Dear Families,
We have had so much fun exploring dinosaurs this week in the Owl Room! This unit was sparked by the children’s enthusiasm for the dinosaur books and materials in the classroom that were used in the Science Giants enrichment class on Mondays this past session. This is an excellent example of our use of emergent curriculum practices at the Trust Center! We try to incorporate the children’s existing interests and background knowledge into the curriculum whenever possible. This helps us to create a rich curriculum that is fun for the children. In addition, because young children are concrete learners, they learn best when engaging with concepts that are relevant to them. Creating units around the children’s interests ensures that the curriculum is relevant.
One concept that we focused on this week was that dinosaurs lived a very, very long time ago and are now extinct. We also focused on learning how very big the dinosaurs were!
Books have been integral to our teaching about dinosaurs. Morah Larissa participates in the Teacher Partner Program at the Museum of Science in Boston, which allows us to borrow books and other resources from their collection. This week we read Dinosaur Bones, by Bob Barner, T is For Terrible, by Peter McCarty, and The Dinosaur, by Anna Milbourne from this collection. Those of you who are not participating in Vacation Camp this week and looking for some fun family activities might enjoy a visit to the dinosaur exhibit at the Museum of Science, as we will continue with this unit the week following vacation.
The children enjoyed drawing their favorite dinosaurs to hang up on our bulletin board this week. We also studied the different body parts of different kinds of dinosaurs. We made some comparisons to our own bodies. We discovered some similarities and differences. For example, dinosaurs had nostrils and toes just like humans! But we certainly don’t have tails! Then we did the “Dino Pokey” (to the tune of the “Hokey Pokey”), and pretended to be dinosaurs sticking our teeth, long necks, and even tails into the circle. We also learned a fun new movement poem, and practiced moving around like different kinds of dinosaurs.
At the art table this week, we have started to build a large dinosaur nest, using recycled materials such as toilet paper tubes and newspaper. When we are done building the nest, we will paint it brown. Once it is dry, we will add it to our Dramatic Play set up so that the children can pretend to be baby dinosaurs hatching from eggs. We have read a couple of books about baby dinosaurs, and they have particularly captured the children’s imagination. Working on a large collaborative art project encourages the children to build group problem-solving skills and to learn to use language to work together. Creating a large three-dimensional project builds children’s spatial awareness.
On Thursday, we had a chance to investigate how long dinosaurs really were! Morah Larissa cut lengths of yarn to the sizes of Compsognathus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Brachiosaurus. First, we made some predictions about which dinosaurs might be able to fit in our classroom and school. We discovered the Triceratops could barely fit in our classroom! If there was a Triceratops sitting at Circle Time, its head would be out the doorway! Then, we went outside and took advantage of the nice weather to complete our investigation. The children sat on the sidewalk with Morah Kate, and took turns holding one end of a piece of yarn while Morah Larissa walked across the parking lot with the other end of each piece of yarn. When Shayna held one end of the yarn that was as long a Brachiasaurus, the children could barely see Morah Larissa all the way on the other side of the parking lot!
A new favorite song this week has been the “Dinosaur on Shabbat” song. The children have had a great time singing about the idea of a dinosaur showing up to celebrate Shabbat! We have also had a lot of fun walking around the synagogue. This is a great way to get a little exercise, as well as to gain comfort and familiarity with the various parts of our temple.
We have also had a lot of fun this week exploring measuring, using both formal and informal methods. Besides measuring how long real dinosaurs were, we also tried some measuring with toy dinosaurs. The children investigated some informal ways to measure the toy dinosaurs – they tried using their hands and even their shoes! Then we used a ruler to see how many inches each dinosaur was. Using measuring cups in the water table has been a fun way to experiment with measuring volume. We also used the measuring cups in our trays with cornmeal this week. Julia was worried that her friends had more cornmeal than her. Morah Larissa suggested that we might be able to use measuring to solve the problem. So we tried filling up one-cup sized measuring cups at each tray and discovered that, indeed, Julia needed more cornmeal. Finally, we have been using a scale to experiment with measuring and comparing the weight of various toys.
A favorite new song this week has been, “Where Do You Start Your Letters?” This catchy song is part of the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum, and reinforces the idea of remembering to start writing one’s letters at the top of the page. With the children singing the song as often as they are (often on their own!), we are confident they will begin to remember to slow down and carefully write their letters starting at the top.
