Thursday, December 15, 2011

Knitting mania spreads throughout our classrooms...

What better way is there to spend a cold winters day then to sit and knit among a circle of friends?
Finger knitting and loom knitting are fun ways to practice fine motor, math, and visual-perceptual skills while making hats, scarves, and more.





Isabel's Birthday Walk...

On this day in our universe in 2005, the day Isabel was born, the Earth was positioned in a special place on it's orbit around the sun. The Earth has now traveled around the sun six times and returned once again to that special place. Happy Birthday Isabel!





Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Coming to an end of a great 2011!



We've been so busy since our November break...
...here's what we've been up to:


Stella has been using our bead stairs to add.


Leo has been using the movable alphabet and the sandpaper letters.

Connor has been practicing writing his numerals on a dry erase template.

Noni and Kai have been enjoying all the new materials in the Practical Life area--practicing concentration, coordination, order, and independence.

Katie uses our bubble making material. First she pours the water...

...then she uses a wisk to create bubbles!

We made winter ornaments out of a delicious smelling dough. Here's the recipe:

1 cup applesauce
1 cup ground cloves(or cinnamon)
mix it all up until its a dough consistency
THAT'S IT!

Noni is decorating her ornament with shiny beads!


Connnor is using our sound material. He matches objects that have the first sound of each letter in the alphabet. This is great preparation for both reading and writing.

Three friends using language materials. All the materials meet the needs of where each child is at. Lucy is reading her word lists and then writing each word. Calea is practicing ending sounds with dry erase cards. Noni is developing her motor memory for each sound symbol (also using dry erase markers to trace).

Calea is matching objects to words with this language material.

Noni uses panda bears as counters.

We look forward to a wonderful 2012!!!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Sometimes we work together, sometimes we work alone

Toddler social development between the ages of 1 and 3 is about self awareness. It takes several years for children to recognize they are separate from other people with their own ways of thinking, feeling and behaving.



Working near friends....parallel play









Working alone and very focused on our tasks....











Friday, November 18, 2011

Busy hands...focused minds.

We had a very busy and focused week.

Andy stopped by again and we sang "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" with partner movments. Morning group provides children the opportunity to get settled in and connect with friends before setting out to work.


Calea practices her teen numbers and numerals.


Open snack allows children to listen to their bodies and notice when they're hungry. Noni counts how many grapes per serving of snack today.


Carter, Simon, and Daniel work together to complete the truck puzzle.


Lucy learned to use the addition strip board this week.


Paper weaving...


Hmm...so many pieces in the trinomial cube! No problem for Gav. He knows how to organize his pieces and match the cubes and rectangular prisms by size and color.

Formula for the cube (a+b)3

a + b + c
x a + b + c
a2 + ab + ac
ab + b2 + bc
ac + bc + c2
a2 +2ab +2ac +b2 +2bc +c2
x a + b + c
a3 +2a2b+2a2c +ab2+2abc +ac2
______a2b +2ab2+2abc +b3 +2b2c +bc2
+a2c +2abc +2ac2 + b2c +2bc2 +c3
a3+3a2b+3a2c +3ab2+6abc +3ac2+b3 +3b2c +3bc2 +c3

(Gavin is going to ace algebra!)



Watch as Gavin completes this material all by himself. He is now showing this material to his friends.


Tuesday, November 15, 2011



Petie is matching frogs



Lilly is focusing on her beading

Ella using her fine motor skills as well as her large motor skills for the shape lacing cards




Elle is dressing her baby




Virginia is slicing her own banana for snack




Maya is scooping and measuring flour


Bea measured a teaspoon of flour






















Monday, November 14, 2011

Halloween and Fall fun!


Halloween!



orange soapy water fun with orange sponges to squeeze



orange water to scoop, pour, and funnel



squishing and rolling orange balls of playdough



0range easel painting