Week Recap: 10/30-11-2

November 2, 2017

Happy Thursday!

This week was full of new explorations and exciting celebrations. The pre-k students have really taken on great interest in responsibility, leadership, and creating. After our exciting halloween parade the children were full of confidence and pride in their creations, interactions and neighborhood.

This week we explored the following themes:

airplanes
writing signs
compassion for others
representations of new york city
balance
All things with the letter B

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Week Recap: 10/23-10/27

October 27, 2017

Monday

Monday began with a relaxed and focused vibe. Many of the children began preparing decorations and gifts and writing notes for our party.

“This my hat, crown for head”

— Luke K.

“I’m making my mom a necklace and me a choker. I need to twist them together to make them bigger for a grown up.”

— Caleb

“I need all the letters for my name before I start”

— James

Tuesday

This Tuesday was filled with literacy and science explorations. We measured our pumpkins and wrote out our observations. Practicing writing numbers and letters has been such a fun challenge. We also took time to share about ourselves and finish up our Me, Myself and I projects.

“How big is the pumpkin? What’s this number? I can write it. 37. ”

— Cian

“I like my neck because I can wear a sparkly necklace that my mom got me”

— Asha

Wednesday

With all of our party preparations the pre-k class has taken on amazing new leadership positions. Sophia began teaching our friends how to draw rainbows, this grew into an entire documentation wall in our classroom. Caleb also led party preparations in dramatic play, while Ben and Luke K. guided construction in the block center. We made a museum and decided our Curriculum celebration would be a museum tour and a party.

In addition we taste tested foods of different textures with Diane and practiced stopping and kicking the soccer ball with Jo Jo.

Thursday

The room was abuzz with costume ideas today! We were so excited to welcome our families to our Me, Myself and I party on Friday!

Friday

Our Me, Myself and I party and museum was such a success! Thank you all for coming!

Identity: We can do it!

October 20, 2017

Identity: Initiating, empathizing and collaborating

It has been an amazing journey studying the self! As we gear up for our final identity celebration next week we have noticed some great developments in social, academic and artistic expression. Exploring hands, feet, and faces has naturally progressed to an increased awareness of self and confidence in identifying characteristics. Most apparent is the group's confidence in their leadership skills. These skills manifest and express themselves differently in each child.

We show great pride in a variety of areas:

empathy toward others
creativity in art
building improvisations
Initiating and creating games
Keen observation skills
guiding and teaching
Dance skills

“Look everyone. This is my museum for mummy and in Egypt! I make it. Don’t break it. ”

— Luke K.

“I will help you make a hand”

— James (teaching Luke K. how to trace a hand)

“We are taking care of the baby”

— Luke K. and Grant

“Dance party! ”

— Ben

“I’m really strong. I think I can carry it alone”

— Asha

“I can help them with making a ship. I can make it beautiful”

— Caleb

“I’m voting for sea creatures because I want to be a turtle”

— James

“I’m very gentle with the bunny, right Syd? Super gentle and nice”

— Cooper

“I’m making suns for my mom and dad, It’s like the lights of Diwali”

— Sophia

Happy Friday!

We had such an amazing Diwali celebration today with Sanjay and Alexandra! Thanks so much for teaching us about the new year celebration of lights and showing off your beautiful outfits and dance moves.

10-15-10-19 Week Recap:

October 19, 2017

Happy Thursday!

Check out the amazing conversations that have developed out of our explorations of the self and bodies. The children have really showed off their theories, inquiries, performances and leadership throughout this exploration. Get ready for some Halloween creations next week and our Me, Myself and I Identity Celebration on Friday 10/27! Thanks for reading!

Monday

We spent Monday observing and experimenting with our hands. We drew pictures of hands and made signs. We also prepared to vote on our halloween costumes!

“This is my robot sea creature”

— Cooper

“This is a tall tower for the city”

— Sophia

Tuesday

We spent the day drawing, writing, building and reading. We took a break to have a snack party, have spanish with Michelle, and vote for our group Halloween costume. Sea creatures won the vote with a tally of 8-4

Wednesday

Our Wednesday was jam packed with fun and learning. After a morning exploring faces and clay we had super soccer starz with Jojo and cooking with Diane.