Shabbat Shalom,
Morah Larissa and Morah Kate
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Aleph Bet and Math Skills
Dear Families,
Thank you all so much for helping your children to select vegetables beginning with the alphabet letters that they took home. They are all so excited to make another batch of alphabet soup. The process of choosing an ingredient has been the subject of many a lunch conversation this week!
Our alphabet project (the creation of an alphabet chart on our wall) has been met with great enthusiasm this week. The children love figuring out how to arrange their bodies to make each letter of the alphabet, and they have started to think ahead and make plans for upcoming letters. This is a great way for them to start to move beyond recognition of letters and to comprehend the various types of lines that letters are composed of. The children are equally enthusiastic about decorating card-board alphabet letters to hang on our wall. They think hard each day about things that they might decorate the next day’s letter with! We are able to honor many of their ideas, which has been a wonderful way for the children to see that their plans are carried through in the classroom. Furthermore, this has deepened the children’s awareness of sound-symbol relationships.
Building on the children’s excitement about our new environmental print, we added labels to many of the toys and centers in the classroom. The labels contain both photos of the toys as well as written text. Hanging the labels in the classroom was a fun matching activity for the children. First they had to match two photo and word cards to each other, and then they had to find the related toy so that we could label it! Written labels support the children in connecting written text to meaning and also help children to organize themselves. Furthermore, an organized environment supports children in their ability to focus on their learning.
Related to our study of the English alphabet, we have done much talking about the Alef-Bet (the Hebrew alphabet). The children were particularly curious to try out an Alef-Bet puzzle this week and were curious to try to make connections between English and Hebrew letters.
Another new thing in our classroom is our science center! This is a spot for the children to experiment with science materials, such as magnets, magnifying glasses, found objects for nature, etc. in a way that is hands on. It is wonderful to nurture the children’s curiosity about the world while teaching them tools (such as observation, making predictions) to learn about the world around them.
A math skill that we have focused on this week is the concept of estimation. The children have practiced saying this new long word, and have learned that to make an estimation means to make a “thinking guess.” We have enjoyed playing with our “estimation jar.” The children look at a set of objects in the jar, and make estimates about how many might be inside. They have even begun to record their own estimates. The children have learned three steps to estimation: first they make their “thinking guess,” then they record their responses, and finally, we check our guesses. This has been a great opportunity to practice writing numerical digits. We have learned that counting is a great strategy to check our work. Learning to stop and check over work that they have done is important to developing children’s critical thinking skills, and will support them in all areas of learning throughout their years of schooling. When we estimate, we check our work by counting the objects in the estimation jar. As always, when we count at school, we remind the children to line up the objects and to then use their “magic pointer fingers” to touch and track each object as they count.
We have also begun support the children in building directionality and learning right and left in school this week by teaching them to recognize their right hands. We’ve used a multi-sensory approach to support the children in their diverse learning styles. We’ve given the children stamps, a drop of warm water, stickers, and a dot drawn with washable marker on their right hands. By over-teaching children to recognize their right hands, we automatically support the children in learning to recognize the left, as that is the only other alternative! We’ve been enjoying practicing discriminating right from left by dancing to the hokey pokey. While not all children are right-handed, teaching the right hand supports them in learning some of the special things that we do with this hand.
One of the things that the children have learned that we do with our right hands is to shake hands! We’ve started singing and dancing to a new hello song in which the children greet each other and teachers by shaking hands. They learn to look their partner in the eye, shake right hands, and say hello. While we live in a world that is increasingly casual in terms of social interactions, building eye contact and learning to politely greet someone remain essential social skills. This may be a fun skill to reinforce at home!
Shabbat Shalom,
Morah Larissa and Morah Kate
Thank you all so much for helping your children to select vegetables beginning with the alphabet letters that they took home. They are all so excited to make another batch of alphabet soup. The process of choosing an ingredient has been the subject of many a lunch conversation this week!
Our alphabet project (the creation of an alphabet chart on our wall) has been met with great enthusiasm this week. The children love figuring out how to arrange their bodies to make each letter of the alphabet, and they have started to think ahead and make plans for upcoming letters. This is a great way for them to start to move beyond recognition of letters and to comprehend the various types of lines that letters are composed of. The children are equally enthusiastic about decorating card-board alphabet letters to hang on our wall. They think hard each day about things that they might decorate the next day’s letter with! We are able to honor many of their ideas, which has been a wonderful way for the children to see that their plans are carried through in the classroom. Furthermore, this has deepened the children’s awareness of sound-symbol relationships.
