Recently in Ayuko2's Lesson Plans Category

Goals: Since we are coming to the end of the school year, we will begin talking about summer regularly with the children. In order to prepare for summer, new play areas, such as a tent in the loft and fish and nets in the water table, have been added to help children get ready for summer activities. Another goal for the week is to have the children express their creativity by building on an activity they started with a teacher and expanding on it to make it their own.
Art:
*We will have collage materials available for the children to explore with 3D creations. We will encourage their creativity by allowing them to use materials such as empty film canisters, wood pieces, and cardboard pieces, to make 3D sculptures however they imagine.
*The art easel will have multiple paper color choices with different shades of blue paint for the children to use. The paper will have large shapes drawn on them by the teachers to encourage the children to build off of the shapes and create original pictures.
Manipulative/Math:
*New puzzles, such as fish puzzles and transportation puzzles, have been added to the manipulatives table. The fruit patterning activity will continue to be available.
Sensory:
The water table will continue to be available. Fish and nets will be added for the children to "go fishing." The tubes, buckets, and large funnel will remain in the water table for the children to explore water movement.
*We will be continuing the exploration with glurtch. The children have had the chance to color the glurtch with markers and cut it with cookie cutters. We plan to focus the children's attention on the way the glurtch moves, stretches and dribbles.
Science:
* We will add another aspect of weather awareness to the science table where the children can observe and explore tornados with plastic tornado bottles. This is being done because tornado warnings are common during summer and the children will be more aware of what a tornado is.
*We will have our fish next week! We will encourage the children's exploration and inquiry of our new pet and continue to have books about fish and their needs for the children to read. Questions will be asked, such as: what do fish eat, how do fish breathe, and why do fish live in water.
Dramatic Play:
* Because summer is fast approaching and some children may end up camping this summer, a camping area has been created in the loft. The loft has become a tent and there are different camping supplies available for the children to use. There has also been a pond created out of fabric for the children to practice fishing and pretend to swim in.
*An area for building trains will continue to be available in the classroom. The children will be able to use trains and they will be able to create their own trains from blocks and chairs so they can be participants in the play.
Language and Literacy:
*The picture stories will still be available for children in the cave. There are different "scenes" set up for the children to add their picture to and to create a story from. They include a train, a play ground, a couch, and a fire truck.
*New books will be added to our book shelves to encourage the children's interest in the new pet fish. There will also be books available on the science table for the children to learn more about taking care of fish.
Construction:
*Unit blocks and hollow blocks will continue to be in the classroom. The children will be encouraged to use the blocks to create train tracks and trains to ride on and engage in group adventures. Our group is well traveled and many suggestions have been made of where to visit on the train.
Music
*The piano will remain in the classroom for children to play. Drums, maracas, sand paper blocks, and a harp will be placed near the piano in the music area. We will be having a guest visit the classroom to play drums for the children. The children will be encouraged to play along with the drum. Parents, if you know how to play an instrument and would like to play in the classroom, please let us know and we will make time for this to happen.
Large Motor:
*The gym has a new set up. There is a running lane set up for children to practice speed, body control, and turn taking. There is still a bridge between the two A-Frame ladders but now the bridge is slanted which increases children's use of balance, coordination, and concentration. The jumping pit is still located at the bottom of one of the A-Frames which encourages risk-taking, motor planning, and turn taking. The monkey bars foster upper body strength, hand-eye coordination, and motor planning. The motor climber is also open, promoting upper body strength, risk taking, climbing, jumping, depth perception, and hand-eye coordination.
*A teeter totter will be added to the playground so children can work together on lower body strength or use it individually to work on balance while walking across it. Water will also be on the playground. Buckets of water and brushes will be available for "painting" the building. Once the children become comfortable with the use of water, they will be able to make streams with the water in the sand. The pinwheels and kites will stay on the playground for the children to continue their exploration of wind. Ribbons will be hung on the fences so the children can watch them blow as well. The children will continue to have opportunities to throw and catch balls outside in the playground with a basketball hoop being added.
Large group information:
*During large group, the children and teachers will discuss new topics such as the new class fish and tornados (because of the tornado drill at school) in the class. The children will also learn new songs and hear stories about these topics. Because of the new pet, the children will be encouraged to explain what the fish needs and we will learn about how to take care of the fish as a class.

Snack: Tuesday: Vanilla Yogurt, TLC crackers and Strawberries
Friday: Pretzels and Oranges

Announcements: We will have our Pizza party this Tuesday, from 6:00pm to 7:30pm. Bring a blanket and your family. Cost is five dollars per person. There will be face painting, The Teddy Bear Band plays on the front lawn, and the children can get their first introduction to the "big playground." If you can sign up for a 20 minute slot to staff some of these activities, we would appreciate it. None of them are too grueling.

Homework: Please write down a few things that you and your child are likely to do this summer. We will post these all together and read them over the last two weeks to solidify the idea that we will soon be changing to a new phase, summer vacation, when we will not be coming to Lab School but will have other things (visiting parks, lakes, camping, traveling, etc.) to look forward to.

Our "goodbye" snack will be held on Tuesday, June 1st at 10:30am. Come and join us to say goodbye to our student teachers and each other for the summer. Our final day will be Friday, June 4th.

We plan to use water on the playground if the weather continues warm. So shoes may get a little wet. We hope to have just a small trickle of water running that the children can use, (we're not imagining major hose sprinkling,) but some children are likely to get a little wet. While our playground is fairly shaded, and we do not plan to spend more than 30 minutes out during the morning, if you wish to have sunscreen put on your child, we recommend you do it before you come to school. It takes 20-30 minutes for sunscreen to become effective and will probably be easier to do at home. If you would like us to do a touch up, please provide us with sunscreen and fill out a form in Eva's office as DHS does not allow us to put sunscreen on without your permission.

Many thanks to Raya's mom who helped us with our recent fruit crisp cooking project, and to all the families who contributed ingredients. It was quite tasty. And thanks to Max's mom, Amy who helped us cook "wacky cake" a few weeks back. And as we come to the end of the year, thanks to all of you who have helped in so many ways. You have made our job so much easier with your support with laundry, ideas, hands on help, financial support of the school and general good cheer.

We have a large number of children who will be celebrating their birthdays over the summer months. While I know there is a practice of sometimes celebrating summer birthdays towards the end of the year in elementary school, I think for our situation, and the age of our children, this is less critical. What we will do in these last weeks, as we talk about our summer plans, and look at the calendar of summer months, is acknowledge the birthdays of our summer friends. I appreciate you feedback about this.

Goals: The breezy weather continues and the children's interest in the wind seems to persist as well. We hope to guide the children's understanding of the wind by assisting them in making their own wind with their breath and motions. We will also encourage wondering together about where wind comes from. The children have shown a great interest in building and blocks. We will encourage and expand on this with new trains. Riding in and making trains together will also help to foster group work.

*Art: We will be exploring oil pastels on the art easel this week. The children will have the opportunity to express their creativity and practice their fine motor skills with a new type of art.

Manipulative/Math:
*New seriation manipulatives will be added to give the children opportunities to practice ordering and problem solving.
*A patterning game will be available for children to create and recognize patterns visually.
* Puzzles will continue to be available for children to develop their problem solving and part to whole skills. The puzzles will be new and follow play themes to interest the children.
* Memory games will be available for the children to recognize similarities and practice memory.

Sensory:
*We will add tubes and more funnels to the water table for the sensory experience of movement of water.
*We will be switching from playdough to glurtch, a stretchy mix of liquid starch and glue, this week! The children will be able to explore properties of glurtch and create colors and shapes by using the glurtch markers and scissors.

Science:
*We will continue our exploration of wind with fans. The fans will have streamers for the children to visually see wind movement. We will add the pinwheels to the table for the children to make wind and observe the effect of moving the pinwheels by using their breath.
*We will be getting fish this week. We have discussed a class pet for the past few weeks and have now decided on one. This week we will have pictures of potential fish for the children to observe and help choose. Books about fish will be available for the children's beginning exploration of fish.

Dramatic Play:
* An area for building trains will be added to the classroom. The children will be able to use trains and create their own trains from blocks so they can be participants in the play to support teamwork, roleplaying, and large motor development.
* The loft will be changed into a fire truck for the children to "ride" and go fight fires to keep their interest in firefighting alive with a new set up. We will continue to have the fire fighter hats, jackets, books, and spray bottles.
*The kitchen will remain near the fire station so the "fire fighters" can eat after they finish putting out fires or use it as a house to put out fires.

Language and Literacy:
*The cave will be altered so children can tell stories with pictures of themselves. There will be different "scenes" set up for the children to add their picture to and to create a story from to support their creativity, self-concept, and story telling skills.
*New books that fit the children's interests and play themes will be added to the bookshelf.

Construction:
*Wooden unit blocks will replace the foam blocks in the block area. They will be available for children to improve large motor skills by lifting them, to practice purposeful use of materials, and for children to express creativity in building houses, buildings, and space ships. The children will also be encouraged to use the blocks to create train tracks and trains for the children to ride on.

Music
*The piano will remain in the classroom with some other small musical instruments placed near by. This will encourage children to work together to make music for the class to enjoy and it is another way for the children to move in the classroom. It will also foster creativity with melodies and rhythm.

Large Motor:
*New gym set up?

Large group information:
*Large group discussions will continue to focus on wind and the fire station and fire truck area. We will also introduce the topic of our new class fish. We will also be talking about the new train area in the classroom and how children can work together to make and ride the trains.

Snack: Tuesday: Cheese, TLC Crackers and Bananas
Friday: Homemade Rhubarb/Fruit Crisp, Vanilla Yogurt, Rice Cakes

Announcements:

We plan to cook with rhubarb next week. If you have a rhubarb plant growing in your garden, bring in a stalk or two (minus the leaf.) We plan to make rhubarb crisp on Friday. If you don't have rhubarb and want to contribute an apple or a strawberry (or frankly, any fruit you have in your kitchen that morning,) bring it on in! We will cut, pour on some wheat, oil and sugar and bake it up.

Goals:
Because of the changing (and somewhat unpredictable) breezy weather, we decided to introduce the concept of wind. We will have an electric fan with streamers and pinwheels in the classroom for the children to explore and have kites and streamers that require using wind on the playground. The children have really enjoyed the gluing collage materials over the last week so we will continue to foster this activity and use natural materials the children have collected to add to the collages. In the fire station, we are going to expand on their current role playing scenario by adding a social story about what firefighters do other than put out fires (i.e. provide medical attention, cook at the fire house, sleep at the fire house when there are no fires.) By doing this we hope to extend the children's pretend play skills.

Art:
* We will continue to have collage materials for the children to cut and glue for creative expression and fine motor development. We will encourage the use of natural materials in their collages for continued focus on what we have collected.
* Red, blue, and yellow paints will be available for the children to explore mixing colors and making new colors at the large easel.

Manipulative/Math:
*A new seriation puzzle will be added to the manipulatives table. Also, multi colored fire trucks will be added to the manipulatives table for children to practice sorting. The seriation stacking tree will continue to be available for the children for ordering according to size.
*The children have enjoyed the seriation pegs and we will keep them out for sequencing practice and problem solving.
*Some new puzzles will be available for children to develop their problem solving and part to whole skills. The puzzles will also have connections to classroom play themes.
*A catapult will be added for the children to explore cause and effect and to practice small motor skills.

Sensory:
*We will bring back water at the sensory table. We will encourage the children to get their hands wet and explore how water can be moved and manipulated with cups, funnels, paddlewheels, and strainers.
*Play dough will be available for the children to sculpt creations with the collected natural materials and new tools.

Science:
*We will be exploring wind at our science table with fans and pinwheels. The fans will have streamers for the children to visually see wind movement. The pinwheels will give opportunities for children to make wind on their own and see its effects.
*The butterflies have all emerged. They will be set free this week after discussing with the children how butterflies are better off living outdoors. We will have them for a few days for the children to observe and discuss about where to release them and what they will do after they are released, but we will be setting them free soon.
*The crickets will still be observable and chirping for us. We will encourage the children to ask questions about them and we will have books ready to read to the children.

Dramatic Play:
* The children appear to enjoy the laundry so ironing boards will be added to the area as well. The ironing boards will extend the children's play as well as allow them to try other household jobs they may observe their parents doing.
*The kitchen will be moved to the fire station so the "firefighters" can eat after they fight the fires. We will continue to have the fire hats, jackets, books, and spray bottles. Pillows will also be added to the fire station so the firefighters can sleep after they finish eating and working.

Language and Literacy:
*The felt board and pieces will be available in the back of the classroom with familiar story-lines, such as "The Big Hungry Bear" and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and songs such as "Herman the Worm" the allow the children to tell the story on their own with the felt.
*Various books incorporating play themes and children's interests will be added to the literacy area and cave reading nook.

Construction:
*Blocks will be in the classroom located near the piano. They will be available for children to improve large motor skills by lifting them and for children to express creativity in building houses, buildings, space ships, and what ever else they can think of

Music
*The keyboard will remain in the classroom for children to play. Some other small musical instruments will be placed near the piano for children to use while others are using the piano. This encourages children to work together to make music for the class to enjoy and it is another way for the children to move in the classroom.

Large Motor:
*The tunnel and the slide have been moved in the gym to keep children's interest. The tunnel fosters self-control, crawling, exploring (through windows), depth perception, and spatial awareness. The A-Frame ladders are standing upright connected by a bridge. At the bottom of one of the A-Frames, there is a cushioned pit for the children to jump into from the top of the A-Frame. This promotes balance, coordination, motor planning, and risk-taking. Rope swings have been added to the monkey bars. The swings foster balance, coordination, and strength. The monkey bars foster upper body strength, hand-eye coordination, and motor planning. The motor climber is also available, promoting upper body strength, risk taking, climbing, jumping, depth perception, and hand-eye coordination.
*We will be adding kites made of plastic bags and string to the play ground for the children to feel the tug of the breeze in the kite. Streamers will be available to see how they move in the wind. We will also be releasing the butterflies out on our playground during the week. The children will continue to have opportunities to throw and catch balls outside in the playground with a basketball hoop being added. Digging trucks will be added for children to use for digging and to create some potential dramatic play scenarios where they are construction workers. We will be bringing lettuce plants and green bean plants out to the playground to be planted.

Large group information:
*Large group meetings will include discussion about a new pet. We hope to finalize a pet choice with the children to have a few weeks with it before the end of the year. The teachers are narrowing in on one of the suggestions that was made: fish. Natalie and Theresa graduate on Thursday so they may discuss with the children what happens at graduation as well as bring in their caps and gowns. The new additions to the science table will be pointed out to the children to encourage them to explore the wind in the classroom.

Snack: Tuesday - Goldfish (to be announced)
Friday -

Announcements: Please mark you calendar for Tuesday, May 25th for the closing social event of the Lab School year, the Pizza Party. The time is 6:00pm to 7:30pm and it's a chance to hang out on the lawn and mingle with each other, listen and dance to the Teddy Bear Band and eat Pizza. More information will be forthcoming about ordering pizza and signing up for helpers, but please put the date down so you can be with us. Feel free to invite grandparents or others who are part of the extended Lab School family! We have enjoyed getting to know many of them too. (Rain date is Wednesday, May 26.)

Lead Teacher Natalie

Goals: Since we had our fire drill this past Friday the children began incorporating a fire fighting theme into their play. We want to foster this interest and have the children explore what being a fire fighter entails, such as getting the 911 call, responding to the call, and putting out the fire to keep people safe. The children have also been very interested in reading the story The Red, Ripe Strawberry, and the Big, Hungry Bear. We want to expand on the children's interest by providing materials to create the story in their play and help them make connections from hearing the story to telling it and acting it out.

Art:
* We will have collage materials, such as the natural materials we have found and other media, for the children to cut and glue to express their creativity. The cutting will also support the children's fine motor development.

