Fun,
Fun, Fun Week was filled with
"fun" learning activities! The children experimented with eye
droppers and colored water to create new colors.
They
requested a return of our special pop corn popper. Watching the pop corn pop is almost as much
fun as eating it!
They ate
"big" pieces of Watermelon for snack, demonstrating "how it
drips"! This will make more sense
to you when you attend our last day presentation!
At Story
Time they listened to felt board fairy tales, and stories from their favorite
author,
Kieko Kasza.
A return
visit from Baby Mikka was an additional highlight of the week.
Perhaps
most fun of all was our field trip to the Bethlehem Town Park Playground.
The weather was nearly perfect and the children had a "perfectly" grand time!
Happy Summer
Birthday to Cate, Declan, Maple, Harriet and Marie!
Thank
you to Grant's dad, Scott for coming in as our Guest Reader during Fun, Fun,
Fun Week!
Looking
Deeper: Exploration and Learning through
Play
This
Week let's take a closer look at the "fun" of play!
As
mentioned above, this week was filled with a wide variety of activities, some
new, some back by popular demand, but all Fun, Fun, Fun! One characteristic that these activities had
in common was the fact that they were multi-layered in skill focus, and
provided the children with a "review" of many skills and facts that
we focused upon over the course of the year!
The
children excitedly mixed colored water every day this week and never tired of
creating new colors. They experienced
this activity as playful and fun, but as is always the case with play, it was
so much more! Manipulating an eye
dropper was a new learning experience for many of the children.
They
spontaneously reviewed and exclaimed that blue and yellow made green, that red
and yellow made orange, and that blue and red made purple. Additionally, Spanish was utilized from time
to time as a child was heard to exclaim; I made verde....... anaranjado.......morado!
Stringing
Cheerios and pretzels is a fun fine motor activity that quickly morphed into a
Math lesson as the children began counting the number of Cheerios and pretzels
that were on their strings, and discerned who had more and/or most.
Stringing
colored beads provided experimentation with Math concepts of greater complexity
as the children instinctively began to form patterns with the colored beads!
Science
concepts were reviewed as we talked once again about how and why a kernel of
corn expands when heated and eventually "pops," turning into
something delicious! Before we knew
it, we were discussing Social Studies as
the children remembered and articulated that the Native Americans made pop corn
while sitting around their camp fires!
The
children demonstrated their knowledge and love of literature as they requested
their favorite stories by a beloved author!
The
children delighted in the exercise of social and gross motor skills as they
played on our Field Trip to the Bethlehem Town Park Playground!
Play is
fun! Play is a source of great joy! Play is also a wonderful vehicle of learning for children and adults of all
ages! Remember to always take time,
and/or make time to Play!
Have a fun and restful weekend!
