End of the School Year Celebrations

What an amazing last week of school the Pre-K class had! We had a theme for every day of the week! We love everyone so much and will miss them everyday. We wish everyone the best and hope you come to visit us!

We feel so lucky to have had such an amazing group of kids and parents this year! Thank you all for everything!

First Day of Pre-K vs Last Day of Pre-K

End of the Year Awards

What will you miss the most about Pre-K?

Hyebeen: I will miss the creation center.

Graydon: I will miss the block center, gym and game table.

Sam: I am going to miss the kitchen.

Milo: I will miss the teachers.

Aayush: I will miss the science center.

Kian: I will miss the teachers.

Elizabeth: I will miss the teachers and the block center.

Josie: I will miss the teachers and Aayush.

Angelo: I will miss everything.

Rex: I will miss the plants that we planted and the teachers.

Will: I will miss Ale and Milo.

We will all miss Chocolate Milk!

Thank you Pre-K families for everything! We love you and miss you all already!

Graduation and Celebrations!

Last week our children graduated and showed us that they are ready to move on up. We are so proud of everyone’s hard work and growth. With one week left of school we are cherishing each second with the children. This has been a week of fun themes and a very special visit!

Fun themes and celebrations!

We have been having such a fun time this week! From our themed days, funky hair day, mix match day and pajama day! Plus, we got to celebrate Josie’s birthday and go to our last field-trip at The Craft Store.

A Special Visit!

Today Leonie stopped by the classroom to pick up some special letters that the children made for Charlie. We have missed them so much and we were so excited for her visit and surprise face time with Charlie herself!!!!

Field Day!

Happy Parents Day!

Parents Day

We have been working hard on our secret parents day gift. The children all worked hard and created a very special recipe book, each recipe is unique to each child. They also worked on a big canvas and created a beautiful art piece that is for auction at the front desk until Tuesday. Our bandanas are nearly sold out, the rest of the Spring Market Items will be for sale at the front desk on Tuesday as well.

What is something you love about your parents?

Sam: I love that they give me food.

Angelo: I love that they give me a home.

William: I love that they hug me.

Hyebeen: I love that they cuddle with me.

Elizabeth: I love that they like to tickle me when I go to sleep.

Milo: I love that they take me to Florida.

Josie: I love when they snuggle me so funny. When my mom lays next to me and daddy falls asleep and snores.

Graydon: I love that they take me to sports and that they let me watch sports.

Aayush: I love that we hang out before bedtime.

Kian: I love that they give me hugs and let me play a little bit before I go to bed.

Alejandro: I love that they play hide and seek with me.

Rex: I love that they give me lots of toys.

Day at the Park!

On Friday we joined 3A and 3B to a morning trip to the park. We had a really good time in the amazing Spring weather.

Busy Bees and a fun little treat!

Working on a Secret Project for Parent’s Day

The Pre-k kids are so excited for our upcoming Parent’s Day next week! They have been working hard writing and drawing a special project and they cannot wait to share it with you all.

Spring Market

Our Spring Market show is also approaching. The children have designed special bandanas and created a beautiful art piece with recycled materials that will be auctioned away to 1 lucky winner!

Pre-K Graduation Preparation

We are getting ready for our big performance! Everyone is working hard on our graduation book, rehearsing songs, and we are so very excited for our graduation celebration. We have also began to design our caps which we plan to wear on graduation day.

Shared Snack with Graydon, Kennedy, and Lisa!

This week we worked on words that begin with the letters “SH”. During our shared snack with Graydon and his family we read a fun story and enjoyed a delicious treat SHERBET! Thank you!

Imagination

Imagination

This week we discussed the word imagination. The children dedicated time to drawing what their imagination looks like. They are looking forward to sharing their creations with you. Here are their thoughts:

“When you think something in your head.” Angelo

“When you run in the park and play tag. My imagination helps me tell jokes.” Aayush

“Imagination is like when you draw something you like.” Josie

“Sometimes  I have silly things in my head. It’s like if you want to male up your own super hero.” Kian

“It’s when you imagine something and it ends up in a shadow. When you wake up, and turn on the lights it’s not there anymore.” Milo

“Imagination is like what you want to happen and you make it happen and it comes true. It’s like when you are in the kitchen and pretend to be a police officer.” Graydon

“I pretend to be a police Officer, I imagine I have a walkie talkie.” William

“When you think of something and you know what you want to be.” Elizabeth

“You would say something and you really want to do it.” Hyebeen

“It’s like a shadow in your room, but it’s just your imagination.” Sam

“Something that you remember from a long time ago.” Rex

Shared Snacks with Sunhee and Hyebeen.

