboard. Then they spread the glue with a paintbrush. We allow them to explore the materials and let them apply them on the cardboard. They each investigated and responded to the paste differently.

Ice Painting!

Ice painting is a combination of science and sensory exploration. We poured some tempera paint in an ice cube tray with Popsicle Sticks and allowed it to freeze overnight. As we removed the ice cube paint for the children to explore, we observed their interaction with the material. They appeared to be in awe and curious as they investigated the frozen paint. Some swirled the Popsicle Sticks as if they were drawing with a crayon and observed the mixture of colors as it melted.

Toddlers are fascinated by how things work, and studying is one of the first steps in learning about different objects and textures. Different stimulation promotes children to react differently to materials. Children need to understand how the world works and the various textures that help them form that knowledge.

Annabelle: “Orange and Yellow!”

Ophelia: “Lollipop! It’s cold!”

Annabelle: “Snake!” (As she swivels the Popsicle Stick)

Collaborative painting promotes sharing and socialization. Teagan shared the ice Popsicle stick with Annabelle after she was all done.

Teacher: “What happen to the paint?”

Teagan: “It broken!”

Teacher: “How does it feel?”

Teagan: “Cold!”

Annabelle: “I made silly pumpkin!”

Annabelle is all done painting and gives the teacher the popsicle sticks, “Can you take care of this!”

PAINTING:

The novelty of painting with various objects allows children to explore and experiment. It is always fun and exciting to think outside the box when you are creating art. Transforming items that can be turned into painting tools allow children to explore and discover new ways to paint. The rubber band art tool, inspire children to create big and small movements and make interesting marks on their paper. The tool enables children to develop different techniques and patterns as they maneuver the unique painting tool.

Each child is an artist! They used thin paintbrushes and two colors to create their art pieces. They maneuvered their hand in different ways to form various lines, circles, or blobs of paint. They used their imagination and creativity as they move the paintbrush.

Each art piece is distinctive!

Three different colors were provided as choices to paint the small pumpkins orange, white, and black. Orange and black glitter was also available for the children to sprinkle on the pumpkins. They painted from the top to the bottom of the pumpkins or went in a circling motion as they covered the pumpkin with paint and glitter. They seem to be having fun exploring this different kind of surface for paint exploration.

MANIPULATIVE:

The colander and pipe cleaners activity always interests the children. It is challenging as they need to focus on inserting the pipe cleaners in the holes. As they interact, they are entirely focused and determined to fill all the holes in the colander. There are so many possibilities when engaging in this activity: color matching, counting, and working on the fine motor skill.

Young children learn through play. 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.

Teagan: “Tunnel”

Annabelle: “Train going backward!”

In the block center, children manipulate and maneuver the blocks as they explore them. They create, learn, and build! Young toddlers develop and explore concepts like early math, problem-solving, and cause and effect as they interact with the blocks.

Teagan visits and gazes at the Hollow blocks. She selects the square and rectangle shapes and stacks them. She appeared to focus on her stack of blocks as she carefully places them one on top of another. The teacher asked, "What are you building, Teagan?" Teagan continues to observe her structure and keeps adding blocks. At one point, they fell, and she stacks them again.

Block playing contains the seeds of exploration, imagination, and creation. It is essential to allow them to express their constructions when they are ready. Respecting her choice and her structure is an integral part of her development. Each property of the blocks: size, weight, shape, and stability level are fundamental to the building and discovery.

Teagan attempted different surfaces to build a wiggly creation. These suction-cup building pieces encourage fine motor skills, spatial reasoning, creativity, exploration, and experimentation. She was very persistent in finding a place in which she can press the suction cup and POP! Apart. When she discovered two spots on her own, the manipulative center shelves and light table, she yelled, "It sticks!!"

Providing time for them to explore, and discover things on their own, helps them develop self-confidence and a sense of accomplishment.

Caring for a small pet, such as a fish, can provide young children with the opportunity to learn more about animals. As preschool teachers, we know that young children are engaged and learn best by doing. We can certainly teach about animals through books and pictures; however, they can learn more when they can interact with one. They can learn about caring for animals and the responsibility that goes with it.

CIRCLE TIME:

During circle time, we sang songs and played musical instruments. We asked the children to think of a song that they would like all of us to sing. They all articulated or took the initiative to start the song for us. It is crucial to have the children use their words and express their ideas as this builds confidence and self-esteem.

As a class community, the children were asked to select the shape they would like the eyes, nose, and mouth to be for our classroom Jack-o-lantern. The teachers and children are going to vote on the shapes. There are three different shapes to choose from, square, circle, and triangles. We have a tie with the circle and square and one vote for the triangle. On Monday, when Alexander arrives at school, she will select one shape, and then we hope to break the tie!

A stroll in the neighborhood

We took a stroll in the neighborhood, and the children saw cars, trucks, people, flowers, and Halloween decorations. They sang different songs as they were sitting in the stroller: Baa, Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Old McDonald, and The Wheels on the Bus.

We went to visit Chocolate, the Pre-kindergarten's pet rabbit. The children appeared a little hesitant as they approached him; however, we remained in a safe distance in which the children felt comfortable. As they observed the rabbit, we talked about his eyes, ears, fur, the color of his coat, and how he moves his nose. Chocolate seemed to be a little shy because he did not move from his hiding place.

Specialist:

Soccer

Cooking with Diane: Apple, Raspberry and Lemon juice

Spanish

Music

October 18, 2019

Throughout the week we read and sang many songs. For example:

Chicka, Chicka Boom Boom
Brown Bear, Brown Bear
Donde esta la Oveja Verde
The Little Blue Digger and the Strongest Truck
Mis colors
Pete the Cat (Five Little Pumpkins)
Pete the Cat, I’m Rocking in My School Shoes
Pete the Cat, I Love my White Shoes
Good Night, Good Night Construction Sit
Llama Llama Misses Mama and many more………..

