Elmo's Explorers: The Week At A Glance

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, the children in Elmo's Explorers have been participating in festive holiday activities. Each child decorated a feather to put on the classroom turkey that Ms. Melissa designed. They shared with Ms. Melissa and Ms. Theresa things that they were thankful for. Many of the children shared that they were most thankful for their families!

Ms. Theresa's small group made turkeys out of the children's handprints. This project is a fun one for families to keep because it reminds parents how quickly children grow and change from year to year. Ms. Melissa's group made "pumpkin pies" using shaving cream, orange paint, glue, and pumpkin spice.

Both small groups were able to taste a variety of pie fillings; blueberry, cherry, apples, and pumpkin pie... yum, yum! They were then encouraged to communicate with their group about their favorite flavor as we graphed the results. Blueberry was definitely the classroom favorite; which should help our families decide what kind of pie to have on Thanksgiving!

Ms. Theresa and Ms. Melissa woul dliek to thank all of the parents and children for being so patient and flexible this week while our room has been under construction. The children did an awesome job transitioning into another classroom, while those children were on Thanksgiving break. We are sure that you will be pleased with the results when you see our room again after break!

Grocery Store and More!

Grocery stores provide multiple opportunities for learning; counting, comparing attributes, describing objects, events, and relations, and using vocabulary related to a particular situation, just to name a few.

In Magic Kingdom this week we spent time exploring grocery stores; making purchases, waiting in line, talking about items which can be found in a grocery store, and solving problems related to materials.

We set up a pretend grocery store in our classroom composed of items donated by our families. The children were given fifteen counting bears as their currency, each representing one dollar. The children gathered items off the shelves and placed them into their mesh shopping bags. They then waited in line to pay for their treasures. In order to aid the children in grasping the concept that each item costs money they were required to pull one item out of their bag at a time and pay for it individually. Many of the children noticed that with each purchase they made the less currency they had in their possession. After they completed checking-out they returned their purchases to the shelf for another friend to take a turn.

As an extension to the grocery store exploration the children were provided with a tremendous opportunity to make and eat a food often consumed in Japan, another culture represented in our classroom. We received a visit from two of our mom's who helped us make Japanese Rice Balls. The children were encouraged to stir the rice and seasoning mix, mold the rice into balls, and eat their creation. A surprising number, 14 out of 19, children enjoyed their rice balls; some asked for seconds (and thirds)!

Next time you are in the grocery store take time to have a purposeful conversation with the child about the process you are taking to choose items; those that cost less money, are you using a list, searching for a favorite brand, buying multiple items because it is something consumed often by your family. Allow your child to pay the cashier for an item to help them experience that actual give and take of money.

The children of Magic Kingdom thoroughly enjoyed their grocery store exploration. Who knew that we could learn so much from going grocery shopping?

Halloween Happenings

On Friday, October 29th ABC Academy on Laurence Avenue enjoyed many Halloween Festivities. All of the children dressed up in their costumes and we paraded around to each classroom and on the playground.

Magic Kingdom explored a large pumpkin in the sensory table and a pumpkin match game that encouraged the children to the number of dots on one pumpkin to the corresponding
number written on another. We also used toilet paper to wrap eachother, our teachers, and our wonderfully helpful parents into mummies!

As I write this blog, I have a child sitting on my lap. I asked him, "what should we tell people about our Halloween party?" His response... "tell them that we should have another one." I think that is confirmation that we all had a great time!