2022/2023: Week 8

Happy Letter H Week!

This week's Letter H Play Invitations included

• Hammering

• A Hair Salon

• Horses

• Heroes

• Using our hands as tools to bead and finger paint

• Constructing homes

• How High Can You Count (sensory bin counting)

Play is a vital part of our approach to learning. When children play, they are doing so much more than just having a good time. During play children develop communication and literacy skills. They learn to solve problems, think creatively, and reason critically. Play is a way to build fine motor skills, memory, cognition, and language. Play provides opportunities for developing relationships and discovering how to live as a kind, creative, and curious part of a community. And, yes, play involves laughter, joy, dreaming, and exploration which are all lots and LOTS of fun.

This week's fine arts invitations included:

• Watercolor horses

• Mixed media bird houses

• Moving with our heads, hands, and hips

• Handjive

• Playing Handbells

We love science and learning about our world! One part of our world that has been a BIG topic of conversation the last couple weeks has been GERMS. So many of our friends have been out sick and oh, how we miss them. We've been talking a lot about why and how we get sick so on Monday we asked the question: How do germs spread? We used some water, dish soap, and a PreK favorite...GLITTER....to demonstrate how viruses and bacteria travel from person to person. We reviewed how to best catch our coughs and sneezes and the most effective ways to wash our hands.

We continued our learning about temperature and how it changes things by thinking about the way heat changes corn. We talked about and then observed how heat caused kernels of corn to get hot and then expand with a POP!

We also spent time this week learning about homes and habitats. We talked about holes, hollows, and hives.

One of the most exciting parts of this week was our Circle Time. At this point in our school year, we are seeing the students really settle in to our group conversations about the weather, the calendar, and what we're reading. We had some truly terrific group gatherings this week. These little learners were engaged and listening and doing such a great job bouncing back and forth in conversation. Such a grown up skill!

We are also building words! We are thrilled to see these budding readers blending sounds with confidence!

Cirle Time is also where we have large group conversation about our concepts for the week. This week we talked about being a hero. We asked: What is a hero? What do heroes do? What do they look like? How do they treat others. We decided that heroes can be big and strong, but can also be small (like in our book about a superhero dog). We talked about how boys and girls can be heroic and that most of being a hero is about helping others. We even had a visit from a superhero!

A big thank you to ArtWorks volunteer, John Conner, for dressing up and bringing our conversation about heroes to life!