Songs:

ABC
Mr. Sun
What’s the weather?
Watermelon
Five Little Ducks
Five Speckled Frogs
Five Little Monkeys
Old McDonald Had a Farm
Johnny works with one Hammer………..
Jump in the Middle (Ex. Alexandra, your all wet) and many more………

Highlights of the Week:.

We celebrated Teagan's 2nd birthday with her mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa. We all enjoyed singing “Happy Birthday,” eating the special snack, and Teagan’s father, John, read Circle by Jon Klassen. The children seemed interested as they listened.

Teagan’s grandma also read one of the children's favorite book, Pete the Cat, The Five Little Monkeys. Teagan appeared to enjoy having her family in the classroom and sharing this special day with her peers and teachers.

Pumpkin Picking Trip

All the children enjoyed the Pumpkin Picking Trip! They explored the open space with many different size pumpkins. The seemed excited as they attempted to pick-up, sit down, and roll a pumpkin. They observed the animals close and afar. Feeding them was a treat for our young toddlers and very brave!! Everybody had FUN, including adults and teachers.

The children Explored and Engaged in different Activities and Centers

PAINTING

Sometimes not interrupting the child or ask questions, we can observe and may begin to understand the way a child perceives his/her world, his developmental abilities, and his/her needs or interests.

Children form many connections and ideas of how the painting process works for them, as well as what they enjoy about it. While we observe, a child painting, we see a fully engaged child. We can almost see children’s thoughts, such as when they push their brush flat, make lines or dips and stir the paint.

Painting with Sticks

The children appeared curious and puzzled as they stamp the twig (stick) onto the paper creating small dots and lines. Each smear, dot, or drip they established with the twig enabled them to explore the tool freely.

Engaging and introducing new materials, elicits children’s imagination. It stimulates and helps them cultivate their abilities. Painting with natural materials is a fun activity that produces a different kind of artwork. As children maneuver the natural painting tool, it provides them with opportunities to be creative and master their fine motor skills. One of the many reasons why art is essential, it builds children’s self-esteem by giving them the autonomy to express themselves.

Carlie, Annabelle's mother, brought some materials for the children to explore and create facial expressions. We talked about the different facial expressions: happy, sad, angry, and sleepy. As they selected, they seemed to enjoy the process of gluing and pasting the black shapes. I wonder what Annabelle feels as she applies glue on her hand. When the teacher asked her, she smiled and continued covering her fingers and palm with glue.

Some of the children did their self-portrait for the month!

We explore self-portrait as a way to engage children in examining the details which make-up their faces, and then, drawing what they see or drawing anything they would like to draw. This practice of observing details closely and separating the parts from the whole serves as an understanding and having an awareness of themselves.

The children's scribbles look like a lot of lines, loops, and squiggles. But these marks are significant to a young child. They are a child’s way of writing his/her thoughts. It is a visual way for them to communicate and also helps children to develop their eye-hand coordination, and creativity. Drawing and scribbling are the first steps in using the skills children will need later for writing.

As Annabelle maneuvered the writing tool, she sang some songs: ABC, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and the Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall (One of Mother Goose Rhymes).

SENSORY

On Thursday and Friday, 1A and 1B combined. They helped Ms. Janet to make Play-dough. As the children observed the different items, 1B children were able to articulate and recognize the items that are used to make play-dough. Repetition provides the practice that children need to master new skills. Repetition helps to improve speed, increases confidence, and strengthens the connections in the brain that help children learn.

MANIPULATIVE TOYS

These blocks are innovative and amazing. There are countless ways for children to build upward and outward. Different from most blocks, the coating allows them to stay stuck together after they are stacked. The children learn about geometric shapes and create shapes as they connect. For example, putting two rectangle shapes to create a square or two half-circles, creating a whole circle. They also help develop grasping and hand-eye coordination.

Ophelia interacts with these blocks a lot. She carefully stacks them together creating a structure. Ophelia articulates, “Tower!” “I build a house!” Exploring and investigating enables her to be creative and increase her vocabulary as she engages.

Classroom 1A joined 1B shared classrooms on Thursday and Friday. Even though it was different for the children, each group interacted and engaged in different activities together.

SPECIALISTS

Spanish

Ernestina demonstrated different facial expression pumpkin cards as she sang, Si Esta Feliz, one of the children's favorite Spanish songs. She also talked about colors. She articulated each color in Spanish and English. The children focused, listened, and most of the children participated with her.

Soccer

Another fun day at soccer! The children are exercising their legs as they run, kick, and maneuver the ball with their feet to kick it into the net.

Music

October 11, 2019

We sang and read a variety of books. We have also begun reading books about pumpkins and Halloween. If your child has a favorite book, please bring it to class and share with her peers.

Highlights of the Week:

Dentist Visit

Dr. Nicole Lambert came for a visit. They talked to the children about the importance of brushing their teeth and how to brush. Each child had a turn brushing the dragon's teeth.

Oobleck

The teacher asked, “How many drops of watercolor, I should add to the oobleck?”

Annabelle: "A lot!"

Teacher: "How much is a lot!"

Annabelle: "Many!"

Teacher: "Let all count ten drops!"

Oobleck incorporates both science and sensory exploration. It is a substance that's somewhere between a liquid and a solid. It pours like a liquid but acts like a solid when you squeeze it. Spoons were available for the children to extend their exploration. Watercolor was added to give it a vivid appearance.