Manipulative/Math:
*The seriation stacking tree will continue to be available for the children to order objects according to size.
*Seriation pegs will stay out for sequencing practice and problem solving.
*Various new puzzles will be available for children to develop their problem solving and persistence skills.
*The natural materials collected by the children will continue to be out for sorting. Recycling materials will be available for the children to sort common objects such as plastic, metal, and paper to give them the opportunity to classify objects and recognize differences in them.

Sensory:
*Red playdough will be available for the children to create strawberries as a way to express the story of the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear. The natural materials will also be available to incorporate into their creation and storyline.
*The rock table will still be open for children to engage in "hands on" play. The table will house frogs and plastic strawberries for the children to incorporate familiar stories into their sensory experience.

Science:
*The earthworms will remain available for the children to ask questions about and hold. We will continue to read books about earthworms for children to learn and discover facts about the earthworms. We will have measuring rulers available for the children to measure and compare the size of worms.
*The chrysalids are about to open up and emerge butterflies. Painted Lady Butterfly books will be out for children to have the opportunity to learn and discover new information about our new pets.
*The crickets are chirping and visible for the children to observe. We hope to encourage questions from the children about these different looking insects with books and magnifying glasses.

Dramatic Play:
*The house area will continue to have the laundry room, office, and kitchen. The children will be able to act out family roles including parent, child, or pet.
*There will be a fire drill in the classroom this week so we will incorporate a fire station in the loft area for children to experience and engage in the act of fire fighting. Storylines such as Fire Truck song by Ivan Ulz will be available for the children to act out and explore.

Language and Literacy:
*The flannel board will be available in the back of the classroom for children to show and tell the stories, such as "Herman the Worm" and The Red, Ripe Strawberry and the Big, Hungry Bear.
*Various books incorporating the classroom play themes will be added to the literacy area.
*New and familiar animal books will be available in the reading nook for children to read and learn.

Construction:
*Blocks will be available to create and incorporate the fire station play theme with fire stations, houses, and fire trucks. The children will be encouraged to use large motor skills to build buildings and move fire trucks.

Music
*The keyboard will remain in the classroom for the children to play and explore music. They have the opportunity to recognize patterns and songs that are available on the keyboard. The children will also be learning new songs during large group times.

Large Motor:
*The tunnel has been changed and shortened a little, though still leads to the slide. The tunnel fosters self-control, crawling, exploring (through windows), depth perception, and spatial awareness. The A-Frame ladders are standing upright connected by a bridge. At the bottom of one of the A-Frames, there is a cushioned pit for the children to jump into from the top of the A-Frame. This promotes balance, coordination, motor planning, and risk-taking. Rope swings have been added to the monkey bars. The swings foster balance, coordination, and strength. The monkey bars foster upper body strength, hand-eye coordination, and motor planning. The motor climber is also available, promoting upper body strength, risk taking, climbing, jumping, depth perception, and hand-eye coordination.
*The children will have opportunities to throw and catch balls outside in the playground with a basketball hoop being added. A tunnel has been placed on the playground as well for children to explore in. We will be bringing plants to the playground to be planted to help beautify our earth. Small scoops, magnifying glasses, and buckets will be available to find and catch insects. We will ask the children questions to guide their interest in insects as well as discuss why it is important for the insects to be released. The children have been enjoying and exploring the tricycles! We will continue to provide the tricycles, which supports motor planning, lower and core body strength, and endurance. The yellow race cars are back to encourage children to use lower body strength to move and push the cars with their legs.

Large Group:
* During large group this week, we will be discussing, singing songs, and reading stories about fire fighting and fire trucks. We will also discuss opportunities to incorporate the strawberry story into different types and locations of play.

Snacks:
We will enjoy a picnic snack this week out on the playground..... depending on the weather we'll see which day.

Tuesday: Cucumbers and goldfish
Friday: Apples and Cheese

Lesson Plan Theresa and Natalie Co-teaching

Goals: Celebrating Earth day last Wednesday has inspired us to foster the children's awareness of our planet. We will help the children understand ways to recycle, use less water, and encourage plantings to help our Earth as a means to foster the children's early ecological awareness. The curriculum areas will be enriched with concepts related to the Earth and preserving it.

Art:
* We will have fingerpaints available at the art table for the children to paint and explore. The primary colors will be out to enhance their awareness of mixing colors to make new colors. This will foster their fine motor skills as well as creative expression.

Manipulative/Math:
*A seriation stacking tree will be out to give the children the opportunity to order objects according to size.
*Seriation pegs will be available to practice sequencing objects according to size and to practice problem solving skills as to where each different size peg belongs.
*Various puzzles will be available to challenge the children to use fine motor planning, problem-solving skills, and persistence.
*Recyclable materials will be available for sorting.
*The music curriculum area will foster creating and recognizing patterns as well as rote counting.

Sensory:
*New and old tools will be provided at the play dough table for children to create play dough sculptures and green grass scenery. The play dough will be green and yellow to fit along with the Earth theme.
*We will keep the rock table full of frogs, twigs, and miniature logs for the children to explore as a habitat for frogs. They will be able to continue to sort the materials and feel the differences in their textures.

Science:
*The earthworms will continue to be out for the children to view and hold. Books about earthworms will be available for teachers to read to the children to teach children about how the worms live. We hope to model an attitude of questioning and wonder about how they live and through discussion, we will explore further on how to care for them.
*The caterpillars introduced last week are continuing to grow. The children will be able to observe and investigate the lifecycle of the caterpillar.
*We will have crickets join our science table! The crickets will be available for the children to observe, investigate, and ask questions about how they live, where they live, what they eat, and who eats them.
*Following along with the Earth theme, we will plant spring bulbs to show children how they can help beautify the earth.

Dramatic Play:
*The children will continue to be able to use the house to act out different family roles such as parent or infant. The office will continue to be a place where children can "work" on their writing skills by completing the letter "worksheet" or writing on their own blank piece of paper provided in the office. Because it is Earth week, there will be a recycling area set up in the home for children to practice sorting. We appreciate those who have sent in ideas of what else their children might see parents doing in the home on a regular basis - it will enrich our story lines - please send your ideas if you haven't.

Language and Literacy:
*The flannel board will be available in the loft with the familiar story-lines and songs, "Herman the Worm" and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," to create with felt pieces.
*Various books incorporating play themes will be added to the literacy area and in the cave bedroom.

Construction:
*The vehicles will be available for children to use and a "garbage dump" will be added to the area as well. The goal is for the children to use the trucks to transport objects such as "garbage" or "recycling" and we hope their play will be enriched after viewing the photos of the dump where the trash is delivered to. Smaller objects for recycling will also be added for children to sort and deliver to different areas in the classroom.

Music
*A keyboard will be the newest addition to the music area. Many of the percussion instruments will also remain in the music area for the children to practice rhythms and patterns with a teacher's assistance. The iPod will stay in the music area for the children to listen to music and dance along to.

Large Motor:
*There is a tunnel that leads to the slide. The tunnel fosters self-control, crawling, exploring (through windows), depth perception, and spatial awareness. The A-Frame ladders are on their sides connected by a bridge. This promotes balance, coordination, motor planning, and risk-taking. The build-a-car has been replaced with bowling. This fosters hand-eye coordination, motor control, and turn taking. The monkey bars foster upper body strength, hand-eye coordination, and motor planning. Last, but not least, motor climber is back as well, promoting upper body strength, risk taking, climbing, jumping, depth perception, and hand-eye coordination.
*The children will have opportunities to throw and catch balls outside in the playground with a basketball hoop being added. We will also be bringing plants from inside the classroom to the playground to be planted. The children will continue to be encouraged to find and collect natural materials in the playground for the classroom. Small scoops, magnifying glasses, and buckets will be available to find and catch insects. We will ask the children questions to guide their interest in insects as well as discuss why it is important for the insects to be released. The children have been enjoying the tricycles! We will continue to provide the tricycles, which supports motor planning, lower and core body strength, and endurance.

Large Group:
* During large group this week, we will be discussing different topics relating to Earth week, such as recycling, not wasting food scraps by giving them to animals, and planting.

Snack:
Tuesday: Banana and Rice Cakes
Friday: Heart 2 Heart Cereal and Apple

Lead Teacher: Frances

Goals: As the children have been absorbing nature around us, whether it is the warmth, going on a nature hunt, finding and observing worms, or looking for bugs, we will continue to foster this interest, delving into further understanding of these materials and living things we find. Many curriculum areas will be extended with additional elements to support their curiosity and understanding of the world.

Art:
*We will decorage some vases and votive candle holders using tissue paper and "modge-podge" to auction at the spring soiree.

Manipulative/Math:
*Natural materials from our field trip will be featured for sorting and examining. The children will be sending home a letter to you soon, asking to collect natural materials in your back yard or in your neighborhood. If you and your child have been collecting them, please feel free to bring them in to add them into our collection.
*Various puzzles will be available to challenge the children to use fine motor planning, problem-solving skills, and persistence. A new 3-D tree puzzle focuses on seriation of size and color hue.
*A variety of seriation manipulatives will be available for the children to count and seriate from smallest to largest.
*A large clock can be manipulated to see the effect of turning the hands (building on our recent use of gears,) and promote additional awareness of numbers and initial exposure to the concept of time related language (1 o'clock, 2 o'clock.)

Sensory:
*Using some of the natural materials we are finding in our yards and on our playground, we will be recreating a nature - like habitat for insects and frogs. These items will be placed on a bed of small pebbles. The children will be able to feel, scavenge, and sort these objects into a variety of categories.

Science:
*Earthworms will continue be available at the science table for the children to observe, hold, investigate, compare, and learn about their movement and eating habits. So far, the children have learned that food scraps from our snacks give nutrients to earthworms.
*Painted Lady caterpillars have arrived! Within the next few weeks, the children will be able to observe and learn the lifecycle of Painted Lady butterflies. They will see them as caterpillars, turning into chrysalis, and then emerging into butterflies.
*A variety of fabric and colored cellophane will be available at the light table to experiment with the effects of light through different materials. Squares, triangles and rectangles can be sorted and used as a provocation to "cover the light table" or "make a picture, mosaic style.
*We will use toilet paper rolls slathered with soy nut butter and covered with bird seed to make "bird feeders" for the birds in our playground. This activity will include a literacy component as the children follow the steps on the "recipe" to make their feeder. We will do the project outside and hang the feeders on the branches of our big oak tree.

Dramatic Play:
*This week, baby dolls were added to the home area to encourage children to carry on care-taking roles in the house area. A laundry room is added to the area to create another dimension/"chore" that could take place in the house. The office now contains simple letter tracing "worksheets" that the children can do in order to practice their writing skills. We will demonstrate the use of the worksheet to the children so they can do some "work" in the home office area. Please help us expand the play themes of "home life" by telling us one or two things your child would be likely to see you doing in the home on a typical day/evening. We are trying to expand beyond cooking and eating into other areas. Some ideas might spark more dramatic play in our expanded "house."

Language and Literacy:
*A large flannel board will be set up in the loft to provide and sequence familiar story-lines or songs, such as "Herman the Worm" and "The Littlest Worm." (See words below)
*Various books incorporating play themes will be added to the literacy area.

Construction:
*A variety of boxes will be available for the children around the vehicle area. Since the architecture students have visited our class, the children have used boxes to create homes for vehicles and a "wasteland" for their garbage. The children will have opportunities to recreate these storylines and also have extensions to this area when the architecture students return next Thursday.

Music
*We have supplied the children with more instruments including clappers and castanets to add to their exploration of instruments and making music. We will continue to facilitate making music for others to dance and sing along for creative expression and motor skills. We will continue to play dance DVDs on the computer to discover different ways to dance. We will add music from ipods for the children to listen to, dance to, and sing to. Rhythm repeating games will be on hand for children to participate in and practice memory skills and explore different rhythms.

Large Motor:
*There is a tunnel that leads to the slide. The tunnel fosters self-control, crawling, exploring (through windows), depth perception, and spatial awareness. The A-Frame ladders are on their sides connected by a bridge. This promotes balance, coordination, motor planning, and risk-taking. Build-a-car is available, which fosters fine motor coordination, upper body strength, cooperation, turn taking, and engineering (following a visual model). Monkey bars are back again - this fosters upper body strength, hand-eye coordination, and motor planning. Last, but not least, motor climber is back as well, promoting upper body strength, risk taking, climbing, jumping, depth perception, and hand eye coordination. This week we have added bowling as an additional option.

*The children will have opportunities to throw and catch balls outside in the playground. As the follow-up of the nature walk, the children will continue to be encouraged to find and collect natural materials in the playground for the classroom. Small scoops, magnifying glasses, and buckets will be available to find and catch insects. Though children are encouraged to observe and question how these insects move and survive, we will also discuss the importance of releasing them and having them go back to their "home" at the end of the day. The children have been enjoying the tricycles! We will continue to provide the tricycles, which supports motor planning, lower and core body strength, and endurance.

Snack: Tuesday : No School (teacher training day)
Friday: Apple cake (made by Ayuko's class) and apples

Announcements:
Please come to the Spring Soiree this Saturday evening (St Paul U of M Student Center) for fun, food and fundraising. A few of the staff will be auctioning off "Una Noche de Espana" - with six Spanish wines paired with Spanish tapas for six people. So gather a group to bid - It will be a tasty and fun night. I will also be offering a tea party picnic for two children this spring, a lovely way to finish off the school year.

Here are the words to the chant we have recently been doing in class:

"Herman the Worm"

(Start with strong 4/4 beat tapped on knees)

Sittin' on a fence post
Chewin' my bubble gum
(chewing sound, four beats)
playin' with my yo-yo
Whee - Whee

When along came Herman the worm
and he was "this" big (motion 3 inches)

Repeat

.....and he was "this" big (motion 8 inches)
and I said, Herman, what Happened?
"I ate my socks."

Repeat

.....and he was "this" big (motion 12 inches)
and I said, Herman, what Happened?
"I ate my shirt."

.....and he was "this" big (motion 18 inches)
and I said, Herman, what Happened?
"I ate my pants."

.....and he was "this" big (motion 3 inches)
and I said, Herman, what Happened?
"I burped." "EXCUSE ME."

Goals: Spring has arrived! Some curriculum areas will be focused around the concept of spring, connecting children with plants, natural materials, and emerging insects. We will also continue to build relationships with the new student teachers while in the classroom and out in the playground. Ideas for a classroom pet and possible ways to care for it will continue to be discussed throughout the day. We have proposed a trip to the Como Zoo to look at some of the animals children have suggested. See announcements below.

Art:
* Large and small brushes with a palette of shades of green and a bright flower color will be available on the large easel. This activity supports the children's fine motor development as well as creativity.

Manipulative/Math:
*An original comparison game will be available for the children to guess, label, and compare pictures that are bigger and have the most objects.
*Curlers, rectangular, and square blocks will be available on the light table to encourage small scale building. This activity promotes creativity of combining different building materials together and mathematical skills such as balancing, counting, and sorting.
*Various puzzles will be available to challenge the children to use fine motor planning, problem-solving skills, and persistence.
*Counting bears will be available for sorting by color and counting.
*Gears will be used to foster spatial planning and problem solving skills.

Sensory:
*Small plant pots, brown play dough, and "seed" colored play dough will be available to support the children in thinking about planting seeds. Building with play dough supports fine motor strength and precision, as well as creative expression.
*As insects are emerging outside from the ground, the children will have an opportunity to search and dig for rubber insects in the sand area. Children will group and count a variety of insects using shovels, cups, and rakes.

Science:
*A variety of seeds will be provided with soil at the science table. Children will be encouraged to sort, group, and feel the seeds and dirt. As the days progress, the children will have the opportunity to plant a seed in a cotton ball and in dirt to observe and compare their growth.
*A bulb garden and budding branches will continue to be available for children to observe and care for 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.

