Viewing entries tagged
november

Recap 11/30-12/1

December 1, 2017

Books, books, books galore! Our 2s have been loving every book that we read them and are starting to sit for longer amounts of time during circle time to listen to stories! We encourage them to ask questions, comment, and "read along" with parts that they have memorized. Whenever they engage in listening to a story, they are building valuable pre-literacy skills that someday will help them read!

On Thursday, we celebrated our love for Pete the Cat and his white shoes. We have been reading Pete the Cat book since the beginning of the year and Pete has emerged as a class favorite. We did an activity that worked on sequencing, predicting what happens next in the story, and color recognition. After the activity, we had a big dance party!

Friday, we read the story of the Gingerbread Boy again. Over the last week when we have read the story, the children have wondered what gingerbread tasted like. So, during cooking time today, we decorated ginger snap cookies with raisins and frosting to make our very own gingerbread people. The children loved decorating and then eating the cookies.

Here's some of what they said as they decorated:

Jack: "Happy"

George: "It's a cookie face"

Eliot: "Truck face"

Kyan: Yum face, yummy face face"

Thomas: "A monster"

Henry: "Happy"

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Miss Alana

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Recap 11/27-11/29

November 29, 2017

Hi everyone!

The Amazon wishlist for the school is up and running! We can't wait to open up presents on Polar Express day while in pajamas. Thank you all!

We continued using the beans in the sensory bin from last week. The 2's loved putting them into different sized containers, screwing on the lids, and then shaking them! We could tell that they the children were proud of themselves when they could maniuplate opening and closing the various jars. We were working on developing fine motor skills and gaining independence come snack and meal time! Monday we were so fortunate to have Evan come to do music. The 2's class loved singing and dancing with Evan and especially liked his guitar.

"He has a guitar! I have a guitar too, at home." -Henry

We took turn banging on different sizes of drums, listening to how they sounded different.

"That's a big drum!" -Nora

"It's so loud." -George

Tuesday, we explored with clay in a new way- by throwing it on the ground and the walls! When the clay hit the ground, it went, SPLAT! It was a fun and slightly chaotic experience. Children need outlets for their emotions that are productive. By throwing and squishing the clay, issues of both aggression and exuberant excitement were worked on. By combining a movement and sensory experience, children were able to explore clay in a different way than we usually do. This is an activity that we will revisit.

Today we had a busy morning with Spanish, science experiments, and a group painting project. Starting this morning, we had the whole school work on a group painting project on a poster board with tape patterns. This afternoon, we tore off the tape and will hang up the final product soon! It looks beautiful. In Spanish, we all enjoyed getting a hug- abrazo- from the special puppet our Spanish teacher brought. After science, we enjoyed an art and science project. Using oil and watercolors, we created works of art while learning about how the oil separates from the water, starting to examine some of the properties of liquids.

Remember, there are many more pictures on the flikr page. Those can be accessed at

https://www.flickr.com/gp/154795596@N08/Q13rhk

See you tomorrow!

-Miss Alana

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Weekly Recap 11/20-11/24

November 22, 2017

On Monday, we had movement with Miss Alana, did an art project with leaves, explored a giant block of clay, and built some interesting creations with magnitiles.

During movement, we introduced sticks for the first time! We worked on rhythm, following directions, and the differences between fast and slow. The children are starting to build some essential music skills, like following along with a simple rhythm.

On Tuesday, we thoroughly explored the different types of beans in the sensory bin. A class favorite were two little containers inside of the beans, complete with lids that they children worked on opening and closing independently. Children took turns filling up the containers with beans then shaking it all around, listening to the sound that the beans made! After a nice morning at school, we all went to the park together. At the park, the children helped collect leaves to be used in an art project. They also climbed, ran, rolled, and jumped, all while exploring the playground equipment.

On the day before Thanksgiving, we read some Thanksgiving books, baked yummy cornbread, made butter from cream by using a jar and a marble, and had Spanish! It was a busy day and the children are getting very excited for Thanksgiving.

Also, we wanted to give Luke's family a giant thank you for bringing in some wonderful leaves that we are using in art projects. The children painted them this week and now they are the start to our Family Tree. Over the Thanksgiving Break, please be sure to take photos of your family together for use at school! They will be added to our Family Tree and talked about often at school.

Have an amazing Thanksgiving! We are thankful for you and thankful that we get to experience learning with your children.

Best,

Miss Alana

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Recap 11/13-11/17

November 17, 2017

Monday it seemed like everyone was in an artistic mood! We followed the children's lead and encouraged them to paint, draw, then finger paint with shaving cream that they got to squeeze out of a glove. We were sure to ask them about what they were creating. George said, "I'm making a silly man!" On Monday, we also did movement and music with Miss Alana.