Building on the children’s excitement about our new environmental print, we added labels to many of the toys and centers in the classroom. The labels contain both photos of the toys as well as written text. Hanging the labels in the classroom was a fun matching activity for the children. First they had to match two photo and word cards to each other, and then they had to find the related toy so that we could label it! Written labels support the children in connecting written text to meaning and also help children to organize themselves. Furthermore, an organized environment supports children in their ability to focus on their learning.
Related to our study of the English alphabet, we have done much talking about the Alef-Bet (the Hebrew alphabet). The children were particularly curious to try out an Alef-Bet puzzle this week and were curious to try to make connections between English and Hebrew letters.
Another new thing in our classroom is our science center! This is a spot for the children to experiment with science materials, such as magnets, magnifying glasses, found objects for nature, etc. in a way that is hands on. It is wonderful to nurture the children’s curiosity about the world while teaching them tools (such as observation, making predictions) to learn about the world around them.
A math skill that we have focused on this week is the concept of estimation. The children have practiced saying this new long word, and have learned that to make an estimation means to make a “thinking guess.” We have enjoyed playing with our “estimation jar.” The children look at a set of objects in the jar, and make estimates about how many might be inside. They have even begun to record their own estimates. The children have learned three steps to estimation: first they make their “thinking guess,” then they record their responses, and finally, we check our guesses. This has been a great opportunity to practice writing numerical digits. We have learned that counting is a great strategy to check our work. Learning to stop and check over work that they have done is important to developing children’s critical thinking skills, and will support them in all areas of learning throughout their years of schooling. When we estimate, we check our work by counting the objects in the estimation jar. As always, when we count at school, we remind the children to line up the objects and to then use their “magic pointer fingers” to touch and track each object as they count.
We have also begun support the children in building directionality and learning right and left in school this week by teaching them to recognize their right hands. We’ve used a multi-sensory approach to support the children in their diverse learning styles. We’ve given the children stamps, a drop of warm water, stickers, and a dot drawn with washable marker on their right hands. By over-teaching children to recognize their right hands, we automatically support the children in learning to recognize the left, as that is the only other alternative! We’ve been enjoying practicing discriminating right from left by dancing to the hokey pokey. While not all children are right-handed, teaching the right hand supports them in learning some of the special things that we do with this hand.
One of the things that the children have learned that we do with our right hands is to shake hands! We’ve started singing and dancing to a new hello song in which the children greet each other and teachers by shaking hands. They learn to look their partner in the eye, shake right hands, and say hello. While we live in a world that is increasingly casual in terms of social interactions, building eye contact and learning to politely greet someone remain essential social skills. This may be a fun skill to reinforce at home!
Shabbat Shalom,
Morah Larissa and Morah Kate
Friday, February 11, 2011
Alphabet Project
Dear Families,
Thank you all so much for helping your children to select vegetables beginning with the alphabet letters that they took home. They are all so excited to make another batch of alphabet soup. The process of choosing an ingredient has been the subject of many a lunch conversation this week!
Our alphabet project (the creation of an alphabet chart on our wall) has been met with great enthusiasm this week. The children love figuring out how to arrange their bodies to make each letter of the alphabet, and they have started to think ahead and make plans for upcoming letters. This is a great way for them to start to move beyond recognition of letters and to comprehend the various types of lines that letters are composed of. The children are equally enthusiastic about decorating card-board alphabet letters to hang on our wall. They think hard each day about things that they might decorate the next day’s letter with! We are able to honor many of their ideas, which has been a wonderful way for the children to see that their plans are carried through in the classroom. Furthermore, this has deepened the children’s awareness of sound-symbol relationships.
Building on the children’s excitement about our new environmental print, we added labels to many of the toys and centers in the classroom. The labels contain both photos of the toys as well as written text. Hanging the labels in the classroom was a fun matching activity for the children. First they had to match two photo and word cards to each other, and then they had to find the related toy so that we could label it! Written labels support the children in connecting written text to meaning and also help children to organize themselves. Furthermore, an organized environment supports children in their ability to focus on their learning.
