Green Week!

Green Week marked the third full week of school as we engaged in a variety of fun green activities.  At the art table, the children glued green collages, and printed green leaves.

At story time, we read "Green Eggs and Ham", and then made green eggs for snack on Wednesday.

Green Week also marks the point at which our color themed weeks merge with our Fall Gifts from the Earth Theme, and so this week we began talking about Fall and its Gifts.

We began our conversation as we observed the beautiful trees outside our classroom window.

The leaves are mostly green now, but soon they will change color and fall to the ground.

So in addition to green leaves, we printed leaves that were yellow, orange and red. 

We talked about our upcoming field trip to Indian Ladder Farm where we will pick apples.

We took a pretend field trip and picked pretend apples in the classroom. 

We noted that beautiful colored leaves and yummy apples are two Fall Gifts from the Earth.  In the coming weeks we will continue to focus on our "color of the week", and we will also talk about and engage in activities that emphasize and highlight additional Fall Gifts from the Earth.

The children continue to engage in gross motor, fine motor and dramatic play activities daily, and do so both independently and in small groups.

Rosalba engaged the children in a fun art activity as they reviewed and practiced the Spanish colors of the Rainbow!

We celebrated Landon's birthday on Monday with a special Art Project and Snack!  

 Happy Birthday Landon!

Looking Deeper:  Exploration and Learning through Play

This week I would like to guide you through a closer look at our "cooking" activities.

Cooking is always a favorite activity among the children. This may be true because cooking is familiar; it serves as a bridge between home and school as many of the children frequently cook with their parents.  Perhaps it is because they get to eat the yummy things they cook.  Or maybe it is because there is something magical about cooking!  It looks one way at the beginning, then you mix all this stuff together and it turns into something different and delicious at the end!  

In reality, cooking is a wonderful vehicle for teaching Science, Math and Language Arts skills to young children!  These activities call for identifying, sorting, ordering, measuring, counting, timing and observing, while at the same time providing exercise of small motor skills. 

"Hmmmm maybe I do like Green Eggs after all!"

Have a fun and restful weekend!

Yellow Week!

Yellow Week was filled with a wide variety of play-based learning activities!  Art, literature, songs, and fine-motor activities were all vehicles through which the children explored the color Yellow.  

The colors Yellow and Blue were the basis for daily Spanish lessons taught by both Rosalba Santander and me.  We are delighted to welcome Rosalba, a native of Mexico and the Mother of two Robert C. Parker alumni, to our Pre-K team!  Rosalba spends time every morning in the Pre-K Three and Pre-K Four Classrooms, introducing Spanish to the children both one on one and in total group activities.  

The children are fascinated as they hear familiar words spoken in Spanish.  They have become quite familiar with Azul (blue) and Amarillo (yellow).  Subsequently, our favorite book this week has been Little Blue and Little Yellow, by Leo Lionni!  We read the book nearly every day in both English and Spanish! I am confident that if you ask your child about the book they will readily retell the story.  They may even be able to tell you the author's name if you help them with the initial "L" sound.

As this week's pictures indicate, the children are now exhibiting greater comfort as they move about the room at will, building with blocks, engaging in dress-up, looking at books, and experimenting with fine-motor activities. 

Physical Education classes with Darcy also began this week.  The children joined our Pre-K Four friends outdoors and had a grand time.  Darcy will continue to work and play with the Pre-K students every Monday and Wednesday from 10:45 to 11:15 throughout the year.  

Additionally, we welcomed our student teachers from Hudson Valley Community College. 

Lisa Mason, a first year student, will be with us on Tuesday mornings. 

Beth Senecal, a second year student will be with us on Wednesday and Thursday mornings.  

The students will remain with us until mid-December.

The children are looking forward with great anticipation to all of the fun events planned for 

Green Week!

Looking Deeper:  Exploration and Learning through Play

The children have multiple opportunities daily to explore with Math-based Fine Motor Materials. These materials which include a variety of pegs, puzzles, geo-boards and numerous small toys are an excellent vehicle for teaching basic Math concepts such as counting, matching, sorting and patterning.  These activities are "child directed" which means the children are free to explore in any way that they wish.  The teachers do not model or tell them what to do with these materials.  However, as the following photos illustrate, the children instinctively use these materials to match, sort, pattern and line up toys for counting.  Once they do so, we seize the opportunity to make it a teachable Math moment!

"Anderson, It looks like you have put some of those animals in groups."
"Which animals belong together?" 
"How many groups do you have?" 

"Benjamin, Look how you have lined up your men across the square tray!" 

  "They have made the tray into two triangles!"  

"Shall we count the men?"

"Ethan, you lined up every car that was in the basket!"  

"Let's see if we can count how many there are in your very long row!"

If we put out the materials, they will do the Math!

Have a fun and restful weekend!