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Apple Week

The children will be making applesauce and exploring the difference between fresh, crisp apples and warm, cooked apples.  Yum!  

We will have the paints out for the older classes.  Smocks are available but send them in clothes that are “messy okay” in case they don’t want to wear the smocks.  The paint is washable but messy. 

At home you can talk to them about the apple trees in the neighborhood, the apples they see in the grocery stores and at the market.  Ask them if all apples are the same color, if they like them crunchy or soft, what shape do they think an apple is and help them identify seeds/stem/skin.  

Way Up High in a Tree

Way up high, in a tree, two littles apples smiled at me. 

So I shook that tree as hard as I could. 

Down came the apples, mmmm good.

Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Light

Twinkle twinkle traffic light   Round the corner shining bright

Red means stop, green means go, yellow means – very slow.

Twinkle twinkle traffic light Round the corner shining bright.

(Then we will sing it ‘silly’   Twinkle Twinkle APPLE light)

Have You Ever Seen an Apple

Have you ever seen an apple, an apple, an apple,
Have you ever seen an apple, that grows on a tree?
A red one, a yellow one, a red one, a green one.
Have you ever seen an apple, that grows on a tree? 

Have you ever had an apple, an apple, an apple?
Have you ever had an apple and heard it go ‘crunch’?

This week we will be learning about ME and my body.  We will have a story called

I LIKE ME and sings songs about our body parts.   We will talk about our 5 Senses i At home you can ask your child to ‘listen’ as they crunch the leaves on a walk, ‘look’ at the colors of the leaves in the trees, ‘taste’ the apple, ‘smell’ the food as it cooks for dinner and ‘feel’ the slippery soap during their bath.  This year we will spend a lot of time encouraging the children to engage in the world around them by using their 5 Senses and developing an awareness of how their body works by interacting with the world around them – inside and outside.

 

SPECIAL ME

Special, special, special me

How I wonder what I’ll be

In this big world I can be

Anything I want to be

Special, special, special me

How I wonder what I’ll be.

 

A Home for Me

This is a nest for a birdie

This I a hive for a bee

This is a hole for a bunny

And this is a house for me.

 

HANDS ON YOUR SHOULDERS

Hands on shoulders,
hands on knees.
Hands behind you,
if you please;
Touch your shoulders,   now your nose,
Next your knees and now your toes;
Hands up high in the air,
Down at your sides, and touch your hair;

This is the Way

This is the way we wash our hands,

wash our hands, wash our hands.
This is the way we wash our hands
So early in the morning.

…eat our food

…drink our milk

…brush our teeth

FISH WEEK 

This week we will make fish prints at the art table.  We will encourage all the children to make a fish print.  The children will have a chance to choose the colors they would like to paint their fish and see how these colors blend when made into a print. We will have a fishing pool set out in the blocks area with a ‘dock’ to stand on to catch fish.  

A fun activity at home is to “catch” goldfish crackers with humus “bait” on the end of a long, fat pretzel “fishing pole”.  You can use anything long (a pretzel, celery or carrot) to be your pole and any thick bait (humus, cream cheese or a nut butter) to catch your ‘fish’ (goldfish crackers, cut in half olives, cheerios).  It is a fun way to eat a snack.

FISH IN THE SEA

There are so many fish in the deep blue sea. What color fish do you see?

5 Little Fishes 

5 little fishes swimming near the shore
1 swam away and then there was 4

4 little fishes were swimming out to sea
One swam away and then there was 3

3 little fishes said now what should we do?
One swam away and then there were 2

2 little fishes we are having great fun
One swam away and then there was 1

1 little fish said I like the warm sun
She swam away and now  there are none!

FISHIES

Fish are swimming, fish are swimming,
In the sea, in the sea,
A-splishing and a-splashing,
A-splishing and a-splashing,
Look and see, look and see.

DINOSAUR WEEK 2019

This week we will be learning about dinosaurs, bones and volcanoes.  The children will be building a volcano and adding dinosaurs to the volcano before it ‘blows up’.  We will use descriptive words while we discuss big and little, loud and quiet, in and out.  The kids will be using tools (technology) as they add dino-bone powder to the volcano, dig for bones in the sensory table and examine fossil prints at the playdough table.  They will be paleontologists in the sandbox and in the sensory table using tools to find the hidden bones.   At Table Toys there will be little dinosaurs hatching out of eggs and in the Blocks area we will have dinosaurs stomping around the neighborhood.  At home you can talk to your child about size and comparisons. You can ask questions that compare things the child is familiar with: big as an elephant, small as a kitten. Talk about the difference of loud and quiet.  When is a cat loud? What is loud in the house – the vacuum? the hair blower?  the blender?  Give them an opportunity to make loud sounds and quiet sounds with a tool that can do both.  A tooth brush can make both loud and quiet sound.  The soft brush side of a tooth brush will make one sound while the plastic handle side makes another sound.  What can you use a tooth brush for?  At preschool we will be using it as a tool to brush off the ‘dirt’ from our bones. You can talk about how they use it as a tool to brush food of their teeth.  Dinosaur Week will be filled with STEM activities: Science-study of dinosaurs/volcanoes, Technology: paleontologist tools, Engineering: building the volcano, Math: adding/counting/comparing/categorizing. All of this while we play with dinosaurs!

