March 2010 Archives

Ross' Classroom Newsletter
March 29, 2010
...

Welcome back everyone! The snow is gone and the plants are already starting to poke out of the ground. Warmer weather is just around the corner! I am sure you are all just as excited as we are to get back school.

The teachers have made it back from Reggio Emilia with many new ideas and ways of looking at how to work with young people. It was a truly inspiring trip that will bring amazing and positive changes to the Lab School. For our classroom, I hope to make subtle changes to the environment that will promote new exploration of familiar materials as well as support true creativity and creative thinking. We have set up the classroom to allow the children to independently explore and wonder about how they can change/manipulative the environment and materials available in the room (as well as on the playground). The rich exploration of light and shadow is one way to help promote this style of child-lead investigation. The teachers will be closely observing how the children use the materials, and will be thinking of ways to enhance the experience by adding new materials as well as asking thought-provoking questions to deepen the children's explorations. Another way we hope to promote new and creative thinking will be with the introduction of more teacher-directed activities. These activities will have a strong focus on math, literacy, and science concepts. I feel it is just the intellectual challenge that our children need, and that they are more than ready for these more focused activities. Some of the activities will take place during large group, allowing everyone the opportunity to participate. These activities will be at a level where everyone can feel successful while participating. Other activities will be facilitated during free play and will be matched more at the levels of the specific children choosing to join the group. These activities may lead to possible topics for small groups.

I'm excited to see what transpires over the next 10 weeks...including an increase in temperatures and sunshine!

-Ross-

REMINDERS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Meet the Teachers

Our new student teachers are excited to join the classroom and wanted to introduce themselves with a paragraph below. When you get a chance, introduce yourself and say hello to them, as they are looking forward to meeting and working the all of you.

Hello! I'm Jenny Stabenow and this is my last semester in the Early Childhood undergraduate program - I'll be graduating in May. I grew up in Northern Minnesota and my absolute favorite thing is being at the lakes in the summer. Swimming, wakeboarding, tubing, biking, and relaxing in the sun are my hobbies at our lake cabin. Another love of mine is traveling! Recently, I went to Ghana and enjoyed working with children at the Ghana YMCA. Animals are a big part of my life as I have always had a pet - my dog is a Cockapoo named Sammy. I'm looking forward to student teaching and can't wait to get to know all of the children!

Hello families! My name is Laura Sibinski and I am finishing my final semester as an undergrad at the U in the Early Childhood Special Education program. I also plan on getting my teaching license in the fall. I am originally from Milwaukee, WI but love spending my summers in Minneapolis - especially near Lake Calhoun! I am the president of the club volleyball team at the U and also enjoy painting, watching movies, and traveling. I am really looking forward to meeting all of you!

Weather & Corresponding Clothes

The snow is gone and the playground is dry, however as we enter the very unpredictable weather patterns that come with Minnesota springs, be mindful of the clothes you send with your child. We will be going outside as much as we can, through rain or sleet or dark of [cloudy days]. Although the snow has long since melted, the playground can get quite sloppy and muddy during the spring, and I feel there are many great learning experiences that come with these messier times. It is not mine intention to purposefully overwork your washing machines, however I do value the time we get outside and all the elements that the weather brings with it. Please make sure your child has their change of clean clothes with them everyday or stored in their cubby. Also, if you already have rain gear, please send it on days that are wet or have a chance for rain. We do have some extra ponchos that the children can use, however having their own makes it much easier when getting ready to venture outside. Also, I am not insisting that you have to go and purchase new rain boats or rain jackets if you do not already have one. Please let me know and arrangements can be made to make sure all the members of our class can stay dry as we explore the potential soggy outside world that is sometimes known as Minnesota Spring!

Summer Programs

Still not sure what to do for your older children this summer? Got kids in the neighborhood that need something fun to do while school is out? I have information about the University Youth Programs camp located on the St Paul Campus. I have worked there for the past four summers and can confidently say it offers unique experiences for children between 5-15yrs old. If you would like additional information, please let me know!

A Little Bit More About Me

With the onset of warmer temperatures, we will be packing up the sweaters and cold-weather clothes in exchange for short-sleeve shirts and shorts. When the day comes that I wear short-sleeves, the children will notice the extensive tattoos I have acquired over the years. I have worked at Steady Tattoo, a shop on campus, for six years as a receptionist and manager (not as a tattooer), and have collected quite a bit of work during this time. I have half-sleeve tattoos on both arms as well as a large leg tattoo. I want to inform everyone now, so when your child comes home and says, "Ross has tattoos all over his arms and leg," it will not be a surprise. When the children ask, I tell them that my tattoos do not wash off, that they are the kind only for grown-ups, and that they hurt I get them. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask.

Welcome back and HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE!

Weekly Plan for Jenn's 3PM Class
March 29th - April 1st, 2010

Overview and Goals:
Welcome back everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the break and are ready to start the new session. I'm excited to announce that Marie will be returning as a student teaching in our classroom this spring! This should be a rather seamless transition for the children, as Marie is already a familiar teacher in our classroom. During our first week back, we will spend time getting reacquainted with one another, the environment, and our daily routine. The classroom has many new materials for the children to explore, as well as some familiar favorites. We will also be spending time outdoors, taking note of the many changes that are taking place now that it is officially springtime! The teachers will be closely observing the children's new interests so that we may support these interests within the learning environment in the weeks to come.

Expressive Arts
 New collage materials of various sizes, shapes, and textures (i.e. ribbon, flowers, felt, foil, sticks, cotton, etc.) are available for the children to explore and use as a means of creative expression.
 The children will have the opportunity to choose from 12 different paint colors at the easel. In providing this large array of color choices, we hope to encourage a more meaningful and rich experience as the children freely choose their colors and add detail to their creations.

Sensory Materials
 Water continues to be available in the sensory table. The children will have opportunities to build upon their prior knowledge about the flow of water as they manipulate and use tools such as, funnels and pitchers during their exploration. Various sea creatures and open-ended materials such as Styrofoam and wooden beads, are also available for the children to use as they engage in water play.

Math & Manipulatives
 We will begin with a literacy focus in the manipulative centers. Alphabet-matching cards, magnet letters and various games are available to encourage a greater awareness of the alphabet and help children expand their pre-literacy skills.  We have added several new picture puzzles at the manipulatives center, which help to strengthen the concept of part-to-whole, eye-hand coordination, and problem solving skills.

Language & Literacy
 Postcards, letter stamps, stickers, paper and envelopes remain available for the children to use as they practice writing skills and further refine their fine motor skills.
 We have added a fresh, new selection of books to the library area. The children are able to choose from a wide variety of fictional and non-fictional literature.

Science Center
 The light table remains in the science cave this week to provide further opportunities for light and shadow exploration. Clear, colored shapes and figures are available for building on top of the table. As the children further develop scientific concepts surrounding light and shadow, they also have opportunities to build upon mathematical concepts such as part-to-whole and creating patterns.
 A variety of magnifiers are available for close examination of various items found in our natural world. The children may use the magnifiers to carefully observe and record the unique details they find. While on the playground, we will begin searching for interesting objects in nature that can be brought into the classroom for closer examination.

Dramatic & Symbolic Play.
 We have added new clothing and accessories to the kitchen and home living area. The children will continue to have opportunities to expand upon their play themes as they incorporate these materials into the play. We will also be encouraging the children to create their own props to use and store in the home living area. .
 The children began re-discovering the sand on the playground prior to our break. Now that the snow is completely gone, the children will be able to use the sand tools (i.e. large and small shovels, scoops, buckets, containers, cookware, etc.) more extensively and new dramatic play themes are certain to emerge.

Block Area
 The hollow blocks, No-End blocks and connecting blocks remain available for building larger structures in the back of the classroom. As the children work together to plan and execute their ideas, they have opportunities to practice their negotiation skills, reach a compromise and enjoy the benefits of working together to accomplish a common goal.
 The unit blocks are available for the children to utilize in the back of the classroom as they create and build structures to use in their dramatic play. We have added a low table to provide a new building area for the unit blocks and additional building materials/props such as connectors, tubing, cones, zoo animals, and small carpet squares.

Large Motor
 We have a basic gym set-up for our first week back at school. The trampoline is available to support gross motor, turn taking, balancing, and flexibility. The rope swing and the rope ladder will continue to be available to foster upper body strength, turn taking, spatial awareness, muscular strength and endurance. We added the see-saw to promote cooperation, balance and leg strength. The A-Frame climber helps promote upper and lower body strength, as well as eye-hand and eye-foot coordination.
 We are hoping to spend most of our large motor time on the playground this week. We will be observing and investigating the changes that have taken place since the children last played on the playground. The children will also have opportunities to re-discover playground equipment, such as tricycles, wagons, rakes, and sand toys, that are available once again.

Snack
Monday: Rice Cakes & Banana
Wednesday: Graham Crackers & Applesauce
Thursday: Cheeze-Its & Apple

Special Announcements:
 Robert's Grandfather, Robb, will be visiting our classroom this Thursday to give an Origami folding demonstration!
 Please make sure the children are dressed warmly for our extended outdoor play (layers work best as our classroom tends to be extremely warm).
 Spring Rain Showers - When the weather is permitting (warm & not severe!), we will be occasionally playing outside in the rain. Please send your child in rain boots (or snow boots) and raincoats and send an extra pair of shoes for inside.
 Our 3rd PAC meeting of the year is scheduled for Monday, April 5th, 7:00 - 8:30 pm.

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

Overview and Goals:
The last week of the winter session has arrived! We will continue to focus our attention on the changes taking place around us. The children will have opportunities to share their observations on the playground and during large group. We will also spend time discussing the many changes that have taken place in our classroom over the course of the session. We will encourage the children to think back and recall their favorite activities and the things they have learned over the past several weeks. We will also be making predictions about some changes that may take place in our learning environment over spring break. The children will be asked to share their ideas about what they might find when they return to school in two weeks time.

