Happy Monday!

Tami reposted this Teacher Tom article over the weekend it rings true! Social conflicts are a big part of our day, especially because we have a multi-age classroom. Our three year old’s aren’t quite ready for the ‘rule play’ that our five year old’s are ready for. We do them NO favors by solving their problems for them. Our goal is to give them the language to feel comfortable and confident enough to solve them on their own (with time of course!). The real world is full of conflict so we can assume that a preschool classroom is also full of conflict. What better time to learn how to solve our problems by using words than when children are young.

“It’s messy and makes us uncomfortable, but children are always motivated by the real world and there are few things more real than conflict. So often, as adults, we view playground conflict as failure, but if we are to raise our children to take care of themselves and to take care of others, we have to understand that conflict is as central to child’s play as running, jumping, laughing, and singing. They will only learn how to do it through practice. And, believe it or not, it’s part of why they like coming to school.”

http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2019/09/conflict-is-ugly-messy-fraught-and.html

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K/PREK1 read ‘The Gruffalo’ which focuses on the journey of several main characters. After we finished reading, friends raised their hand, sharing different characters that they noticed throughout the story. Afterwards, we talked about the word ‘setting’ and what it means. ‘The Gruffalo’ really only has one setting so it was easy to identify.

As each child was asked to roll up their mat, they came up to the tray and had to solve a problem first. There were two groups of hexagons that they had to count and then decide which group was bigger. Once they identified the bigger group, they solved the problem by placing the correct alligator in the middle of the two groups. There were a few problems that had an equal number of hexagons in each group so we talked about what an ‘equal sign’ is used for!

K.RL.2.3: Identify important elements of the text (e.g., characters, settings, or events).

K.NS.7: Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group.

In PREK2, each child was given a specific number of spiders. They counted their spiders and had to lay out the same number of rings. Children matched their spiders to the correct number of rings!

We’re transitioning our classroom from summer to fall so today, children came to the art table to create their very own spider. They were given several materials to use and they got to decide what they wanted their spider to look like!

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with butter/cinnamon and fresh pears.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce and shredded cheese, fresh apples, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with fresh oranges.

Wee Sprout– Fresh peppers/cucumber.

Have a terrific evening.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 9/30

Good Afternoon. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend.

Today we welcomed our IUSB student, Cecilia to join the classroom for a total of ten weeks. Cecilia will be with us every Monday from 8:30-10:30. Cecilia will be here to observe our classroom and join in and help our friends with their wants and needs.  We look forward to helping her achieve her Early Childhood/Education degree.

Caroline was very quick to warm up and ask Miss Cecilia to read some stories to her.  

We have many play cell phones in the classroom and our friends LOVE engaging with them.

Some of our little ones “text,” some “call” their mommies and daddies, while others LOVE saying, “Cheese” to take pictures! Even Nesta has started picking up random toys and holding them up to her face and says, “Cheese!”

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with peanut butter and oranges.

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta noodles with shredded Colby-jack cheese and marinara sauce, corn and pears.

Snack: Whole milk yogurt with granola.

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers.

Have a great evening!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljt1sQGMKTp814dUFlw?e=Z58D3x

Happy Friday, I hope you all have had a great week.

Please note: With the Fall season now here and cooler days have been amongst us, please make sure that your child/ren have at least 2 sets of extra (warm) clothes and a jacket or sweatshirt for their cubbies. We will definitely make the most out of going outside as long as we are can before old man winter hits! Thank you.

Please enjoy the pictures from our day!

Breakfast: Whole grain brown rice cakes with peanut butter and oranges.

Lunch: Whole grain tortillas with shredded cheese, peas and apples.

Snack: Cottage cheese and triscuit crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Corn.

Have a fabulous weekend.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljtwhzrWx7JtrQW3tKg?e=PDrgyD

Happy Friday!

In K/PREK1, we read a story titled, ‘Ruby Finds A Worry’. In the story, Ruby notices that she has a worry that keeps following her. Instead of talking about it, she ignores it and it only gets bigger. She meets a little boy in the park who also has a worry and eventually, they both start talking about their worry. Once this happens, the worries get smaller and smaller until it’s not noticeable anymore.

Afterwards, we shared our worries with one another. A few friends didn’t want to share which is perfectly fine but others shared several worries that they have! We discussed what we do when we have these worries and what helps make us feel better.

MACK Week 4: Children will learn a variety of strategies for managing strong emotions constructively, including expressing their emotions, listening to others, problem solving, and using mindfulness techniques.

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We took our first farm trip of the season this morning! We checked the following activities off of our list:

• Loved on a bunny named Snickerdoodle.
• Fed worms to the chickens.
• Used rakes to scatter manure piles around the grassy area because it helps the grass grow!
• Held a salamander named Sally.
• Cleared out the compost bin for the worms.

• We found out that the worms prefer leafy greens rather than citrus!

Miss Charlotte told us how appreciative she was that we helped her so much this morning! Even though we didn’t get to take advantage of the gorgeous morning and take a walk, we sure stayed busy around the farm.

The rest of our Friday look a little something like this!

