Thankful for the sunny day today!!
We got outside for a little bit and collected snow for our clear bag activity. I had everyone try to predict what would happen to the snow and how long it would take for the snow to melt in various places. Some snow melted faster than others and some ended up all over the table to be played in by little animals....
In the story of The Snowy Day, Peter drags his feet through the snow and makes various tracks. We acted out parts of the story by dragging our feet, dragging a stick, and climbing a mountain.
Peter also tries to save a piece of winter by putting a snowball in his pocket. He takes this into his warm house only to discover a while later that the snowball is gone. So we talked about what the children thought happened to the snowball.
We are not done with this story and will be working with it through next week as well.
Part of our activities will include making our own collection book of all the stories that we will be reading together.
Some questions to talk about with your child (especially the older ones):
How did the snow get piled up along the street?
Where do you think Peter lives?
Peter knew he wasn't old enough to join the snowball fight. How do you think he felt?
What is something you will do when you are older?
Peter put a snowball in his pocket. When he looked for it later, it was gone. What happened to it?
What do you think Peter and his friend will do in the snow?
We made banana bread together and added lots of raisins to it.....delicious!!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Snow, Love, and Soup Days
This week we are beginning to work with the story called The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. You may want to purchase this book or check it out from the library to reinforce the story and concepts we are learning together. It's also a fun way to talk with your child about what we are doing here and create a stronger connection between home and school.
The pictures are a combination of watercolor and collage. We will be making pictures with watercolors and colored tissue paper just like Keats.
We will be discussing types of weather: snowy, sunny, foggy, rainy, hail, and sleet.
Snowflakes have six main points which we will also be closely observing.
A song we have been singing goes like this:
Yellow is the sun
Six is five and one
Why is the sky so blue?
Seven is five and two.
Salty is the sea
Eight is five and three.
Hear the thunder roar
Nine is five and four.
Ducks will swim and dive
Ten is five and five.
Other stories we are reading include a book of poetry called Animal Crackers,
Mama Do you Love Me?
Baby I Love You
The Day it Rained Hearts
Our winter circle time includes the following poems and action rhymes:
Little light snowflakes
Whirl around
Little light snowflakes
Fall to the ground
Fall on the tree
And fall on me
Make the earth white
Make the earth bright
Let's put on our mittens
And button up our coat
Wrap a scarf snugly
Around our throat
Pull on our boots
Fasten the straps
And tie on tightly
Our warm winter caps
Then open the door...
And out we go
Into the soft and feathery snow
Mark your steps
with your feet
On the white snow
Little holes
Bigger holes
Look, where you go
We will work with the above with motions and lots of gestures and full body movement for a week and then add a few more verses until the winter circle time is complete and fully ingrained in the children's hearts.
Our menu for the week looks like this:
Monday: Black bean soup
Tuesday: Brown basmati rice with teriyaki tofu
Wednesday: Homemade bread with almond butter
Thursday: Sweet potato soup
Friday: Millet squares topped with fruit
Of course there will be a variety of snacks throughout the day as well.
Handouts this week include The Wisdom of Waldorf, which is a great introduction to the Waldorf method of early childhood education and beyond, and an article about inspiring play at home with your child.
As many of you know, I am considering the early childhood Waldorf teacher training at Sunbridge College in New York. This is a part time program that consists of three weeks in June, one week in October, one week in March of 2011, and a final three weeks in June of 2011. Miss Meghan, Audrey, and Tesa will all be here to help during this time.
Thank you for your continued support, encouragement, and love!!
The pictures are a combination of watercolor and collage. We will be making pictures with watercolors and colored tissue paper just like Keats.
We will be discussing types of weather: snowy, sunny, foggy, rainy, hail, and sleet.
Snowflakes have six main points which we will also be closely observing.
A song we have been singing goes like this:
Yellow is the sun
Six is five and one
Why is the sky so blue?
Seven is five and two.
Salty is the sea
Eight is five and three.
Hear the thunder roar
Nine is five and four.
Ducks will swim and dive
Ten is five and five.
Other stories we are reading include a book of poetry called Animal Crackers,
Mama Do you Love Me?
Baby I Love You
The Day it Rained Hearts
Our winter circle time includes the following poems and action rhymes:
Little light snowflakes
Whirl around
Little light snowflakes
Fall to the ground
Fall on the tree
And fall on me
Make the earth white
Make the earth bright
Let's put on our mittens
And button up our coat
Wrap a scarf snugly
Around our throat
Pull on our boots
Fasten the straps
And tie on tightly
Our warm winter caps
Then open the door...
