Today's highlights:
The highlights of the week:
Throughout the week, the students explored and engaged in a variety of activities. Some of the highlights of the week were as follows:
Halloween!
The theme in our classroom was Go Away Big Green Monster. The parents did a terrific job decorating their child's custom!!!
The students sang some songs:
- Good morning song- Around and around is the name of the game, around and around, what's your name?
- ABC Song
- Mr. Sun
- Two Little Black Birds
- You are my sunshine
- Five Little Speckled Frogs
- Five Little Ducks
- Where is Blue? A Color Recognition Song
- Where is Thumbkin?
Books that were read:
- Subway
- Baby Beluga
- Trains
- There was an old lady who swallowed some Leaves
ART:
- Watercolor
- Painting on Canvas
- Painting with recycled paper rolls
Ellie swayed as she listened to the music and painted!
As Mario was painting he said, "Azul!" Meaning blue in Spanish
SENSORY:
- Play dough
- Exploring Wet Sand
- Sensory Bag
MANIPULATIVES:
Children's differences and similarities are aspects that form their self-identity. As we celebrated the child, we embraced not part, but the whole child. Their development continues as their facial features, footprint, handprint, height, how they manipulate materials differently, culture, and language enhances, and they continue to grow and develop in other areas.
Children learn through hands-on experience and discover ways to navigate their environment. As they manipulate materials, they develop interests in specific activities, centers, or with manipulative toys. Our next project will be to observe on the areas in which the children display interest and are gravitating toward that particular area.
As we engaged in conversation and interacted while celebrating the child event, we shared and built a warm class community. Thank you!
Happy Halloween!
The children sang a variety of songs and listened to music (Raffi and classical music). Below are some of the highlights of the week!
"Celebrating the Child" event was engaging as all parents conversed, interacted, and participated in the unique project with their child. It was beautiful to see how our diverse classroom community was working together.
Sensory Exploration:
- Making Playdough
- We gave our pumpkin a face. It's a Jack-O-Lantern!
- The children voted for the eyes, nose, and mouth. Two shapes were available for the children to choose from, triangle and circle. Circle won!
- The children touched the seeds and we also counted some seeds (1-10).
Art:
- Painting on Foil Paper
- Painting on Mirror Paper
- Mirror Painting
- Made pumpkins by painting paper plates in orange and painting their hand green, to use their handprint as the stem
- Painted pumpkins
Specialists:
- Spanish
"Celebrating the Child"
Tomorrow is a special day in which the teachers will show and express to the parents the different facets of identity that they have explored with the children. Also, parent and child will do a handprint activity. As they select the colors and press onto the canvas, each handprint is forming a memory!
Songs: (These were some of the songs and books we read)
- Where is Thumbkin?
- ABC
- Open Shut Them
- The Ists Spider
- Mr. Sun
- Five Little Speckled Frogs
- Row Row, Row Your Boat
- If you’re Happy and you Know It Clap Your Hands
- Five Little Ducks
- If You Know the Muffin Man
- You are My Sun Shine
- Good Morning Songs- Articulating Children Names during the song
- Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes
- Two Little Black Birds
Books:
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear
- Season
- Mouse’s First Halloween
- Seasons
- ·Maisy Goes to Preschool
- Shapes
- Is Your Mama a Llama?
- Room on the Broom
- Hooray for Hat?
- Five Little Monkeys
Critical ways that young children learn include playing, exploring and new experiences, communication with others, meeting physical and mental challenges, being shown to do new things, and practicing and repeating skills, and have fun!
We had a special reader, we also had the Spanish and Music specialists. Evan often brings an impressive musical instrument to show to the children. This week he brought a Kalimba. It initially comes from Africa. Each child had the opportunity to hold and play the Kalimba.
We went to buy our Halloween Pumpkin and enjoyed a neighborhood walk. Toddlers learn from watching the world, especially if we talk with them about it, “There are so many pumpkins, which one should we choose?” They saw a considerable amount of balloons in which they experienced looking and observing the designs on them.
The teacher asked the children, "Where is the sun?" Ellie, immediately pointed to the sky.
