The First Walking Field Trip

After calling our class building the 3A Freedom Tower, we wanted to check what the actual building looked like. On Thursday, the 3A class went on a walking field trip to the Freedom Tower. Although it was a cold and windy day, the children were excited to go make the trip. We bundled ourselves up in thick jackets, hats, and gloves, then walked out of Buckle My Shoe with a lot of joy. As soon as we stepped out of the school, the cold wind made our smiles disappear. However, we continued to walk bravely without giving up! When we finally arrived, the children shouted "The Freedom Tower!" Even though we had seen it many times before, the achievement of getting there as a class was great. One thing we noticed that was new was the pointy top of the Tower. Charlotte said, "it's a needle." The children also noticed that there were a lot of windows and they were colored blue. We also saw many people around the Freedom Tower. 

On the way back to school, Clare asked, "Do you want to go on the field trip again?" All of the children said, "No" except Parker and Manu. When Clare asked why, the children said it was too cold and windy.  Parker and Manu said "Yes," because the cold didn't seem to bother them at all. We promised to do a fun field trip again when it is was not too cold and windy.

On Friday, we recapped what we saw on the field trip. Then we decided to make our own small freedom tower by looking at the picture. The children chose the color of paint that they thought their freedom tower looked like. We can't wait to see how the children interprets it.  

Our Freedom Tower & The Curriculum Celebration

During one morning meeting last week, Clare brought a bunch of different sized cardboard boxes. She began by asking “can you build by using these boxes?” The children each received a box. One by one the children came up and placed the boxes the way they wanted. Once all of the boxes were stacked, some of the friends wanted to call it a ‘house’ while the others called it a ‘building’ and the rest said it was a ‘castle’. Then Clare and Erika helped tape and glue the boxes together so that the structure would not fall apart.

On Monday, we decided to give our structure a name. The majority of the 3A friends said it would be called the ‘Freedom Tower’. We also decided to paint the building. The children chose four colors: pink, blue, green, and white, and then they painted our ‘Freedom Tower’. They had to stand on chairs to paint the top part of the ‘Freedom Tower’ because it was so tall!

 

As our final process, the children discussed what other things are needed on the Freedom Tower. We decided that we would need people, doors, and windows. Then the children took different materials to make those additions to our Freedom Tower.


On Thursday, 3A had our first Curriculum Celebration with a yummy breakfast! All of our families came in to celebrate with the children.

We had three activities prepared and they occurred simultaneously, so that everyone would be able to experience all three of them.

The first one was a “Can You Build…” station. The children and the families picked an index card and had to build what the card said! One of the cards had the Freedom Tower. The children were excited to stack cardboard boxes on top of another. We also got help from our daddies to reach the higher part of the building!

The second activity was the Clay-Building station. The children and the families tried to make/build something out of clay. It was the time for our families to get messy with clay! We also prepared wire frames to help make the structures, but all of them were comfortable not using the wire frames. We will revisit how to utilize wire frames with clay next time.

The last activity was the Observational painting station. Earlier in the week, the 3A children voted on what to paint for the curriculum celebration. They wanted to do an observational painting of the Statue of Liberty. Luckily, we had a model of the Statue of Liberty, so we kept it in the middle while the children and the families were painting.

After we rotated through all of the stations, we met back on the rug and shared our favorite parts. Some of the families liked box building, while others liked making clay or painting Lady Liberty. However, every single child agreed that their favorite part of the celebration was to have our wonderful families be in the classroom.

We would like to thank all of the families once again for your enthusiasm, support and love for our children’s learning!

What We Are Thankful For

With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, Clare brought in a book called "The Thankful Book" written by Todd Parr. After reading the story, the 3A friends thought about what they were thankful for. Manu said he was thankful for "mommy, daddy, and Julian (his brother)" Mia said she was thankful for "grandma" because she was "thinking about her". Adela and Mercer both said that they were thankful for their "mommy and daddy". Nico said he was thankful for his "mommy, daddy and his sisters because he loves them!" Parker said he was thankful for his “mommy and daddy because they buy him fire trucks and subway.” Harper was thankful for her "mommy," and Levi said he was thankful for his "mommy and daddy" because they "eat cookies" with him. Katerina said she was thankful for "flowers" and they are for her "daddy".

