Happy Holidays!
I hope you are all enjoying your time home with your families. Thank you for your understanding as we close the school for a full week. I know all of the teachers were looking forward to a well-deserved vacation, I hope you all are too! Make sure to get out and enjoy the snow!
I also want to thank all of you for your generosity and thoughtfulness this holiday season. It turns out we have some exceptional bakers among us. From all of the teachers to you, we greatly appreciate it!
Thank you also to everyone that came to the Solstice Stroll. It was our 4th Stroll and it was the biggest by far!
Classroom updates:
Infant I
This week we spent lots of time outside! We've all been getting more comfortable walking, crawling, and sliding on the snow and ice. It's a cold slippery surface and our boots and snowsuits feel pretty different on our bodies, so there are lots of things to consider! We also welcomed a new child to our classroom and have enjoyed getting to know her and her family. One of our children moved up into the older infant classroom and we miss her already, but take comfort in her being right next door. Finally, we finished up our lanterns with a bit more painting and hope everyone enjoyed the Solstice Stroll!
Infant II
This week we worked on the children dipping their art utensil into the paint themselves and stamping it onto the paper. We had the paint on the tray and would say "dip" and "stamp". It took two paintings before they understood the concept. After a while, the children were saying dip and stamp. We also worked on social-emotional skills this week. Unfortunately, but completely developmentally appropriate, boundaries have been a struggle this week. We have been working on giving the children the tools to solve their problems with one another. Saying the words "stop" and waiting for a turn are all skills we are working on learning. We also are focusing on managing emotions. While we recognize that situations can be frustrating we still need to be gentle with one another.
Toddler I
We had a very enjoyable week. We explored more with fingerpainting which was a huge success! Some children chose to dive right in while some were a bit more hesitant and intentional about touching and exploring the paint. We also made playdough this week. The children enjoyed mixing the dry ingredients and worked hard to mix everything together while we added the wet ingredients. It gave us a chance to focus on using our hand muscles, it was a relaxed and focused activity. We continue toilet training as well. The children are very excited about the new routine of using the toilet at every diaper change and have been very proud of themselves. The independence has been very empowering for the children.
Preschool I
We have had a great variety of activities both inside and out this week. Inside we have been painting, working with playdough, and experimenting with rolling and sliding hockey pucks on the carpet - we have been discouraging throwing them. Outside we built snowmen and painted the snow with the older children. Friday we had a special adventure where half of our class joined the two older classrooms to walk to the sledding hill for a sledding party! It was so fun!
Preschool II
This week was busy. We finished making a few more lanterns. We worked very hard on practicing "This Little Light" along with many other holiday songs. Everyone was very excited about our Solstice Stroll. We also shared a lot about our excitement for Santa. Christmas has been a big topic over the past couple of weeks. The children have also been noticing decorations on people's homes and have really enjoyed marveling over them. We are continuing our letter recognition and sounding out the first letter of certain words. Making connections between words and letters has been something all of the children are very interested in learning more about. We will continue to explore sounds and letters.
PreK
This week we talked about the letter C. We made stamp pictures of words that begin with C and collected items from all over our classroom for a C basket. We found, and then returned, carrots, crayons, a cow, a cat, and a picture of Cameron!! We had a lot of fun outside exploring different sledding hills. We also began learning the first 3 letters of the alphabet in sign language.
As seen at MVS:
I hope you are all enjoying your time home with your families. Thank you for your understanding as we close the school for a full week. I know all of the teachers were looking forward to a well-deserved vacation, I hope you all are too! Make sure to get out and enjoy the snow!
I also want to thank all of you for your generosity and thoughtfulness this holiday season. It turns out we have some exceptional bakers among us. From all of the teachers to you, we greatly appreciate it!
Thank you also to everyone that came to the Solstice Stroll. It was our 4th Stroll and it was the biggest by far!
Classroom updates:
Infant I
This week we spent lots of time outside! We've all been getting more comfortable walking, crawling, and sliding on the snow and ice. It's a cold slippery surface and our boots and snowsuits feel pretty different on our bodies, so there are lots of things to consider! We also welcomed a new child to our classroom and have enjoyed getting to know her and her family. One of our children moved up into the older infant classroom and we miss her already, but take comfort in her being right next door. Finally, we finished up our lanterns with a bit more painting and hope everyone enjoyed the Solstice Stroll!
Infant II
This week we worked on the children dipping their art utensil into the paint themselves and stamping it onto the paper. We had the paint on the tray and would say "dip" and "stamp". It took two paintings before they understood the concept. After a while, the children were saying dip and stamp. We also worked on social-emotional skills this week. Unfortunately, but completely developmentally appropriate, boundaries have been a struggle this week. We have been working on giving the children the tools to solve their problems with one another. Saying the words "stop" and waiting for a turn are all skills we are working on learning. We also are focusing on managing emotions. While we recognize that situations can be frustrating we still need to be gentle with one another.
Toddler I
We had a very enjoyable week. We explored more with fingerpainting which was a huge success! Some children chose to dive right in while some were a bit more hesitant and intentional about touching and exploring the paint. We also made playdough this week. The children enjoyed mixing the dry ingredients and worked hard to mix everything together while we added the wet ingredients. It gave us a chance to focus on using our hand muscles, it was a relaxed and focused activity. We continue toilet training as well. The children are very excited about the new routine of using the toilet at every diaper change and have been very proud of themselves. The independence has been very empowering for the children.
Preschool I
We have had a great variety of activities both inside and out this week. Inside we have been painting, working with playdough, and experimenting with rolling and sliding hockey pucks on the carpet - we have been discouraging throwing them. Outside we built snowmen and painted the snow with the older children. Friday we had a special adventure where half of our class joined the two older classrooms to walk to the sledding hill for a sledding party! It was so fun!
Preschool II
This week was busy. We finished making a few more lanterns. We worked very hard on practicing "This Little Light" along with many other holiday songs. Everyone was very excited about our Solstice Stroll. We also shared a lot about our excitement for Santa. Christmas has been a big topic over the past couple of weeks. The children have also been noticing decorations on people's homes and have really enjoyed marveling over them. We are continuing our letter recognition and sounding out the first letter of certain words. Making connections between words and letters has been something all of the children are very interested in learning more about. We will continue to explore sounds and letters.
PreK
This week we talked about the letter C. We made stamp pictures of words that begin with C and collected items from all over our classroom for a C basket. We found, and then returned, carrots, crayons, a cow, a cat, and a picture of Cameron!! We had a lot of fun outside exploring different sledding hills. We also began learning the first 3 letters of the alphabet in sign language.
As seen at MVS:
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