February 2010 Archives

Building structures in the back of the classroom:

Adam carefully adds details to his spaceship. In the background, Noah and Charlie discuss what they are going to construct next.

Adam, Eric, Noah, and Charlie share their ideas and plan how they will build a new spaceship.

Later, they discuss the operations of the spaceship and how they will enhance their structure.

Chae Eun, Kate, Carolina, Addison, Eleanor, and Alice construct a house for their babies.

Around the classroom:

Chae Eun and Eleanor practice everyday living skills (preparing and eating meals) in the
dramatic play scenario they created.

M wanted to make the train tracks reach the second level of the airport. With support from a teacher, M utilized his prior knowledge of the inclined tracks and bridge to fulfill his vision.

Lilly and Carolyn take part in a shared reading experience.

Savarra mixes white, red, and blue paint to make the color purple.

Outside on the Playground:

The children gather and closely observe what happens when they spray colored water onto the snow.

Carolina uses her upper and lower body muscles to pull Eleanor across the playground on her sled.

The children experience shared enjoyment with their peers on the sledding hill.

Weekly Lesson Plan
Week of 2/15/10 - 2/19/10
Lead Teaching this week: Team

Overview and goals:
As the winter months continue to roll through, the children's energy level continues to ramp up! Children enter the classroom ready to explore the new materials and activities provided to them everyday. Many have shown interest in the Mama and her baby rats. Last week we voted as a class which rats would stay, and which rats would go back home with Eva. This week, two baby rats remain, (Glitter and Cinderella) leaving a chance for the children to explore them more closely, observing their unique characteristics. We will also support the elaborate dramatic play that has been occurring in the classroom by including more unique and interesting objects for the children to explore. With the focus on promoting higher-level thinking, we want to introduce materials that challenge the children to think of ways to incorporate new materials as well as possibly create new play themes. We will also start our investigation of snow and explore its various properties, supporting scientific thinking and hypothesis creating/testing with hands on experiments.

Sensory Table:
The flax seed table has been a popular area, but we feel it is time to give the children a different material to explore. We have decided to take a closer look at snow. We will bring snow into the classroom each day for the children to explore with gloves, shovels, and buckets. We will also provide pictures of elaborate snow sculptures to inspire new ideas/ways to look at molding the snow. This will provide many opportunities for the children to utilize their hypothesis creating/testing skills to figure out how the snow melts, to figure out how long it takes snow to melt, how to get it to make shapes, and how well it holds shape.

Art:
Sensory: To stimulate a deeper exploration of what clay has to offer, we will be removing the rolling pins, hammers, and keep specific sculpting/carving tools so the children can manipulate the clay with their hands. By removing these items, we hope that the children will utilize their own manual dexterity and strength to manipulate the clay into new shapes and sculptures. We will also be adding new materials such as small beads, toothpicks, packing peanuts, and other sculpting related materials to the table for the children to help the children see new possibilities about how to manipulate the clay.

Expressive: To maintain the children's interest in the art table, we will continue to keep the collage supplies well stocked. Many of the children have been creating pictures of and for the rats as well as pipe cleaner jewelry. We will also add materials to allow for the construction of their own maracas to tie into the theme of sound that is occurring in the science area. This will not only encourage creative expression, but the children will also be able to compare the sounds different materials can produce within the same container. The collage materials that were added last week will be kept in the easel; last week some of the children participated in cooperative painting and added lace, confetti, and yarn to their paintings to create textured art. The addition of the collage materials also fosters creative expression, fine motor skills, and the apprecitiation in their work as well as the art of others. This week, we will swop the brushes for rollers to provide the children with a different sensory experience while they paint as well as offer a new way of putting paint on the paper.

Science:
This week we will be changing the focus in the science area from the sense of taste to the sense of hearing. We will be introducing a sound matching game where the children will shake containers with various volumes/sounds and try to find the matches. This game will test the children's problem solving skills and sorting skills by encouraging the children to observe/compare the sounds they hear, listening closely to distinguish the differences between the containers. Inside the science cave, we will encourage the comparison between louder and softer through the use of stethoscopes and headphones. We will progress to a sound lotto game where the children will match sounds they here to the spaces on their cards, much like bingo. This will reinforce critical thinking and listening skills as the children distinguish the different sounds they hear. We will also add a keyboard to the area as another means of comparing various sounds. The keyboard will support creative expression through the creation of personal melodies, cooperation/negotiation skills, and turn-taking abilities.

Manipulatives:
Last week we introduced weaving boards and cross-stitching. The children are showing interest and are learning how to use the materials, and we will continue to model the patterns involved with weaving. We also will have beads and string to facilitate pattern making. We will model simple A-B-A patterns and gradually work toward more complicated A-B-B-A or A-B-C-A-B-C patterns. This activity will foster creative expression, patterning, one-to-one correspondence, and fine motor skills.
The interest in the train caves (especially with the addition of the airport) continues to be high. The children have been creating elaborate train tracks that bring people to the airport, and they love using the airport and airplanes in their play. We will switch the DUPLOS for smaller LEGOS, which will encourage the building of more elaborate structures surrounding the tracks. Continuing this activity extends the children's ability to explore the materials in different ways with different peripheral objects that change the way they are used as well as allows the children to utilize new knowledge with familiar play themes.

Dramatic play:
The surplus store has continued to be a big hit for many children. Plastic tubes, wires, and tiles have been used in many areas of the classroom, and the children have been stamping tickets for each item they make a purchase at the store. Mathematical awareness is being developed in this concept as the children make one punch for every item "purchased," and the children seem fascinated by the idea. Adding unique odds and ends to the surplus store such as tiles, carpet, fabrics and other building materials will spark creativity in the children and increase peer interactions. If you have any interesting additions that could be incorporated in this play, we would love to place them in our "surplus store."

Literature Center:
The children's interest in using the alphabet stamps continues to grow as they use them to write notes to each other and extend their writing skills. To foster additional writing practice we will bring in small notebooks with lined paper to inspire new visitors to the writing center. We will also encourage the children to practice writing their answers to the question of the day. These activities will foster early literacy/ pre-writing skills, fine-motor skills, and encourage creative expression.

Block area:
Building continues to be an exciting area in the classroom. Last week several of the children participated in building houses with elaborate interiors. These interiors include having secret compartments and trap doors. The children are using materials such as tubes and wires as latches to these compartments, and take turns placing objects inside these areas. As this elaborate building takes place, the children are building creativity skills, peer interactions, as well as scientific reasoning. Working together as a team, the children must hypothesize ways to retrieve objects from their secret compartments in creative ways. Materials such as blankets and scarves will be added to the block area to enhance their elaborate interior creations, also supporting the growing interest in making tents.

Gym/Outside:
The rope swing and climbing structures have consistently sparked interest in the children. Because the rope swing continues to be one of the most popular areas in the gym, the children have had many opportunities to practice flexibility and agility, endurance, large motor skills, as well as turn taking. Adding a suspended climbing ladder to the set up will put a twist in the rope station and encourage new movement and strategies for the children to experiment with. Outside, the weather has finally been cooperating! With the fresh new snow, the children have been able to create new tracks down the sledding hill, make snow deliveries with the dump trucks at various "construction sites" around the playground, and experienced the speed of the slides on the climbing structures. Because snow is available for the children to explore a several months, we would like to incorporate materials outside that will allow the children to explore the snow on a more investigative level. We will provide colored squirt bottles for the children to create artwork in the snow, and buckets for the children to fill so that we can observe the snow as class inside.

Announcements/reminders:
- Conferences start this week! Please be sure to double check the schedule. Also, remember to try and schedule child care.
- Scholastic book orders are due on Tuesday. You can give your order forms to any of the teachers or Eva.
- Mama rat and all but two babies have ventured back home. However, "Cinderella" and "Glitter" are now the new permanent additions to our classroom.

Snack:
Monday: Chex cereal and oranges
Tuesday: Open snack - Pretzels
Wednesday: Ross' birthday treat
Thursday: Open snack - Cheddar bunnies
Friday: Cooking with Nadine

*All snacks served with milk/water, unless otherwise specified*

Lead Teacher: Jeannine

Goals:
As the school year progresses, we are continuing to encourage children to recognize their own feelings, the feelings of their peers, and to initiate caring actions towards others. This week children will have the opportunity to create and give notes to others in the classroom to promote a caring community. We will also be focusing on developing children's creative expression through various art, sensory, and music activities. Many current play themes will be extended and we will incorporate more storylines created by children and books about these themes to support their pretend play skills.

Art:
After a two week break, the easels will return to the classroom. Children will have the opportunity to paint using the liquid watercolors at the tabletop easels. We will also provide a range of pre-recorded music close to this area. As the children seem interested, we will prompt them to choose paint colors and strokes that represent the emotions provoked by the music. This art activity will help children develop their fine motor skills and allow for creative expression.

Manipulative/Math:
Throughout the week, the children have been engaged in "racing" the small vehicles down the tracks and through the tunnels. We will extend this area to allow children to further learn about mathematical concepts, such as speed, height, and distance. A large-print tape measure will be added to this area. Students will also have the opportunity to race cars through smaller independent ramp structures and create vehicles using Mobilos. As children build with the Mobilos, they will be able to test their creations on the ramps and recognize how adaptations made may influence the cars speed, height, and distance.

Circular nesting cups, nesting "letter books," and a crayon sequencing puzzle will provide children with opportunities to focus attention on individual size differences from large to small. The shape sorter and number peg boards will be available to promote recognition of shapes and numerals and to develop fine motor control.

Sensory:
The children will continue to mix ingredients such as cornmeal, cornstarch, and colored water on individual trays. During the week many children were interested in exploring their mixtures with their fingers, in addition to the spoons and pipettes provided. To expand this sensory experience, shaving cream and oil will be available to further children's sensory exploration.

Science:
Water flow and movement will be the focus of the sensory table this week. Water wheels, funnels, and tubes will allow children to use their observation and prediction skills and further their understanding of cause and effect. In addition, children will have the opportunity to create bubbles with soapy water and hand-held beaters.

Dramatic Play:
The children have continued their interest in the space ship theme, taking many rocket ship rides in the loft area. To extend their space exploration, colored flashlights, funnel phones, and a slide show of space landings will be added to this area. If your child has an interest in particular space explorations, please share a highlight with us so we can incorporate this into our play.

The combined playdough/kitchen area continues to be a busy place with children enthusiastically mixing ingredients. Among the many recipes, chocolate chip cookies and sugar cakes continue to be a favorite. This week we will transform this area into a bakery. Chef apparel, pastry bags, pretend bakery items and muffin and cake pans will be available to foster dramatic play in this area. In addition, playdough and various collage items will allow children to participate in cake decorating experiences. If you have cake decorating skills that you would be willing to demonstrate to the children, please let us know. Thank you!

Another play theme that has been emerging this past week has been pretend fire play. Firefighter apparel, hoses, and spray bottles will allow children to act out play scenarios related to this theme. Some overlap between space (children have been putting out fires on the rocket ships) and blocks (putting out building fires) may occur with the close proximity of the fire fighter items to both the rocket ship and block areas.