Five Dinosaurs

Five little dinosaurs sitting in a swamp.
The first one said, “Let’s stomp, stomp, stomp

The second one said, “Time for lunch!

The third one said, “Let’s munch, munch, munch.”

The fourth one said, “Let’s stomp some more.”

The fifth one said, “Let’s all roar!”    GRRRR!

Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs

Eating fruits and leaves 

Take a bite, chew it up

Their lunch is in the trees.

The Dino Ditty

Here he comes just a stomping with his feet

Singing Dino, ditty, ditty-dum, ditty do 
Searching all around for something to eat
Singing Dino, ditty, ditty dum ditty do 
He’s huge (echo). He’s strong (echo) He’s huge, he’s strong. 
Wont be hungry very long 
Singing Dino ditty, ditty dum, ditty do
Singing Dino ditty, ditty dum, ditty do

BEE WEEK 2019

This week we continue talking about flowers, gardens and bugs as we focus on bees.  We will talk about where animals live – the bird lives in a nest, the bunny in a hole, the bee lives in a hive and we live in a house.  We will also be talking about colors when we read our story, The Bee, at circle time. This story gives the children the opportunity to guess what comes next.  This is one of the pre-reading skills we have been working on.  To be able to guess what comes next the children need to be engaged in the story, able to stay focused and to follow a story line.

We will be “playing” with words and rhymes.   The Bug in the Rug and Mouse in the House rhymes are fun word games to play with the children.  They learn a rhyme, guess an answer and get excited when they are correct when figuring out what bug is hiding under the rug and what house is little mouse in.  We have already introduced the older children to Bug in the Rug and now we will also hide a mouse in a house.  This game is similar to the bugs with colored houses that hide a colored mouse.  This is also a pre-reading skill to learn rhymes – to hear the sounds of words.  They are developing listening skills as they hear how words sound the same and how they are different.  Children enjoy rhymes and the humor that comes with some of these rhyme

The five early literacy practices: sing, play, talk, read, write

http://www.clel.org/#!fiveearlyliteracypractices/cnet

As we sing songs, learn rhymes and read stories we are working on early literacy skills.  They are building their vocabulary as they learn the words in the songs and poems.  Reading the books during Circle Time and in the Library encourages them to love to read and to have print awareness – seeing the written words that are spoken to them as you read the story.  As we re-read stories or do the song/rhyme/flannel story for yet another time it is to encourage your child to hear the words/sounds and be able to re-tell the story/thought/word sequence.  They need to practice this skill and repetition of the songs and stories is a way they can practice this skill.  Singing songs is a way for the children to hear the syllables in the words, hear words that rhyme, recite the words back to you.  These songs and stories are the beginning introductions to the written word which is the start of the development of their early reading skills.

Bug in Rug

Bug in a rug
Bug in a rug
Which one of you bugs
Is snug in my rug?

Insects All Around

Ladybugs and butterflies

Buzzing bees up in the sky

Teeny tiny little ants

Crawling up and down the plants

Many insects can be found

In the sky and on the ground

BUTTERFLY WEEK 

Children are use their natural curiosity to set a base for future scientific discoveries.  Children do not just watch their world they engage in active learning as they make observations and discoveries. When they are outside they can watch a spider in a web, discover roly-poly bugs in the dirt, find a worm and move it to the garden. As they explore their world they are using the scientific process of inquiry:observing, asking questions, forming hypothesis, investigating, gathering data, drawing conclusions, and building ideas that lead to new questions.  (And, oh how they can ask questions!) Science Education should not be about memorizing achieved scientific knowledge, but about living a life of scientific inquiry according to the scientific method. David Hawkins,The Informed Vison: Essays on Learning and Human Nature

It is important to have a partnership with the children as they are engaged in discoveries of their world. Children are active constructors of their own understanding of the world around them and developmentally appropriate teaching practices provide the optimal balance of adult-guided and child-guided experiences. Copple and Bredekamp

There needs to be a balance between adult and child guided learning as the children explore their world.  Sometimes the learning is more exploratory play and completely child guided, sometimes it is adult supported learning that allows the child to pursue their interests with an adult adding to the learning with their knowledge of the subject, while sometimes it is a blend of adult and child guided learning that allows a give and take learning based on interests, knowledge and observations.  

These three types of scientific learning are happening every day at preschool as the children investigate the world around them.

Flutter, flutter, Butterfly 
Flutter, flutter, butterfly.
Floating in the bright blue sky
Floating by for all to see,
Floating by so merrily.
Flutter, flutter, butterfly,
Floating in the bright blue sky

CATERPILLAR/BUTTERFLY

Caterpillar, caterpillar

See him crawl See him crawl

Crawling on the ground

Crawling all around

See him crawl See him crawl.

