Clap, Clap, Snap

CLAP, CLAP, SNAP

Recognizing, creating, and extending patterns was part of our math small group this week. The children were highly motivated to participate and invent their own patterns using body movements. Chants of AB, ABB and ABC patterns were heard through out the classroom.

In addition to patterns and sequencing concepts for small groups, the preschoolers made their first entries in their journals. We noticed the children needed support with pencil grip and provided them with short, golf pencils to force the use of pencil grip. Journals will be an on-going literacy activity to enhance prewriting and reading skills while teaching the children that their thoughts, feelings, and words can take physical form and can be shared with others.  Tornadoes, hurricanes, planets, and letter formations were a few favorites.

The children also participated in practicing the skill of using scissors. When we choose a skill for small groups, we consider practical skills where extra support is beneficial for the children. The children fed, “Starvin Marvin”(an empty, Parmesan container with eyes) small pieces of paper that could fit in his mouth. He has become a loved addition to our classroom!

Next week for small groups, we will continue to work on patterns, letter recognition, and putting on coats.

RAMPS & PATHWAYS

A new interest has emerged! We introduced slats and marbles to the children this week and it was a big hit! The children investigated how to get the marble down a slope and getting the marble from one slat to the other. That takes a lot of thinking for a 3 or 4 year old! We could see the children had some prior knowledge about gravity. They knew one side of the slat needed to be elevated to be able to get the marble from one end to the other. Others laid the slats flat and pushed with their hand. When it came to getting the marble from one slat to another slat, things got a little harder and lots of thinking happened. The perseverance the children had was exciting to watch. Connecting the ends of the slats, and laying one end on top of the other, were strategies used to keep the marble on slats. The strategies did not always work. Sometimes the marble was knocked out of its path, or it completely stopped at connected ends. Tunnels, walls, and gates were also built around the pathways. We are excited to see the evolution of this investigation as we continue to support the preschoolers on emerging interests! 

LUNCHES (you may skip this part if your child is half day)

As your child’s educators, we hold each part of our routine with equal high importance. Lunchtime is no exception. Our school policy highly encourages parents to pack their child a “high-quality nutritious lunch.” If you provide juice in your child’s lunch, it MUST be 100% fruit juice.  This means the Caprisun pouches and other high sugar drinks will not be served to your child if they are in their lunches. Milk and water are always offered at lunch. We are committed to ensure all children in our classroom grow up with healthy bodies and minds and believe that packing a healthy lunch will influence the course of their lives and the choices they make regarding their future well-being. Therefore, we would like to propose not packing high sugar snacks, or food in your child’s lunch (one small treat is okay).We took the time to take pictures of healthy lunches this week and wanted to share them with you in hopes to give you ideas of what a healthy lunch consists of. If you have any questions regarding lunches, please contact us ASAP. 

SNAPFISH

We are on the works of trying to solve viewing problems with Snapfish. It has come to our attention many of you cannot view the pictures on Snapfish. We are have difficulty loading pictures and are not sure if the website is the problem or the technology in our part. If you are still having this problem, please, please email us. We might need to find another way of sharing the classroom photos. Thank you for being patient about this matter. We will keep you updated.

THANK YOU

We have noticed many of you encouraging your child to sign-in. Thank you for making the time to make this part of your drop-off routine! To practice the pencil grip, encourage your child to sign in with a golf pencil. We also want to thank Khristos’ family for bringing the Greek dolls for our classroom museum of family artifacts. There is still plenty of room to add more!

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Family Gathering- Plymouth Orchards & Cider Mill 10/10/15 1-4:00pm
• Families in the Art Studio Event 10/16/15 4:00-5:00pm. Come and share the schools art studio with your child!

Meet the Interns!

MEET THE INTERNS!

This semester we have the pleasure of working with two, wonderful individuals who are eager to work with your child as we are to work with them. 

Hello, Bonjour Families,

My name is Hadidja Hamadi and I am eager to be one of your child's teacher this fall. I would like to tell you a few things about myself. I was born in Marseille (south of France), was raised in Paris, and I have a degree in Marketing & Communications.

     I came to Michigan 12 years ago, started volunteering with kids, and I fell in love with the wonderful world of education. I have work with the ECEC during my practicum. I am getting my degree in Early Childhood Development at UofM Dearborn. I’ve been married for 12 years, and we have 3 wonderful children: a 10-year-old boy, a 6-year-old girl, and a 20-month-old boy. I enjoy reading, cooking and playing with my kids

    I will be an intern at ECEC, and I cannot wait to meet each one of you and start exploring with your child. I am looking forward to a great and productive fall.

   During my time at ECEC (Monday - Thursday, 8am to 12pm), I will collaborate with your children and make sure they continue to develop their love of everything, discovering, learning, and reading.

     Having bilingual children at home, I would love to read books in French with the children. I can bring some to the classroom and share the knowledge of my mother language with them. I am happy to be part of Mrs. Smith’s and Ms. Sanchez’s class and cannot wait to start learning from their experience while working at ECEC.

Educational yours,

Hadidja Hamadi

 Hello, my name is Ju Paek. I am originally from Seoul, South Korea.  It was there that I studied Korean Confucianism and music performance until I came to the United States in 2005. I grew up with a devoted mom who has been an early childhood educator for more than 30 years; she has run early learning centers in Seoul. Now I am studying to get my early childhood education degree at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

I will be an intern student in your child's classroom every Wednesday from 8:00 am to 3:30 pm and Friday from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm throughout the fall semester. This is my third semester at the ECEC and my final year at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. I will be graduating in December. During my last two semesters at the ECEC, I worked with children between the age of three years old and five years old. I am very excited to be working with your child at the ECEC and I am hoping to bring my global knowledge into the classroom and to learn from your child as well. As a cellist, I will also introduce a cello to your child though free exploration and play activities.

