Field Day.

Hello Families,

Thank you for volunteering for the field day and helping us out. It was a hit. Field day was so much fun. All our friends enjoyed so much. We were anticipating to be back real soon but we pulled it off until 11:30am. Yay:) Our friends were very patient, they were socializing with others. exploring things around them and enjoying themselves. They enjoyed having their snack there too. We are so tired now that some fell asleep on the way back to school and some fell asleep after coming back. 

On Monday and Thursday, we decided to explore everything that is in our classroom.

On Tuesday we tried something new with our friends handprints, however it did not turn out the way we wanted it to be. But we will again try it next week and hopefully it comes out the way we planned it. 

On Wednesday, we explored styrofoam with paint. Our friends don't always enjoy such activities because it is covered and does not give them an opportunity to get messy. They still explored it and spread the colors for us.

One more week to go. 

Have a wonderful weekend.

We are already in June.

Hello Families, 

This week was short with Monday being a holiday. On Tuesday, we did mark making. Our friends are getting better and better at holding the crayon and marking with it.

On Wednesday, we spent most of our day exploring our classroom. 

On Thursday, we explored sand and glue. Most of our friends enjoyed the texture and explored it in their own way. Some used both their hands, some used only their finger as they weren't sure and some used one hand. To my surprise, no one made an attempt to put in their mouth. 

Since the past two days, we have been going to the Pre-K room to visit the bunny. Our friends are yet not comfortable with the bunny. We are going to try and go every day so they get accustomed to it and not be scared.

On Friday, we did body exploration with shaving cream and paint. All our friends enjoyed it. Lucy and Teagan were completely into it. They were putting the shaving cream all over their body and exploring it independently. Cleo was only comfortable putting it on her leg. She did not like how it felt. Una and Antoine were helping Cleo feel better and exploring together.

Our friends look out for each other  when they are upset or not confident or comfortable with something. This is great to see. They work as a team and help each other out. 

Next Friday, June 8th is Field Day. Hope to see all of you'll there. 

Feel better Una.

Have a great Sunday.

Happy Memorial Day.

Hello Families,

We are grateful that all our children are fever free and are healthy now. This week we celebrated two of our friends birthday. Una and Cleo turned one. Wohoo! 

We had a small celebration wherein the families brought in cake and fruit to share with our other friends. It was a cute celebration as we sang happy birthday and exchanged gifts. 

On Monday, we even waved a goodbye to our four butterflies. While we were at the park, our friends got to touch the butterfly, feel their skin and look at them fly away.  Our friends were really gentle while touching them and patiently look at them fly away. Some of us liked how they felt, some of us immediately withdrew our hand.

On Tuesday, we painted with silver ware on a canvas. This activity was done to promote fine motor skills. Some of our friends are working on mastering this skill while some know how to hold it and maneuver with it.

On Wednesday, we explored sand with balls. Some were comfortable with how the sand feels but some where unsure if they liked it. We have always explored sand with something either it has been glue or paint. This is the first time they explored it without anything. 

On Thursday, we went outside for a walk to the park.They love going out. They are so quiet when we are out and love looking around. 

On Friday, we explored our room and all were able to go to the gym together. They had a lot of fun exploring the giraffe. 

May 18th.

This week we had a lot of our friends who were not feeling very good. However, we are over it now and we have a full house again. 

This week at the same time has been very eventful and busy as we are prepping for the spring market that is next week. We are so excited. Are you'll? We have some amazing things that our friends have made and can't wait to display it. 

On Monday, we took footprints of our friends to create something beautiful for our silent auction piece. I hope you'll like that concept. We also did mark making with the colors that are known to our friends already. And explored the number one as our two friends are turning one next week. Yay! We even had an opportunity to go outside in the evening as it was nice and not too hot or too cold.

On Tuesday, we made two different types of bath salts. One is lemon and the other one is vanilla. It was beautiful to see how all our friends were patient and were observing the way we were making it. At first, they touched all the ingredients- epsom salt, baking soda, coconut oil and smelt the essential oils. They were not sure at first if they wanted to touch the epsom salt as it is a different texture. Some enjoyed touching it, some withdrew immediately. However, they loved the smell of lemon and vanilla and tried to get the bottle to their mouth to taste it. It was fun making them as they were very co-operative during the whole process.

