Happy Friday, Families!

I hope you all have had a wonderful week; we sure have! There has been a lot of love going around, especially today. I feel so grateful to have worked with each of you! Thank you for everything!

This week we have been learning about our community helpers. Our books of the week were “Things that Work” which shows all different professions, and “Little Grownups” which is also about different professions, with pictures of babies dressed up as police officers, firefighters, etc. Luke also shared with us one of his favorite books, “Little Blue Truck Leads the Way,” in which the little blue truck shows the cars and trucks how to work together to get out of a traffic jam in the big city. We sang a lot of our old favorite songs this week, including “I once had a turtle, I named him tiny tim…” and “five little fishies swimming in the sea, teasing Mr. Sharky, can’t catch me! Along comes Mr. Sharky quiet as can be and snaps the fishy right out of the sea…” We played dress-up almost every day and the really children enjoyed using the medical kit and the mail box.

On Monday we focused on firefighters. Luke brought in his fire truck, which he presented to the class. Everyone loved it!

On Tuesday used stamps to decorate envelopes. We also spent a lot of time “mailing” letters in our toy mailbox.

On Wednesday we gathered near the sandbox and made a delicious pizza out of sand, mulch and toy vegetables. We measured the flour, mixed the dough, patted it into the pan, and sprinkled cheese and veggies on top. Then we popped it into the oven and when it was done we sliced it up and served it up. The children really got into this activity, and continued to play cook after we wrapped up the pizza-making.

On Thursday we made cookies with play-dough using a star cookie cutter. We rolled out the play dough and then pressed the star down until it cut out our cookie.

Today (Friday) we have already had a balloon-filled dance party and splash day during which we washed clothes and dishes! This afternoon Rye will show us the medical kit he brought from home!

Have a wonderful weekend! I will miss you all, but will be back to visit soon!

Love,

Magdalen

Hello Friends!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! This week we focused on helping and sharing. These are timely topics, as our pre-tots are learning how to take turns and share their toys on the playground and in our classroom. We are constantly working on building their language around asking for the toys they want to play with and telling their friends when they are using something that a friend wants. We use phrases such as "I'm using it" when a friend tries to take their toy, and "can I have a turn please?" when they want something that a friend is using. We try to say "taking turns" instead of "sharing," because at this stage the concept of sharing is a little too abstract, but taking turns is easily demonstrated and our friends have an easier time understanding that they can use a toy and then pass it to another friend so that he or she can have a turn. 

We also spend a lot of time talking about helping throughout our day. All our friends help clean up our classroom, and our older friends really enjoy helping us with different tasks, such as opening the gate or carrying supplies out to the playground. We also help our friends up if we knock them down, and we practice saying "help please" when we need a teacher's help. Our book of the week was "The Little Blue Truck," which is about a little blue truck who helps a big, busy dump truck who get stuck in the mud. The little blue truck's animal friends push the little blue truck who in turn pushes the dump truck. The pre-tots love this book, and some of them almost know it by heart.

Much of our discussion on these topics happened naturally throughout the day, but we still did some fun activities.

On Monday we had a lot of fun drawing with markers--our friends have really started filling up their pages with many different colors!

On Tuesday morning Ms. Ashley brought in some essential oils and made natural bug spray with the children. It smelled better than most bug spray I've smelled!

On Wednesday we spent some time focusing on our Montessori works

On Thursday we decorated paper bags, which we used to fill with "treasure." Juliette also brought in a special book from home which she shared with the class. Thanks, Juliette!

On Friday we searched for rocks in pools of mud, then we rinsed and cleaned them with water and tooth brushes! In the afternoon June shared her special kitty from home with us :) We also had a super fun glow-stick dance party!

Thanks again for all your support! 

Love,
Magdalen

Happy Friday!

This week we focused on cleaning and household chores. This topic was one of our most popular yet! Each day during circle time we brought out various small cleaning tools, including a vacuum, a mop, a Swiffer and a scrub brush. The children worked very hard to mop, sweep and vacuum our floors, wipe down the chalk board and dust our room. We sang “This is the way we clean our classroom, clean our classroom, clean our classroom. This is the way we clean our classroom every day at school.” We repeated this with “mop our floors,” “sweep our floor” etc. Our books of the week were “Pajama Time” and “In a People House,” which talks about all the different things you find in a house, including brooms, trash cans, mops, etc. We talked about where we find these objects in our classroom.

Our community theme this week was “Magnets.” The toddler teachers showed us how to use magnets in different ways.

On Monday we spent much of our circle time “cleaning” our classroom. During our outside time we experimented with magnets. We stacked long, skinny magnets on a metal tray and we saw that they stuck together. We also noticed that when we moved one magnet under a canvas it moved the magnet that we placed on top of the canvas. The children had a great time learning how magnets work!

On Tuesday we learned more about household chores. Rye and Jackie both brought in dust busters, which were a big hit! Rye and Naomi were very focused on sucking up every last piece of dust, and Finn helped by pointing out pieces of dirt. We also filled a sensory tub with soap and water and used a washboard to wash one of Jackie’s shirts. We worked hard on scrubbing out all the dirt. This activity was also a big hit!

On Wednesday we spent some time focusing on our Montessori works, which we had not used In a while. Our older group really enjoys the challenges of the Montessori materials. We also made magnet glitter monsters which are posted on our parent’s board.

On Thursday we had a blast during splash day! In the afternoon we worked with pipe cleaners—we bent them into bracelets, hearts and necklaces.

Friday has been a lot of fun so far! We mailed letters using a small mailbox we have, and we splashed as well!

Pictures will be up tonight. Have a great weekend!

Love,
Magdalen

Hi everybody! Happy Fourth to you all!

For the month of July we will be learning all about Practical Life. This week we focused on clothing. We sang "This is the Way" (Magdalen included the lyrics in the weekly email) and read the "Pajama Jam" book. I noticed this week that a lot of our friends have really been having fun with the kitchen in our play area making tea and coffee and also trying on our different outfits in the dramatic play area. 

On Monday we played dress up in the dramatic play/cozy corner. Rye's favorite was the green dress with the flowers and Luke enjoyed the Police Officer coat. While Lyla laughs and laughs when she puts on the skunk hat and we say, "peeeee yew! stinky skunk!" We also have a puzzle that has belts, buckles and laces that they practiced using their fine motor skills with. 

On Tuesday we played with American flags which they LOVED. And as a part of our community science theme project we created a wrecking ball outside using a sock and experimenting with different objects to see what would knock down our play bricks/blocks.

On Wednesday we decorated card stock shorts with pockets and had little american flags tucked into the pockets. Super cute. The kids got to decorate them with various materials such as stickers, markers and crayons. We also had a special July 4th theme (healthy) snack of a cookie, jam and cranberries sprinkled on top. It seemed to be a hit! 

On Thursday we had an extra special July 4th themed Splash Day filled with red, white and blue bubbles, dance party and face painting!!! The kids are definitely napping hard this afternoon :)

Next week we will be focusing on Cleaning/Household chores. As always feel bring to  any items that will enhance our learning! We definitely appreciate it :)

Have an excellent long weekend!

Best,

Jackie S.