Boy, are we busy!

Our students are like busy bees, gathering knowledge as the bees gather honey. It is so exciting to watch and hear them making connections between the various stories, activities and their world. They are keeping their teachers on their toes as they explore, they keep making new discoveries and coming up with new questions. In recent weeks, Alpha had a visit from Mr. Dan from the Animal House pet store. Among the things he taught them were that snakes are cold-blooded while the guinea pig, rabbit and ferret are all warm-blooded.

The Junior Kindergartners had a visit from Sharon Hauser from the SPCA. She brought Rusty, the dog she rescued 9 years ago and used a flannel board story to teach the children about adopting and caring for pets. Ms. Hauser was thrilled by the supplies the children had collected as well as by the dog biscuits that each class baked for the animals at the SPCA.

Last week the Junior Kindergartners learned about hydroponic gardening at the First Fruits Hydroponic Gardens in St. Petersburg. The children got participate in the process of building the towers and planting strawberry plants in them. They also walked through the gardens and saw tomotoes growing as well as zucchini, lettuce, and kale that were almost ready to harvest.

Back at school, the children enjoyed acting out the process using piping, styrofoam pieces and artificial plants.

Other recent activities involved seasonal products such as apples and pumpkins as well as lots of fun with spiders, bats, and cats.

Here Mrs. McIvor and the children act out the words to a favorite Halloween song.

The produce area features farm style dress-up clothes as well as other props for the children to use in their socio-dramatic play.

Apples are fun to use for printing. Did you know that cutting an apple cross-wise reveals a hidden star?

Transferring activities help strengthen small motor control and can also teach sorting and one-to-correspondence.

During exploring on Friday, the Alpha students enjoyed holiday cookies and "ghost" milk made from milk and orange sherbet using a blender.

In JK, there was a wide variety of October themed activities including making ghosts from tissues and drawing and dictating Halloween stories.

Remember the good old days when families sat around played board games together? Children still love playing that kind of game and they learn so many skills from them including taking turns and sportsmanship. They also can teach and reinforce numeral and letter recognition, counting, one-to-one correspondence, letter sounds and more.

Here are a few more pictures of recent fun and learning to enjoy:

Ms. Bowen's class planted mystery seeds in a special plant food and are documenting  their growth as they eagerly wait to find out what kind of seeds they are.

There are so many things you can do with silk flowers: sort them, count them , "plant" them,  arrange them and sell them in the flower shop.

After their leaf walk, Mrs. Jotch's class used the leaves to create collages and drawings.

The special potting mixture was fun to feel as the children filled the plater.

During clean up time, the children spontaneously bust into a chant of "teamwork, teamwork, teamwork!"

Sharing time is extra special when two friends share together.

There are lots of pictures you can make by stamping your fingerprints and adding details with markers.

Sometimes the children enjoy seeing photos of themselves engaging in activities as much as they enjoy the activity itself!

A yarn spider web provided lots of fun and  an exercise in agility and coordination.

The teachers showed the children how to move over the "web" from one place to another by lifting their feet high, but the children discovered that crawling under the web was just as much fun!

This week promises to be just as busy and exciting, watch for more documentation of our adventures in learning next week!

JK Pet Show Video

For anyone who wasn't able to attend last Friday's Junior Kindergarten Pet Show, one of our favorite annual events, here is a link to a full length video of the show! Every child in JK brought a pet, live or stuffed,l paraded it across the platform and received a special award with a superlative chosen specifically for each one. Watch the fun!


http://vimeo.com/30331460

Moving from September to October

As our first full month ended and we entered October, we observed with delight the great strides the children have made in such a short time! Friendships have blossomed and the children display comfort with routines hat are now familiar. We've gotten great feedback  from parents regarding the  expanded vocabulary and language usage they hear and the increased independence they see. The highest validation , however, is watching and listening to the children apply knowledge they've gained. This, not the recitation of facts learned by rote, reflects true learning.

Here are some pictures reflecting what the children have been doing in recent days:

The children take such pride in their efforts, as they well should!

Dictating stories to go with their pictures helps children understand the relationship between the written and spoken word

Playing the Feelie game in partners develops our sense of touch and abilities to work cooperatively

These classmates are clearly tickled by their cooperative play

This counting/numeral recognition activity was facilitated by a parent speaking in Spanish

Exploring red and white paint produced paper perfect to be turned into a pink pig!

This is the smile we see on our students' faces as they go through their day at Shorecrest!

Handwashing takes place frequently durig the day to help keep the students healthy

The children are always hungry and eager to have snack in the morning.

Learning math includes numeral recognition, counting with one-to-one correspondence and matching numerals to sets

Books are a favorite! The children "read' the story form the pictures and some love to emulate how the teachers read to them

Interactions between the Early Childhood and Middle Division students is incredible to watch and of lasting value to all involved

We are all friends!

Busy and Happy Children

Field trips, gardening, games, parent gatherings and more have been happening throughout the Early Childhood Center! Each class took its first field trip to the park where the children enjoyed the chance to play on a different playground and a simple snack. The highlight of the trip, particularly for the Alpha and new JK students, was riding on our special Early Childhood Shorecrest school bus that is outfitted with 5-point harness car seats. Our driver’s ears were ringing with many renditions and verses of “The Wheels on the Bus!”

Back at school, Alpha began a study of the farm. They are learning about the crops and animals found on farms as well as the chores involved in taking care of them. After planting vegetable seeds in the garden box outside and in cups in the classroom, the children made graphs showing their predictions about which would sprout first. In Junior Kindergarten, the students continued their study of their senses and used their herbs to look at, touch, taste,and smell. They planted their vegetable garden in the playground and also started a unit on pets that will culminate with the Junior Kindergarten Pet Show on October 7.

Out on the playground, the Alpha students have been having fun with some of their fourth grade friends. The fourth graders, many of whom are our morning safety patrols, have been using their own recess time to engage with the younger children. They're being a great help as they push the children on the swings and engage them in games and pretend play.

As I visited the classrooms last week, I saw games being played in several classrooms. 

Games reinforce skills such as listening, symbolic recognition and counting, while also teaching patience, turn taking, and sportsmanship.   

Working on puzzles cooperatively also enhances these skills while also teaching collaboration and visual discrimination.

This game involved listening to and identifying sounds and matching the sounds to pictures.

The avove picture and the ones below show you some of fun the Junior Kindergartners have been having during their Friday Exploring.

We used a variety of tools to explore their imprints in paint. It was also an experiment in color as the paints overlapped and mixed with each other.

The children never tire of shaving cream They delight in its feel and exercise their fingers as they expore what they can do with it.

Making  puppets and using them in the special theater was a new experience that integrated creativity with exploration of shadows.

The translucent blocks allowed the students to build creatively while experimenting with light and color.

They painted boxes one week

and used them as blocks the next.

Tubes, chutes, balls and cars were used to create ramps and experiment with incline and speed.

A large number of Alpha and Junior Kindergarten parents joined me for this year’s first EC Parent Chat.  It was a lively discussion as the parents shared their concerns and suggestions on dealing with a myriad of issues including morning tears, ensuring that every child in the family has individual time with parents, when and how many organized activities outside of school are appropriate for preschoolers and how to get your children to talk about their days at school. Two topics suggested for the next chat were dealing with challenging stages and choosing relevant consequences. We will meet again on Wednesday, November 2 at 8:15 am in the Student Activity Center.