Then we drew a picture of what/whom we were thankful for on a piece of paper with a pencil. Once we were done sketching the picture, the children colored it with watercolor painting. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Feelings

As adults, we know how important it is to be able to express feelings. Our feelings help us know who we are and help us  react appropriately to different situations. We also know that our children also have feelings. Sometimes they express their feelings with adorable giggles, or other times by throwing toys on the floor and making loud noises. Other times, they just burst into tears and cry loudly. I am sure we all have had moments of frustration because we just could not figure out what was wrong with our little ones. As early childhood educators, we believe that children are already ready to express how they feel and understand why they feel a certain way. We launched the "Our Feelings" activity during circle time this week. We started by singing a song called "Hello Hello How Are You," and randomly called a friend to ask "How are you feeling?" Erika, one of our educators, showed by example how to participate in this activity.  When she was called, she answered "I feel happy because many of our 3A friends gave me hugs!" When I was called, I said, "I feel tired because I did not get enough sleep last night." There is a feelings chart which has pictures (emoticons) that represent each feeling. It was made to give our children the visual of each feeling. Once we started the activity, the children were so eager to share how they felt by pointing to our visual chart.  But it was still tricky for them to define a reason why they felt that way. We continued to do the activity whenever we had the chance, and the children gradually became more explicit in their reasoning of why they felt a certain way. Today Nico said, "I feel mad because my dad took my scooter away." Manu said, "I feel sick because I have a boo boo on my nose." Adela pointed to the "sick" picture and expressed that's how she felt. I asked her why, and Emilio, who was sitting next to her pointed to Adela's boo boo on her neck! We noticed that the children are understanding how certain actions relate to certain emotions. We hope that by sharing emotions, it will eventually help them to build stronger friendships and empathy for others.

We painted how we felt on canvas! The children shared their feelings and chose a paint color that made them feel that way! Emilio felt happy and chose blue to paint his canvas. Katerina felt silly and chose purple to paint her canvas.

Our 3A friends decorated their thank you card for Balloon Saloon using finger paint, corn kernels, and pom poms. Then on Thursday, we delivered our thank you card to Balloon Saloon! They were so happy to see us. We are so grateful for their generosity!

Helping Hands

One of the goals for this year is to understand the sense of community. How do we learn about the community? It begins from our homes and the classroom! Therefore, we launched Helping Hands, which we called Classroom Jobs last week. The 3A children were very excited to take on their responsibilities right away. At first, they did not know what "board helper" or "center board manager" meant. But once each job was demonstrated to them, they were able to learn fast! As educators, we hope to see our children feeling proud of themselves. This is not only the result of being in charge of something, but it also because they understand that they are helping others by fulfilling their responsibilities to make a safe and fun community.

The "building" became such a popular activity in the past few weeks in our classroom. At first, the children built something with blocks or magne-tiles and called it "my house." Some of the children still do, which is completely fine, but in the past week, they have started creating something else besides their house. Nico initiated building blocks earlier this week and naturally, other friends joined him. Nico said, "This is a zoo!" He partitioned off different size spaces by using blocks and placed an animal or animals in each space. The next day, more friends joined with Nico and built a bigger zoo. It took up almost the entire rug! A few days after, Erika introduced different kinds of fabrics to use along with the blocks and animals. The children used those fabrics to put each animals to sleep! Mia said, "the animals are taking a nap." It was truly amazing to witness how much the children have expanded on the idea of "building." Starting from creating their own houses, to now a zoo with even animals take naps! We look forward to seeing other phenomena in the activity of "building".


The Halloween Celebration was a great success! From deciding what we want to be, to making our own costumes, and even to decorating a costume for a friend who couldn't come to school because she was sick, Halloween prep was filled with amazing experiences. The Halloween parade was a lot of fun too. We cannot thank our families enough.  Not only did they come out to participate in the parade, but they also brought so many yummy food for us to enjoy together! 


"It's when it goes all the way to the bottom." Parker, 3.0 years

We started this week by sharing our weekend news. Some friends brought photos to help them remember what they did over the weekend and to show their classmates of the fun moments. As most of our 3A friends become three years old,  they are more wiling to share their own stories, ideas, and opinions. As educators, we believe that being able to speak of what they did or feel proud of is an important skill. As each child got a turn, they were so excited to share their weekend news!