During my time outside of school, I love to be occupied with various activities. First and foremost, I enjoy spending time with my family members; we love to exercise at the gym and watch movies together. When I am alone at home, I enjoy playing my cello and making floral arrangements. I am also a yogi, tea lover, and novice golfer. I believe that your child will enjoy the privileges and responsibilities of being a preschooler at the ECEC.  I am also looking forward to a great semester filled with lots of fun learning activities, projects and experiments.

 THIS WEEK

After reading over the parent surveys, many of you had similar goals for your child: build relationships with peers, develop positive social skills, writing own name, letter and number identification, and phonemic awareness. During our exploration time, we provide the children with investigations that incorporate literacy, math, social studies, art, and science.

To further support the goals you have for your child, we decided to start small groups. Our small groups are 15-10 min. of our day where we split the children into three groups: literacy, math, and practicing a skill. Each child works in one of these groups at least twice a week. Every week, we will decide what skill the children need to work on for each domain. This week we worked on counting for math, breaking apart the lines in letters to become familiar with the similarities and difference in letter characteristics (long line, short line, big curve, little curve, and diagonals), and the skill of putting on own socks and shoes. We will work at the children's pace and observe skills that need to be mastered before moving on to the next. 

VOLUNTEERING

Many of you expressed your desire to come into the classroom and volunteer your time by cooking, reading, and sharing a talent. We are extremely happy about having you in the classroom! Please email us about your availability.

PARENT/TEACHER COMMUNICATION

Parent and teacher communication is such a valuable piece of our job. Sometimes, it is hard to catch a time to speak with all the families at drop off and pick up. If at anytime we are not available to talk to you for any reason and would like to share something with us, we have placed sticky notes in a basket next to the parent sign-in clip board where you can write a little note to us and stick it to our computer on our desk. Our time with your children is priceless, we want to be respectful of the time we spend with all the children. If at anytime you would like to make a time to meet with us to discuss your child's progress, please email us. We would love to talk to you!

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Fire Drill next week 9/30/15 10:30am. We practiced STOP, DROP, & ROLL this week!
• Family Gathering- Plymouth Orchards & Cider Mill 10/10/15 1:00-4:00pm
• Families in the Art Studio Event 10/16/15 4:00-5:00pm. Come and share the schools art studio with your child!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Smith & Ms. Sanchez

Airplanes & Rainbows

We are overly joyed with the fact that the children are taking ownership of their classroom by becoming more comfortable with the routine.  We have noticed drop-off has been a little hard for some of the children but we assure you the rest of the day becomes more comfortable and fun for the children.

This week was filled with investigations! The children’s interests and questions are emerging through their play. One interest the children show everyday is role-playing airplane pilots, conductors, and passengers. “We are going to Florida to have a beach party!” shout the children. They engage in this play by lining chairs in a row, assigning roles to each person, and even serve hot food and cold drinks to the passengers.  Perhaps the airplane curiosity has developed due to many of the children traveling by airplane this summer.  The interns in our classroom are already thinking of ways to support the children in their inventive and creative play.

Has your child shared about the rainbow’s that emerge in the block area walls during the day? Clusters of rainbow’s appear in our classroom at approximately 10:00 am and disappear by about 1:00pm.  The rainbows fascinate the children. They try to catch them and wonder where they come from. The children have many questions about the rainbows and we are being very careful about how much information to share with the children. Part of our school philosophy is not giving children answers, but encourage their thinking by asking them questions and finding ways to research together to construct their own understanding. We purposefully want the children to wonder, and continue to ask questions. In case you are wondering how the rainbows are appearing in the classroom, we have a solar powered, spinning crystal that casts the rainbows just as the rising sun hits our window.

This month, we will focus on creating a social moral classroom.  We will be reading books and discussing our classroom agreements; how to be safe, kind, and responsible to others and the classroom. The children will come up with their own understandings and definitions for our classroom agreements. Our goal is to give the children the opportunity to debate ideas, and work together to solve problems that arise in the classroom. Next week, we will have our first classroom fire drill, talk about fire safety, and practice “stop, drop, and roll.”

We want to thank the families who have filled out the parent survey. As a reminder, if you have yet to fill out the parent survey, we ask that you take the time to do so this weekend and bring it to school. The parent survey helps us meet your child’s educational needs as well work with their interests. We have read over surveys that were turned in thus far and noticed many of the goals for the children are mutual; letter and number recognition, child being able to write own name, and beginning phonemic awareness. Throughout our day the children are exposed to these topics and materials during group time, explorations and even during self-initiated play. As the school weeks progress and the children pick up the routine we will start emphasizing literacy, math, and independent skills during small group work. We work at the pace of the children and begin where each child is developmentally ready. Don't forget to help your child sign in their name in the morning. Nothing has to be perfect, trying is what counts. 

Some things you can do at home to help your child is read to them, have them read to you (reading the pictures is reading!) count together, read numbers at the grocery store while shopping, etc.    

Upcoming Events

Please join our school wide family gathering at Plymouth Orchards & Cider Mill on Saturday, October 10 from 1:00pm- 4:00pm 10685 Warren Rd, Plymouth , MI 48170. Wagon ride tickets will be sold at the ECEC prior to visit. Donuts, cider and apples are available for purchase at the orchard. Ms. Smith and Ms. Sanchez will be there with their families. We hope to see you there!