Expressive Arts
 Pipettes and colored water are available at the front table for color mixing. The children will be able to further develop their scientific reasoning skills as they mix primary colors together and watch new colors form. The children may also choose to paint with watercolors at the table top easels.
 Collage materials of various sizes, shapes, and textures are available for the children to explore and use as a means of creative expression.
 Various sized brushes are available for painting at the easels. The children will be able to experiment with the different brushes, exploring how each brush marks the paper differently.

Sensory Materials
 Water continues to be available in the sensory table. The children will have opportunities to build upon their prior knowledge about the flow of water as they incorporate tools such as, funnels, tubing, and pouring pitchers into their exploration. Sea creatures and boats are now available for the children to use as they participate in water play.

Math & Manipulatives
 We will continue to focus on ordering and seriation at the manipulatives center. The children will have opportunities to classify items from tallest to shortest, biggest to smallest, and oldest to youngest.
 Montessori pegboards are available and encourage the children to think critically as they sort pegs by height, width, and depth.
 The children will also have opportunities to play estimation games. Buttons, bottle caps, beads, and other small items are available for the children to fill containers and estimate how many items are inside. The children can check their answers by dumping the containers and counting the objects one by one.

Language & Literacy
 Postcards, letter stamps, stickers, paper and envelopes remain available for the children to use as they practice writing skills and further refine their fine motor skills.
 Shared enjoyment of books and story discussions continue to be a favorite activity in the classroom. We will continue to support this interest by making books readily available throughout the room as well as providing a new selection of books in our library.

Science Center
 We have added a light table to the science cave this week to provide further opportunities for light and color exploration. Clear, colored shapes and figures are available for building on top of the table. As the children further develop scientific concepts surrounding light and color, they also have opportunities to build upon mathematical concepts such as part-to-whole and creating patterns.
 The overhead projector and backdrop sheet remain available in the nook area of our classroom. This activity provides opportunities for building awareness and further developing ideas surrounding the concept of light. As the children begin to explore with light and shadows, they are building an experiential foundation for later learning of more abstract scientific concepts.

Dramatic & Symbolic Play
 The home living area remains a popular place in the classroom. The children will continue to have opportunities to expand upon their play themes by using the two caves as a bedroom and a bathroom for the babies.
 Building materials such as, tubing w/ connectors, cones, cardboard, No-End blocks and large pieces of fabric are available for the children to use as they build structures which support their dramatic play scenarios in the back of the classroom.
 As the snow melts outside, the children have been re-discovering the sand! As the children begin using sand tools (i.e. small shovels, scoops, buckets, containers, cookware), new dramatic play themes are beginning to emerge on the playground.

Block Area
 The hollow blocks remain available for building larger structures in the back of the classroom. Most recently, the children have been constructing houses. They make frequent visits to one another's house and talk to each other on telephones. As the children work together to plan and execute their ideas, they have opportunities to practice their negotiation skills, reach a compromise and enjoy the benefits of working together to accomplish a common goal.
 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 have made. Recently, the children have been using the rectangular unit blocks to symbolically represent telephones.

Large Motor
 As the temperature warms and the snow continues to melt, many changes have been taking place on the playground. This may be the last week that the children are able to use the sledding hill this year, so we will encourage the children spend time pulling their sleds up the hill and taking rides with their peers. The children have been discovering the sand beneath the large climber and developing new play themes as they dig in the sand (i.e. digging for bones, mixing ingredients to make various foods, moving materials with construction vehicles).
 The gym set-up remains the same this week. The beanbag toss fosters eye-hand coordination, directional awareness, depth perception, receptive, and propulsive skills. The trampoline is available to support gross motor, turn taking, balancing, and flexibility. The rope swing and the rope ladder will continue to be available to foster upper body strength, turn taking, spatial awareness, muscular strength and endurance. The elevated balance beam is available to promote eye-foot coordination, risk-taking, and directional awareness. The A-frame climber and the crossed balance beams support upper body strength, risk-taking, turn taking, balance, and problem solving. The donut is attached to the side of the slide, which will encourage the children to take risks, problem solve, and work on their coordination. The Pedalo will assist the children with skills of balancing, motor planning, turn taking, negotiating, sharing, and communicating with each other.

Snack
Monday: Fruit & Oat Bars made by class
Wednesday: Open Snack
Thursday: Open Snack

Special Announcements:
 Parent Conferences continue this week
 Parent Group Discussion meets Tuesday night
 Book orders are due this Friday!

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

Overview and Goals:
Throughout the winter session, the children have spent time building awareness and exploring the different functions of their five senses. This week we will be encouraging the children to synthesize this knowledge and think critically about which senses they are using as they engage in activities throughout the day. The warmer weather has brought about many changes. The class will be observing and recording the new smells, sounds, and sights we notice during our time outdoors. Inside the classroom, we will begin to focus on the sense of sight in our science center and we will continue to discuss how our senses help us gather new information and learn about the world around us.

Expressive Arts
 Various sized brushes are available for painting at the easels. The children will be able to experiment with the different brushes, exploring how each brush marks the paper differently.
 Collage materials of various sizes, shapes, and textures are available for the children to explore and use as a means of creative expression.
 Pipettes and colored water are available at the front table for color mixing activities. The children will be able to further develop their scientific reasoning skills as they mix primary colors together and watch new colors form.

Sensory Materials
 Water is back in the sensory table! The children will have opportunities to build upon their prior knowledge about the flow of water as they incorporate tools such as, funnels, tubing, and pouring pitchers into their exploration. We will also add food coloring to the water to extend opportunities for color mixing experiments.

Math & Manipulatives
 We will continue to focus on ordering and seriation at the manipulatives center. The children will have opportunities to classify items from tallest to shortest, biggest to smallest, and oldest to youngest.
 Montessori pegboards are available and encourage the children to think critically as they sort pegs by height, width, and depth.

Language & Literacy
 Postcards, letter stamps, stickers, paper and envelopes remain available for the children to use as they practice writing skills and further refine their fine motor skills.
 Shared enjoyment of books and story discussions continue to be a favorite activity in the classroom. We will continue to support this interest by making books readily available throughout the room as well as providing a new selection of books in our library.

Science Center
 We will focus on using our sense of sight to differentiate and identify colors at the science table this week.
 Light Bright projectors and colored pegs are available in the science cave to help promote further exploration and inquiry in how we see color.
 An overhead projector and backdrop sheet are located in the nook area of our classroom. This activity provides opportunities for building awareness and further developing ideas surrounding the concept of light. As the children begin to explore with light and shadows, they are building an experiential foundation for later learning of more abstract scientific concepts.

Dramatic & Symbolic Play.
 Our newly expanded home living area has been a popular place in the classroom. The children will continue to have opportunities to expand upon their play themes by using the two caves as a bedroom and a bathroom for the babies.
 A large variety of legos, along with cars and ramp building materials, are available for symbolic play in the back of the classroom. The children's engagement with these materials offers opportunities for them to enhance their critical thinking and problem solving skills.
 Building materials such as, tubing w/ connectors, cones, cardboard, No-End blocks and large pieces of fabric are available for the children to use as they build structures which support their dramatic play scenarios in the back of the classroom.

Block Area
 The hollow blocks remain available for building larger structures in the back of the classroom. Most recently, the children have been constructing houses. They make frequent visits to one another's house and talk to each other on telephones. As the children work together to plan and execute their ideas, they have opportunities to practice their negotiation skills, reach a compromise and enjoy the benefits of working together to accomplish a common goal.
 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 have made. Recently, the children have been using the rectangular unit blocks to symbolically represent telephones.

Large Motor
 The sledding hill continues to be a focal point on the playground. As the children work together to pull their sleds up the hill and take rides in pairs/groups back down, they are strengthening a large variety of skills: team work, collaboration and problem solving techniques, compromise, shared enjoyment, strengthening of upper & lower body muscles, and enhancing their core balance and coordination skills.
 There gym set-up remains the same this week. The beanbag toss fosters eye-hand coordination, directional awareness, depth perception, receptive, and propulsive skills. The trampoline is available to support gross motor, turn taking, balancing, and flexibility. The rope swing and the rope ladder will continue to be available to foster upper body strength, turn taking, spatial awareness, muscular strength and endurance. The elevated balance beam is available to promote eye-foot coordination, risk-taking, and directional awareness. The A-frame climber and the crossed balance beams support upper body strength, risk-taking, turn taking, balance, and problem solving. The donut is attached to the side of the slide, which will encourage the children to take risks, problem solve, and work on their coordination. The Pedalo will assist the children with skills of balancing, motor planning, turn taking, negotiating, sharing, and communicating with each other.

Snack
Monday: Graham Crackers & Pineapple
Wednesday: Open Snack - Cheeze-Its
Thursday: Open Snack - Granola Bars

Special Announcements:

 Parent conferences begin this week! I am looking forward to meeting with you all very soon.

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

To see the "Life Cycles" presentation/video, please copy the address bellow to your browser...

http://www.slideshare.net/jdistad/life-cycles?from=share_email

Enjoy!!

To see the "Colors" documentation please click here

colors.doc

Overview of Goals
Welcome back to school and welcome to the new student teachers Mina, Nicole, and Sarah! This week will focus on getting acquainted with the new teachers and establishing relationships with them. There are many changes to the classroom but also some familiar materials being continued over from before break. The chicks should be hatching any day now and will surely provide new opportunities to talk about life cycles. Additional goals will revolve around storytelling, retelling, listening, and comprehension. The math concepts of order and sequence will be tied to both the study of life cycles and storytelling as teachers ask specific questions about what happens 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. As always, there will be many opportunities for social connections and creativity.

Creative Arts
-Tabletop easels: A variety of colored tempera paints are available along with thin brushes so children can express their thoughts, their ideas, and the things they are learning about.
-Collage: An assortment of familiar collage materials is available along with markers and paper. We will resume our collection of materials to use for collage soon so start gathering beautiful objects with your children that can be added to our array. You will be receiving a letter with more information soon.

