Purple Week added another color to our
Spanish repertoire; "Morado"! The children have
enthusiastically embraced Spanish, routinely identifying the color of objects
in both English and Spanish. They particularly enjoy doing so at the Art
Table!
A large
part of our week was spent preparing for our field trip. We played with Fire
Station toys.
We talked about fire safety and demonstrated
the intricacies of the fire fighter's clothing.
Ultimately, the
children loved trying on and exploring the "real" fire clothes.
At story
time, we read non-fiction and fiction books on the topic, and learned several
fire safety songs.
Our
field trip was both fun and informative as it brought all of this information
together for the children in concrete way.
Many
thanks to Marcus's dad, Scott, for donning all the fire gear at the fire
station, and to all of the parents who were able to drive and join us on our
field trip.
As
follow-up after our trip, the children "wrote" thank you notes to
Fire Fighter Bill
and Fire Fighter Bob!
Divertido con Espanol / Fun with Spanish
While
Tuesday was a very busy picture day, we still had time for Senora Jen to "Hablar en Espanol con los chicos!"
Vocabalo de Semana en Espanol / Words of the Week
in Spanish
Morado /
Purple
Seguridad
contra incendios / Fire safety
Alto /
Stop
Cae /
Drop
Rueda /
Roll
Looking Deeper: Exploration
and Learning through Play!
We will look deeper at Dramatic Play often over the
course of this year, as it is one of the most fundamental vehicles of learning
for young children. Within Dramatic Play, children literally "try
on" roles as they seek to expand and learn about their world.
Dramatic Play utilizes and extends the children's
language skills. It is also a catalyst for cooperation, creative
thinking, problem solving and sharing. Additionally, it is often a
vehicle for teaching Social Studies, as the children often take on the role of
various Community Helpers within their play.
This week as we talked about
fire safety, our discussions were often reflected in the children's play.
They consistently took the information gleaned at story time and incorporated
it into the scripts of their play scenarios. On any given day, one was
apt to hear the following exclamations, "don't touch the
stove" or "call 911".
It is in this way that the children processed and
applied new information within their play, and that is indeed indicative of
their learning!
Have a fun and restful weekend!