On Wednesday, we created a beautiful piece for silent auction. It has come out so well. We used recyclable pieces to make that. We used food jars and toilet paper rolls that our friends had painted and did squish painting on the canvas and later stuck the things. I am so proud of our friends. 

On Thursday, we made birthday cards for our two birthday girls next week. We even read for almost 30 minutes yesterday and our friends were very calm. They cooperated with me while I was setting up the activity for card making. Our friends were into pampering the babies today. They patted the baby, touched the body parts and kissed the baby. Cleo, Antoine and Una were so excited to see each other. 

On Friday, we had a full house again and as everyone's schedule was a little different today, we could not do any activity. But it was really nice to have everyone back. This week was really busy and productive. Our friends have done a great job preparing for the spring market which is next week. I hope you all love it. 

We had a visitor today. We had Cleo's grandma visit us today. It was great to have her. 

Have a wonderful weekend. See you all on Monday :)

May 11th.

Hello Families,

This week we have been still exploring colors and are doing very well with recognition. Some of them are able to recognize the colors purple, green and blue. Whereas, our other friends are in the stage of recognizing them. 

On Monday, we explored purple things and this included purple paper, purple pom-poms, and feathers. They stuck all of this on contact paper. They all enjoyed this activity. To my surprise, some of our friends go to the activity and feel it. This turned out to be a beautiful piece of art.

On Tuesday, we were prepping for our parent's day gifts and so no pictures as it is a surprise. Our friends are becoming much more patient and empathetic. We are doing much better with family style lunch too. 

  Our explorations are increasing every day, however, our emotions too. Our friends are becoming more expressive and express their emotions either by crying, talking aloud, smiling, and laughing. As our friends can now recognize the color purple, we are soon going to focus on red, pink, green and blue.

On Wednesday, we started off with painting food jars with shaving cream and paint but could not get to everyone. We did go to the gym for sometime and explore things there.

This is a short blog as I wont be here on Friday and on Thursday our intern had planned a water play activities for our friends who were awake.

Thank you for being such co-operating families and for all the support. Thank you for appreciating us and bringing in beautiful things. 

Have a wonderful weekend and see you all next week.

May 4th, 2018.

Hello Families,

This week has been wonderful and so busy. We are getting into routine, everyone has transitioned very well and we all have become very understanding of each other's needs. We are incorporating family style lunch so that we can spend more time with each other and also learn patience and the concept of turn taking. We first introduced it with only Cleo, Una and Antoine as their schedules were similar, but now even Teagan has joined in. And Annabelle and Lucy have their bottles at their time. So it is perfect as we all are eating/drinking at the same time. While we are feeding our friends the others are very patient and wait for their turn or say "more" or use their sign language. They do not shout or scream anymore when they want their food. We have started the sign language of "more" and "all done" with Teagan and Annabelle too as they have started eating their solids. 

Our friends are getting better and better at messy play and doing activities. Our goal for this week was to focus on introducing colors as they come across those colors every single day. Our friends are starting to recognize red, blue and purple. We identify these three colors even when we are outside so they associate these colors in the real world too and is just not restricted to our classroom. 

As we all know spring market is approaching soon and every class has a different plan for the market. (Surprise for our families). We already have done our first step towards it and painted a poster board with a lot of colors. It looks amazing. And our class is going to make two things to sell for the market. 

Our friends again seem to gravitate a lot towards the light table and explore the Magna tiles. As they are again interested in the light table, we decided to do an activity on it on Monday and they all enjoyed it as it was on the light table, there are mirrors and they liked the stickiness of the contact paper. The activity that we did was- sticking feathers, pipe cleaners, pom-poms and paint on the contact paper. They seemed to be fascinated by the feathers as they were exploring them for the first time in school. Annabelle and Teagan enjoyed sitting on it and feeling the stickiness. 

