NURSERY RHYMES - MARCH 2011 - LITTLE HANDS II

Pizza is happening in Little Hands 2. Our youngest group has settled in and is now ready to embark on some themes in the classroom. Recently we enjoyed a “study “of pizza. We began by making pizza with English Muffins. We found children had particular tastes – some liked lots of cheese or some didn’t care for sauce. It was great to hear them express their likes and dislikes and act on them.

In keeping with the pizza theme we turned our dramatic play area into a pizza shop. The children were fascinated with the toy cash registers. A few children understood the concept of buying and selling and soon “money” was changing hands for pizza. It was wonderful to see the children who are a bit older setting the stage for dramatic play and encouraging the younger ones in the play.

Although we connected some art to a pizza theme, the purposes of art in these very young years (and well beyond) is to encourage another means of expression, to discover textures, sensations to be used as a medium to encourage language, to gain experience in using/manipulating the materials like glue, various types of paint and collage materials that can be used to create three dimensional art. It is about the experience of planning and organizing materials and sharing perspective with others. It’s the process of the art experience, not the product that matters. In this newsletter I have noted an article found on the internet by an artist and art teacher from Ontario, Canada, Linda Carson. The article gives pointers on how to talk to your child about their art and why art is such an important part of education. Please take a look at it.

We have planted an Amaryllis bulb and have been watching its amazingly rapid growth. We hope to see it bloom into a large red flower just around Valentine’s Day!

It has been a long cold snowy winter and it has often been hard to get the children to our playground as a group in the time we have in school. I do hope families try when they can, to get the children out in the snow or to the park even for short periods. Big muscle exercise is crucial to young children’s development. Please remember that children do not catch colds from cold weather. Colds are purely the work of viruses! Thank you to parents for sending all the clothing we need to get the children out when we can.

In the next few months we hope to take our first field trip – downstairs to the laundry room. We will turn our dramatic play area into a laundry room by making some cardboard box washers and dryers. We will sort our clothes and match socks which are fun math activities. Then as the weather gets warmer we’d like to take a field trip to the grocery store (perhaps with a parent or two to help us navigate the big streets) and create a supermarket in our dramatic play area.

Can’t wait for Spring!!!

Lisa, Jean and Meg