The children looked intrigued in exploring the properties. They slowly dropped their hands into the oobleck, feeling, and squeezing its texture. They raised their arms and slowly opened their hands, allowing the oobleck to drip from their hands. They also moved his fingers through the mixture slowly and then tried moving their fingers fast. They noticed that they had to apply more strength and movement to scoop some oobleck. The stimulus prompted a calm and soothing disposition, as some of the children explored.

Annabelle appeared interested and curious as she observed the oobleck slowly dripping from her hand and fingers.

Painting

Toddlers love to explore with their senses. They enjoy the process of studying art materials and other sensory activities. Toddlers need time and freedom to be curious and creative and letting them explore and experiment with different objects and raw materials without any end goals to restrict them. For example, sand, water, chalk, paint, or play dough, children’s imaginations can run wild, and they can spend a long time exploring these, making their discoveries, stimulating their curiosity and developing their knowledge. Teagan worked there for quite some time exploring the paint and stamping her feet on the easel.

Painting on black paper, orange paint mixed with glue, and orange and black glitter, elicited the children's curiosity. Children form many connections and ideas of how the painting process works for them, as well as what they enjoy about it. Watch a child painting, and you will see a fully engaged child. We can almost see children’s thoughts, such as, " My handprints!

While we listen and observe, we may begin to understand the way a child perceives his/her world, his developmental abilities, and his needs or interests. The soothing process of painting seems what is interesting to young children. The pleasant feeling of painting over and over, possibly using two brushes or their fingers and hands, is what is essential. We need to encourage the experience where it interests the child. As children develop, they become more focused on creating representations and conveying ideas.

Ophelia: “I painting my fingers!”

Teagan: “My handprints!”

Teacher: “What are you doing?”

Annabelle: “I’m painting my hand, fingers, arms!”

As children paint with materials different from paintbrushes, they create magnificent work of art. Ideas and thoughts are processed and imagined while they explore.

They used the top portion of recycled plastic bottles to paint, and as they painted, they noticed circle shapes on their paper. Some overlapped, while others were isolated.

Sensory

As Annabelle engaged in play dough, she used a cookie cutter shaped like a star. She pushed and lifted the cookie cutter and yelled, "Star!" She began to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as she manipulated the play dough.

Providing popsicle sticks, cookie cutters, and cups, for example, elicit curiosity and enables them to use their imagination as they interact with the material. As they squish, squash, roll, flatten play dough, they develop muscle tone.

Alexandra: “Heart, heart!”

Clay has so many endless possibilities and can be a beneficial indicator of children’s level of development in manipulative skills, confidence, vocabulary, concentration, and imagination.

Ophelia always used the Popsicle Sticks to make small indentations. However, today, she shredded the clay and counted some of the pieces.

Ophelia: "One, two, three." She stopped counting and continued shredding. Manipulating clay, in different ways, promotes new ideas and techniques as they explore.

Alexandra: “Look, cutting!”

Teagan created a birthday cake and used Popsicle Sticks as candles.

Teagan: “Happy birthday, to Teagan!”

Blocks

Infantino sensory blocks are put together, and pull and apart encourages imagination. The children can stack up and build sideways. The colors and the exciting texture promote them to maneuver, press, select the color, and create a structure.

Circle Time

Circle time is an essential daily activity in the preschool program. Children listen to a story, learn who is present and absent, discuss the daily schedule, find out about new materials in the classroom, and the activities they will be doing that morning. They sing songs or do a movement activity. The children enjoy listening and singing the song Row, Row, Row your Boat. They worked together to create the movements of the boat, as they sang.

Pumpkins and gourds are great resources for learning. Children need experiences with nature items, which will encourage their interests and curiosity. One of the parents brought in two unique shape gourds. The children appeared intrigued by the shapes, colors, and weight. The words, orange, green, heavy, were articulated as they explored. We also explored pinecones, and as they explored them, they used their sense of touch, sight, and smell. Circle time, children have opportunities to share their thoughts and ideas in a safe, encouraging environment. They begin to learn that they are valued and vital members of the group.

Children can develop an understanding of math throughout their daily routines, activities, and everyday interactions. For example, counting how many children attended school, counting ducks, frogs, and monkeys as they sing songs. During circle time, the teacher introduced different shapes using the unit blocks and the classroom environment. Words like round and circle were articulated to the children when pointing to the fan and clock. The tables in which they have snacks, lunch, and activities, has a square shape. Implementing math in a fun way and relating it to their surroundings, enables them to formulate an understanding of how math works.

Science Experiment

We did a science experiment using whole milk, dishwashing detergent, and food coloring. Below are some questions I asked the children:

1. What is this?

Teagan: "Milk!"

2. What color is the milk?

Teagan and Ophelia together: "White!"

3. What is the first color I am going to use?

Alexandra: yelled, "Red!"

4. What is the next color!

Teagan: "Purple!"

The next part of the experiment, the teacher, dipped the tip of a cotton swab into the dishwashing detergent and gave one to each child. With guidance, they gently touched the surface of the milk with the cotton swab. The colors burst! The children looked curious, surprised, and interested as they saw the colors move swiftly in different directions.

As the paint spread, Alexandra said, “A star!”

They all appeared excited and intrigued as they see the different colors erupt. The dishwashing detergent has a specific component that helps break the fat from greasy pots. Similarly, that is what is happening with milk. Milk contains fat; therefore, when the dishwashing detergent and milk are in contact, the molecules from both elements react and cause the colors to move.

The air was crisp, and the wind was blowing. A great day for a neighborhood stroll and buy our classroom Pumpkin. “There are so many pumpkins which one should we choose?" We found a perfect pumpkin and four mini pumpkins!

Specialists

Cooking with Diane

Classroom 1A will be joining us for Cooking with Diane, Spanish, and Music.