This week we enjoyed a lovely shared snack with the letters CH. Hyebeen and Sunhee brought a creative snack. The snack looked like a Chicken and some of the ingredients used to make the snacks also started with ch. The children not only loved the presentation of the snack, but they were also intrigued in the book of Extraordinary animals that Sunhee read to the class.

Shh! We Have a Plan!

On Friday we enjoyed a trip to the Tribeca Family Theater and watched a play, based on the book “SHH! We have a plan.” The children really enjoyed the play and can’t wait to share all about it.

Welcome Back Week!

This week was filled with graduation preparations, sharing our spring break news and celebrations!

Thank you all for working so hard on the home funs, the children were so excited to share all of their amazing adventures during the break. This week we are also very excited to announce that our science fair will take place this weekend! The Pre-k children went out for a walk earlier this week to Washington Square Park to invite other little scientist to come see our experiment! It was such a fun time meeting other young learners and discussing science with them. The children cannot wait for this fun event.

Spring Break Home Fun

Graydon: This is my bear and me and KK sitting on a ball. This is her lunch bag and she puts toys in it, I don’t know why. And this is me and my sis and my mom riding on a camel and the camel’s name is Max. Here are my cousins, Cole, Griffin and Reagan. We had an Easter egg hunt together.

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Elizabeth: This is the jelly bean trail, it was yummy. Not the red ones, they were too cinnaminy and red and hot. Here I am with my little cherry blossom, sometimes they are pink and sometimes they are white. I had lunch with my bear and my Barbie.

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Aayush: We took the ferry and train to the Liberty Science Center with my bear. I took a picture like an astronaut. I went to a movie, I saw Dumbo. He can fly, his ears are like his wings.

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Rex: This is me and we are pretending that there’s a fire and that I am a real fireman and we are spraying the water. Me and my dad went to the river and we saw a lot of the itchy plants. We went to the park taking a little rest after playing and we had a lollipop. I rode my bike to the park with my bear. This is me playing chess with my friend and I won. My bear was just watching.

Hyebeen: How did you get to Ion’s house?

Rex: I didn’t go to his house, he came to mine.

Josie: Where did you see the centipede? Was it in the water?

Rex: Centipede don’t live in the water. I don’t remember where I saw it.

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Kian: My Easter bunny went into my easter basket and he got me another jelly bean. This is a picture of me and my travel buddy at Bellport. I’m wearing a helmet that makes sounds. I scooted to the gym with my travel buddy. And for my daddy’s birthday I gave him hugs and kisses.

Questions:

Alexander: How did you scoot to the gym?

Kian: My mom told me I could scoot so I did.

William: How did the helmet make sounds?

Kian: There’s a button on the right side, you just press it.

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Hyebeen: I went driving to visit Vivian’s grandma. The grandma and her pop pops have a little cabin. Vivian’s pop pops is really silly. After that I go to planting with my mommy. Then I had a picnic with my little friend. I also went to a special museum. I touched the picture and it lit up.

Questions:

Sam: How did you get to the picnic?

Hyebeen: I just crossed the street. The park is right next to where I live.

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Josie: This is me by my pool taking a picture with my bear. I was about to take an airplane to come back to New York. The pool was so deep. I had goggles and I loved looking underwater. In Miami I planted with my mommy in my garden. It was so much fun.

Questions:

Aayush: How did you go underwater?

Josie: I put my head in the water, that’s all, it’s really easy.

Alexander: How did you help yourself in the water?

Josie: I had floaties, I didn’t need to be helped.

A Special Surprise by the Pre-K children!:

Thank you to the Pre-K family for making this all possible and thank you Pre-K kids for your thoughtful sweet gifts.

Shared Snack with the Letter Y:

Sam and his mom, Cathy shared Yogurt drinks with the class. Cathy and Louisa (Sam’s little sister) also shared a Harry Allard book, Miss Nelson is missing. Sam was so excited to share one of his current favorite snacks with his friends. Thank you!

Spring celebrations and Science fair preparations.

Welcoming Spring:

The children spent the week preparing for the long break by observing their growing seeds, dying eggs, and personalizing their travel buddies. Our seeds are beginning to sprout and the children are so excited to watch them grow. Their plant journals are covered with beautiful observations. The children are so excited to see the changes once they return from the break.

Science Fair Preparations:

As the Science Fair approaches the Pre-K children have been testing our Fruit-Power Battery experiment. We are currently experimenting with pennies, lemons, and nails combined to convert chemical energy into electrical energy. The children had so many theories on how this experiment works and they were excited to put it to the test!

Week Of The Young Child

Happy Friday! 

Week of the young child was a blast! Thanks to all the families who helped and joined in the fun! 

Music Monday!

We began our week exploring music, instruments, and we even started our own band. We first shared our favorite music and discussed music around the world. We then created a Pre-K playlist and had a dance party to go along with our music study. The children also explored music vibrations and how sound travels while our band performed Hey Jude by The Beatles. It was a great start to our week.