On Tuesday, the 2s did a special activity with Ms. Carla. Here is a bit from her about what they did!

"We read the story We're Going on a Bear Hunt and did a follow-up literacy-related activity in the sensory room. I re-arranged the sensory room so that most of the furniture was against the walls, giving us a big open space for our activity. In the book, a family goes on an adventure in search for a bear. The book is great for 2's and 3's because the author uses repetitive language as the family goes through obstacles such as through a forest and snowstorm. It also does a good job with exposing the children to directional concepts like over, under and through. Re-telling stories is something we have just starting doing in the 3's class.

To help develop reading comprehension and sequencing skills, we went on our very own bear hunt! Following the story, I introduced the children to the teddy bear hunt activity, where they went through the different parts of the story as told in the book. The children walked through tall grass, swam through a river, made their way through a forest, and snow storm before they arrived in the cave where the teddy bears were sleeping. I set up the room with materials to represent each of these areas along a path on the ground--fake grass for the grassy area, blue tarp for the river, leaves and sticks on a green rug for the forest, a white poster board with cotton balls for the snowstorm, and the dark cozy corner for the cave. As the children moved through the path in different ways (walking, hopping, crawling, “swimming”), we replicated the sounds that were repeated in the story (e.g. swish, swish), until they found a teddy bear picture in the cave. We will continue to choose stories to re-tell with whole body movements in the weeks to come." - Carla

On Wednesday, the children remembered the Bear Hunt activity and requested that we read the story again during snack time. It was incredible to witness their reading comprehension skills as they answered questions about the book! A few of the bear pictures were left in the "cave," so some friends went to the closet to get them, then put them in different places around the room. We also had Spanish and sang some familiar songs.

Thursday we had Parent Teacher Conferences. Thank you for coming to the school! Our conferences were very productive and we are so happy everyone made it.

On Friday we went on a walk around the neighborhood. Our 2's class loved walking around and pointing out all the things that they could see. We are planning many more trips outside! We also had yoga with Lakshmi and had fun with the model skeleton that she brought. We started learning about our bodies and how they move.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

-Miss Alana

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Weekly Recap 11/6-11/10

November 9, 2017

Hi Everyone! We are so delighted to introduce Marco, who will be with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Welcome Marco! Be sure to say hello to him and to his parents, Shana and Eric.

On Monday, we played with play dough that smells like cinnamon, had music and movement with Miss Alana, and played and played.

Tuesday was election day and staff development day. We hope that you enjoyed the rare midweek day off of school!

Wednesday we had Spanish with Patri and spent quite a bit of time with the sensory bin, which contained a wonderful mixture of flour and baby oil. We got messy, explored, and learned while playing in the flour mixture.

Thursday we did music and movement with Miss Alana again and spent even more time with the flour mixture. We read several book and focused on literacy during the day. Our twos are loving Pete the Cat. We welcome you to come in and read to our class anytime!

Have a wonderful three day weekend. We will see you on Monday!

-Miss Alana

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Weekly Recap 10/30-11/3

November 6, 2017

Before we jump right into the recap of the week, I would like to take a second to introduce Thomas! He is new to our Buckle My Shoe community, having just moved here from St. John. We were so happy that he could join us for a great first week and can't wait to play with him some more. Be sure to say hello to Thomas and his mom and dad (Jessica and Michael) when you see them. Welcome!

Monday we had a busy day and the everyone was excited about our Halloween parade the next day. We gutted a big pumpkin, danced around, banged on a drum as loudly as we could, and squeezed balloons filled with different materials.

Tuesday we had our Halloween Parade! Check out last week's blog post for costume details and pictures. Remember, even more pictures are on the flickr account, so be sure to check there.

Wednesday we had Spanish with Mimi. Our class loved using the parachute while singing and dancing. We spent a lot of time exploring different centers, with children focused on exploring different elements in the school. Using the water table with submergible lights and the projector, we explored how light can look different when color is added!

Thursday I was out of town for a conference, but Noelle, Carla, and Deborah had a blast exploring shaving cream and celophane with the 2's. We also got a new book, Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, a new favorite book that is helping the children learn how to count. We were so happy that Thomas's mom, Jessica, read the book to us during snack time!

Friday we had yoga with Lakshmi and also created beautiful mini canvases with paint and a q-tip. They are hanging up on the wall of the sensory room, come check them out! The week ended with everyone playing together happily.