Good Afternoon!

**We are asking for scrap paper donations. Our art production has been in over drive lately so if there’s scrap paper that you’re willing to donate, we would gladly take it off your hands . Thanks!

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This week during K/PREK1 group, we’ve been exploring different text genres. As I pulled out our book for the day, ‘Engelbert the Elephant’, friends quickly commented, “That’s not real!”. A discussion started about what text genre this story would be from and after thinking for a moment, Lucy raised her hand and said, “Fiction!”. Throughout the story, we talked about how certain events couldn’t be real such as an elephant going to a ball with a queen!

K.RL.3.1: Recognize familiar narrative text genres (e.g., fiction, nonfiction, fairy tales, poems).

In PREK2 group, children used square gems to solve greater than and less than problems. Miss Kim put an equation on the ground such as three gems on one side and four gems on the other. She put an alligator between the two sets of gems and told children that the alligator wants to each the bigger number. So, when it was Ruby’s turn, she turned the alligator mouth towards the group with four gems instead of one gem meaning that four is greater than one.

Our day is full of movement, peer interaction, concentration, questions, gross motor and fine motor, and several other activities that challenge us. At the end of the day, we leave with our cups full of happiness and satisfaction. HOWEVER, most times it is hard to talk about what we did during the day. On Monday’s, we’ll ask kids what they did over the weekend and most times, we get the response, “Nothing..”, even though majority of the time weekends were full of fun and engaging activities!

I’ve blogged about this suggestion before but looking at the blog can elicit detailed stories about what kids did during the day. Children see a picture of themselves dancing with scarves and they’re able to recall when they were dancing to a given song and the feelings that they felt at that time. We try our hardest to take pictures of every kid during the day as this is a great way to get conversations going about daily activities.

Our days are often filled with playdough pizza, TV’s built with LEGOS, or a zoo created by a couple of four year old children. Talk about interesting story starters!

Breakfast– Kashi Blueberry Clusters and fresh pears.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh oranges/pears, and fresh cucumber/cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Peanuts and whole wheat crackers.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/cherry tomatoes.

Have a wonderful night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljbItLUPn9Geqkgd_Xg

Good Afternoon All!

“Our care of the children should be governed not by the desire to ‘make them learn things’, but by the endeavor always to keep burning within them the light which is called intelligence.” ~Maria Montessori

Enjoy the pictures from our Thursday!

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and oranges.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh tomatoes, pears.

Snack: Whole wheat rice cakes with cream cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Squash bites.

Have a nice night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljbILMp7tfQCdY-6CTw

Good Afternoon.

“Education must start from birth.” ~Maria Montessori

Jack really enjoys the newly introduced magnet sticks with balls. He made a very long line of the magnets and was proud of creation.

This activity enhances a child’s color recognition and shape acknowledgment. We can also utilize our skills in mathematics and science. What a fun activity all around!

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching we decided it would be fun to paint some Valentine hearts. We used red, white, and pink paint to paint our beautiful creations.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix and apples.

Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs with cheese, whole wheat toast with butter, cucumbers, and pears.

Snack: Whole wheat Ritz crackers with hummus.

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers

Have a great night.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljbEy2fQ7HuqZdlO42g

Good Afternoon!

Enjoy a few pictures from our day!

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and banana.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs with whole wheat tortilla, fresh pears/banana, and fresh cucumber/cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Tortilla chips and hummus.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cherry tomatoes.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/6

Good Afternoon All.

“Growth is not merely a harmonious increase in size, but a transformation.” ~Maria Montessori

Today we kept very busy doing all sorts of different activities throughout the classroom.

Whether it was a fine motor, gross motor or early literacy activity our friends had a great time and kept very engaged. It was a busy but awesome day!

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios, Chex and Kix cereal and apples.

Lunch: Whole wheat flatbread with hummus, peas, and oranges.

Snack: Whole grain raisin cinnamon bagels with cream cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Carrots.

Have a nice night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljbAl_a0F3OFh4xH0ww

Good Afternoon!

K/PREK1: Last week, Miss Charlotte brought use several cartons of eggs! We love fresh eggs and enjoyed getting to see her. This prompted the book choice for today as we focused on non-fiction stories. We read ‘Chicken and Egg’ which taught us about the process of a chick being born and what happens inside of the egg. It takes roughly 21 days for a chick to hatch from it’s egg. Throughout those 21 days, there are red veins that are in the yolk which give the chick food and air to survive. A friend said, “Yeah, like our veins!”, and pointed to the veins in their arm.

As each friend was called to roll up their mat, first they took two dice and rolled them. They counted the white dots on each dice and had to say which dice had more dots. We used the following terms: ‘more’, ‘less’, ‘most’, ‘least’, and ‘one’.

K.RL.3.1: Recognize familiar narrative text genres (e.g., fiction, nonfiction, fairy tales, poems).

K.NS.9: Use correctly the words for comparison, including: one and many; none, some and all; more and less; most and least; and equal to, more than and less than.