Science
- Three dozen chicken eggs have made their way into our classroom for observation. While we don't have a momma chicken to keep them warm, we do have an incubator to help with the growing process. The children will learn about part of this life cycle through observation, asking questions, reading books and following the chicken's growth on a calendar provided in this center. There is also a large floor puzzle that shows the sequence of the chick's development as it looks from inside the shell.
- The bulbs and seeds that the children planted before break are still growing. The children will surely notice the changes that occurred over the past two weeks. We will extend our conversations about plant growth to the outdoors where tiny green plants are peeking out everywhere. Now that the trees are coming out of dormancy, the children will be able to make predictions about what will happen next and track the changes they see.
-We opened up the area near the bird feeder to allow more children to watch the behavior of the birds that visit the window feeder. Documentation of what they see is supported by the new location of the writing center adjacent to the bird watching station.

Math and Manipulatives
-The mathematical concept of sequence will be addressed through discussions of the children's observations of the tadpoles and trees. These topics are highly motivating to the children as they have been tracking the changes of both over time. We have also included a sequencing activity in the writing center that incorporates familiar sequential processes such as getting dressed. To increase children's fluency with numerals we added a number puzzle that requires sequential placement of numbers
-To build upon the children's constructive play skills we will continue to provide the legos. To provide a new challenge and opportunity for problem solving we added tongue and groove blocks for building.
-Wooden puzzles are available for the children to put together as they use their knowledge of part-whole relationships. In addition, the large floor puzzles provide opportunities for collaboration and team building skills when the children work together to assemble the puzzle.

Music
- The large interest in the music cave last session developed into the beginnings of creating musical compositions. We will continue to support and encourage the children to write music by creating symbols to represent sounds. The use of music along with dramatic play performances was also very popular last session. To help them develop their skill in using music as a form of expression, or to support dramatic play, we will encourage them to connect the sounds of music to feelings, emotions and moods.

Literacy
-Oral language, storytelling and comprehension will be addressed during morning meetings as well as supported by storytelling props in the loft. We provided flannel and magnetic characters from a few stories that the children can use to retell their familiar favorites. We also added empty books so children can dictate their own stories. Comprehension will be addressed through teachers asking purposeful questions about what is happening in the stories and by asking the children how/if they can relate to the content of the story. Through retelling stories the children rely on their memories and their understanding of sequence so that they can recall the order of events that took place in the story.
- To spark the children's interest in using shadows to tell stories, we added shadow puppets to the light projector. This allows the children to further experiment with light and shadows as well as provides opportunities for small group interactions and dramatic play.
-The classroom restaurant continues to be a place for children to use instrumental language and writing. Children take turns waiting on each other and writing down orders for the cooks to prepare. We provided pictures paired with the names of the foods offered in the restaurant for reference. This activity not only increases the children's awareness of the importance of writing, it also allows the children to expand their play potential as they add elements from real-life experiences into their dramatic play.

Dramatic Play
- The children really enjoyed sharing the recording of "The Princess and the Dinos" with you. We will support further development of this story by helping the children create a second act to the play. This creative endeavor has supported tremendous growth among the members of this class. Not only does it enhance the sense of classroom community, it gives them a chance to build social skills as they negotiate roles. Their understanding of the use of symbols grows as they gather materials to use for props and use written words for story lines and character lists.

Blocks
-The unit blocks have been moved to the back of the classroom adjacent to the "spring awakening" environment under the loft. There is a lot of space for creating habitats for the animals as they wake up from their winter slumber. This new location of the unit blocks will also be conducive to expanding creative potential by incorporating them into hollow block structures.

Playground
-The playground has green plants peeking up all over. The warmer weather will allow us to spend more time outdoors exploring the wonders of the natural world. The teachers will be paying careful attention to the children's discoveries so we can expand their learning and help them make connections.

Gym
-The rope swing and ladder will continue to be available to foster core, upper, and lower body strength. We added the see-saw to promote cooperation, balance and leg strength. There is a basket ball hoop with balls that will provide an opportunity for the children to work on the accuracy of their throwing. The mini trampoline fosters jumping skills, leg strength and endurance.

Snack
Monday: Rice Cakes
Tuesday: Graham Crackers
Wednesday: Pretzels
Thursday: Gorilla Cereal
Friday: Trader Joe's Letter Cookies

If the weather stays dry and on the warm side, tennis shoes are fine for outside. When the rain starts and things get muddy, it would be better to have rain boots or even snow boots. We want the children to be appropriately dressed for fully exploring the outdoors and that will likely mean some mud during the spring months.

Lead Teacher: Ayuko
Goals: As we start back after spring break, our two main goals are to foster connections with our two new student teachers and to celebrate Spring! We will be talking about these events during large group, snack, and at other appropriate times throughout the day. Several curriculum areas will be carried over from prior to break, to provide some continuity and less "competition" for new materials while the student teachers get settled. We will hope for continued warm weather and extend our time outdoors as we hunt for and notice changes to our playground.
Art:
*Children will have the opportunity to paint with large and small brushes on the large easel. This activity will help extend children's fine motor development and feature a palette of many hues of green to represent the changes outside.
Manipulative/Math:
*Jenga blocks will be available for children to construct towers of varying heights, using problem-solving skills to create the most stable towers. Children will be encouraged to predict how high they can build and to count the numbers of blocks used in their construction efforts.
*Various puzzles will be available to challenge children to use fine motor planning, problem-solving skills, and persistence.
*New jackets provide a chance for children to practice new self help skills. We will have some "dressing clowns" available to encourage children to try latching, buttoning, zipping and the like. We will also encourage them to attempt to do the same on their spring jackets.
Sensory:
*Colored play dough will be offered for children to use with different-textured rollers, mashers, and shape cutters. Building with play dough supports fine motor strength and precision, as well as creative expression.
*We will add seed pods, pinecones and other natural materials to the sand table to encourage children to look for similar things outside. When the environment is new and different, children are more likely to take notice of details they may gloss over later. Shovels and small diggers will complete the array of options here.
Science:
*A bulb garden and budding branches will be available for children to observe and to make experience the magic of growing and flowering spring plants. In addition, the children will be offered an opportunity to care for the plants by watering them. These activities will allow the children to better understand the life cycle of plants and to take responsibility for caring for living things.
*The light table will be moved into the cave area this week. Translucent blocks and colored discs will be placed on top of the light table to allow children to explore shadows and the contrast between light and dark.
Dramatic Play:
*The Pet Hospital will continue in the loft area, complete with various materials such as kennels, leashes, blankets, bandages, stethoscopes, thermometers, and veterinarian scrubs. Additional animals, such as birds and turtles, will join the many dogs and cats available. This area is arranged in a spacious and thoughtful way to encourage social interactions. We will support the children's play by promoting and taking on different roles within their play. We encourage families to bring or e-mail photographs of family pets to post in the Pet Hospital to aide in the children's dramatic play scenarios.
*The children have expanded the kitchen/home area to include picnics. To support this play, we will set up a picnic table in the kitchen/home area and provide picnic baskets, picnic blankets, and additional plates, cups, and food to allow for many children to participate. This play will offer children the opportunity to engage in many social interactions as they cooperate together to find places for picnics, pass out plates and cups to each other, and serve food to one another.
*Zoo animal figurines will be available for children to explore and manipulate. Children will also have the opportunity to create zoo homes for the animals using various blocks, feed the animals using "food", and utilize trucks to be used as zoo keeper's vehicles. This play will foster children's cooperation, turn-taking, and empathy skills as they work on taking care of the animals.
Language and Literacy:
*We hope the children enjoyed receiving their "drawing" in their home mail box over spring break. Remind them that they made the note and brought it to the mailbox. We hope this experience will support them in continuing to write notes and leave messages for each other and their families. We will have colored paper, scissors, markers, and stickers for writing. If there is interest, we may walk to deliver more mail in the mailbox a short distance from Lab School.
*A large flannel board will be set up in the classroom to provide experiences for children to sequence familiar stories and use their imagination to create new storylines. Various books incorporating 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.
*Children will have the opportunity to construct zoo homes or other structures for the zoo animals, combining block play with dramatic play scenarios.
Large Motor:
*The gym has been simplified to start the trimester. A see saw will provide a chance for cooperative play and also lessons in physics as the children walk its length on their own. A basketball hoop in the back will encourage throwing, receptive and propulsive skills. The trampoline is available to support gross motor, turn taking, balancing, and flexibility. The rope swing and rope ladder will continue to be available to foster upper body strength, turn taking, spatial awareness, muscular strength, and endurance.
*Outside, children will have the opportunity to create bubbles by blowing and waving bubble wands. They will then attempt to catch or pop the bubbles. This will foster children's visual tracking skills, cooperation, and turn-taking abilities. Scooter cars, and the basketball hoop with various size balls will also be accessible for children to use.
Snack:
Monday: Rice Cakes
Wednesday: Pretzels
Thursday: Graham Crackers

Weekly Lesson Plan
Week of March 29 - April 2, 2010
Lead Teaching This Week: Ross

Overview and Goals:
Welcome back everyone! Spring is here and I hope you enjoyed some of the near summer days we had over break. It appears that there are more to come this week! I have brought back new ideas and inspirations thanks to the amazing Reggio trip, and I can't wait to get started! We will pick up where we left off before break: supporting elaborate and collaborative child-directed socio-dramatic play as well as inviting children to join in more teacher-directed academically focused games and activities. Intentional, thought-provoking questions will be asked to challenge the children's thinking and require them to critically synthesize ways to answer the questions posed by the teachers. This will support their ever-growing creativity as they do so, and promote a strong, intentional focus on learning/exploring as we work towards the end of the school year.

Art Center:
Expressive Materials
~ New, open-ended materials such as popsicle sticks, various small empty boxes, beads, sequins, and other beautiful objects will join the existing materials to promote new collages/3-D sculptures while supporting the children's artistic expression, imagination, and creative thinking.
~ The floor easel will be set up with many colors...every color we have in the art closet, actually. Looking at the easels/art centers in Reggio helped me see that to truly support creativity, ample supplies must be available. A tray will be positioned next to the easel with 12 cups of different color paint, ready to inspire and encourage the creation of new masterpieces!
Sensory Materials
~ We will bring back a tried and true molding material to the modeling table: playdough. After the excitement and interest in creating with the clay, we will bring back the playdough with a variety of tools (such as the rolling pins, tenderizers, and spatulas) as well as with the beads and stones to support the creation of more representational figures. This repeated experience continues to support fine-motor strength/coordination, creativity, dexterity, and social interactions, however because we have used the material a number of times already this year, the children will be able to do more with it. As children reuse materials, they begin to see new possibilities that go beyond an initial investigation of it. We anticipate that new detailed figures and sculptures will be made as well as thoughtful creations added to dramatic play.
~ The water table will be available with various aquatic animals, stones, pitchers, and large, interestingly shaped Styrofoam pieces to act as a catalyst for new symbolic representational play while exploring water. As the storylines develop, we hope to inquire about the various life cycles of these animals and further investigate what their real aquatic habitats look like around the world.

