Hello parents and families,
As the weeks have flown by, we would like to examine the learning that has taken place over the last five weeks. At the end of August, we welcomed new friends and families to our CDFC community. For many of our friends, this is their first time being in a classroom setting. We started off the month encouraging relationships to form through learning each other’s names and interests. We are finally noticing that children are calling each other by their names as well as teachers! We have noticed new friendships develop and connections being made.
We have worked hard and continue to work on implementing our daily schedule. The children are becoming more familiar with using their choice picture during free choice, following the classroom expectation for each interest center. We have encouraged children to help other children find their choice picture if they want to play in an area. This helps limit the number of children to each area, allowing for more structured play.
Most children enjoy participating in morning meeting daily. Being the “Helper of the Day” has been a special treat for each child and we are now on our second round of helpers. The helper chooses our daily song. Che Che Kule, The Fish Song, and We are the Dinosaurs are amongst the popular choices of songs. The helper counts the friends who answered the question of the day and finds the corresponding number of friends who are in attendance. We’ve introduced weather vocabulary, and the helper chooses the appropriate weather words for our weather board.
We are continuing to work with children on how to use our play materials properly and creatively. Many children have shown an interest in block play, specifically building ramps, and using the magnetic balls to roll down the ramps. Children have continual interest in the manipulative area. Magna tiles are a daily popular choice for children, as they create structures, homes, and towers. They add to their play by bringing in the wooden people or vehicle counters.
Every day we encourage children to use the problem-solving cards introduced at morning meeting. Some examples of these cards include, sharing, trading, playing together, asking for teacher help, setting a timer, and ignoring. The visuals help paint a picture for the children to see what sharing or trading look like during play. We model what sharing, trading, and setting a timer look like and refer to them when the children are having difficulty solving their problems.
Every day is a work in progress, and we have already seen a huge growth with the children following the routine, following directions, and building friendships. We will continue to work on these skills and build a happy, safe, and loving Pre 2 classroom community!
Bri and Hillary