We have been making a conscious effort to go to the gym everyday. Our friends have started playing with each other, and while playing they are being mindful about their actions and even involve Annabelle, Teagan, and Lucy in their play. On Tuesday, we decided to paint our initials and start recognizing our initial letter. We really liked the Carly used to sing to Annabelle- A is for astronaut and b is for baba. She associated letters with different words and we started doing the same and used their names whenever their letter came. The reason we used purple to paint is because that is our focus.

On Wednesday, we decided to explore shaving cream with finger paint. We have always explored shaving cream with tempre paint but this time it was different. Some of them liked how it felt, some of them did not prefer it. It was a short activity as they got over it soon. 

On Thursday, we decided to go out at 9:00 am in the morning as it is a good time to go out before it starts getting too hot and before our friends start to fall asleep. Thank you to all the dad's who were here during drop off to help us apply sun block, put their hats on and put them in the strollers. It was a great help. It was really nice to have Shaun until mid way and DJ accompanied us all the way to the park and spent time with us there. It is always wonderful to have our families join. This routine was helpful as our friends came back and slept and everything went very smoothly. 

On Friday we followed the same routine of going outside at 9:00 am and today it was a longer walk. We were outside for almost 45 minutes. Thank you families for applying sun block and bringing our friends. We were able to go out a little before 9:00 because of such a great help. 

We explored different types of fabrics today. They were exploring these for a long time. Most of them felt different, were different colors too. 

Thank you for all your help and support. Have a wonderful weekend.

04/27/2018

Hello Families,

This week went by quickly. A couple events that are coming our way will be emailed shortly. 

On Monday, we took advantage of the awesome weather and went out twice. Once in the morning and then in the afternoon. Pre-K makes an effort to come visit our room almost everyday. We are forming a community.

On Tuesday, we explored sand, shaving cream and paint. All our friends had a fun time. The younger friends experienced it on the floor and explored their body too, whereas our older friends explored it sitting on the chair. The pictures are on instagram.

On Wednesday, we explored toilet paper roil on foil paper. Most of our friends explored this while sitting on chairs and exploring their bodies too. 

On Thursday, we focused more on mark making with egg shaped crayons to improve their palmer grip. Our friends were more interested in tasting the crayons as they looked very tempting because of the different colors. We are focusing a lot on reading and gym time too. 

Lucy is doing so well with her tummy time and enjoys rolling over in our room.

On Friday, we worked on a beautiful piece of art for the spring market that is coming up. Our friends are getting better at messy play and get excited to do it. 

Have a wonderful weekend.

WEEK OF THE YOUNG CHILD

Hello Families,

This week was an eventful week. We had something planned for each day. It started off with Music Monday where we sang our usual songs during morning meeting and then both the educators decided to sing a nursery rhyme from their home language. So one of them sang itsy bitsy spider and a fish rhyme in Hindi, whereas J.J sang a Turkish rhyme to all the friends. Our friends enjoyed it as it involved using musical instruments. And they love those anyway. 

We painted pots for the event that we were going to have to today. Our friends were so patient and accommodative while we were painting.

On Tuesday, it was Tasty Tuesday. We made apple sauce with our friends. Thank you to all the parents who brought in boiled apples for us. While we made the apple sauce our friends observed each and everything we did and waited for their turn. We not only tasted the apple sauce but even touched the boiled apples that came from home.

Our pot painting continued as some of our friends were not present on Monday and some were asleep.

On Wednesday, it was work together, build together, learn together. Our friends created a beautiful piece of art for our room. We made our own set of loose parts including cut mirror boards, pom poms, and paper. We stuck all this with glue. It came out so well. Our friends are strengthening their gross motor and fine motor skills every day. We are so proud of them!

Our friends are not only working on their motor skills but are also doing very well with associations, words and their physical development. Every day we have a new thing happening in our room. Either someone is saying a new word or someone is rolling over or walking. 

We have been spending quite some time with the infant-b group in the gym or in their room. 

On Thursday, it was Artsy Thursday and our friends painted hearts with finger paint. Some sat on it, some dabbed on it, some used their fingers and some used their whole hand. We love the way our friends use different parts of their body to paint. This is the best part of the Reggio Emilia philosophy where there are no preset rules and it is completely child oriented. 