Science Center:
~ We will continue our investigation of light and shadow in the science area. Again, while studying the Reggio classrooms and watching the children in action, I saw how valuable the exploration of this concept is and how it inspires the young mind. It creates amazing opportunities to think creatively and explore one of the most basic properties we experience: light and shadow. We will have both the "nook" and the cave set up with flashlights, a light table, and an overhead projector with colored glass gems, color gels, and other materials that will change color or provide interesting shadows on the wall, allowing the children the opportunities to independently explore the properties of light and shadow.

Math and Manipulative Center:
~ Literacy will be our opening focus at the manipulative table. Various puzzles, magnetic letters, and alphabet cards will be available for the children to explore as we begin to promote an intentional focus on literacy. We will start will teacher-directed activities that will challenge the children to identify letters, phonemes, or spell simple words based on their developmental level. As we continue, we will introduce new games (such as alphabet and rhyming lotto) to promote new thinking and support of pre-/early-literacy skills.

Language & Literacy Center:
~ With the continued interest in writing letters and books at the end of last session, we will restock the supplies at the writing center and continue supporting the children as they explore "writing." We will add a world wall to help the children recall simple sight words as well as display all books created on the bookshelves in the reading area. We will also start playing more pre-/early-literacy focused games during large group as well as during free-play.

Block Center:
~ The No-Ends and notched blocks will be available to support the hollow block building taking place in the back of the room. Also, we have added a table to unit block area to act as a raised building platform as well as a number of interesting materials to inspire new building possibilities and attract new visitors to the area.

Dramatic Play Center:
~ The home-living area was very popular at the end of last session and we have added new props to encourage more dressing up and character transformations. We will closely observe the children as they create the storylines to help add additional props as needed. We will also invite the children to venture to the art area to create new props as the play, tying in another creative element to the play.

Large Motor:
~ We will return to a simpler gym set up with the slide, jumping station, A-frame climber, and the rope swing; promoting the skills of running, jumping, balancing, upper and lower body strength, eye-hand and eye-foot coordination, as well as cardiovascular strength. With the nicer weather coming this spring, we hope to spend much more of our time outside!
~ It is true, the snow is gone and the playground is dry! The shovels, buckets, rakes, and other tools will be available, along with the tricycles and wagons for the children to rediscover the snow-free playground. The sandbox is ready to be re-explored and many scientific expeditions will be lead as we carefully observe the seasonal changes taking places on the playground.

Special Interest/Announcements:
~ We want to officially welcome Jenny and Laura to our classroom. They have introduced themselves briefly in the newsletter, however stop in and say hello. We look forward to all their great ideas during these last 10 weeks of school.
~ There is a PAC meeting on Monday, April 5 from 7-8.30p. If you can, please make it and share your thoughts and ideas about the Lab School.
~ Although it's not for a few weeks, just a reminder that school will be closed on Tuesday, April 20.
~ Spring Soiree is coming! Don't forget to schedule a sitter or ship the kids off to a relatives' house on April 24! It's going to be a great time to socialize with other parents as well as meet new families.

Snack:
Monday: Rice Cakes
Tuesday: Pretzels
Wednesday: Trader Joe's Letter Cookies
Thursday: Heart 2 Heart Cereal
Friday: Cheddar Bunnies

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

Overview and Goals
Welcome back to school everyone and Happy Spring! It was great to come back and go to the playground and find it snow-free. The sun and above freezing temperatures have taken care of the big puddles in our playground and surroundings! I hope you all enjoyed spending time relaxing and reenergizing. It shouldn't take long for the children to get back into our routines; please let me know if you notice anything and/or have questions about the children. Anna, Tara and Christina are our new student teachers for this session. They are all quite experienced working with children and are looking forward to get to know all of you. If you happen to be around, please take a moment to introduce yourselves and make them feel at home! These first weeks, we will focus on reconnecting and getting to know our new student teachers. We will also take time to get reacquainted with themes and set-ups that are expansions from the past session as well as new materials and arrangements. We will make sure that we take advantage of our wonderful outdoors environment and connect between what happens outside and inside of our classroom.

Expressive Arts
~Table easel painting with thin brushes and bright colored paints.
~An assortment of collage materials is available for the children to arrange and use creatively. We are hoping to go on a nature walk and collect our own precious materials. If you happen to find interesting and beautiful natural materials, please don't hesitate to send them to school with the children. We will be happy to use them in our creative area.
~Markers, crayons and colored pencils are available throughout the day and in different areas of the classroom to add personal touches to all creations.
Sensory Materials
~During the last session we gave the children the opportunity to freely explore clay. During this session we want to support children into becoming more intentional when working with clay and assist them and facilitate their observation and focus skills. In order to do this, we want to make sure that we provide a frame of reference and relevant topics to focus their attention. We will add the clay as soon as we listen to children's conversations and become more aware of their present meaningful interests are these days.
Dramatic and Symbolic Play
~The kitchen area presents opportunities for the children to interact with each other, plan and implement play scenarios related to home or restaurant life. Our kitchen is fully equipped with healthy fruits and vegetables and an assortment of kitchen utensils to support children's play scenarios.
~We have set up a "wake-up" into spring play area under the loft. This cozy place is set up as a cave with an assortment of baby animals and their "parents." We will encourage the children to make connections between their play and what happens in the animal world around us.
Science Center
~Our science area is bustling with life! We will closely observe the happenings in our incubator containing 48 chicken eggs. The due date for hatching is this Monday. We will keep the baby chicks until Friday and return them to the farm on that afternoon. The children will be able to watch the baby chicks and we will encourage their questions and trigger their curiosity by asking questions of our own.
~Our two frogs continue to grow and we will invite the children to observe and comment on any noticeable changes, such as activity level, size, color, eating habits and more.
~Our mealworms will continue to provide opportunities for children to monitor and study life cycles in insects. We will incorporate other insects as the weather warms up and we are able to find them outdoors.
~Our science area also houses some seedlings, classroom plants to take care of and two avocado pits that might be growing roots.
~Our birdfeeder seems to attract many birds throughout the day and we have set up a "bird-watching" station by the window. We will encourage children to notice and keep track of the different kinds of birds and other animals that visit our bird feeder daily. We will ask questions to allow children to deepen their understanding and further their questions regarding bird life. What do birds do with the food they find in our feeder? Do they live close by? Can we see their nests from our window? Do you think the birds have babies in their nests? How do they find the food? Do all birds get along? How do they communicate?
~The projector will continue to offer children opportunities to experiment with light and shadows. We will tie the children's experiences inside the classroom with what they have already found and noticed outdoors!
Language and Literacy
~We have set up a writing area by our bird watching station. We are hoping to encourage children to dictate their observations and/or created stories about chicks and eggs, birds and nests, mealworms, plants, baby animals, spring, etc. It is our intention to support children's understanding of the concept of sequencing, which is part of life cycles, basic math and life in general.
~We have writing utensils throughout the classroom. Pencils and clipboards are available for drawing and taking notes in different areas of the classroom.
~Our mailboxes are still available for the children by our writing center. If you would like to deliver a letter or note to the children, please let us know.
~Our library has a variety of spring books and old favorites. We also have an assortment of books that are specific to the different topics we are featuring in the classroom to support children's understanding of how to use books as sources of information.
~The top of the loft serves as a second writing center. We have place materials for the children to create their own stories. We also have magnetic boards and magnetic figure pieces to encourage children the retelling of traditional stories. We will also encourage them to create their own stories as they get comfortable and take note of these.
Math, Manipulative and Games
~These weeks we will focus on the concept of sequencing. Sequencing is the ability to understand the relative position of objects, otherwise known as ordinality and sequencing skills. This is an important mathematical skill. And example of sequencing is when children learn to put a series of numbers in order from greatest to least, or when children understand that stories have beginning, middle and end, and even notice that different events have certain order to them. We will encourage children to apply the concept of sequencing to activities, materials and set-ups inside the classroom and outdoors by asking questions and fostering their understanding of what comes first and what comes next.
~Legos and Pop-oids are located in our first cave, right next to a shelf with selected unit blocks. During the previous session, the children were interested in exploring ramps built with unit blocks and cars built our of Legos.
~A variety of themed floor puzzles and interlocking puzzles are available to encourage cooperation, fine motor and analyzing and synthesizing.
Block area
~Hollow blocks are available in the back of the room encouraging social interactions, creative building and spatial relations awareness and understanding.
~The Unit blocks are located in two different areas of the classroom. We have one set of unit blocks by the first cave in the front of the classroom. The second set unit blocks area in located next to the loft in the back of the classroom to support symbolic play with stuffed animals in our spring area.
Large Motor
~The Gym's this first week has a basic set-up. A see saw will provide opportunities for cooperative play and lessons in physics as the children walk its length on their own. A basketball hoop in the back will encourage throwing, receptive and propulsive skills. The trampoline is available to support gross motor, coordination, turn taking, and endurance. The rope swing and rope ladder will continue to be available to foster upper and lower body strength, coordination, turn taking, spatial awareness and endurance.
~We are hoping for wonderful sunny weather so that we can spend time outdoors and explore the changes that this season is bringing. Please make sure that you send the children dressed warm for lengthy outdoor play. If it rains, please send rain boots in addition to regular indoor shoes and raincoats in case we decide to go puddle jumping!
Music, Movement, and Large Group
~Our music cave will continue to be available to the children during these weeks. We have switched the instruments to provide different opportunities and variety.
~We will include some name-songs and games to help with the new teachers learn the children's names.
~Some other favorite songs will also be part of our repertoire in the next couple of weeks.
~We will visit and help the children notice the new materials available in the classroom. We will encourage the children to talk about the sense of "sight" the ways it supports us.
I missed you all, and I am looking forward to our springtime together!

