Hello Infant Families,
This month, due to the abundance of snow and below freezing temperatures, we have been doing a lot of exploring within the classroom. We have brought in several different activities to help promote fine motor and gross motor skills, as we could not get this exposure outside. We also had the wonderful opportunity to welcome a new friend to our classroom. Please join us in giving a warm welcome to Anggun. We are so excited for her to join our class!
Fine Motor
After observing some of the children interested in the way the locks of the doors in our classroom worked, Tori brought in a “Busy board.” This board has several different locking mechanisms and switches and allows children to explore through their hands and fingers.
*Pictured left, you can see Xander and Yuna exploring how a sliding door lock works. Through hand-over-hand assistance, as well as some persistence, Xander and Yuna figured out how to undo and put back the lock. Some of other children in our classroom have enjoyed exploring this board as well.
In our classroom, we have also been using our hands and fingers to
communicate through sign language. Throughout this month we have worked on the signs “Again,” “bubbles,” and “play.”
*Pictured right, Tori and Jack are working on the sign “again.” Jack is communicating to Tori, that he would like to climb the climber again.
Gross Motor
Since the weather towards the end of this month has been beautiful, we have gotten chance to go on walks. We often walk to the Gabel playground and sometimes to the huskie busses at DuSable. Some of our older friends have been working on their gross motor skills and have been walking alongside us.
*pictured l
eft, Xander and Kennyla are walking down the sidewalk to the Gabel playground.
Some of the other gross motor activities that we have enjoyed, has been rocking on the rocking chair, climbing on the gross motor mats and dancing.
Lead Teaching in Our Classroom
This month, each of our practicum students got a chance to lead teach for a week. Throughout this time your children have gotten a chance to partake in an assortment of art activities. At the CDFC, we believe in the concept of process based art. This means that we allow the children to explore the materials without a final product in mind. For one of the art activities, our practicum student Martiza brought in some textured balls and paint. The children got the chance to explore the textured balls and the patterns they made on paper with the paint.
*Pictured left, Elizabeth is seen using her fingers and hands to roll the balls around the paper. In in this interaction, Maritza talks about the different patterns the balls makes on the paper and how they are different from each other.
During lead teaching weeks, our classroom has also gotten the chance to participate in a variety of group times. Audrey did a song about the different ways you can say “hello.” For this activity, she asked families to participate in letting us know how they say hello at home. The children enjoyed the opportunity to be exposed to all of the different languages in our classroom.
Reminders
- Please sign your child in and out on the clipboard every day. Our clipboard is hanging at the end of the cubbies by the observation booth door.
- When the temperature is above 10 degrees with wind chill, we do go outside with the children. If you haven’t already, please bring appropriate outdoor clothing for your child. This can include: hat, gloves, snowsuit (or coat and snow pants), and boots.
- Please remember to be checking cubbies for any artwork or bags of dirty clothes.
- As much as we enjoy having our families interact with the other children in the classroom, due to COVID, we please ask that families remain at the doorway at pickup and drop-off. This is to keep your child and your family safe.
If you have any questions or anything that we can help you with, please feel free to ask. We’re excited to continue this semester and can’t wait to see how much your children grow and learn!
