Post Office Week!

Post Office Week provided abundant opportunities for both writing and role playing.  The children wrote letters, stuffed envelopes and stuck stamps at our Postal Table.

  

They mailed, sorted and delivered letters as well!  

They wrote, stamped and mailed "real letters" to all of you!  They should be delivered to your mailboxes tomorrow or on Saturday at the latest. 

 They very much enjoyed their close up look at a real mail carrier and his truck!

Despite the sun's failure to shine, the children thoroughly enjoyed our field trip to Five Rivers! The Water Fall, Bunny, and Snack were among the favorites of the trip!  Many thanks to all of our drivers!

Looking Deeper:  Exploration and Learning through Play

This Week let's take a closer look at the purpose of "Authentic Writing" activities.

Young children instinctively know that "writing" is different from "drawing".  Subsequently, even children who are not yet able to form letters will make "writing-like"  symbols when given the opportunity to use pencil and paper as opposed to makers, crayons or chalk.  We have therefore provided the children with a wide variety of authentic writing opportunities that have been both teacher directed and child initiated.  Over the course of the school year, the children have (with teacher assistance) "written" invitations, thank you notes, stories and books.  Within their dramatic play scenarios, they have made notations in our classroom office, written shopping lists for our Grocery Store, and jotted patient notes in our Doctor Office.  This week the children have "written" endless letters to be processed and delivered within our Post Office!

Over the course of the year, many of the children have moved from making "writing-like" symbols to actually printing letters. 

Some of the children routinely print their name on their work, and others are simply printing some of the letters from their name. 

Providing the children with on-going, open-ended opportunities for "authentic writing" is not only crucial to their development of writing skills, but it also facilitates their conceptual understanding of the "purpose of writing" which is communication of spoken word through symbols.

Have a fun and restful weekend!

Fish in the Sea Weeks

Fish in the Sea Weeks were filled with rich literature, fun songs, lots of fish art, and a variety of fine motor activities.  Additionally, Fish in the Sea was the final theme within our overarching unit "All Living Things Grow."

Sea Life was represented on our Felt Board and in our Water Table!

Sea Shells and Fish were viewed under magnifying glasses.

Fish were assembled and sorted.

At the Art Table, fish were glued, painted, colored and stamped.

Sea Shells were glued as well!

We are looking forward to the opening of our classroom Post Office on Tuesday!

Have a fun and restful holiday weekend!

Bug Week

Bug Week got off to a great start with our field trip to the East Greenbush Library where the children heard multiple books on the topic!  Additional information was gleaned as we read topic related fiction and non-fiction literature at Story Time.  We named and viewed a myriad of bugs within these books all week long.  The children learned that all insects are bugs, but not all bugs are insects, unless of course they have six legs. 

Our Bug theme was reflected throughout the classroom!  Magnifying glasses were used to get a better look at a variety of toy bugs and insects at our fine motor tables. 

The children stitched bugs and matched bugs.

They played with a Bug Train.

They played with the "Cootie" game.

We also enjoyed a class game entitled; "Bumble Bee, Bumble Bee, Someone took Your Flower"!

At the Art Table the children enjoyed using Bug Stamps,

creating Spiders,

painting Butterflies,

and painting Caterpillars!

Additionally, we wrote Thank You notes to Miss Molly.

We spent time outdoors searching for Bugs!

Making and eating "Dirt Cups" was without a doubt the most fun of all!

Looking Deeper:  Exploration and Learning through Play

Let's take a closer look at this week's Field Trip.

The children fully enjoyed our Field Trip to the East Greenbush Library this past Monday.  It was a great start to Bug Week, as the children learned fun songs and heard wonderful "Bug Stories". 

Perhaps more importantly, Molly Chat, lead librarian for the Children's Room, led the children on a wonderful tour of the library.  

The children met "behind the scenes" library workers,

 viewed the computer room,

 saw the inside workings of the "book drop-off" 

and were shown the location of all the books, music and movies that are available to them once they have a library card!  

Young children have a natural desire and a burning curiosity to learn about their world! Community Helpers are an important part of that world, and children learn best about Community Helpers by going out into the community, meeting these helpers, and seeing firsthand what it is that they do for us.  We are so fortunate to have had a whole team of helper who worked with the children this year.  Our thanks to Molly Chat for sharing her time and expertise with us this week.  Our thanks again to Hillary Fink for leading us on a tour of Price Chopper, that enabled the children to experience the Grocery Store in a new and most thorough way, and to Diane Westfall who did the same for the children last November at the Defreestville Fire Station.  Additionally, our sincerest thanks to Vera's dad, Dr. Alex, and Karsyn's mom, Nurse Noelle (two of Parker's own Community Helpers) for coming into our classroom during Doctor Week and giving the children a firsthand demonstration of their work. 

Our classroom and the experiences we have within it are enriching, exciting and educating.  Extending our classroom beyond its four walls to include these field trips is crucial for providing the children with the most comprehensive experiences for learning.  Many thanks to all of you who have driven for our field trips and made our excellent adventures possible.

We will engage with one more community helper during Post Office Week, when we meet and chat with Parker's own U.S. Mail Carrier! 

Have a fun and restful weekend!