And out we go
Into the soft and feathery snow
Mark your steps
with your feet
On the white snow
Little holes
Bigger holes
Look, where you go
We will work with the above with motions and lots of gestures and full body movement for a week and then add a few more verses until the winter circle time is complete and fully ingrained in the children's hearts.
Our menu for the week looks like this:
Monday: Black bean soup
Tuesday: Brown basmati rice with teriyaki tofu
Wednesday: Homemade bread with almond butter
Thursday: Sweet potato soup
Friday: Millet squares topped with fruit
Of course there will be a variety of snacks throughout the day as well.
Handouts this week include The Wisdom of Waldorf, which is a great introduction to the Waldorf method of early childhood education and beyond, and an article about inspiring play at home with your child.
As many of you know, I am considering the early childhood Waldorf teacher training at Sunbridge College in New York. This is a part time program that consists of three weeks in June, one week in October, one week in March of 2011, and a final three weeks in June of 2011. Miss Meghan, Audrey, and Tesa will all be here to help during this time.
Thank you for your continued support, encouragement, and love!!
Friday, January 22, 2010
Latest adventures
This has been a full week of joyful discoveries.
We had a park day on Wednesday morning, yoga and lavendar massages with Miss Meghan on Tuesday and Thursday, and lots of play with a variety of objects on the light table. The children have been enjoying playing in our many indoor "forts". They are presently listening to a sweet and tender story about a mouse who comes out of the ground to discover the snow and explores the journey of a particular snowflake and its continued journey into various forms from stream, cloud, fog, and rain. Circle times include nursery rhymes and a song about tea time after which they transition to getting ready for snack time and going outside to play. Our daily schedule usually follows this routine:
8 - 8:30 Arrival and free play
8:30 - 9 Planned learning activity related to the current story of the week
9:15 Circle Time ( very important time to get all children and teacher connected for the day)
9:30 Snack Time/Story
9:50 Outside Play
11:30 Lunch
11:50 Quiet songs with the lyre/kinderharp/Story
12 Rest/sleep
3 Snack
3:30 Outside Play/ Art activity
5 Clean up and preparations for going home/Story
Did you know that by the time most children go to kindergarten, they have spent more than 5,000 hours in front of a TV? Enough time to earn a college degree. Be Out There is National Wildlife Federation's initiative to inspire families across America to open the door and get outside. To start the new year off right take the 2010 Be Out There Resolution to Know, Go, and Grow. www.nwf.org/Get-Outside/Be-Out-There.aspx
Have a happy and peaceful weekend!
We had a park day on Wednesday morning, yoga and lavendar massages with Miss Meghan on Tuesday and Thursday, and lots of play with a variety of objects on the light table. The children have been enjoying playing in our many indoor "forts". They are presently listening to a sweet and tender story about a mouse who comes out of the ground to discover the snow and explores the journey of a particular snowflake and its continued journey into various forms from stream, cloud, fog, and rain. Circle times include nursery rhymes and a song about tea time after which they transition to getting ready for snack time and going outside to play. Our daily schedule usually follows this routine:
8 - 8:30 Arrival and free play
8:30 - 9 Planned learning activity related to the current story of the week
9:15 Circle Time ( very important time to get all children and teacher connected for the day)
9:30 Snack Time/Story
9:50 Outside Play
11:30 Lunch
11:50 Quiet songs with the lyre/kinderharp/Story
12 Rest/sleep
3 Snack
3:30 Outside Play/ Art activity
5 Clean up and preparations for going home/Story
Did you know that by the time most children go to kindergarten, they have spent more than 5,000 hours in front of a TV? Enough time to earn a college degree. Be Out There is National Wildlife Federation's initiative to inspire families across America to open the door and get outside. To start the new year off right take the 2010 Be Out There Resolution to Know, Go, and Grow. www.nwf.org/Get-Outside/Be-Out-There.aspx
Have a happy and peaceful weekend!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Sloshy Day
Mud, snow, slosh, slush, splash, jump, laugh.....
It felt like the first day of spring today.
We set up a sensory table out in the grass and scooped up the snow with big shells. Then we gathered small twigs and other items to help us make little snow houses. A variety of shapes were explored as we discovered the prints that objects made in the snow. We made squares, circles, stars, crescents, and some original designs, and worked on patterns.