Dramatic Play:
*As we have heard of many travels that occurred during spring break, the loft has turned into an airplane (which can also be turned into a car). Pilot hats, shirts, seats and seat belts will be available for the children to act out the process of being in a plane and traveling to a destination. If you have a photo of your child on an airplane or traveling in general, please send it in (or email it to us.)
*The Pet Hospital has moved to an open spot to encourage social interactions and turn taking. We will continue to support the children's play by promoting and taking on different roles within their play.
*The picnic table in the kitchen/home area will continue to be available with picnic baskets, picnic blankets, plates, cups, and food. Children are also using picnic baskets to bring food to their pets at the animal hospital. Food will also be available for the "food service" on the airplane. This play offers children the opportunities 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.

Language and Literacy:
*Colored paper, scissors, markers, and stickers will continue to be available for writing. We will also provide the alphabet stencils to encourage children to combine letters to make words and write them.
*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:
*Children have started to form an interest for building homes for their pets. 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.
*As we have heard some of the children recently moved to a different house, moving trucks will be provided near the block area to play out scenarios, such as filling in the trucks with furniture and objects and moving them to another location.

Large Motor:
*New Gym Set up Tunnels, tunnels, tunnels. All those new boxes from the new trikes purchased with Gym Jam funds have been put to good use! We have built a tunnel going under around and on top of the slide. The tunnel fosters self-control, crawling, exploring (through windows), depth perception, and spatial awareness. The A-Frame climbers are on their sides connected by a bridge. This promotes balance, coordination, motor planning, and risk-taking. "Build-a-car" is available, which fosters fine motor coordination, upper body strength, cooperation, turn taking, and engineering (following a visual model). Monkey bars are back again - this fosters upper body strength, hand-eye coordination, and motor planning. Last, but not least, the wall ladders are uncovered, promoting upper body strength, risk taking, climbing, jumping, depth perception, and hand eye coordination.

*There has been a lot of interest in finding insects and bugs outside in the playground. Small scoops, magnifying glasses, and buckets will be available to find and catch insects. Though children are encouraged to observe and question how these insects move and survive, we will also discuss the importance of releasing them and having them go back to their "home" at the end of the day. The children will continue to 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 the 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: Heart 2 Heart Cereal and Banana
Friday: Rice Cakes and Oranges

Announcements:

When we suggested animals for a class pet, the response from children has been fascinating. Fanciful animals like flying horses and unicorns have been suggested, as well as tigers, dolphins, spiders, dogs, cats, and birds. Some children have asked for another gerbil like Peely. It has been interesting to hear the children's thinking as we talk about the possibility of some of these animals. When one child worried that tigers might bite and be too fierce, another child suggested a baby tiger. So we are proposing a field trip to Como Zoo on Tuesday, April, 13th. We will need at least five families willing to car pool and help out on the day of the trip. Let us know if that day might work for you. Back up date would be Friday, April 16.

Please consider contributing an item or service to the silent auction at the upcoming Spring Soiree, (April 24.) An easy way to participate is to purchase something connected to "music" for our class basket. This could be concert tickets, adult or children CD's, or musical instruments. Many thanks for your help. By the way, the Soiree is a wonderful event and I hope to see many of you there. It's always fun to get to talk more to families without children pulling at our legs.

Lab School will be closed on Tuesday, March 20 for a teacher training. The same consultant who worked with us in the fall will return to see how we are doing with projects we began then.

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.

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.

Lead Teacher: Darya

Goals:
We are continuing to encourage the children to express their artistic creativity. The Pet Hospital will further the children's development in recognizing their feelings, the feelings of their peers, and it will promote empathy by taking care of the animals. The eye spy game at the sand table will foster the children's ability to make predictions and investigate.
Art:
The children will have many creative opportunities this week.
-Available for the children is glue paint with glitter. The children have seen the effect of painting on light paper so we will also have black paper available for them to use. This will allow the children to compare and contrast the different colored paper.
-The children will have the opportunity to use markers to color coffee filters and explore what happens when water is placed on the colored filter. This will encourage the children to investigate, ask questions, and further their understanding of cause and effect.
-The children will explore Glurch, which is a mixture of glue, water, and borax, as a new sensory experience. The children can experiment stretching it, cutting it, and coloring it with markers.
Manipulative/Math:
- Jenga blocks will be available for the children to explore how high they can build before it falls over. We will also encourage the children to count the number of blocks they used to construct the tower.
-One to one correspondence with pegs and number cards will continue to be available for the children as they continue to master their fine motor skills.
Sensory:
The children have been digging, pouring, and feeling the sand. Some children were interested in hiding the cars underneath the sand. To further this interest, we have transformed the sand table into an eye spy game. Cards with pictures of objects will encourage the children to search for the objects that have been hidden in the sand. This will encourage the children to problem-solve, share, and negotiate, as they work together to find all of the hidden objects.
Science:
-The children have been exploring the table top pendulums. They are experimenting with the concept of height, building small towers to be knocked over. To further the use of the pendulums we will add them to the construction area. Here we will encourage the children to build their own pendulums. This activity allows the children to hypothesize how tall objects need to be in order to get knocked over.
Dramatic Play:
-The loft is now a Pet Hospital, complete with various tools such as bandages, stethoscopes and otoscopes, animals, and dress-up clothes. The area will be 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 parents to bring in (or email in) pictures of a family pet to post in the Pet Hospital.
-The children have continued to put fires out around the classroom. The costumes and props will remain in the classroom for the children to enhance their dramatic play.
-The kitchen area has been connected to the Pet Hospital. The children will be able to use this area as their house, where they can feed and take care of their pets. We will support the children as they start to take on different roles within the play such as a pet owner or the pet.

Language and Literacy:
-Mail center has been a popular area in the classroom. The children have been creating and writing letters. Color paper, scissors, markers, and stickers are still available for the children to use to create messages. The mailboxes are now located in the front of the classroom making it easier for parents to sneak a letter into their child's box.
-The felt boards have moved to the cave. The children have enjoyed singing and moving the felt objects to the song "five green and speckled frogs." New felt stories have been added to this area, promoting sharing, negotiating, and communicating.

Construction:
- The pendulums have been added to this area to inspire the children to construct and test their own pendulums.
-The large hollow blocks, unit blocks, and lighter building blocks will continue to be accessible for the children to use. This variety of blocks will allow children to make large individual structures or group projects, fostering cooperation and turn-taking.
Music:
-The musical instruments have been moved to a more open area, encouraging more children to explore the instruments. We have added new instruments for the children to explore. The computer will have various songs the children can select and play. Children will be encouraged to express the way the music makes them feel. We will support the children as they try to follow patterns of beats and create their own patterns.
Large Motor:
-The gym set up has changed. 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 to each other.
-The wood house structure outside is dug out for the children to climb and use in their play.

Large Group:
We will do different activities and songs that encourage the students to follow a rhythm or a pattern. We will also read stories such as "The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" and "goldilocks and the Three Bears" to encourage the children to reenact these stories during their play. We will also discuss new themes in the classroom, such as the Pet Hospital. We will incorporate movement experiences during large group that involve the entire body and coordination. These activities are promoting following directions, large motor development, and spatial awareness.
Snacks
Tuesday: Cheese & Crackers & Banana
Friday: Multigrain Cheerios & Pineapple

Announcements:

-We talked on Friday with the children about the upcoming Spring break, and the fact that the student teachers will move on to new schools when they come back. It will help children make the transition if you mention this at home as well. Remind them that we will get new teachers and that teacher Frances will stay.
-Please join us on Tuesday, March 9th at 10:15 for our goodbye snack (or come early to join us on the playground at 10:45. The children will present the teachers with a class gift we have made for them.
-Many thanks for all the help with the laundry. It has kept us in clean towels which is much appreciated.

Lead Teacher: Edenia

Goals:
We are continuing to encourage children to recognize their own feelings, the feelings of their peers, and to initiate caring actions towards others. The opportunity for continued cause and effect learning will be available to the children this week. The mail center has been a popular activity that has been extended with the addition of letters and name cards for the children to reproduce if they wish.

Art:
The children will have many creative opportunities this week. There will be fabric dyeing available for the children to create their own designs. Emotion music will be added to the easel area where the children can listen and interpret what the music sounds like.

Manipulative/Math:

-The fascination with how fast and far the race cars can go has been extended with the addition of ramps at the end of the tracks. The children will have the opportunity to launch their vehicles to see how far they travel. The children will also be able to explore the relationship between speed and how far the cars travel up loops.
-One to one correspondence with pegs and number cards will continue to be available for the children as they continue to master their fine motor skills.

Sensory:
The sensory table has changed to sand!! The children will have the opportunity to dig, pour and run their hands through the sand. The same water wheels (from last week's water table) will be available for the children to discover how two different substances (sand and water) can cause the same effect.

Science:
-There are several opportunities for making guesses about what "will happen if I do this" in the class room this week. Table top pendulums with small objects to knock over will be available on the science table. This activity will encourage the children to hypothesize how tall objects need to be in order to get knocked over.
-Water wheels, funnels, and scoops at the sand table will allow children to use their observation and prediction skills and further their understanding of cause and effect as they pour sand through their hands and the water wheels.

Dramatic Play
-The children have continued to put fires out around the classroom. The costumes and props will remain in the classroom for the children to enhance their dramatic play.
-The loft has the felt boards for the children to act out a few common stories.

-The combined playdough/kitchen area continues to be a busy place with children enthusiastically mixing ingredients. The children will have the opportunity to use pastry bags to decorate their creations.

-The children will have a baking experience on Monday with Darya, they will be making blueberry muffins.

Language and Literacy:
To continue to develop literacy skills and to further the development of a caring classroom community, individual mailboxes have been setup for each child. Color paper, scissors, markers, and stickers will be available for children to create messages for others in the classroom and outside of school. There is also a mailbox. This may encourage the children to go through the motions of sending a piece of mail.

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. We will encourage two separate areas for block building, one for knocking down, and one for more permanent building. We hope this will lessen arguments and encourage the children to take ownership of their structures to give them a sense of accomplishment and pride.

Music:
-The addition of music to elicit an emotion from the children will be a new feature at the art easel and it will be used during large group as a discussion prompt. There will be string instruments added to the cave for the children to discover.
-Patterns of beats will also give the children opportunities to make their own musical sounds if they wish.

Large Motor:

The wood house structure outside will be dug out for the children to finally climb! This will be an exciting opportunity for the children to play in the house and use the stairs.

Large Group:
The children will have the opportunity to repeat rhythm patterns during large group. We will also listen to different music to determine what emotion we feel when we hear it. I will bring stories to large group that correlate with the story boards that are available in the loft.

Snack: Tuesday: Granola Bars /Banana Friday: Goldfish/Oranges

Announcements:

Thanks to all the parents who have come in for conferences, we look forward to meeting with the final group of families this next week.

Our final day of school before the two week spring break will be Friday, March 12th. We will hold our "goodbye snack" to honor the student teachers on Tuesday, March 9 at 10:15am. Join us if you can!

Mark your calendars (and get a babysitter) for Saturday April 24th for the Spring Soiree. More info to follow about this most special adult evening of fun, frolic, food and fundraising.

Lead Teacher: Jeannine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Large Motor:

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

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

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

Snack: Tuesday: TBA
Friday: TBA

Lead Teacher: Darya

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lead Teacher: Edenia

Goals:
The focus for this week will be to support the children as they are learning to work together, acknowledge each other and to create a community. We would also like the students to learn, recognize, empathize, and express emotions with each other using words, signs, and photos. Changes in the classroom have been made to extend some of the curriculum ideas and to support the play themes the children have been involved with.

Art:
The children will begin to work on a collaborative piece of art. A table will have one large piece of paper for the students to draw on together. The piece of art will be displayed at the end of each day. Displaying their work will reinforce their pride and accomplishments. The art table will also have several types of scissors to allow the students to practice and strengthen their fine motor skills.

Manipulative/Math:
- There will be new puzzles incorporating the themes of self help, animals and vehicles.

-The stacking pegs will continue to be available with the peg boards. The children have been exploring how high they can make them before they bend over. As the children stack the pegs they are using fine motor movements and eye hand coordination. The pegs are promoting mathematical skills such as counting, balancing, and making patterns. This activity also supports turn taking as they stack together; it also is promoting problem solving skills as they figure out how high they can stack them before the pegs bend and fall.

-There will be measuring spoons and simple three step "recipes" for the students to make.

Sensory:
-Although making cookies continues to be a favorite choice in the playdough area, other baking ideas are emerging as well. To further these interests, we will expand the playdough area to include pans, bowls, and measuring cups. In addition, we will offer children the opportunity to add mint to the playdough, using a shaker bottle. There will also be bowls of cornmeal for the students to stir/measure into their playdough recipes. Creating with playdough allows children to develop small muscle control and use creativity and inventiveness. We are interested in posting family recipes. If you have a favorite (especially one in which your child helps out with), please send it in for us to post in this area as inspiration for variety of food creations. Thank you!
Water will be making its way back to the sensory table as a concrete habitat for the marine animals. There will be scoops for catching fish as well as tongs to get the fish out of the water. As the students explore the habitat for the fish they will also have the opportunity to play out the Slippery Fish song. The song supports understanding of the food chain, (the idea of the smaller animal getting eaten by a progressively bigger animal.)

Science:
The students will have the opportunity to hypothesize about which set of prints belong to what animal. There have been longer and steeper ramps for the students to explore from the loft area.
Dramatic Play:
-The children have enjoyed using the materials in the "Repair Shop." Some children have taken on the role of the mechanic, asking the other children how they can fix their vehicle. Many children enjoy using the tow trucks to help bring the broken vehicles to the shop. There are shirts with name tags allowing the children to dress up like a mechanic. This will hopefully inspire them to go deeper as they see themselves as a mechanic. Throughout this play scenario the children are fostering social skills such as cooperation, sharing, and problem solving.
The kitchen and playdough area are going to be combined in the front of the classroom to support the interest in food, creating recipes, and serving each other. This is going to be a significant change to their classroom which we hope will allow them to integrate all aspects of a kitchen into their cooking. For example, the students will have all of the baking items, place settings and food in one central location. The loft area has been stripped of large furniture to accommodate the multiple pretend play stories that happen in that area. This area promotes social skills such as cooperation and play negotiation in a familiar setting.
Language and Literacy:
There will be new books related to the themes in classroom. (architecture/building books, Alphabet and Emotion books)
-Favorite family recipes will be posted in the playdough area as a reference for children to use when recreating experiences of cooking, eating, and serving.
-Feeling words such as mad, happy, tired, and sad will be posted along with photographs of children displaying different emotions to allow children to begin recognizing and labeling their emotions.
-Documentations of children acting out stories and exploring different play themes will be posted throughout the classroom for children to use as a reference to their play.
Construction:
-The large hollow blocks and unit blocks are still available for the children to use in the repair area. The children started using the ramps to roll wheels from the repair shop in the cave. They are investigating the speed and distance the wheels, pegs, and rods can travel. Along with the ramps the classr has shown interest in building rocketships/fancy condos to support their dramatic play themes of taking trips to the moon. We will add smaller lighter building blocks for the students to heave up onto their "tall" structures. The large area for construction continues to encourage cooperation and group projects.

Large Motor:
-The gym has been changed to will continue to support children's use of balance, jumping, overhand throwing, and climbing. We will also have a bowling game out in the hallway.
-Outdoors, colored and "glittery" ice molds will be buried in the snow for the children to find by digging with their hands or with various tools. Shovels, scoops, and pails will continue to be available outdoors to support the use of upper body strength. In addition, children will have the opportunity to push trucks and wheelbarrows and pull sleds through the snow to foster endurance.
Large Groups:
There will be further discussion about emotions, what they look like and the correlating American Sign Language (ASL)signs. We will incorporate movement experiences during large group that involve the entire body and coordination. These activities are promoting following directions, large motor development, and spatial awareness.

