Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Color Sorting, Patterns, & Measuring

Hi Blue Room Families and Friends,

Every morning we break in to two groups - Preschool and PreK. Our Preschoolers (the 3s and young 4s) have been focusing on classifying things, color sorting, patterns, measuring, and sizes: small, medium, large, and the same/equal. These are excellent pre-math concepts that are developmentally appropriate at this age while the older children work on letters and numbers.


All the preschoolers got a bowl of different colored pattern blocks and were asked to sort them by color.


As our friends were sorting the colors they started to attach the colored blocks together.


After they attached all of the colored blocks together, the children wanted to put the colors in rainbow order. Maroon was a new word/color that the children added to their vocabulary and decided it was more brown than red. So they put it near the end of the colors instead of next to red in the rainbow. We also talk about relations - what color is in between light blue and yellow? GREEN! What color is next to red? ORANGE! These positional/spatial vocabulary words are also important pre-math skills.


What color is the longest? BLACK! Hmmm.... lets try again. When asked what can we do to make it easier to tell which color is the longest? G said, "Let's put them in order from biggest to smallest!" So they did.


And then when asked what color is the longest? They shouted RED....Not Black. and what color is the shortest? GREEN. The children even realized there were two that were the same size. White and Brown. D said, "They look like rainbow stairs." "The blues are right next to each other," stated S.

Every moment is a learning moment at Creative Minds!

Hugs,
Teacher Kristina


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Letter J & Letter Z

Hello Blue Room Family and Friends,

In Blue Room we did a science experiment with Jelly beans for J week. We started with color sorting, which was a great visual processing exercise for our kids since some of the darker colors look so similar. Then each child picked 5 jelly beans of their choice, all the same color, and put them in a clear cup. They were so curious what would happen to the jelly beans as we added warm water and they started to stir them with a spoon. After a while the children observed that the clear water was turning different colors depending on what color jelly bean they picked. They also realized that the jelly beans were turning white! The beans  started to feel different too. We left them overnight to see if the process would continue.


The next day, we saw that the colors had continued to leach out of the beans, so we decided to make jelly bean paint. We added flour to our jelly bean water and it started to get thicker. It smelled so delicious!


The children were excited to see what color it turned into.


We used pompoms in clothes pins as paintbrushes. Some children love sticky projects and some children do not, so these brushes let them choose how much to touch the paint. And our jelly belly paint was definitely sticky!!


A making an awesome design


P loved her sticky paint


D decided to paint with a popsicle stick and G went for more of a splatter paint technique!


B and M searching for the perfect jewel to dress up their letter of the week.


Most of the children were very specific in the type of jewel they were looking for. "We need more hearts" said C and G.


M figuring out that she needed to use glue first and then put her jewels on. M has officially transitioned up from Rose Room. We are very excited to welcome her to Blue Room!



C exploring shaving cream.


With our younger preschool group in the mornings, we have been using our geometric shapes and placing them very carefully on our design cards. The children worked really hard to finish their pictures. This builds spatial awareness as we see how shapes fit together to make a whole, as well as fine motor skills. It's hard work to put the tiles down without bumping the others out of place! Of course the children are welcome to create their own designs with these blocks as well.


D working on his car and G working on her fish. It is neat to hear the children say the color or shape that they are looking for and see their friend help them out from across the table. "Here G, I found a green one." -D "Thank you for the triangle." -G


In Pre-K, the children are trying to learn the balance between doing good work and not rushing through it, but not dragging it out too long either. We have a big group of Pre-Ks and they have really grown in their coloring skills and letters this year!


G, A, and A working on their letter Z tree.


We love to cook as a group. Here we are making zucchini bread for Z week!


K stirring and everyone else counting.While peeling and grating the zucchini, we talked about different fruits and vegetables we like and which ones need peeling vs. which ones can be eaten whole. It was a great compare-and-contrast exercise and an opportunity to practice our listening skills as everyone contributed to the discussion!


Everyone counting for C.


S stirring the zucchini bread.

The children were so excited to eat the zucchini bread - we put the batter into cupcakes so it would cook faster. Yummy! Feel free to bake at home with your children. They love to measure and stir and really enjoy the process of baking from start to finish. If you need recipes, let us know and we'll be happy to share!

Hugs,
Teacher Kristina & Teacher Thaovy


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Welcome new teachers (in other rooms)!

Happy new year to everyone and I hope that everyone enjoyed and rested in the holiday season. We are so excited for 2016!

I love the following quote. We try to tell our kids this and it is great for us to follow these ideas too:

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something.

By Neil Gaiman


2016 is off to a wonderful start for us, including some exciting changes. As most of you know, we have been interviewing for a while in our quest to find the right people to join our team. We were looking for a full-time person for Purple Room because Teacher Rosemary needed to reduce her hours, and for one teacher each for Rose Room and Green Room as their enrollments have grown.

We deeply appreciate your patience during the hiring process, and especially those of you who helped refer candidates to us. We are very happy to announce that we are now fully staffed (yay!!!!) and ask you to join us in welcoming our new teachers to the team!

Welcome to Teacher Vianna in Purple Room

Teacher Vianna started substituting for us the last week of December and is now officially the co-teacher with Teacher Rashida in Purple Room. Her hours are 9:30-6:00 daily, so those of you with later pick-ups will get to consistently see her in the evenings. Vianna has a degree in ECE and several years of teaching experience. We are excited to welcome her to the preschool team!

But what about Teacher Rosemary?


Teacher Rosemary has begun phasing out of Purple Room as Vianna phases in, but rest assured, she will still be with us every day. Starting February 1, Teacher Rosemary will become our "Art & Science Teacher in Residence," meaning that she will be rotating through each classroom (probably one day/week in each room) to work on special art and science projects with all of the children. This has always been one of her greatest strengths, so now all the rooms will get to benefit from her curriculum talent!

Welcome to Teacher Kayleigh in Rose Room (and helping preschool and Green Room)

Teacher Kayleigh joined us full-time in mid-October. She is the assistant teacher in Rose Room in the mornings, helps Green Room with their lunches, and then supports preschool in the afternoons. Talk about multi-tasking! We appreciate her flexibility and willingness to serve as the "bridge" or familiar face for children who are transitioning between classrooms. Kayleigh is new to this field professionally but grew up with younger siblings and has worked with young children for a long time in other settings. She is Teacher Ramona's daughter and Teacher Julia's big sister. Welcome, Kayleigh!

Welcome to Teacher Katie (Green Room)

Teacher Katie joined Green Room in mid-November. Her hours are 9:00-3:00 Monday through Friday. Katie has a degree in music and is currently a part-time student working toward her Master's in clinical psychology. She has experience working with toddlers in a summer program and is continuing to take classes in child development as well. She has a specific interest in (and talent for!) working with young children. We are so glad she joined our team!

Referrals are still welcome.

We don't have any more full-time or part-time regular staff openings, but we are always open to substitutes, student teachers, or volunteers. If you know anyone who needs or wants experience with young children, we are always happy to share what we do with the next generation of teachers.

I am very excited to welcome Teachers Vianna, Kayleigh, and Katie to our Creative Minds family!

Richa Kapur