Language and Literacy:
Many of the children were very interested in the process of giving and receiving valentines. To continue to develop literacy skills and to further the development of a caring classroom community, individual mailboxes will be setup for each child. Color paper, scissors, markers, and stickers will be available for children to create messages for others in the classroom and outside of school. If you would like to put a note in your child's box, please feel free to do so, or email us a note and we'll put it in their box.

A large flannel board will be setup in the classroom to provide opportunities for children to sequence familiar stories and to use their imagination to create new storylines. Various books incorporating current play themes will be added to the literacy area.

Construction:
The large hollow blocks, unit blocks, and lighter building blocks will continue to be accessible for children to use. This variety of blocks will allow children to make large individual structures or group projects, fostering cooperation and turn-taking.

Music:
Various percussion instruments, including drums, maracas, and tambourines, will be provided for children to explore and create beats and rhythm patterns. Along with song cards, the emotion pictures will continue to be posted to tie in discussions of music and emotions. Pre-recorded music of different genres will be played to aid learning of pitch, loudness, and tempo.

Large Motor:

In the gym, a rope swing is set up to facilitate upper body strength, full body coordination, maintaining body balance, spatial awareness, and muscular endurance. An A-frame is connected to a balance beam supporting eye-foot coordination, balance, lower body coordination, and turn taking. There is a throwing corner to support directional awareness, upper body strength/coordination, depth perception, throwing/catching skills, eye-hand coordination, and agility. "Bolster Island" - a donut hole surrounded by bolsters - is located in the middle of the gym to support team building, climbing on uneven surfaces, spatial awareness maintaining balance, and upper/lower/core strengthening. Mat jumping station is also available to support two-footed landing, lower body/core strengthening coordination, depth perception, and turn taking.

The children have been greatly enjoying the fresh coating of snow. They continue to have fun making tracks in the snow, pulling the sleds, using the dump trucks sometimes as snow plows, and going down the slide into a pile of snow. In addition to these engaging activities we will provide the children with "I Spy" photograph cards as challenging activities to find familiar objects on the playground.

Large Group:
Music and movement will be one focus of large group this week. Children will have the opportunity to dance and move to different genres of music, play simple instruments, and follow rhythm patterns. Other current play themes, such as firefighting, space traveling, and letter writing will be included as well.

Snack: Tuesday: TBA
Friday: TBA

Overview
The bulbs that the children planted, and the large bud that developed on the amaryllis plant last week, brought new enthusiasm to the study of the life cycles of plants. While the children learned to care for the plants, measure their growth, and record observations, they also experimented with the new color mixing station. In addition to mixing colored water, this week we added data recording sheets for writing the children's new color "recipes." Not only will this encourage children to follow a step-by-step process, it will also allow them to learn from each other as they try to recreate each other's color recipes. Another focus for the week ahead will be building classroom community through development of the dominant dramatic play themes. Many of the children gathered together to build a huge stage last week and are interested in putting on a play. They wrote a group story, which we will help them develop and organize into a performance. Restaurant play has also been a large component of the children's dramatic play and we will continue to support the children's social interactions and menu making.

Creative Arts
- Easel: We added the tabletop easels along with a new medium, watercolor paint. Small brushes will allow for representational painting. We are looking forward to seeing how this dramatic new change will spark the children's creativity.
- Beading: The beading area has been an exciting place for children to make necklaces and bracelets for friends, teachers and family members. We hope you have been enjoying them and wearing them with pride as the children take great joy not only in making them, but also in giving them away. By the end of the week we noticed that the children had developed interest in working with the pipe-cleaners by twisting them and connecting them. For this week we added other types of wire and some interesting objects for them to use explore the creative potential of wire.

Sensory
- For a new sensory experience, we added the snow to the classroom. While the children do get to play in the snow at the end of each school day, we thought they would benefit from more time exploring the properties of snow. We provided shovels, scoops and molds to support digging, packing and building with this natural substance.

Science
- The amaryllis plant continues to grow right in front of the children's eyes. It is almost as tall as our prediction chart, nearly two feet high! Before planting the new bulbs, apple seeds, and sunflower seeds, the children observed the differences between the shape, size and texture of them. They made predictions as to how large the plants will grow, and how fast. The children's enthusiasm to keep the plants alive and growing is seen every day as they rush over to water them.
- Since the change in the tadpoles newly developing legs, the children visit their tank daily to see how large the legs are growing.
- The color experimentation station is appealing to all of the children. As they mix two colors together to create a new color, their feelings of curiosity, excitement and wonderment are written all over their faces. To continue the children's interest, and to provide opportunities for higher-level thinking, drawing and writing, we added a documentation book into which the children can add their own observations and color recipes.
- Slides with the children's photos have been added to the overhead projector. Joy and excitement was felt throughout the room when they saw their faces on the large screen. In addition to viewing their pictures, they will be able to try making their pictures larger, smaller, blurry, and clear by adjusting the knobs and lenses on the projector. The children will continue experimenting with the use of shadows for storytelling through the addition of figures from familiar favorite stories.

Math and Manipulatives
- The addition of interlocking builders to the light table provides the children with more construction opportunities as well as contributes to their knowledge of light and shadow.
- The calendar has been a place the children go to in order to find out what day of the week it is, and what activities are planned. For the calendar to be more personal, we have been helping them add their birthdays by finding the month then encouraging them to count to the correct date.
- New puzzles have been added to promote part-whole relationships, problem-solving skills, and color and shape recognition.
- For a new twist on weaving we added plastic baskets to be used with the ribbons. This activity supports the development of hand-eye coordination, fine motor skill and dexterity. The knowledge of patterning helps the children in their process of learning to weave the ribbons in, out, in, out.
- The chain links provide the children with opportunities to practice patterning, and measuring skills. They have also been using long chains as decorations in the cave by hanging them from the ceiling then weaving ribbons through them.

Literacy
- Morning meeting rhyming continues to be an exciting activity for the children to engage in. The children's lists of rhyming words on the "rhyming wall" are becoming longer and longer!
- On the top of the loft we added a menu making/recipe making area. The children's interest in restaurant play has sparked interest in making menus and serving food to classmates and teachers. There are signs in the restaurant, and loft that ask the children "What is your favorite meal in our restaurant?" This helps the experience become more personal and invites each child to choose his/her favorite meal.

Dramatic Play
- The members of the dinosaur small group have been instrumental in starting dinosaur dramatic play complete with herbivores and carnivores roaming around the room looking for food. Dinosaurs also worked their way into the group story the children wrote last Friday.
- The children created new habitats to add to the hibernation cave. Through this experience, the children distinguished between animals that burrow in holes, animals that have nests, and animals that live near water. We hung some of the children's painted habitats to represent nests, and added the burrows they made. These new additions will support continued small group interactions and dramatic play with the animals.

Blocks
- Creating stages and making plays have been a focus the past week in the hollow block area. The children work together to create the stage using hollow blocks, gathering the audience, and acting in the play. To enhance the cohesiveness of the play the teachers will be helping the children collaborate to create storylines and roles before they begin.

Playground
- The entire playground is used each and every day. With the addition of the construction vehicles, the children have been moving and piling snow. We also added spray bottles with colored water to provide additional opportunities for exploration of color mixing. The children spray the snow, and watch the color change right in front of their eyes.

Gym
- The children continue to strengthen their upper bodies and cores as they coordinate the movements necessary to swing from the rope. This week they will be challenged to climb a long rope ladder. The rope ladder provides the children with opportunities to build their balance, leg, and arm strength. Scooter boards with ropes attached allow the children to use full body strength to pull each other across the gym. They take pride in their strength as they pull multiple children and teachers at once.

Overview and Goals

The children enjoyed some extended outdoor times on the snowy playground last week. They sprayed paint in the snow, molded shapes with plastic containers, and of course utilized the sledding hill as much as possible. Indoors, they have had fun making valentines, mixing liquid colors, and learning about seeds and plant growth. This week the children will bring home Valentines bags on Monday, and Delilah's mom will facilitate an art project on Thursday. Small groups continue to learn a lot and have wonderful hands on activities.

Expressive Arts

-The art table will offer opportunities to create 3-D collages with small wooden pieces. We hope to attract new "artists" who have not yet visited this area.
-The large easel will be replaced by three smaller table easels. There will now be six color choices instead of three, with a thinner paintbrush for each color.
~Markers, pencils, glue and colored construction paper and special paper are always available for the children.

Sensory Materials

-We are taking a short break from clay. We will reintroduce it next session and expand on our explorations.
~The children will notice that the sensory table is now in our classroom again. We will fill the table with snow each day for a variety of activities. We have numerous molds and scoops for shaping snow. As the children gather around the table, there will be many opportunities for conversations and social interactions.

Dramatic, Symbolic Play and Blocks/Creative Building

-The children have begun to combine their lego vehicle creations with wooden blocks arranged to form ramps and roads. We will encourage them to extend their dramatic play with these materials.
-The hibernation cave is the site of wonderful pretend play with animals and animal homes made from boxes that the children painted. This week we will rearrange the cave materials, add a blue fabric pond, and hang some of the boxes from the ceiling as bird nests.
-We will add new food to the kitchen area to extend the rich dramatic play experiences that are taking place there.

Science Center

-A new focus in the science area is on bulbs and plants. One of the science tables now contains magnifying glasses that the children can use to examine seeds and parts of plants. The children will be watering the seeds and bulbs that they planted last week and watching to see if sprouts will appear.
-We have enjoyed observing the growth of our tadpoles' legs and watching them move around their aquarium. We will be keeping an eye on them to see what changes occur next.
-The color mixing table will be continued this week due to popular demand. As an extension of our color theme, we will also add a camouflage area where the children can match pictures of an animal with pictures of an environment in which the color of the animal allows them to blend in with nature's colors. We will encourage the children to discuss why and how animals blend in with their environments.
-We are adding a large projector screen to the light area to facilitate experimentation with light and shadows using the light projector.

Language and Literacy

-Rhyming continues to be a popular activity with books, songs, and rhyming games. We are helping the children write down their rhyming words on a large poster and in their individual rhyming booklets. - -The children enjoy looking at the beautiful books in our book rack with themes of birds and winter.
-We continue to offer opportunities for composing letters, drawing pictures, and writing their own names and the names of their classmates. The children enjoy making notes and drawings for friends and placing them in the appropriate mail boxes.

Math, Manipulative, and Games

-We continue to offer patterning materials in many areas of the classroom. We have added patterning games that feature finding the puzzle piece that completes a pattern or finding the plastic fruit pieces that duplicate the pattern shown on a picture card.Patterning with sticker dots continues to be available to encourage the children to create their own patterns.
-The children's use of Legos and Construx materials have encouraged creative building projects and the development of fine motor skills. The children are bringing their creations to the unit block area and expanding their building play there with combinations of various types of blocks. These activities have also fostered social interactions, symbolic play, and improved sharing skills.
-New puzzles are now available to provide the children with additional mental challenges and more opportunities to use fine motor skills.

Large Motor

-The children are gaining confidence and skill with the rope swing in the gym. Some of them like to pretend that they are flying like birds on the swing. Many of the children are utilizing the jumping mat and measuring how far they can jump. Then they try to extend the distance of their own jumps. This week we will help them record their jumps by observing measurements on the wall in the gym and placing their pictures next to the spot on the wall that indicates their longest jumps.
-Outdoors we will encourage aerobic exercise as we try to play freeze tag in the snow. This game involves running away from the teachers, who are trying to tag them. If they are caught, they will need to freeze like a statue, until a friend tags them and "unfreezes" them.