Tasty Tuesday!

On Tuesday we had a special visitor, Colleen joined us to make gluten-free pancakes. We mixed, stirred and took turns pouring. During our morning meeting we discussed the 5 groups of food. Everyone got to share their favorite food and we discussed the importance of making healthy choices. We then roasted delicious vegetable which we seasoned with a little of salt, pepper, and a drizzle of alive oil. Everyone got to try the variety of roasted vegetables.

Work Together Wednesday

On Wednesday the children came up with a brilliant idea! Build a house for our class pet, Chocolate Milk. We used a cardboard and lots of artist tape. Everyone had ideas they were eager to share. We also had another special visitor. Carmela stopped by and worked with us to create a spider web out of yarn. This was a great challenge for the children. Everyone had to work together and communicate with each other. We then enjoyed a lovely story read by Carmela.

Artsy Thursday

On Thursday we had a paint party! We worked with glitter to create beautiful designs using glue and a variety of glitter shades. We also took turns pumping small air balloons and filling them with paint. Later, the children got to pop the paint-filled balloons to create a beautiful “Splat fire” painting.

Family Friday!

Thank you all for coming! It was so much fun seeing old friends and meeting new ones! We had a great time planting, sharing, and tracing with our special people.

We also were also later joined by Colleen for shared snack! We created fun edible, xylophones for our letter of the week shared snack theme! Thank you Colleen!

Investigating seeds, Exploring Liquids and Solids, and Rescuing the ABC's!

Sprouting Seeds

This week the Pre-K children worked on many science experiments. Our first experiment of the week was taking a look at the growth of seeds/plants. The children were asked to share their theories of what it takes to grow a seed/plant, We then took seeds and placed them in a ziplock bag with a damp paper towel. The children will observe the changes through the course of two weeks.

Alexander: The seed is going to get bigger because it likes the bag.

Graydon: The corn is going to grow because it’s a bright color and it will get more sunlight. But the other beans will not grow because the paper towel is not enough for the beans to grow.

Hyebeen: It can’t grow because it can’t breathe. They need sunshine and air.

Kian: I think it won’t grow because there is no soil. They only grow with sunlight and the bag needs to be opened.

Angelo: It’s going to grow up until the top of the bag. Then the plant will die because the zip is blocking the plant from growing.

Sam: I think the seed is going to grow super tall.

Milo: If you put the seed inside the bag, it's not going to grow because of the paper towel. If you don’t open the bag the flower will die.

Will: I think the plant is going to pop open the bag and grow.

Aayush: It’s going to grow big and open the bag.

Elizabeth: I think that the bag is going to pop open and it’s going to turn into the longest plant we have ever seen.

Josie: It will grow 2,019 feet tall and break the bag.

Light Steam Activity

When we see glass, we don't see the glass object itself but through other objects in the room are reflected/distorted by the glass. The glass dome disappeared because both Pyrex and vegetable oil bend (refract) light by the same amounts, light travels straight through both materials!

Milo: The oil is miking the things disappear.

Josie: It’s disappearing because the glass is clear and it’s turning yellow like the oil when you put it in.

A fun game of ABC!

The children have enjoyed playing a fun, literacy game . The children receive a mystery image which they then have to guess what it is. Once they figure out the image they then must find the first letter of the word. After that, they then have to quickly rescue the “trapped” letter on the board and complete the letter puzzle.

Fizzing and Foaming

This week we continued our Baking Soda and Vinegar experiment. We continued to discussed the interesting process of how to create something new out mixing two ingredients. The children had many theories of how this process works and many of them had different hypothesis they wanted to put to the test!

“I thought if I flipped it the balloon would get bigger. Like more air would go inside. But it didn’t work. I think next time I have to putt more vinegar and baking soda. ”

— Graydon

“I think that if I shake the balloon it will pop because it’s going to get too much air. It’s not working, I think it doesn’t work.”

— William

“Maybe if I let the balloon go it will fly really high, maybe to the sky.”

— Elizabeth

“I think if I put more baking soda and more vinegar it will “react” and grow bigger (balloon). ”

— Josie

Writing Center:

The children have been really enjoying our new books. We are all so grateful for all of your donations. Everyone has been very busy making thank you cards to show our appreciation.

Helping Hands:

3B is working on a very special dinosaur project. Angelo, Sam, and Milo happily volunteered to help friends create their paper mâché dinosaur.

Spring has sprung!