This week Diane shared with the children Apples and Apple Butter. Some of the children seemed to enjoy dipping the apples into the apple butter. Whereas, others preferred not to. Children have the option to taste or participate with Diane in making a meal. Children need to feel comfortable as they observe and engage.

Spanish

We welcome Beysi, as our Spanish Specialist for this week. Ernestina will officially return with us next week, as our Spanish specialist. During Spanish, everyone sang and danced to familiar songs, Buenos Dias, Si Estas Feliz, and Hasta Manana. She used puppets, and displayed cue cards as she sang. The children seemed to enjoy singing and dancing to the songs!

Soccer

Soccer benefits children's overall development. Playing soccer is an excellent exercise that improves cardiovascular health, increases coordination, improves strength, and enhances flexibility. It will also boost self-confidence and self-esteem.

Coach C. demonstrated a few techniques using their foot. The seemed to have enjoyed their first day at soccer.

Music

October 3, 2019

October 4, 2019

The children enjoy listening and singing the ABCs and listening to the book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr.; therefore, for Halloween, we will be representing the book. I will email all parents with more details on how you can create your child costume.

Reminder: If you are interested in going to our Pumpkin Picking Trip you can still sign up to come. Go to: https://permission.click/GLMD0/us

Highlights of the Week:

We celebrated Annabelle's birthday with her mom, Carlie, and father, Javad. She is two-years-old! We all sang "Happy Birthday" to Annabelle, and she blew the candles together with mom. Then Annabelle and her peers enjoyed eating the special treat, cake!! !!

Carlie read a book to the children, Pat the Bunny, a touch-and-feel book.

Collaborative Watercolor Painting
Painting is a way for children to explore colors. Each child examined the materials differently. Some pressed the paintbrush onto the paper and noticed how the paint spread, whereas, others maneuvered their paintbrush lightly onto the paper. Watercolor techniques are the methods children use to bring shape and form to their painting while at the same time, allowing them to express their creativity. During each movement, they appeared puzzled and interested in how their actions changed the painting. The flowing and dramatic movement of the watercolors spread throughout the paper, promoting the light and dark shades to combine. By gaining knowledge and developing the use of these techniques will allow them to explore and discover art as they continue to engage in different art process!

As the watercolor mixed and spread, the children created a beautiful work of art.

Paint

They all participated in making this fun and different paint, Puffy Paint (Glue, Shaving Cream, and Watercolor). As the teacher mixed all the ingredients, the children appeared curious and excited to engage in painting. They used paint brushes and their hands to explore. Teagan's back and forth motion with her hands covered one side of the poster board. Ophelia, Annabelle, and Alexandra used a paintbrush and noticed that with every stroke to paint raised higher.

Painting on an upside-down table wrapped in plastic prompted curiosity and interests as children approached the activity and began to paint lines, dots, or circles. It is essential to allow children to explore painting on different surfaces. It stimulates their thinking process as they explore and discover different ways to delve into an art activity.

Sensory

The children engaged at the water table and manipulated, and explored with cups and sponges. Cups are an excellent tool to use as an introduction to what "full" and "empty" and "light" and "heavy" means. They looked curious as they felt the sponge. "Wet," Teagan and Annabelle said. They observed as the teacher squeezed and released some water from the sponge. They mirrored the action and discovered that they, too, were able to squeeze the sponge.

Manipulative Toys

Grabbing, pinching, and poking at these small items are great for fine motor development. The children pulled the pom poms out of the containers and put them in, over and over. Ophelia selected the small pink pom poms. The teacher articulated, "Let count how many pom poms you have in the container."

As our young toddlers explore these innovative blocks (Sticky Blocks), they build and connect different geometric shapes. We noticed how some of the children joined two triangles, changing its shape into a square. Ophelia connected some blocks and articulated, "My house!" Annabelle expressed, "Circles!" and Teagan joined two small rectangle shapes, which created a square. As they maneuver each piece, they are forming an image in their mind and create their structure.

It is crucial always to create different ways to learn about colors and shapes. Therefore, we recycled a box, painted different colors around the edges of the circle and created, Pom Pom Drop! The objective is to insert the pom pom that corresponds to the color on the box. The box will be displayed on one of the classroom walls, so the children can independently engage.

Doll play is part of dramatic play. Dolls are an open-ended learning material; they can be played with again and again in many different ways. Ophelia sometimes expresses feeding the baby, milk. Baby dolls can teach children about themselves and the world around them. Children typically begin to act as if their doll can see and interact with them. They may link several actions with the baby in sequence, such as feeding the doll, bathing the doll, and then putting the doll to bed. This pretend play is a hugely important part of their cognitive development.

Alexandra: “Baby sleeping!”

Ophelia: “Sandra, baby sleeping!”

Movement

Part of our curriculum is to provide music. Music and movement contribute to children’s overall development. Listening to and making music helps their developing brain. Music calms their body during naptime and during a transition time. It creates a current that enables them to transcend their minds to a happy place. Each experience should be fun and meaningful for them.

The children were listening and dancing to, Buenos Dias (Spanish Song).

Physical play improves strength, endurance, balance, and body coordination when children play. In the gym, children run, jump, roll, and throw a ball. They are building muscles. Large muscles like the arms, and legs get stronger and work better as children run, and climb. The fine motor skills are an integral part of physical development.

Writing with a small pencil is a fine motor strengthening power tool. When kids use a small pencil to write, they are building the strength in their hands, allowing for increased endurance in writing and coloring tasks. The positioning of the hand on the pencil promotes a tripod grasp and encourages the motor planning needed for written work. The children seem to enjoy exploring the writing tool as they maneuver and create distinctive lines on their paper.