On Friday, we had our special person day. It went well. Thank you to all our families who brought a special person. It was so much fun to plant the seeds and looking forward to the plants growing. Beautiful day. Thank you for bringing food for our class.

For the upcoming events, please check the email sent out by Shaun yesterday.

Thank you and have a wonderful weekend.

Finally Spring is here.

Hello Families,

Welcome back. We hope all of you'll had a wonderful spring break. This week was full of surprises. Our younger friends have started to sit up with very little support and our older friends are attempting to walk. Lucy is doing so much better with 

Our friends are getting so much better at collaborative play, associations and being mindful of their younger friends. 

As we just returned from a long break, this week was a little emotional and all our friends were getting used to school so was not able to do a lot of activities each day. However, our friends are exploring the room so much better and are very independent. 

On Monday, we explored bubble wrap. Our friends are really getting interested in exploring the bubble wrap and trying to burst the bubbles. Our friends not only painted on it but also tried walking and crawling on it to burst it.

We had a guest reader on Monday. We had Una's aunt come in and read to us.

On Tuesday, our older friends hung out in the infant-b room for sometime and they had such a great time. They not only explored their room but also painted with them. They all sat together and painted. We have been trying to go to the gym everyday for ho much ever time we get.Lucy is doing so well with her tummy time. 

On Wednesday, our friends were busy exploring the classroom with different toys, instruments, and puzzles. Cleo was interested in exploring the puzzles and figuring out where the piece of the puzzle would go. Ms. Katy came over to spend some time with us and played with bunnies. We went to the gym in the afternoon and Teagan and Annabelle expresse their love for each other by holding hands and staring at each other. 

On Thursday, we explored magna tiles on the light table and painted on the butcher paper. Our friends not only sat on it, but crawled on it, walked on it and also went on their tummy. They thoroughly enjoyed it.

On Friday, we went to the park and explored an art activity. It was great fun. The weather was so good. As the temperatures are going up, we will try and go outside more and explore our neighbourhood.

Lastly, next week is the week of young children and have activities planned for every day. Please check the email that was sent out a couple days back to get an idea of how our week is going to look like.

Have  great weekend.

Happy Spring Break!

Hello Families,

I hope all of you are looking forward to the spring break.This week was short again as we are closed tomorrow for good Friday tomorrow. Our friends have transitioned so well to the room now. They play independently and explore as a group and support each other. Our room is forming a great community. They also have started recognizing each other's family members and gravitate towards them.

On Monday, we explored white sand and white paint. Most of our friends enjoyed it. We are trying and focusing a lot on open exploration in our room as they are more mobile now and more active. We try and explore every area that catches the attention of our friends. 

We try and go to the gym every day so that our friends get more time for movement and can try and take risks and work on their problem-solving techniques.

On Tuesday, we decided to do water play as the temperatures seem to be getting warmer outside. We added a little soap to it just to create the bubble effect. Lucy and Teagan seemed to have really enjoyed themselves. For the older children, we had babies in it with paint and soap but they did not seem that much into it. We will try again to see if it interests them. 

On Wednesday and Thursday, we decided of painting images of flowers and eggs as we have entered a new season of spring and it is easter soon. All of them enjoyed painting as that involves getting messy. For eggs, we used food color and glue. Whereas, for the flower, we simply used finger paint. 

P.S- The stains on their hands are of food color and these are non-toxic and harmless to our friends.

Thank you, Shaun, for coming and reading to our friends today. We enjoyed reading. Also, Shaun exchanged a small gesture from the Indian culture. He exchanged the gesture Namaste and said the word too. He was helping Antoine and Cleo form their hands to create the gesture. 

That is all for now. Have a wonderful spring break. 

Snow day!

Hello Families,

This week was again short because of one snow day. And we are getting closer to our spring break.

Firstly, thank you to all the families for taking time out and coming and reading to our friends. We love reading. Every time a parent came to read, our friends would leave everything and listen to the book that was being read. Thank you for encouraging literacy in our room.  Also, THANK YOU so much for donating books to our room. Our friends love them.

