This week we spent a lot of time exploring the easel - it's a great tool in encouraging children to work alongside one another and foster language development. A few quotes we heard were:
"A,B,C,D....!"
"More purple!"
"Wow!"
We had soccer with Coach JoJo
....and had the most fun!
We've taken a keen interest in transportation as of late to we took a walk to the Hudson River to check out the boats!
"Woah!"
"Boats!"
"Agua!"
We had Spanish with Michelle! The children are really enjoying her upbeat nature, play based curriculum, and songs she always brings to our lessons!
Making play dough! Such a fun activity in collaboration and learning how to build on multi-step directions
Exploring classical music through movement - we were pretending to be snakes in this picture!
Getting messy with shaving cream! This is a super fun sensory integration exercise.
Getting creative and hand printing at our curriculum event
Drawing our grown ups portraits!
Working on clay! We've only introduced forks as tools so far so we can really start building on their finger muscles for pre-literacy skills. We practiced rollings the clay into "meatballs" and "spaghetti" to gain more motor control. It also turned into a cute dinner party and encouraged us to use our language.
"Meatballs"
"Spaghetti"
"Wow!"
"More please!"
It got kinda messy....
but we had the most fun!
Taking a field trip to the bathroom!
It was fascinating...
Joyous...
...and quite intriguing.
Some of us found the flushing to be a bit loud.
We also brought a little potty back to our room. And each took turns sitting on it! It kind of was the most fun.
Parker and Nico have been friends since their infancy. It has been so special to watch their friendship grow and expand.
The children really enjoyed playing soccer this week with Coach JoJo. They love any sort of physical movement and have been taking so much joy as of late in just being around one another.
One of the things that we love the most is dancing! Here’s a photo Mia and Parker spontaneously playing “Ring Around the Rosie”.
The children have taken a keen interest in transportation as of late. This week, we happened upon a step ladder machine in the lobby. The children approached the machine with excitement and trepidation.
More interest and excitement over transportation.
Charlotte painting at the easel! This week, she spent quite a bit of time here - and would excitedly try to invite her friends and teachers to paint alongside of her.
"Cheese!!" - Morgan
Curious Morgan exploring the world through a different lens.
More dancing - We just can't get enough. These sort of games encourage cooperative play, language (while singing), and motor coordination.
This week we continued our exploration into dramatic play
"Hello? Hahahaha!"
Continued musical explorations with 2A friends. The xylophone is always a favorite!
Emilio with one lone xylophone block....
So he joyfully offered Morgan a mallet so she could play along with him!
This week we listened to Prokofiev's "Carnival of Animals" and explored the music through movement by pretending to be different animals in the piece!
We painted our Halloween costumes!
2A painting Nina's birthday present!
Having silly moments with Coach JoJo in soccer!
The children have taken a keen interest in working alongside one another at the easel. The easel is a great tool in fostering language development - while standing side by side it gives them an opportunity to begin conversations with one another. Here are some quotes!
"More!"
"Green!"
"Wow!"
"A,b,c,d,e,f,g,...!"
This week we baked cream cheese chocolate chip cookies! It may be why we've been hearing a lot of cookie talk in the dramatic play area...
We continued our exploration of clay with water and allowed only allowed the children to use forks with the materials. This really lets them strengthen their fine motor skills.
"Wet!"
"Ahhh!"
"Brown!"
"Hahahaha"
We've noticed the children have taken an interest in transportation - so we took at walk to Pier 25 this week to look at the boats and compare and contrast different modes of transportation
Making connections and dancing with one another during free play in the gym.
Reading with friends
Hello 2A families! Here are a few highlights from this week about each child and a unique interest or moment that we caught! We hope you enjoy these photos as much as we enjoyed experiencing these moments with your children. We truly have the most special class!
Mia is always smiling and ready to invite her friends and teachers into her little world. In this photo, our Spanish teacher had just given Mia a sticker at the end of the class. Mia was so excited about her sticker she put it at the very top of her head and promptly offered her teacher her other sticker!
Every morning upon entering the 2A classroom, Nicholas requests to build "A house!". Nicholas always spends a great deal of time on his magna-tile "houses" and loves to put animals inside of them. Emilio, of course always loves to jump into whatever scenario his classmates are getting into and also had so much fun building animal houses with Nicholas this week! These sort of interests and play skills highlight an emergence into cooperative and dramatic play skills that are essential in toddler development.
Charlotte with her babies! Each and every morning that Charlotte attends school she greets her babies and enjoys carrying them with her (as many babies as she can hold) through her daily routines. Charlotte will sometimes reference her newborn twin siblings as she carries her babies around with her, marking a temperament that is loving, warm, and giving.