We are gearing up for a fun filled end of the year. There are so many exciting things happening in the upcoming weeks! This year we are also celebrating all of the amazing things we do here at Buckle My Shoe with a really exciting new adventure, our Science fair! The Pre-K classroom is always filled with fun STEAM projects and the children all really enjoy working on project work. We love learning from each other and sharing ideas. Literacy Week was a really fun way to introduce the power of science and all of the amazing things you can do with it. The Pre-K children cannot get enough and this week was only the beginning of what is yet to come. We started off the week with a chemical reactions science activity. We had group discussions about the word “reaction” and many of the children had their own interpretation, it was interesting to hear their thoughts.

“A reaction is like when you are allergic to something and your body reacts to whatever you eat or touch. ”

— Angelo

Science:

During the Science Fair, Pre-K will be focusing on energy: fruit battery. We discussed the difference between fruits and vegetables. We also shared ideas about possible fruits that provide energy (we wonder if any of the children made any relation between fruits with energy source for our bodies).

“Fruits have seeds in them and that’s what makes them a fruit. ”

— Kian

“I’ve never seen seeds in bananas so I’m not sure if its a fruit.”

— Milo

“Should we dissect a banana to see if it has seeds or not?”

— Teacher

Washington Market Park:

We decided to take advantage of the warmer weather from this week to explore our neighborhood. The Pre-K walked over to our local playground, WMP, and played games like tag. During that time we also took a look at all of the flowers that have been planted. The children are so excited to watch them grow! We also took our giant parachute with us! It was so much fun making waves, switching spots, and merry-go-rounds.

Pre-K Garden:

We invite you all to take a look at our beautiful garden organized by the Pre-K. Last week we took a walk to our local hardware store and picked up fresh soil and seeds. The children worked really hard this week designing plant pots, making signs and special care instructions for our garden. Most importantly, we planted seeds! We hope that our vegetables and flowers begin to bloom very soon!

Share Snack: Letter of the week, V!

Angelo and his mom, Renata shared a delicious treat with us all. We enjoyed yummy vanilla yogurt and veggie sticks! Renata also read a story to the class about two friends that share vacations. Thank you!

Literacy week

Books, Science, Engineering, and Art:

This week we began our book celebration by focusing on books by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts. We were inspired to continue our Invention Project Work along with our science experimenting activities. The children were so busy this week working on their building skills, math, and literacy. We also continued our focus on kindness and caring for our environment. The children really enjoyed all of the new books we received by our generous donors and special readers. Thank you!

Literacy Week STEAM Activities:

The children worked on a sink and float experiment. We practiced making observations, coming up with hypothesis, and testing them. The children were really engaged in conversations and comparing their hypothesis with one another. We also visited the 3b classroom and joined them on a fun egg and liquid experiment.

Spring:

It was also the first day of Spring this week. We were able to go on a neighborhood walk and visit our local flower shop and the Tribeca Hardware store. While at the flower shop we took a moment to take a look at all the beautiful flowers and discussed the importance of talking to plants because they are living organisms too. After, we made a stop at the Hardware store to shop for seeds. The children are so excited to begin planting seeds in our class. Our pots are ready for planting!

I Have A Dream:

Career day! On Friday we all came to school dressed as who we want to be when we grow up. Everyone shared a little of what they would like to do to help the community/world.

Alexander: When I grow up I want to be a Policeman, and the first thing I’m going to do is go fast on my police car.

Kian: When I grow up I want to be a construction man, and the first thing I’m going to do is build a house for people that don’t have houses.

Hyebeen: When I grow up I want to be a Ballerina, and the first thing I’m going to do is teach other ballerinas how to put on a dance show.

Josie: When I grow up I want to be a planet saver, and the first thing I’m going to do is stop people from littering.

Milo: When I grow up I want to be a Policeman, and the first thing I’m going to do is save everyone in the whole world.

Angelo: When I grow up I want to be a basketball player, and the first thing I’m going to do is become a basketball coach.

Graydon: When I grow up I want to be a Veterinarian, and the first thing I’m going to do is save animals in the ocean.

Sam: When I grow up I want to be a fireman, and the first thing I’m going to do is go in the firetruck to save a building and use a megaphone to tell people to get out of the building.

Rex: When I grow up I want to be a Policeman, and the first thing I’m going to do is save people from bad guys.

Aayush: When I grow up I want to be a pilot, and the first thing I’m going to do is go is fly an airplane full of passengers to India.

Will: When I grow up I want to be a Policeman, and the first thing I’m going to do is talk on my walkie talkie.

Elizabeth: When I grow up I want to be a president, and the first thing I’m going to do is make sure everybody with different color skin can go to the same school.

Hyebeen’s Birthday:

This week Hyebeen turned 5! Her family brought a delicious birthday treat along with a fun Spring activity. Hyebeen’s mom, Sunhee, shared really fun facts about flowers and how they represent cultures and countries. We then got to create our own versions of flowers. It was a very fun activity!

