NURSERY RHYMES - NOV 2010 - Three's PM

Our class has had an incredible start to an exciting new school year. The children have enjoyed exploring the classroom, creating art, forming friendships, singing and dancing as well as trying new activities.

In September we focused on forming classroom routines as well as making the children feel comfortable in their new environment. We have encouraged the children to show kindness for each other by listening and caring for one another. The children are working on being caring friends by sharing and taking turns as well as working as a team to complete tasks.

Our first unit of study was feelings and emotions. Throughout this unit we read books which describe various feelings. Together we engaged in conversation about feelings and the children were able to act out and describe different emotions. This helped the children develop an understanding of feelings and in turn helps them to recognize how our actions can cause us and others to feel a certain way. The activities planned for this unit allowed the children to safely express feelings through song and dance as well as through art. Books read throughout this unit include: If You’re Happy and You Know It, The Way I Feel, The Story of My Feelings, and When Sophie Gets Angry, Really Really Angry.

We have also worked with color mixing. The children have explored mixing paint through finger painting, marble painting, and easel painting. They have also mixed play dough to create new colors. The children have enjoyed creating various shapes and objects with the play dough by rolling, slicing, and molding the dough. They have had the opportunity to make play dough during one of our cooking activities. During this activity the children learned how to follow a recipe and enjoyed adding and mixing the ingredients together to create colorful play dough. Books we have read pertaining to colors and color mixing are Brown Bear Brown Bear, Little Blue Little Yellow, and Mouse Paint.

Have Stripes, Do Monkeys Tweet, Do Lions Live on Lily Pads, and Do Donkeys Dance all contain repetitive phrases which allow the children to join in and “read” along. The children really enjoyed the silly questions which created lots of fun and laughter in the classroom! The children excitedly acted out animal sounds and movements as well as counted and sorted toy animals at the manipulative table. The children have also starting working on one to one correspondence with puzzles and pattern working with colored table top blocks and small animal counters. The children will continue to enhance these skills as the year progresses.

We have most recently begun looking closely at pumpkins. We have opened a pumpkin and observed both the inside and outside of the pumpkin and we plan on planting and counting pumpkin seeds. We will also be baking with pumpkins and apples in the upcoming weeks. With the change of temperature and the leaves beginning to fall we will soon begin our autumn unit. We will take nature walks and explore the new sights and sounds in the neighborhood. We will be busy collecting leaves, twigs, and acorns and using them to create art and math activities. We will make leaf rubbings and prints, sort the leaves, sing fall songs and finger plays, and read about and discuss the upcoming fall holidays.

Our class is full of energetic, curious, caring, and fun loving individuals who are learning more and more each day. As your children play, they are investigating and learning about their world and each other and we appreciate the opportunity to support your children through this wonderful stage of development. We look forward to sharing an exciting year with you and your child!

Elaine and Meg