Music and Movement/Large Group

Large groups this week will provide opportunities to move to music, play instruments with music, and identify rhyming words in songs.

It is a privilege to work with your children and to encourage their learning and their friendships.

Janet

*Thank you for supporting us at Gym Jam! With your help, we were able to raise $2,200.00! This will go towards buying new equipments for the gym and outdoor playground.

*Parent-teacher conferences are beginning this week! I will send you an email to remind you of the conference time (about a day or two prior to the conference) and attach a copy of your child's developmental summary (written by me). Please read through the developmental summary and bring a copy to the conference if you wish. We will base our conference on the the summary. I will meet you in the lobby at the time of our meeting.

*If you have cake decorating skills that you would be willing to demonstrate to the children, please let us know. Thank you!

*If your child has an interest in particular space explorations, please share a highlight with us so we can incorporate this into our play.

Classroom Newsletter
2/13/10

Dear Families,

This was an exciting week full of cooking, valentines, and exploration. Throughout the week the children worked together creating wonderful collaborative art pieces which brightened up the walls of our classroom. The dramatic play areas were a big hit! The children were engaged and curious of the new and extended themes in the classroom. Below are some of the highlights from the curriculum I developed this week.

The ramps and the race track have been a popular area in the classroom.

The children explored the ramps and made comments about speed and distance. As the week progressed they started creating their own ramps. They worked together to make "bumps" in the race track. It started with Katie and Ebisaa working together cooperatively. Then other children joined in. Playing in this area encouraged the children to take turns and negotiate.

Max discovered how to make a bridge for the cars to travel underneath.

The race track encouraged the children to share, as they took turns making it to the finish line.

The children were careful to stay on the track. When their cars went off the track, the dramatic play scene in the "repair shop" emerged. They called for children to fix their cars or help them get them un-stuck.

The children were enthusiastic about taking a ride to the moon in the "rocket ship." They put on their space helmets and their jet packs and climbed aboard the rocket ship. On the rocket ship we sang: "Zoom zoom zoom we're going to the moon. Zoom zoom zoom we're going to the moon. If you'd like to take a trip, climb aboard my rocket ship. Zoom zoom zoom we're going to the moon. 1, 2, 3, BLAST OFF!!!" Once they arrived on the moon many of the children searched for "space creatures." They searched the classroom for interesting things to bring back to the rocket ship. Some children brought back cars, tigers, and spiders.

This week in the gym the children learned a new game called "Bug in the Rug." The children were asked to close their eyes as the teacher picked one child to be the "bug" and hide underneath a blanket. Once the "bug" is chosen the rest of the children open their eyes and try to guess who the "bug" could be. The children enjoyed becoming the bug, waiting patiently for the rest of the class to discover who the "bug" was. This game challenged the children to problem solve and rationalize their thinking. They enjoyed singing "Bug in the rug, bug in the rug, whose that bug in the rug" and watching as the bug is slowly revealed.

Leading teaching this week was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed watching the children explore the different areas I had created around the room. Their curiosity and creative minds delighted me. Thanks for all your support this week.

Sincerely,
Darya

Lesson Plan
Lead Teacher: Jeannine
Week of February 15th 2010

Goals:
As the school year progresses, we are continuing to encourage children to recognize their own feelings, the feelings of their peers, and to initiate caring actions towards others. This week children will have the opportunity to create and give notes to others in the classroom to promote a caring community. We will also be focusing on developing children's creative expression through various art, sensory, and music activities. Many current play themes will be extended and we will incorporate more storylines created by children and books about these themes to support their pretend play skills.

Art:
*After a two week break, the easels will return to the classroom. Children will have the opportunity to paint using the liquid watercolors at the tabletop easels. We will also provide a range of pre-recorded music close to this area. As the children seem interested, we will prompt them to choose paint colors and strokes that represent the emotions provoked by the music. This art activity will help children develop their fine motor skills and allow for creative expression.

Manipulative/Math:
*Throughout the week, the children have been engaged in "racing" the small vehicles down the tracks and through the tunnels. We will extend this area to allow children to further learn about mathematical concepts, such as speed, height, and distance. A large-print tape measure will be added to this area. Students will also have the opportunity to race cars through smaller independent ramp structures and create vehicles using Mobilos. As children build with the Mobilos, they will be able to test their creations on the ramps and recognize how adaptations made may influence the cars speed, height, and distance.

*Circular nesting cups, nesting "letter books," and a crayon sequencing puzzle will provide children with opportunities to focus attention on individual size differences from large to small. The shape sorter and number peg boards will be available to promote recognition of shapes and numerals and to develop fine motor control.

Sensory:
*The children will continue to mix ingredients such as cornmeal, cornstarch, and colored water on individual trays. During the week many children were interested in exploring their mixtures with their fingers, in addition to the spoons and pipettes provided. To expand this sensory experience, shaving cream and oil will be available to further children's sensory exploration.

Science:
*Water flow and movement will be the focus of the sensory table this week. Water wheels, funnels, and tubes will allow children to use their observation and prediction skills and further their understanding of cause and effect. In addition, children will have the opportunity to create bubbles with soapy water and hand-held beaters.

Dramatic Play:
*The children have continued their interest in the space ship theme, taking many rocket ship rides in the loft area. To extend their space exploration, colored flashlights, funnel phones, and a slide show of space landings will be added to this area. If your child has an interest in particular space explorations, please share a highlight with us so we can incorporate this into our play.

*The combined playdough/kitchen area continues to be a busy place with children enthusiastically mixing ingredients. Among the many recipes, chocolate chip cookies and sugar cakes continue to be a favorite. This week we will transform this area into a bakery. Chef apparel, pastry bags, pretend bakery items and muffin and cake pans will be available to foster dramatic play in this area. In addition, playdough and various collage items will allow children to participate in cake decorating experiences. If you have cake decorating skills that you would be willing to demonstrate to the children, please let us know. Thank you!

*Another play theme that has been emerging this past week has been pretend fire play. Firefighter apparel, hoses, and spray bottles will allow children to act out play scenarios related to this theme. Some overlap between space (children have been putting out fires on the rocket ships) and blocks (putting out building fires) may occur with the close proximity of the fire fighter items to both the rocket ship and block areas.

Language and Literacy:
*Many of the children were very interested in the process of giving and receiving valentines. To continue to develop literacy skills and to further the development of a caring classroom community, individual mailboxes will be setup for each child. Color paper, scissors, markers, and stickers will be available for children to create messages for others in the classroom and outside of school.

*A large flannel board will be setup in the classroom to provide opportunities for children to sequence familiar stories and to use their imagination to create new storylines. Various books incorporating current play themes will be added to the literacy area.

Construction:
*The large hollow blocks, unit blocks, and lighter building blocks will continue to be accessible for children to use. This variety of blocks will allow children to make large individual structures or group projects, fostering cooperation and turn-taking.

Music:
*Various percussion instruments, including drums, maracas, and tambourines, will be provided for children to explore and create beats and rhythm patterns. Along with song cards, the emotion pictures will continue to be posted to tie in discussions of music and emotions. Pre-recorded music of different genres will be played to aid learning of pitch, loudness, and tempo.

Large Motor:
*In the gym, a rope swing is set up to facilitate upper body strength, full body coordination, maintaining body balance, spatial awareness, and muscular endurance. An A-frame is connected to a balance beam supporting eye-foot coordination, balance, lower body coordination, and turn taking. There is a throwing corner to support directional awareness, upper body strength/coordination, depth perception, throwing/catching skills, eye-hand coordination, and agility. "Bolster Island" - a donut hole surrounded by bolsters - is located in the middle of the gym to support team building, climbing on uneven surfaces, spatial awareness maintaining balance, and upper/lower/core strengthening. Mat jumping station is also available to support two-footed landing, lower body/core strengthening coordination, depth perception, and turn taking.

*The children have been greatly enjoying the fresh coating of snow. They continue to have fun making tracks in the snow, pulling the sleds, using the dump trucks sometimes as snow plows, and going down the slide into a pile of snow. In addition to these engaging activities we will provide the children with "I Spy" photograph cards as challenging activities to find familiar objects on the playground.

Large Group:
*Music and movement will be one focus of large group this week. Children will have the opportunity to dance and move to different genres of music, play simple instruments, and follow rhythm patterns. Other current play themes, such as firefighting, space traveling, and letter writing will be included as well.

Snack:
Monday: Snack made by the class and banana
Wednesday: Birthday Snack
Thursday: TBD

Alex, Clare, Mike, Arthur, Sarah, and Holden have been investigating reptiles. This topic was chosen because a lot of the children seemed to be interested in the rubber snakes we had in the animal cave. Our group will be focusing on discovering what it means to be a reptile and we will compare differences between various reptiles. To get as sense of which reptiles interested them, and to find out more about what they already know about reptiles, the children began by talking about, and drawing pictures of reptiles. Next, the children had the chance to examine real, but dead, reptiles using magnifying glasses. They noticed that some of the reptiles had sharp teeth and claws, while others had hard shells and no legs. During a reptile hunt that emphasized comparing differences among reptiles, I noticed that all of the children seemed to be drawn to snakes, because out of all the reptiles they are the only ones that have no legs. During this week we decided to explore snakes further. To connect to our classroom curriculum on life cycles and the children's interest in eggs, I decided to start our snake focus by showing a video clip of snakes hatching from eggs. After watching the movie the children were curious about what other snakes looked like, so I got out the snake books and gave the children a chance to examine the different snakes. As they were examining the snakes I noticed that they all seemed to be interested in how long some of the snakes were. So next time we are going to talk about the largest and smallest snakes in the world.

Daily Schedule for
Jenn's 3 PM Class
Beginning Winter Session 2010

12:30 - 12:45 Arrival & Outdoor Exploration
As the children arrive at school, they are greeted by a teacher and accompanied to the playground where they can freely explore daily outdoor activities.
(Gym Time when weather is not permitting)

12:45 - 1:05 Outdoor Directed Activities
This is a time to concentrate on science, math, language and creative arts during our discussions and activities outdoors. The outdoor curriculum will remain a focus as we extend these experiences and make connections with our indoor curriculum as well.

1:05 - 1:30 Transition to the Classroom
The class will transition from outdoors to the classroom. During this time, the children will change out of their outdoor clothing, put belongings in their cubbies, take a bathroom break, and wash their hands. The children may also spend this freely exploring the front areas of the classroom.

1:30 - 1:50 Large Group
Large Group is a time when the children come together and participate in songs, games, and stories. This is also the time when we talk about our day and anything special that is going to happen.

1:50 - 2:10 Small Groups
Small groups allow children the opportunity to participate in small group activities where they will explore topics of interest with their peers and a teacher.
Special Activities or Gym Time
This period of time may also be used for special activities within the classroom or a time for the children to use the gym in addition to their previous outdoor large motor time.

2:10 - 2:50 Free Choice Time
During this time, the children are free to explore and choose what they would like to do in the classroom. They have the opportunity to play in different areas of the room, engage in a wide variety of activities and interact with peers. This is also a time for teachers to observe, support and facilitate the children's play and development.