Thursday

Thursday always brings exciting changes and explorations. We spent the morning building museums with playdough, growing extra tube arms, building a giant ship, and playing twister in the 3B room. After a restful snack we danced and sang with Evan. After seeing such lively explorations and great teamwork the teachers decided we needed a reward, specifically a pumpkin walk reward! We got the 3 biggest pumpkins we could find, took a vote and brought one back to school to carve before Halloween.

Identity: Helpers, Organizers and Designers

October 13, 2017

Happy Friday!

Our identity project has blossomed into expressions of roles and an interest in relationships with each other. As the children explore their hands, feet and faces they begin comparing their abilities, the details on their bodies and how they feel. We noticed that all this exploration into self manifested into hugs, compliments, and inquiry about other people. Feeling more confident in their sense of self the children began to be more present and interactive with each other.

"We do a group hug" -Cooper

"That's a beautiful H" -Grant(making letters with our bodies)

"I only like a hug if someone asks first" -Asha

"This is the animal shelter where we protect animals" -Ben

"H is for Hugs, I like a hug" -Luke K.

"Your hug looks like a heart" -Luke M.

"My hands are small and yours has nail polish" -Caleb (comparing hands with sophia and Annabel)

Friday

Today we continued our exploration of feet and hands with a sensory walk party. We also worked on a special portrait art project for our Identity Party on October 27. In addition to all the identity project fun we began discussing our Class Halloween Costume ideas. We have narrowed down the theme to either Foods or Sea Creatures. We will hold a vote next week to decide!

10/10-10/13 Week Recap

October 13, 2017

Tuesday

We reflected on our science experiment from last week. We drew pictures of volcanoes and told stories about dinosaurs. We also met with Ms. Michelle for Spanish and practiced the days of the week. In preperation for this week, we played a game of yoga to show Ms. Jen our flexible bodies. Later that day we talked about the places around the world while looking at a map and discussed the places we have been to before.

Wednesday

Our Field trip to the Riamede Farm for Apple Picking was a total succes! We first started our day with warm donuts and apple cider. We traveled on a hayride, searched for pumpkins and apples, and had a nice picnic style lunch.

Thursday

After our apple picking trip we decided to save some apples for our cooking activity with Diane.

Child Identity: Parties and Roles

October 12, 2017

Happy Friday!

This week has been full of new developments in understanding identity.

We began our explorations by asking the following questions to the children:

What makes you special/What is the best part of you?
What helps you feel better when you're upset?
What do you know about eyes?

These questions manifested into an exploration of roles, and expressions of personal interests through these roles. What better way to show off what makes us special than a party?!! Parties, fashion shows and sharing about feelings helped us grapple with when where and how to take control or decide to take turns.

A week of Specialists and Self

October 5, 2017

Happy Thursday!

This week has been full of new experiences and visits from old friends as we started specialists. We have also focused on our eyes as an introduction to understanding ourselves. The children love creating and expressing through the mediums of art, dress up, call and response and movement.

Specialists schedule:

Tuesday- Spanish

Wednesday- Cooking with Diane and Super Soccer Starz

Thursday- Music with Evan

Monday

Who are you? What's the best part of you? On Monday we explored eyes our selves and how we play together. We also read the book "How full is your bucket" and discussed how people can impact each other's feelings.

Tuesday

"My best part is my handsbecause it's so awesome, they do cool things" -Grant

"My fingers are the best, they can paint and open things" -Cian

"My best part is that I play drums with my hands and eyes" -Aayush

Spanish with Michelle and Mimi

"The best part about me is I like drums"

Wednesday

Creating our own bugs! Many of the children started relating themselves to their bugs. Some friends also took some time to decorate the classroom with their art work. Wednesday was our first day of super soccer starz! Diane came to share some fall flavors with us in preparation for making apple pie.

Thursday

Today we had our first session of music with Evan! Pre-K was so happy to have Evan back with us. We also spent our morning exploring our reflections and revisited our bug creations.

A week of love, support, and senses!

September 28, 2017

Happy Thursday!

This week we focused on finding ways to raise money for children impacted by the Hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Florida, and Texas. The children were involved in every step of our efforts and even developed new ways to show support and love.

Remember to check the daily reflections by the classroom entrance for details every day!

Thanks so much to all the families who helped make the lemonade and bake sale a success!

"We can dry them (toys) off" -James

"We can get them new toys" -Sophia & James

"We have to draw a picture for them" -Cooper

"And have a bake sale" -Caleb

"We can make a sign" -Luke M.

