Hello Preschool 2 Families,
We are continuing to cruise through the fall season. Just a friendly reminder, please bring your child warmer clothing for the changing weather. We will continue to go outside, if even when the temperature reaches 15 degrees with the wind chill. Outdoor play is an essential part of development for young children. These experiences give the children the opportunity to investigate and explore while building endurance and an overall healthy mindset with the outdoors.
Over the past month we have been teaching, reviewing, and demonstrating ways to show kindness. Using our friendship visuals at group time, we have discussed concepts on how to be a kind friend. For example, giving encouragement, including others, giving compliments, and asking for help are all ways we demonstrate kindness. We are thrilled to see these acts of kindness taking place within our classroom community and have praised the children by filling up our classroom kindness jar with stickers. Once our kindness jar is full, we will celebrate our accomplishments by having a classroom pajama party. The party will take place on Friday, November 5! More information to follow.
We have introduced books that focus on ways to show acts of kindness. In the story, Red Shoes, by Karen English a little girl named Malika receives a pair of red shoes from her Nana. She loves her shoes and wears them everywhere until one day they begin pinching her feet. She then takes her red shoes to a resale shop to be sold to another little girl, who lives across the world. Be Kind, by Miller provides a little girl’s perspective on how to demonstrate acts of kindness in her school and community.
Our dramatic play area has been transformed into an ice cream shop. Within our ice cream shop we have several familiar items, such as scoops, sprinkles, cones, cups, and toppings. To encourage building math concepts, the teachers have been modeling how to take an ice cream order. For example, we ask how many scoops, cherries, or toppings, then write the number on the order form. The children then go and create the recipe using the above listed items and count out scoops.
To expand on the children’s prior knowledge of ice cream flavors, we experimented using our sense of smell. Using various flavor oils on a cotton ball, we labeled each flavor in a cup. Using visuals and print concepts, the children guessed and matched each smell with the printed word. For example, we showed the children the printed word chocolate and then allowed each child to smell the chocolate flavoring. Each child voted on their favorite flavor. The most popular choice was lemon. Parents and families also got involved smelling and choosing their favorite flavor.
Sincerely,
Bri and Hillary