2:50 - 3:15 Clean Up & Snack
Children are able to enjoy a small snack and engage in discussions with peers. Teachers will take notice of the children's interests, as well as facilitate conversations about current themes and upcoming events.

3:15 - 3:30 Dismissal
Children will gather their belongings and get ready to go home. The teachers will read stories and sing songs with the children as they are dismissed from the hallway just outside the classroom.

January Newsletter
Jenn's Classroom

Hello Everyone!

I hope you have all enjoyed your break and are getting ready for the classroom fun to start again soon. I would like to update you on a few changes taking place as we begin our next session. Starting in January, both classrooms will begin class outside on the playground. The children will have opportunities to engage in special activities and participate in outdoor explorations as they start their day. This means that your child should arrive at school dressed and ready for the cold weather and snow. We will spend time embracing nature and the wonderful outdoors prior to coming into the classroom each day (weather permitting). In addition, our 3:15 dismissal will now be taking place from the classroom/hallway entrance of the building. It may take some time to work out kinks that may arise with the implementation of a new schedule, so please bear with us. We are optimistic and eager to see how this change might enhance the children's overall daily experiences.

I would also like to introduce you to the new teaching team in our classroom. As you already know, I will be the new lead teacher in the classroom beginning in January. Ross and I will be co-teaching and sharing several of the responsibilities throughout the daily routine. Marie will also play an intricate role as the assistant teacher in our classroom. We are all very excited to work collaboratively and provide an enriching environment for your children to enjoy as they learn and grow.

A Few Words about Ourselves

Marie
I am in my first year of the Early Childhood/Early Childhood Special Education Initial Licensure/Masters program here at the U of M, and I am really excited to be back in the Twin Cities! I grew up in St. Paul in the Saint Anthony Park neighborhood and left Minnesota to get a B.A in English from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. Since graduating I have lived in Grinnell, Madison, Iowa City, and Sydney, Australia working with children in a number of ways. Most recently I lived in Wisconsin and was the lead teacher and athletics coordinator at the Little Explorer's Preschool in Madison. After completing my program I hope to work as an early childhood/early childhood special education teacher in a preschool classroom. In my free time I enjoy reading, writing, traveling, and coaching and playing basketball.

Ross
Hello everyone! Welcome back from the long break. I'm sure you are just as excited as the children are to get back to school! This is my 6th year of being a part of the Lab School Team, however my first every working double duty! I'm looking forward to working with both groups, and interested in observing how two groups of children use the same materials/environments differently. I'm a true Twin City-ian, growing up in the northwest suburbs and living in scattered areas of Minneapolis and St Paul while attending the U of M. I received my undergraduate and master's degrees here at the university, both in early childhood education. I love finding/listening to new music, making/seeing art, spending time outdoors, working on the seemingly never-ending to-do list that accompanies owning a new home, riding my bike (which I do nearly every day to and from work...even in the winter!), as well as practicing yoga. I've also recently started to develop a bit of a green thumb, and would love to chat/share tips about plants and gardening!

Jenn
I would like to share with you a bit about myself. I completed my undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Education here at the University of Minnesota in May 2008. Recently, I completed my final student teaching experience in the M.Ed./Initial Licensure Program for Early Childhood Education/Early Childhood Special Education. I currently reside in south Minneapolis and I'm the proud owner of two loving cats. I enjoy reading for pleasure, taking long walks, taking camping trips, and catching up with close friends during my spare time. I have always held a special place in my heart for young children and feel privileged to be a part of their early learning experiences. I am extremely excited to be working at the Lab School and look forward to developing relationships with you and your children in the days to come.

Important Dates

Martin Luther King Day (School Closed) - Monday, January 18th

Creativity Night (6-7:30 pm) - Wednesday, January 20th

Coffee Hour w/ Barb, our Director:
Tuesday, February 2nd (8:45-9:45am)
Wednesday, February 3rd (8:45-945am & 12:45-1:45pm)
*All Parents Welcome!

All School Family "Gym Jam" (6:30-8pm) - Friday, February 5th
@ Bierman Field

WE WILL SEE YOU BACK AT SCHOOL THIS WEDNESDAY!

Take Care!
Jenn

Weekly Plan for Jenn's 3PM Class
February 8th - February 11th, 2010

Overview and Goals:
We will focus on team work and collaboration this week. The children will have opportunities to cooperate with each other and listen to one another's ideas and viewpoints as they take part in activities throughout the classroom. The teachers will encourage that the children work collaboratively as they build representational structures together, develop their symbolic and dramatic play scenarios, and participate in classroom activities with their peers. We will also be picking one of Mama's baby rats for our class to keep as a pet! Our class will vote on which baby we want to keep, as well what to name him/her. It will be fun to see what names the children choose!

Expressive Arts
 The primary colors and white paint are available at the easel for painting. The children may choose to mix and produce their own pastel colors. The teachers will continue to encourage collaborative work to allow children opportunities to practice compromise, negotiation, and to engage in social interactions as they share their ideas with peers.
 Collage materials of various sizes, shapes, and textures are available for the children to explore and use as a means of creative expression.

Sensory Materials
 Large funnels and long tubing remain available at the flax seed table to allow for further inquiry into the properties and movement of the flax seed. The teachers will continue to support the children's exploration and encourage the use of new vocabulary as discussions develop.
 Earth clay continues to be available at the front table. Sculpting tools, rollers, mallets, and various collage materials are available to support the children's exploration with clay. A variety of smaller brushes and paint colors will also be available at this table to allow for further creative expression.

Math & Manipulatives
 Nuts, bolts, and screws are available for the children to match, strengthening problem solving and fine motor skills.
 Memory games and a variety of puzzles continue to be available in the manipulative center. These materials help strengthen problem solving skills, the concept of part-to-whole and eye-hand coordination.

Language & Literacy
 Postcards, letter stamps, stickers, paper and envelopes remain available for the children to use as they practice writing skills and write special letters to others. We have also added graph paper to the writing center to support the drawing of maps and graphing activities.
 The children enjoy spending time with books and discussing stories with peers. We will continue to support their interests by making books readily available throughout the classroom in addition to our library.

Science Center
 The "sorting by taste" game remains available in the science cave. This allows children further opportunities to build upon their knowledge about different tastes.
 Taste testing continues at the science table. The children may record their likes/dislikes at the table, and we will continue to graph and discuss the results during large group.
 We will also begin discussing and exploring the sense of sound this week. We will focus on building awareness as we experiment with "loud" and "quiet" sounds.

Dramatic & Symbolic Play
 The children continue to hold a strong interest in the airport and trains. Airplanes, helicopters, cars and peg people, train tracks and duplo leggos will remain in the back caves to provide opportunities for the children to expand upon their ideas during symbolic play.
 The "Building Supply Store" is available in the back of the classroom for the children to buy and sell various supplies needed for constructing and fixing things. Supplies such as, tubing w/ connectors, cones, tape measures, tools and tool belts are available to help support the children's play as they make larger structures in the back of the classroom.

Block Area
 The children have enjoyed using the hollow blocks to build various modes of transportation (busses, trains, airplanes). Some of the children have also been building houses and constructing beds for their babies. We will continue to support and expand upon these interests during the children's play.
 The unit blocks are also available for the children to utilize in the back of the classroom as they create and build structures to use in their dramatic play. The children often use the unit blocks to add detail to larger structures they make (gears, controls, decoration, etc.)

Large Motor
 We will continue to focus on building snow structures outside this week. Buckets of water, paintbrushes, and snow block molds will continue to be available for the children to use as they explore the varying properties of snow and ice.
 The gym set-up remains the same for this week. The rope swing is now available and supports the following skills: core body strength, body/spatial awareness, muscle strength and endurance, turn-taking. The balance beam supports eye-foot coordination, maintaining balance, and turn-taking. There is a jumping platform for children to practice two-footed landings, strengthen depth perception skills and work on core body strength. A large climbing structure is located in the center of the gym to help support the development of upper and lower body strength, spatial awareness, and balance. A throwing pit encourages the development of the following skills: hand-eye coordination, grasping, over-hand/under-hand throwing, catching, depth perception, directional awareness, and upper body development. Scooters are available for the children to use together as they work on spatial awareness, core balance, and upper/lower body strength.

Snack
Monday: Trader Joe Letter Cookies & Banana
Wednesday: French Fries by Dalia's Class
Thursday: Rice Cakes & Oranges

Special Announcements:
 Parent Conferences will be a couple of weeks later for our afternoon class. I will be taking some extra time to get to know the children before holding parent conferences this winter. Our conferences will be held during the first two weeks of March. I will make sure to let you know as soon as a sign-up sheet has been posted.
 Continue to check www.weather.com (zip code 55455) for information regarding the outdoor temperature each day.

Lead Teacher: Darya

Goals:
The focus for this week will be to support the children as they learn to negotiate, solve problems, and make predictions. We will also encourage the children to express their feelings and take the time to recognize how other children are feeling based on their facial expression. Changes in the classroom have been made to extend some of the dramatic play scenarios that emerged the previous week.

Art:
-The children will continue to collaborate and work on an art piece as a class. A table will have one large piece of paper for the students to draw on together. The piece of art will be displayed at the end of each day. Displaying their work will reinforce their pride and accomplishments. The art table throughout the week may contain additional mediums, such as letter stencils, for the children to explore and enjoy together.
- The children will engage in a new art project that incorporates science. Some parents might recognize the project because it was available for the children on Creativity Night. The children will mix ingredients such as corn meal, baking soda, and salt, using small scoops. They will also have the opportunity to use eye droppers to add different colors of water to their mixing. This will allow the children to explore concepts of color and texture. The small scoops and eye droppers allow the children to develop their fine motor skills as they pinch the droppers and grab the scoops using a couple of fingers.

Manipulative/Math:
- New materials will be available in the science area that will encourage the children to reason, problem solve, and classify. The activity will allow the children to sort the animals based on a specific attribute (i.e. if they have legs, fins or claws).
-A new peg game will be available, incorporating numerals matching the number of pegs required. This will support many of the children as they make the connection between numbers and the quantities they represent.
-There will be measuring spoons and simple three step "recipes" for the students to use in the kitchen. These "recipes" will support the children as they take turns completing different parts of the recipe and learn sequencing.

Sensory:
-Throughout the week we have noticed the children bringing toys to the water table. In the water table they preceded to wash them. We have decided to set the water table up for baby washing. The children will use sponges and scoops to wash the dolls. If there's a particular bath time ritual that you'd like to share about your child, it would be interesting to know. Commenting upon something they do at home always gets them talking.
- Adding pans, bowls, and measuring cups to the playdough table has furthered the children's interest in baking. They have been creating a variety of food items, such as muffins and soup. To engage the children we have added additional recipes and another ingredient to the table. The playdough and the measuring cups allow the children to continue to practice their fine motor skills. On Friday, we will do some real cooking, baking the bars that Eva has recently baked for us. They were a hit at snack last Friday.

Science:
-The students will have the opportunity to sort objects based on a specific attribute. This will allow them to group the objects based on a common characteristic. This area will increase the children's awareness of how objects are similar and different. The objects are also in different sizes allowing the children to order them from largest to smallest. We will feature things with fins (fish) legs (a variety of animals) and pincers (crayfish.)
-The ramps have been expanded to encourage the students to take notice of how far their car has traveled. There will be tape measures and the floor will be marked with numbers. This will encourage the children to experiment with the length and steepness of the ramps. This activity will allow the children to explore aspects of speed, friction, gravity, and velocity.