The children are hearing a winter story about a little boy named Henry who gets lost in the woods and stumbles upon a little house tucked away inside of a tall tree. An old forest gnome eagerly invites Henry in. Fortunately he has arrived just in time to join the gnome for some delicious hot lentil soup....
One of our current circle time activities that goes along with the story is to sing a little song that goes like this:
Hack, hack, the rocks we crack
To find some crystals for our sack
Hack, hack, the rocks we crack
To find some crystals for our sack
We "chop" and "hack" with little wooden blocks and find sparkling, shiny crystals for our sacks...
Books we have read this week include:
Little Kitten's First Full Moon
Ollie's Ski Trip
Any Room For Me?
Hush. A Thai Lullaby
Winter
Our menu has included:
Veggie burgers
Hummus and pita bread
sliced vegetables
red lentil soup
homemade bread
tacos
Today Miss Meghan came in for a visit which all the children enjoyed. She did yoga with us and helped everyone make handprint art with fingerpaints.
Please make sure your child has a full change of clothes here to stay and that they come properly dressed for the weather. We go outside most every day and everyone needs waterproof boots, gloves, waterproof pants, beanies, etc. It is no fun when little hands, feet, and legs are wet and muddy....it shortens the time we are able to be outside.
Your help with this is appreciated.
Thanks so much for all your help, encouragement, and support of our work!
With love and peace
It felt like the first day of spring today.
We set up a sensory table out in the grass and scooped up the snow with big shells. Then we gathered small twigs and other items to help us make little snow houses. A variety of shapes were explored as we discovered the prints that objects made in the snow. We made squares, circles, stars, crescents, and some original designs, and worked on patterns.
The children are hearing a winter story about a little boy named Henry who gets lost in the woods and stumbles upon a little house tucked away inside of a tall tree. An old forest gnome eagerly invites Henry in. Fortunately he has arrived just in time to join the gnome for some delicious hot lentil soup....
One of our current circle time activities that goes along with the story is to sing a little song that goes like this:
Hack, hack, the rocks we crack
To find some crystals for our sack
Hack, hack, the rocks we crack
To find some crystals for our sack
We "chop" and "hack" with little wooden blocks and find sparkling, shiny crystals for our sacks...
Books we have read this week include:
Little Kitten's First Full Moon
Ollie's Ski Trip
Any Room For Me?
Hush. A Thai Lullaby
Winter
Our menu has included:
Veggie burgers
Hummus and pita bread
sliced vegetables
red lentil soup
homemade bread
tacos
Today Miss Meghan came in for a visit which all the children enjoyed. She did yoga with us and helped everyone make handprint art with fingerpaints.
Please make sure your child has a full change of clothes here to stay and that they come properly dressed for the weather. We go outside most every day and everyone needs waterproof boots, gloves, waterproof pants, beanies, etc. It is no fun when little hands, feet, and legs are wet and muddy....it shortens the time we are able to be outside.
Your help with this is appreciated.
Thanks so much for all your help, encouragement, and support of our work!
With love and peace
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to everyone!
As you are planning for the week, please remember to dress your child in layers starting with a full onesie or bodysuit that provides a full covering of chest, stomach, and trunk. We also need a full change of clothes for each child that can stay here which includes the bodysuit, long sleeve shirt, pants, socks, and jacket. Have your child's name on all clothing as well. Please also make sure your child has waterproof snowboots, snowpants, and waterproof gloves as we play outside in the snow every day...2 times.
School starts at 8:30 a.m. and your little one will get the greatest benefit out of our preschool program when they arrive on time and this will lessen the interruption to our scheduled activities.
Please be careful as you walk down the driveway to the back playroom as it can be slippery and also coming up the two steps.
In the winter garden, through the falling snow
Stars are gleaming, streaming, gleaming
Down to earth below
Deep snow, deep snow,
Through the woods we'll go
Hope you are all enjoying the freshly fallen snow with your family.
As you are planning for the week, please remember to dress your child in layers starting with a full onesie or bodysuit that provides a full covering of chest, stomach, and trunk. We also need a full change of clothes for each child that can stay here which includes the bodysuit, long sleeve shirt, pants, socks, and jacket. Have your child's name on all clothing as well. Please also make sure your child has waterproof snowboots, snowpants, and waterproof gloves as we play outside in the snow every day...2 times.