Related to our study of the English alphabet, we have done much talking about the Alef-Bet (the Hebrew alphabet). The children were particularly curious to try out an Alef-Bet puzzle this week and were curious to try to make connections between English and Hebrew letters.
Another new thing in our classroom is our science center! This is a spot for the children to experiment with science materials, such as magnets, magnifying glasses, found objects for nature, etc. in a way that is hands on. It is wonderful to nurture the children’s curiosity about the world while teaching them tools (such as observation, making predictions) to learn about the world around them.
A math skill that we have focused on this week is the concept of estimation. The children have practiced saying this new long word, and have learned that to make an estimation means to make a “thinking guess.” We have enjoyed playing with our “estimation jar.” The children look at a set of objects in the jar, and make estimates about how many might be inside. They have even begun to record their own estimates. The children have learned three steps to estimation: first they make their “thinking guess,” then they record their responses, and finally, we check our guesses. This has been a great opportunity to practice writing numerical digits. We have learned that counting is a great strategy to check our work. Learning to stop and check over work that they have done is important to developing children’s critical thinking skills, and will support them in all areas of learning throughout their years of schooling. When we estimate, we check our work by counting the objects in the estimation jar. As always, when we count at school, we remind the children to line up the objects and to then use their “magic pointer fingers” to touch and track each object as they count.
We have also begun support the children in building directionality and learning right and left in school this week by teaching them to recognize their right hands. We’ve used a multi-sensory approach to support the children in their diverse learning styles. We’ve given the children stamps, a drop of warm water, stickers, and a dot drawn with washable marker on their right hands. By over-teaching children to recognize their right hands, we automatically support the children in learning to recognize the left, as that is the only other alternative! We’ve been enjoying practicing discriminating right from left by dancing to the hokey pokey. While not all children are right-handed, teaching the right hand supports them in learning some of the special things that we do with this hand.
One of the things that the children have learned that we do with our right hands is to shake hands! We’ve started singing and dancing to a new hello song in which the children greet each other and teachers by shaking hands. They learn to look their partner in the eye, shake right hands, and say hello. While we live in a world that is increasingly casual in terms of social interactions, building eye contact and learning to politely greet someone remain essential social skills. This may be a fun skill to reinforce at home!
Shabbat Shalom,
Morah Larissa and Morah Kate
Thank you all so much for helping your children to select vegetables beginning with the alphabet letters that they took home. They are all so excited to make another batch of alphabet soup. The process of choosing an ingredient has been the subject of many a lunch conversation this week!
Our alphabet project (the creation of an alphabet chart on our wall) has been met with great enthusiasm this week. The children love figuring out how to arrange their bodies to make each letter of the alphabet, and they have started to think ahead and make plans for upcoming letters. This is a great way for them to start to move beyond recognition of letters and to comprehend the various types of lines that letters are composed of. The children are equally enthusiastic about decorating card-board alphabet letters to hang on our wall. They think hard each day about things that they might decorate the next day’s letter with! We are able to honor many of their ideas, which has been a wonderful way for the children to see that their plans are carried through in the classroom. Furthermore, this has deepened the children’s awareness of sound-symbol relationships.
Building on the children’s excitement about our new environmental print, we added labels to many of the toys and centers in the classroom. The labels contain both photos of the toys as well as written text. Hanging the labels in the classroom was a fun matching activity for the children. First they had to match two photo and word cards to each other, and then they had to find the related toy so that we could label it! Written labels support the children in connecting written text to meaning and also help children to organize themselves. Furthermore, an organized environment supports children in their ability to focus on their learning.
Related to our study of the English alphabet, we have done much talking about the Alef-Bet (the Hebrew alphabet). The children were particularly curious to try out an Alef-Bet puzzle this week and were curious to try to make connections between English and Hebrew letters.
Another new thing in our classroom is our science center! This is a spot for the children to experiment with science materials, such as magnets, magnifying glasses, found objects for nature, etc. in a way that is hands on. It is wonderful to nurture the children’s curiosity about the world while teaching them tools (such as observation, making predictions) to learn about the world around them.