On Monday, we started our week with Annabelle's mother who came to read and they loved it. We focused on mark making and used the crayons that were donated by Una's father. The best part about these crayons is that they are washable and non-toxic. These crayons are used to promote palmer grip as they are thick and egg-shaped.

On Tuesday, we had Cleo's father who came in to read. At first, it was a little chaotic but later when Carter started reading, all of them had their listening ears towards Carter. We explored paint and shaving cream on a box which Antoine and Cleo loved. 

We were closed on Wednesday- SNOW DAY!

On Thursday, we again explored shapes but this time it was a little different. We cut out 5 different shapes in contact paper and stuck them upside down on the light table with a black tape. The reason we stuck black tape was so that they could understand perseverance and know to only use the area that is there. And we provided them with pom-pom balls. The activity basically was to stick pom-pom balls on the different shapes. The older three enjoyed it more as they could do a lot more than just stick the pom-pom. Teagan and Lucy enjoyed it too.

We are working a lot on problem-solving and collaborative play too.

On Friday, we had a lot of readers. Thank you, families, for coming over for our little party and dressing our friends up. All of them looked adorable. Thank you, Katie and DJ, for bringing the book and reading it to us. We loved it. We had Rachel's class come in too for reading and singing to our friends. Thank you for coming.

Our Literacy Week has been extended by four days, so please feel free to come and read to our friends.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Conference Week.

Hello Families, 

We would really like to thank each one of you for taking time out and come to attend the conferences. It was a pleasure to talk to you all. If you have any concerns regarding the sheet, please feel free to email janvi. Also for donating books for our room. 

This week was comparatively a shorter week as we had the conferences on Thursday.  We hope that we were able to answer most of your questions and were in a better space after the conferences. We love our friends, they are all really wonderful.

On Monday, we explored different shapes on the light table. We cut out four different shapes from cello sheet and stuck it on the light table. We did not prompt anyone to go there or to look at the activity. We wanted to see who would first go and spot it. It was Cleo who spotted it on the light table a few minutes after she came to school. She was really excited and just pulled it and started kissing it. We later introduced white paint on it and made sure all our friends get a chance to explore. It was a fun activity as they learned about different shapes, felt them and painted on them.

On Tuesday, we decided to paint on mirrors. For the older friends, we used the smaller mirrors to observe their skills on perseverance and for our younger friends we used the bigger mirrors so that they have enough room to spread their hands while exploring. Unfortunately, we could not get do the activity with our younger friends as our friends were a little overwhelmed that day and were too emotional. However, we will get to it shortly. With our older friends, they did a great job painting on the smaller mirrors. We have just introduced the concept of perseverance and won't go too much in depth with it but we just want them to understand boundaries and endings. First, it was the light table, now it is the blocks. Our friends are loving the blocks and are exploring it every day. This way we are able to promote more tummy time and floor time.

We have been making a conscious effort to try and go to the gym as much as possible however it is not possible every day. But guess what? We have brought the soft gym blocks in our room, so the day we cannot make it to the gym, we will workout in our room. 

On Wednesday, we again did a mirror activity but this time we did it with bigger mirrors and shaving cream with paint. Most of our friends enjoyed it. Wednesday was a very good day because all our friends were interacting with one another and even playing with each other. Antoine and Una decided to do most of their classroom exploration together and Antoine even spent time with his younger friends. He was so gentle with them and extremely cautious.

On Friday, we read a few books that our families donated and our friends are loving it. They kept going back to the basket that has books. They loved Global Babies a lot because it has so many pictures of babies and all of them look so different. Their face structure, their skin color, etc. We are going to promote a lot of reading. We make it a point to read every day anyway. We did not do a messy activity today but we stuck contact paper on the light table and white sheet. They enjoyed it. 

Also, families please take a few minutes to go through the panels that we have in our classroom. All of them has our friends on it and all the panels depict what is happening in our room and we are becoming more social and forming a stronger community.

We cannot wait for our families to come next week and read to us. It is going to be so much fun.

Today or by tomorrow all of you will receive an email from janvi regarding the literacy week that is next week.

