Happenings

We had a very sweet Tuesday morning. Banon decided to have a "party" and invite all her friends over for dinner. She set the table and prepared a delicious cake. Charlie drove around to pick up all the guests in his car he made out of stumps and blocks and also go by the store to pick up punch for the occasion. All the children lined up by the door and knocked, were greeted by Banon, and shown the way to the table where the meal was waiting for them. This play scenario was acted out for over 30 minutes!
Today we were very engrossed in playing Scrabble Junior. The children enjoyed finding colored letters and matching them to the letters on the board to form a variety of words.
When we sing the alphabet song, we sing the letter sounds as opposed to the names of the letters. In this way, the children are becoming familiar with the skills they will actually need to sound out the letters in the reading process. Just knowing the names of letters does not help with later reading ability. You could reinforce this at home as well by sometimes singing the letter sounds instead of the letter names.
One of our learning centers this week is Library Play. The children will take turns being a Librarian, checking out books to each other, and playing with the story props.
While playing library, the children will learn:
1) To develop their interest in a variety of books, magazines, and other printed materials
2) That stories can be in many forms including books, magazines, storytelling, flannel board stories, and puppet shows.
3) To enjoy reading books and retelling stories

Elias told us all about the exciting play he attended last night, called "Strega Nona". Thanks for sharing the book today! We all enjoyed this story about Strega Nona's magic pot that made pasta. But what happened when her assistant tried to use it to show off to the town while Strega Nona was away? This was a fun tale to imagine and act out what it must be like to have your whole house and town fill up with endless amounts of pasta!!

I highly encourage you to take your children to as many live performing arts events as possible. They are captivated and so enriched by the experience that brings to life so many of the stories they hear. Surrounding them with beautiful music and the best in theater is an important foundation for their lifelong love of learning and appreciation for one of the best ways to spend their time!