NEWSLETTER
March 18-21
Thank you to everyone who came on our field trip to Reflections!
The children brought so much joy to the residents and they can't wait for them to come back when they are in PreK!
Books we read this week:
Steps and Stones: An Anh's Anger Story
(When Anh’s friends leave and he feels left out at school, his anger shows up to keep him company. His anger, personified as a red hairy impulsive creature, teaches him some valuable lessons about not getting carried away by his strong emotions. By counting his steps and coordinating them with his breathing Anh is able to slow down and take his anger for a peaceful and magically transformative walk.)
Letter Bingo...with a twist!
We've noticed that we have a class of builders! The children love to build with the different types of blocks we have in the classroom. We are planning to explore this further after Spring Break, and have been piloting some block experiences during play time. This experience combined letter bingo and block building. As the children matched the called letter to a letter on their board, they had to choose one block. As blocks were collected they were asked to build something. This was very open-ended so we could observe their choices, how they arranged the blocks (space, balance, height) and what the ultimately built. It also added a fun challenge to a regular game of bingo, which kept the children very engaged!
Rainbow Fizzing Pots
We decided to wrap up March with a science experiment. This experiment combined chemical reactions and color-making, and was very exciting! There are some fantastic pictures and videos on Vidigami that I encourage everyone to check out. We gave the children the opportunity to figure out what happens when they put baking soda and vinegar in a pot together. Once those "volcano explosions" started, we used primary colors to color the foamy substance. Then we figured out what colors we needed to combine to make secondary colors. The children had a blast adding material to make the pots foam over and change colors. We talked about what we observed and what we were doing to change the substance in many different ways. We finished by deciding that we needed to make our own real volcanos, so that will definitely be a spring project!
Exploring all of the materials for our experiment to see what they can do.
The Exploratory Play part of any experience is very important. Touching, examining and manipulating materials activates the brain and primes it for exploration and discovery.
Materials List: Vinegar, baking soda, food coloring, pots, clear cylinders, pitchers and droppers.
The aftermath...
A successful science exploration!
Miss Brown came into our classroom to talk about how the children can tell us they are having one of the 5 feelings in the chart and then how they can choose what way they can work through it. Together we practiced each of the options on the pocket chart and discussed how they can help us "feel" the feeling and then work through it if we need to.
We have our "Feelings Check-In" card displayed in a few key places in our classroom and the children have been using it when they need it. They've even pointed it out to people who visit our classroom and explained how they can use it if they need it!