Cooking with Diane

Diane is one of our Specialist that will be introducing the children to different types of food. On many occasions, the children will help her mix, stir, and pour items in a bowl. Today she brought in two different color apples, red and green. She cut the apples with a unique tool and served them will honey. Many of the children ate the tasty apples without dipping them in honey. She articulated and demonstrated the core and seeds of the apples.

Mr. Andrew, our music Specialist

September 27, 2019

Starting in October we will begin our Specialists schedules:

Tuesday’s, Spanish- 9:40-10:00

Wednesday’s, Cooking with Diane- 11:20-11:40

Thursday’s, Soccer- 11:20-11:40

Friday’s, Music- 9:40-10:00

Every day we sing songs and read different books. Toddlers love to dance and move to the music. The key to toddler music is the repetition of songs which encourages the use of words and memorization. We use musical instruments, puppets, or clap our hands as we sing. Physical, cognitive, social/emotional, and communication are all correlated into music. Below are some of the songs we sing:

Mr. Sun
There are seven days in a week…
What’s the weather?
Five Little Monkeys
Five Little Ducks
Five Little Speckled Frogs
Old McDonald
Listened to classical, instrumental, and Spanish music
Jump in the Water
Baa Baa Black Sheep
Where is Thumbkin? (Favorite)
Hello, how are you?
ABC
Watermelon
Johnny works with one hammer
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
The Wheels on the Bus
Row Row Row Your Boat
If You’re Happy and You No It
Down by the Bay

Highlights of the Week:

Ophelia turned two years old this week. Happy Birthday, Ophelia!!! Ophelia’s mother, Liselott and father, Ken brought a special treat.

Painting with Popsicle Sticks:

The children have experienced manipulating and maneuvering different drawing tools. Children are born with marvelous imaginations and a keen desire to explore the world. Exploring color and various tools to create a beautiful art piece, encourages them to discover the beauty and wonder of everything around them. The children generated distinctive lines and dots on different areas of their paper with Popsicle Sticks.

Cloud Dough:
The teacher put cloud dough in the sensory table for the students to explore this sensory stimuli material. Some investigated and experienced touching the mixture of flour and baby oil. The little hands and fingers delved into the soft and warm powdery substance. The consistency of the dough appeared to be intriguing to feel and hold, as they explored. They filled and emptied small cups of flour. Alexandra lightly touched, whereas, Ophelia, squeezed and pressed the mixture. Flour mixed with a liquid makes an exciting sensory experience that provides children with endless fun.

We added some color to the cloud dough, which changed the texture of the mixture. The children looked curious and interested as they explored.

Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionn- The children listened to a beautiful story about friendship and colors. A story about two friends, little blue and little yellow, and their new color represents a merging of their two original colors, green. Little Blue and Little Yellow are friends, but one day they can’t find each other. When they do, they hug and hug until they turn green. Although they do not stay green, they were still friends. This unique storybook is useful both as an introduction to color blending and as a story of friendship and acceptance.

We provided one paper plate in which the children squeezed yellow and blue paint. The children combined the colors until the new hue turned green

Ziploc Painting:

Ziploc painting is a color, sensory, and fine motor skill, all in one fun activity. Giving children opportunities to engage with different types of textures and objects helps them to build new ways of talking about the world, colors, and developing language.

They used their hands and fingers to spread the paint. As they interacted with the material, they articulated the different colors they saw. They seemed curious about how they were able to explore the paint in the bag without getting some paint on their hands. They are designing their paper as they explore mixing the colors they selected independently.

Ophelia tapped each color and pressed down as she explored the painting activity.

Teagan used her hands, and body to press down her art piece.

As Alexandra observed and noticed the paint spread, she gently pressed again and again.

Creating a jigsaw puzzle using their photo is a fun and interactive way to learn more about their and peers facial features. When children flip and move pieces of the puzzle, they are learning the connection between their hands and their eyes (Hand-eye coordination). The eyes see the puzzle, and the brain then envisions how the puzzle needs to look or what piece needs to be found and placed. Learning to recognize and sort shapes is an essential part of their development. Puzzles can help little ones with this since the pieces need to be identified and sorted before they can be assembled. Simple jigsaws and other types of puzzles may help enhance a child’s memory. For example, a child will need to recall the size, color, picture, and shape of various pieces as he or she works through the puzzle. There are four pieces, and these pieces will gradually increase into six parts.

Paint

Mirrors are more than just fun for toddlers; mirrors are an essential learning tool. Looking in the mirror helps toddlers to learn to focus, track images, and explore the wonderful things a face can do. As they see their reflection, they also observed the different strokes they have painted. It seems that some of the children were interested in the soothing process of painting, as they spread the paint over the mirror using their hand.

Annabelle and Ophelia are painting with Shaving Cream and Tempera Paint.

Teagan and Alexandra are painting with Tempera Paint.

Painting with Toothbrushes- Creating tools to paint, provides children with the opportunity to develop techniques and ideas. As they maneuver the toothbrush, they create distinctive movements that allow them to visualize their work of art.

Sensory

We do a lot of sensory activities in the classroom- sensory play is any activity that stimulates the sense. Sensory play encourages scientific processes because problems are solved using the five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. By stimulating the child's senses we are helping their brain develop because when a sense is engaged neural pathways are being created to assist with further learning in later years.

Ophelia: “I making baa-baa black sheep.”

Teacher: “What are you doing with the clay?”

Teagan: “Rolling it!”

Annabelle made small round shape pieces of clay and inserted a popsicle stick to each. She articulated, “My Happy Birthday!”

As Ophelia poked and lifted the clay using the popsicle sticks, she stopped and began to turn the sticks with her hands and fingers. It appeared that she was trying to find the right grip to continue working with the popsicle sticks. It is amazing how young children manipulate materials to discover a technique that helps them continue working.

