March 2017
Creating Bird's Nests
The winter season is flying by and we
are very excited for spring to come. The children have been investigating and
exploring different animals like what they eat and the different homes they
have. We began talking about animal care and the children were engaging in
conversations about building a doghouse for their dog. This lead to a
discussion of what other animal homes look like. After reading the book In the Nest, the children became
interested in bird’s nests. We began exploring what a bird’s nest looks like by
drawing the nest and what may be in the nest. The next week we used clay to
create a nest. During the nest molding, the children began having conversations
about baby worms being in the nest and also how the baby birds crack open their
egg with their beak when they are ready to come out. To extend this lesson we
will be building bird nests out of natural materials. To provoke the children’s
thinking, we will be reading books about birds and also looking at some
pictures of different bird nests. In the future we will be looking at how birds
use their beaks and looking at worms. We look forward to seeing you at
curriculum night on Wednesday April 12th.
- Mrs. Otis
Objectives that were met from TS Gold
Social–Emotional
2. Establishes and sustains positive
relationships
c. Interacts with peers
Physical
7. Demonstrates fine-motor strength
and coordination
a. Uses fingers and hands
Language
10. Uses appropriate conversational
and other communication skills
a. Engages in conversations
b. Uses social rules of language
Cognitive
11. Demonstrates positive approaches
to learning
a. Attends and engages
Exploring Pathways
Hello families, as we approach the middle of the semester I
would like to share with you some of the learning that had taken place during
our explorations. We explored connecting roads to make pathways for their cars.
I noticed that some of the children were not able to successfully connect the
road pieces together to form a complete pathway. Therefore, we were working on connecting
by manipulating different materials. One of our lessons consisted of
manipulating Citi Blocks to find different ways to create pathways. The
children used the Citi blocks to construct pathways that connected two or more
locations such as the fire station, post office, house, and a police station
that were pre- drawn on a large sheet of paper. The children discussed various
ways to connect the Citi blocks to create a complete path. Some of the questions that arose out of our
conversations were, how do roads help us travel from place to place and how do
we use maps? Another exploration consisted of observing a large road map with winding
roads that connected to different places that we see in our communities. The
children talked about what they saw on the road map as well as drew their very
own pictures of roads and the places that they like to travel with their
families.
Through these
explorations the children strengthened their problem-solving skills as they
discovered new ways of connecting a variety of materials to create a complete
path. Furthermore, the children also strengthened their fine-motor skills by
using their hands to manipulate and connect various materials. To extend the
children’s thinking about how roads help us travel to different places we are
going to continue talking about and looking at different types of maps and how
we use them to find directions to different places. Parents, you can also
participate in our map exploration by talking to your child about where things
are relative to where he or she is standing this will help them establish
positional awareness and directionality. You can ask your child questions such
as What do you see behind you? What is in front of you? When you look up, what
do you see above your head? Parents you can also play a simple” location” game
with your child by asking questions such as What do you see under the table?;
What do you see on top of the refrigerator?; What is on the bottom shelf of the
book case. Lastly, Curriculum Night is Wednesday April 12 from 4:30 to 6:00 pm
please join us as we talk about ongoing work in the programs curriculum.
- Mrs. Joo