A math skill that we have focused on this week is the concept of estimation. The children have practiced saying this new long word, and have learned that to make an estimation means to make a “thinking guess.” We have enjoyed playing with our “estimation jar.” The children look at a set of objects in the jar, and make estimates about how many might be inside. They have even begun to record their own estimates. The children have learned three steps to estimation: first they make their “thinking guess,” then they record their responses, and finally, we check our guesses. This has been a great opportunity to practice writing numerical digits. We have learned that counting is a great strategy to check our work. Learning to stop and check over work that they have done is important to developing children’s critical thinking skills, and will support them in all areas of learning throughout their years of schooling. When we estimate, we check our work by counting the objects in the estimation jar. As always, when we count at school, we remind the children to line up the objects and to then use their “magic pointer fingers” to touch and track each object as they count.
We have also begun support the children in building directionality and learning right and left in school this week by teaching them to recognize their right hands. We’ve used a multi-sensory approach to support the children in their diverse learning styles. We’ve given the children stamps, a drop of warm water, stickers, and a dot drawn with washable marker on their right hands. By over-teaching children to recognize their right hands, we automatically support the children in learning to recognize the left, as that is the only other alternative! We’ve been enjoying practicing discriminating right from left by dancing to the hokey pokey. While not all children are right-handed, teaching the right hand supports them in learning some of the special things that we do with this hand.
One of the things that the children have learned that we do with our right hands is to shake hands! We’ve started singing and dancing to a new hello song in which the children greet each other and teachers by shaking hands. They learn to look their partner in the eye, shake right hands, and say hello. While we live in a world that is increasingly casual in terms of social interactions, building eye contact and learning to politely greet someone remain essential social skills. This may be a fun skill to reinforce at home!
Shabbat Shalom,
Morah Larissa and Morah Kate
Friday, February 4, 2011
Environmental Print
Dear Families,
In spite of the frequent snow days, we have been busy learning and growing in the Owl Room. It is delightful to watch the children all gaining new enthusiasm and confidence at the Writing Center. They have been copying new Word Cards (small pieces of paper with words written on them next to a corresponding picture), trying to write each other’s names, and asking teachers to help them spell out messages.
We have been continuing with our study of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom this week. The children made their own pictures of coconut trees, the type of tree depicted in this favorite children’s book. Instead of using paintbrushes to make the coconut trees, the children printed with their arms and hands. Some of them discovered that their arms are ticklish when Morah Larissa helped them to put the paint on their arms! Much giggling ensued. We even used alphabet stickers to put letters in the trees. Come and look at them during your next trip to the TCEE – they are displayed above the Owls’ cubbies.
We also read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom one last time. This time we acted the book out, using letter stickers and the tree that we made for our dramatic play area the previous two weeks. As Morah Larissa read the book, we put a sticker corresponding to each letter in the book on our tree. The tree is back in the dramatic play area, and the children are very proud of their work. This was a fun way for children to make a book come alive, which furthers their enthusiasm for becoming readers.
With our newfound enthusiasm for the alphabet, we have begun adding more environmental print (or written labels, charts, and signs) to the classroom. Environmental print helps children learn to associate words with the corresponding objects and meanings. It also helps children learn to organize their thinking, learning, and the space around them. Creating environmental print with children ensures that it is relevant to them, that they know its meaning, and that they know how to interact with and use it. Doing this work with the children makes them invested and enthusiastic about it. Finally, it is a way for the four- and five-year-olds to feel confident and independent about their environment.
One of our first new forms of environmental print is an alphabet chart running along the wall above our Library Area. We began this project by looking at photographs of real kindergarten classrooms with alphabet charts. The Owls were all excited to engage in this “big kid” work. We have been decorating each letter of the alphabet with something beginning with that letter. We did apple printing for A, stuck band-aids on B, and glued cotton balls to C. This is a fun way to nurture children towards associating each letter with its sound. The children have already started to think ahead to different ways that we can decorate the letters to come. We have also hung up word cards that correspond to each decoration. For example, underneath the A hangs a simple card that says apple with a picture of an apple. This allows the children to see how the word is written with (in this case) A as the initial letter. It is also an invitation to the children to copy the word when using magnetic letters, wipe-off boards, or pens and paper in the Writing Center. Each word card hanging on the wall is also replicated in the Writing Center in a small basket on the table.
We have been reading other alphabet books besides Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, including ABC T-Rex and The Letters are Lost by Lisa Campbell Ernst. This inspired us to use digital photography to create our own alphabet book. So far, we have taken photographs for the letters A, B, and C. First, we take out some Letter Builders. This toy enables the children to study the different parts of the letter. We figure out which kinds of lines we needed for each letter. Then…we use our bodies to make the letters! The children take turns laying down on the rug in small groups to form each letter. For example, to make the letter A, Shayna and Matthew laid down at an angle with their heads nearly touching, with Ashley laying across them.