Birthdays and See You Laters

Germs

This week we continued to explore our germs and bacteria wall. We observed all of the changes that are happening to our bread experiment. We also got to take a closer look at body parts from insects using our microscope. The children really enjoyed learning how to use the microscope, “It’s so tricky to look through the hole with one eye.”

Kian and Elizabeth’s Birthday

We also celebrated Kian and Elizabeth’s 5th birthday! We enjoyed muffins while Carmela read us a fun story projected through her phone.

See you later Charlie

This was Charlie’s last week of school at Buckle My Shoe before her big move to the Netherlands. The children made “see you later” cards for Charlie, decorated a fun t-shirt with their handprints and names, and celebrated Rainbow day as per Charlie’s request. It was a really fun week. We are going to miss Charlie very much.

A week of preparation: Self-Love, Friendships, and Inventions

Curriculum Breakfast

Thank you all for attending our Curriculum breakfast this week. The children have been working so hard on their inventions and creations, discussing what makes a good friend, and celebrating each other for being ourselves. It was an amazing experience observing the children work together to showcase all of the hard work they have been doing in the classroom. The children have been very dedicated, they are really proud of their role in the classroom and all of the amazing things that they create while their time here.

Below are a few moments we captured from our Curriculum Breakfast. If you would like to re-watch our special video that was filmed during our Valentine’s Day Ball you can also find that below! Thank you all for your support and all that you do for the Pre-K!

Pre-K Love and Friendship Video

A very special week celebrating friendships, kindness, and respect.

This week was all about self-love and sharing it with others. We decided to make this week all about the kids. Therefore, we asked them what activities they would like to do and created a log list. We then invited you all to join us and participate in these activities. We would like to thank you for donating ingredients for our cooking activities, materials for our messy activities, and for all of your special visits that made this week even more exciting.

Special Visitors

Here are few special moments captured with our Pre-K families. We are so excited to see more of you next week!

Pre-K shares kindness and respect.

We continue to practice self-love and discuss the importance of kindness and respect. We were so happy to see the children embracing it this week. The children also worked on a magnificent backdrop for our picture frame to be displayed in our classroom. Our photo booth was a huge success. We invited the whole school to stop by for some friendship pictures.

Lunar New Year Parade with 3A

We ended our week with a fun Lunar New Year parade. The children were joined by 3A to parade around our school community and spread good luck. Everyone shouted, “no bad luck!”.

An experience with germs, Lunar New Year, and more!

Lunar New Year Pre-K tradition

This week we wanted to focus on the importance of starting a new year with a clean environment. The Lunar New Year is a great opportunity to discuss about the importance of good energy and a clean space. We talked about traditions and how people around he world celebrate the lunar new year. We decided to clean our space as a team and made room for good energy. The children were so excited about cleaning our classroom. We also thanked our space for all of the great memories and fun experiences we get to have here.

Here is what we heard:

Kian: You are a good sweeper Ale! Let’s move the chairs… there’s dust under the table.

Charlie: I can do this (sweep) myself.

Rex: Sweep it into here. (Rex helping Aayush sweep the dust into the dust pan.)

Ale: Should we use a sweeper to sweep the floor?

Jobs

Everyone in our classroom has a very important responsibility in our classroom. The children enjoy having jobs and being responsible for things. One of the jobs is writing our morning message. Upon arrival, Rex writes the date and our plan for the day. He then reads the morning message to us all during our meeting time.

Where does Bacteria hide?

Clean hands experiment

Have you noticed your child spending more time washing his/her hands lately? Making lots of bubbles and rinsing their hands before using soap? Then it is working! We are constantly reminding our students about the importance of washing our hands properly. Our Pre-K students understand that if we do not wash our hands properly we will spread germs and get sick. They are becoming more responsible about germs.

We wanted the children to have the opportunity of see these “germs”, therefore we planned an activity for them to experience what germs look like and what happens to them with time.

We presented the class with 2 slices of bread. We placed one in a plastic baggy with freshly washed hands, and one with really ‘dirty’ hands. We let them explore our nature center for this experiment. The children were asked for their hypothesis and how long they think it would take for changes to start occurring. (Please take a look at our science center to see what they said.)

Valentine’s Day Preparations

This week we began to create our decorations for our Valentine’s day week. We also continued our Self-love exercise. The children have been busy in the writing center creating cards for friends and families. Making hearts filled with glitter, and drawing special pictures for each other. We also continue to practice self-love and discussing why loving yourself first is so important.

“I love you so much because I love your face. And I love you because you love to play.”

— Milo

“I love my shirt.”

— Charlie

“I love you because I love your pink hair and necklace and gymnastics clothes. ”

— Hyebeen

“I love your eyebrows because I like your t-shirt. ”

— Ale

“I like you so much because you are so fun.”