Celebrating birthdays!
Lately, Nina has really enjoyed exploring dramatic play and all of the sartorial items that go along with it! In this photo Nina is putting a "fire out!".
We've noticed that Katerina has developed a passion for music as of late. During circle time, her face always lights up and she sings and plays her instrument with fervor as we sing our daily songs. Katerina has also been greatly enjoying her time in Evan's music class. In this photo she is exploring the marimba!
Dylan loves all sensory materials! We've noticed that he especially loves paint and glue and using it to explore with his hands. Dylan is always ready to jump into new discoveries!
Parker, also has a great love of music. He had the best time exploring the marimba with Evan today and could hardly wait to get his hands on it!
This week we explored Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf". The children enjoyed exploring the different animals in the piece. In this photo we were having a little group pow-wow trying to predict what animal would come next (enjoy my look of concern, I was very much into the game as well!).
Morgan really enjoyed being a bird!
Emilio offering his teacher a cup of tea!
Max enjoying cooking this week with his mom! Max enjoyed sampling the chocolate chips from our recipe and working alongside his friend and mother!
“I make cookie!” Jackson also had the most fun baking this week with the ingredients that his family graciously provided, and very much enjoyed working alongside his friends!
Here are a few quotes from today. We hope you enjoy their words and the pictures!
"I love you!" - Nina
"Rapido!" - Emilio
"Pick apples" - Jackson
"Up high!" - Dylan
"Have a seat on a chair, on a chair" - Nicholas
"So nice!" - Morgan
"Cookie?" - Katerina
This week we had cooking with Diane!
Cooking is a great way to encourage children to work alongside one another and share. As of late we've really begun seeing a shift in the children from working alongside of each other to working cooperatively with one another - this ranges from the children passing the bowl to one another, inviting each other to take a taste of whatever we've cooked, and beginning to start a dialogue with each other!
Science with Mitzy!
This week we experimented with vinegar, baking soda, and food coloring.
Quotes from the children included:
"Wow!"
"Bubbles!"
"One more time!"
"More!"
"My turn!"
Spanish with Michelle!
We sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, learned about colors in Spanish, and sang sang our good day song. The children are really starting to warm up to Michelle and are enjoying her upbeat and positive energy while learning Spanish!
This week we read "Pete the Cat and the Five Pumpkins", as this has become a favorite for the children. Rereading books is a wonderful way in building on children's phonological processes and recalling information. This can be done by leaving the last word out of a sentence and having the children predict what the word is! The children really enjoyed the activity and had such a sense of pride when they were able to "help" their teacher read the book! We then painted a pumpkin as a follow up activity!
"Paint wet"
"Orange pumpkin!"
"More!"
"One more time!"
This week we walked to Morgan's Market to explore leaves!
"Brown leaf!"
Making connections and sharing
Continuing our measuring exploration - but our 2A friends quickly discovered that they could use blocks as a balance beam!
They had so much fun working together to build their balancing contraption
And walking across it all by themselves like big kids!
Toddlers learn through imitation – a key play skill within toddler development is imitating what they see within their environment. They may be putting their baby dolls to bed, “helping” sweep up the kitchen, or perhaps cooking. As we’re moving into October and the children are settling into their environment we seen a very noticeable shift into the realm of dramatic play. In this photo Parker was explaining to us that he was making “pink pizza”!
Nina and Katerina making "breakfast" for their babies.
"Brr, cold!" - Nina
Emilio noticed Nina cuddled up under the pillows (one of her favorite cozy spots). Emilio sauntered up to Nina, gave her a kiss (unfortunately he was too quick for our camera to capture the moment!), closed his eyes and said “night, night!” with a giggle. Emilio’s personality always has a hint of humor and a lot of love.
More language development with Michelle, our new Spanish teacher. Everyone has been quick to warm up to her warm personality and demeanor - and our student's love of learning is quite evident!
Apple picking with the BMS community! This field trip was a really wonderful opportunity to not only participate in a nature exploration with our class - but our entire school. Community is a vital component to our students’ development at BMS and we were so thrilled share such a joyful experience with our school!
"One more time!" - Nico and Parker
(They kept knocking over the houses they built and would build them back up again!)
"I make pink pizza!" - Parker
Went to Morgan's Market to buy pumpkins for our class! The children enjoyed exploring the pumpkins and cruising through the neighborhood. Commentary from the children included "Wow!", "It's bumpy!", and "Orange!". We loved the joy the children took from their pumpkin exploration and look forward to more pumpkin exploration in the future!