This is a fun way for the children to learn to recognize and create each letter. Recent research on brain development has revealed that children are diverse in their learning styles. While some children learn easily through what they hear others say, other children learn through what they see. Some children learn well kinesthetically or experientially, and moving their bodies to create each letter is a great way to support those children in their learning.
After we take a picture of each letter, we come back into the classroom and look for toys that begin with that letter to photograph for our book. We will also display these photos underneath our new alphabet chart in the classroom.
On Friday this week, we will make some alphabet soup! We will add a few different vegetables to a slow-cooker with some vegetable broth. We will try to match each vegetable to the letter that it starts with. Finally, we will add some alphabet pasta to the soup before tasting it with lunch!
Next Friday (February 11th), we will make a second batch of alphabet soup with ingredients that the children will bring in. On Monday, the children will bring home a letter card with instructions to try to find a vegetable that begins with that letter to contribute to the soup. Please send in the vegetables on Thursday, February 10th so that we can begin to prepare the soup. We will send home more instructions about this on Monday, February 7th, but please see Morah Larissa or Morah Kate with any questions.
Finally, the Owls have written the last bit of news about their week themselves, by dictating to Morah Larissa. This was a great experience for them to reflect on their learning and to experience the writing process through dictation. We hope you will enjoy their reporting!
We’re building and we’re building towers and shows and we serve cotton candy. We read books sometimes. We write a waiting list sometimes. And we do the calendar. And we play. And we go outside. We play games. We build the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree. And Morah Larissa has a computer. And we brush our teeth here. And sometimes I go home and sometimes I stay. – Noah.
“Books. Wipeoff board. Crayons.” – Cristopher (written by pointing to picture cards)
“I like to play with the scissors. We’re doing art projects. We do music.” – Julia
“We’ve been learning about letters by painting them and putting band-aids on them and putting cotton balls on them. We’ve been painting a tree for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We’ve been not really playing outside. It is really fun when we do go outside.” - Ashley
“We were playing at the kitchen. And I’ve been playing at blocks. And I played at art. And I ate snack. And nothing else.” - Matthew
“I like having snack. And the graham crackers that have the white things are salty, which I love them. I like playing at blocks. Me and Ashley made a dare devil course. And we’re taking out a new toy at the Yellow Table. And Books is always open. And we’re learning about alphabet books and we made an alphabet tree. In the Middle Room there’s a new rug. At the Writing Center we got scissors and pencils and Shayna was using a pen. Before you have snack, you have to wash your hands. And there’s almost 100 blocks. We have another new toy, that’s the marble roll. And another one, the Lego Tiles.” - Nicholas
“I learned letters and I learned the alphabet. We made the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree.” -- Shayna
Shabbat Shalom,
Morah Larissa and Morah Kate
In spite of the frequent snow days, we have been busy learning and growing in the Owl Room. It is delightful to watch the children all gaining new enthusiasm and confidence at the Writing Center. They have been copying new Word Cards (small pieces of paper with words written on them next to a corresponding picture), trying to write each other’s names, and asking teachers to help them spell out messages.
We have been continuing with our study of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom this week. The children made their own pictures of coconut trees, the type of tree depicted in this favorite children’s book. Instead of using paintbrushes to make the coconut trees, the children printed with their arms and hands. Some of them discovered that their arms are ticklish when Morah Larissa helped them to put the paint on their arms! Much giggling ensued. We even used alphabet stickers to put letters in the trees. Come and look at them during your next trip to the TCEE – they are displayed above the Owls’ cubbies.
We also read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom one last time. This time we acted the book out, using letter stickers and the tree that we made for our dramatic play area the previous two weeks. As Morah Larissa read the book, we put a sticker corresponding to each letter in the book on our tree. The tree is back in the dramatic play area, and the children are very proud of their work. This was a fun way for children to make a book come alive, which furthers their enthusiasm for becoming readers.
With our newfound enthusiasm for the alphabet, we have begun adding more environmental print (or written labels, charts, and signs) to the classroom. Environmental print helps children learn to associate words with the corresponding objects and meanings. It also helps children learn to organize their thinking, learning, and the space around them. Creating environmental print with children ensures that it is relevant to them, that they know its meaning, and that they know how to interact with and use it. Doing this work with the children makes them invested and enthusiastic about it. Finally, it is a way for the four- and five-year-olds to feel confident and independent about their environment.