Snack: Tuesday: Special K Snacks and Bananas
Friday: Rice Cakes and Oranges

Announcements:

Don't forget to turn in your application form and deposit on Monday, February 1st for next years Lab School enrollment.

Valentines Day is fast approaching. While we make it a practice not to celebrate holidays in the classroom, we do facilitate a card exchange for those who wish to participate. We find that it greatly supports the children's social connections to receive a card from their classmates. Making or addressing cards is also a wonderful way for children to work on emerging fine motor/writing skills. Whether your child draws a "message" or design on the card, put stickers on, glues something, or helps label the envelopes, (perhaps by taping or gluing the photos of the recipient,) there is probably something your child can do to participate in this ritual. We will put a copy of the photo page in your child's box. Please do not send candy or other gift as part of the greeting. At this age, they still are thrilled by a simple card and why ruin that innocence so soon in life? Imagine a child happily looking through their valentines, admiring each and every one, suddenly discovering a piece of candy. I've seen it. What happens is they move quickly to tossing away the other notes as garbage while they rummage through looking to see if there are more with candy. We will use lunch bags for the children to hold their notes, and will do the exchange on Friday, February 12th.

Gym Jam is at the end of this week. I messed up the date in my last email, so hope you all know that it's this FRIDAY Feb 5th. Bring the kids, the cousins, the neighbors the grandparents and come RUN AND PLAY! Watch your email for more info on location. Bierman Field is located on 15th Avenue SE. Enter between 5th and 6th St. SE. 6:30pm to 8:00pm is the time.

This Tuesday is the Coffee Hour with the Director, Barb Murphy, from 8:45 am to 9:45am. Come and ask questions on Lab School Curriculum, history, child development, or anything else. Barb is a great source of information, advice, support and laughter.

Lead Teacher: Darya, Edenia, and Jeannine

Goals:
-The goal of this week is to urge the children's play and thinking
deeper, moving beyond exploration of materials. We hope the children will
compare their thinking with that of others and start to ask questions and
investigate. They have shown interest in what the sharks eat so we will
introduce elements of the food chain. The children have also been creating
nests for the birds where they watch patiently to see if the eggs will
hatch. To embrace this curiosity we are adding nests and animal tracks to
our science area. The children will look closer at the different properties
of snow and ice. They will work together to free frozen objects in the ice.
We will also be building upon the play scenarios surrounding the repair
shop. We will be singing songs and reading books to help the children learn
the different names of some tools.

Art:
-Easel: The easel will contain new liquid watercolors. The children will be
able to discover what happens when they mix the colors together.
- To further the children's exploration of animals, the science area will
focus on animal tracks. Children will use a variety of stamps featuring the
tracks of different animals. We will ask the children to examine the
differences and similarities between the footprints. This will bring up
concepts of shape and size. They will become aware that animals have unique
footprints and through these markings you can identify the kind of animal.
-The art table will also have regular and adaptive scissors to allow the
students to practice and strengthen their fine motor skills.

Manipulative/Math:
- There will be new puzzles incorporating the animals and vehicles in the
classroom.
-The children continue to enjoy the Montessori seriation cylinders. The
self correcting activity is promoting cognition and communication skills.
The children are discussing what is too big, too small, next, in, and out
with each other while they work on this activity. This activity also
supports fine motor movements.
-The stacking pegs will be available with the peg boards. The children have
been exploring how high they can make them before they bend over. They have
also been using the pieces to roll down the ramps in the classroom. As the
children stack the pegs they are using fine motor movements and eye hand
coordination. The pegs are promoting turn taking as they stack together; it
also is promoting problem solving skills as they figure out how high they
can stack them before the pegs bend and fall.
-Our counting conversations are continuing at the snack tables along with
which table has more children. The children are also continuing to follow
the number sequence for getting ready to go outside. This activity promotes
the order of the steps it takes to get their outdoor gear on.

Sensory:
-Although making cookies continues to be a favorite choice in the playdough
area, other baking ideas are emerging as well. To further these interests,
we will expand the playdough area to include pans, bowls, and measuring
cups. In addition, we will offer children the opportunity to add mint to
the playdough, using a shaker bottle. Creating with playdough allows
children to develop small muscle control and use creativity and
inventiveness. We are interested in posting family recipes. If you have a
favorite (especially one in which your child helps out with), please send
it in for us to post in this area as inspiration for variety of food
creations. Thank you!
-The children have greatly enjoyed the novelty of exploring snow and ice in
an indoor setting. In addition to exploring the snow and ice with cups,
scoops, and molds and recognizing the physical differences between these
two forms of frozen water, the children have been interested in bringing
animals (including penguins and polar bears) and trucks (which have been
getting "stuck" into the snow) into the sensory table. We will have
smaller versions of these items available to allow more space for
children's play. We will also offer children interesting objects to make
imprints and tracks in the snow and provide building and molding tools to
make snow sculptures/creations. These activities allow children the
opportunity to observe and imitate other children's actions, use creative
expression, and develop social skills, such as turn-taking. Children will
also have the opportunity to practice persistence and self-regulation
skills as they problem-solve how to dislodge natural materials such as
leaves, branches, and pinecones from the ice using tools and droppers,
sprayers, or cups with warm water.

Science:
-The children have embraced the new animal habitat areas, generating many
play themes. The nesting area has been of particular interest. The children
have been involved with showing compassion for the birds and their nests
and have been excited about "hatching eggs." In addition, the children
have enjoyed the water habitat area, acting out the food chain with sharks
eating some of the smaller animals. To support the children's interests,
we will provide materials such as raffia for children to construct their
own nests and smaller ocean animals to provide further opportunities to
demonstrate ocean food chains. We will also include maps with visuals of
rivers, oceans, and mountains to further expand children's understanding
of habitats.
-To foster the children's interest in animals and creating imprints and
tracks in the snow, the science table will include authentic molds of
animal tracks. In order to support the children's interests in nesting
birds and hatching eggs, bird nests will be available for children to look
at and touch.

Dramatic Play:
-The children have enjoyed using the materials in the "Repair Shop."
Some children have taken on the role of the mechanic, asking the other
children how they can fix their vehicle. Many children enjoy using the tow
trucks to help bring the broken vehicles to the shop. We are adding shirts
with name tags allowing the children to dress up like a mechanic. This will
hopefully inspire them to go deeper as they see themselves as a mechanic.
Throughout this play scenario the children are fostering social skills such
as cooperation, sharing, and problem solving.
-The children are still fascinated with the trains. They are creating
bridges and tunnels for the trains to drive through.
-The movement of the kitchen and home area to the loft was a success. Many
children enjoy the coziness of this area, transforming it into their house.
They have been pretending they are adults; taking care of babies and making
important phone calls to their work. Some children have also been taking on
the role of a pet owner, while other children have pretended to be a cat or
a dog. To further the interest in this area we are going to bring in varies
food containers. In the future we may choose to turn the kitchen area into
a pet shop, but for now it will remain as it is. This area promotes social
skills such as cooperation and play negotiation in a familiar setting.

Language and Literacy:
-Favorite family recipes will be posted in the playdough area as a
reference for children to use when recreating experiences of cooking,
eating, and serving.
-Feeling words such as mad, happy, tired, and sad will be posted along with
photographs of children displaying different emotions to allow children to
begin recognizing and labeling their emotions.
-Documentations of children acting out stories and exploring different play
themes will be posted throughout the classroom for children to use as a
reference to their play.

Construction:
-The large hollow blocks and unit blocks are still available for the
children to use in the repair area. The children started using the ramps to
roll wheels from the repair shop in the cave. They are investigating the
speed and distance the wheels, pegs, and rods can travel. This activity is
enabling the children to take turns with the materials that can roll. The
large area for construction continues to encourage cooperation and group
projects.

Large Motor:
-The gym will continue to support children's use of balance,
coordination, strength, and endurance. Children's balance will be
fostered through the uneven surface created by the mats, children's
coordination will be supported through stepping or crawling under of cones,
and children's strength will be promoted through use of the climbing
rope. In addition, the gym perimeter offers a "track" for children to
drive scooter cars around, complete with "stop" and "slow down"
signs. The children will also have opportunities to participate in large
group directed activities with balls to promote their use of listening
skills, direction following, and gross motor skills. This will also include
the use of throwing and catching balls, which promotes the use of trapping
and propulsion skills.
-Outdoors, colored and "glittery" ice molds will be buried in the snow
for children to find by digging with their hands or with various tools.
Shovels, scoops, and pails will continue to be available outdoors to
support the use of upper body strength. In addition, children will have the
opportunity to push trucks and wheelbarrows and pull sleds through the snow
to foster endurance.

Large Groups:
There will be further discussion about emotions, what they look like and
the correlating ASL (American Sign Language) signs. This will allow the
children to see what an emotion looks like and how to express how they
feel. Large group is also providing the children with story lines to draw
from during their experience at school. There have been some movement
experiences during large group that involve the entire body and
coordination. These activities are promoting following directions, large
motor development, and spatial awareness.

Snack: Tuesday: Granola Bars and Bananas
Friday: Kiwis and Goldfish

Announcements:

Please sign up for conferences if you haven't done so yet. The following times are available: Thursday 2/11 10:00am Thurs 2/18 9:00am Mon 2/22 10:00am Thurs 2/25 9:00am and 11:00am

The next Lab School event to help you pass the winter blahs is GYM JAM. The date is Friday, February 6th. This is one of my favorite events of the year, even though I am usually beat because it is a Friday - there is something about seeing all the children running in Bierman's huge open space on the green astro turf that is exhilarating. The children get to move, so do you (if you want to) and it's a lot of good old fashioned ball, jumping and running fun. If you thought creativity night was too crowded for your taste, don't worry! Bierman is so huge that you can barely hear the other people - lots of space to invite friends, neighbors and relatives - and you should, because it's all for a good cause - free will donations go towards buying new tricycles for the children in our classroom. We hope to see you there.

Lead Teacher: Frances

Goals:
The children have embraced the bear cave habitat and appear ready for exposure to dif-ferent animal explorations. So we will expand the repertoire of animal play/information experiences offered. The snow and ice in our daily life is also a potential rich material to bring into the classroom for further exposure and understanding. We also plan to build upon some play theme children have developed with their cars around being "stuck" in the snow by re-introducing tools and a "fix-it" shop in the classroom. We also will continue to focus on mastering the basic steps of getting dressed for outside.

Art
-Easel: The easel will contain liquid watercolors. The brilliance of these colors fascinated the children on the small easels, now they will be able to make larger paintings.
-The children are becoming more adept at using glue to stick items to paper, though this is a process with many steps. We will continue collage at the art table to offer further exposure.

Manipulatives/Math
- New puzzles focusing on increasing sized circles and triangles give children exposure to the concept of seriation. Another puzzle focuses on opposites.
-A sorting manipulative (building spools) allows children to work with sorting, one to one correspondence and pattern making.
-A new Montessori seriation cylinder will be presented, this should challenge children who are ready for working to sort by a different attribute (length of peg, as opposed to diameter of peg. This self correcting activity promotes attention to individual size differences and gradations from small to large.
-We have begun a practice of counting the number of children at each snack table daily to work on counting, one to one correspondence and estimation of size (one table is smaller and typically has the fewest number of children.)

Sensory
- The cinnamon playdough has inspired a great deal of baking. We will incorpo-rate a new stove in the playdough area as well as new cooking tools. Building with clay will support fine motor strength and precision, as well as creative ex-pression.
- The children have enjoyed playing outside in the snow and experiencing their natural winter environment. To further these interests, we will provide snow and ice in the sen-sory table for the children to explore with scoops, pails, chisels, and molds. In addition, we will have interesting objects available, including shells, pinecones, and spools, to make imprints in the snow. Children will have the opportunity to learn about the melting process of snow and ice and will discover differences between these two forms of fro-zen water. In addition, children's social skills, such as cooperation and turn-taking will be fostered as they negotiate the use of materials and space.

Science
-We plan to daily put out bird food this week to attract more birds to our window and begin to reflect that the snow covers the birds typical sources of food. This beginning dialogue supports understanding of seasonal cycles and awareness of animal adaptation to the seasons.
- concepts of melting and freezing will be explored in the sensory table via work with the ice and snow.
- The animal habitat and sorting areas have come alive with different animals and new habitats. The children have been moving the animals from the sorting areas to "fit" with water, straw, etc. In order to expand these connections, we will continue with the bear cave but have added a "water"area with water animals and finally a nesting area with birds. One real nest and real crow from the science closet is featured but we also hope the children make their own habitats/nest for the animals in the dramatic play area. We will encourage children to continue moving the animals to the habitats they think they belong in.

Dramatic Play
-The children have continued to use the trains with gusto. We will involve them in ex-panding the track on the floor to allow more space to play. The airplane play has shifted to stories of traveling, which children packing suitcases and wearing pilot uniforms.
-The kitchen and home area will move to the lost for a more cozy experience. This area promotes social skills such as cooperation and play negotiation in a familiar setting.
-Outside some of the children have been pretending their cars are stuck in the snow and there have been some playful collision with the trains in the classroom. To further the children's interest, we have created a Repair shop. The children can wear hard hats and use tools to fix the cars and trains that have crashed. This will allow the children to act out different scenarios and take on different roles within the play. They could be the owner of a car that needs to be repaired or they could become the mechanic and run the shop. This will allow the children to foster social skills such as cooperation, sharing, and problem solving.

Language and Literacy
-Stories related to our curriculum themes will be read at large group.
-Story concepts are embedded in the fix - it area, where a five page story provides the base for pretend play.
-When dressing the children, we are using a series of numbered wall charts to plan the order of dressing, which promotes sanity in dressing as well as exposure to left to right reading sequence and the concept that print/pictures carry meaning.

Construction
-Large hollow blocks and simple unit blocks are located nearby the train area and airport to encourage building along with these activities. Construction gives children the opportunity to use creative expression as well as learn the basic principles needed for building, such as creating sturdy bases and symmetry. The large area for construction also encourages cooperation and group projects.

Large Group/Music
-During large group this week we will sing some familiar songs and work with rhythm instruments on some instrumental tunes. The song "We are the dinosaurs" by Laurie Berkner has been particularly popular. Look it up on You-tube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLdDKNxrL68 it's not a familiar one to most parents, but is very catchy and easy to learn.

Large Motor
- The gym is set up to support balance and coordination to enhance children's experiences outdoors, walking on the snow, slippery ice etc. The triangular bolster has a rope to support arm strength by hand over hand climbing.
There is an uneven surface created with mats for the children to practice balance, lifting their legs up... then walking through a walkway made out of the green mats, arriving to a jumping station and jumping into the donut. The scooter cars are available for driving all around the gym perimeter. There is a gas station and a fix it shop. There are signs that tell the children to slow down and stop...Two hurdles in the middle of the mats allow for jumping, stepping over (lifting legs up) or crawling under (also possible to go over with their hands and feet like a "cat.")
-Outdoors the large motor challenge is walking in the snow, some children are light enough to stay on the crusty top layer, but most sink through which is a challenge. We also have sleds for riding and trucks for filling with snow.

Announcements
-Thank you very much to our laundry helpers. - Please sign up to bring home laundry on Friday if you are able.
-Thanks so much to parents for taking seriously our pleas of labeling clothing and having everything "at the ready." Our first day of going outside was MUCH more calm than usual. Hopefully we will get more practice this week and become more proficient in dressing. So, just to remind: If you are coming in the classroom to drop your child off, please help us out by putting hats and mittens in the jacket sleeve when you hang up the jacket and having boots and snowpants ready to go (either hanging or in a backpack.) If you forget boots or snowpants on a given day, please let us know and find a pair from Eva so they are all ready to go at dressing time.
-Please join us for creativity night, this Wednesday evening from 6:00pm to 7:30pm. Children will be able to explore a different activity in each of the three classrooms (sen-sory exploration in our classroom, clay in Ross' class and light in Amy's. In addition, a dance teacher from the U will be run three group sessions in the gym. We hope you can make it! To get an idea of numbers, we will be asking for a tentative RSVP on Tuesday at drop off/pick up time.
-Please sign up for a winter conference in February. Conference times are posted on the door.