Dramatic Play:
- The kitchen and playdough area will remain combined at the front of the classroom to support the children's interest in baking.
-The loft area has been transformed into a space ship, to encourage the theme that emerged after reading the book "What next, baby bear!" by Jill Murphy. This book is about a baby bear creating a rocket ship to go to the moon. Once he arrives on the moon he has a picnic with his new friend the owl. In the loft we added pictures of rocket ships and astronauts. There are also control panels that the children can use to pretend to steer the rocket ship. There are hard hats available for the children to use as "space helmets" and I have created jet packs. This area promotes creativity and imagination for pretend play.
-The children have enjoyed using the ramps and the small cars. Out of this play came the theme of race cars. Following the interest of the children, we have created a race track for the children to use. This area will allow the children to take on the role of a race car driver. This area will encourage children to practice taking turns. It will also encourage children to follow simple rules such as driving one way down the track. The children will problem solve, coming up with ideas on how they can keep their cars from crashing into one another. Throughout this play scenario the children are fostering social skills such as cooperation, sharing, and problem solving.

Language and Literacy:
-There will be new and classic story books added to the literacy area. Children will be encouraged to read and act out familiar and classic stories such as goldilocks and the three bears. Acting out these stories encourages children to recall and pull information from their memory.
-Favorite family recipes will be posted in the playdough area as a reference for children to use when recreating experiences of cooking, eating, and serving.
-Feeling words such as mad, happy, tired, and sad will be posted along with photographs of the teachers displaying different emotions to allow the children to begin recognizing and label others' emotions.
-Documentation of children acting out stories and exploring different play themes will be posted throughout the classroom for children to use as a reference to their play.

Construction:
-The large hollow blocks and unit blocks are still available for the children to use. They have been moved by the loft to encourage the children to create their own rocket ships and buildings.
- The lighter building blocks we added allow the children to create "tall" structures. While they construct these "tall" structures they are becoming familiar with aspects of balancing. The large area for construction continues to encourage cooperation and group projects.

Large Motor:
-The gym now has a rope swing set up to facilitate upper body strength, full body coordination, maintaining body balance, spatial awareness, and muscular endurance. An A-frame is connected to a balance beam supporting eye-foot coordination, balance, lower body coordination, and turn taking. There is a throwing corner to support directional awareness, upper body strength/coordination, depth perception, throwing/catching skills, eye-hand coordination, and agility. "Bolster Island" - a donut hole surrounded by bolsters - is located in the middle of the gym to support team building, climbing on uneven surfaces, spatial awareness maintaining balance, and upper/lower/core strengthening. Mat jumping station is also available to support two-footed landing, lower body/core strengthening coordination, depth perception, and turn taking.
-Outdoors, colored and "glittery" ice molds will be buried in the snow for the children to find by digging with their hands or with various tools. Shovels, scoops, and pails will continue to be available outdoors to support the use of upper body strength. In addition, children will have the opportunity to push trucks and wheelbarrows and pull sleds through the snow to foster endurance. We will also introduce spray bottles with different colored water that the children can use on the snow. This will allow the children to mix colors on a new medium.

Large Groups:
We will incorporate movement experiences during large group that involve the entire body and coordination. We will do different activities and songs that encourage the students to follow a rhythm or a pattern. These activities are promoting following directions, large motor development, and spatial awareness.

Snack: Tuesday: Pineapples and Pretzels
Friday: Home baked fruit and oat bars/ Bananas

Overview
It was great for the children to be able to get back outside last week! The goals for this week focus on careful observation and recording of plant and tadpole growth using measurement tools as well as drawing observations. The teachers will also extend the rhyming activities that started last week. We will integrate the children's knowledge and interest in patterns by pointing out the patterns created by lists of words that have the same ending sounds. When the children practice making new words for the list by changing the first letter, they are gaining phonemic awareness, an important pre-literacy skill. Scientific exploration and inquiry will be supported with the addition of a novel color mixing activity in the science center.

Creative Arts
- Easel: The children continue to take pleasure in painting and filling the entire paper with paint. We are adding rollers to the easel as a way to provide the children with opportunities to express their creativity through the use of a different painting tool.
- Beading: We are expanding this activity to include colored pipe cleaners, wooden and plastic colored beads, and buttons. We will encourage the children to think of new ways to create patterns that incorporate a new set of distinguishing characteristics: shape, material, and function.

Sensory
- Earth Clay: In order to expand the children's repertoire of potential creative possibilities with the Earth clay, Amy demonstrated how to make a pinch pot to the children. This sparked new interest in the clay and the children are learning to refine their pinch pot making skills as well as adding their own creative flair.

Science
- The children made predictions of how tall the amaryllis plant will grow based on the rapid growth they have observed so far. Care for the amaryllis has generated new interest in care for our classroom plants. To expand their knowledge and experiences with the life cycles of plants, we will be planting additional bulbs this week. We will also take cuttings of the classroom plants and propagate them. This will provide the students with additional opportunities for making observations, drawing their observations, recording data, predicting, and analyzing their observations and data across time.
- The tadpoles have finally developed their legs! The children enjoyed seeing this as they have been patiently waiting to see a change take place. The children will continue to observe and record through drawing the changes that are occurring in the tadpole tank.
- We have added a color experimentation station to the science area. There are two new activities for the children to explore and further foster their knowledge of colors. One activity allows for the children to experiment with colored water, test tubes, and pipettes. The teachers will encourage peer communication and cooperative learning by inviting the children to share their experimental results with one another. There is also a matching activity in which the children match pictures of birds to various color samples.
- The children continue to experiment with light, transparent and non-transparent materials, and shadows with the use of the overhead light projector. We will be sharing a shadow story ("The Three Bears") with the children so they can see how shadows can be made larger or smaller based upon how close or far away it is from the light source. Story telling props will be available for children to use independently to explore dramatic play in conjunction with shadow and light.

Math and Manipulatives
- As several children have been interested in knowing if it is a small group day or a gym day, the children were introduced to the concept of a calendar as a cultural tool used for marking important events and measuring the passage of time. The calendar was highlighted with different colors to represent what activities are occurring each day. Further exploration of the calendar will continue as we make it personally relevant and meaningful for the children by writing down their birthdays, holidays, and upcoming school events.
- The children continue to express interest in finding and creating patterns so we have added a Pattern Board in the classroom. The children are able to make patterns using colored post-its on the Pattern Board as well as with other materials within the classroom.
- Constructx are being added to the manipulative area so that the children will have the opportunity to practice and refine their construction skills through a new novel material. The legos will continue to be available as well. The children enjoy creating lego cars and then making ramps with the hollow blocks upon which to race the cars down.
- Chain links are also offered in the manipulative cave. These will provide the children with opportunities to create patterns as well as measure items found within the classroom using a non-standard unit of measurement.

Literacy
- The children have enjoyed playing rhyming games during the Morning Meeting and at snack time. Thus, we have created a "Rhyming Wall" on which we will record the children's responses as they create rhyming word lists. In the same area, we have placed rhyming books for the children to read through and further explore rhyming. The children also continue to enjoy playing a rhyming game by matching rhyming cards that have words and pictures on them.
- In the writing center, we have added materials that correspond to Valentine's Day. We will be encouraging the children to create expressions of love and friendship for their family members and friends.

Dramatic Play
- The children will have an opportunity to make animal habitats for the birds and woodland animals in the cozy animal cave. This provides the children with a chance to incorporate what they know about animal habitats and become meaningfully engaged with the setting in which they use the stuffed animals for dramatic play. In addition, bear costumes are being added to the cave which will provide the children with opportunities to further expand their sociodramatic play by taking on new roles.
- We are introducing flannel story boards as another opportunity for the children to engage in dramatic play as they act out the stories with the use of the props and materials.
- The children continue to enjoy playing in the kitchen by themselves and with one another. Cooking, baking, and restaurant have been some of the play themes that continue to be popular.

Blocks
-The children continue to delight in building large structures, ramps, and vehicles with the hollow blocks. The teachers are observing some wonderful cooperative play interactions among the children as they work together to build their creations and then engage in conversations within their play with one another. The teachers are also going to place a few hollow blocks in the hibernation cave as a provocation to see if the children can incorporate them into their creations of small animal habitats.

Playground
The children continue to love sledding down the hill! They also continue to enjoy sliding, digging with shovels, and pulling one another on sleds. We have added some larger-sized pieces of construction vehicles such as dump trucks, bull dozers, and back hoes to provide other possibilities for expression of the children's play in the snow. As there are only a few of the construction vehicles, the children are learning to negotiate, share, and take turns with one another.

Gym
-The gym has been reconfigured to provide many new opportunities for the children to engage in building body and core strength, practicing balance skills, and performing ball handling skills. There is a rope swing which promotes upper and lower body strength and coordination while maintaining body balance. As it has been a favorite activity for the children, it also provides them with the opportunity to take turns and wait patiently for one's turn. The climbing structure includes a balance beam and promotes spatial awareness, balance skills, eye-foot coordination, and upper and lower body strength. There are bolsters surround the large donut; this activity fosters the development of climbing uneven surfaces, spatial awareness, and upper and lower core strengthening. In addition, there is a throwing pit which supports ball throwing and catching skills. There is a jumping station which promotes landing on two feet, lower body and core strength, and coordination skills. There is also an open area on the tiled floor for students to work with another as one child pulls the other child on a scooter board. This activity encourages working together cooperatively, spatial awareness, core strengthening, and upper body strength and endurance.

Snack
Monday: Pita & String Cheese
Tuesday: Cheeze-Its & Banana
Wednesday: French Fries by Ayuko's class & B-day snack
Thursday: Rice Cakes & Pineapple
Friday: Rice Chex & Oranges

Hello families! I am so excited to be a scientist with Jillian, Piper, Nora, Ella, Zachary, and Augie. We have chosen to look specifically at water and how we can change and manipulate it. Water is everywhere in the world and has many different forms which will help the children explore many scientific concepts. Through conversation and carefully chosen questions, I will help guide the children towards forming their own theories and conclusions about all of the experiments we will be engaging in. The children are learning how to predict what will happen to the water as we change it. They are currently observing the different effects colors have on water, and how snow changes into water. They carefully carried their melted snow out to the playground to see how long it will take for it to turn to ice. We will continue to look into the water cycle and how we can be scientists by changing and manipulating the water in many different ways. I look forward to keeping in touch in the following weeks!

Hi Everyone! Our dinosaur small group is off to an exciting start! I (Michele) am facilitating this small group and our "dinosaur team" includes Bennett, David, Jacob, Jonah, and Sam. The dinosaur group was developed based on the member's high interest and enthusiasm in this topic. We also are building off our recent field trip to The Raptor Center. That is right - Did you know that dinosaurs are also considered raptors? You can ask your child to explain why this is true. So far I have been helping to expand the children's knowledge of the reasons dinosaurs were deadly and dangerous, as this is particularly interesting to the children. They are also in the process of creating a dinosaur habitat including volcanoes and other land and water features. In addition, we are working on community building, which includes listening to each other and working together collaboratively, sharing ideas and learning from one another. The children are sharing their personal knowledge of dinosaurs and they are also kind enough to help me correctly pronounce many of the dinosaur names!