"And sing a song" -Luke K.

Monday

On Monday we introduced our school-wide project of providing charitable funds to children and schools impacted by the hurricanes. The children had amazing ideas of how to help and worked on their empathy skills by understanding how storms look and feel.

Tuesday

After coming up with the idea to have a bake sale Pre-K was hard at work preparing menus, ingredient lists, and practicing mixing lemonade ingredients.

Wednesday

Bake sale day! The children were so excited to make lemonade and sell it in front of school. Some of them even remembered to tell our customers where the money will go.

"It's for the kids school in Texas and Puerto Rico" -Cian

"The money is for the people who are poor" -Sophia L.

"It's for the toys that got wet" -Asha

We also conducted a lemon juice tasting to test our hypothesis: "We use just lemons to make lemonade"

Thursday

We continued our lemonade sale today! Our donations reached into the high 200s today!

Volcanoes, Games, and Bears

September 20, 2017

Curiosities and Interests

Last week the children had so many theories about where volcanos come from and how lava works. This week we took the children's interest and created a space to put their ideas and theories to work. We first began by working with clay and asked the children to create shapes and textures that remind them of volcanos. The children were so excited to begin creating pictures and sculptures of volcanos and had many ideas for lava making! We also worked on a volcano made out of paper mache which they really enjoyed.

Meeting our Bear Friends

This week the children were joined by their bear friends. During our morning meeting, each child was introduced to their bear. The children welcomed their bears with kisses, hugs, and funny voices. Everyone is so excited to begin taking their bears on new adventures during holidays, long weekends, and family trips!

During gym, the children enjoy participating in yoga, obstacle courses, and movement games.

One very important reoccurring moment is communication. The children are patient with each other and take time to explain things to one another. We have noticed a lot problem solving in the block center, team work, and sharing. One amazing thing that has happened quite often is Sign Making, this is a tool the children use to communicate special messages to each other.

Today we also took a walk to our local market, Morgan's Market. Our bunny, Chocolate milk needs fresh food for the long weekend. We picked up fresh romaine lettuce and carrots.

Identity: "How big are you?" "Where do you live?" "What do you like?"

September 15, 2017

Happy Friday!

As we begin to get comfortable in routines, rules and connections we've observed some identity themes emerging. In conversations, play and observations the Pre-K class has shown an interest in comparing, relating, and describing their perceptions.

Big Themes of Identity:

size
skin colors
"Where do you live? I live..."
leadership
gender presentation

Big Questions about child identity

What impacts child confidence and leadership?
What characteristics do children notice about other people?
How do children perceive and represent cultural, ethnic and gender identities?

Parent, Family, Caregivers:

What do you want to know about child identities?

Feel free to comment here or view our comment panel in the classroom next week

Photos: Identity Themes

Check captions for quotes and descriptions

Identity conversations:

Today at lunch Sophia started discussing how Syd has not been to her house, soon the whole room was comparing apartment floor numbers, letters and how many people live in their home. This is an important aspect of differentiating, building similarities and noticing the separations between home identity, school identity and the different people in those spaces.

Sophia: You know, you never been to my house! I live on the 11th floor in the purple building.

Cian: Yeah, you never been to my home either, I live on the 4th

Cooper: Yeah, me too, I live on the top floor.

James: I live on 7M. You never been there.

Ben: Cooper's been to my house

Gender expression has also been an interesting topic. Many children are only used to stereotypes of gender they see and hear about from society, in the classroom Pre-K children are free to explore gender through clothing, play and conversations. When a boy wears a dress, uses pink or sings there is often fun questioning and enlightening discussion.

Asha: Wait, silly, boys can't wear dresses

Caleb: But I do. I like pink and princesses.

Sophia: And Nolan likes the pink dress too!

Asha: Oh, but my brother doesn't like them I guess.

Thanks for reading! Be in touch with any identity questions you may have!

First Week Excitement and Explorations

September 14, 2017

Happy Thursday!

Happy first Pre-K blog of 2017-2018!

This week has been full of classroom explorations. The children have been observing and interacting with the environment in a variety of ways. As the 3rd Pre-K teacher, the environment contributes greatly to the child's sense of comfort, curiosity, confidence and creativity. Pre-K seems particularly interested in how our classroom is organized, where materials "live," how to make our classroom better and why we have meetings.

Be sure to check out the quotes at the bottom of the page for details!