November 26

The Story of Today

It was wonderful to see all the Cardinals back in school today! Everyone was excited to see each other this morning and there were many group hugs to welcome one another back to our classroom. We shared what we did over Thanksgiving in our journals, and jumped right back into our routine with ease.

Our morning was full of building activities and getting reacquainted with all our many exciting centers.  The interest in building was ever present.... it is very exciting to observe the emerging of this study as we observe the children in their work and play . Our emerging study of Building leads so naturally to support our math curriculum that focuses more intentionally on shapes. We invited children to explore building and shapes using medium size bristle blocks at the math center today. We introduced one of  the books from the math curriculum series  Math Counts - Shapes.  The photographs and text of the books in this math series encourage conversation about topics that are mathematical.  By talking with children about mathematical concepts they begin to explore and understand the basic concepts that future mathematic  skills will be built upon.  This book raises the awareness of shapes and  has wonderful photographs that highlight shapes all around us; bricks, walkways, bike tires etc. are just of few of the photographs in the this book.

We also had the pleasure of having art early in our schedule this morning. We ventured to Sam's art studio where she talked to us about colors. Between Sam's extensive knowledge and the Cardinal's impressive understanding of how colors are mixed to make new colors, we talked about how many colors we can create using only the three primary colors, blue, red, and yellow.  Then, Sam gave out little bags with "baker's clay" to each child.  She told us about this special dough which can be shaped and then baked or air dried into a hard sculpture.  With our discussion of color mixing still fresh in our minds, Sam came around with food dye in those three primary colors and we all chose two colors to drop into our dough. Then we pinched and squished the colors into the dough, exercising all of our hand and finger muscles until we were happy with our finished color.  Taking our baker's clay out of their bags, we molded our colorful creations and added pipe cleaners until we had beautiful, unique sculptures we left with Sam to harden.

                    Music Concert With Peter Moses

The Cardinals joined the Doves' class for a special concert with Peter Moses where we showed off our awesome musicality and enjoyed some very fun, silly songs! The children loved singing along with Peter and playing instruments.

Outdoor Fun

The crisp fall air felt so wonderful today playing outdoors! The children loved playing in our outdoor classroom and it was fascinating to see how theri play is changing as they have become more familiar with the space.  The large motor building area was quite popular today as children were observed carrying large tubes and wood branches to build with.  The mud kitchen continues to be a favorite spot as well as the sand and music area.  We continue to feel so fortunate to have such an incredible play area at our school.

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HOLIDAY AND TRADITION SHARING -

As the Cardinals have grown together, we truly feel like one loving and caring family. As we continue to create bonds and deeper connections among each other, the teachers would like to extend the invitation to families to visit the classroom and share about their own traditions or special holiday activities. This is a wonderful opportunity for the Cardinals to learn about each other’s cultures. Activities shared in the past included reading a story, singing and dancing, working on a craft or art project, cooking, or sharing family symbols of the holiday. Take a look at our calendar for possible times to come in and share with the class.