Sorting, Sorting, Sorting

A Spectacular Small Group Time: Sorting, Sorting, Sorting

Our little masterminds spent their small group time classifying small, colored manipulatives; cars and a variety of animal breeds. The children began sorting their manipulatives according to color, making piles of red, green, yellow and blue (sorting and matching objects). Some of the children lined up their manipulatives, telling Ms. Lauren they were “making patterns” (identifying patterns). Owen took initiative to sort the manipulatives based on their design, categorizing, “things that take you places (vehicles)”, “doggies” and “dinosaurs” (comparing properties).

Across the classroom, Ms. Jolene’s group used the same materials. One child lined up all of his toys. Two children grouped them according to color; Ms. Jolene asked them each to count their yellow pile (counting). One's yellow pile had 4 manipulatives and the other’s yellow pile had 7… “I wonder whose pile has the most?” Ms. Jolene asked and the first's hand shot up into the air, “I do. I have the most ‘cuz seven is more! (identifying materials and properties)” Ms. Jolene chose to put like manipulatives together. She left out a few of her manipulatives, and told the group that she needed help, “I have sorted out my toys but I do not know where to put these last few.” Ms. Jolene handed each child a manipulative and asked them to find the pile in which it belonged. Some children immediately assumed that they were going to be sorted by color and when they looked again they realized that they had to identify the way Ms. Jolene had grouped her toys in order to find out where to put the one they were holding (comparing attributes)(solving problems with materials). With lots of critical thinking and a little help from their friends all of the children added their toys to Ms. Jolene’s piles.

Caroling and Festivities

This month’s Family Activity is Christmas Caroling at a local Nursing Home. So, the children in the 3 year old Preschool Classroom, Magic Kingdom, did several activities to prepare for it.

First, the class made Christmas cards to give to the residents. They had fun drawing pictures of what is important to them this time of the year. They also decorated the cards with cute holiday stickers.

The class practiced singing Christmas songs all week so that they knew the songs that will be sung during the caroling. Their favorite song to sing was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The next favorite song to sing was Jingle Bells. The class decided that in order to perform the song the best that they could, they really needed to have their own jingle bell instruments.

So, during one of the large group times, each child made their own jingle bell bracelet out of pipe cleaners and jingle bells. When the bracelets were all done, the class went over to the music area so that they could sing their songs with their newly made instruments!

We Are A Thankful Bunch

This month we got to make handprint turkeys using various colors of stamp pads. The children got to choose what color they wanted each fingerprint to be and had fun exploring patterns in their fingerprints with a magnifying glass. Our friends really enjoyed this activity and it made for an adorable art project!

We also enjoyed reading Winnie the Pooh's Thanksgiving. After reading the story, we pretended to have our very own Thanksgiving Feast in the House Area. We cooked up quite a meal and had to take a long nap because our bellies were so full of delicious food! Sesame Street also drew pictures of what we are thankful for, Ms. Melissa shared what she was thankful for and showed the children pictures of her family and friends!

Here's a thoughtful quote of Thanksgiving! Enjoy!

"For each morning with its light
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything they goodness sends."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

All About Me

This is a time of transition for the children and teachers in Elmo's
Explorers. The children are getting used to their new room and materials.
To help us get to know each other better we are focusing on the theme,
"All About Me!" We have talked about how each of us is special and
unique--

a one of a kind masterpiece!

This week the children examined their finger prints by using the stamp pads
and paper. We also talked about our families; the children drew
pictures of their families, which are now hanging up in our classroom!

One special highlight this week, which ties in nicely with our discussion
of families, was having Quinn's dad, who is a policeman, come in and show
us his uniform and police car. The children had fun taking turns sitting
behind the wheel of the police car with their sticker badges on. This was
a great experience for the children, and I think Quinn's dad had just as
much fun as the children did.

A Sensational Sensory Day

A Sensational Sensory Day –

Getting Down and Dirty!

This week, the children in Magic Kingdom at Laurence Avenue enjoyed a day packed full of sensory activities. We started off the day by making sensory items that they could take to use at home. We made sensory water bottles with glitter and rice in them. The children were amazed to watch the water changing colors as they added different food coloring. We also made sensory gloves. To make the gloves, we took 1 plastic glove and filled it with either rice or flour. For an extra sparkle to the gloves, some of the children added glitter to their rice or flour.

With our take home projects done, we then moved on to the dirty work! The children had applesauce, yogurt, pudding, jello, chocolate syrup, and spaghetti that they used to spell their names, draw, and/or put their hands in. Some of the children wondered what would happen if they mixed the spaghetti with the chocolate syrup. They quickly realized that they had created a new type of spaghetti….. Chocolate Spaghetti!

The sensory table was filled with dirt, vehicles, and various containers. The children enjoyed driving the vehicles around in the dirt. They used the containers to build hills for their vehicles to drive over.

Our final area was a table with shaving cream. The children enjoyed drawing and writing in the cream. They also enjoyed pretending that the shaving cream was lotion and that they were relaxing at the beach. It was messy, but we all had a great time learning with our senses!