Snack
Tuesday: Oat and Honey Granola Bar and Bananas
Friday: Cheese and Crackers and Apples

Lead Teacher: Frances
Week of January 11, 2010

Goals:
As the children settle into the school routine again, we have found that their interest in each curriculum area has also deepened. The themes of the dramatic play area (hibernating, air-planes/airport, and trains) will continue with the goal of extending their role-playing and symbolic play skills. We will incorporate more story lines created by children and books about these themes to support their pretend play skills. Spaces will be arranged to expand some areas so children have opportunities to include more peers into their play.

Art
-water color experiments will be featured with table top easels, marker drawing, and liquid water color paints. As the extension of last week's invented art-water experi-ence, the children will also be able to experiment with cause and effect relationships as they observe how water reacts to marker drawings on different surfaces, such as paper and coffee filters.
-glue will be provided with collage and sensory materials. Children will be able to compare this sticky substance to the contact paper that will be featured at the light table - both serving the purpose of sticking materials together.

Manipulatives/Math
- Woodland animal and vehicle puzzles will be available to support fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and visual discrimination.
- Children will be encouraged to match and sort various animals according to their habitats. This activity supports the skill of classifying and grouping like objects.
-The Montessori seriation cylinders will continue to be available as the children have in-creased their interest in this activity. This self correcting activity promotes attention to indi-vidual size differences and gradations from small to large.

Sensory
- Cinnamon play dough and various forms of cookie cutters will be available this week at the play dough table. Children have been baking cupcakes and cookies while utilizing the molds and pretend oven. Building with dough will support fine motor strength and precision, as well as creative expression.
- We will fill a variety of small bottles with different primary colors in the water table. There will be two separate bins to mix in. Children will have the opportunity to pour, measure, and mix the water using scoops, basters, and cups. This is also a wonderful area for experiencing the magic of color changing and sharing it with others.

Science
- Children will explore and sort various materials at the light table while also placing the ma-terials onto contact paper. Children will be able to have a sensory experience to compare con-tact paper with the glue to find differences and similarities. WIf you have any "beautiful bits" we would appreciate donations of unique collage materials (such as tinsel, shiny items, odd wall paper, tissue paper, and colorful translucent materials) that would look attractive in the light. Some of these materials may be used with the glue as well.
-A sorting game will be available for children to match the animal according to its method of travel. Simple pictures, such as sky, land, and water will be arranged with plastic toy animals that match accordingly. Questions will be asked: How do these animals travel? Where do they belong? Which ones have legs? Which ones have wings?

Dramatic Play
-Airport and Train areas will be expanded for physical traveling. Train tracks will be pro-vided on the rug along with additional suitcases. A world map has been used by children to pinpoint "where they want to go." This has allowed children to act out scenarios to fly and ride to their destination.
- The pretend kitchen and home will be areas where children have the opportunity to recreate experiences of cooking, eating, and serving. This will also promote social skills such as co-operation and play negotiation.
-The loft has been divided with sheets to create additional caves. Documentations of children acting out stories of hibernation will be posted so children can use them as reference to their story. Observing other children's documentation also aids children to learn, expand, or create new stories of their own.

Language and Literacy
-We will be acting out stories related to the various themes in the classroom (hibernation, air-ports, trains)
- We will be focusing on the comprehension of stories this week. Teachers will read books during large group and free play and ask questions that are related to the story throughout the day. We are curious to find what parts of the stories they remember.
-We also have a variety of pictures of different objects, which the children are asked to de-scribe the use of (eg. Shovel - to dig)

Construction
-Large hollow blocks and simple unit blocks are located nearby the "airport" to encourage building along with these activities. As we have seen some children "riding" on wooden air-planes, children will be encouraged to create bigger airplanes with hollow blocks to allow more children the chance to ride along. Construction gives children the opportunity to use creative expression as well as learn the basic principles needed for building, such as creating sturdy bases and symmetry. The large area for construction also encourages cooperation and group projects.

Large Group/Music
-We will be featuring stories, songs, and finger play about hibernation and woodland animals. We will incorporate movement activities that focus on animals, such as a bears, and owls. (See song below)

Large Motor
A new gym set-up will be featured this week focusing on spatial awareness (cars and roads and tunnels) jumping and balance on bumpy surfaces.
Sleds, buckets, and shovels will be available in the playground. We will also be exploring snow physically by making tracks and molding and building snowmen, as featured in Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Snack
Tuesday: Rice Cakes and Banana
Friday: Wheat Muffins (made by Ayuko's class) and Oranges

Bear hibernation song

(to the tune of Frere Jacques - or Are your sleeping)

Are you sleeping, Are you sleeping?
Little Bear? Little Bear?
You will sleep all winter, You will sleep all winter
In your lair, In your lair.

Are you sleeping, Are you sleeping?
Little Bear? Little Bear?
You will wake in springtime, You will wake in springtime
Little Bear, Little Bear.

Lead Teacher: Frances

Goals:
As we welcome the children and families back from the long winter break, we plan to keep things simple so as to allow easy interactions with our new student teacher team. We are assuming that some children may have had travel experiences during break so we will have trains, planes, cars and maps available to capitalize on the memories. The snow will be featured with play in the cave about woodland animals hibernating for the winter. Learning the basic steps of dressing for the winter outdoors (snowpants and boots and the rest) will be a big focus of our early days together.

Art
-Easel: The easel will feature white chalk on dark paper to evoke the snow of the past few weeks. Students can experience color concepts, such as light and dark, and they will be able to use their fine motor skills to manipulate the chalk by blending and smearing.
-Table top easels will feature water colors - a continuation of the exploration we began just before break. The children are slowly mastering the skill of dabbing the wet brush onto the cake to absorb color.
-At the art table, a new experience will be introduced - an invented art-water ex-perience where children can use dry erase markers on the plastic table cloth and then spray/wipe what they drawn. As the water causes the drawing to bead up, we are curious to see how the children respond to this transformation of states. This experience has elements of art, science and fine motor work

Manipulatives/Math
- New puzzles around the themes of train and other vehicles will be available.
-A sorting game with photos of different types of vehicles will provide an early math and vocabulary experience.
-The Montessori seriation cylinders will be out - this self correcting activity promotes attention to individual size differences and gradations from small to large.

Sensory
- Dough colored playdough will be available this week at the play doh table. We will assume that some children may bring associations of holiday baking to the work, so we will have ovens and rolling pins available. Building with clay will support fine motor strength and precision, as well as creative expression.
- Damp sand will allow the children to make roads with cars in the sand box. Molds and buckets will be also be available for the children to make sand castles and other structures. The sand table promotes sensory awareness as children feel and manipulate the sand; it is also a wonderful area for developing social skills such as turn-taking.

Science
-The large light table will be presented in the cave area this week. Children will explore and sort different materials which look attractive in the light (shells, feathers and tissue paper.)
-A variety of foods will be available for smelling and tasting (lemon, pineapple, rye bread, green pepper and celery) to help children explore the sense of taste. Words like sour, sweet, crunchy, soft are likely to be used in the context of tasting these items.

Dramatic Play
-Two types of trains will be available, along with airports and wooden airplanes. A world map will allow children to experience the concept of long and short distance. We expect there may be stories of going on the plane, of coming to the airport and of taking tickets. We would appreciate any information about destinations you have traveled to as a way to open conversations with your child.
- The kitchen and home area will be another focus in the dramatic play area. Children will have the opportunity to recreate experiences from the recent holidays and cook and serve. This will also promote social skills such as cooperation and play negotiation.
-The question "where do the animals go in the winter?" will be posed and explored in the cave via stories (The Bear Snores On) and plastic animals. A simple three part story will be posted (1)the animals are cold, winter is coming, 2) they find a cave so they can sleep, 3) winter is over, it is warm now, the animals wake up) - to promote an initial awareness of the seasonal cycle of hibernation. White fabric is ready to reenact snow storms. Little caves for the toy animals as well as a child sized cave are set up for enacting the story. This process helps children learn about different woodland animals (raccoons, squirrels, bears and foxes) and begin to incorporate simple pretend stories into their dramatic play.

Language and Literacy
-The art table will promote the use of dry erase pens for drawing and writing.
-Story concepts are embedded in the woodland cave. The map area has pens and post it notes to affix to places of interest on the map

Construction
-Large hollow blocks and simple unit blocks are located nearby the train area and airport to encourage building along with these activities. Construction gives children the opportunity to use creative expression as well as learn the basic principles needed for building, such as creating sturdy bases and symmetry. The large area for construction also encourages cooperation and group projects.

Large Group/Music
-During large group this week we will sing some familiar songs and work with rhythm instruments on some instrumental tunes. Stories about Winter will be featured.

Large Motor
- During large group time in the gym, we will start to explore the parachute. Children will experiment with making the parachute go up, down, fast, and slow. This activity will strengthen large muscle groups while simultaneously allowing the children to work cooperatively.

Announcements
-Please let us know a highlight or two of your child's winter break - so that we may have something to comment to them. Children feel special when we can connect about something meaningful to them (a visit from Grandma - an airplane ride, a first time sledding) so this will help our new student teachers to connect with your child.
-We are also interested to have an update about toilet training - this sometimes changes over the break (and our memories benefit from a recap of where your child is at.)
-We will post a new "laundry helpers list" for this ten weeks - Please sign up to bring home laundry on Friday if you are able.
-Please take the time to label mittens, hats, boots, snowpants and jackets. The first few days of dressing are always WILD! Children often don't have a sense of ownership of their things, yet they help us by taking clothing out of their cubbies. If they are not la-beled, it is very hard to know whose clothes are whose. If you are coming in the class-room to drop your child off, please help us out by putting hats and mittens in the jacket sleeve when you hang up the jacket and having boots and snowpants ready to go (either hanging or in a backpack.) If you forget boots or snowpants on a given day, please let us know and find a pair from Eva so they are all ready to go at dressing time.

Snack
Tuesday: Goldfish and bananas
Friday: Crackers and apples

Lead Teacher: Elizabeth

Goals:
During our last week of school, our main goal is prepare the children for the upcoming break and the new student teachers. This week will include visits from the new teachers and goodbye snacks. We will be talking about these events during large group, snack, and throughout the day. Our curriculum for the week will focus on going deeper into themes that have been emerging, such as opposites, which will take on the form of light/dark on the light table and wet/dry in the sand table. We will also be focusing on dramatic play in the form of doctor and kitchen play, and on patterning and classification.

Art
• Easel: We will be exploring watercolors at our easel this week. Children will be able to experience the process of mixing water and paint in order to produce color of different intensities. This will provide an opportunity to explore color mixing and allow them to express themselves creatively.
• We will continue to practice cutting as well. This will be combined with collage in order to extend the cutting experience. The fine motor skills of grasping, squeezing, opening and clenching the fingers, and hand-eye coordination will be developed through cutting, spreading glue, and sticking the shapes to the glue.
Manipulatives
• Manipulatives that focus on ordering and seriation will be available. Blocks of different sizes can be stacked, lined up, and compared and contrasted. Boards with different color and height columns allow children to sort and arrange columns using different characteristics. Ordering and seriation are mathematical skills that lead to classification and patterning.
• Simple interlocking puzzles will be available, which help children develop the part-whole relationship. Interlocking puzzles are also important in visual discrimination, mental manipulation (the ability to hold an image in mind while rotating it, considering it from different angles, etc.), and hand-eye coordination, as children must examine the borders and shapes of the pieces in order to place them successfully.
Sensory
• Glurch will be a new medium available at the playdoh table. This is a mixture of liquid starch and glue, and is similar to Silly Putty. Children will be able to explore it with their hands and with tools. This experience will promote sensory awareness, fine motor strength, and social skills as children interact with each other to comment on what they are feeling and seeing.
• Water will continue to be available at the sand table, as will molds and scoops. Several children have begun to bury small animals in the sand or use larger ones dramatically, and we will therefore introduce small plastic insects into the table as a new element for this play. The sand table is an excellent place for social interaction, as children can look across at each other and observe what each other are doing. Turn taking and negotiation skills are rehearsed when objects and space must be shared.
Science
• The light table is still available in the cave this week. Small blocks of different shapes and sizes will be available to manipulate with the light table underneath. This highlights the light/dark contrast and produces shadows. The science area will enhance children's skills of inquiry, prediction, and experimentation.
• The science table will include a ramp display this week. Children will be able to explore different types and heights of ramps, using small cars and balls. They will be able to see, explore, and talk about which ramps are the fastest, which are the highest, and which are the longest. This is a continuation of an interest in ramps that has developed in the block area, and will provide a more focused exploration.
Math
• Ordering and seriation will be focuses in the manipulatives that will be available. We will also be counting during transitions to and from the gym and during large group, singing songs such as "One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four." We will also be patterning with our bodies (i.e., pat clap pat clap) which helps children internalize rhythm and pattern.
Dramatic Play
• The doctor and vet play will continue this week. A cot will be added so that children can take on the role of both patient and doctor. A desk with writing materials adds a literacy element to the area.
• The kitchen and home area is another space intended for dramatic play. With many children having participated in a "feast" this weekend, we expect many cooking and eating scenarios to take place. Dramatic play allows children to think abstractly by mentally transforming objects and people to fit the play scheme. It also promotes social interaction, negotiation, and cooperation, as well as allowing children to practice the events of real life. Please feel free to email us a sentence highlight about your weekend that will help us reconnect with your child (eg. car/plane trip, visit from Grandparents, new food eaten, etc.)
• The "little people" play will continue with the dollhouse and garages. Here, we will encourage children to act out scenarios that will help them learn conversation schemes and build the skill of symbolic representation.
Language and Literacy
• The writing center will be available for the children to practice writing on lined paper and explore tools such as alphabet stencils and rulers. This area will help the children develop a concept of print, such as recognizing directionality of print, symbolic representation, and alphabet awareness.
• We will also be incorporating literacy elements into the doctor/vet office. Children will be able to write "prescriptions," fill in medical charts, and take phone messages. An eye chart will expose children to environmental print. Writing that is embedded in play will help children realize the importance and usefulness of written language.
• We will continue to sing songs involving rhyming with and manipulating children's names, such as "Willaby Wallaby" and "The Name Game." Using a familiar word and manipulating it by adding a new beginning sound introduces children to segmentation and blending that are important literacy skills.
Construction
• Duplos will still be available in the block area, which provides a new medium with which to create tall towers and roads. The bond of these blocks to each other makes it easier to build vertically. When building up, children must consider balance, stability, part to whole, and symmetry.
Music
• During large groups we will be singing some old favorites as well as some new songs. We will continue to sing songs such as "Willaby Wallaby" and "The Name Game" in order to expand children's abilities to discriminate sounds in words and rhyme, both of which are important literacy skills. We will also use clapping, patting, and other movement in order to create patterns with our bodies and internalize rhythm.
Large Group
• During large group this week we will continue talking about the winter break and the upcoming transitions. We will discuss how the student teachers will be going off to new schools soon, and how the children will have new student teachers when they return from break. Discussing these big transitions will help the children prepare for and process the changes. Children will also have the opportunity to meet a few of the new student teachers, which will make the transition more concrete. Large group this week will also be used as a way to model some of the materials in the classroom. A book about going to the doctor and a short scenario involving a sick baby doll will help children have a script to use when playing in this dramatic play area.
Large Motor
• In the gym we will continue to use the parachute, which encourages group interaction, large motor control, and coordination.
• On the playground, we will be incorporating animal dress-up materials to encourage large animal play. Children will be encouraged to become different animals and move in new, interesting ways. Large muscle coordination and strength will be emphasized as the children hop, jump, crawl, gallop, and run.
• Trikes will be available on the playground, which are proving to be an enjoyable challenge for many children. Children must use leg muscles and coordination in order to push the pedals and propel themselves forward. They also use negotiation and turn taking when sharing the trikes.