Have a wonderful weekend ahead.

Happy Friday.

Hello Families,

We started off this week by painting some babies. This activity was introduced as we have small babies in our classroom and we had Lucy start too. This way we can promote gentle touches and how to play with children younger than our age. The older children have been extremely mindful of the younger friends in our classroom and always look after them. Even if they feel like touching them, they will gently touch them. 

On Tuesday, we had our class picture day. It was a challenge to get them to smile all at once but in the end, it was a success. All of our friends looked so adorable in their cute outfits. We have made it a routine to sit for morning meeting every morning. We are getting so much better at sitting in a circle. As music is the biggest interest in our room, our friends sit for a few minutes listening to the rhymes, shaking their shakers and smiling. They know the pattern and routine of our morning now. They don't even need to be prompted.

Annabelle and Teagan are doing such a great job at sitting up without support. Also, Lucy is doing so good at holding her own bottle. 

On Wednesday, we explored ourselves in the mirror and collaborated music and movement with mirrors. We also had a big box in our room that day and Cleo seemed to have had a wonderful time exploring it.

On Thursday, after the storm, we decided to bring in some snow as we could not go outside. At first, our friends were not sure if they wanted to explore that as it was really cold. But later when they saw paint in it and started seeing the snow melt, they went towards it and explored. Some of our friends were even tempted to taste it. We also introduced bubble wrap. We wanted to see how they react to it. It did not seem to interest them a lot and walked away from it. 

On Friday, we again decided to introduce bubble wrap. But this time we placed it on the light table as the light table is loved by everyone in our room. With no prompts, Cleo crawled to the light table and was exploring it. We later introduced paint on it and all of them have enjoyed it. Lucy tried painting on the light table today and she really enjoyed being on her tummy and looking at herself and exploring the paint simultaneously. 

Our friends are getting better and better at problem-solving. On Thursday, when Annabelle was next to the block area facing the mirror, she decided to first explore the blocks with her legs because that was the closest. And later, rolled the block with both her legs while looking in the mirror and later went to grab it with her hands. Great strategy.

Looking Forward- We have our Parent-Teacher Conferences coming up next Thursday. Please note- No school that day so no children, only parents. 

Carly has sent out a document with the timings on it, please feel free to fill that up. 

A list of books for the literacy week will be soon sent out by Carly. 

Have a wonderful weekend. See you all on Monday.

Happy Holi!

Hello Families,

This week we did something different and exciting. Our class parents had planned "Holi" (Festival of Colors which is celebrated in India). We collaborated with the infant-b classroom for this. It was beautiful to see how all our friends were so patient at first while we put color on each other and later they started exploring the colors themselves. All our friends enjoyed it. No one cried or showed any signs of discomfort.We missed you Cleo. We played with three different colors- Pink, Yellow, and Green. To our surprise, some of the colors had an odor too. The pink one smelt like rose and the green color smelt like henna. (All the colors were organic). A big thank you to our class parents for organizing this event. Great way to expose our friends to different cultures and festivals from around the world. Thank you, Shaun, for bringing in the colors. 

On Monday, we went for a walk to the park. We are taking advantage of the good weather and going out as much as possible. We also explored shaving cream, glue, finger paint with a ball. Una and Teagan seemed to have enjoyed it. The reason we added glue was because it is a different texture compared to shaving cream so we wanted to see how our friends would react to it. They reacted very well. They liked it. Once we were done with the activity, we took a drawing paper and dabbed it in the shaving cream that had the spikey effect. That effect looks really good on the paper once dry. 

On Tuesday, we explored oil, watercolor on a canvas. They did not seem too much into it maybe because of the cling wrap on it. We did not directly want to expose them to oil as it was their first time exploring. But next time we will try an activity without cling wrap and see if that excites them.

On Wednesday, we again went to the park with our infant-b friends. They always enjoy their ride there and back. They are extremely patient while they are in the strollers and love seeing around. 

We try and go to the gym with the infant-b class so that our friends can get familiar with each other and is a great way to get social. Infant-B friends are so careful of our little friends and they watch over them and sometimes play the gentle touch game too. 

