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