— Kian

A sneak peek of our Pre-K Class Picture Day 2019

Self-Love, Kindness, and creating together!

Building, Creating, and working together

Elizabeth speaking on pollination.

This week we worked on creating bugs and animals in our creation center. As of late, the pre-k children have been discussing the life of bugs and the origin of germs. This week, Elizabeth explain to her peers that bugs need to live to pollinate.

Celebrating the month of love and friendships

The children are so excited to begin celebrating Valentine’s day. We started discussing the importance of loving yourself and appreciating what your body and your mind does for you. We began a fun exercise where the children take a mirror and share 1 thing they love about themselves. Everyone hugged each other, kissed each other, and expressed their love for each other. We want to begin discussing the importance of loving yourself before you can share love with others. Please visit our class next week, all of their quotes are beginning to decorate our classroom.

This week during specials…

During our cooking class with Diane we experimented more with marshmallows, toothpicks, raisins, and cheerios.

YETI, SET, SNOW

This week’s filed trip was field with lots of excitement and a fun journey to central park! We rode the subway and traveled uptown. The show was so much fun, everyone was all smiles!

Hybeen’s butterfly creation

Engineering, Invention discussion, and paint!

This week the children have been working on their engineering skills while constructing basic shapes out of toothpicks and marshmallows. They have been building shapes using the marshmallow as a connector to hold the toothpicks together. We were amazed to see these wonderful engineers constructing wonderful structures. We saw so many wonderful creative pieces like a tent with a marshmallow roaster, a castle, a house with a roof, and a kite.

The children have become more responsible about the process of our sign in book. We are happy to see so many bodies fill the sign in table. Everyone has been very supportive to each other.

Specialists

Our pendulum panting activity, also known as our “Pop balloon panting center” has been a really fun center for the children to explore paint. Here we see Josie and Aayush’s reaction after an explosion of paint had occurred.

Special Visitor

Colleen and Josie set up a fun activity for the class. In preparation for our hot chocolate stand, which will hopefully take place soon in the upcoming month, we practiced making hot chocolate. Colleen also read the class a fun story to go along with our activity.

Invention ideas/ Problems: “There is no signal on the train. I tried to watch a show and I couldn’t.” -Milo

Angelo: The first time I was at a restaurant, it was a Brazilian restaurant, there was no signal.

Elizabeth: I think that if we display something on the screen and then connect it to a plug we could make signal.

Rex: Signal is not made out of anything, it helps you understand. It helps the wires connect to the pipes. The signal on the ground don’t connect to each other.

Graydon: IF the pipes have these little lamps with holes, and I can paint them gray, the light will break and crack. I think that’s how we can create signal.

Rex: But if the light explodes it can cause a fire and then it will cause a really big problem. The train can get caught on fire.

Graydon: Well we can put rocks on the side and it will protect the pipes.

Rex: But fire can burn through rocks. Like Volcanoes.

Sam: We can use a brick to put on a green and a red signal and a battery. That means you can go and can’t go.

Josie: We could dig under ground and put a plug with a battery. The plug will be connected to the back of the train. And then you can watch tv on the train.

Will: We need to make like a big stick and put it on the signal. We can glue the stick together on the train and then we put the signal in. We can bring the tv on the train and the signal will make it work.

Aayush: WE can put glue on a stick. We can go inside the train and find a seat for the tv and a seat for the signal.

Will: We can make a hole and put a stick in the tv to put the signal and make another hole to put the tv in.

Aayush: We also need to make a plug. And make a hole to the plug and another one to put the tv in.

Kian: Sometimes we have no signal in the classroom. Maybe we could make a tv that goes on the train.

Ale: We need to put signal in it.

Hyebeen: We need a battery and a fruit. Sometimes fruits make batteries work. Yeah, we should try it.

Ale: We don’t need fruit. The tv is going to break if we put fruit in it.

Hyebeen: Sometimes fruit gives tv energy.

Ale: We need to plug it up with a cord.

Kian: No signal outside also.

Partners, communication and more.

Communicating through art: Paint!

This week’s partners worked on communicating through paint and music. We first began by working with ice cubes, salt, and watercolor for a fun science activity. We discussed our observations and our theories of what caused the ice to melt.

The children have been talking about the music they enjoy to listen to and their knowledge of the dynamics of music. We were so excited to see what the children would be inspired to paint during our “painting with music activity.” We assigned all partners to an easel, provided them with brushes and paint palettes and played music by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Some inspired art were mountains, fireworks and zigzag lines. Here is what we overheard this week.

Conversations overheard:

Kian: What did you like to do with me?

Charley: I liked painting with you at the balloon center.

Kian: I remember when it splashed on my face.

Charley: Remember when were pretending to be policeman?

Kian: Oh yeah, that was fun too.

Sam: Maybe we could play in the block center next time.