Snack: Tuesday - Goodbye Party: Muffins, Bananas
Friday - Pineapple and Goldfish

Announcements
• Please continue to talk with your child about the upcoming transitions and break. If you have a family calendar, you may want to put an X on the individual days for the period of time that we will be closed for winter break. You can then make a ritual of crossing off the days until we meet again. This will provide a visual of the time we will be apart, as well as a good math experiences with recordkeeping and marking time.
• Thanks for the help from parents who organized our goodbye presents - and to all the families who contributed.
• Thank you all so much for your support this semester and for providing us with your wonderful children!

Songs
One potato, two potato, three potato, four!
Well, I made a batch of hot potatoes
Dropped 'em on the floor!!

Five potato, six potato, seven potato, eight!
So I stomped 'em into mashed potatoes
And plopped 'em on a plate

Nine potato, ten potato, can't believe my eyes!
The children ate 'em up and now they want some french fries!!!
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 fries!

Websites
www.starfall.com
The "ABCs" section has interactive activities that focus on letter names and sounds. This not only encourages literacy development (children enjoy repeating the names and sounds with the computer!) but also promotes computer skills such as mouse manipulation. Using a mouse requires a lot of hand-eye coordination!

Goals:
As the curriculum for this week developed, themes of opposites emerged; concepts of light and dark, wet and dry, tall and short, and large and small will be embedded in the various curriculum areas and large group times. In addition to supporting the children's exploration of opposites, we as teachers will also help them refine these explorations by highlighting "medium" and the middle of the extremes. We will continue this theme of finding a happy middle ground during play by supporting the children as they learn to consider their own desires as well as the desires of others.

Art
•Easel: After a two week break, the easel will return to the classroom. We will present dark paper and chalk for the children to explore. Students will learn color concepts, such as light and dark, and they will be able to use their fine motor skills to manipulate the chalk by blending and smearing.

Manipulatives
• Children will have the opportunity to use scissors at one of the manipulative ta-bles. We will present the children with lined paper and magazines so that they can practice the fine motor skill of cutting.
• New puzzles surrounding the themes of color, doctor, and animals will be avail-able. We will also incorporate a puzzle with interlocking pieces to scaffold de-veloping part-whole skills.

Sensory
• Modeling clay will be available this week at the play doh table. Modeling clay offers a unique opportunity as it will dry when exposed to air. Finished products can be painted and kept. Pictures of towers and tall buildings will be posted as inspiration for the children during their exploration of the new medium. Building with clay will support fine motor strength and precision, as well as creative ex-pression.
• Water will be added to the sand table so the children can experiment with the concepts of wet and dry. Molds and buckets will be available for the children to make sand castles and other structures. The sand table promotes sensory aware-ness as children feel and manipulate the sand; it is also a wonderful area for de-veloping social skills such as turn-taking.

Science
• A new, large light table will be presented in the cave area this week. Children will explore the concepts of light and dark, as well as shadows. Translucent colored gels and discs will be available, along with flashlights and various natural materials to create shadows. The science area will enhance children's skills of inquiry, prediction, and ex-perimentation.

Math
• We will continue our exploration of weight and measurement this week. Children will be given the opportunity to use various measuring tools such as scales, tape-measures, and unit blocks. These mathematic opportunities will give children the chance to use their comparative thinking by finding out which item is longest, shortest, heaviest, and lightest.

Dramatic Play
• One of the dramatic play elements this week will be an area for playing doctor or vet, complete with tools and dress-up clothes. The area will be arranged in a spacious and thoughtful way so as to encourages social interaction. We as teachers will support the play by promoting empathy and other caregiving qualities.
• The kitchen and home area will be another focus in the dramatic play area. Children will have the opportunity to experiment in the play kitchen and go back and forth be-tween "home" and the "doctor" or "vet." This area will also promote social skills such as cooperation and play negotiation.
• The "little people" play will continue with the dollhouse and garages. Here, we will encourage children to act out scenarios that will help them learn conversation schemes and build the skill of symbolic representation.

Language and Literacy
• A new writing center will be presented for the children to practice writing on lined paper and exploring tools such as alphabet stencils and rulers. This area will help the children develop a concept of print, such as recognizing directionality of print, symbolic representation, and alphabet awareness.
• We will also be incorporating literacy elements into the doctor/vet office. Children will be able to write "prescriptions," fill in medical charts, and take phone messages. Writing that is embedded in play will help children realize the importance and usefulness of writ-ten language.
• The children have also been showing an interest in the workings of the computer. As such, we are going to have an alphabet program running so the children get the practice of pointing and clicking the mouse, as well as an animated phonics experience.

Construction
• In addition to the large, hollow blocks, new duplo blocks will be added to the construc-tion area. These blocks that click together will help the children build large, sturdy struc-tures that can easily be manipulated or combined with someone else's structure. We will also have a variety of duplo vehicles for the children to use and explore. Construction gives children the opportunity to use creative expression as well as learn the basic princi-ples needed for building, such as creating sturdy bases and symmetry. The large area for construction also encourages cooperation and group projects.

Music
During large groups we will be singing some old favorites as well as some new songs. The theme of opposites will come up in songs such as "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Open, Shut Them." We will also be singing some silly songs that bring the children's attention to rhym-ing, such as "Willaby, Wallaby" and "The Name Game."

Large Group
• During large group this week we will begin to talk about the winter break and the up-coming transitions. We will discuss how the student teachers will be going off to new schools soon, and how the children will have new student teachers when they return from break. Discussing these big transitions will help the children prepare for and process the changes.

Large Motor
• During large group time in the gym, we will start to explore the parachute. Children will experiment with making the parachute go up, down, fast, and slow. This activity will strengthen large muscle groups while simultaneously allowing the children to work cooperatively.
• On the playground, we will be incorporating animal dress-up materials to en-courage large animal play. Children will be encouraged to become different ani-mals and move in new, interesting ways. Large muscle coordination and strength will be emphasized as the children hop, jump, crawl, gallop, and run.

Announcements
• As winter break approaches, we are beginning to look for a family to care for Peely during the break. If you are interested in helping out with our classroom gerbil, please let a teacher know!
• Please mark your calendars for our goodbye snack on Tuesday, December 1st. It will take place on our second to last day of school at 10:15am. Please come and then spend the rest of the morning with us on the playground.
• Please consider hosting a playdate at an area park during the month of December. It will be nice for the children (and families) to connect during the long break. Let Eva know so the info can be in the calendar being prepared.

Snack
Tuesday: We may make our own toast for snack, Also banana.
Friday: No school

Goals:
• As the sophistication of the children's play and their comfort at school increases, we have noticed increased verbal confidence and activity. To support these blossoming skills, we will pay close attention to engaging in and supporting conversations in the classroom. We will find the time and the opportunity to engage in one-on-one-conversation, as well as modeling and supporting conversation in dramatic play as well as normal interactions. This is of course something we normally do, but it seems ready for some extra attention at this time.
Art:
• The transparent plexiglass easels with small paintbrushes continue this week, offering unique opportunities for cognitive and social engagement. In addition to brushes, sponges will be offered. Sponges might be used as a brush, but they also suggest a new daubing technique for a different result.
Manipulatives:
• A variety of puzzles continue to be presented featuring themes of construction, body awareness, shapes, numbers, and letters. Puzzles challenge the children to use fine motor planning, problem-solving skills, and persistence.
• Several different activities will feature magnets and magnetic materials. The children will continue to use their creativity and scientific inquiry to attempt to manipulate objects and understand magnetic force.
• Sorting activities will also be provided. Grouping of like-objects is a precursor to more advanced classification skills, and sorting activities promote hand-eye coordination, fine motor development, and color and shape awareness. These manipulatives can also be used in exploring the concept and dimension of equality and weight on the balance beam scale.
Sensory:
• The water table will turn to sand this week, offering further experience in flowing material. The contrast offers an opportunity to make comparisons between substances and experience with a potentially three-dimensional material and offers many opportunities for creative and dramatic play.
• Play dough: children will continue to explore the idea of making tracks and prints in the dough. Children will also be encouraged to try to make prints of their own hands, fingers, and shoes. These prints will be used for observation and comparison to other prints. We will also experiment with filling moulds and enclosed space with play dough.
Science:
• Materials related to body awareness will remain for further investigation and extensions. With the children we will devise simple and organic and informal ways to measure hands and feet for comparison, offering both social and cognitive interactions.
• Balance beam scales will be placed in the room to investigate measures of a different kind ('equal' and 'weight') using a variety of manipulatives and other objects in the classroom, heightening the children's awareness of the physical world around them.
• In the cave, we will install a small light box and mirrors, which will encourage children to experiment with light and shadow, reflected images, and mixing colors using colored gels on the light board, stimulating perceptual awareness and cognition.
Dramatic Play:
• Small trucks and cars continue to be popular in the block area. These experiences provide social opportunities for the children and encourage turn taking and cooperation.
• Small dramatic play people and houses will continue to be available. The materials will be positioned next to the block area in order to help children bridge the various types of dramatic play that is happening in the room. These small manipulatives offer children the opportunity to act out familiar household themes and practice their symbolic representation skills.
• Picnics have emerged as an area of interest and will be supported with picnic baskets and picnic cloths to extend this dramatic play.

• This week, using cardboard boxes and unit blocks, a zoo will go under construction, extending the dramatic play we are seeing in the small house and among the trucks and blocks. We are hoping to extend the dramatic play among the 'house', the zoo, and a construction area building, creating diversified possibilities for dramatic play interactions, and the children's use of imagination. Parents can support this theme with natural conversations at home about visiting a zoo, or perhaps with books that reference zoos in some way. If you would like to share, we would be happy to hear any anecdotes about past zoo visits that you might have. Also, should you have any shoeboxes you can donate, we could use about ten of them for a little zoo train.
Language and Literacy:
• The dramatic play centers will incorporate many literacy elements. Signs and labels will be used where appropriate and best make the literacy connection for the children.
• Road signs and traffic regulations will be enforced in the block area to help extend vehicle and road play. • New books surrounding our themes of the zoo and animals, body awareness, construction, and fall will be added to the classroom.
• Many children have been showing an interest in letters and letter sounds. We will continue to support this interest by pointing out alliteration, beginning sounds of words, and letters in the children's names.
• Given the increased interest in letters, we will set up a writing center to help create additional opportunities and motivations to investigate printed communication.
Construction:
• Cardboard box construction continues as a catalyst for large group projects! We will continue to encourage the children to use their imaginations, and each other, in order to make large structures such as trains and busses. This area promotes creative thinking, large and fine motor development, and many pro-social skills such as sharing, collaboration of ideas, and turn taking.
• Augmenting cardboard boxes will be shoeboxes, providing materials that could possibly make a zoo train.
• Large hollow and small unit blocks are available for construction. Many of the children have been exploring roads and ramps, and both vehicles and children have traveled the pathways. We will continue to support the play in this area and help to extend the road construction play by adding road signs and stoplights.
Music and Movement:
• Children continue to explore the musical instruments in the music corner. We will offer the children some new ways to create rhythm. New drums and a shaker-making station will be available.
• We will continue to have songs available on the computer to which children can listen and/or dance. Materials such as ribbons and scarves will also be available to encourage creative movements inspired by the different types of music. This area allows children to explore creative expression, increase body awareness, and engage in many sensory-rich experiences such as listening to different sounds and using their bodies to interpret different types of music.
Large Group:
• We will continue to emphasize body awareness, but as social skills steadily emerge, we will also begin to emphasize more social stories. The children's play indicates increased interest in dramatic scenarios and cooperative undertakings. Story selections and activities will reflect this interest, supporting their natural social development.
Large Motor:
• Cozy Coupes will be replaced by the faster yellow sports cars this week. Also available, will be two low pushcarts, which should promote cooperative play and turn-taking. Basketball hoops and balls of different sizes will continue to be available as well. Ball play increases hand-eye coordination, helps to build balance and large muscle groups, and is a wonderful way to spark social interaction.
- A new set up in the gym has the following elements: A relay running lane has been created to support teamwork and cardiovascular endurance. This lane will also provide space to practice trickier motor patterns such as, skipping, galloping and hopping. The matted rolling hill promotes skills such as spatial awareness, directional awareness, and the ability to start and stop. It also promotes the development of core strength and cardiovascular and muscular endurance. The monkey bars are now attached to the climbing wall to promote climbing, reaching, and grasping. The children's depth perception, hand-eye coordination, climbing and jumping skills are addressed as they try out our new jumping station. This station features a hanging ball as a target for children to hit with their hand before landing. The bean bag toss fosters skills such as throwing, aim and accuracy, and hand-eye coordination.

Snack: Tuesday - Kiwi and Multigrain Cheerios
Friday - egg free muffins baked by Ross' class

Lesson Plan for Frances' Class
Week of November 9th
Lead Teacher: Becky Barth

Goals:
As the children become more comfortable in the classroom, personalities and social interactions are blossoming. To support this, we will offer opportunities for personal observation and reflection to help the children build confidence in their own unique skills, preferences, and physical characteristics. We will also assist the children to share these special traits with one another to encourage meaningful interactions. These interactions will reinforce small and large group play patterns that are emerging in the classroom.

Art:
Plexiglass easels will be provided at the art table. The transparent surfaces will give the children an opportunity to see each other and engage in social interactions while making art. Small paint brushes will be available to extend the children's fine motor development, and examples of painted portraits will be hung in art area for inspiration.

Manipulatives:
• A variety of puzzles will be presented featuring themes of construction, body awareness, shapes, numbers, and letters. Puzzles challenge the children to use fine motor planning, problem-solving skills, and persistence.
• Several different activities will feature magnets and magnetic materials. The children will continue to use their creativity and scientific inquiry to attempt to manipulate objects and understand magnetic force.
• Sorting activities will also be provided. Grouping of like-objects is a precursor to more advanced classification skills. Additionally, sorting activities will promote hand-eye coordination, fine motor development, and color and shape awareness.

Sensory:
• At the play doh table, children will continue to explore the idea of making tracks and prints in the dough. We will also encourage the children to try to make human prints using their hands, fingers, and shoes. These prints will be used for observation and comparison to other prints.
• In the water table, we will use bubbles and cloths to "wash" baby dolls. This sensory experience will also help to promote caregiving attitudes.

Science:
• The science corner will feature activities and materials that are centered around body parts and awareness. We will compare hand and feet sizes, measure our heights on the wall, and use mirrors to examine our facial features. We will reinforce emerging body part vocabulary (e.g. elbows, knees, eyes, ears, etc.), and practice the scientific process of observing and describing what we see.

Dramatic Play:
• We have been excited to see children "shop" at the grocery store and bring the food home to the kitchen area. We will continue to support and bridge the dramatic play that is happening in these two areas. We will add price tags, coin slots, and signature/receipt pads to enhance emerging math and literacy skills.
• Small trucks and cars continue to be popular in the block area. New trucks as well as road signs will be added to extend dramatic play themes of driving on the roads. These experiences provide social opportunities for the children and encourage turn-taking and cooperation.
• Small dramatic play people and houses will continue to be available this week. The materials will be positioned next to the block area in order to help children bridge the various types of dramatic play that is happening in the room. These small manipulatives offer children the opportunity to act out familiar house-hold themes and practice the symbolic representation skills.

