Tuesday News

May 14th, 2013

Our choice time is an essential part to open-ended exploration in which

the children's imaginations shine and they are able to independently engage in an area of interest for themselves. Today, the legos provided a wonderful opportunity to support the children in dramatic play. They used the legos to create ships, bridges, and machines.

Also, a polar bear family game continued this morning, as a small group identified what the baby polar bear would need. This nurturing and caring feeling in dramatic play, has strengthened the children's bonds and translated to our interactions among each other in our Cardinal community!

The children continue to show their love of reading as they sit in the big comfy chair and retell their favorite stories to their friends. As our spring study, involving flowers, plants and other living things continues to emerge, the Cardinals are gaining more knowledge and beginning to ask questions after reading books such as, I Love Bugs. The children are wondering what types of bugs we might see and immediately are making connections with their environment as they explore and identify their findings in our outdoor space. 

Building off of this love of nature, and motivation to learn more about spring, the children have begun to create a Spring Mural. Today, we began by finger painting blue shades on large paper to create the background of our scene. We then started brainstorming ideas of what else to include in our mural and recorded them on a large language experience chart. We have already begun to add flower paintings, drawings and petal collages. As their artwork is displayed, adding essential pieces to the spring display, the children feel a sense of pride and joy in the recognition of their pieces and the culmination of their ideas with that of their friends.

Outdoor Exploration: The outdoor play space has also provided the outlet for big body movement and the freedom to explore! This is building our social bonds with each other as the children continue to create new games or invite their friends to make discoveries or investigate with them. The connection with nature and the AFS outdoor environment is apparent when the children use their senses in a tactile way to explore what is around them. Digging up worms, sculpting with sand, and just bathing in the sun have been many ways that the children are developing their love for nature and becoming more comfortable in their world.

Journal time has also grown and the children are expanding their ideas as they work on their own illustrations and story dictations. 

The appreciation and awareness of beginning our study was displayed today as many children created pictures consisting of flowers, bugs, butterflies and more.

*Families, enjoy the shining sun and inviting weather as you read the blog today. Tomorrow, we are looking forward to a visit from Xander's Dad, a cardiologist, at 8:30 am. We are excited about what he has to share with us about his job, responsibilities and what he knows about an essential part of our bodies, the hear!