Hyebeen: We should play in the kitchen too.

Sam: What about if we build a kitchen in the block center!

Hyebeen: Good idea Sam, maybe after we build it we could make signs for it so no one breaks it down.

Angelo: I liked joining the block center, cleaning up, and we had so much fun eating our snacks together.

Milo: Did you love doing painting with music?

Angelo: I liked panting with music.

Milo: And we loved it so much that we got our hands dirty.

Angelo: Did you like the part when a bug got on my finger?

Milo: Yeah, I thought it was funny.

Elizabeth: We really liked building in the block center.

Will: And remember when we were building a boat?

Elizabeth: It was a snowflake boat.

Will: It looked like a police boat to me. I also really liked doing the balloon painting.

Elizabeth: I really enjoyed the music paint. We made zigzags and the yellow brick road.

Will: I was painting a dragon, the blue dots were his spots.

Aayush: My partners are not here today but I remember that I built a police station with Graydon and Alexander. We used the magnet tiles and I broke it by accident. But it was really funny. I was also painting a big mountain when we painted with music.

Josie: I painted with music and Rex. At first I was making an invisible pipe.

Rex: I was making invisible fireworks too.

Josie: I made a bus too.

Rex: We also made lots of things in the creation center. I made lots of hearts and gave them to all my friends and teachers.

Josie: I helped make hearts too.

Specialists

This week during karate with sensei Bibi the children continue to work on physical fitness, leadership skills, and confidence, and respect.

During soccer with coach Jojo the children work in teams to score goals. They strategize how to work together and play “defense” to protect their “home”.

The children also had a taste test with Diane during a cooking activity. We got to try oranges and grapefruits and looked at the difference in both citrus fruits.

Paint, Partners and Communication.

Partners and Communication

These developments have started a new Communication project! The children have been discussing the different ways people communicate and developing their own projects on this topic. We started a brainstorm web of these ideas and the children have taken the lead thinking up ideas and sharing their knowledge of communication. 

How do people communicate?

“You can send a message to someone through a phone. If they don’t answer you can leave them a message.”

— Rex

“I’ve done that before. I called my grandmother once and she didn’t answer and then it went, “beep”, and I left her a message. ”

— Josie

“You can send a note to someone and drop it off at the post office. ”

— Elizabeth

“You can call someone on a walkie talkie.”

— William

“Me and my sister have walkie talkies, we used them at my house but we have to be far away. ”

— Charlie

“You can call someone with a phone. And you can give someone a hug.”

— Kian

“When you hug someone you are saying, “I love you.””

— Wiliam

“You can send someone a text through the ipad. ”

— Angelo

Paint

This week has been a continuation of our paint exploration. We have been discussing the many concepts of paint like the process of expressing ideas and how paint is created. Everyone is very interested in the story of paint, where does paint come from? We began this process by utilizing paint in many different forms.

Cooking with Diane

This week we created a different party mix. We used cheerios, raisins and cranberries. We also composed a song together which we sang through our mixing process.

Music with Emily

We also composed music with Emily! The children each took turns to help a compose a song about animals and people. We also discussed about string family instruments, this week we talked about the members in the string family. It was a fun filled music day!

Visit From The Dentist

Today Dr. Jackie Zamani from Sky Dental talked to us about the importance of dental hygiene. We first began with a fun activity, how many teeth do you have?

Shared Snacks With Letter M

Thank you Graydon and Lisa for today’s fun filled shared snack day! Graydon baked delicious chocolate muffins and delicious organic chocolate milk. We then got to decorate face masks with stickers and fabric markers! Everyone had so much fun!

Discussing Paint and Creating a Color Personality

If you were a color…..

What color would you be and why?

William: Red, because red is my favorite color.

Aayush: Blue, because I love everything that is blue.

Josie: Rainbow, because I love looking at rainbows.

Sam: Orange, because it’s the color of fruit orange.

Rex: Magenta, because it makes me feel happy. It is mixed with two pinks.

Graydon: Turquoise, because I love really bright greenish colors.

Milo: Blue, because cat boy is blue.

Angelo: Blue,  because it reminds me of blueberry.

Charlie: Blue, because chase is blue.

Alejandro: Blue, because I like my blue bed in Vermont that my Papa made.

Kian: Green. Because when I look at green I think of grass.

Hyebeen: Rainbow. Because rainbow makes me cold and I like cold.

Elizabeth: Golden, because I would be shiny and glittery.

Which color would be your best friend?

William: Blue. Because my best friends color is blue. They would mix colors to make the color red and blue make together.

Aayush: Red. They would eat cheese pizza together.

Josie: Green. Because green makes me feel like a dinosaur. They would play family.

Sam: Red. Because red can make orange. They would scoop dirt in to cups.