Breakfast– Brown rice cakes with peanut butter and pluots.

Lunch– Melted shredded cheese on whole wheat flatbread, fresh cantaloupe/banana, and fresh carrots/pepper.

PM snack– Graham crackers and string cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/pepper.

Have a fantastic weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 9/27

Good Afternoon!

We checked off our last genre box during K/PREK1 group: poetry! We try to have one poetry session a week. Poetry is much different than other stories we read from the other three genres AND it allows us to play with words more since most of the poetry we read involves rhyming words.

When we read poetry for group, each child gets to pick a poem by putting their index finger into the book as I slowly flip the pages. Today, we read several poems that offered humor along with rhyming words which is our favorite!

K.RL.3.2: Recognize familiar narrative text genres (e.g. fiction, nonfiction, fairy tales, poems).

During PREK2 group, each friend got a turn to choose which item didn’t belong in a specific group. For example, Mack observed three different items and had to decide which item was different than the other two.

The rest of our morning was full of stories, categorizing puff balls by size, and art table creations. The art table was bustling this morning as it was challenging to find open spaces! Friends were getting in the fall spirit by drawing pumpkins and making Halloween decorations! It’s never too early in their eyes .

Breakfast– Whole grain Cheerios and banana.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded beef and cheese, fresh oranges/banana, and fresh cucumber.

PM snack– Peanuts and whole wheat crackers.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumbers.

Have a lovely evening!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 9/26

Good Afternoon.

Today friends enjoyed reading quite a few books. At times we would read amongst ourselves or we would ask for a teacher to read to us. Either way, we always have so much fun reading.

Early literacy is crucial to a child’s early years for many reasons. Here is a snapshot of just a couple….  Developing early literacy skills makes it easier for children to learn to read, and even read earlier on in their life and reading can profoundly influence language development. Reading can also enhance a child’s already blooming imagination.

Our outside play is full of gross motor activities.  Today friends were working hard on their balancing skills. There are many opportunities for us to gain on improving the core area of our bodies. We love finding every possible way!

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and bananas.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded beef, broccoli and strawberries.

Snack: Whole wheat Ritz crackers with peanut butter.

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers.

Have a wonderful night.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljtpshWop4x9ZD6IPAg?e=kfZvgU

Good afternoon.

This morning friends worked on utilizing their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills as well as recognizing the shapes and colors of the stackers. We also were able to see that each individual circle or triangle shape was of a different size.

We then headed outside to a little chiller weather, but that didn’t keep us down. We got our bodies in motion by working on some gross motor fun.

The last couple of days our friends have been engaging themselves in running from the concrete section of the sandbox into the actual sand. They love seeing how far they have jumped.  

Breakfast: Whole grain oatmeal with honey and pears.

Lunch: Scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast with butter, carrots and kiwi.

Snack: Blue corn chips and refried beans.

Wee Sprouts: Yellow pepper.

Have a fantastic evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljtlo_QyTYL1wJQ-zlg?e=tCqPsx

Hello!

Here are a few pictures from our Wednesday!

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and banana.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs with whole wheat flatbread, fresh strawberries/banana, and fresh carrots/peppers.

PM snack– Hummus and blue corn tortilla chips.

Wee Sprout– Fresh peppers.

Hope everyone has a terrific evening.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 9/25

Good Afternoon.

Today Ellie and Nesta were very enthusiastic about swinging on the ever so popular swing. Ellie is aware of how holding onto the swing is imperative to her safety, while Nesta will need to learn that skill as she gets older and with time.  None the less Nesta LOVED her first experience.

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and clementine’s.

Lunch: Whole wheat flatbread with hummus, mixed vegetables and banana.

Snack: Whole wheat cinnamon raisin bagels with butter and mozzarella string cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Garden Fresh Cucumbers.

Have a wondaful night.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljthK1VY8S66F3n5yuQ?e=lY9wFe

Good Afternoon!

K/PREK1 continued our adventure into different text genres. Today, we read ‘Fantastic Bats’ and quickly, friends shouted out, “That’s nonfiction!”

Throughout the story, we learned various and interesting facts about bats. For instance, did you know that bats can fly up to 60 miles per hour? We used the speed of a car on the highway to compare.

N asked, “So the illustrator drew those pictures right?”. I told her that these pictures weren’t drawn but rather someone took photos of the bats that were highlighted throughout the story.

K.RL.3.2: Recognize familiar narrative text genres (e.g. fiction, nonfiction, fairy tales, poems).

In PREK2, each friend got a turn to identify the shape that was different in their given group. For example, when Sophia made her way to the board, she noticed that every shape had hearts on it except the first picture which had a triangle. She identified the different one by circling it!

‘Beautiful Oops’ is one of our favorite books! It is super interactive and turns ‘oops’ into beautiful creations!

Miss Annastecia took newspaper and ripped it into various sizes. Friends were invited to the table to make their own creation out of a newspaper scrape.

Breakfast– Kix and fresh pears.

Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat flatbread/tortilla, fresh pineapple, and fresh cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat cinnamon raisin with cream cheese

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumbers.

Have a great evening!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 9/24