We explored coloring with markers on the easel.
...and also on our faces.
We explored dramatic play. These sunglasses were particularly a fan favorite this week!
We had lots of fun in the gym!
We had our first super soccer stars! Some of the children were tentative to get acquainted with coach JoJo at first, but were passing the soccer balls back and forth with him in no time!
We painted with our feet while listening to samba music - these sort of sensory experiences allow the children to further make connections in their environment while having lots and lots of fun.
We celebrated Emilio's 2nd birthday (our first birthday celebration for the 2A classroom - Nina is next!).
The children have been enjoying reading "Wheels on the Bus at the Zoo", so we read it for literacy this week and then each chose an animal and made our own puppets!
Had our first music class with Evan!
Celebrating Rachel's going away this morning! Thank you to our class parents for organizing such a lovely event for our 2A community. The children had such a great time coloring in onesies for Rachel's baby (who we can hardly wait to meet!)
Thank you for everything, Rachel! We love you and cannot wait to have you back and meet your little girl in the winter!
This past week, we have continued to use different objects and tools to measure our bodies and various items around the classroom. It is wonderful to see the initial idea translated in so many different ways by the children. Nina, Charlotte and Parker have been particularly interested in using the tape measure tool this week. Nina even held the tool up to the pumpkins and looked at the numbers. Charlotte was really excited by the way the measuring tape would slip out and retract on its own. Mia thought that part of the tool was a button and kept trying to press it (it really moves up and down to lock or unlock the measuring tape). Parker has triumphantly carried the tape measure around the classroom and has gotten so good at announcing "MY tape measure!" as he walks around. As this fascination with numbers and measuring continues, we will be adding more tools (rulers, meter sticks, tape measuring tools that aren't encased, and more!). If you can think of any fun measuring tools, please share with us!
Since October has rolled around, we worked on our third self portraits! Even more expressive language is occurring as we sit to work on these lovely self representations.
There is already a big shift toward making round shapes for our portraits. Peering into the mirror is helping us translate our facial features into 2 dimensional shapes. We are seeing some amazing fine motor grip control as well. I can't wait to see the changes between now and November!
As we become even more familiar and comfortable with each other, there has been more movement from parallel play (next to one another), to direct interaction with one another. Of course some of this involves grabbing and taking from each other- but that's a very big part of being two! We encourage the children to use their words: "It's my turn." "I'm using it." "I'm not finished yet." "Give it back." On the flip side, we talk to the impatient children with language such as, "Your friend is still using that toy, and I know it can be frustrating to wait, but you can have a turn when he/she is finished," or "Can you ask for a turn?" Sometimes we suggest other things to do while we wait, as well. It's a process, but it will happen for everyone!
The children are starting to form connections and use physical gestures with each other. We have seen friends trying to pat or touch other children's hair, giving hugs, high fives, looking closely at one another and laughing -- which has also led to some imitation play. One friend will do something like pick up a toy and laugh, and then the other child will copy this behavior.
As we get to know ourselves, we also get to know each other.
Parents, it has been such an amazing pleasure getting to know you and your children the past couple of weeks. I have learned so much about their personalities, likes, and dislikes. They have already given me so much love and affection. I am going to miss each and every one of them while I'm away for the next few months- but I will definitely be following along on their journey. I will still be assisting with lesson planning and curriculum development during my absence. Although I won't have as much free time, I will still be checking emails and am available to answer any questions that you might have, at any time. I can't wait to see how big your kids become by January!! (I might come stop by for the annual Christmas party, I can't stay away!).
All my best, Rachel
Highlights of our day:
- Soccer for the first time!
- Painting with our feet (and whole bodies) while grooving to Samba music!
- Playing with oats in the sensory table
- Painting on canvas in ziplock bags (mess free paint fun!)
Some highlights of our day:
-We had our very first Spanish class with our new professora, Michelle. It was great!
-We taste tested more apples today with Diane. We used fresh squeezed lemon and lime juice to get a sour flavor on our apples, and balanced it out with a bit of honey. I think everyone enjoyed honey the most!
-We did science with Rachel- dancing colors on milk! We used milk, food coloring, and dawn dish soap on qtips to make the colors dance and swirl together. It was a lot of fun to watch the colors move around.
We went out to get some pumpkins for our classroom today! It was a fun and exciting trip! We are so excited for October, pumpkins, apples, and Halloween! Please start bringing in the shirts/hoodies for Halloween this week. Thank you!!!
Other highlights of the day: Listening to more Cello music, October self-portraits, Using a circle punch to make paper circles for gluing