Butterfly, butterfly

In the air, in the air

Flying up and down

Flying all around

Butterfly, butterfly

Bugs
Big bugs, small bugs, big bugs, small bugs,
See them crawl on the wall?
Creepy, creepy, crawling, never, never falling.
Bug, bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs. 

BIRD WEEK 2019

As we spend more time outside we will have many opportunities to think like scientists.  Many key components of scientific thinking are imbedded in the way children play. Children are natural observers and are very inquisitive.  During the next few weeks I would like to encourage the children to use their senses and develop observational skills by: asking questions, describing what they see, predicting what will happen, explaining what they think is happening, using tools, communicating their ideas with others.

We will be using the greenhouse as our outside science and art lab/classroom.  During the next few weeks we will be planting seeds, making nest art sculptures, experimenting with water, observing the birds nesting in the play area, documenting plant growth, talking about the what is growing in our garden, using tools and documenting the changes in the seeds as they grow.  

Remember that there is a connection between learning and playing. Children learn best while playing.

While we are outside we will have many opportunities to engage in learning during playactivities.  These activities may be ones that are pre-planned, ones that are completely child driven or a combination of the two.  Many times, when I set out an activity for the children they will engage in the activity as I had planned.   Just as many times, I have seen the children take what I have set out and go a different direction – learning through play is never static or contained but it is fluid and spills out in many directions.  The natural curiosity combined with imagination and a mind open to new ideas creates many avenues for learning through play and scientific thinking.

When I was a kid I had a lab. It wasn’t a laboratory in the sense that I would measure and do important experiments.  Instead, I would play.  Richard Feyman – Nobel Prize Recipient in Physics

Nest for a Bird

Here is a nest for a birdie

Here is have for a bee

Here is a hole for bunny

And here is a home for me

TWO LITTLE BLACK BIRDS

Two little black birds. . .sitting on a hill
One named Jack . .. one named Jill
Fly away Jack. . .fly away Jill
Come back Jack. . .come back Jill

Five Little Ducks & Five Little Quail 

Five little ducks went out to play (Wiggle five fingers on one hand)
And met five quail that came their way. (Wiggle five fingers on other hand.)
The five little quail went to get a snack (put quail hand behind back.)
And the five little ducks went quack, quack, quack (use hand to form duck bill)

5 Little Ducks

Five little ducks went out to play  Over the hills and far away

Mommy and Daddy duck said quack quack quack

But only 4 little ducks came back (then 3, 2, 1, none of the 5 little ducks came back)

Sad Mommy and Daddy duck went quack quack quack

And all of the five little ducks came back.

FIVE LITTLE DUCKS

Five little ducks paddling to shore,
One paddled away, then there were four;
Four little ducks paddling towards me,
One paddled away, then there were three:
Three little ducks paddling towards you,
One paddled away, then there were two:
Two little ducks paddling in the sun,
One paddled away, then there was one:
It paddled away then there was none.

RAIN WEEK 2019

This week we will be talking about rain and umbrellas.  It looks like we will have an opportunity to use them this week! We will be outside working in our garden.  This week the children will be planting some seeds and we will be talking about what is growing in our play area.

The children had fun building Leprechaun houses last week.  The small wooden blocks, rocks and other natural materials will be out for the children to build with.   We will be monitoring our rain gauge.  We will make some rain gauges to see where it rains the most and where it rains the least in the play area.

We will be planting peas and nasturtiums this week during class.  We will continue to plant our garden through the month of April. If you are planting a garden at home, and have extra seeds, we would love to plant them at preschool!

Gardening is one way to teach the children empathy for living things.  When they garden they learn responsibility as they care for their plants.  Being outside in nature is allows children to see living things in their environment. As we work in our garden, and observe the worms, bugs and birds in the play area, we are developing a community that has an interest in caring for plants and wildlife.  The preschool garden is a certified a Wildlife Habitat through the National Wildlife Federation and we will continue to build up the garden to support the urban wildlife in our neighborhood.  Last year our garden attracted songbirds, hummingbirds and butterflies. As the children are learning to protect living things in our garden they will be learning empathy and respect for all living things.

Kahn (1997) proposes that children can develop empathy toward both nature and people, and that empathy in one domain can generalize to another domain.  This conceptualization suggests that as children demonstrate prosocial behaviors such as caring and empathy toward animals and plants, their understanding of perspectives, needs, and feelings of people can deepen as well.  

The rain is raining all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea

– Robert Louis Stevenson 

The Rain

Pitter-patter, raindrops,
Falling from the sky;
Here is my umbrella
To keep me safe and dry!
When the rain is over,
And the sun begins to glow,
Little flowers start to bud,
And grow and grow and grow

Thunder crashes.
Lightening flashes.
Rain makes puddles,
I make splashes.

Rain on the green grass,
And rain on the tree,
Rain on the rooftop,
But no rain on me!

“Pitter-patter, pitter-patter”, Can you hear the rain?

“Pitter-patter, pitter-patter”, on the window pane.

“Pitter-patter, pitter-patter”, lets go out and play.I just love to jump in puddles on a rainy d