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In: Level 1 - Newman/Park

We took a slight detour after our Ocean unit, and spent a few days on studying the 5 senses. We tried different foods, listened to different sounds (musical instruments, plus our hand-made shakers), felt various textures and played games to test our senses. On Tuesday we dove right into our study of dinosaurs. We acted like paleontologists and searched for dinosaurs in the sand. By using a mixture including coffee grounds/flour/salt, the students made dinosaur imprints. They should be dry this week to take home. The children worked on their cutting skills by cutting out large Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaurs, and by cutting out a babyRead More →

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In: Level 1 - Newman/Park

For this last week before Spring Break, we finished up our Ocean unit, as well as tried to spend as much time as possible outside, enjoying this very warm weather. We focused on the letter U, by talking about all the words we could think of that starts with U. Our U (underwater) art involved counting five circles, five triangles and five eyeballs, in order to make fish for our underwater scene. We continue to work on our number recognition and counting, using a one-to-one correspondence. We wrapped up our ocean unit by learning about jellyfish, painting with watercolors, and making “slime” that was intendedRead More →

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In: Level 1 - Newman/Park

Last week was a busy week of Ocean study, and celebrating St. Patrick’s Day! The children learned about the letter T by tracing it, correlating T words to the letter, and making a tree craft (which worked on fine motor by ripping the paper “leaves”). We finished our ocean scene, which included large whales and baby whales. The children spend time matching the numbered whales to the whales with the same number of corresponding dots. This activity will remain on our wall through our entire Ocean unit. We continue to reinforce this number recognition and counting through calendar activities, and playing many counting games. IRead More →

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In: Level 1 - Newman/Park

The children have had so much fun learning about the Arctic.  We used out bodies to understand where the Arctic is on the Earth, referencing a globe so that the children could visualize polar positions (the Arctic is their head).  As we built up the physical environment, we used various props to help the children better understand. Ice was introduced to the sensory bin along with Styrofoam pieces to represent the frozen ocean and icebergs.  As new lessons were given/animals introduced, the same toys were also introduced.  Not only was there sensory play for the children to explore but large foam pieces were also usedRead More →

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In: Level 1 - Newman/Park

It was such a busy week in Preschool 1, even with our shorter week last week, we learned a lot in just three days.   We worked on forming the letter L and discussed words that begin with L. In continuing with our winter/snow theme, we played in shaving cream “snow”, made snowkids (in various shapes and sizes) with white paint and a toilet paper roll, and made homemade play-doh.  By adding glitter it gave the play-doh that “snow” look! The children enjoyed our science lesson, and were so excited as they watched flour, water, and oil turn into play-doh!  We read winter and snowRead More →

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In: Level 1 - Newman/Park

This week the children have been continuing on with their exploration of holidays around the world, visiting Mexico and learning about Las Posadas! They began their lesson by looking at the globe and finding where Mexico was located in relation to the United States.  They learned that the primary language spoken in Mexico is Spanish, and they then learned some basic words in Spanish….HOLA…..AGUA…..POR FAVOR.  Each child was asked “Como estas?   Bien, asi asi or mal?”  Their responses were charted on the board. Initially the class read the story titled THE POINTSETTIA, by Tomie DePeola.  In this tale the background of Mexico is set forRead More →

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In: Level 1 - Newman/Park

How nice it is to be back from Thanksgiving break!  The children returned back to school joyful, rested and ready to work Monday’s group got right to work, focusing on letter I.  The children learned the 2 sounds letter I makes and practiced writing the letter in both upper and lower case.  Of course, as we introduced the letter sound, we put our hands in front of our mouths and on our throats, repeating the letter sounds.  Although one little smartie was sure she could feel air come out of her mouth as we chanted the long and short sound, the class agreed that theRead More →

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In: Level 1 - Newman/Park

Today we continued exploring Thanksgiving and putting a little “fun” in the mix.  While we continued discussing the history of the holiday, we also read/sang a silly book titled “THERE WAS AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED A PIE.” During morning rotations, the children worked to create their personalized versions of the old lady, cutting circles to create her hair and coloring her face and clothing to mimic the illustrations in the book. After practicing the songs for tomorrow’s performance, we read/sang our way through the book itself.  Prior to reading the book, the children were given foods from the story to “feed” to a 3-dRead More →

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In: Level 1 - Newman/Park

The Thanksgiving unit has been very interesting for the children to explore.  As you may recall, last week we learned about the Native American Indians.  We learned about how the term NATIVE refers to people who originate from a particular area.  The first people who lived here are called Native Americans. The children learned about the connection the Native Americans had to the earth and the dependency they had on all aspects for survival  They learned about how they so respected the animals they hunted and that they used all parts of the animals in their daily lives.  They were impressed how they used the skins and furs for both clothing and homes, as theyRead More →

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In: Level 1 - Newman/Park

What a wonderful week the children have had so far!  Monday’s Halloween celebration began with candy math, led by our volunteer, Mr. Offerman!  He worked with small groups of children to sort and count various types of candy corn.  Once each child sorted the candy by type (bats, moons, pumpkin, etc..), they counted out how many of each they had, identified the number in writing and then either copied or traced that number.  Additionally, the children used the candy corn as a unit of measure, measuring Halloween pictures by laying pieces of candy the length or height of each pictures and again counting, identifying theRead More →