Letter O and C's 3rd Birthday

Hello Blue Room Family and Friends,

We are well into our alphabet with letter of the week and the children are really grasping it. They continue to ask if they forget what letter it is and their friends remind them. Parents, please work with your children to brainstorm things that start with the letter of the week for sharing on Wednesdays and Thursdays.


J and A collaging the letter "O" using the color orange and octopuses


M using dot art to make a pattern around the letter O. This calls extra attention to the letter's shape and builds patterning, which is a pre-math skill.


C working on matching ABC clips. The pinching of the clips is great for the children's hand and finger strength.


J working on the letter O during PreK


We have been saving all the colored caps to the GoGo squeezes that are in your children's lunches. We have done many things with the caps. For example: color sorting, making designs, patterns, stacking and counting. N working on lining up his caps.


L lined up her caps then decided to draw under each cap the same color that matched.


E made a flower out of caps then she drew it. Putting an object from 3D to 2D is a skill that is so amazing for the children's cognitive development. It helps the children with future problem solving and to realize that every thing in their world is three-dimensional but can be represented in other ways. She noticed that there were six caps as petals and that she needed to draw six petals on her flower. She was definitely using higher order thinking.


We love sensory bins!!!


E working on her canvas for the Art Sale. The children really enjoyed working on a new medium and they took so much pride in their work knowing that it was going to be for the Art Sale.


N signing his master piece.


The children painting their canvases.


Teacher Rosemary reading the book, "Happy Birthday Hamster" to our new friend C who turned 3 years old.


C and his daddy brought cupcakes to share with his friends.


Make a wish C!


Hmmm...which flavor should I pick?


YUMMY!! All gone!


We are so happy to have C be part of our class. His older brother went to Creative Minds a few years ago so it has been fun to welcome back a family that was part of Creative Minds before I was even here. I'm so excited to watch C (and all of our friends) grow and learn! Welcome to our class and Happy 3rd Birthday C!!

Hugs,

Teacher Kristina

Letter L, Lemonade, Under the Sea, and Puddles

Hello Blue Room Family and Friends,

It is the beginning of fall and we were brainstorming Letter "L" words and decided to take the children outside on a leaf hunt and to observe the leaves starting to change colors. The older children noticed that the green leaves were still on the trees and bushes and the colored ones fell to the ground. The children also were asking why all the leaves hadn't fallen off the trees yet.


The children like to explore in pairs


The children love to run behind the hedges in the front of the school. C laughing and following friends.


N volunteered to hold the big bag for all of his friends and would tell his friends, "that's an awesome one!" Team work!


After going on our leaf hunt the children collaged their Letter "L" with all the Autumn Leaves that they collected.


The children have also been working hard to write their names on the projects.


At our school Teacher Janet and Teacher Jennifer have worked very hard to get our school Library organized and child-friendly, with different colored sticker dots. G is working on his Personal Library card for our Creative Minds Library.


Teacher Janet giving the Blue Room children a tour of our school Library. Teacher Janet talked to the children about the different book topics, how to take care of our school books, what the stickers are used for, and what we do if we notice that there is a tear in the book. The children were very excited to see all the different books available for them.


J said, "I want Dinosaurs." R asked many great questions, and said, "I like space the one with the planet stuff about space trains." A special thank you to Teacher Janet for being a great Librarian and book doctor to our very well loved books.


Making Lemonade: First, the children washed their lemons and liked feeling the lemon skins.


Second, the children each juiced their own lemon. The children were very excited to watch the container fill up with lemon juice. Thank you A for bringing Lemons from your lemon tree to share with us.


The children measured out the lemon juice and then they worked together to add water and sugar too!


And Lastly... Taste test! Our lemonade turned out so delicious and refreshing. We enjoyed our lemonade while sitting outside together.


We talked about our faces and how our faces are symmetrical. As we watched the children start to draw the other half of their faces we realized they were Picasso like. So we explained to them about the artist Pablo Picasso and showed them some of his art pieces and the children were very excited and inspired. This was one of the pieces of art for out Art Show.


We LOVE sensory time! Shaving cream!


Shaving cream! Check out our hands!


Looking at some pictures of Sea animals - Beluga Whales, Sea Lions, Orcas and many more.


In PreK, recall is one aspect that we like to focus on. The PreK the children talked about what they remembered using inside of their fish tanks. We then brought out all of the materials we used and I asked the children to put one thing in each of the squares. We used colored sand, rocks, seaweed, glass stones, material for fishies, and shells.


Then below in the fish tank the children drew with markers all the things in their fish tanks.


It rained one day! And you know what that means -- PUDDLES!!


We combined with Purple Room to run outside in the parking lot and to jump in puddles.


In our sandbox, the children realized that the tarp caught the rain. Puddle jumpers! R making a big splash!


N sliding into home! SAFE!


A jumping SO high!


Our environment is a huge part of our learning at Creative Minds, and the children love to appreciate all the it has to offer. Please continue to check your child's extra clothes box and be sure to bring boots when it rains. We will definitely be exploring the rain whenever it comes! I am hoping a lot this year so that we get some snow in the mountains. :)

Hugs,

Teacher Kristina