Shaving Cream Exploration

Activating children's senses is an effective way to stimulate their mind. This week, the children of Sesame Street engaged in a shaving cream and paint exploration which encouraged the use of three of their five senses. Sight: They were able to observe the paint swirling, twirling, and mixing with the shaving cream; creating a variety of color shades. Smell: Shaving cream has a distinctive smell and the children absolutely enjoyed it. Touch: The children were able to use their hands to explore the smooth, fluffy shaving cream. The children enjoyed making these shaving cream creations, and, little did they know... they were learning the entire time! They were exploring self-help skills and exploring building and art materials! Who knew learning could be so interesting?

Taste and Texture Day!

TASTE AND TEXTURE DAY!

In the end of August, the infants of Pooh Corner were able to experience a "Taste and Texture Day". Ms. Amber and Ms. Mel provided the infants with yummy, slimy foods to touch, taste, smell, and of course, throw. The teachers provided cooked spaghetti pasta, chocolate pudding, jell-o, whipped cream, and water. Along with the foods, a variety of utensils such as spoons, cups, and small bowls were given to the infants to encourage their exploration. A few of the infants were hesitant to touch the materials and some couldn't get their hands on the materials fast enough, and dug right in! They were smearing the pudding and whipped cream around, waving the noodles in front of their faces, and not to our surprise, eating it right up! Yes, it was messy. However, it was so much fun to watch the children explore the different tastes and textures that the mess was entirely worth it. "Taste and Texture Day" was a fun and exciting way to wind down from a fun and exciting summer. We cannot wait to do it again... good thing we will have to wind down Fall soon!

New Year, New Friends, More Fun!

Preparation is under-way... a new school year is among us, just around the corner and we can hardly contain our excitement!

Over the next few weeks please plan to have a Transition Meeting with your child's teacher. The purpose of this meeting is to provide helpful information about your child's classroom, establish goals for your child, and answer any questions or concerns you may have.

This year we are using our grandparents to help us kick off the school year! Our annual Grandparent's Day Gala will be held on Friday, Sept. 9 from 10-11 AM. We will share cookies and special activities with our great, wonderful, maginificent grandparents! Please encourage your child's grandparents to attend!

Since grandparents are not the only important members of your family, we are holding a Family Night on Thursday, September 15 from 4-5:30 PM. There will be hands-on activities prepared to allow you to see how your child interacts within the group and how learning takes place in a HighScope Preschool environment. The teachers will be available to answer questions or concerns you may have.

We look forward to spending a wonderful school year with you and your family!

Winter in Kanga's Kids

The children of Kanga's Kids absolutely adore the snow. We have been watching it fall and cover the ground. We can be seen making snow angels and footprints during outside time. Last week we spent time practicing how to get ourselves warmly dressed to go outside. We learned a song to help us remember the order to put our clothes on. It is sung to the tune of Oh My Darling and it goes like this...
"Put our snowpants on
and now our boots
Then our coats go on our arms
Now our hats and now mittens
Zip them up to keep us warm."

We also made Christmas cards to take to Ridgecreast Health Campus to pass out after carolling.

Reminder: We have a pajama day on 12/16. We will be watching movies and eating popcorn and relaxing for the holiday.

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!

New School Year in Sesame Street

As we have started in on a new school year we have been taking some extra time to learn more about each of our children. We used crayons to draw self-portraits. We measured our heights and displayed them on a bulletin board. We alos made prints of our hands and feet.

This week we used all five of our senses to explore a variety of apples! We sorted them, noticed their similiarities and differences, ate them, rolled them, painted with them, and smelled them. It was an intriguing and informational way to begin our new school year.

A New School Year!

Welcome to a new school year at ABC Academy filled with learning, growth, and success! This year you can be prepared to expect many great things from us; beginning with your child's preschool education.

A child's education begins long before they step foot into their kidnergarten classroom. In the preschool setting children learn about the importance of cooperating in a group environment, develop the ability to solve problems, are instilled with confidence and independence, and they are able to create their foundation for further learning. Their skills in all academic areas are postively impacted by their presence in preschool; such as math, science, language and literacy, and creative representation.

We recognize our importance and the importance of parents in their children's development. We have designed a system that will reach each child on a more individual level. We gathered information about our children and their families through our Parent Teacher Conferences which focused on preparing the children for their new classroom and setting goals for the children. Each day as we write our lesson plans we will plan for specific children; using their interests and goals to create a small group time activity.
For example, In Magic Kingdom one goal that we have set for a couple of children is the ability to recognize letters and their corresponding sounds. One of those children holds a strong interest in playdough. As a result, playdough was used to create letter forms and practice their sounds. This child was engaged, advancing towards the mastery of their goal, and excited about it!

During the year, we will be continuing to help the students acheive their goals and collaborate with their parents to develop ones. We are excited to be working so closely with our families to enhance the children's education.

Summer Fun in the Kitchen

Butterfly Sandwiches

You'll Need:

Bread
Cream cheese, peanut butter, or other bread spread
Bananas, raisins, pickles, vegetable slices, soft fruits... be creative and colorful!

How to:

Create an open faced butterfly sandwich by cutting a slice of bread diagonally, then reversing the halves to form a butterfly shape. Spread the chosen bread spread, then decorate with the colorful foods of your choice!

