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!