Yellow Week!

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

 Our favorite book this week was 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 dramatic play, playing with play dough, looking at books, drawing, painting and experimenting with Math concepts through fine-motor activities.

  

Outdoor activities were also a source of great leaning and fun!

Divertido con Espanol / Fun with Spanish

Vocabalo de Semana en Espanol / Words of the Week in Spanish

Amarillo / Yellow

Azul / Blue

Hola / Hello

Adios / Good-bye

Jennifer Baker, Parker's Spanish Teacher, paid her first visit to the Pre-K Three class this week.  Jennifer will be with us every Tuesday morning from 9:00 to 9:30.  Initially, she will spend time observing, getting to know the children, and speaking to them in Spanish.  Over time, she will utilize story books, songs, games and Art activities as vehicles for teaching Spanish. Additionally, Jennifer will serve as a resource to me as I expose the children to basic Spanish. 

Morning Meeting was another first this week!  The children enjoyed "high five greetings" and "Morning Message".

The colors Yellow and Blue were the basis for Spanish lessons that occurred during Morning Meeting as well.

Looking Deeper:  Exploration and Learning through play

This Week let's take a closer look at Math-based Fine Motor Materials.

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 other numerous small toys are an excellent vehicle for teaching basic Math concepts such as counting, 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 these materials.  However, as the following photos illustrate, the children instinctively use these materials to sort, pattern and line up toys for counting.  Once they do so, we seize the opportunity to make it a teachable Math moment!

Have a fun and restful weekend!

Getting Started!

Getting Started describes the past two days perfectly!  As the photos illustrate, the children have already engaged in a myriad of activities during our brief time together! 

More importantly for the children, these days were about getting to know, and engage at their "New School"! 

 Making a transfer of trust from home to school.

Exploring their new school inside and outside and beginning to claim it as their own.

It was also about beginning to learn routines, make transitions, engage in new and fun activities, thus discovering that Parker School is a fun and exciting place! 

Additionally, we spent some time talking about the color Blue/Azul!  The Water Table was filled with fish swimming in "Blue Water" and Blue was featured at the Art Table, as we glued and painted.

At Story Time, Dora and Azul the Blue Bird came for a visit.  

Additionally, we read about "The Blue Balloon" and "Llama Llama Missing Mama"!

Acclamation to the classroom environment is a process that will occur over the next several weeks, and we are off to a good start!   We are well on our way to an exciting year filled with learning, growth and fun! 

Have a fun and restful weekend!