School starts at 8:30 a.m. and your little one will get the greatest benefit out of our preschool program when they arrive on time and this will lessen the interruption to our scheduled activities.
Please be careful as you walk down the driveway to the back playroom as it can be slippery and also coming up the two steps.
In the winter garden, through the falling snow
Stars are gleaming, streaming, gleaming
Down to earth below
Deep snow, deep snow,
Through the woods we'll go
Hope you are all enjoying the freshly fallen snow with your family.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
SNOW
Snow!
The children have had lots of fun these past few days playing in the snow. We made snowmen today, threw snowballs, observed animal tracks, made our own tracks, played with moonsand, and put together a long train in the playroom using tree stumps.
Singing and joyful play fill the atmosphere as everyone peacefully explores the new sights, textures, and circle times of winter...
A new year approaches and we will be moving into a full preschool curriculum using a variety of resources. We will start with a book called Before Five in a Row which is a full range of subjects including math, science, art, history, and language arts based on a story that we will read for 2 -3 weeks. Our art projects will be based first on a book titled Young at Art. Conservation Seeds is a program from the Missouri Department of Conservation that we will use for our science and nature discovery.
The three learning philosophies that provide the backbone of all we do here are the indications of Rudolf Steiner, Reggio Emilia, and Charlotte Mason. I will be sending home more information on our weekly lesson plans and also about these different styles of preschool education.
Basically we want our learning with the children to revolve around a sense of beauty and reverence with respect for each child's individual learning styles. Artistic activities will weave through all the different subjects as we integrate everything together in a chronological unifying manner.
The children have had lots of fun these past few days playing in the snow. We made snowmen today, threw snowballs, observed animal tracks, made our own tracks, played with moonsand, and put together a long train in the playroom using tree stumps.
Singing and joyful play fill the atmosphere as everyone peacefully explores the new sights, textures, and circle times of winter...
A new year approaches and we will be moving into a full preschool curriculum using a variety of resources. We will start with a book called Before Five in a Row which is a full range of subjects including math, science, art, history, and language arts based on a story that we will read for 2 -3 weeks. Our art projects will be based first on a book titled Young at Art. Conservation Seeds is a program from the Missouri Department of Conservation that we will use for our science and nature discovery.
The three learning philosophies that provide the backbone of all we do here are the indications of Rudolf Steiner, Reggio Emilia, and Charlotte Mason. I will be sending home more information on our weekly lesson plans and also about these different styles of preschool education.
Basically we want our learning with the children to revolve around a sense of beauty and reverence with respect for each child's individual learning styles. Artistic activities will weave through all the different subjects as we integrate everything together in a chronological unifying manner.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
celebrating the season
We have had a wonderful few weeks celebrating the start of winter and the Christmas season!
Our art projects have included cotton ball snowmen, Christmas ornaments, crystal making, activities with ice, ice "skating" in the playroom, and Christmas cards.
Books revolved around the current themes of light and dark, winter, hibernation, Christmas, and the tracks of various animals.
Owl Moon
Christmas Cookies
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
Winter's Gift
My Little Polar Bear
Here Comes Jack Frost
Rabbit's Winter Walk
Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree
A Wish to be a Christmas Tree
The Gingerbread Pirates
Christmas in New York
Dream Snow
Heart of a Snowman
Corduroy's Christmas
Thank you to everyone for all of the wonderful gift certificates, chocolate, books, soaps, and other goodies....these are all so special and meaningful reminders of the amazing families I am so privileged to serve. It is an honor to have you all in our lives and I wish you a very peaceful and special Christmas celebration!
Our art projects have included cotton ball snowmen, Christmas ornaments, crystal making, activities with ice, ice "skating" in the playroom, and Christmas cards.
Books revolved around the current themes of light and dark, winter, hibernation, Christmas, and the tracks of various animals.
Owl Moon
Christmas Cookies
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
Winter's Gift
My Little Polar Bear
Here Comes Jack Frost
Rabbit's Winter Walk
Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree
A Wish to be a Christmas Tree
The Gingerbread Pirates
Christmas in New York
Dream Snow
Heart of a Snowman
Corduroy's Christmas
Thank you to everyone for all of the wonderful gift certificates, chocolate, books, soaps, and other goodies....these are all so special and meaningful reminders of the amazing families I am so privileged to serve. It is an honor to have you all in our lives and I wish you a very peaceful and special Christmas celebration!
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