See you all around,
Dalia

Overview and Goals
Welcome back to school everyone and Happy Spring! It was great to come back and go to the playground and find it snow-free. The sun and above freezing temperatures have taken care of the big puddles in our playground and surroundings! I hope you all enjoyed spending time relaxing and reenergizing. It shouldn't take long for the children to get back into our routines; please let me know if you notice anything and/or have questions about the children. Anna, Tara and Christina are our new student teachers for this session. They are all quite experienced working with children and are looking forward to get to know all of you. If you happen to be around, please take a moment to introduce yourselves and make them feel at home! These first weeks, we will focus on reconnecting and getting to know our new student teachers. We will also take time to get reacquainted with themes and set-ups that are expansions from the past session as well as new materials and arrangements. We will make sure that we take advantage of our wonderful outdoors environment and connect between what happens outside and inside of our classroom.

Expressive Arts
~Table easel painting with thin brushes and bright colored paints.
~An assortment of collage materials is available for the children to arrange and use creatively. We are hoping to go on a nature walk and collect our own precious materials. If you happen to find interesting and beautiful natural materials, please don't hesitate to send them to school with the children. We will be happy to use them in our creative area.
~Markers, crayons and colored pencils are available throughout the day and in different areas of the classroom to add personal touches to all creations.
Sensory Materials
~During the last session we gave the children the opportunity to freely explore clay. During this session we want to support children into becoming more intentional when working with clay and assist them and facilitate their observation and focus skills. In order to do this, we want to make sure that we provide a frame of reference and relevant topics to focus their attention. We will add the clay as soon as we listen to children's conversations and become more aware of their present meaningful interests are these days.
Dramatic and Symbolic Play
~The kitchen area presents opportunities for the children to interact with each other, plan and implement play scenarios related to home or restaurant life. Our kitchen is fully equipped with healthy fruits and vegetables and an assortment of kitchen utensils to support children's play scenarios.
~We have set up a "wake-up" into spring play area under the loft. This cozy place is set up as a cave with an assortment of baby animals and their "parents." We will encourage the children to make connections between their play and what happens in the animal world around us.
Science Center
~Our science area is bustling with life! We will closely observe the happenings in our incubator containing 48 chicken eggs. The due date for hatching is this Monday. We will keep the baby chicks until Friday and return them to the farm on that afternoon. The children will be able to watch the baby chicks and we will encourage their questions and trigger their curiosity by asking questions of our own.
~Our two frogs continue to grow and we will invite the children to observe and comment on any noticeable changes, such as activity level, size, color, eating habits and more.
~Our mealworms will continue to provide opportunities for children to monitor and study life cycles in insects. We will incorporate other insects as the weather warms up and we are able to find them outdoors.
~Our science area also houses some seedlings, classroom plants to take care of and two avocado pits that might be growing roots.
~Our birdfeeder seems to attract many birds throughout the day and we have set up a "bird-watching" station by the window. We will encourage children to notice and keep track of the different kinds of birds and other animals that visit our bird feeder daily. We will ask questions to allow children to deepen their understanding and further their questions regarding bird life. What do birds do with the food they find in our feeder? Do they live close by? Can we see their nests from our window? Do you think the birds have babies in their nests? How do they find the food? Do all birds get along? How do they communicate?
~The projector will continue to offer children opportunities to experiment with light and shadows. We will tie the children's experiences inside the classroom with what they have already found and noticed outdoors!
Language and Literacy
~We have set up a writing area by our bird watching station. We are hoping to encourage children to dictate their observations and/or created stories about chicks and eggs, birds and nests, mealworms, plants, baby animals, spring, etc. It is our intention to support children's understanding of the concept of sequencing, which is part of life cycles, basic math and life in general.
~We have writing utensils throughout the classroom. Pencils and clipboards are available for drawing and taking notes in different areas of the classroom.
~Our mailboxes are still available for the children by our writing center. If you would like to deliver a letter or note to the children, please let us know.
~Our library has a variety of spring books and old favorites. We also have an assortment of books that are specific to the different topics we are featuring in the classroom to support children's understanding of how to use books as sources of information.
~The top of the loft serves as a second writing center. We have place materials for the children to create their own stories. We also have magnetic boards and magnetic figure pieces to encourage children the retelling of traditional stories. We will also encourage them to create their own stories as they get comfortable and take note of these.
Math, Manipulative and Games
~These weeks we will focus on the concept of sequencing. Sequencing is the ability to understand the relative position of objects, otherwise known as ordinality and sequencing skills. This is an important mathematical skill. And example of sequencing is when children learn to put a series of numbers in order from greatest to least, or when children understand that stories have beginning, middle and end, and even notice that different events have certain order to them. We will encourage children to apply the concept of sequencing to activities, materials and set-ups inside the classroom and outdoors by asking questions and fostering their understanding of what comes first and what comes next.
~Legos and Pop-oids are located in our first cave, right next to a shelf with selected unit blocks. During the previous session, the children were interested in exploring ramps built with unit blocks and cars built our of Legos.
~A variety of themed floor puzzles and interlocking puzzles are available to encourage cooperation, fine motor and analyzing and synthesizing.
Block area
~Hollow blocks are available in the back of the room encouraging social interactions, creative building and spatial relations awareness and understanding.
~The Unit blocks are located in two different areas of the classroom. We have one set of unit blocks by the first cave in the front of the classroom. The second set unit blocks area in located next to the loft in the back of the classroom to support symbolic play with stuffed animals in our spring area.
Large Motor
~The Gym's this first week has a basic set-up. A see saw will provide opportunities for cooperative play and lessons in physics as the children walk its length on their own. A basketball hoop in the back will encourage throwing, receptive and propulsive skills. The trampoline is available to support gross motor, coordination, turn taking, and endurance. The rope swing and rope ladder will continue to be available to foster upper and lower body strength, coordination, turn taking, spatial awareness and endurance.
~We are hoping for wonderful sunny weather so that we can spend time outdoors and explore the changes that this season is bringing. Please make sure that you send the children dressed warm for lengthy outdoor play. If it rains, please send rain boots in addition to regular indoor shoes and raincoats in case we decide to go puddle jumping!
Music, Movement, and Large Group
~Our music cave will continue to be available to the children during these weeks. We have switched the instruments to provide different opportunities and variety.
~We will include some name-songs and games to help with the new teachers learn the children's names.
~Some other favorite songs will also be part of our repertoire in the next couple of weeks.
~We will visit and help the children notice the new materials available in the classroom. We will encourage the children to talk about the sense of "sight" the ways it supports us.
I missed you all, and I am looking forward to our springtime together!

See you all around,
Dalia

Lead Teacher: Frances
Goals: As we start back after spring break, our two main goals are to foster connections with our two new student teachers and to celebrate Spring! We will be talking about these events during large group, snack, and at other appropriate times throughout the day. Several curriculum areas will be carried over from prior to break, to provide some continuity and less "competition" for new materials while the student teachers get settled. We will hope for continued warm weather and extend our time outdoors as we hunt for and notice changes to our playground.

Art:
*Children will have the opportunity to paint with large and small brushes on the large easel. This activity will help extend children's fine motor development and feature a palette of many hues of green to represent the changes outside.

Manipulative/Math:
*Jenga blocks will be available for children to construct towers of varying heights, using problem-solving skills to create the most stable towers. Children will be encouraged to predict how high they can build and to count the numbers of blocks used in their construction efforts.
*Various puzzles will be available to challenge children to use fine motor planning, problem-solving skills, and persistence.
*New jackets provide a chance for children to practice new self help skills. We will have some "dressing clowns" available to encourage children to try latching, buttoning, zipping and the like. We will also encourage them to attempt to do the same on their spring jackets.

Sensory:
*Colored play dough will be offered for children to use with different-textured rollers, mashers, and shape cutters. Building with play dough supports fine motor strength and precision, as well as creative expression.
*We will add seed pods, pinecones and other natural materials to the sand table to encourage children to look for similar things outside. When the environment is new and different, children are more likely to take notice of details they may gloss over later. Shovels and small diggers will complete the array of options here.

Science:
*A bulb garden and budding branches will be available for children to observe and to make experience the magic of growing and flowering spring plants. In addition, the children will be offered an opportunity to care for the plants by watering them. These activities will allow the children to better understand the life cycle of plants and to take responsibility for caring for living things.
*The light table will be moved into the cave area this week. Translucent blocks and colored discs will be placed on top of the light table to allow children to explore shadows and the contrast between light and dark.

Dramatic Play:
*The Pet Hospital will continue in the loft area, complete with various materials such as kennels, leashes, blankets, bandages, stethoscopes, thermometers, and veterinarian scrubs. Additional animals, such as turtles, birds, and snakes, will join the many dogs and cats available. This area is arranged in a spacious and thoughtful way to encourage social interactions. We will support the children's play by promoting and taking on different roles within their play. We encourage families to bring or e-mail photographs of family pets to post in the Pet Hospital to aide in the children's dramatic play scenarios.
*The children have expanded the kitchen/home area to include picnics. To support this play, we will set up a picnic table in the kitchen/home area and provide picnic baskets, picnic blankets, and additional plates, cups, and food to allow for many children to participate. This play will offer children the opportunity to engage in many social interactions as they cooperate together to find places for picnics, pass out plates and cups to each other, and serve food to one another.
*Zoo animal figurines will be available for children to explore and manipulate. Children will also have the opportunity to create zoo homes for the animals using various blocks, feed the animals using "food", and utilize trucks to be used as zoo keeper's vehicles. This play will foster children's cooperation, turn-taking, and empathy skills as they work on taking care of the animals.

Language and Literacy:
*We hope the children enjoyed receiving their "drawing" in their home mail box over spring break. Remind them that they made the note and brought it to the mailbox. We hope this experience will support them in continuing to write notes and leave messages for each other and their families. We will have colored paper, scissors, markers, and stickers for writing. If there is interest, we may walk to deliver more mail in the mailbox a short distance from Lab School.
*A large flannel board will be set up in the classroom to provide experiences for children to sequence familiar stories and use their imagination to create new storylines. Various books incorporating 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.
*Children will have the opportunity to construct zoo homes or other structures for the zoo animals, combining block play with dramatic play scenarios.

