Preschoolers Engage in Cooperative Play

Children play in many ways. They play independently, sometimes near each other but with each engrossed in his own activity. As preschoolers mature, they begin to play cooperatively, sharing ideas and dialog as they play.

This morning Bodhi and Austin worked together building a long road and driving their cars around on it together. They talked about being race car drivers, crashing, and getting stuck along the way.

Years of research on children's learning and development document the many benefits of play for children's intellectual, social, emotional, physical, and language development. Children at play are actively involved in creating themes, solving problems, and developing shared understandings.

Creating Letters with Curves and Lines

Many children make up their own letters, both when writing and when creating with our letters shapes. Anna Lee spent time connecting wooden pieces together, inventing her own symbols.

First Eva made a capital I and then began experimenting with different shapes. 

Look, I a made a funny letter, Jena!

Lena was proud of the letters she created and knew what they were.

I made a D and an A. I have an A in my name.

Chase flipped through the laminated letter pages until he found the capital C, "for Chase".

By adding a circular shape, he turned his C into an O.

Orange Gak

This morning we did a fun science experiment that helped us explore our sense of touch. We made orange colored Gak to tie in with our Halloween theme. Check out the video to watch the kids create it and have fun testing it out!

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Changing Up The Environment

 Now that the Beetles are almost two months into the new school year, they have a good grasp on the morning routine and are ready for a more advanced morning class time. I did some re-arranging and organizing last night to create a new space for them to eat snack, play, and get messy in my upstairs kitchen. This new space will be great for the rainy and cold days that are on the horizon.

Today the were very excited for the change and got busy playing and exploring right away. Katy dived right in to the basket of tinker toys and began putting pieces together.

 Wiley was happy to take them apart for her.

We will also have a new responsibility, feeding all of Layla's fish every morning.  Angel, the beta fish, lives in one fish bowl. We also have a large guppy and three baby guppies in a second bowl named Cinderella, Goldilocks, Aurora, and Rainbow Sparkles. (Of course!)

Chloe helped sprinkle the food in and watched as Angel came to the top of her bowl to eat it.

Zoe waited her turn to help feed the guppies and pointed at them, saying, "babies" and making a fish face. 

Aside from the fish, our new space also includes an easel for painting and a closet full of puzzles, small manipulatives, and art supplies. After we ate our snack at the little table, we headed into our other playroom for circle time and reading together.

Centipedes On Weather

The Centipedes share some tips on how to stay warm in the colder weather.

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Centipedes Get Into Halloween

This week the Centipedes are using their senses 
to explore Halloween. 

During Circle Time they listed to a CD of Halloween sounds and shared what Halloween creature or thing makes it.  We came up with a list to help us work on some Halloween crafts and activities for this week.  

They then went on to explore their own Halloween science experiment and sensory fun that they later share with the Beetles.

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We have also been practicing to perform a Halloween story/skit for the Beetles too.  Take a peak below for glimpse at one of our rehearsals :)

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The Toddlers Explore Oobleck Too!

Toddlers learn and explore through their senses. 

How do things work?

What can I do?

I can gain control and competence.

I can learn cause and effect.

I can experience pleasure and delight.

I can change things.

Sharing A Treat on Walk- Dried Mangoes

 

Filling Our Sensory Table with Nature

 Our sunflowers in the yard were starting to fall over and turn brown. We decided to pull them out and explore the sunflower seeds inside.

 We used our fingers to pull out each of the sunflower seeds in the biggest sunflower and place them into a bowl.

 Here's Austin holding up the empty flower.

 Ava shows off all of the seeds we collected. We are going to roast some and eat them. We will also set some of them aside to plant next summer so we can grow more sunflowers.

 We put the other sunflowers into the sensory table so we could continue to explore nature. Wiley tried pulling some seeds out too.

We added green tomatoes, pine cones, leaves, and sticks too.

 The kids enjoyed sorting them, collecting them, carrying them around the yard, and pretending with them.

Yard Time for Beetles

Toddler Leaf Project

Yesterday, we explored and collected leaves on our walk. Today we used our leaves to create an art project. We used our sight and touch senses! Chloe glued some leaves on to her paper and when she touched the glue she was surprised that it felt different, like something she hadn't felt before.

Katy smears some of the glue on her wax paper onto the leaves and then places them on her paper.

Grant explores the different textures with his fingers and looks a bit uncertain about how it feels.

Once the Beetles got the hang of it, they began to place their leaves with some purpose.

It is just as interesting to take them off as it is to put them on.

After Grant glued on his leaves, he explored the glue. We talked about how the glue felt on his hands. "Is it sticky, gooey, slippery"? Grant shook his head 'yes'!