Alex, Clare, Mike, Arthur, Sarah, and Holden have been investigating reptiles. This topic was chosen because a lot of the children seemed to be interested in the rubber snakes we had in the animal cave. Our group will be focusing on discovering what it means to be a reptile and we will compare differences between various reptiles. To get as sense of which reptiles interested them, and to find out more about what they already know about reptiles, the children began by talking about, and drawing pictures of reptiles. Next, the children had the chance to examine real, but dead, reptiles using magnifying glasses. They noticed that some of the reptiles had sharp teeth and claws, while others had hard shells and no legs. During a reptile hunt that emphasized comparing differences among reptiles, I noticed that all of the children seemed to be drawn to snakes, because out of all the reptiles they are the only ones that have no legs. During this week we decided to explore snakes further. To connect to our classroom curriculum on life cycles and the children's interest in eggs, I decided to start our snake focus by showing a video clip of snakes hatching from eggs. After watching the movie the children were curious about what other snakes looked like, so I got out the snake books and gave the children a chance to examine the different snakes. As they were examining the snakes I noticed that they all seemed to be interested in how long some of the snakes were. So next time we are going to talk about the largest and smallest snakes in the world.

Hello Parents,

The student teachers have been here for five weeks already, it seems like time has been flying by. The student teachers are all in agreement that the children are all such wonderful individuals, who are full of energy and curiosity. Each new week the children inspire us to develop and bring new learning opportunities to the classroom.

This week cooking has been abundant. A small group of children worked hard to mix and cook fruit and oat bars for our class snack on Monday. They were very tasty and all of the children loved them. On Friday the children will get the chance to experience making applesauce with Megan. Cooking projects provide the children with the opportunity to measure, mix, and stir. Being exposed to numbers and volume is a crucial step to developing mathematical thinking.

Rhyming has been a popular activity this week. Sarah brought in a pair of socks that were in a box and the other children noticed that socks rhymes with box. The children started to think of other objects to put in the box that rhymed with socks. This one small activity influenced the children to come up with new rhyming activities during snack time and throughout their play. They have also started to play hide the cookie. One child would go hide the cookie around the room and then they would come back and give the other children a clue such as, "I hid it underneath something blue". We think this activity may have been sparked by our large group gym activity titled "Bug in the Rug". This activity involved hiding one child underneath a cloth and the other children would have to guess who was missing from the group. The children beamed with excitement when they figured out who was missing.

Measurement is a new activity that was introduced this week. The large wingspan chart is a place where children can see the length of their arms compared to each other, as well as to the raptors they saw at the Raptor Center. The children have been very good at taking turns, while they wait to mark down their wingspan onto the chart. They even figured out a way to turn it into a cooperative activity. One child spreads out his/her arms along the chart while another child places a small picture of that child on the chart next to their fingertips.

During morning meeting on Monday the children all had a chance to predict how tall our amaryllis bulb will grow. As a class we measured the height of it, and it was already 8 inches tall. The next day the children went to the science table to observe the amaryllis and they discovered that it had grown 2 inches over night!!! The children were delighted and excited and have been watering it multiple times per day ever since.

Pattern making has continued to be an activity of great interest to the children. A new pattern making board has been added to the classroom. The children have been working hard to create new and different patterns by their pictures. They have started to expand the ABAB pattern into more complex patterns such as AABAA.

Sincerely,
Davida

Here are the small group updates for the 5th week of small groups. Only one week left of small groups!

Jennie's Puzzles and Riddles Small Group: Abigail, Juliet, Otto, Peyton, Riley, William

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Nadine's Families Small Group: Abe, Alexis, Estelle, Helena, Nora, Oliver

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Stephanie's Machines Small Group: Cedrick, Ella, Evan, Garrin, Hadley, Nigel

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Weekly Lesson Plan
Week of 2/8/10 - 2/12/10
Lead Teaching this week: Jennie

Overview and Goals:
Mama and her babies continue to be a focal point in the classroom. The babies' eyes are open now and they are more adventurous than ever: leaping around their cage, wrestling, and starting to eat Mama's food. With all the drawings the children have been illustrating for Mama, we have created a binder to place all of their artwork in, which is located on the table with Mama's cage. Their observations of Mama and the other animals in our room are reinforcing their observation skills as well as encourage them to practice data collection to promote higher-level thinking. This week we will be adding to/refreshing materials around the room to encourage the more elaborate play themes as well as helping the children discover of all the different possibilities found with using the rich materials in each area of the classroom.

Sensory Table:
With the introduction of the pulleys and tubing to the flax seed table, there has been an increased interest in learning about machines. We will start with simple machines and ask the children questions such as, "How do these machines make moving the seeds easier?" To also encourage more exploration of the pulleys, as well as to demonstrate how machines work cooperatively, cars and trucks will be added to the flax seed table. The children will be able to explore the purpose of simple machines as well as the process it takes to move materials from on location to another. This process will foster problem-solving skills, cooperative play, and negotiation.

Art:
Sensory: The children have enjoyed exploring the clay using hammers, wires, rolling pins, and glass beads. To stimulate a deeper exploration of what clay has to offer, sample of various clay creations will be on display to help inspire the molding of new, more intentional sculptures. Now that we have explored clay's physical properties, we want to tap into the children's creative minds. Clay is a limitless material and we will help the children see it can be more than mashed and pounded by modeling and creating sculptures with them. One way we did this happened last week, as Jennie demonstrated how to make a pinch pot during large group.
Expressive: Many children have been to the art table daily creating party decorations, toys for the rats, bracelets, pictures, and more. To maintain the children's interest, we will continue to keep the collage supplies well stocked. At the easel, we will be changing the colors to the primary colors blue and red to encourage the children to revisit color mixing, as well as white so they can observe what happens when white is added to dark colors. Collage materials will also be added to the paint easels to foster the interest in textured art; fostering creative expression, fine motor skills, and the appreciation in their work as well as the art of others.

Science:
The sense of taste continues to be the focus in the science area. There has been much discussion in large group about taste buds: what they are used for, and how they work. To stimulate further discussion and exploration on this topic, we have taken pictures of each child's tongue and placed them in the cave, creating a matching game for the children to find their own tongues and identify those of their classmates. A taste matching game also exists in the cave in which children are to analyze everyday foods, and think about what they taste like (i.e. sweet, salty, sour). The taste game also continues to stimulate the realization in children of their own preferences as well as those of their peers. The activity also incorporates data collection and critical thinking.

Manipulatives:
Matching games will continue to be the focus of the manipulatives center, with a nuts and bolts matching game tying in the building theme of the room. There will also be puzzles for the children to complete to foster fine motor skills, part-to-whole relationships, shape recognition, symbolic representation, and problem-solving skills. Beading materials with different size beads and weaving boards will also be added to the manipulatives area to facilitate fine motor skills, patterning, and creative expression.
Trains continue to be the highlight of the caves, with the addition of an airport being a popular structure this week. The airport not only encourages the development of new train track layouts, but it also helps the development of more complex structures and stories. The construction of the tracks utilizes fine motor skills, cooperation/negotiation, spatial awareness, and planning. Duplos continue to be in the caves as well to encourage the formation of more elaborate structures to coincide with the train play or to take place on their own.

Literature Center:
In past weeks, the literature center has been host to materials to create postcards and write letters home from faraway places, and has seen many visitors. To extend the building theme throughout the room and the interest of incorporating literacy into dramatic play, we will add grid paper. This addition will help boost the interest in the literacy table once again and will bring their play to the next level by encouraging planning of how the structures might light and follow-through in constructing the new building plans.

Dramatic Play:
Many of the children are still discovering the potential of the "Building Supply Store," and the objects within it. Fire hoses, giant paint brushes, and lawn mowers are examples of what has been created with new piping available in the store. To encourage the children to "purchase" their items, we will be rearranging the area to feel more like a store as well as introduce a new purchasing method. The children will be given punch cards to receive punches on in accordance with their purchases. These cards will reinforce mathematic skills, one-to-one correspondence, and the method of the exchange of money for services and goods. Other items such as hard hats, tool belts, safety glasses, and toolboxes will be added. This play will encourage cooperation, turn-taking, planning, and negotiation.

Blocks:
Building with hallow blocks has continued to be a popular activity in the classroom. Many houses have been under construction, including a trap door house built by some of the children. The children wired the trap door house with "electricity," used the door as their main entrance, as well as created storage areas for their food and other materials. Although vehicle construction continues to dominate the area, many of the children have been constructing homes as of late. This construction encourages cooperative play, planning, creative expression, and the development of large motor skills. With the addition of new materials to the "Building Supply Store," the children will have more items to utilize to build their structures, including tape measures, tools, and tool belts.

Gym/Outside:
The gym set-up remains the same from last week; with Bolster Island, a balance beam, a rope swing, a throwing/catching area, a jumping platform, and scooter boards being the focal points. These structures encourage upper and lower body strength, core strength, hand-eye and foot-eye coordination, muscular endurance, and spatial awareness. The use of the large structures encourages patience through turn-taking, and the encouragement of other children. This week we will be playing a game in the gym each day as well as add some extensions to the activities already offered by the structures. On the jumping platform, we will have the children play a "hopscotch" game by directing them to jump to a certain number on the floor, not always to encourage them to jump as far as they can, but to also promote control in their large motor abilities. We will also be raising the balance beam to increase their work on depth perception, large motor skills, and balance.
Outside sledding has been a popular activity encouraging large motor skills. With the new layer of snow at the end of last week, the children displayed more interest in building with the soft snow. We will be providing colored water in spray bottles, as well as water in buckets with paint brushed to aid the children in building towers and snow forts. We will also provide the construction trucks for the children to move snow from place to place.

Announcements/Reminders
-To get ready for conferences, Ross will be out on Tuesday.
-For those parents who have yet to sign up for conferences, please do so as soon as possible!

Snack
Monday: Sunflower Butter Sandwiches
Tuesday: Open Snack-Animal Crackers
Wednesday: Open snack-Pancakes
Thursday: Open snack-Cheeze-Its
Friday: Pita & Cheddar Cheese

*All snacks served with milk and water unless otherwise noted*

Overview and Goals
This week we continue to focus on rhyming, changing colors, and patterns. In addition to these topics, we will begin exploring plants, bulbs, and cuttings. These topics will be incorporated into all areas of the classroom. Small groups are in full swing and the children are delving deep into their topics. Be sure to ask your child about what they do in their group! Updates written by the teachers are on their way.

Expressive Arts
~The children are maintaining an interest at the easel using feathers to paint. We will continue to use the red, yellow, and blue paint. We will continue to draw children's attention to color mixing and the unique paint strokes made with the feathers.
~Our art area features a variety of boxes, bowls and natural materials to encourage the children to create 3-D collages in forms of homes for the winter animals in our cave. The children will have the opportunity to enhance fine motor skills and work creatively as well as engage in conversations.

Sensory Materials
~The children have shown much interest in working with clay. They have been exploring the many shapes and textures the tools make in the clay. They have also been creating their own shapes with their hands.
~We are very excited about the new snow on the playground and plan on trying to get outside to create molds and shapes. We will bring out spray bottle of color and the children can make the snow different colors. They can mix the different colors of snow together to experiment with the results.