All of our friends are really social and they love a big crowd. At first, we thought they would not like being around too many people but it is just the opposite. 

Parent-teacher conferences are soon approaching. Please sign up for the time that suits you.

The sign-up sheet for parent-teacher conferences is on google drive. The link is- https://drive.google.com/open?id=17j47jePVHTqI3CzXVuZls8erjvT9Z52g

Please note- The conferences last for approximately 15 minutes and students are not allowed for the conferences. Also, the school is just open for conferences that day.

March 6th- Picture Day. 

And lastly, our school is closed tomorrow for professional development. 

Have a wonderful weekend. See you all on Monday. :)

Happy Friday!

Hello Families, 

This was a very short week. We took advantage of the beautiful weather and went outside to the Washington market park for a walk. What a beautiful day. Our friends loved it. They were so calm and quiet on their whole way.

Our friends have started recognizing each other and started looking for each other. They have started playing with one another, sharing their toys with each other and helping each other feel better. We are loving how this class is becoming self-sufficient and a community. Talking about forming a community and how they recognize familiar faces, I have a video I want to show you all.

Here's the link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lx1IL2SBpkFJc2FX-kfOHRp-1_ubTa5S  

Holding Hands.

This video is so beautiful because Annabelle is gazing at Teagan and trying to reach for something that is in her reach. The minute Teagan feels something on her body she goes ahead and grabs it. And they, in turn, hold hands :) It was an amazing moment to capture.

On Thursday, we decided to paint family pictures. At first, it was beautiful to see how they all reacted to the family pictures. They all had a beautiful smile. It was wonderful to see how they crawled to their family picture and painted those instead of their friends family picture. Antoine and Una painted their's first and then decided to paint Teagan's. It is good to see how they not only recognize their family pictures but also the family of their friends.

On Friday, we joined the infant-b friends to the gym. We are working on forming a community in our school with our other school friends. They all had so much fun exploring with one another. We also explored tissue paper and contact paper on the light table as our friends were showing interest in that yesterday. They explored the activity for so long today. Will try it with different color tissue paper next time. 

Reminder- Next week we meet for Holi Celebration on March 1st, 2018. Please make sure our we are dressed in a white shirt.

March 6th- Picture Day :) I will send the schedule as soon as it is out. 

Have a wonderful week ahead.

Valentine's Week.

Hello Families,

This is comparatively a shorter week and we go on a mini vacation from tomorrow. Just to make sure- We are off from Friday the 16th until Feb 20th in observance of Lunar New Year and Presidents day. 

The Valentine's gift that we prepared for the 2A classroom, involved shaving cream, paint and glitter. We let our friends explore the shaving cream with paint and once they were done with it, we put a paper in it for the print. That is how we created the beautiful card. 

How we made the heart? We cut out hearts and stuck them on the light table with red finger paint on it and stuck it with clip wrap. All of them explored the cling wrap which helped spread the color on the heart and that is how our heart was painted. 

How did we prepare gifts for you'll? Simply took their hand and footprints and wrote a cute message. We tried taking the handprints in a way that created or rather looked like a heart.

Our friends were so cooperative during the whole process. It took almost two weeks to get everything together and work with our friends. 

Once we were done with that, we thought of exploring salt as that is a similar texture like sand. So we explored salt with watercolor on water paper and for most parts, they all seemed to have liked the feel of salt. Antoine, Una, and Cleo were tempted to taste it too. It was nice to see how Cleo decided to explore the salt with her feet. She first tried it with her hands but did not feel comfortable so tried it with her feet. She seemed to have done better with her feet. We are glad that she did not give up and still tried even after not being fully comfortable and confident. Annabelle and Teagan had a very good time exploring it. Both of them were on their tummy while exploring it.

On Tuesday, we had the 2A friends come in to exchange all the gifts. At first, we were a little nervous as we were not sure how our friends would react looking at such a big crowd. But guess what? They loved it. All of them felt so comfortable and were so happy to have them over. Cleo, Antoine, and Una were even cooperating and interacting with their older friends. Teagan was really happy to see her mommy come and spend time with her. For Teagan, it was an expected visit. :) Books and Mirrors are a growing interest in our room. Every time Cleo is upset, if she goes to the mirror and looks at herself, she gets distracted and starts playing. She loves the mirror. Books are a tool in our room. It works as a calming/soothing tool. Every time our friends are upset and we start reading, they all become quite and start listening to what is read. All of them have good listening ears. 