Sensory bags are easy to create. Sensory bags allow children to explore, discover, imagine, create, and learn while engaging many of their senses. Each child looked curious as they patted and touched the bag and observed the movement of the bubbles.

We used a ball and inserted different color sensory scarfs. Each child took the color of their choice. Then we sang songs using the scarfs. They also passed the ball to each other for them to explore the shape and colors. This activity promotes sharing and taking turns.

Neighborhood Stroll

The children enjoy exploring our environment and observing all the beautiful things our neighborhood has. We noticed letters on a building, and as we pointed to the first letter of their names, Teagan shouted, "O for Ophelia!"

The letter T was not among all those letters. However, we saw the word Residential on a van, and as we pointed to each letter, Teagan immediately recognized and said the letter t.

Enjoying the outdoors!

Parachute Play is a great way to expel some excess energy and have fun in the process! It is excellent for gross motor development as children run and jump under the parachute.

September 20, 2019

As we all experience our second week of school, the children are gradually adapting to the routines and schedule and also to new peers and teachers. All children have a different pace and as teachers it is crucial to respect each individual.

Music encourages children's inclination to move, developing their fine motor skills and gross motor skills. Jumping up and down helps with their muscle development, strength, and balance. Exposing children to music during early development helps them learn the sounds and meanings of words. We use musical instruments, books and finger puppets to sing a variety of songs, including Spanish songs. One of their favorites songs is Five Little Monkeys. Books are always a winner in the 1B classroom!!! The children enjoy listening and observing the illustration of each book.

We are looking forward to another fun and interactive school week!

Highlight of the Week:

Meet, Ines, an intern who will be joining us every Friday morning.

Using unit blocks to measure our height!

Their height is part of their identity. As they develop, they grow taller, and they each grow differently. We began measuring their height using unit blocks. Each child will lie in a horizontal position, and on their side will place some unit blocks. We will all count how many blocks are needed to determine his/her height. They are also building knowledge as they count and learn the shape that is being used to identify their stature. We will measure their height in September, January, and May.

We will continue measuring the children next week.

Self-portraits are drawn once a month. We sit one-on-one with a mirror, paper, and a sharpie marker. The mirrors encourage children to look closely at the shapes of their facial features. They observe and explore their image. As they look at their features: eyes, nose, mouth, and hair, they notice that each location and shape is different. For example, the direction of their nose is different from their hair. They learn to recognize themselves.

In addition, self-portraits are not only about who they see in the mirror but also about their surroundings. They may include mom, dad, siblings, and pets. As the month’s progress, self-portraits will gradually change. Children and teachers will see how they are changing and growing. Children self-awareness and self-identification are displayed as they progress in their self-portraits. Each of our faces will vary in shape and proportion because we are all unique individuals!.

Children utilize a tool to draw the self-portrait. The continuous movement helps and builds fine motor skills and bilateral coordination skills as well. The tool promotes the use of the pincer grasp and naturally strengthens the small hand muscles. Providing opportunities, practice, stimulation, and encouragement to refine their fine muscles will help them when they begin to learn to write.

We do not anticipate for them to draw themselves, but to provide self-awareness.

Ophelia pointed to her nose, ears, and mouth.

Teagan pointed to her nose, hair, and mouth.

Annabelle pointed to her head, eyes, and showed her teeth.

Alexandra appeared excited as she pointed to her nose and teeth.

Painting

Painting not only helps their creative development, but it also stimulates their brain. Stimulating children's brain can also help other areas of their development. Most children enjoy a good messy painting experience; this will allow them to express themselves and develop their creativity freely. Providing different paper, paints (texture) and paintbrushes enable them to discover new ways to paint.

Ophelia: “ I making a rainbow!”

Annabelle: “I making blue dinosaur! I making pink dinosaur!”

Bubble Wrap Painting

The children pressed the paper and gradually increased their speed, as they hear a popping sound. They changed the grip, as they alternated tools and lightly touched and pressed down onto the paper with their fingers and popped! The children appeared to enjoy the sound the bubble wrap paper made as they maneuvered the painting tools in different directions.

The painting activity provides:

-sense of hearing, touching, and smelling

-improves fine motor developmental,

-strengthens finger, and hand muscles

Painting with Different Tools

Young toddlers learn by observing, exploring, and investigating. Open-ended and hands-on art activities are fun and interactive. As they engage with a variety of painting tools, it stimulates their creativity, imagination, and fine motor skills.

Painting Tools:

Lego-Block

Painting with strings using clothespins

What does the painting look like?

Annabelle: “Blue and red and yellow and orange. A big grumpy man. Tall dinosaur!”

Teagan: “It looks dark!”

Ophelia: “Waterpaint over there!” (Pointing to the painting)

Alexandra: “A ball. A dot!”

The children are making their pumpkin decoration by painting their paper plates in orange and their handprint in green, representing the stem of the pumpkin.

Sensory

Clay is an excellent sensory material for children to investigate. Most children, when given a piece of clay, are motivated to explore its inviting sensory qualities. Clay fosters eye-hand coordination: they poke it, squeeze and pound it down. Each time they manipulate the clay, it transforms. These changes are fascinating to toddlers; it elicits their curiosity to continue exploring. The child is naturally motivated and empowered to keep experimenting. Each child has a different way to explore with clay. They manipulate the clay in a way that distinguishes them from one another.

Ophelia: “I press it down!”