Language and LIteracy:
• The dramatic play centers will incorporate many new literacy elements. Writing pads and pens will be available in the grocery store and the home area for children to sign and make receipts, make shopping lists, and take phone messages. The magnetic alphabet refrigerator magnets continue to be a popular element to our play kitchen.
• Road signs will be introduced in the block area to help extend vehicle and road play.
• New books surrounding our themes of body awareness, construction, grocery stores, and fall will be added to the classroom.
• Many children have been showing an interest in letters and letter sounds. We will continue to support this interest by pointing out alliteration, beginning sounds of words, and letters in the children's names.

Construction:
• Large hollow and small unit blocks are available for construction. Many of the children have been exploring roads and ramps, and both vehicles and children have traveled the pathways. We will continue to support the play in this area and help to extend the road construction play be adding road signs and stop lights.
• The cardboard box construction has been a catalyst for large group projects! We will continue to encourage the children to use their imaginations, and each other, in order to make large structures such as trains and busses. This area promotes creative thinking, large and fine motor development, and many pro-social skills such as sharing, collaboration of ideas, and turn-taking.

Music and Movement:
• As children continue to explore the musical instruments in the music corner, we will offer the children some new ways to create rhythms. New drums and a shaker-making station will be available.
• We will have songs available on the computer to which children can listen and/or dance. Materials such as ribbons and scarves will also be available to encourage creative movements inspired by the different types of music. This area allows children to explore creative expression, increase body awareness, and engage in many sensory-rich experiences such as listening to different sounds and using their bodies to interpret different types of music.

Large Group:
The activities for large group this week will be centered around body awareness and creative movement. We will read books and sing songs that increase the children's awareness and vocabulary of body parts. New materials and songs will be used to explore different ways of self-expression. We will also continue to encourage children to participate in the group activities so as to feel a part of the classroom community.

Large Motor:
• A soccer net will be available on the playground for children to practice aim and kicking. Basketball hoops and balls of different sizes will continue to be available as well. Ball play increases hand-eye coordination, helps to build balance and large muscle groups, and is a wonderful way to spark social interaction.
• Children are continuing to show improved skill in the gym. We will support the children as they explore climbing on the A-frame ladder, swinging on the rope swings, going down the slide, and jumping off of the mat-mountain. The new gym arrangement increases risk taking ability, strengthens alternate-feet climbing and endurance, and helps to refine coordination.

Snack:
Tuesday - Rice Crackers and Bananas
Friday - Oranges and Chex

Announcements:
This Thursday and Friday (November 12 and 13) the Oleanna Book Sale will take place in our gym. You are invited to take a look at the selection of Children's books and Parenting Books available. A percentage of what is purchased comes back to the Lab School. We will also take a small group of children down to buy a book for our class.

We are organizing a "laundry team" for the classroom. If you are willing to take home a small bag of towels and wash them for us that would be greatly appreciated. Please look for the signup sheet on the door.

Please take a look at the website under Frances - Parent Newsletter - Teacher Bob has written a reflection describing his first week of student teaching and his impressions on how the children used the various curriculum areas he set up. There are also photos from this past Tuesday under Update.

Parent Discussion groups will be happening again this week. They will be talking about things families should know as they get ready to transition to kindergarten. Times are Thursday Nov 12 9:00am to 10:30am and 1:00 to 2:30pm and Tuesday evening, November 17th from 6:30 to 8:00pm. Take a look at the homepage under Current Parents for more information. You may bring children along.

Although it is fall, there is a committee of parents that is already thinking spring! The Lab School's annual fundraiser, the Spring Soiree, raises funds for student scholarships, primarily via a silent auction. This event has become one of the most anticipated events of the year. The Soiree is an opportunity for parents and friends of the Lab School to enjoy an adult-only time while snacking on appetizers and sipping on wine.

The committee feels it is important to begin soliciting businesses for donations before the holidays begin, and they are willing to do the difficult part of asking. But they need our help. Many businesses are more likely to make a donation if there is a personal contact. For example, if you have been taking your children to the same swim school for years or you've golfed on the same course for years, we would love to solicit a donation in your name. What we need from you is the contact information. Amy Wozniak, Max's mom, will mail a donation solicitation in your name. (That's right - she's willing to do the part we all hate - asking for something, we just need to let her know who to contact.) It would be helpful if you could email Amy Woznaik a contact name and business address for any businesses that you patronize and think would be willing to make a donation to support our school. Amy's email is aks5344@hotmail.com Thank you for your support!

Lesson Plan for Frances' Classes

Week of November 2nd

Lead Teacher: Elizabeth

Goals:

As children continue to settle in, become familiar with routines, and adjust to goodbyes, we are focusing on the relationships that are forming between them. We are encouraging children to tell each other how they feel when they encounter conflicts and ask each other to play when they are excited about a new activity. We also continue to observe play themes that are cropping up in the classroom, and we try to turn these into curriculum areas or activities whenever possible.

Art:

* Art Table: Different textured materials will be available to place underneath paper (i.e., lace, sand paper, corrugated cardboard) or to use directly for drawing. This provides children with a new and interesting experience and give sensory feedback, while also developing the grasp on the writing utensil and pre-writing skills.
* Easel: We will add letter-shaped stamping blocks as well as new tools, such as rollers and sponge brushes, to the easel this week. Children will be able to paint with fall colors while exploring these new tools. Painting encourages artistic expression, hand-eye coordination, fine motor control, turn-taking, and the addition of letter shapes will develop letter recognition skills.

Manipulatives:

* Sandpaper letters will be placed at the manipulatives table, which can be traced and explored. This will help children physically experience the shapes of letters. This also develops fine motor control and steady movement.
* Sewing cards are available for practicing the in-and-out pattern of sewing. By repeating this motion, children internalize the concept of patterning, as well as beginning sewing techniques. This activity also builds hand-eye coordination, fine motor control, and patience.
* New and old puzzles depicting woodland animals, fall themes, numbers, and letters will be set out for children to work with. Puzzles are a great way to practice spatial awareness, problem-solving skills, the concept of part-whole, and fine motor development.

Sensory

* Children will be able to work with shaving cream as a sensory activity. This activity will allow them to become aware of their sense of touch as well as develop their hand and finger muscles.
* At the playdoh table we will be using different tools to make tracks and prints in the dough. This encourages artistic expression as well as develops children's understanding of cause and effect. Fine motor development, the sense of touch, sharing, and social interactions are strengthened through this activity.
* In the water table, children will experience cause and effect when pouring, scooping, and filling, and will use water to manipulate water wheels.

Science

* Children will be able to learn about and explore magnets this week in the science area. Magnetic wands and different metal and non-metal objects will be available for comparison and discovery. This will expand children's ability to think critically, make comparisons, observe and classify, and make hypotheses. Children will be able to use the magnetic wands throughout the classroom in order to test out different materials.

Dramatic Play

* The loft area will be transformed into a kitchen this week. Children will be able to shop at the grocery store and then bring groceries home to the kitchen area, which will increase dramatic play and a home-school connection. The confined space of the loft encourages social interaction and negotiation skills, as well as large motor development when climbing in and out of the space.
* The grocery store will be moved to occupy the space in front of the loft, which will increase interaction and flow between these two areas. More literacy elements, such as making shopping lists, writing receipts, and labeling shelves, will be added to this area. Numeracy skills will be strengthened in the form of prices and coins. Children will be encouraged to work together to perform the roles of "cashier," "customer," and "shelf stocker." Children will also practice negotiation and cooperation skills when figuring out how to share popular items such as shopping carts and cash registers.
* Small dramatic play elements such as manipulative people, buildings, and small blocks will be added to the cave to encourage dramatic play in this cozy area. This will encourage social interaction, awareness of one's own body and space, abstract thinking, and a connection to real life.
* Cars and trucks will be available in the construction area, as well as small blocks for road construction.

Language and Literacy

* In the grocery store, there will be labels on the shelves and writing opportunities when working with receipts or shopping lists. Magnetic letters will encourage letter recognition and manipulation. Pictures illustrating possible scenarios in the grocery store will encourage children to read and understand symbols, which is a pre-literacy skill.
* Letters are available for manipulation and exploration throughout the classroom. Letter puzzles, letter stamps at the easel, and labels will encourage children to become familiar with letters and discover the letters in their names.
* New books relating to the themes in the classroom will be brought out.

Construction

* The construction area will move into the space previously occupied by the grocery store and kitchen. This will allow for more space to build and to push vehicles. Small unit blocks will be available, which work well as roads for our smaller vehicles. New large vehicles will replace the fire trucks. Having a variety of small and large blocks and vehicles encourages seriation and matching. Construction skills such as stacking build hand-eye coordination, muscle control, planning, cause and effect, cooperation, and impulse control.
* Cardboard boxes and planks that can be connected with plastic nuts and bolts have been available in the construction area. Children are just beginning to explore the possibilities of this project: they are now independently attaching pieces together to create structures, including a car with windshield wipers. These materials will continue to be available, and if any families wish to bring in sturdy cardboard boxes that can be added to our collection of materials, we would gladly receive them (preferably bigger than shoe boxes and smaller than 3-4 feet long). Open-ended materials like this encourage abstract and creative thinking, and the nuts and bolts are good fine motor practice.

Music

* Maracas, bells, and shakers are available, along with the piano, for musical exploration. During our free play period, we will also periodically play recordings of different genres of music so that children can play along on instruments and dance. Music and creative movement allow children to explore their bodies, their senses, and artistic expression.

Large Group

* During large group this week we will be adding new songs to our repertoire and reading books that have to do with the themes of the classroom. In addition, singing old favorites will allow children to participate on an ever increasing level. Each song will focus on rhythm or pitch so as to develop these early music skills. Another goal of large group is to extend children's ability to sit in the group, which we will continue to focus on this week.

Large Motor

* The new gym arrangement has proven to be a challenge and an exciting change. This week children will continue to work on mastering the A-frame climbing structure, which requires them to climb up one incline, over a bar, and down the incline on the other side. This is good practice for spatial awareness, hand-eye coordination, large muscle development, balance, alternation of feet, and upper body strength.
* Children will continue to explore new cars outside. They will be able to help rake up leaves into a pile and decide what we should do with them (jump in? throw away?). We will also have a basketball hoop available for aim, throwing skills, and strength and muscle development.

Announcements

* Photos are being taken on November 3rd and 4th, Tuesday and Wednesday. Please email us over the weekend if you plan to purchase a portrait for your child. This is by no means a requirement. All the children will be photographed together for a class photo after the individual portraits are finished.
* Please continue to let us know of your child's favorite song, and send us a You Tube link, CD, or mp3 if you have it!
* We would love to receive medium-sized cardboard boxes for our construction project. These should be larger than a shoe box but not huge. Just about big enough for a child to sit in is a good size; smaller ones would be useful too.

Snack
Tuesday: Kiwi and Goldfish
Friday: No school - teacher training day

Goals:
As children become even more comfortable with the classroom routines and become more confident at school, more of their individual characters are showing through. With this increased ease and comfort, play is becoming more involved and new abilities are being unveiled. We will watch and observe these abilities and find ways to support them and scaffold them. While we continue to foster social interactions, we will continue to support their awareness of the magnificent natural living world around them.

Art
• Art table: We continue our exploration of collages by providing glue and natural materials at the art table. More children are beginning to find creative expression with this different medium. When the rains stop we hope to get outside to collect more leaves, sticks, and other natural and found objects to add to our collages. These works of art will be on display in our classroom "tree house".
*We will look to the children for creative ideas to add to the tree house to make it their own. To support them in this we will position a leaf-making tray next to the treehouse. On it will be postit notes in fall colors to rip and attach as "leaves." Scissors, tape, crayons and construction paper will also be there for those who want to try these next level skills.
• Painting on easel: The warm "fall" colors red, orange, yellow, and brown will continue on the easel this week, but other painting tools (brayers) will be supplied, offering a different experience from the traditional paint brush. Painting offers the valuable experiences of artistic expression, hand-eye coordination, and color mixing.

*Manipulatives
• Stacking cups remain popular, demonstrating seriation and rank ordering to size, along with other manipulatives emphasizing numbers and counting. To enhance hand-eye coordination, motor planning, and fine-motor development, we will have large beads, string, and sewing cards available. We also plan to make applesauce on Friday which will involve the children in cutting apples.
• More alphabet puzzles will also be introduced to help children with letter recognition and early phonemic awareness, continuing a response to a notable increase in letter interest. Puzzles help to improve spatial awareness, an understanding of part-whole relationships, and fine motor development.

*Sensory
* This week in the play doh area we shift emphasis and tie in concepts of the natural world by providing small woodland animal toys with which the children can make casts and animal tracks. With a finer play doh they might even be able to make an impression of a leaf, as well as small twigs and seeds. Along with sensory feedback, these manipulations are not unlike scientific inquiry and investigation, creating a record, an 'impression' of an organism--examining the evidence of an animal not seen.
• The water table, filled with rocks, toy boats, and water animals such as frogs, fish, and turtles, has been very busy. The rocks have been a surprising source of interest. New and different ones will be added. A lot of learning transfer takes place here. The children observe each other and learn new small motor skills , such as pincer grasp, and fine muscular control with the turkey basters , and encounter the physical properties of water and objects in water.

Science
• Harvest time gourds are replacing the wildflowers. (It has already been discovered that some float in the water table.) We will be cutting open some of the gourds during the week to see what's inside. Will it look like the insides of an orange pumpkin?
• The book cave remains a quiet place for a read, and quiet social interactions, though there is a chance that it could also become part of the habitat of a woodland animal, perhaps a raccoon, or a squirrel, or even a wolf den--small life histories of other species.

*Dramatic Play
•The kitchen will now give way to a grocery area, with carts, a check out counter and a card swipe to pay for the groceries. It has been evident to us that even in this last week play skills are changing and increasing. We feel the new scenario will provide more dramatic scripts from their life experiences. Knowing something about shopping, they will be able to experiment and learn about it themselves.
**If there is a particular store or shopping routine that your child knows, share it with us, please, and we may be able to incorporate it and support your child's play.
We will be adding familiar elements from our homes, such as empty food packages (i.e., macaroni and cheese boxes), in order to foster the home-school connection.
**Please continue to send in empty food containers (no sharp metal edges, glass, or containers of nut products) of favorite foods of your family to be added to our grocery store for pretend play.
• Babies and pets will remain close to our dramatic play area in order to expand upon the caretaking theme and provide comfort items if needed. Engaging in caretaking play helps the children to feel empowered and responsible, and symbolic play expands the children's abstract thinking and encourages social interaction.
• A new fall wardrobe of dress up clothes will be added to the dramatic play area, complementing the creative drama of the grocery store.

*Language and Literacy
• We all listen carefully for emerging words and speech, acknowledging and supporting new language abilities while encouraging them to learn from each other. New topics and dramatic scenarios will create new opportunities for language and communication. Many children are suddenly verbalizing their alphabetic awareness, which we will continue to support with puzzles and many other active opportunities for alphabetic and phonemic awareness in our daily and numerous conversations.

***Construction
• Having moved out of the (woodland) loft, the tool shop is now a compact place for 'bolting' together various lengths of cardboard panels. Turning a bolt with a screwdriver is a very challenging small motor skill which many of the children readily and eagerly undertake, demonstrating a great deal of persistence and concentration.
*Several types of blocks are available for the roadwork that often occurs in the back. The smaller blocks have come into play as building that the fire engines can save. Building blocks are wonderful spatial, motor, creative and cognitive tools for the young mind and body.

**Music
*Beginning this week, teachers will offer small, brief listening (and perhaps dancing) sessions based on music they have selected from their collections, offering a wide variety of creative music expression from around the world. Together, children will become familiar with different aesthetic expressions from diverse cultures.
*Parents, if you have a favorite music on a CD that you or your child would like to share with us, please feel free to bring it in or download the song to us.

