Being together makes us feel good!

December 7, 2018

Coming together as a small 3B community makes each and every one of us feel special. This week our goal was to collect boxes to create our Recycled Christmas Tree. As a community we reached the goal by the end of the week. This would not be possible without everyone’s great enthusiasm and dedication to be involved and present in our classroom. We want to say thank you for it! It means a lot to us and the children. Here’s the tree!

Having Special Grown-Ups (not only each child’s Special Grown-Ups but the collective presence of adults) present shows the children that you love being in our classroom and this supports their love for school as well as an understanding that what they do at school is important!

Conveying feelings through paint!

November 30, 2018

Painting is more than a simple activity.painting is a way for children to do many things : explore process and outcomes, explore color and texture using their senses as well as it helps children communicate their emotions without using words. In our classroom, we are focusing on how children convey their emotions and feelings through paint.

As it is natural for young children to experience all sorts of emotions (some that are subtle and some can be extreme in nature), giving them an opportunity to express those feelings is crucial in the process of learning how to handle and accept them. We have already noticed the children talking more about how they are feeling, while also gaining a better understanding of how others are feeling.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 21, 2018

Stone Soup is an old folk story in which hungry strangers convince the people of a town to each share a small amount of their food in order to make a meal that everyone enjoys. Based on this story we made our own stone soup. As each and every member of our little community contributed to making our soup, we all fell proud of what we have shared and thankful for those who we have to share it with.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Story time with Karin and clay workshop with Zack

November 9, 2018

We would like to say THANK YOU to Karin and Zack for spending time with us this week. The children truly love having parents and special people spend time with them so if you have a minute or two to spare please let us know! We would love to have you in. Our classroom’s door is always open.

We are so proud of our young author/illustrators in 3B. The stories and ideas that the children have brought to life this week are full of energy and creativity, and show the great spirit and potential. Writers and illustrators of 3B, thank you very much for bringing us your wonderful stories!

This week we visited the other Buckle My Shoe. We met new friends, explored new environment as well as enjoyed spending time together. In addition, during this field trip the children had a chance to ride on MTA Bus and Subway.

We hope to see our new friends soon as we extended our invitation for them to come see our school.

Once upon a time...

October 26, 2018

Throughout our weeks together, it is abundantly clear that our class loves reading and listening to stories. The pride they have shown in crafting their own characters, telling their own stories, and illustrating numbers of pages is an obvious source of joy for our young author/illustrators, and in our classroom as a whole.

While the children in 3B are focused mainly on the beginning stages of letter writing, that is focusing on the letters of their name, the creation of these illustrated stories, and the creators’ excitement surrounding these creations is a wonderful sign of the early desire to continue the process of learning to write fully for themselves. Along with scribbling and creating letter-like forms, drawing and illustrating, is an important aspect of emergent literacy itself. Plus, illustrating is simply fun!

We are so proud of our young author/illustrators in 3B, and we look very forward to seeing how the development of story creation grows and enhances in the weeks and months to come. The stories and ideas that the children have brought to life are full of energy and creativity, and show the great spirit and potential that we witness every day in our classroom. Writers and illustrators of 3B, thank you very much for bringing us your wonderful stories!

We are continuing working on our Halloween costumes and we are excited to see how they turn out…

We continue talking about our feelings and emotions. Since emotions are a big part of who we are it is important to identify different emotions and talk about them. It has been a week or so and we are already hearing the children using the new vocabulary to express how they feel. Way to go 3B!

"I feel happy because I kiss my mommy and daddy" - Romeo

October 19, 2018

This week ( and will continue) we focused on feelings and emotions. Since emotions are a big part of who we are it is important to identify different emotions and talk about them. We observed that when some conflicts arise in our class, not always the children have tools to solve the problem without someone getting very upset.

Most of preschoolers need some guidance and support to help them interpret their own feelings, emotions, and to interact appropriately with others. We hope that through different activities we will help the children to communicate their feelings and emotions effectively, deflate tense situations, and to understand themselves better. We hope that by engaging in activities we will help the children to expand their vocabulary to express how they feel i.e. happy, angry, sad, excited, frustrated (games, books, plays etc). Allowing the children to express their emotions and feelings by saying, i.e. “It’s ok to feel upset but hitting hurts, what are some other ways to let that person know that you are upset?” and encouraging the children to talk to each other about how they feel in certain situations, i.e. “I don’t like when you take something away from me,” or by saying, “No, thank you!” will not only support their emotional growth but most of all will foster their friendships. As educators we model self-control by using calm and descriptive language to voice our own feelings and we give them space to explore their feelings. We provide support and tools to support their emotional growth as needed. Most of all we promise doing it in a fun and engaging way!