Sensory scarves are colorful, tactile, easy to grab, and fun to manipulate, and so beneficial to children! Each child selected and articulated the color of their choice. The teacher had them explore them and played some games. We played Peek-a-boo with the scarves which develop an understanding of object permanence, which is the understanding that an object still exists even though it is temporarily unseen. By manipulating a scarf to go up or down, side to side, and other directions, the children are acquiring kinesthetic awareness. They are fun and beneficial for their development.

It's a lightweight, spongy modeling material that sticks to itself, but not their hands. Alexandra seems to enjoy manipulating and exploring it by pulling small pieces and sharing them with Ines.

Blocks and Manipulative Toys

Blocks are used as construction toys, and playing with toys is one of the many ways children learn about the world around them. Blocks help foster developmentally appropriate skills: motor skills, problem-solving, eye-hand coordination, language, social/emotional, spatial, and divergent skills are some examples.

Ophelia pressed one block onto another and continued building by stacking. Experimenting and investigating each piece she selects and rotates to design, helps her to visualize her creation. I wonder if Ophelia and Teagan are building a tower, testing how many blocks they can stack, or is their construction play based on a replica of something they saw?

These manipulatives are aimed to develop and strengthen fine motor skills, color recognition, sorting, counting, and patterning. Pegs foster the pincer grip (a small object held between the thumb, index and middle finger). The development of this grip will allow children to use writing tools properly. Each peg will help children refine pinches and manipulate small objects with his/her fingers.

Annabelle carefully presses each peg on the pegboard to secure their position. She arranges them to an upright position. She starts building from the bottom and continues making it higher and higher. Annabelle appeared excited, and it seemed that she wanted to keep adding pegs to her structure.

Block play provides hours of fun for children as well as enhancing the development of basic skills. Bristle Blocks stimulates children’s imagination and creativity by connecting and building. Children can mesh together and pull apart the flexible pieces. They develop fine motor skills and dexterity. These blocks promote color and shape recognition and explore the unlimited possibilities of design through construction.

Teagan appeared interested and focused as she connected the bristle blocks. She chose rectangle shapes and joined them to create a small structure. She continuously manipulated each piece until she found the right fit.

Teagan demonstrated determination and concentration as she continued working on her structure.

Teagan: “I put another one! I got it!”

Ophelia 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 four and six tracks. She selects a few more tracks and places them near her as she begins to build a third set. I wonder how many tracks the third one would be.

Annabelle: “I made my tower!”

Teacher: “Who lives in your tower?”

Annabelle: “Papa, mama, and grandpa!”

Teacher: “What are papa, mama, and grandpa doing?”

Annabelle: “Mama driving a car! (Suddenly she said) Look at the picture Sandra, it fell down.” (Referring to the blocks.)

We took a stroll to the park and neighborhood.

We asked the children what color they would like to explore today? Annabelle said, “Orange!” Listening and respecting their words is an essential aspect of our class community.

September 13, 2019

The students learn through different interactions and as they engage with different materials. There’s no set time in which they will learn things. Toddler growth and development is very much an individual experience, with all toddlers progressing at their own pace. Toddler years are not only about physical growth but mental growth as well.

We read and sing a variety of books each day:

Mama, Mama Misses Mama
Brown, Brown Bear What Do You See
The Wheels on the Bus
The Five Speckled Frogs
Nursery Rhymes
Hooray for Hats
Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes
Pete the Cat, Rocking in My School Shoes
Pete the Cat, The Wheels on the Bus
My First Day at Nursery School
Maisy Goes to Pre-School and many more….

Songs:

Good Morning Songs- “Hello How are you?
The Wheels on the Bus
Itsy Bitsy Spider (Spanish and English)
Five Little Speckled Frogs
Five Little Monkeys
Five Little Ducks
Watermelon
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Where is Thumbkin?
If you are Happy and you know it Clap your Hands
ABC Song
Mr. Sun
We listened to Classical Music
We used finger puppets as we sang some songs
Baa Baa Black Sheep
We listened and sang Spanish songs
Old McDonald Had a Farm
I’m a Little Tea Pot
Jump in the Water….(We call each child’s name)

Highlights of the Week:

The children looked excited as the paint spread when they patted, touched, pressed, and rubbed the plastic. They focused on the movement of the colors. Their puzzlement allowed them to continue exploring. They appeared curious in how they were able to press and pat the plastic, and point to each color without getting some paint on their hands.

Alexandra lightly touched and appeared interested as she lifted the plastic to observe the colors.

Exploring Tempera Paint: Art is the process of creating and experimenting. The soothing process of painting encourages children to generate different ways to explore painting. Each child chose a different color to paint. They patted the paintbrush lightly on the paper and instantaneously made more prominent movements by going side by side. A variety of muscle groups and physical and mental skills, including strength, dexterity, vision, and motor planning- the ability of the brain to organize and carry out movements, are developing in young toddlers. As they grip the tool, they will have enough control to create artistic masterpieces, using different strokes. Early art usually focuses on using the senses to explore, rather than creating a picture or object to keep. Young toddlers are merely enjoying the pleasure of creating and exploring the materials. As they investigate, they learn what happens when they move their hands and arms. Painting is a sensory stimulation that invites children to investigate and discover the world of texture and color.

Painting with Q-tips: This two-day process, the children experience a different kind of painting. There were five different colors, and each child independently articulated or pointed to three colors of their choice. Both sides of the paper have their distinctive dots, lines, and style of painting. Their artwork is display in the classroom.

Handprint Activity: All handprints are distinctive, and different in size, which builds upon identity and differences. It creates one person, "Me." The children selected the color for their handprint activity and once covered with paint; they gently stamped their hand down onto the paper and made an imprint of their hand. These prints, with their picture, are displayed in the classroom.