Dramatic, Symbolic Play, and Blocks/Creative Building
~The children continue to engage in many meaningful play situations in the hibernation cave. The new bird animals are a hit and the children love to hear the sounds they make. We have added animal costumes to the area to further the children's play. We will also be adding the animal homes made by the children in the art area.
~The castle blocks and hollow blocks continue to take different shapes as the children create racetracks, animal homes and castles.
~The kitchen set continues to encourage the children's thoughts of parties, invitations, party planning, and picnics. The children are busy writing invitations to their parties, dressing up in party clothes, and bringing food and supplies on a picnic in the loft.
~The children have been exploring different types of wheels in the Lego area and making many racecars. They have utilized the track boards to help support this play.
~We will be adding the construx toys to allow children another option to build with. These will give the children the opportunity to develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and teamwork skills.

Science Center
~The children have been very interested in the changing colors mixing area. They have been exploring how the colors mix and experimenting with different ways to make colors. We will expand the color mixing area to give more room and will began discussing more advanced color names.
~Our tadpoles have legs!!! We are very excited to see them grow and develop. We will continue to monitor and document the changes in them.
~Due to the large interest in the rapid growth of the amaryllis plant, we have added a planting section in the science area. We will be planting bulbs, talking clippings for our classroom plants, and exploring plant growth.
~We will continue to explore with the light projector. We will experiment with changing transparent colors, shadows and tracing their bodies.

Language and Literacy
~In the writing area, we will be adding supplies to make valentines' cards. Ribbons, cards, envelop, valentines, and stickers will be available for the children. We will encourage the children to write letters to loved ones and friends.
~Our rhyming books will be available for the children to add to throughout the week.
~We have added a board to create your own rhymes and to look/read through a variety of different rhyming books. This will allow the children an opportunity to think about the end sounds in a word.
~Flannel board stories will be added to the loft writing area. This will encourage the children to tell stories to each other and mold many different play settings.

Math, Manipulatives, and Games
~We will continue focusing on patterning with new materials. We will offer discovery chains, fruit patterning pieces, patterning puzzles, and notched building shapes. These will also offer children the opportunity to work as a Team.
~Legos and puzzles will continue to offer opportunities for fine motor skills and team building.
~We continue to use the beads and wire to promote fine motor skills and patterning, as well as creative expression. We will take advantage of this activity and reinforce topics available in other areas, by having discussions about colors, mixing, and patterning.

Large Motor
~The children have really enjoyed the new gym set-up. They are using the rope swing to develop upper and lower body strength and coordination. The children are working on throwing and catching balls that will help develop their upper body strength, hand-eye coordination, and directional awareness. The balance board, jumping mat, scooters, and the climbing mountain are supporting the children's development lower body strength and balance.
~We will spend time outside this week in the fresh snow! We will encourage the children to build using different shaped buckets and experiment with changing the snow color. We will also continue to utilize the sleds, and encourage shoveling to support upper body strength, generall muscular strength, coordination, and cooperation.

Music and Movement/Large group
~During this week we will be focusing on changing colors and plants. We will be learning a new song about planting a seed and moving to some of our favorite tunes.

I am enjoying getting to know the children and am excited to be with them in class. I enjoy watching them learn and grow.

Lisa

Overview and Goals
This week we continue to focus on rhyming, changing colors, and patterns. In addition to these topics, we will begin exploring plants, bulbs, and cuttings. These topics will be incorporated into all areas of the classroom. Small groups are in full swing and the children are delving deep into their topics. Be sure to ask your child about what they do in their group! Updates written by the teachers are on their way.

Expressive Arts
~The children are maintaining an interest at the easel using feathers to paint. We will continue to use the red, yellow, and blue paint. We will continue to draw children's attention to color mixing and the unique paint strokes made with the feathers.
~Our art area features a variety of boxes, bowls and natural materials to encourage the children to create 3-D collages in forms of homes for the winter animals in our cave. The children will have the opportunity to enhance fine motor skills and work creatively as well as engage in conversations.

Sensory Materials
~The children have shown much interest in working with clay. They have been exploring the many shapes and textures the tools make in the clay. They have also been creating their own shapes with their hands.
~We are very excited about the new snow on the playground and plan on trying to get outside to create molds and shapes. We will bring out spray bottle of color and the children can make the snow different colors. They can mix the different colors of snow together to experiment with the results.

Dramatic, Symbolic Play, and Blocks/Creative Building
~The children continue to engage in many meaningful play situations in the hibernation cave. The new bird animals are a hit and the children love to hear the sounds they make. We have added animal costumes to the area to further the children's play. We will also be adding the animal homes made by the children in the art area.
~The castle blocks and hollow blocks continue to take different shapes as the children create racetracks, animal homes and castles.
~The kitchen set continues to encourage the children's thoughts of parties, invitations, party planning, and picnics. The children are busy writing invitations to their parties, dressing up in party clothes, and bringing food and supplies on a picnic in the loft.
~The children have been exploring different types of wheels in the Lego area and making many racecars. They have utilized the track boards to help support this play.
~We will be adding the construx toys to allow children another option to build with. These will give the children the opportunity to develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and teamwork skills.

Science Center
~The children have been very interested in the changing colors mixing area. They have been exploring how the colors mix and experimenting with different ways to make colors. We will expand the color mixing area to give more room and will began discussing more advanced color names.
~Our tadpoles have legs!!! We are very excited to see them grow and develop. We will continue to monitor and document the changes in them.
~Due to the large interest in the rapid growth of the amaryllis plant, we have added a planting section in the science area. We will be planting bulbs, talking clippings for our classroom plants, and exploring plant growth.
~We will continue to explore with the light projector. We will experiment with changing transparent colors, shadows and tracing their bodies.

Language and Literacy
~In the writing area, we will be adding supplies to make valentines' cards. Ribbons, cards, envelop, valentines, and stickers will be available for the children. We will encourage the children to write letters to loved ones and friends.
~Our rhyming books will be available for the children to add to throughout the week.
~We have added a board to create your own rhymes and to look/read through a variety of different rhyming books. This will allow the children an opportunity to think about the end sounds in a word.
~Flannel board stories will be added to the loft writing area. This will encourage the children to tell stories to each other and mold many different play settings.

Math, Manipulatives, and Games
~We will continue focusing on patterning with new materials. We will offer discovery chains, fruit patterning pieces, patterning puzzles, and notched building shapes. These will also offer children the opportunity to work as a Team.
~Legos and puzzles will continue to offer opportunities for fine motor skills and team building.
~We continue to use the beads and wire to promote fine motor skills and patterning, as well as creative expression. We will take advantage of this activity and reinforce topics available in other areas, by having discussions about colors, mixing, and patterning.

Large Motor
~The children have really enjoyed the new gym set-up. They are using the rope swing to develop upper and lower body strength and coordination. The children are working on throwing and catching balls that will help develop their upper body strength, hand-eye coordination, and directional awareness. The balance board, jumping mat, scooters, and the climbing mountain are supporting the children's development lower body strength and balance.
~We will spend time outside this week in the fresh snow! We will encourage the children to build using different shaped buckets and experiment with changing the snow color. We will also continue to utilize the sleds, and encourage shoveling to support upper body strength, generall muscular strength, coordination, and cooperation.

Music and Movement/Large group
~During this week we will be focusing on changing colors and plants. We will be learning a new song about planting a seed and moving to some of our favorite tunes.

I am enjoying getting to know the children and am excited to be with them in class. I enjoy watching them learn and grow.

Lisa

As the goal for this week was to learn how to collaborate together and acknowledge each other, you will see below that the children have not only started working together, but they also started respecting each other's presence.

Metal race car tracks were a hit! The children used the ramps to drive the cars up into a basket and also drive the cars down to see how far and fast they would go. Sooner or later the children began collaborating to make a long road for these trucks. Looks like there was lots of traffic, but they took turns and made the road into a two way street.

There has been an increased interest in the use of these light foam blocks since the beginning of the year. As the children work together, helping each other build, they also began labeling their construction as "houses," "cribs," and "buildings." Each structure has gotten more sophisticated than before.

Katie is experimenting with a variety of rolled objects. As she is concentrating on rolling, Ellie is taking a picture of her facial expression. Taking pictures of children's expressions was a popular activity throughout the week since the cave promoted activities that supported recognizing, empathizing, and labeling children's emotions and displayed photographs of children with a variety of facial expressions.

While listening to the "Freeze Dance" song by Greg and Steve, children danced to the beat and froze their bodies. The children were very creative on ways to move!

* Valentines Day exchange will be on Thursday, February 11th. While we make it a practice not to celebrate holidays in the classroom, we do facilitate a card exchange for those who wish to participate on this day. We find that it greatly supports the children's social connections to receive a card from their classmates. Making or addressing cards is also a wonderful way for children to work on emerging fine motor/writing skills. Whether your child draws a "message" or design on the card, put stickers on, glues something, or helps label the envelopes, (perhaps by taping or gluing the photos of the recipient) there is probably something your child can do to participate in this ritual. We will put a copy of the photo page in your child's box. Please do not send candy or other gift as part of the greeting. At this age, they still are thrilled by a simple card and why ruin that innocence so soon in life? Imagine a child happily looking through their valentines, admiring each and every one, suddenly discovering a piece of candy. I've seen it. What happens is they move quickly to tossing away the other notes as garbage while they rummage through looking to see if there are more with candy. We will use lunch bags for the children to hold their notes.

*Gym Jam was a success! It was a joy seeing children running around freely and playing with a variety of balls. Thank you all for coming and supporting us for a good cause - we are hoping to purchase a new crash mat and a variety of tricycles for large motor play.

*Thank you all for signing up for the parent/teacher conference! I'm looking forward to meeting with you soon. The master sign up sheet will continue to be on the door for confirmation.

Student teachers continue their small group meetings this week, developing small project themes and activities.

Darya's movement group has recently danced with scarves and moved like animals. They also played a game, "follow the leader," giving each child an opportunity to move like an animal of their choice.

Edenia's sensory group explored the properties of bubbles. They added liquid soap into water and experimented with creating bubbles. They used a hand held mixer and a sponge to increase the amount of foam in the water.

Jeannine's food group will meet on Monday for the 2nd time. They will be looking for a picnic spot around school, doing family style servings, and eating food that is suitable for picnics.

Lesson Plan
Lead Teacher: Darya
Week of February 8th, 2010

Goals:
The focus for this week will be to support the children as they learn to negotiate, solve problems, and make predictions. We will also encourage the children to express their feelings and take the time to recognize how other children are feeling based on their facial expression. Changes in the classroom have been made to extend some of the dramatic play scenarios that emerged the previous week.

