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 12^th.

- 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