Large Motor:
*The gym has been simplified to start the trimester. A see saw will provide a chance for cooperative play and also lessons in physics as the children walk its length on their own. A basketball hoop in the back will encourage throwing, receptive and propulsive skills. The trampoline is available to support gross motor, turn taking, balancing, and flexibility. The rope swing and rope ladder will continue to be available to foster upper body strength, turn taking, spatial awareness, muscular strength, and endurance.

*Outside, children will have the opportunity to create bubbles by blowing and waving bubble wands. They will then attempt to catch or pop the bubbles. This will foster children's visual tracking skills, cooperation, and turn-taking abilities. Scooter cars, and the basketball hoop with various size balls will also be accessible for children to use.

Snack:
Tuesday: Rice Cakes and Bananas
Friday: Goldfish and Oranges

Announcements: If the weather stays dry and on the warm side, tennis shoes are fine for outside. When the rains start and things get muddy, it would be better to have rain boots or even snow boots. We want the children to be appropriately dressed for fully exploring the outdoors, and that will likely mean some mud during the spring months.

The last week of school was filled with a range of emotions. Though it is sad to say goodbye to the student teachers, it was also a week filled with exciting activities. The children enjoyed meeting and learning about taking care of "injured" and "sickly" animals from Carol, the veterinarian technician. Jeannine also prepared a wonderful large group activity where children had an opportunity to write a letter and send it by going to the ICD building post office. Look in your mailbox in the next two days! Please take a look at what the children have been doing this week.

The children learned about and enjoyed manipulating two types of bandages: a soft white bandage and a sticky cast-like bandage.

Maia said, "these are my babies." She carefully bandaged and gave the birds shots. After the babies were "better" she took them out for a picnic.

This is a story about two post office workers:

Ellie: I'm going to the post office!
Cashton: Wait!
Ellie gets on the bus and Cashton joins. They both sit on the bus waiting for their stop.

Ayuko: Here is the post office.
Cashton and Ellie sit down and start unpacking their mail.
Ellie: Okay, I'm done now.
Ellie leaves the post office and goes to the mail box. Cashton filled the slots with his "mail" and his bag. Once he finished, he left the post office and went back to the mail box.

After Jeannine informed the children the process of writing and folding the letter into an envelop, the children worked together at three different tables and wrote a letter to themselves.

As a group, we tiptoed up the stairs to the ICD "post office." At the top of stairs, children gathered and each placed their letters into the mail box.

Don't forget to check your mailboxes in the next day or two.

Thank you all for another great term! See you in two weeks.

Hello Parents,

The tadpoles have finally become frogs and are thriving on their new diet of tiny crickets. For now the children are enjoying watching the crickets as much as the frogs, who both hop happily around the terrarium.

The mealworms have been getting a lot of attention. The children hunt for them in their oatmeal habitat and try to collect as many as they can. We added "superworms," a larger mealworm, so the children can see the body parts more clearly.

As the children continue to learn about life cycles, the teachers have decided to add another way for them to see part of a life cycle first hand. We now have fertilized chicken eggs in the classroom for observation. This is a great learning opportunity that connects, not only to life cycles, but also to the children's love and care of animals. The eggs come from a person who regularly provides eggs to schools for projects and we are certain that he follows health regulations; however, we do not want to take any risks that the children will be exposed to bacteria. Therefore, the children will not be permitted to touch the eggs or chicks, they well be able to observe through the windows in the enclosed incubator. The chicks will hatch soon after the children return from spring break. After the chicks have hatched, the children will continue to observe them before they go back to the farm where we got the eggs. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Last week the children were filmed as they acted out their play, "The Princess and the Dinos." Watching the movie was very exciting to them. They beamed with pride as they saw themselves on the screen. We will be showing the movie on Thursday throughout the day so parents can see the production. They put a lot of energy into thinking about the details of how to put on a play and would love to share it with you! There will also be a few DVDs available for families to check out, watch, and return. In the "Updates" section you will find photos that capture the month long process of writing, setting up, and rehearsing the play. Enjoy!

Thanks,
Amy

The children showed interest in acting out a play after Sarah built a huge stage in the back of the classroom. The idea appealed to everyone so there were many characters milling about on the stage acting out their own roles to their own story lines. It was lively and...a bit chaotic.

In order to foster a sense of cohesiveness to the group, the student teachers and I decided we needed to bring the topic of "plays" to a morning meeting conversation. It was clear that the idea of "a play" was familiar to the children based on their familiarity with a stage and pretending to be various characters. Many shared their experiences of seeing plays with their families. When I asked what we would need to make our own play at school they agreed on a stage, costumes, and characters. What we didn't have was a story...

I facilitated the writing of a group story by going around the circle and giving each child a chance to contribute their ideas. I started, "Once upon a time..." and Jacob continued, "A Princess got chased by too many dinos." The rest goes like this...She fell down and turned into a ghost. She ran away from the dinos. She changed back into a princess. The princess got eaten by a monster. The princess died. She came out and fought the monster with a sword. The monster won. The fairies came to help the princess. A storm came and the princess died. The monster thought he was safe but he was buried in the dirt."

The next day the children couldn't wait to act out the story they had written. Bennett, David, and Zachary built the stage.

Sam and Zachary negotiated roles. Meanwhile, Piper figured out that she could use our light projector to add light to the show.

Holden, Clare and Sarah started getting into their costumes.

Jillian set up chairs for the audience.

Augie warmed up the xylophone so the play could have some music.

The actors and actresses started taking their places. Megan introduced and narrated the play using the script that the children wrote.

In the opening scene, the dinos chased the princess with their improvised sharp claws.

The princess fell down and turned into a (purple) ghost.

The ghost turned back into a princess only to be eaten by a monster. (Here the monster is trying to catch the princess)

The fairies came to help out but couldn't save the princess from being eaten by the monster.

The princess came back to life briefly for one last battle with the monster. After the battle, the princess died (again) in a bad storm. The monster didn't survive either and ended up buried under the dirt (improvised carpet squares).

One of the things that is so wonderful about this play project is that each and every child has been involved at some point. They are clearly intrinsically motivated to act out the play multiple times each day. They change roles and jobs, sometimes they choose to act, other times they watch. They also continue to invent new jobs such as, serving refreshments to the audience, making lists of characters and props, and drawing illustrations for the script. It has been an amazing process and it is still evolving and growing more and more rich every day.

Weekly Lesson Plan
Week of 3/8/10 - 3/12/10
Lead teaching this week: Jennie

Overview and Goals: Our last week is finally upon us. These ten weeks have gone by amazingly fast, and the student teachers will be sad to see this great experience end. It has been a pleasure working with your children, and we hope to make our last week here remarkable for both the children and ourselves. For the last week of the winter session, we want to foster cooperative play throughout the room to support the relationships that were developed during this session and help them continue when the children return from spring break. Higher-level and mathematical thinking will also be a main focus in the room. The manipulatives area will foster mathematical skills of counting, estimation, and comparison through games and teacher-facilitated activities. The science area will also foster concepts related to part-to-whole relationship with activities focusing on light and shadow. We will continue this investigation into the spring as well as dive deeper into the exploration of the natural world as science will be "budding and blossoming" right before our eyes!

Sensory Table: With spring quickly approaching, and water gathering on the streets and sidewalks around us, we will continue our investigation/exploration of water. Along with color mixing, there will be sea creatures and boats available for the children to incorporate into their water play. Through the cooperative play, imaginative play, and story telling that is possible, the children will be enhancing their already formed relationships.

Art: Watercolors continue to be of interest within at the art table. Last week, the children examined the effects of watercolors on paper towels and coffee filters. This week, the pipettes will continue to be used with the watercolors, the children will be able to do line drawings on watercolor paper and then use the pipettes to intentionally place color on their pictures. The tabletop easels will return for more detailed painting experiences using the watercolors. These activities provide the children with opportunities to form/test those hypotheses, as well as opportunities for creative expression, and appreciation for their own work and the work of others. We will be removing the large easel from the art area and replacing it with an area in which the children can paint with their feet! A teacher will be on hand to facilitate the exploration of using paintbrushes with our feet. This will encourage fine motor development in our toes and ankles. It will also present the children with a novel way of creating art.

Science: In the science area, we are going to continue our investigation of light and shadow. A light table will be added to the science cave for the children to explore using clear, colored shapes and figures. Here the children will be able to practice patterning, as well as create larger pictures out of the shapes while discovering part-to-whole relationships. Kaleidoscopes will be brought into the cave for the children to investigate how the effects light and shadow can have on appearances.

Manipulatives: Last week, we began exploring the ideas of estimation and comparison with numbers by providing various sized containers and glass beads to fill them with. The children were then able to fill each container up with beads, ask their classmates and teachers how many beads were in each container, and count the beads. To continue these higher-level thinking skills, we will provide more objects for the children to use in estimation and counting activities. Along with the glass beads, the children will be guessing and comparing the number of buttons, bottle caps, and other small manipulatives. We will also be adding inch wood cubes to the manipulatives table. With the cubes, the children can stack them or lay them out to promote a stronger understanding of quantity and what piles of 1, 10, 20, and even 100 actually look like when next to each other.

Literature Center: With the end of the session very near, we will be encouraging the children to write letters to one another before the two-week break starts. To facilitate the letter writing, especially to help with addressing the letters, a name bin has been added to the area. The name bin has a drawer for each child's name labels. This drawer system helps encourage pre-literacy skills in the recognition of their own names as well as those of their classmates. There will also be extra sheets with their names printed on them for them to cut out, developing their fine motor skills and fostering their ability to successfully use a scissors.