On Wednesday- It was wonderful to have all of you come in for our Valentine's Day breakfast. We had a good time and so did our friends to see their family at school. We really hope you'll like the gift your children made. 

Thursday- We explored sensory bags and different type of sensory material on the light table. They all seem to have enjoyed it. Cleo and Una surely did. We also explored foam hearts on the light table as it was Valentine's day.

Looking forward, as we are coming back after a long weekend, it is going to be an emotional week. So we are planning to do family picture painting. This has been really helpful in the past and our friends really enjoy this activity. So we are going to try it with this group to see how they react to see their family pictures on the light table. 

Coming up- We are closed on March 2nd for Staff Development, Picture Day on March 6th and Parent-Teacher conferences on March 15th. The sign-up sheet for the conferences will be out soon. 

Have a wonderful weekend and see you all next Wednesday :)

02/09/2018

Hello Families, 

This whole week went into preparation for Valentine's day. We are prepping gifts for our families as well as for our 2B friends. We will not reveal anything until the last day.  Cleo is doing very well. She had a wonderful week. Antoine also had a very good week. Nothing else for now. The upcoming events list will be soon sent out so that you all can mark your calendars. 

This week Teagan tried to reach for Annabelle's hand in the gym. It was such a cute posture because gradually Teagan reached for her hand. Also, alot of our friends are showing interest in the family book. They crawl up to the basket and flip through the book. Cleo went kissing the teachers and they all have an amazing time in the gym.

Please don't forget about Wednesday, 14th Feb for our valentines breakfast.

02/02/2018

Hello Families,

This week again has been a transition week as Cleo started. We are hoping Cleo feels better and by next week she has adjusted completely. This was the reason this week has been a little slow and passive.

We explored a lot of shaving cream in different forms this week. In fact, we are using shaving cream for our valentines gift for the 2a classroom too.

Thank you to all the parents who replied to my email and who signed up for the valentines breakfast :) The panel is in progress.

The pictures are on Instagram and google drive. Please have a look.

Have a wonderful weekend.

01/26/2018

Hello Families,

This week has been wonderful. In the midst of all the transitions and separation anxiety phase, we managed to have a good time by exploring and getting messy.

This week we noticed that our friends have inclined towards the light table and more so the Magna Tiles. They like the Magna tiles because they can put it in their mouth and use it as a teether. Therefore, since the past two days, we are focusing more on the light table and the Magna Tiles. Yesterday, we covered the light table and Magna tiles with paint and blue paper to see what our friends would do with it. The younger ones glided their hands through the Magna tiles and felt the blue paper whereas Antoine and Una tried tearing the paper to reach for the Magna tiles and the paint. Antoine managed to reach for the paint and enjoyed getting messy. This morning Una and Teagan showed interest so they got a chance to get messy. Annabelle was sleeping so couldn't explore with her. But instead, we painted her feet so that she gets the feel too.    

We are also trying to push all of them to reach for objects. On Wednesday, we set a provocation with blocks and musical instruments as these are their two favorite most areas. Some motivation:) Pushing Una to crawl and pushing Teagan and Annabelle to reach for objects. It is working.

I am really happy that all our friends are adjusting well and the transitions are very smooth now. 

01/19/2018

Hello Families,

It was wonderful to have everyone at our curriculum breakfast. Thank you for coming and spending some time with us. It was beautiful to see how all of you'll were interacting with each other and socializing. The highlight of the morning for me was to see each and everyone's reaction when I asked all of you to draw a family portrait. The reaction was amazing :)

Looking forward- Now that I have every child's personal information, I am going to convert this into a book and laminate it. All of these books will be on the rugs so that it is accessible to the children. Lets see how this goes.

Also please email family pictures so that I can stick it in the book :)

Have a wonderful weekend.