Art:
- The children will engage in a new art project that incorporates science. Some parents might recognize the project because it was available for the children on Creativity Night. The children will mix ingredients such as corn meal, baking soda, and salt, using small scoops. They will also have the opportunity to use eye droppers to add different colors of water to their mixing. This will allow the children to explore concepts of color and texture. The small scoops and eye droppers allow the children to develop their fine motor skills as they pinch the droppers and grab the scoops using a couple of fingers.
-The children will continue to collaborate and work on an art piece as a class. A table will have one large piece of paper for the students to draw on together. The piece of art will be displayed at the end of each day. Displaying their work will reinforce their pride and accomplishments. The art table throughout the week may contain additional mediums, such as letter stencils, for the children to explore and enjoy together.
Manipulative/Math:
- New materials will be available in the science area that will encourage the children to reason, problem solve, and classify. The activity will allow the children to sort the animals based on a specific attribute (i.e. if they have legs, fins or claws).
-The stacking of the pegs will continue to be available with the peg boards. The pegs are promoting mathematical skills such as counting, balancing, and making patterns.
-There will be measuring spoons and simple three step "recipes" for the students to use in the kitchen. These "recipes" will support the children as they take turns completing different parts of the recipe and learn sequencing.
Sensory:
-Throughout the week we have noticed the children bringing their cars to the water table. In the water table they preceded to wash them and drive them around. Thus, the water table is now set up to be a car wash. The children will use sponges and scoops to wash their cars. In the middle of the week a station may be set-up for the students to dry their cars once they have been washed. This area will encourage the students to share the resources and work together as they clean their cars.
- Adding pans, bowls, and measuring cups to the playdough table has furthered the children's interest in baking. They have been creating a variety of food items, such as muffins and soup. To engage the children we have added additional recipes and another ingredient to the table. The playdough and the measuring cups allow the children to continue to practice their fine motor skills. If you have a favorite (especially one in which your child helps out with), please send it in for us to post in this area as inspiration for variety of food creations. Thank you!

Science:
-The students will have the opportunity to sort objects based on a specific attribute. This will allow them to group the objects based on a common characteristic. This area will increase the children's awareness of how objects are similar and different. The objects are also in different sizes allowing the children to order them from largest to smallest.
-The ramps have been expanded to encourage the students to take notice of how far their car has traveled. There will be tape measures and the floor will be marked with numbers. This will encourage the children to experiment with the length and steepness of the ramps. This activity will allow the children to explore aspects of speed, friction, gravity, and velocity.

Dramatic Play:
- The kitchen and playdough area will remain combined at the front of the classroom to support the children's interest in baking.
-The loft area has been transformed into a space ship, to encourage the theme that emerged after reading the book "What next, baby bear!" by Jill Murphy. This book is about a baby bear creating a rocket ship to go to the moon. Once he arrives on the moon he has a picnic with his new friend the owl. In the loft we added pictures of rocket ships and astronauts. There are also control panels that the children can use to pretend to steer the rocket ship. There are hard hats available for the children to use as "space helmets" and I have created jet packs. This area promotes creativity and imagination for pretend play.
-The children have enjoyed using the ramps and the small cars. Out of this play came the theme of race cars. Following the interest of the children, we have created a race track for the children to use. This area will allow the children to take on the role of a race car driver. This area will encourage children to practice taking turns. It will also encourage children to follow simple rules such as driving one way down the track. The children will problem solve, coming up with ideas on how they can keep their cars from crashing into one another. Throughout this play scenario the children are fostering social skills such as cooperation, sharing, and problem solving.
Language and Literacy:
-There will be new and classic story books added to the literacy area. Children will be encouraged to read and act out familiar and classic stories such as goldilocks and the three bears. Acting out these stories encourages children to recall and pull information from their memory.
-Favorite family recipes will be posted in the playdough area as a reference for children to use when recreating experiences of cooking, eating, and serving.
-Feeling words such as mad, happy, tired, and sad will be posted along with photographs of the teachers displaying different emotions to allow the children to begin recognizing and label others' emotions.
-Documentation of children acting out stories and exploring different play themes will be posted throughout the classroom for children to use as a reference to their play.
Construction:
-The large hollow blocks and unit blocks are still available for the children to use. They have been moved by the loft to encourage the children to create their own rocket ships and buildings.
- The lighter building blocks we added allow the children to create "tall" structures. While they construct these "tall" structures they are becoming familiar with aspects of balancing. The large area for construction continues to encourage cooperation and group projects.
Large Motor:
-The gym has been changed! A rope swing set up to facilitate upper body strength, full body coordination, maintaining body balance, spatial awareness, and muscular endurance. An A-frame is connected to a balance beam supporting eye-foot coordination, balance, lower body coordination, and turn taking. There is a throwing corner to support directional awareness, upper body strength/coordination, depth perception, throwing/catching skills, eye-hand coordination, and agility. "Bolster Island" - a donut hole surrounded by bolsters - is located in the middle of the gym to support team building, climbing on uneven surfaces, spatial awareness maintaining balance, and upper/lower/core strengthening. Mat jumping station is also available to support two-footed landing, lower body/core strengthening coordination, depth perception, and turn taking.
-Outdoors, colored and "glittery" ice molds will be buried in the snow for the children to find by digging with their hands or with various tools. Shovels, scoops, and pails will continue to be available outdoors to support the use of upper body strength. In addition, children will have the opportunity to push trucks and wheelbarrows and pull sleds through the snow to foster endurance. We will also introduce spray bottles with different colored water that the children can use on the snow. This will allow the children to mix colors on a new medium.

Large Groups:
We will incorporate movement experiences during large group that involve the entire body and coordination. We will do different activities and songs that encourage the students to follow a rhythm or a pattern. These activities are promoting following directions, large motor development, and spatial awareness.
Snack
TBD

Inga works with a piece of clay for a little while. She uses popsicle sticks and adds those to her creation...

Isaac carefully watches our Amaryllis, measures it and then chooses the exact colors to make a picture of it.

One major focus in the classroom continues to be on Mama and her babies. The babies are growing bigger by the minute! Over the course of the week, they have grown into their mature white and black coloring - looking more and more like Mama with every passing day and less like their "pinkie" selves from a week ago. Below are some photos showing the babies' changes and the children's interactions/observations of these changes. Also, I have added two stories from the past week. Take a look!

Mama and her babies

As the babies have continued to grow, the children have been closely observing them - making notes and drawing pictures of what they see. One interesting observation made by the children was that all the babies have different spots/patterns on their backs! We have collected these drawings and made a classroom book about Mama and her babies. The changes have been significant during this past week!

And now...their eyes have opened and they have become extremely active in the cage!

STORIES

On Wednesday, Juliet got inspired to make "birthday balloons." She began by drawing circles and adding faces. She decided to make five because, "I'm five so I'm going to make five balloons." Then, Juliet needed to make five strings (the manilla rectangles). While drawing the rectangles and cutting them out, she explained, "Well, I made five balloons so I need five strings to hold on to all the balloons!" After cutting the strings out and taping them to the balloons, she went around the room and told others to come and see, explaining the balloons were for the surprise birthday party she was going to have that day. As children came over, she invited them to join her at the party and shared her balloons with her classmates. This inspired others to make their own party decorations and invitations!

On Thursday, Nigel and Cedrick spent nearly 40 minutes tucked in the cave, working together on what was to become a very elaborate DUPLO structure. During their time building, the teachers overheard many discussions between the boys and watched as the two systematically added and moved each piece until it found its perfect place. This is a great illustration of when given the time, materials, and freedom to truly engage, children are capable of amazing and thoughtful creations.

Weekly Plan for Jenn's 3PM Class
February 1st - February 4th, 2010

Overview and Goals:
This week we will begin focusing on the sense of taste in our science center. A sorting game will be available to help the children develop awareness about different tastes (sweet, salty, spicy). We hope that the weather cooperates, and that we will be able to spend more time on the playground this week. Our outdoor focus will be building and solidifying structures in the snow. The children have shown great interest in building structures with the hollow blocks and train tracks inside the classroom. We would like to support this interest by making connections within the natural environment outdoors. Relationship building continues to be a primary focus in the classroom. The teachers have begun to establish strong relationships with the children. As we continue to foster these relationships, we will also support and encourage the development and strengthening of relationships among the children.

Expressive Arts
• White paint has been added to the easel for color mixing. The children may choose to mix and produce their own pastel colors. The teachers will continue to encourage collaborative work to allow children opportunities to practice compromise, negotiation, and to engage in social interactions as they share their ideas with peers.
• Collage materials of various sizes, shapes, and textures are available for the children to explore and use as a means of creative expression.

Sensory Materials
• Large funnels and long tubing have been added to the flax seed table to allow for further inquiry into the properties and movement of the flax seed. The teachers will continue to support the children's exploration and encourage the use of new vocabulary as discussions develop.
• Earth clay is available at the front table. Sculpting tools, rollers, mallets, and various collage materials are available to support the children's exploration with clay.

Math & Manipulatives
• Memory and matching games are available at the manipulatives center.
• A variety of puzzles are also available. These materials help strengthen problem solving skills, the concept of part-to-whole and eye-hand coordination.

Language & Literacy
• Postcards, letter stamps, stickers, paper and envelopes remain available for the children to use as they practice writing skills and write special letters to others.
• The children enjoy spending time with books and discussing stories with peers. We will continue to support their interests by making books readily available throughout the classroom in addition to our library. Some highlights this week will be new books about airplanes and baby animals.

Science Center
• In the science cave, the children can play a "sorting by taste" game with plastic foods. To help build their awareness of different tastes, the children will be able to classify foods into three categories: sweet, salty, and spicy.
• We will also have a few samples for taste testing at the science table. Children will be able to record which foods they like and dislike. We will be graphing the results.

Dramatic & Symbolic Play
• An airport has been added to the caves to provide opportunities for the children to expand upon their ideas during symbolic play. Airplanes, helicopters, cars and peg people now accompany the train tracks and duplo leggos.
• The travel store continues to support the children's ongoing interest in travel and transportation.

Block Area
• The children have enjoyed using the hollow blocks to build various modes of transportation (busses, trains, airplanes). We will continue to support and expand upon their interest in travel and transportation with the use of these materials.
• The unit blocks are also available for the children to utilize in the back of the classroom as they create and build structures to use in their dramatic play. The children often use the unit blocks to add detail to larger structures they make (gears, controls, decoration, etc.)

Large Motor
• We hope that the weather cooperates and that we will be able to spend more time outside this week. We will continue to focus on building snow structures. Buckets of water and paintbrushes will be available to help solidify and strengthen structures.
• We have a new gym set-up this week. The rope swing is now available and supports the following skills: core body strength, body/spatial awareness, muscle strength and endurance, turn-taking. The balance beam supports eye-foot coordination, maintaining balance, and turn-taking. There is a jumping platform for children to practice two-footed landings, strengthen depth perception skills and work on core body strength. A large climbing structure is located in the center of the gym to help support the development of upper and lower body strength, spatial awareness, and balance. A throwing pit encourages the development of the following skills: hand-eye coordination, grasping, over-hand/under-hand throwing, catching, depth perception, directional awareness, and upper body development. Scooters are available for the children to use together as they work on spatial awareness, core balance, and upper/lower body strength.

Snack
Monday: Fruit & Oat Bars (made by Amy's class)
Wednesday: Cheddar bunnies & Kiwi
Thursday: Cheese on Pita (made with Eva)

Special Announcements:

• The Lab School's annual "Gym Jam" will be held at Bierman Field this Friday, February 5th from 6:30 - 8pm.

• Parent Conferences will be a couple of weeks later for our afternoon class. I will be taking some extra time to get to know the children before holding parent conferences this winter. Our conferences will be held during the first two weeks of March. I will make sure to let you know as soon as a sign-up sheet has been posted.

• Continue to check www.weather.com (zip code 55455) for information regarding the outdoor temperature each day.