Dramatic Play: Since the kitchen and house items have moved over to the side of the room with the caves and expanded into the caves, the family play has been resurrected. The children have taken on the roles of mother, sister, baby, babysitter, as well as dog, puppy, and kitty creating very sophisticated story lines. To continue the exploration of the familial roles, the kitchen and house area will remain, and we will add common pets to the area in the form of stuffed animals. Along with the pets: leashes, dog food, and other pet supplies will be added to help the children care for their animals. Skills that will be fostered in this area are cooperative play, sharing, the continuing establishment of understanding societal roles, and story telling.

Blocks: The hollow blocks, No Ends, and notch blocks all continue to be popular materials in the block area. The children are once again building many types of vehicles out of the hollow blocks. During the last week alone, there was a rescue helicopter, racecar, and pirate ship stationed in the back of the room. The stories created around these vehicles have grown in complexity. With the construction of the rescue helicopter, the children created stories about the people they were saving, and the reason they were saving them. They have been building tall towers and large animals out of the No Ends, and machines with the notch blocks. To continue to encourage their creative thinking, as well as the cooperative building that has been going on, we will demonstrate how all three types of building supplies can be used together in their creations. We will also continue to encourage the children's development of stories around their structures as it has been generating very productive and intriguing play schemes in the back of the room.

Gym/Outside: The final gym set-up of the year has kept the children busy over the last few weeks. To continue interest in the equipment, the teachers will be facilitating more games, such as "How fast can you...(crab walk, run, bear walk, etc.)?" The teachers will be timing the children, and encouraging them to beat their personal best times. Outside, the weather continues to get warmer! More animal life has been active during the school day, drawing the attention of the children. Sledding continues to be popular; we have even gotten the swimming pools out to include more children at one time, as well as slow the children down on a very slick hill.

Announcements/reminders:
- It's already that time to say farewell to our student teachers, again. Hard to believe that another 10weeks have passed and we're now 2/3 of the way through our school year! We will have our "Goodbye Party" on Thursday, March 11 around 10.30. We hope you can make it for snack and sing-a-long, however we are trying something a bit different this time. It will be an "open-day" for you to come and spend some time in the classroom and say goodbye to Jennie, Nadine, and Stephanie. We understand that trying to leave work mid-day can be tough, so we are inviting you to stay a bit longer at drop-off, join us for large group, or stop in during free play. Also, please let me know if there is another day that works better and I'm sure you could stop in anytime this week.
- Speaking of student teachers, our new recruits for the spring session will be coming to visit the classroom and meet the children on Wednesday. Jenny Stabenow and Laura Sibinski are their names and they are very excited to meet everyone and get started once we return from break!
- Speaking of student teachers, again, our fall team (Elizabeth, Rachel, and Stacy) will be stopping by to visit and have snack on Monday! We're excited to see them and hear about the many things they have been doing since they finished in December!
- Just a reminder, Friday is our last day of school. We will be on break for two weeks and return on Monday, March 29th. If you can, try to arrange a play-date or two with some classmates during our time away. Although it's a shorter break, it is still a great support their existing and newly budding friendships! If you have any questions, please let me know.

Snack:
Monday: Rice Cakes & Banana
Tuesday: Cheeze-Its & Apple
Wednesday: Cheese & Crackers
Thursday: Fruit & Oat Bars & Cantaloupe
Friday: Pretzels & Oranges

Dear families,
We have been very busy learning and exploring this month. We have taken advantage of the warmer weather and spent more time on the playground. Children enjoyed digging in the snow with shovels, using molds to create shapes, and sledding. We even experimented with going down the sledding hill in swimming pools! Group games such as freeze tag, red light-green light, and animal movement activities were enjoyed by all. The children continue to notice the natural elements of the playground, pointing out bird nests, birds, and squirrels.
Inside the classroom, the children have been busy creating elaborate racetracks, ramps, and cars with the legos, unit blocks, and hollow blocks. Short pieces of gutter expanded their play allowing opportunities to think about the slope of the ramp affecting the speed of the cars and distance traveled. Children worked collaboratively to build the tracks and ramps while practicing fine motor control and creative thinking.
The science center continued to be a popular area within the classroom and went through some big changes. The children observed our tadpoles grow into frogs to complete the life cycle. We have added mealworms and super worms to explore a new life cycle. The children spent time looking at the worms with magnifying glasses, drawing pictures of the worms, and drawing the life cycle stages. We have encouraged children to plant their own seeds and bulbs in addition to monitoring the growth of the Amaryllis. Rulers were added to measure the plants as they grow.
Three small easels with watercolors replaced the large easel in the classroom. The smaller easels and brushes allowed children to practice fine motor control and hand-eye coordination while working with a new kind of paint. Permanent markers were also available, to encourage to draw shapes before coloring inside. Some children drew shapes with markers and painted portions of the shape with different colors.
At the art table we have explored 3-D collage. This new activity inspired and drew new children to the art area. Several children built creative structures using pieces of wood, flat wood shapes, collage materials and glue.
The snow filled sensory table has been very popular lately. Animals from the North and South Pole were added as well as a water bucket within the table. Children were busy creating habitats for the animals while engaging in pretend play and social interactions.
The new gym gave us opportunities to support eye-hand coordination skills, directional awareness, depth perception and receptive and propulsion skills with the beanbags. The trampoline supported gross motor, turn taking, balancing, and flexibility. The rope swing and ladder were still available to foster upper body strength, turn taking, spatial awareness, muscular strength and endurance. The elevated balance beam promoted eye-foot coordination, risk taking, and directional awareness. The A-frame climber and the crossed balance beams supported upper balance strength, risk-taking, turn taking, balance, and problem solving. The donut attached to the side of the slide encouraged children to take risks, problem solve, and work on coordination. The Pedalo assisted children with balancing, motor planning, turn taking, negotiation, sharing, and communicating with others.
We continued using the light projector to explore shadows in the back of the classroom. The children enjoyed creating a story with shadow puppets during large group. Several children expanded on and created their own stories using the shadow puppets during free play.
Literacy activities were incorporated into many of the classroom activities throughout the day. A rhyming flannel board activity allowed further exploration of rhymes as well as story creation. The children enjoyed working together to tell familiar nursery rhymes as well as creating new endings and stories using the flannel board. Children continued to write letters to one another, look at books, and enjoyed read aloud time at the end of the day.
Patterning and measurement were incorporated in several activities within the classroom to develop math skills. The children were busy measuring plants and worms while noticing patterns in nature, classroom materials, and even snack foods.
Small groups concluded; culminating activities took place last week. The bird group created bird feeders, which were hung near the playground creating a "Bird Café". After a field trip to the Weisman Art Museum, the art group completed a final project based on a popular exhibit the children saw at the museum. The castle group completed their castle by adding a roof, sculptures, and a drawbridge. The children are looking forward to sharing all they have learned and created with you during the classroom party on Thursday!
It has been a pleasure getting to know each of the children in the classroom while watching them learn and grow. Fostering their creative exploration and learning has been a truly wonderful experience. Janet, Lisa, and I will miss everyone as we move on to our next student teaching experiences. Thank you for sharing your children with us.

Warmly,
Beth

It's hard to believe that this is the last week of school before Spring Break! The children and I have been working hard, making gifts for the student teachers. Each child contributed and decorated the vases at one point or another. This was an opportunity for me to talk about goodbyes and the upcoming transition with the children. Below are some of the pictures I took of the children decorating the vases.

As we were working in the hallway, some teachers walked by asking us what we were doing. Elliot and Abby said out loud, "these are presents for the student teachers!" and "We are decorating!"

We will be giving these vases to the student teachers on Wednesday, March 10th, during snack time. You are welcome to join us at that time or anytime during the day.

*Our last day of this term will be on Thursday, March 11th. We will have a "goodbye" day on Wednesday, March 10th. Families are welcome to say goodbye to the student teachers and spend time with your child anytime during the day, including snack and outside times. Please make sure to park at a ramp or metered parking spots. The angled parking area is only available for 20 minutes. The children and I will be giving the teachers gifts at snack time.

*School resumes on Monday, March 29th! Have a great Spring Break!

*We have just learned that Natalie and Theresa will be our new student teachers in the Spring. Pictures of them will soon follow. We have been talking with the children about the upcoming Spring break, and the fact that the current student teachers will move on to new schools when the children come back. Please let them know that Natalie and Theresa will be joining us when the children return to school.

Lesson Plan

Week of: March 8th 2010

Goals: As we enter the last week of the term, our main goal is to help prepare the children for the upcoming Spring Break and for the transition to new student teachers. We will be talking about these events during large group, snack, and at other appropriate times throughout the day. Several curriculum areas will be extended in the classroom, including the letter writing center, the pet hospital, the light table area, and the flannel storyboards. We will also incorporate new play themes, such as picnics, zoo, and bubbles, stemming from recent field trips that some of the children have recently participated in. With the recent warm weather, we will offer children the opportunity to observe bulbs sprouting and buds blossoming both in the classroom setting and outdoors.

Art:
*Children will have the opportunity to paint with large and small brushes on a transparent plexiglass easel. This activity will help extend children's fine motor development and offer unique opportunities for cognitive and social engagement as the children observe each other while they create an art piece together.

Manipulative/Math:
*Jenga blocks will be available for children to construct towers of varying heights, using problem-solving skills to create the most stable towers. Children will be encouraged to predict how high they can build and to count the numbers of blocks used in their construction efforts.

*Various puzzles, including the large wooden shape puzzle, will be available to challenge children to use fine motor planning, problem-solving skills, and persistence. "Animal" nesting cups will provide children with opportunities to focus attention on individual size differences from large to small.

Sensory:
*Colored play dough will be offered for children to use with different-textured rollers, mashers, and shape cutters. Building with play dough supports fine motor strength and precision, as well as creative expression.

*Water will be added to the sand table to offer children the opportunity to explore the differences between these two types of sand and to create structures and shapes using various molds, shovels, and containers. These activities allow children to observe and imitate other children's actions, use creativity, and develop social skills, such as turn-taking.

Science:
*A bulb garden and budding branches will be available for children to observe and to make predictions about the plants' growth and changes. In addition, the children will be offered an opportunity to care for the plants by watering them. These activities will allow the children to better understand the life cycle of plants and to take responsibility for caring for living things.

*The light table will be moved into the cave area this week. Translucent blocks and colored discs will be placed on top of the light table to allow children to explore shadows and the contrast between light and dark.