Rex: Rainbow. Because I like rainbows in the sky. Rainbows make me happy.

Graydon: Blue. Because it’s my partners favorite color. They would have a playdate and play a game of guess who.

Elizabeth: Blue, we would go together to the park and play.

Milo: Black. Because when we go on trips we wear black. They would go to the park and play the floor is lava.

Angelo: Green and we would play the floor is lava.

Charlie: Green and they would play in the clock center.

Hyebeen: Pink, because pink makes me happy. We would go to my house and play with my bird toy.

Ale: Green, because I like everything that is green and I would mix green and blue together. They would call the other friends to come down to play at the gym.

Kian: Blue. because I like to look up in the sky. They would play climbing trees.

Where would you live?

William: In a red house in a painting world because it’s paint and it’s red.

Sam: In an orange barnyard, because I love barnyard animals.

Graydon: In a turquoise house in brooklyn, because I already live in NYC and it would be easier.

Elizabeth: In a rainbow castle in France.

Milo: In New York in a green house. Because my favorite color is green.

Angelo: LBI. Because my birthday was there and I had a pool party there.

Charlie: In a green taller house in NY, because I love NY.

Hyebeen: In a rainbow house in Canada. I love Canada.

Kian: In the forest in a tree house because there is grass.

Alejandro: In a fire station here in NY because I love when I pass by the fire station.

Josie: In a skyscraper in Africa, because Africa is beautiful.

Welcome Back!

Happy Friday! Welcome back! 

As the children came back to school this week there was a noticeable increase in maturity and an emphasis on communication. The student sign making project has expanded from the block center to dramatic play and morning meeting. The children created for their hot chocolate stand in the dramatic play center and a safety sign for their structures in the block center. The children are excited to design and lead their own projects, and many children have taken on conflict management roles when peers have difficulties. Check out the bottom of the page for some of the New Year's Resolutions the children made this week. 

We also took turns sharing about our special moments spent with our families during the long break. Everyone was so excited to share pictures, memories, and all about what the presents they received.

The children have been independently developing new projects. This week we created a brainstorm web of news ideas for our Paint project and the children have taken the lead thinking up ideas and sharing their knowledge of paint.

Vegetable soup with Diane

Super Soccer Stars!

Shared Snack with Hyebeen and Sunhee: L is for (strawberry) Ladybugs!

Hyebeen’s mother, Sunhee, visited our class to share a delicious healthy treat with us for shared snack. Sunhee also prepared a magnificent presentation all about South Korea (that’s where Hyebeen’s family comes from). We learned about the time difference and how New Years is celebrated within the Korean culture. We all got to practice how to say New Years in Korean: Seollal. Hyebeen also dressed up in a beautiful traditional Korean clothing know as hanbok. We learned that children in Korea wish their elders a happy new year by performing a deep traditional bow. Hyebeen and Sunhee showed us how to properly bow our elders, we all took turns to practice the special bow. We had so much fun learning about the beautiful Korean culture and their traditions. We also created origami paper bags! It was a fun filled morning! Thank you Hyebeen and Sunhee for such a beautiful experience.

The children’s thoughts on Paint.

“I like to paint my mommy a picture”. ~Kian

“I like that I can paint with paint brushes.” ~ Graydon

“Paper mache.” ~William

“I like to make handprints on the board.” Alexander

“I like to feel wet paint.” ~Hyebeen

“It is nice and relaxing.” ~Angelo

“Colors and I can make science with it.” ~Josie

“It starts with the letter P”. ~ Angelo

“I like to paint with blue paint.” ~Aayush

“It comes from the ground.” ~Sam

“Paint on your hands feels like ice cream.” ~Josie

“Paint comes from China.” ~Angelo

“Paint is magical and it flew to China.” ~Elizabeth

“You can make the size of your foot.” ~Milo

“It is really wet and sometimes it gets dry.” ~Sam

“An angel made paint magical.” ~Elizabeth

“It looks colorful and pretty when it dries on your skin.” ~Sam

“Paint is made out of liquid.” ~Elizabeth

“Paint is magic.” ~ Hyebeen

“Paint is made of coloring food.” ~Angelo

“Maybe paint comes from church.” ~ Graydon

“You can paint with your fingers and hands.” ~ Graydon

“You can stamp with paint. It smells like dirty water. “~ Alexander

“It comes from the ground.” ~Josie

“Paint just appears in China and flies on airplanes all over the world.” ~ Rex

New Year's Resolutions Pre-K 2019

Graydon: Stop waking up in the middle of the night to go to my mom’s bed.

Milo: Stop copying my friends and be myself.

Charley: Give my daddy more rubs.

Angelo: Practice my cartwheels. I know how to do a cartwheel but I don’t know how to do a really good cartwheel.

Alex. Give my daddy hugs and kisses.