This week we continued thinking about numbers and numerals one through five, and how to group items together. The class grows as a community while we investigate our unit "Myself, My Identity, and Relationships." This week we talked about families and made more connections within the CAC Community. We discussed "peace" as we prepare for our upcoming Peace Day Holiday.
We continued our exploration of numbers and numerals this week. A favorite activity was counting the members of our families, using family photos and our re-usable whiteboard sleeves. The children circled family members, counted them, and then made marks to represent how many people are in their families. PreK students are not expected to write numerals at this point in the year, although they may recognize the numerals up to four and five. They are able to represent numbers up to four and five with lines, dots, pictograms, or marks.
The Triangle Group visited the art classroom this week and completed their full-size self portraits in continuation of our studies of our identity. Please be sure to check out the display outside our classroom to see your child's self-portrait!
Here are some more photos from our week together:
We met and named our "Class of 2031" tortoise! Meet Rosey!
Exploring light and shadow within the context of building.
Observational drawings of sunflowers at the art center.
Making a healthy pretend meal in the dramatic play area.
A menu at the pretend restaurant.
Matching bears and cubes by color during choice time.
Look who's 4!
Next Week:
Next week we look forward to learning more about our community. We will follow up on the students' interest in restaurants and food by opening a "PreK Restaurant" and offering some real food items to the CAC Community (teachers and staff) as part of our small group study work. Another small group will create a riddle game to bring to CAC Community members to see if we can trick anyone. The students will continue explorations of counting as they learn strategies for counting objects in various formations (circular, array, and scattered configurations objects in addition to linear). We will share this work with you in next week's blog!
After-Care:
This past week the students were exploring the color green. They went on a walk to collect green leaves from the playground and made prints with them. The students even tasted cucumbers and green peppers! Next week they will think about the color purple. They are looking forward to a tissue paper craft, tasting pomegranate and cooked beetroot, and of course making some play dough!
Reminders:
Please be sure to pack your child's library books and bag each Sunday. Thank you!
If there are any changes in your child's drop off or pick-up routine, be sure to email Ms. Trillian at tclifford@cacegypt.org in advance. If there are changes during the school day, please call the office as we cannot guarantee we will see an email during teaching hours (we are with the children, not at our computers, between 7:45-3:05). The office will call our classroom directly.
Upcoming Events:
Next week we have our Peace Day Assembly on Tuesday, September 19th in celebration of World Peace Day. PreK will attend (we will attend all assemblies and House Events from now on). Please dress your children in white if possible; we encourage everyone to wear white in recognition of World Peace Day.
On Thursday, September 21st we have no school in recognition of Islamic New Year.
Monday, September 25th is our first early release day. We will dismiss students at 11:30. PreK students will eat lunch on half-days, as our lunch time is always at 11:00 in the classroom. Thank you in advance for arranging pick-up plans for your child on this day.
Circle Solutions:
You may have heard about Circle Solutions at CAC. Circle Solutions is a framework that supports our interactions with children at all grade levels, and promotes student wellbeing, emotional resilience, community building, and more! A big part of Circle Solutions is doing a Circle in the classroom, when we come together to play games and interact with each other at the carpet. In PreK, we have begun our Circles with a greeting (for example, each child will give a high five to the child next to him or her), then playing a short game called a mix-up (children move around and have fun!), and a closing activity (children take calming breaths or stretch). Eventually, we will also incorporate small-group and whole-group games, partner activities, and more!
This week our focus was community. Here is a video of the children doing a mix-up game called "the warm wind blows" this week. This game allows the children to learn more about themselves and what they have in common with each other, while thinking creatively, taking turns, and listening to each other carefully. One child will say "the warm wind blows for anyone who...... (has a pet dog), (smiled today), (is wearing socks), etc." Anyone who the statement is true about, will get up and find a new seat. Then we play again!
Parents' Corner:
The Positive Piscipline approach: Kind, but Firm. Have you ever felt like you have to give strict orders just to get your child to listen to you? On the opposite side, do you feel overwhelmed because your child has few or no limits on his or her behavior? Healthy limits are important in a child's life for him or her to feel safe.
Many people who are drawn to Positive Discipline err on the side of kindness. They are against punishment, but don’t realize that firmness is necessary to avoid permissiveness. Permissiveness is not healthy for children because they are likely to decide, “Love means getting others to take care of me and give me everything I want."
Have faith in your children that they can learn and grow from suffering—especially in a supportive environment. Understand that kind is not always nice, short term. True kindness and firmness together provide an environment where children can develop the “wings” they need to soar through life.
No comments:
Post a Comment