Art:
- Painting Pumpkins
- Painting on Mirrors
- Dot Dots
- Painting on Brown Paper
We played some music for them to hear. In response to the music, Ellie gently swayed, and moved her shoulders up and down. Music calms and soothes children as they engage and interact.
This open-ended art activity is all about the process. The concept “Process Art” applies to young children because it’s how children learn, allows them to be themselves, make their own decision, and most importantly, create! The goal of arts and crafts is to hone their creativity and to allow their imagination to run free. It gives children the opportunity to explore the world around them and see how things work. The children projected unique strokes on their mirrors. As they see their reflections, they also see the differet strokes they have painted. They sat and stood up to paint from a new perspective. They learn what happens when they move their hands and arms sitting and standing. Painting alongside each other allows children to understand and respect their space, and observe each other’s painting.
Sensory
- Model Magic
- Exploring the Class Pumpkins: The color, shape, texture, light or heavy
Hugs: Hugs have a way of making us feel warm and fuzzy inside. But aside from making us feel protected and loved, this touching gesture can also do wonders for our well-being. So whether it’s a simple squeeze, a big bear hug or some cute cuddling, let’s celebrate the act of embracing someone.
Remy attempted to pick-up the pumpkin, but it was too heavy. Instead, she sat on the pumpkin! As Rheya, Remy, Ellie, and Mario were exploring the pumpkins, the teacher asked some questions:
- What color is the pumpkin? Rheya and Ellie, "Orange!"
- Which is the big pumpkin? Ellie pointed to the biggest pumpkin.
- Which is the small pumpkin? Mario pointed to the pumpkin Ellie was holding and the two small pumpkins he held.
- Does Remy have a pumpkin? Remy answered, "No! Rock." She moved the gourd back and forth.
Adela, Ellie's mom, came to read to the children this week. The children enjoyed listening to a special book that Ellie brought from home. Adela also read It's Fall by Linda Glaser, a book that explores the Fall Season and animal life. She asked the children about the animals on each page, and as they pointed to the animals, they continued to listen and focus as Adela reads. Thank you, Adela.
In our most recent exploration of identity, the children's names, we have discovered that the children are recognizing and articulating their peer's names. A panel was created to investigate the meaning of their names further. The significance of each name will always be a part of their identity. For example:
Remy- Remy's name came from my maiden name, Remenaric; my father's nickname was also Rem (also based on our last name), so we wanted to honor my dad and my family name with Remy.
Nico- He is the fourth Enrique Peral, named after his great-grandfather born in Cuba in the 1920's. The name was chosen because of family tradition. His middle name Nicolás means "victory" or "victorious". We chose this name because we wanted to call him by his middle name and have a name that could be easily pronounced in English and Spanish.
Marco- My name is a reflection of the Italian origin of my last name. My Dad thought it sounded good too. My second name, Armand, is after my grandfather and I am the only boy in my family to carry on our name.
Ellis- Ellis is named after his great-great grandfather on his mom's side. His middle name, Nisar, is after his great-grandfather on his dad's side. We wanted his name to reflect generations of his family.
Ellie- My name comes from the Greek word eleutheros, meaning "free".
Discovering, identifying and acknowledging their similarities and differences, are to be embraced as they grow and develop. We will continue to learn other facets that bridges to their self-identity. Some highlights of what we have completed:
As we document the different experiences and identities of each child, we are celebrating how different and similar they are. Some of the children are articulating their friend's name. Their names shape their identity, how it is spelled and enunciated. Names are crucial in developing their sense of self. It will be our next connection to our identity theme.
We also began a footprint activity. The children are enjoying the tactile experience, as the paint is applied on their feet and they feel the sensation of the paint. Once they are covered with paint, they gently stamp their feet down onto the canvas and make an imprint of their foot. Each foot size is different and is an amazing representation of how quickly they are growing.
We are continuing and almost completing the different aspects of each child's identity:
- The children are recognizing, and some are articulating their facial features.
- We are almost finishing measuring their heights with unit blocks
- We are in the process of arranging and accumulating a page with each child's picture, the name of their culture, ethnicity, or how you represent yourself. There will be two questions: How you say hello and goodbye in your language.
As we celebrate with each child, we are learning to connect with them.