In addition, this week the children worked very hard on painting and decorating their Halloween costumes. With great support from their friends and lots of laughs we will get things ready just in time for Halloween.

Who is ready for Halloween?

October 12, 2018

This week we started our Halloween explorations. As we put out some Halloween books, explored pumpkins and did some fun art projects of creating jack-o-lanterns the excitement in the room grew each day.

Throughout the past week or so we listened very carefully what/who they wanted to dress up as this year. We had a couple options however, after a group discussion/voting we all came up to the conclusion that we will be Airplanes that help earth stay healthy this year. As fantastic as this idea sounds, the children were given two conditions. The first condition was that they have to be a very unique and the second was they can only do good things/help earth. We all agreed to it and we are ready to dive right into this exciting process of creating our unique costumes!

Friends turning objects into airplanes.

Re-purposing items to provoke play and support creativity

October 5, 2018

This week, the 3B class continued using materials that support their creativity and the environment (materials would normally be discarded). In our classroom everyday items are turned into airplanes, flowers, vehicles (and these are just few examples). As each child explores materials differently, in only about a week or so we have observed the children’s ideas being transformed into real creations and inventions. Learning how to use glue, scissors and tape is just another part of it. Furthermore, experiencing how to make two things stick or stay together, how to connect them and how to balance objects is just as important as the other aspects learned from this experience. We can’t wait to see where this project will take us!

Also, we started specialists this week.

Cooking with Diane- Apple Salad

Spanish with Ernesta

Soccer with JoJo

Reuse, re-purpose, and recycle!

September 28, 2018

This week the 3B class engaged in action-oriented activities hoping to make a difference in our small community. We also discussed with children the importance of recycling, reducing and reusing. The more we recycle, the more waste we keep out of landfills helping to keep the earth healthy. The more we recycle, the more things to re-purpose at the Creation Station.

The best part is that we don’t just “reduce, recycle, and reuse” but most of all we “re-purpose.” We think that this is a simple way not only to support children’s creativity but most importantly to show them that we can reuse things for a different purpose. One of the ways to show the children that we can re-purpose an object is to transpire it into a form of art. We are hoping that by converting one thing into another sends a message that it is not only a fun way to explore a new art medium, but most importantly we help 3B team grow into environmental advocates.

As a way of helping the children to “grasp” the idea of re-purposing items is to encourage children to share their creations with the group.

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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?

"I really like school." - Alfie

September 21, 2018

As the second week of school passes by, 3B class is really settling in and comfortably exploring. This week we continued talking about ways of keeping the room safe and fun for everyone.

The children were introduced to a new routine and task- the sign in book. Everyone seems to be very excited by it. This activity helps the children with theirs and their peers’ names/letter recognition as well as developing their fine motor skills. Every morning, they eagerly signed in throughout the week.

As the children explored different art mediums, they were also introduced to the idea of drawing self-portraits. These self-portraits provide us with a special glimpse into how the children view themselves in the world. It is our hope to build a community of unique individuals who will learn to soar , succeed and shine together!

We went for our first walk. It was an important practice of the safety rules that we all agreed to follow!

Most importantly, we continue building our community. This week we invited children’s families into our room by displaying the photographs. This gave the children an opportunity to talk and share about their loved ones. And they did so verbally and through drawings.

Some quotes:

Alisha (while painting a picture of her family):

“Do you want to know my dad’s name? It is Karthik! I am painting my dad like my mom. My mom has black hair.”

Romeo (overhearing Alisha):

“ I have a family. My daddy, Maya-Linn and Sophia and my mommy.”

First week of school was a great success!

September 14, 2018

This week has been full of excitement and full of explorations. From what we have observed, the children were most excited about seeing each other (and that is the most important part of being at school). As educators we promise to nurture and support our children in developing friendships, love, and good laughs througout the year.

Also, this week the children have been engaging and interacting with the environment in a variety of ways. In the Reggio philosophy, the child has three teachers. First are the parents, second are the teachers, and third is the environment. As educators we are aware that the environment contributes greatly to the child's sense of comfort, curiosity, confidence and creativity. That is why this week was all about making 3B students feel comfortable in the new classroom.

We played games that support teamwork…