Take some time this summer to explore exciting activities at home with your child. This simple kitchen creation can be done in the kitchen or on a picnic blanket in your yard! Have fun and Enjoy!

Splashing into Summer!

Laurence Avenue welcomed summer with an excited splash during their first Water Play Day on Monday, June 21st. Little bodies wearing sunscreen, swim suits and water shoes could be found jumping into puddles, splashing in the water table and filling buckets from the sprinkler.

The slow steady stream of water coming from the sprinkler become a testament of a determined preschooler's patience. Many of them stood with their buckets underneath the falling water droplets until they were almost too heavy to carry. Then they dumped the water from their buckets into the water table. Once the table had a couple of inches of standing water, the kids took turns removing the plug. They watched the water spiral through the small hole back onto the playground and learned a new word, "cyclone".

Puddles of water were encouraging to several of the kids and they repeatedly jumped into them. They were helped to discover that the deeper the water and the harder they jumped, the bigger the splash they made. They also realized that the splash made from their feet was vastly different than that made by a ball; and the splash from a large ball was different than that of a smaller ball.

Our first Water Play Day was warm, wet and full of learning experiences. The children are already excited for the next Water Play Day, next Tuesday.

Heading "Into the Wild"

We kicked off our summer this week and headed "Into the Wild" by turning into scientists and performing a variety of wild experiments. Early in the week we explored what would happen by mixing a couple of mentos (the fresh maker) with a bottle of diet pop. The reaction was quite explosive as we saw a geyser occur right on our very own playground. Throughout the week we also used our scientific skills to explore jelly crystals and energy beads. Our final experiment of the week combined a lot of hands-on work and critical thinking skills as we teamed up to create egg shelters. Using a variety of household objects partners were assigned the task of creating a shelter that would house an egg and prevent it from cracking when dropped a long distance from up high.

When not performing scientific experiments the Youth Group spent some time this week welcoming everyone back for the summer and getting to know one another. We all made collages displaying some of our favorite things and shared our explanation for each picture in the collage. We also created some zany balloon self-portraits using a balloon and other materials such as yarn, markers, and wallpaper samples.

It was a great first week for the Youth Group. We are looking forward to a lot of "wild" experiences throughout the rest of our summer!

Exploring Bugs

In Sesame Street, we have been learning about many different types of bugs. We read The Caterpillar Dance, a book the children love. We spent time learning about the lesson this book illustrates, which is the change from caterpillar to butterfly.

We created various art projects centered around bugs using materials such as paint, glue, rocks, potatoes, paper plates and of course, our hands!

We moved our bodies like bugs; hopping like grasshoppers, flying like... you guessed it, flies, and crawling like ants. We enjoyed an ant race as we crawled around the playground collecting pieces of play food and transporting them to different baskets.

We had fun and learned a lot about bugs during our exploration this week.

The Dress I'll Wear To The Party

This Is The Dress I'll Wear To The Party by Shirley Neitzel started out a small group time that fostered creative thinking, problem solving skills and social skills. As a little girl prepares for a party she chooses a dress and many, many accessories to wear but there is a problem... the decorative outfit she chooses to wear is developed from her mother's wardrobe.

After reading this story we decided that we would have a party of our own. The children were prompted in planning and putting together their party. Through our discussion we discovered that we would need chairs, clothes, shoes, music, food, and cake at our party.

We adorned ourselves in suit jackets, dresses, dress-up shoes, and hats. Ms. Jolene laid out a table cloth and the children gathered food from the fridge and dishes from the shelves that would be helpful for eating the dinner at our party. Many children used pegs and peg boards to "bake" a birthday cake. When the cake was done they carried to the table and everyone sang the "Happy Birthday Song".

Careful questioning allowed Ms. Jolene to prompt the children in discovering, planning, and creating their own party complete with food, music, cake, guests, fun, and ofcourse learning!

Key Developmental Indicators:

Initiating play

Pretending

Relating to children and adults

Having fun with language

Using vocabulary

Problem solving

Listening and responding

Rainy Days

It has been a rainy week in Jackson which has resulted in a soaking wet playground and children that have had to stay inside. In Big Bird Buddies we decided to bring some outside activities indoors...

Sidewalk Chalk Drawings: We brought a big piece of black paper into the classroom and laid it on the floor. Instead of coloring on the sidewalk, we colored all over the paper!

Picnic: We filled a picnic basket with plastic food, plates, and silverware, spread a blanket across the floor and practiced having a picnic. Why would we practice having a picnic? Monday, weather permitting, we will be having a picnic with real food and silverware on the playground.

Farm Day: We pulled our farm animals off the shelf and borrowed Ms. Ciera's barn. We made animal noises and played pretend. Then we used foam to make our own farm animals.

Music and Movement: We listened to Dr. Jean's "Bear Hunt" song. We marched around the room on a bear hunt. We went through a swamp and into a cave. We moved our bodies in various ways, listening and responding to Dr. Jean's instructions.

Though we have enjoyed a fun week indoors, we are certainly ready for warmer, drier weather!