Dramatic Play:
*The Pet Hospital will continue in the loft area, complete with various materials such as kennels, leashes, blankets, bandages, stethoscopes, thermometers, and veterinarian scrubs. Additional animals, such as turtles, birds, and snakes, will join the many dogs and cats available. This area is arranged in a spacious and thoughtful way to encourage social interactions. We will support the children's play by promoting and taking on different roles within their play. We encourage families to bring or e-mail photographs of family pets to post in the Pet Hospital to aide in the children's dramatic play scenarios.

*The children have expanded the kitchen/home area to include picnics. To support this play, we will set up a picnic table in the kitchen/home area and provide picnic baskets, picnic blankets, and additional plates, cups, and food to allow for many children to participate. This play will offer children the opportunity to engage in many social interactions as they cooperate together to find places for picnics, pass out plates and cups to each other, and serve food to one another.

*Zoo animal figurines will be available for children to explore and manipulate. Children will also have the opportunity to create zoo homes for the animals using various blocks, act out play scenarios using small "puppets" (each child's face will be placed on a popsicle stick), feed the animals using "food", and utilize trucks to be used as zoo keeper's vehicles. This play will foster children's cooperation, turn-taking, and empathy skills as they work on taking care of the animals.

Language and Literacy:
*The children have been creating and writing letters in the mail center using colored paper, scissors, markers, and stickers. To promote literacy skills and to further the development of a caring classroom community, individual mailboxes will continue to be available in the front of the classroom. Additionally, a large mailbox will be made available for children to place in mail for family members or to collect mail and deliver it with mail bags throughout the classroom. Addresses, such as "#2 Block Road" or #3 Loft Street" will be posted throughout the classroom. Children will be able to deliver mail using mail bags to these different addresses. Children will also be given an opportunity to draw a picture or write a letter to their family, which will be mailed home over Spring Break. A small group of children will be walking to a mailbox within close proximity to the school to mail out these letters.

*A large flannel board will be set up in the classroom to provide experiences for children to sequence familiar stories and use their imagination to create new storylines. Various books incorporating 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.

*Children will have the opportunity to construct zoo homes or other structures for the zoo animals, combining block play with dramatic play scenarios.

Large Motor:
*The beanbag toss fosters eye-hand coordination, directional awareness, depth perception, and receptive and propulsive skills. The trampoline is available to support gross motor, turn taking, balancing, and flexibility. The rope swing and rope ladder will continue to be available to foster upper body strength, turn taking, spatial awareness, muscular strength, and endurance. The elevated balance beam is available to promote eye-foot coordination, risk-taking, and directional awareness. The A-frame climber and crossed balance beams support upper body strength, risk-taking, turn taking, balance, and problem-solving. The donut is attached to the side of the slide, which will encourage the children to take risks, problem solve, and work on their coordination. The Pedalo will assist the children with skills of balancing, motor planning, turn taking, negotiating, sharing, and communicating with each other.

*Outside, children will have the opportunity to create bubbles by blowing and waving bubble wands. They will then attempt to catch or pop the bubbles. This will foster children's visual tracking skills, cooperation, and turn-taking abilities. Scooter cars, and the basketball hoop with various size balls will also be accessible for children to use.

Large Group:
*Various themes will be explored during large group this week. Books, songs, and activities will be incorporated focusing on goodbyes, Spring and new beginnings, letter writing, the pet hospital, zoo, and picnics.

Snacks:
Monday: Rice Cakes & Banana
Wednesday: Fruit & Oat Bars & Cantaloupe
Thursday: Cheeze-Its & Apple

Lead Teacher: Jeannine

Goals: As we enter the last week of the term, our main goal is to help prepare the children for the upcoming Spring Break and for the transition to new student teachers. We will be talking about these events during large group, snack, and at other appropriate times throughout the day. Several curriculum areas will be extended in the classroom, including the letter writing center, the pet hospital, the light table area, and the flannel storyboards. We will also incorporate new play themes, such as picnics, zoo, and bubbles, stemming from recent field trips that some of the children have recently participated in. With the recent warm weather, we will offer children the opportunity to observe bulbs sprouting and buds blossoming both in the classroom setting and outdoors.

Art:
*Children will have the opportunity to paint with large and small brushes on a transparent plexiglass easel. This activity will help extend children's fine motor development and offer unique opportunities for cognitive and social engagement as the children observe each other while they create an art piece together.

Manipulative/Math:
*Jenga blocks will be available for children to construct towers of varying heights, using problem-solving skills to create the most stable towers. Children will be encouraged to predict how high they can build and to count the numbers of blocks used in their construction efforts.
*Various puzzles, including the large wooden shape puzzle, will be available to challenge children to use fine motor planning, problem-solving skills, and persistence. "Animal" nesting cups will provide children with opportunities to focus attention on individual size differences from large to small.
Sensory:
*Colored play dough will be offered for children to use with different-textured rollers, mashers, and shape cutters. Building with play dough supports fine motor strength and precision, as well as creative expression.
*Water will be added to the sand table to offer children the opportunity to explore the differences between these two types of sand and to create structures and shapes using various molds, shovels, and containers. These activities allow children to observe and imitate other children's actions, use creativity, and develop social skills, such as turn-taking.

Science:
*A bulb garden and budding branches will be available for children to observe and to make predictions about the plants' growth and changes. In addition, the children will be offered an opportunity to care for the plants by watering them. These activities will allow the children to better understand the life cycle of plants and to take responsibility for caring for living things.
*The light table will be moved into the cave area this week. Translucent blocks and colored discs will be placed on top of the light table to allow children to explore shadows and the contrast between light and dark.

Dramatic Play:
*The Pet Hospital will continue in the loft area, complete with various materials such as kennels, leashes, blankets, bandages, stethoscopes, thermometers, and veterinarian scrubs. Additional animals, such as turtles, birds, and snakes, will join the many dogs and cats available. This area is arranged in a spacious and thoughtful way to encourage social interactions. We will support the children's play by promoting and taking on different roles within their play. We encourage families to bring or e-mail photographs of family pets to post in the Pet Hospital to aide in the children's dramatic play scenarios.
*The children have expanded the kitchen/home area to include picnics. To support this play, we will set up a picnic table in the kitchen/home area and provide picnic baskets, picnic blankets, and additional plates, cups, and food to allow for many children to participate. This play will offer children the opportunity to engage in many social interactions as they cooperate together to find places for picnics, pass out plates and cups to each other, and serve food to one another.
*Zoo animal figurines will be available for children to explore and manipulate. Children will also have the opportunity to create zoo homes for the animals using various blocks, act out play scenarios using small "puppets" (each child's face will be placed on a popsicle stick), feed the animals using "food", and utilize trucks to be used as zoo keeper's vehicles. This play will foster children's cooperation, turn-taking, and empathy skills as they work on taking care of the animals.

Language and Literacy:
*The children have been creating and writing letters in the mail center using colored paper, scissors, markers, and stickers. To promote literacy skills and to further the development of a caring classroom community, individual mailboxes will continue to be available in the front of the classroom. Additionally, a large mailbox will be made available for children to place in mail for family members or to collect mail and deliver it with mail bags throughout the classroom. Addresses, such as "#2 Block Road" or #3 Loft Street" will be posted throughout the classroom. Children will be able to deliver mail using mail bags to these different addresses. Children will also be given an opportunity to draw a picture or write a letter to their family, which will be mailed home over Spring Break. A small group of children will be walking to a mailbox within close proximity to the school to mail out these letters.
*A large flannel board will be set up in the classroom to provide experiences for children to sequence familiar stories and use their imagination to create new storylines. Various books incorporating 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.
*Children will have the opportunity to construct zoo homes or other structures for the zoo animals, combining block play with dramatic play scenarios.

Large Motor:
*The beanbag toss fosters eye-hand coordination, directional awareness, depth perception, and receptive and propulsive skills. The trampoline is available to support gross motor, turn taking, balancing, and flexibility. The rope swing and rope ladder will continue to be available to foster upper body strength, turn taking, spatial awareness, muscular strength, and endurance. The elevated balance beam is available to promote eye-foot coordination, risk-taking, and directional awareness. The A-frame climber and crossed balance beams support upper body strength, risk-taking, turn taking, balance, and problem-solving. The donut is attached to the side of the slide, which will encourage the children to take risks, problem solve, and work on their coordination. The Pedalo will assist the children with skills of balancing, motor planning, turn taking, negotiating, sharing, and communicating with each other.
*Outside, children will have the opportunity to create bubbles by blowing and waving bubble wands. They will then attempt to catch or pop the bubbles. This will foster children's visual tracking skills, cooperation, and turn-taking abilities. Scooter cars, and the basketball hoop with various size balls will also be accessible for children to use.

Large Group:
*Various themes will be explored during large group this week. Books, songs, and activities will be incorporated focusing on goodbyes, Spring and new beginnings, letter writing, the pet hospital, zoo, and picnics.

Snacks: To be announced

Please come to our good bye snack for the outgoing team of student teachers, Tuesday, March 9th at 10:15 am.

This week the children took a strong interest in the Vet clinic in the back of the room. Several of them saw photos of their own animals and were clearly pleased. Henry Da saw a picture of Jack's dog Penny and said it looked like the black doggie toy he was playing with. Here they are together, don't they look a lot alike?

Eleanor checked on an animal, after feeding it and taking it's temperature.

Max and Henry Da check on the animals.

Lucia puts an animal to bed in the clinic.

The translucent duplos were appealing on the light table.

The predominant form of building has been going up - tall towers as children experiment with how tall they can go. It is reminiscent of the kind of building they did with some counting pegs a few weeks ago. In that case, the tower tipped as it grew. The duplos do not.

The music area was popular. Children experimented with a "harp," an "accordian," several types of maracas and resonator tone bars. By Friday, when we put on some music, many children joined in dancing.

The dancing has also taken off in the gym. Bit by bit children have started to ask another child to "dance," mostly consisting of holding hands and moving in a circle.

We celebrated our first class birthday, Brenna is three. This is another milestone, as children begin to cross over to become three year olds.