Monday - November 6, 2017

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Friday, November 3, 2017

Painting spooky ghosts for Halloween! 

The children have been super interested in bubbles lately, so for science this week we explored bubbles via a science experiment with shaving cream, banking soda, vinegar, and shaving cream.

"Bubbles"

"Woah!'

"Again, Mitzi, again!"

Exploring our scientific concoction in the sensory table

Dylan exploring concepts such "over" and "under" in soccer. 

Running for the goal! What fervor in your step, Nicholas!

Color exploration with a paint dance party. We let each child pick the color they wanted, and encouraged to verbally request the color before we gave it to them to encourage language and color recognition. Our favorites were purple, yellow, and green!

Exploring our identity and self portraits. Self portraits are wonderful tools for pre-literacy skills. The children are gaining fine motor control and we are tracking their shift from drawing dots on a page, to lines, to more circular movements, to finally more distinguishable stories on the page. Self portraits also allow for child to begin describing key components of their physical identity (being able to first and foremost verbally describe something is a pre-cursor to literacy development). And finally, self portraits allow our kids to begin studying their person. 

This week we stationed two potties in our dramatic play area for our students to engage, interact, and explore with. The children were beyond thrilled to have these new objects in the classroom and wanted to immerse themselves in these centers as much as possible. We continuously found children imitating a adults toileting behavior (a sign of potty training readiness). There was a lot of exhilaration and joy around the potty! 

"Cake?" - Nina

"Yeah, cake!" - Parker

Making connections and exploring dramatic play with our friends.

"You want soup?" - Jackson

Thursday - November 2nd, 2017

The 2A class has taken a keen interest in bubbles from science experiments, to giving their baby dolls bubble baths, to the bubbles their teachers blow for them in the gym. These fun concoctions always inspire the most joy! 

"Dance, dance, dance!" - Morgan loves dancing, singing, and being the life of the party! 

Parker is always one of the first ones in his class to jump into whatever activity or project 2A puts before him. He demonstrates a focus and motivation in so much of what he does. 

All the while with a smile!

Currently, part of 2A's identity is shifting from toddlerhood to being "big kids". We're seeing this shift take place in a strong interest in the potty. 

"Woah!"

"Potty go flush!"

"More!"

"Pee pee go there?"

Nicholas is greeting new experiences with open arms and curiosity. Mia and Jackson are usually right beside him and quietly inquisitive. 

Dylan is always ready to jump into new sensory experiences!

Emilio's temperament and personality is forever silly, kind, and playful. Emilio is always eager to interact with his friends and teachers and takes so much joy from others. 

"Night, night!" - Emilio

Emilio demonstrating a key toddler play skill - imitating others by pretending to sleep - all the while doing it with a smile and humor! 

Nina is always trying to find new ways to do things! Her temperament and personality suggest curiosity and an eagerness to find ways to do things outside of the box. 

"Green?"

"More green!"

"Alright!"

We've started seeing a shift from parallel play (playing alongside one another) to cooperative play (engaging and playing with one another). In this photo, Nicholas and Katerina are building a house with one another (One of Nicholas's most favorite things to do as of late).

Sharing the computer! This was such an accomplishment for our little ones because so often they want to keep the computer all to themselves - we were so proud of them for their sharing skills!

Wednesday - November 1st, 2017// Potty exploration, slime, painting with leaves, and soccer with Coach JoJo!

Tuesday - October 31st, 2017// Halloween!!

Monday - October 30th, 2017

Friday, October 27th, 2017

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. 

Thursday, October 26th, 2017

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.

October 25th, 2017

October 24th, 2017

October 23, 2017

October 20, 2017 - Dramatic Play, Halloween Costumes, and lots of Paint!

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

October 19, 2017 - Cookies, Painting, Animals, and more!

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!

Tuesday, October 18th

Tuesday, October 17th - Nina's Birthday, Cupcakes, Pumpkins, and cooking with Diane!

Monday, October 16th - Clay, Classical music, Apples, and making Nina's birthday present!

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 

October 13, 2017 - Cooking with Diane, Balance Beams, Pumpkin Explorations

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!

Thursday, October 12th - Emerging play skills, apple picking, literacy, and community!

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!

Tuesday, October 10th - "I make pink pizza!"

"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

Wednesday, October 11th - Apple Picking!