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september

Thursday, Sept 28 // Mine mine mine!

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Thursday, Sept 28 // Mine mine mine!

Game creation- playing a version of peek-a-boo through the lego bases. Emilio and Mia had each other laughing hysterically as they played this game. Parker joined in a little bit later, but his lego base was not see through, so his view was a bit different!

Our personalities and identities are flourishing this week, now that most of us are settled and comfortable at school. A word that has been popping up much more is "Mine." This is, perhaps, the first way we express ownership, desire, need and want. It's a way to communicate with our peers that something should not be taken away from us. Children recognize that certain toys, food, and objects are within their control and they feel free to use "MINE" to retain those things. 

Dylan sat down and found these adult sneakers to try out. Part of our identity is our curiosity and our preferences. 

This has given us an opportunity to start exploring the concept of sharing and using our ability to make our friends happy. We are encouraging children to openly decide to give to others, or to use their words to let their friends know that they can have a turn soon. On a whole, we are doing SO well with these concepts, but it takes a while to settle into the routine. Especially when we finally get a chance with a special toy. We'll continue to work on sharing and caring throughout the school year so we can work as a cohesive and happy community of learners. 

Morgan and Jackson make sounds to each other through the tube. We can use toys together!!

This week we have also talked a great deal about our emotions and how things make us feel. When we fall down, we can feel very scared or sad. When our Mommies and Daddies leave, it makes us feel sad and sometimes angry. When we go to the gym, we get excited and happy! How we feel and how we express it is such a big part of being human and of being social; it's a huge facet of identity and expression! Next week one of our goals is to create a feelings chart so we can further uncover ways to talk about our emotions. 

Where's Charlotte? There she is, in the tunnel! Enjoying making new friends and helping them find joy and comfort through the day.

One, two. Two eyes.
— Nina

We made a new self-portrait in our special books this week and the change in ability from the first week to now has blown me away! We are talking so much about ourselves, our bodies, and our features. 

Hair on top. Leg. Toes. Toes. Feet. More feet.
— Parker

Nina working on her self portrait.

Our handprints were so much fun to play with- Jackson and Parker were especially curious about matching their hands against all of the prints to try to discover which one was their own. Some were too big, some were too small, and of course one was just right! 

Which hand is my hand? 

Another physical component of who we are is our height. Everyone was able to lay down on our chart to get measured! It was so much fun that many friends took four or five turns laying down on the paper. We've also started using unit blocks to measure our bodies and see how tall we are in another way. We love embedding mathematics into our play! Come in and check out our height chart! 

I measure again, Rachel!
— Nicholas
That’s Katerina!
— Katerina

One last identity component for the week: we have been doing such an amazing job learning everyone's name! Great job, 2A! 

Hooray! Have a great weekend! 

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Wednesday, Sept 27 // Cucumber & Mango Roll ups!

Thank you so much for helping us raise $220 toward the fundraiser for hurricane victims- we so appreciate your contributions! If you would still like to give, we are collecting but not making more smoothies. Thank you thank you!

Making Cucumber & Mango roll ups with Mitzi today

Gym play

https://youtu.be/5cjVgWX5kCc ring around the rosie

https://youtu.be/frmy12BZ5FQ ring around the rosie 2

Painting our numbers for a project

Making new connections

https://youtu.be/kRHLTJaUEec Katerina and Morgan chatting

We got invited to a pre-k and 3B bake/lemonade sale! 

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Thursday, Sept 14th // First Week!

Parents, welcome to our 2A blog for the school year. Each Thursday the blog will be used to connect with you about our ongoing curriculum projects. The overarching "theme" for the year is Identity and Self. Our first focus is on the individual child and the traits that they exhibit and use to communicate with us. We want to figure out who the children are and how they are able to relate to others. We will work with similarities and differences, physical traits (hair and eye color, height), emotions and facial cues, and language. 

Morgan enjoys laughing and finding ways to be silly. 

Even though it's our first week, we have still been able to see so much from each and every child. We have quieter personalities that seek out the uninhabited spaces in the classroom, and we have the very excited and outgoing personalities bouncing around looking for other children to interact with. We have empathetic children who pat backs and give pacifiers to those who are feeling sad. It has been a joy seeing high fives and hugs being given spontaneously this week! 

Dylan is an explorer- he is constantly on the go and ready for new discoveries!

Some questions that we will explore as educators are: How does the development of language influence our ability to relate to others? How do we relate to others when we lack a broad vocabulary to communicate? How do others impact our emotions and thoughts? (We have seen a lot of this- we will feel fine but see or hear someone else crying and it triggers memories of why we are sad, too). Our questions will evolve, grow, and multiply and we will share them with you each week. 

Mia enjoys relating to others and seeks out friends to interact with.

Do you have any questions that you wonder about how we form self identity as young children? Please feel free to comment on the blog or email me directly so we can continue to work on this research together! 

Nicholas is always trying to find a new way to use things. This morning he turned a container into an instrument; he is inventive and thoughtful. 

Some ways we have been working on discovering our friends and their identities: Circle time songs that include each child's name. A name is a huge facet of identity. Children, especially, take a special love and pride in their name. It's usually the first way they explore literacy and understanding the alphabet- their letter is so special to them (first initial). We have been talking about preferences and things we like. We have also been looking at our family photos and talking a little bit about what makes a family and how our families are different. 

Charlotte likes to be the Mommy and finds lots of babies to take care of and nurture. 

This week we started our monthly self portraits, too. Self portraits are a really special time. Each child sits down with one teacher and they talk about what they see in the mirror. Today Charlotte decided that she has purple hair. Nicholas was so excited to talk about his two eyes. Nina eagerly made a round shape for her face after observing herself in the mirror. Everyone approaches it differently, but equally as thoughtful. 

Emilio is always stacking and building. He likes to line up all of the cars or trains. He likes to build tall things. He also loves to be near his friends and to comfort them with their pacifiers if they need it! 

Nina likes to seek out quiet corners to work and explore. She loves to hide under pillows and be cozy.

Parker is a big fan of transportation vehicles, and continuously sings "Wheels on the Bus" around the classroom. He finds joy in making others laugh.

Katerina has been exploring colors this week. She loves to hold up the different translucent pieces and see the world in a bright new way.

Max is still a bit shy, but we have seen him work with a lot of light table toys. He likes to build and see how things move. 

Jackson loves to talk and communicate verbally. He likes to identify all the objects around him. 

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Playdates!

Our two playdates went amazingly well! We were able to get a glimpse into how the children are going to use their new space, and how we can best support them in it. The three of us had such an exciting time seeing the new little personalities that are going to form our class. While some children were timid, others were so outgoing and vocal! We cannot wait to get into the regular flow of the classroom day and start some fun and engaging learning moments with your children. 

During our Thursday playdate, we already had moments of interest in what one another was up to. As we get deeper into the school year, we will see a lot more interest in playing with one another versus the parallel play (next to one another but not …

During our Thursday playdate, we already had moments of interest in what one another was up to. As we get deeper into the school year, we will see a lot more interest in playing with one another versus the parallel play (next to one another but not direct interaction). 

On Friday, we had a lot of dramatic play happening complete with dress up! We had fire fighters, friends working on the computer, phone conversations, and plenty of hats.

On Friday, we had a lot of dramatic play happening complete with dress up! We had fire fighters, friends working on the computer, phone conversations, and plenty of hats.

Morgan working with the sand table- Sept 8 2017

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