Kitchen Center: Pretend play is a form of symbolic play where children use objects, actions, or ideas to represent other objects, actions, or ideas using their imaginations. When your child engages in pretend (or dramatic) play, he/she is actively experimenting with the social and emotional roles of life.

Young children learn by imagining and doing. Have you ever watched your child pick hop a Lego across the table as if it were a person or a bunny? Your child is using an object to represent something else while giving it action and motion. The process of pretending builds skills in many essential developmental areas: social and emotional skills, language, and thinking skills.

Ophelia:” I give baby milk. It hungry. Baby eating cow. Milk, mmm.”

Annabelle: “Baby has, poo pee!” Then she wipes and said, “Baby all clean!”

Teagan: "Baby has to go potty!" Teagan used one of the crates to represent the potty.

Alexandra: “Fish!”

During the week, the children explored different centers and activities:

Paint:

Mirror Painting: The goal of arts and crafts is to hone their creativity and to allow their imagination to run free. It gives children the opportunity to explore the world around them and see how things work. The open-ended art activities are all about the process. The concept “Process Art” applies to young children because it’s how children learn, allows them to be themselves, make their own decision, and most importantly, create! This fun activity helps children to experience a different form of painting on paper. It allows them to explore, experiment, and discover that the composition of paint appears differently on each surface they paint on. Mirror paper makes the painting shimmer, and the metallic exterior creates a shiny and slippery appearance. Each child projected different strokes on the mirror using paintbrushes and their hands. As they see their reflection, they also see the different strokes they have painted.

Exploring Blue paint, Shaving Cream and Glue

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
Is unstructured, open-ended
Encourages imagination and creative play
Develop social skills (taking turns and sharing materials)
Language development (experimenting with language and descriptive words )

Alexandra was reluctant to touch the shaving cream with her hands. A new and different sensory experience promotes an insecure feeling. It is essential always to provide various tools to explore. Providing choices allows children to explore their options and feel at ease with the activity. Alexandra used Popsicle Sticks to examine and interact with the materials.

Ophelia appeared intrigued by the Popsicle Sticks, as she dipped them in the shaving cream and mixed the blue paint. All the children had a different technique in investigating and discovering new ways to explore.

As Annabelle lightly pressed with the paintbrush, she noticed blue and white colors and dark and light shades of blue. She dabbed with the paintbrush and articulated, "What is that?" Annabelle appeared curious as she mixed the materials and made short and long brushstrokes as she explored.

Teagan used different tools to investigate. However, it seemed she enjoyed touching, mixing, and squeezing the ingredients. Sensory play uses all five senses, but the sense of touch is often the most frequent. Toddlers process information through their senses; therefore, they learn as they explore.

Circle Time

We do different activities during circle time: Sing songs with musical instruments, finger puppets, and use an erasable board to draw the pictures of a song. For example, Janet drew a sun, spider, and spout for the Itsy, Bitsy Spider song and stars and a diamond for Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Our environment is full of different colors. We like to demonstrate to the children that colors are in items we play with, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat. Learning, in a fun and interactive way, enables the children to recognize and articulate them in English and Spanish.

Sensory

Play dough is a hands-on activity that provides enjoyable and satisfying experiences. It promotes language, creativity, cognitive, social, and emotional development. It is also a great activity for fine motor development. Playing with and pounding on play dough can offer young children a healthy and safe outlet for releasing extra energy. They squish, poke, pat, pull and flatten their dough. Play dough is also a scientific concept that involves the mixture of different components (flour, water, salt, and watercolor (optional) that produce the play dough to change its form. It stimulates the children's senses while offering an opportunity to use their imagination to explore. They each had a turn pouring and mixing the flour.

A smooth transition into a school environment is essential to ensure the child gets the best possible start in their new setting and gain a level of understanding about the changes that are about to take place. Implementing a smooth transition to school is also vital for children’s social and emotional development. The children appear to enjoy the reading session with Alexandra’s Nanny, Ophelia’s mother, Liselott, and Annabelle’s mother, Carly. Arranging a routine and creating some familiarity helps prepare the child for his/her day at school.

1B 2019-2020

Cognitive, Geometric Shapes, Memorization, Counting, and Colors

Blocks/Manipulative Toys

Collaboration/Socialization

Dramatic Play/sOCIALIZATION/IMAGINATION/COMMUNICATION

Science

Counting/Color Recognition/Tall and Short

Painting/Independence/Fine and Gross Motor/creativity

Shapes/TACTILE Skills/Color/Creativity/Fine Motor skills/Patterns

Cognitive/Language

Shape/Cognitive/Fine Motor Skills/Creativity

Sensory/color and shape recognition/cognitive/language

Counting/Memorization/Incorporating Colors

Using unit blocks to measure our height!

Creativity/Imagination/Language and Cognitive skills

Exploring Scissors

Science/Fine Motor/Imagination/ Sensory/Language

Incorporating Spanish in the Classroom

Happy Birthday, Kieran!

Counting/Color Recognition

Puzzles

Manipulative Toys

Sensory/Fine Motor Skills/Creativity/imagination/LANGUAGE

Sensory/Fine Motor/Creativity

Building Blocks

Puzzles

Dramatic Play

Literacy

Highlights of the Week:

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

﻿SCIENCE/SENSORY/LANGUAGE/SOCIAL EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT. IT IS ALSO A GREAT ACTIVITY FOR FINE MOTOR DEVELOPMENT.

Fine Motor Skills/cREATIVITY

Cognitive/Fine Motor Skills

Annabelle

Ophelia

Alexandra

Teagan

During the week, the children explored different centers and activities:

SCIENCE/SENSORY/LANGUAGE/SOCIAL EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT. IT IS ALSO A GREAT ACTIVITY FOR FINE MOTOR DEVELOPMENT.