**Large Group
• This week, in addition to songs and stories, we will begin to add more conversation to our large group meetings, modeling the exchange of information and social skills in a large group. Topics will be related to our woodland nature theme, and other topics of interest to all in the room.
• In addition to a variety of small instruments such as shakers, drums, and small glockenspiels, rhythm sticks debuted in the gym this past week and will be enjoyed in many a rhythm session to come, exercising fine motor skills with music and whole body rhythm.

***Large Motor
Swings at the monkey bars foster climbing, hanging, muscular endurance, upper body strength, balance, and vestibular movement. There will be a donut tunnel attached to the slide supporting skills such as spatial awareness, flexibility, balance, risk taking, and core muscle strength. Ball play will be featured for target practice (kicking and throwing). This fosters throwing, aim, hand-eye coordination, visual, catching and trapping, and kicking. A-Frame and bridge support climbing, balance, turn taking, hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, alternation of feet, upper body strength. Mat Mountain has been designed for climbing up and down and jumping. This activity fosters risk taking, spatial awareness, and depth perception.
• Various sized soft, light balls are an exciting addition to the gym and to outside. They are for carrying, throwing, kicking and rolling, generating dynamic body movement, coordination and social cooperation.
*New cars, trucks, rakes, sieves, buckets, shovels, wheelbarrows, the play platform and kitchenware will continue to be a focus outdoors. The children learn coordination and strengthen large muscle groups through running, pulling and pushing cars and trucks, and scooping.

Snack:
Tuesday: Bananas and TLC Crackers
Friday: Homemade applesauce and Chex Cereal

Announcements:

While we know many families may be celebrating Halloween with their children, we have learned from past experience that a preschool classroom is not the place for costumes. They get ruined, they upset other children and they add to the business of an already busy place. We would love to see a PHOTO of your child in their costume if that helps, but do not plan to observe the holiday at school. We do plan to make applesauce on Friday.

The Parent Advisory Committee is planning a subcommittee meeting to begin planning the Spring Soiree. Traci Esades, the parent in charge, has planned the meeting for November 2nd at 7:00pm. If you would like to participate and give a hand with this event (our biggest fundraiser, all of which goes towards parent scholarships!) please plan to attend, or contact Traci or one of the staff members for more information. Her number is in the school directory which was recently emailed to everyone by Kelley. She is from Dalia's classroom. Thanks!

Goals: As children settle into the routine of the classroom, we continue to support them through the transitions and help them become aware of themselves and each other through positive interactions and problem solving. We will continue to explore what is happening outside as the fall weather rapidly turns into winter, focusing on the changing foliage and on the behavior of animals in our environment. We will scaffold and encourage social interactions between children, as they learn how to share a space and materials.

Art
• Art table: We will continue our exploration of collage by providing glue and natural materials at the art table. We hope to get outside to collect leaves, sticks, and other treasures to add to our collages. These works of art will be on display in our classroom "treehouse" that we will be making this week.
• Painting on easel: Warm "fall" colors like red, orange, yellow, and brown will be available on the easel this week. Painting offers the valuable experiences of artistic expression, hand-eye coordination, and color mixing.
Manipulatives
• Old and new stacking cups will be available to practice seriation, or the ordering according to size. This valuable math skill will be accompanied by stacking toys that emphasize numbers and counting. We will continue to have large beads, string, and sewing blocks available to enhance hand-eye coordination, motor planning, and fine-motor development.
• New puzzles depicting the themes of fall, animals, and firefighters will be available. Alphabet puzzles and games will also be introduced to help children with letter recognition and early phonemic awareness. Puzzles help to improve spatial awareness, an understanding of part-whole relationships, and fine motor development.
Sensory
• The play doh area has been full of busy cooks! We will continue to foster this home-school connection by providing kitchen tools and food pictures in this area. The play doh table offers wonderful opportunities for sharing creations (we hear a lot of, "Look! I made noodles!") and sharing materials. New materials such as paper punches, herbs, and spices are being added to the play doh to enhance sensory awareness through touch, sight, and smell. The children will also have a literacy experience in this area as they look for their own name and/or the names and picture of their classmates on our food wall.
• The water table will be transformed into a dramatic play center filled with rocks, toy boats, and water animals such as frogs, fish, snakes and turtles. This pond area will encourage social interaction, science skills like displacement, and dramatic play skills like symbolic representation.

Science
• As we continue to observe seasonal changes, the wildflowers in the classroom are going to seed. The orange butterfly weed in particular offers a fantastic experience as the fine filaments attached to the seed easily lift it on a short puff of air, letting it slip lazily along the convection currents in the room. Several of the children have become adept 'puffers.'
• With harvests coming in, there will be a selection of gourds replacing the wildflowers, including a traditional orange pumpkin.
• Peely the gerbil remains quite happy. Many children check on her each day, wondering what she eats, why she burrows into the bedding material. This interest will lead to further discussions about caring for living things, and the characteristics of living things.
• The book cave is a popular place for a quiet read, and quiet social interactions. It has also hosted a 'flashlight show', where one child observed, "the circle gets bigger when I put it up!" That is, the cone of light increased in diameter as the light source moved away from the reflective plane: physics, math and scientific method in action.

Dramatic Play
• The kitchen area has been condensed in order to allow for cooking play to occur in the play-dough area as well. We will be adding familiar elements from our homes, such as empty food packages (i.e., macaroni and cheese boxes), in order to foster the home-school connection. Please send in an empty food container (no sharp metal edges, glass, or containers of nut products) of a favorite family food to be added to our kitchen for pretend play.
• In addition to babies, we have introduced pets into our dramatic play area in order to expand upon the caretaking theme and provide comfort items if needed. Engaging in caretaking play helps children to feel empowered and responsible, and symbolic play expands children's abstract thinking and encourages social interaction.
• Firefighting equipment, tools, and wheeled vehicles are available in order to encourage a variety of scenarios. Building with blocks and pushing trucks help develop strength and coordination, and dramatic play elements help children to expand their creative thinking.

Language and Literacy
• Children have been demonstrating increased interest in the alphabet. To support that interest, we will add alpha/numeric symbols into our play. An alphabet puzzle will now be on the puzzle table. We will add letters and numbers to our collage material and look for other opportunities to support this interest.
• With our changing themes, new books are in the classroom. Some portray the work of firefighters while others tell stories of woodland animals. Cards describing the children's favorite recipes are mounted at their eye level in the play doh kitchen.
• We all listen carefully for emerging words and speech, acknowledging and supporting new language abilities while encouraging them to learn from each other.

Construction
• The tool shop will be moved out of the loft next week to a smaller section of the dramatic play area. The children will be involved in a slow transformation of the loft area into a woodland habitat. Aspects of the transformation will include bringing live materials into the area and finding ways to artfully attach them to, and include them in the space. We hope to have the children's help in finding those materials.

Music
• A variety of small instruments such as shakers, drums, and small glockenspiels will be added to the piano area. Children will be able to explore rhythm, sounds, volume, technique, pitch, and movement. Making music and improvising together is an excellent scenario for social interaction and the enjoyment of each other in a shared activity.

Large Group
• The student teachers have been introducing a range of new songs and rhymes mixed in with the old favorites. The new songs often require specific movements or verbal responses from the children, adding to their vocabulary and body awareness, as well as their glee. The old favorites are often reworked to challenge their expressive language skills or balance and body coordination.

Large Motor
• In addition to climbing, sliding and jumping skills, teeter-totters continue to be a favorite game, giving wonderful vestibular feedback through rocking while also encouraging the children to work in pairs. We sing a song while they are rocking to indicate the length of the "turn" children are becoming more aware when their turn is over and are more able to wait for a turn knowing how long it will take.
• Cars, trucks, rakes, and shovels will continue to be a focus outdoors. The children strengthen large muscle groups through running, pulling and pushing cars and trucks, and scooping. We will also be introducing balls of various sizes for children to practice hand-eye coordination, propulsion skills like throwing and kicking, and social interaction.

Announcements
• We will be taking some small-group nature walks (just around the building) in the next two weeks. Please mention to your child that "sometimes the teachers take kids for walks around the school and you can choose if you want to go or if you want to stay and play," so that this new idea will not seem so unusual for them.
• I look forward to meeting with everyone this week (or next) for our conference. I will plan to meet you in the sofa/reading area of the main hallway and we will go to a quiet area.
• Upcoming in November: 11/3 Photo day, Staff Training Date (school closed) on 11/6, Oleanna Book Sale 11/13. More info to follow on these - watch your parent folders!

Snack

Tuesday: Banana and Crackers Friday: Apples and Fish

Lesson Plan - Frances' class Oct 12, 2009

Goals: We continue to support the children through the transitions of the day, they are increasingly aware of what will happen next. Many of our activities are geared towards helping children see themselves as part of a community: learning each other's names, becoming aware of each other's presence, likes and dislikes and delving into the difficult problem solving which comes up when their desires collide with someone else's. We are also structuring simple activities that remind children of things they do at home in order to gain some comfort and connection and insight into their personalities. We are continuing to make the most of the fall weather for exploring natural materials before the cold of winter starts.

Art
•Painting on easel: Primary color paints will continue to be available to explore color mixing. Brush strokes (vertical, horizontal, circle, dabbing) will be modeled and the children will be encouraged to experiment.
•Art table: In addition to markers and paper, we will explore some of the science table materials (seeds and dried flower pods) at this location. We are hoping to incorporate some of these natural materials into the children's art by attaching them to contact paper.
•We will begin using glue with natural collage materials at the table with q-tips as an application instrument.
Manipulatives
•Dishes with small puff balls will be featured that the children can move to a tray using tongs. This process promotes fine motor development, persistence, and hand-eye coordination as children manipulate the tongs, grab objects, and successfully transfer them into another area. The nesting cups continue to be popular. Simple sewing blocks will allow us to explore the process of hand passing with a tool through a hole. These activities promote fine motor development and motor planning, size and color differentiation, stacking and spatial awareness.
•Puzzles will be available to enhance fine motor development, spatial awareness, visual discrimination, and understanding of shapes. Puzzle topics include tools, food, and vehicles.
Sensory
•The children will continue to explore the connection between play doh and cooking this week. Materials, tools, and pictures will be provided to inspire many different cooking creations. Fine motor skills will be strengthened through rolling and squeezing dough, and manipulating various tools like spatulas and garlic presses. Dramatic play elements such as plates, cups, and flatware will encourage children to share their creations through meaningful social interactions. To encourage the home-school connection, please continue to share with us what kinds of food your family likes to cook and eat. We have found the children to be much more conversant when we comment on specific foods that we know they like to cook.
• We will continue the tools from last week as they are still engaging the children: bottles with smaller spouts and tubes of different diameters allow for connection to funnels and potential construction possibilities (small tubes inside of larger tubes. We will add a color to the water to create an additional attraction. Water play helps develop the concept of empty and full, less and more, and in and out. Shells are also present in the water table to provide a sensory element.
• Small rain sticks are available inside the door to promote experimentation with sounds. The motor planning involved with turning the rainstick upside down challenges children's thinking, physical coordination, and creates a satisfying trial and effect game to share with teachers and others.
Science
• At the end of last week, play insects and small animals appeared among the wildflowers and the hollowed out branch in the classroom. The children were curious about what insects they were. There is also a hollow knot on the branch that is difficult to see into. This week we will cut it open to see what is inside. We will also look for late season insects hiding behind bark on the tree stumps and among the leaf litter on the playground. We have enjoyed seeing the different things that children have brought into school and their enthusiasm for their treasures. We are happy to keep receiving what finds nature brings to your yard. The outside world is changing rapidly and helping your child to notice some of the transformations may feed their curiosity about nature.
•As we experience part of what happens on a prairie, we will also experience fall harvest foods. As the apple season draws to a close, children will examine various kinds of apples displayed at the science table. Throughout the week, we will investigate and experience several varieties of apple in our own "taste test."
• Children will be encouraged to observe Peely in her "home." We will focus on her movements and daily routine, asking children questions about the similarities and differences with human life. Children are beginning to take note of Peely's small heart beat, and we are copying the way she eats. We will experiment with adding toilet tissue rolls to see what she does.
Dramatic Play
•A diaper changing table and baby doll accessories are available in addition to multi-ethnic babies with baby carriages, bassinets, and strollers to foster symbolic play.
• The dramatic play area has been expanded to include firefighter equipment in order to incorporate fire rescue play that has developed from our tools area. Dramatic play helps children practice social skills and expand their creative thinking.
•Tools, workbenches, and hard hats will be available in the loft area to extend the block play and to "fix" the toy cars and trucks that have been "crashing" or "breaking." This will promote social-emotional development through sharing, negotiation, cooperation, and communication.
•Scarves, animal fabrics, and skirts will be available for children to support their pretend play, and foster social interaction and cooperation.
•Wheeled vehicles (dump trucks, cars, trains, and buses) are available to promote pretend play.
Language and Literacy
•In addition to the book area, we will incorporate a cozy reading/play area in the cave. We will start posting what things children like to cook at home near the playdough table. The children have utilized this space as a place to relax and enjoy small group interaction. The cave promotes reading with peers or teachers, sharing of space, and social awareness. Language and literacy activities occur throughout the day and the classroom is filled with activities and materials that support their development.
Construction
•Hollow wooden blocks will be available in the block area to extend the construction of roads and ramps for the trucks. Smaller foam blocks have been placed in the loft area to encourage social interaction during construction. Tools are still available, and children will be encouraged to use them in mechanic play, construction, or firefighter play. Using both small and large blocks will help develop motor skills, expanding block play into the loft will challenge children to think creatively, and negotiating the space and materials will help develop social skills such as sharing, cooperation, and communication.
Music
•Instruments such as shakers and drums will be included throughout the day to support transitions and encourage participation. We will sing familiar songs as well as incorporate new songs as part of our routine and name songs to encourage the children to learn each other's names.
•The piano is open for the children to use to promote exploration of sounds, volume, rhythm and social interaction.
Large Group
•We have been singing the Choo Choo Train song to introduce the children's names to each other. We will also continue to sing The Wheels on the Bus, and I've been working on the Railroad. We will introduce a new rhyme, about the rain, as that seems to be the way the weather is going. (See words below.)
Large Motor
• We have experimented with the sit and spins and the teeter totters in the gym. The sit and spins take some motor planning but allow the children to experience the powerful centrifugal force of spinning. The teeter totters are a two person toy allowing children to feel the sensations of balance, rocking and the disequilibrium when the partner's weight disappears. There are also low balance beams to promote toe to heel walking, balancing, and coordination. A couple of cozy spots are available for dramatic play and relaxation. A ladder leads up to an A-frame climber, which fosters spatial awareness, motor planning, and turn taking. Rakes, wheel barrels, and dump trucks will be available to support the children's interests in collecting, carrying, and dumping fallen leaves. We will also be exploring the front of the playground, walking through the tall grass, investigating, and observing things we find. The playground environment also supports the children's upper and lower body development, such as running and using tools to dig and mold sand.
Snack
Tuesday: Banana & Multigrain Cheerios Friday: Graham Crackers (baked by Ross' class) with Applesauce Announcements
• Most families have signed up for our fall parent-teacher conference. The main sign up sheet will be posted on the door. If you cannot sign up in person, please give me your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice time via email. Suggest some alternate times if none of these work for you.
• Many thanks for staying in your cars at pickup time unless you have a spot in the angled parking lot or a metered spot. We realize the line moves slowly and it feels like you could run and grab your child quickly, but then the whole line of cars can't get around you. Please remember to stay in your car in the pickup line unless you have a parking spot. Eva will let us know that you are here via walkie-talkie and we will bring your child out to you. This allows the line of cars to keep inching forward. Also, please label all backpacks and jackets - this will also facilitate getting children to you more quickly at the end of the day.