PREK2 friends explored Montessori beads. After looking at them, they had to place them in order from smallest to biggest! Children were able to correctly place them in order from smallest to largest based on the area each square took up.

We brought a little nature inside today! Children were anxious to explore charcoal as they did a charcoal sketch of nature elements. After friends used the charcoal to sketch the still life, they used their fingers to shade. We talked about shadows that we observed as well as the different angels at which friends were looking.

“Scientists have recently determined that it takes 400 repetitions to create a new synapse in the brain—unless it is done with play, in which case, it takes between 10 and 20 repetitions!”

-Dr. Karyn Purvis

Breakfast– Corn chex and fresh apples.

Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat flatbread, fresh oranges, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack– Cottage cheese and whole wheat cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrots.

Have a great evening.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/5

Happy Monday!

Throughout the week, K/PREK1 will be reading books from different genres. Today, we focused on fairytales as we read ‘The Little Mermaid’. We quickly noticed that this version was much different than the original. The main character wasn’t called ‘Ariel’ but instead, just ‘The Little Mermaid’. Plus, she had blonde hair instead of red! We talked about how fairytales can have different versions depending on who the author and illustrator are in the story.

As a group, we can up with phrases, things, or people that we often see or hear in fairytales. Our list included: queens, kings, castles, ‘happily ever after’, unicorns, horses, ‘once upon a time’, and dragons.

As each child was rolling up their mat, they were given two or three shapes that they had to put in the correct category. We sorted shapes based on their sides and place the shapes in either the ‘no side’ category or the ‘side’ category.

K.RL.3.1: Recognize familiar narrative text genres (e.g. fiction, nonfiction, fairy tales, poems).

K.DA.1: Identify, sort, and classify objects by size, number and other attributes. Identify objects that do not belong to a particular group and explain the reasoning used.

In PREK2, friends used manipulatives to solve simple addition and subtraction problems. At this age, one to one correspondence skills are coming into focus. The first thing that we see is children using their index finger to count.

“Art for toddlers and preschoolers is rarely about beauty. It’s all about exploration and personal expression.”

-Heather Shumaker

Breakfast– Whole wheat cinnamon raisin bagel with butter and fresh pears.

Lunch– Whole wheat noodles with marinara sauce, banana, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with fresh oranges.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/cucumber.

Have a terrific night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/4

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

“A child needs freedom within limits.” ~Maria Montessori

This morning Daniel asked Miss Marty to read snowy teacher stories to him and his friends. He also insisted that I read these stories on the floor in the “old spot” prior to the upgraded reading center. All of the children were very happy and enthusiastic about all the stories that I read to them.

Our friend Rose and her family donated many puzzles to the classroom today! Thank you so much  

Our little ones LOVED manipulating them and spent the majority of the morning happily engaged!

Breakfast: Whole grain English muffins with peanut butter and banana.

Lunch: While pasta with marinara and shredded mozzarella cheese, carrots,a nd banana.

Snack: Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Corn.

Have a wonderful night.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulja87O7J2rdsqCw9kEA

Happy Friday!

**If you haven’t turned in your ‘Pre-Conference Form’ (yellow sheet), please have it turned in by Monday, February 4th. Thank you!__________________________________________________________

We were so happy to get back into our routine after being off for a couple of days.

In K/PREK1, we read ‘The Mitten’. After we finished the story, we talked about the jobs of the author and illustrator as well as the characters and setting in this specific book. Each friend contributed as we filled in each section. There were quite a lot of characters in this story so children helped one another recall the different animals that they remembered.

K.RL.3.2: Define the role of the author and illustrator of a story in telling the story.

Children scattered throughout the environment this morning to draw at the table, work with patterns, and build with our favorite building material: LEGOS!

We had to put on a few Band-Aids on our friends (papercuts!) today. I saw this article and was pulled in based on the title: ‘Boo-Boo Curriculum’. It related to our day and the conversations we had. A ten minute conversation about Band-Aids is usually so much more than that. Most of the time, we can observe a conversation between two friends and are able to make notes on several learning goals or objectives just by listening to their conversation. We’re able to see what they’re retaining as far as curriculum JUST BY LISTENING!

https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/tyc/oct2015/boo-boo-curriculum

Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh pears.

Lunch– Ham and cream cheese roll-ups, whole wheat tortilla, fresh oranges/pears, and fresh carrots/cucumber.

PM snack– Banana, string cheese, and goldfish.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/carrots.

Have a great weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 2/1

Happy Friday and welcome back.  We hope you all stayed warm throughout the past few days.

“We must help the child to act for himself, will for himself, think for himself;this is the art of those who aspire to serve the spirit.” ~Maria Montessori

Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Breakfast: Whole grain cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese and apples.

Lunch: Whole grain tortillas with melted shredded cheese, sweet potatoes, and oranges.

Snack: Whole grain cheese crackers, and mozzarella string cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulja5l-7VmFzRhTvoSmw