One of our first new forms of environmental print is an alphabet chart running along the wall above our Library Area. We began this project by looking at photographs of real kindergarten classrooms with alphabet charts. The Owls were all excited to engage in this “big kid” work. We have been decorating each letter of the alphabet with something beginning with that letter. We did apple printing for A, stuck band-aids on B, and glued cotton balls to C. This is a fun way to nurture children towards associating each letter with its sound. The children have already started to think ahead to different ways that we can decorate the letters to come. We have also hung up word cards that correspond to each decoration. For example, underneath the A hangs a simple card that says apple with a picture of an apple. This allows the children to see how the word is written with (in this case) A as the initial letter. It is also an invitation to the children to copy the word when using magnetic letters, wipe-off boards, or pens and paper in the Writing Center. Each word card hanging on the wall is also replicated in the Writing Center in a small basket on the table.
We have been reading other alphabet books besides Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, including ABC T-Rex and The Letters are Lost by Lisa Campbell Ernst. This inspired us to use digital photography to create our own alphabet book. So far, we have taken photographs for the letters A, B, and C. First, we take out some Letter Builders. This toy enables the children to study the different parts of the letter. We figure out which kinds of lines we needed for each letter. Then…we use our bodies to make the letters! The children take turns laying down on the rug in small groups to form each letter. For example, to make the letter A, Shayna and Matthew laid down at an angle with their heads nearly touching, with Ashley laying across them.
This is a fun way for the children to learn to recognize and create each letter. Recent research on brain development has revealed that children are diverse in their learning styles. While some children learn easily through what they hear others say, other children learn through what they see. Some children learn well kinesthetically or experientially, and moving their bodies to create each letter is a great way to support those children in their learning.
After we take a picture of each letter, we come back into the classroom and look for toys that begin with that letter to photograph for our book. We will also display these photos underneath our new alphabet chart in the classroom.
On Friday this week, we will make some alphabet soup! We will add a few different vegetables to a slow-cooker with some vegetable broth. We will try to match each vegetable to the letter that it starts with. Finally, we will add some alphabet pasta to the soup before tasting it with lunch!
Next Friday (February 11th), we will make a second batch of alphabet soup with ingredients that the children will bring in. On Monday, the children will bring home a letter card with instructions to try to find a vegetable that begins with that letter to contribute to the soup. Please send in the vegetables on Thursday, February 10th so that we can begin to prepare the soup. We will send home more instructions about this on Monday, February 7th, but please see Morah Larissa or Morah Kate with any questions.
Finally, the Owls have written the last bit of news about their week themselves, by dictating to Morah Larissa. This was a great experience for them to reflect on their learning and to experience the writing process through dictation. We hope you will enjoy their reporting!
We’re building and we’re building towers and shows and we serve cotton candy. We read books sometimes. We write a waiting list sometimes. And we do the calendar. And we play. And we go outside. We play games. We build the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree. And Morah Larissa has a computer. And we brush our teeth here. And sometimes I go home and sometimes I stay. – Noah.
“Books. Wipeoff board. Crayons.” – Cristopher (written by pointing to picture cards)
“I like to play with the scissors. We’re doing art projects. We do music.” – Julia
“We’ve been learning about letters by painting them and putting band-aids on them and putting cotton balls on them. We’ve been painting a tree for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We’ve been not really playing outside. It is really fun when we do go outside.” - Ashley
“We were playing at the kitchen. And I’ve been playing at blocks. And I played at art. And I ate snack. And nothing else.” - Matthew
“I like having snack. And the graham crackers that have the white things are salty, which I love them. I like playing at blocks. Me and Ashley made a dare devil course. And we’re taking out a new toy at the Yellow Table. And Books is always open. And we’re learning about alphabet books and we made an alphabet tree. In the Middle Room there’s a new rug. At the Writing Center we got scissors and pencils and Shayna was using a pen. Before you have snack, you have to wash your hands. And there’s almost 100 blocks. We have another new toy, that’s the marble roll. And another one, the Lego Tiles.” - Nicholas
“I learned letters and I learned the alphabet. We made the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree.” -- Shayna
Shabbat Shalom,
Morah Larissa and Morah Kate
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