Zen Toddler Week

Monday Morning was great. It involved a great deal of outdoor exploration. In the afternoon, Ms. Liz came for some awesome yoga time.  Tuesday, we spent the morning exploring Playdough. We cut it into small piece, made worms large and small, and learned how to roll balls by making a circle motion with our hands. This was followed by an excellent dance party, which is usually led by Miles, Ronav, and Malik. When we went outside, we enjoyed balloons of different colors, shapes, and sizes. We spent time pouring dirt and seeds into an egg crate to give our future flowers a great starter home. In the afternoon we were sure to do lots of dress-up after nap. This was followed by a visit from Vanessa. As a class, we have really mastered the art of holding hands in a circle, and we saw this during Yoga.

Wednesday, we had a great morning. Spanish time was extra special because we got to draw on a dry-erase board to learn about shapes in Spanish. We drew dots first as a guideline, and had our hand guided in order to see what the different shapes feel like when we’re drawing. Many of our older friends can chant the numbers 1-10 in Spanish (and be sure to check out the awesome Spanish news letter that Daphne creates for parents to have an idea of what we’re learning—it’s posted next to the parents’ board.) The weather was so beautiful, that we opted for a picnic in the afternoon, followed by a sunscreen party.

Thursday morning we had a chance to do some water-coloring. The highlight of the day was really getting back into Montessori work time. It seems as though our youngest friends have become more excited to exercise their focus, and our oldest friends are getting closer to mastering their favorite works (by staying focused and purposeful). We introduced a new tree puzzle that has been quite a challenge for even our most experienced friends. The barrel of monkeys has proved to be a favorite, and often times it takes a partner to get the full enjoyment out of it. In the afternoon, we used a parachute. It takes a lot of teamwork to make the parachute fun, and it’s a wonderful opportunity to work with kids from the pre-tot and primary class—a chance to do some real Montessori/mixed age teamwork. In the afternoon, Daphne provided us with an excellent Spanish lesson. She gave us popsicle sticks with Velcro so that we could make triangles, squares, and rectangles. We watched a fun video with dancing shapes that sang in Spanish.  In the afternoon, we explored water in the sensory table.  We also saw a blimp!

Friday, we started the morning with some excellent free-play and circle time, and moved quickly into a finger-painting project. We started off with yellow on the suns we were painting (as part of our week’s focus on letter sound “u”). We started off with yellow and asked, “what happens when you mix some red into the yellow?” They could see for themselves (and were sure to let us know!) that it made orange! Tula and Hunter decided they wanted to clean the tables and used a rag and water in order to do so. In the afternoon, friends chose work or free-play. Chef Mike came to share a fun recipe with us in the afternoon. The highlight of the activity was spreading peanut-butter on a tortilla. We had a chance to use knives to make our own snack! Most of our friends just gave the recipe a taste, but some did scarf it down! You can try it at home: Wheat tortilla, peanut-butter, banana, honey, and cinnamon.

Let me just say that it was truly an amazing week. Ashley and I try our very best to model breathing and talking through conflicts, as well as providing every one with something that’s both interesting and challenging each day. The blogs can't really do it justice. These guys were so super focused and friendly with one another this week—and we know that it is our collective effort as a class and as a community with amazing parents and other classrooms that make the toddler classroom experience extra special. Yay!


Love,
Jackie