A Short, but Sweet Week!

We began our sweet week with drama on Monday. Mr. Jamie had the children role play a story about a queen who is looking for a dragon. Laura was the queen and Anna was a princess.

Lukas, the dragon, was very happy to see the queen. In drama, Mr. Jamie tells the children a story and then they act it out. Each child has a part and every story has a  moral.  Our time with Mr. Jamie helps build self confidence and the ability to speak in front of the group. 

After we read a story about rain and rainbows for the letter "R", the children used  various manipulatives to make rain.  Each of the cups or bottles had different shaped and positioned holes. The children experimented and worked together.  As with so many of our activities, we want to encourage conversation, vocabulary building and classroom "community" building.  We loved listening in as the children talked about what they like to do in the rain.  Splashing in puddles seemed to be the most well liked activity but we also had some thoughtful comments about the rain being great for the flowers and trees.

Charlie, Sammie and Charlie are using spoons to pick up honey bees (ping pong balls with stripes in the orange bowl) and help them fly into their hive.  You need good concentration and a steady hand or the bee will not make it home!

Jack and Matthew became adept at keeping their bees on the spoon as they carried them to the hive. We are working on visual motor skills as they scoop, carry and drop the bees.

We have been asked to add decorations to the Temple Sukkah, so we're starting early!  Our first step is to make a glue design on paper.  Glue bottles aren't as easy to use as glue sticks and require much more finger strength, great for developing the muscles needed for writing.



The next step is painting with beautiful fall colors.  Glue absorbs the paint differently than the paper so the children could see the design they'd made the previous day magically appear.  Check back next week for the completed project!



More pictures in the block center.
The children are incorporating more props in their play and building even more complex structures.

Shelly stopped in one day when the children had just begun a puzzle.  With her help, they were able to complete it easily.  They  also had a discussion about the pros and cons of working a puzzle on the fluffy rug.....

On Friday, not only did the children remember to move the puzzle to the floor, but to use the picture on the cover as a guide.  Puzzles provide many learning opportunities, so why not pull out a puzzle at home this weekend!

Thank you to Sammie's grandmother for reading to us at lunchtime on Friday....there really were children listening!