Another important goal that we are trying to work on this year is a sense of teamwork. Block center is one of 3A's favorite centers and usually requires more than one child's input. Therefore, Erika and I wanted to see if our friends were ready to work together. Everyone took their turn placing a block wherever they wanted. Some of the children put the block next to each other, while others stacked them up. After we took two turns placing blocks, we decided to come up with the name of our structure. Nina chimed in and said "a castle!" Then everyone agreed to call it a castle. It was a successful teamwork activity.

Lastly, we did a Sink and Float science experiment. First we talked about what sink meant.  Parker said, "it's when it goes all the way to the bottom." Mia said float meant, "when it's at the top." The children hypothesized whether or not each item was going to sink or float by showing thumbs up (float) or down (sink). The prepared items were a leaf, a pinecone, corn, and  a paperclip. Levi hypothesized that the pinecone would float and when we tested it out, it did! Even after pushing the pinecone down in the water, it came right back up when we let go of it. Parker hypothesized that the paperclip would float.  But when we tested it out, it sunk. We asked a few children to bring in another object to see if it would sink or float. 

Nina brought a math manipulative shape and found that it sunk. Parker brought a lego piece and tested it to find that it floated! Katerina's Magnetile and Manu's small wooden block also floated! It was so amazing to see our little scientists with such inquisitive faces!

Halloween Prep and Pumpkin Exploration!

In preparation for the Halloween Celebration, our 3A friends have decided to dress up as butterflies. At first, we had three choices: bumble bee, pumpkin, and butterfly. We voted on the character we liked the most, and it was the butterfly! Then the children chose the color they wanted to finger paint their wings. Finger painting stimulates the children’s senses and strengthens their hand and finger muscles, which helps their fine motor skills.

On Tuesday, we went to buy our class pumpkin at Morgan’s Market. We saw so many pumpkins in different shapes, colors, and sizes. Our 3A friends agreed to get a large pumpkin. We went inside the store and paid with cash, and even got back some change!

With our class pumpkin, we first did some observational painting. Our friends sat down and painted a pumpkin of their own by looking at our class pumpkin.


Then we were curious what was inside the pumpkin. So we knocked on it a few times and shook it with the teacher's help. Our 3A friends tried to guess what was inside the pumpkin. Charlotte and Malina thought there would be bumble bees, Mia, Nico and Levi thought there were french fries inside, while Manu and Parker thought there were cars. Nina, Katerina, and Mercer thought there would be butterflies, and Harper thought there were bananas. We decided to cut it open and see what was inside. When we cut the top open, we found a bunch of SEEDS!


Lastly, the 3A friends came up with the idea of making our pumpkin into a Jack-O-Lantern by carving out a face. We agreed to make the eyes into triangles and make a ‘roaring’ mouth.

"My House"

During our clay and blocks workshops a week ago, the 3A educators noticed that the children were interested in their homes. So we started asking the question "Where do I live?" We had a picture of a skyscraper, a low rise apartment building, and a house in order to give the children visual support. Some of our friends knew that they lived in a tall building (a skyscraper), while some said they lived in low rise building, and the rest said they lived in a house. 

Then the children began to translate how they thought of their homes during their activities. Parker and Nico built a house together and said "This building is so high!" Manu pointed at his creation in the block center and said, "This is the elevator." Then Levi added by saying, "I live on the eight floor!" Emilio said "I live on the three floor." It was so fascinating to see how the children brought their own experiences to the classroom during their play.

The children also showed their interest for homes through painting and playing with Magne-tiles and Legos. Nico said, "I have two house(s). This one is big and this one is small. They are people." Katerina said, "(This is) my house!" "(There are) toys!"

Then on Friday, we made our class house by using different shapes. Each shape represented different parts of our house. Our friends thought of squares, circles, and triangles as our windows, doors, kitchen, elevator etc. 

Apple Picking Trip Epilogue:

Although it rained on Thursday, it was so refreshing to step outside of the city and see lots of nature's colors. First, we walked to the pumpkin patch and got our pumpkins. Then we picked the apples that we liked and went on our way to taste apple cider and go on a hayride. At around 11:30am, it started pouring so hard that all of the BMS families came inside to a little shop that sold all kinds of apple related items! We finished our trip by eating our lunches on the bus and then driving back to school.

What an adventurous day!

Welcome Harper and Malina !!

We had two new friends join the 3A class this week. Welcome Harper and Malina!

All of our special classes have begun this week as well. On Monday afternoon, our friends had Karate class for the first time. They learned how to kick and protect their faces by putting their arms up in front of them. 

