Choosing your own activity

When the children arrive at 9:30 they have a choice of table toys to play with..... Or.....
they can choose anything in the centers to play with. For half an hour they can try as many things as they wish.

Some have longer attention spans than others and can stay in one place for long periods.

Outside today

Look! an actual line without our direction!

Thank you for the food we eat.

An exercise in patience: before the children can eat, they must first find their color, sit down and fold their hands (or at least NOT touch their food), wait for the rest to be seated and then say the blessing: Thank you for the world so sweet, thank you for the food we eat, Thank you for the birds that sing, Thank you God for Everything! Thank the person who brought the snack, and then they may eat.

Getting Comfortable

Everyone seems to be getting comfortable in the classroom.
Everyone is hanging up their own bag (on the right hook!) and entering the room ready to play!

Group Art: We are making an apple tree with all the red paintings we did.

Simple fun: everyone was given a piece of scotch tape and then told to put it on their nose, cheeks, ears lips etc......some were appalled, others were delighted.

We went to music, had goldfish for snack and read "A Mother for Choco" We are talking about families, parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, and pets this week.

Another rainy day

Gabriella was the line leader today. In the first photo, we have no problem with the concept of a line....but as soon as we enter the hallway.........completely oblivious!

We are using stop and go signs and trying to slow them down and then we will work on the line.

We have our very own black hole. There was a leak in the ceiling in one of the rooms so we took a few minutes to check it out for fish or other interesting objects.

Rainy Days and Mondays

Emily was the line leader today. She brought two books to read, Kipper, the story of a dog dissatisfied with his bed until he tried sleeping in a nest and a skunk's den before realizing there was nothing as comforting as familiar territory. The second was the Curious George book about a surprise party, with very messy icing.

Is there genetic programing for girls and phones?

In the Gym

We share our playground time (Today it was in the gym because of the rain) with Mrs. Orgeron and Mrs. Nitz's 3's

Right Hand on the Railing!

The children are learning to navigate the stairs with their "right hand on the railing". It's slow going at the start, but practice make perfect.

Spanish with Mrs. Viera and Mr. Pound

"Teacher directed Activities"

We made traffic lights today and then played redlight/green light.

Before we started matching these shapes, we played a game where they had to identify either the shape or color of the piece I was holding, after everyone "won" a few we went to the tables to match them with the shapes you see.

Table toys

There is a rotation of table toys every three or four weeks so the children experience different ways to count and sort. Here they are simply putting pegs into holes; before this rotation is over, they will be sorting by colors (all red, all green etc.) and counting.

Here is a good example, the firetruck is a "floor" toy. Eventually they will learn the difference.

Always a favorite, the easel is available most of the day.

Cutting is a skill that takes lots of time.

Group activities

Tower building is a great group activity, everyone can
participate no matter what their skill level

The hard part is "waiting until we count to 3" before we topple it

Bob the Builder

Even a fancy new playground could not compete with this kind of entertainment!

And Gabriella to the list of fire pole pros!

Kate was the line leader today, and the book she brought was "Silly Sally" about a girl

who does everything upside down and backwards. We thought we'd give it a try!

Toes on the line, waiting for snacks allows a little time for following directions (i.e. reach up high, touch your knees, wiggle your thumb.) They were rewarded with a wonderful snack, grapes and cubes of ham and cheese! Thanks, Kate.