Little Hands 2 - Books, Snacks, and Sand!
The Little Hands 2 class began as a small group of 4 children and has recently grown to a bustling group of 10. In December we welcomed Zoe and Dylan and now in January, Gabriel, Ava, Mary and Paz have joined the class. With our growing numbers we also welcome another teacher, Meg O’Connor to our group.
Back in October, our original group of students began their first school experience. It may only be for a short time each week, but the children became accustomed to saying goodbye to their loved ones for the short time and to stretch out into a community that is beyond their family and is “theirs” alone.
They have learned routines, have refined their self help skills and have established the beginnings of classroom community. Through the activities provided, they are developing language, expressing themselves both verbally and through the arts. They are learning to hear another person’s opinion, to take some risks and try new things, to move beyond their egocentric selves and join in their first small way, society.
For our newer families, let me tell you about the routine of our mornings. For the first hour in school, we have “work time”. The children are free to move about and select the activities they wish to work at, be it the easel, an art activity, puzzles, blocks building, writing/drawing, home life area, texture table or play dough. Their interests guide them and children begin to see that their decisions have value. For this group of children dramatic play with “dress-up” is very popular, as are collage type art activities. Following “work time” we have an organized clean-up where all children participate in the clean-up and care of their classroom which is a community building activity. Children feel a sense of care and responsibility for their classroom and the materials it contains.
Following “clean-up” we wash hands and have snack. The children sit down together comfortably and have a bite to eat and a bit of conversation, before moving on to circle where we sing our sock song and a few other favorites before our daily story.
Two favorite story time books have been:
Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin
A Hat for Minerva Louise
Following story, the children get dressed for outdoors and we head out to the Tire Park for some very important big muscle building through climbing, running and jumping. This group is also very fond of using the sand toys in the park.
We do go out in the snow, so please be sure your child has snow gear (snow pants, boots, mittens and a hat) if there is snow on the ground.
As the year continues we may move into some thematic units of “study”. Last year my Little Hands class did a study of rooms in a home. We studied the bedroom, bathroom and laundry room, changing our dramatic play area into these rooms and enjoying some stories, music and art related to these rooms. It was great fun and we will probably test the children’s interests with this. If it sparks interest we will give it a go!
Looking forward to more fun times to come!
Lisa, Jean, and Meg
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