On Tuesday morning, we had Spanish class and learned how to say Hola and Como estas. Our Spanish teacher left some homework for us to do over the weekend ;) 


On Wednesday we had soccer with coach Jojo and cooking with Diane. We learned to dribble and kick the ball during soccer and made apple salad with apple slices and orange juice and lemon juice during cooking time with Diane. 

On Thursday afternoon, we had yoga class and enjoyed interesting movements.  

Besides our fun special classes with the specialists, we had Harper's birthday celebration on Monday and Emilio's birthday celebration on Friday. We also had a fun time making a yummy shared snack with Katerina's mom (Christina). 


As for our children's interests, we are going to explore our houses! The 3A children are still very inquisitive and curious about many different things, such as trains, cars, butterflies, trees, colors, princess dress and shoes, but the educators found that they were still very interested in their houses!  This includes family members, sizes, and favorite toys. Next week we will continue to see where their interest takes us to by asking our children “where do you live?”

"Play is the free expression of what is in the child's soul." -Friedrich Froebel-

This past week was full of play and observations. On Monday, we started off the week exploring kinetic sand. The children seemed to like how it felt on their hands. Some made pretend food, some hid shells inside of it, while others just let their creativity lead them. 


On Tuesday, we explored how tall we were by measuring our height with unit blocks and colorful strings. We were so excited to see how tall and big we were becoming!


On Wednesday, we were wondering about our feet and decided to paint with our toes! It certainly wasn't easy to have control over a paintbrush with just our toes, but our 3A friends had so much fun with it!


On Thursday, we went out for our first walk around the school. We saw a lot of buildings being renovated and became curious of what tools construction workers use to fix buildings.

On Friday, we talked about how to share toys during circle time. Our 3A friends love each other, but sometimes it's a little challenging to share their favorite toys classmates. Our new friends, Harry and Joe (puppets), helped us learn to share toys with each other.

Our focus of the year: Social Emotional Curriculum

1)  Self Management/ Self expression/Knowing self

2) Relationships/Friendships

3) Diversity/ You are special

School Wide Area of Research: Paint

Paint is amazing open-ended medium!

Here are some examples of research questions:

  • How do children respond to painting with their whole bodies versus painting with a brush at a table?

  • As a child gains control over their fine motor capabilities, how does it affect the story/verbalization of the painting?

  • When a child engages in a painting project, does his/her emotional disposition change? I.e. does a child having a difficult morning suddenly relaxes once painting is introduced?

  • How does painting help children connect with their peers?

  • What can we infer from the gestures and body language of pre-verbal or limited verbal children as they paint?

  • What role does storytelling and imagination play in painting? Does a child use more real life experience or pretend play while painting?

  • Does the type of music playing impact the brush strokes a child makes?

Weekly Recap

In this week of school, we were so happy to see more smiley faces during drop-off time. Our 3A friends have adjusted well to the routines that help them to get settled into the classroom. We learned a couple of greeting songs and welcomed everyone during circle time, made 3A's Kissing Hand Tree which helped us to feel loved by mommies and daddies, talked about classroom schedule, learned how to sign in our names each morning, and made our handprints to agree on our classroom rules. 


As the 3A friends explored different art materials and tools each day, they seemed to express what they think through their creations. During clay explorations, Levi said "I'm making pizza!" then Charlotte said, "I'm making something." Sometimes the children are so engaged in making a creation, but they don't know what to call it. That's perfectly okay! They are constantly trying to figure out and make sense of the world. We, as adults, need to be patient and help them navigate, but without putting our own opinions on our little thinkers.

Our First Week in 3A at Buckle My Shoe Was Fantastic!

Our 3A friends have transitioned to their new classroom so wonderfully. Erika and Clare were so glad to see our friends enjoying every part of our classroom. Some friends were into dress up clothes and shoes, other friends were busy cooking at our dramatic play kitchen, while some were very engaged in building the coolest train tracks. We were also able to see some friendship bonding moments as we spent time in the gym. 





As a wrap up to the first week, our friends have shared how they felt about their first week of school. It was truly rewarding to hear our friends say that they felt happy throughout the first week!





In the month of September, we will continue to work on familiarizing the daily routines of the day which, will help our friends' separation and encourage independence. Erika and Clare will continue to observe and find out what our 3A friends are interested in learning about!