The children could hardly wait to arrive to school on Monday as it was the day that they had been practicing for: Sumo Day! The day started in the community room with all of the children gathered around the wrestlers in awe of their size. The children quickly learned how kind and gentle these men really were. They watched them stretch and practice some moves on each other. Later in the day, the children got their chance to go head-to-head with the wrestlers. They were so eager to go up, one by one and try their best to push their opponent out of the ring. We were so proud of their strength. It was a fabulous time for all! Thank you again to the PTA for providing the children with this amazing and memorable event! Valentine's Day PreparationsAs we hav entered the month of February, many of the children knew that Valentine's Day would be coming soon. They knew that the shape most associated with this holiday is hearts and you can find chocolates and treats with pink and red hearts on them. Other friends said Valentine's Day is for celebrating friendship or showing people that you care about them...what kind-hearted Pre-K friends we have in this class! :) The children said they wanted to make cards for their friends and pass them out at school. When talking about what we would do with the cards the children asked if they could make a kind of mail box to put them in. The teachers provided the children with boxes, paper, scissors, and tape (LOTS AND LOTS of tape!!!) and let the children do whatever spoke to them as they worked. The teachers were so impressed with how much time the children took making their boxes and finishing everything. It took some of the children a couple of days to finish as they wanted to add the perfect finishing touches. It will be exciting to watch the children pass out and receive their cards next week. Sounds that make us HAPPY!Teacher Julie and Teacher Bushra have noticed that the children have so many interests in music, singing, making different sounds with objects, etc. They have begun experimenting with sounds and instruments and have been taking turns making music and learning the names of different instruments. Currently, the most popular instruments have been the keyboard (the children love hitting the keys and making beats with the presets), the xylophone (the children cannot get over the fact that xylophone doesn't start with the letter "Z" and were so excited to learn that it's actually an "X"), and the cymbals. Some of them enjoy making a beat, while others have tried hitting the instruments with various forces or using different pieces of the stick to hit them. One group of children suggested forming a class band...we talked about how important practicing is and will keep practicing! zooming in on our surroundingsThe children have been scientists in recent weeks as they have begun looking more closely at their surroundings. With an awesome tool and some cool technology, the children were able to look up to 80 times closer to everyday objects such as carpet, crayons, and even rocks. They played a mystery game, trying to figure out what they were looking at zoomed in and were so surprised and amazed to find out. We will continue using this new microscope as the children bring in objects to explore. If your child has something at home or finds something out and about with a cool or unusual texture, let them bring it to school so we can have a closer look! TAIKO!As if the week wasn't already exciting and eventful enough, the children ended the week with a wonderful Taiko performance, provided by the PTA. The children sat wide-eyed and listened to the wonderful sounds and melodies of the talented performers. After the performance, some of the children were eager to try the drums out for themselves. We hope you enjoy your weekend! Thank you again for a great week!
-Julie and Bushra These past couple of weeks have been jam-packed with cultural activities and visitors. The children had something exciting and new to do each day. Last week, Teacher Bushra explained what a Daruma is to the children and talked about its importance in Japanese culture. She explained how you color one eye in after you've made a goal (like learning how to write your name or counting up to 20) and how you get to color the other eye in once you've met your goal. She also showed the children how, even if a daruma is pushed over, it can still get up. We learned so much from talking about them. Next, the children did observational drawings based on what they saw in front of them. They had various sizes to choose from so each drawing looked different. The teachers were proud of the children as they have begun to focus more on details and filling as much space on the paper as possible. Their beautiful drawings are on display in our classroom so please have a look when you can! Some children were interested in making daruma origami so that was also popular! Numbers Galore!This week, the children had fun enjoying several number activities that included Identifying, putting them in order, writing, and organizing by quantity. Many of them worked in pairs or small groups to help each other figure out which number was missing or what came next. The children have really come a long way in their confidence with counting and identifying numbers. We will continue to include these skills in their activities and through their play throughout the school year. Special events and celebrations!The children have surely been going home talking about their sumo practice. They have been taking turns wrestling each other in preparation for the sumo wrestlers. Teacher Hisako explained the significance of the steps during these matches and walked the children through the correct way to behave like a real sumo wrestler. Then children have been working hard and cannot wait to do the real thing on Monday! Last week we were so excited to celebrate a very special 5th birthday. The children had been counting how many sleeps until their friend's birthday and had a hunch that the special treat might be popping shower ice cream...and they were right. Thank you to Tammy for a special celebration that included a terrific story and lovely refreshing late afternoon snack! Mystery ReaderLast Friday, the children spent the whole day guessing who are mystery reader was going to be. The unique clues made it fun and difficult to figure out who was coming. The children discovered that our mystery reader had eaten shark before, had swum with dolphins, and had four children. They were elated and surprised when Kaname's dad entered and had so many questions for him. He was so patient in answering their questions. Then he read a special Japanese story, told in the form of "Kamishibai" which was all in Japanese. The children sat so quietly and smiled throughout the story. After the story was finished, we talked about what we thought the story could be about, even if we did not speak Japanese. The children made wonderful guesses and helped fill each other in on the story. Thank you for coming in and sharing the perfect story with us, Yutaka! SetsubunThe children have been learning about the Japanese tradition of Setsubun. On February 3rd, it is customary to dress up in an 'oni' (ogre) mask while friends or family throw roasted soy beans at the oni symbolizing getting rid of bad luck and bringing in good fortune. The children read a story about a family who celebrated setsubun and wanted to make masks of their own. They looked at a book that showed that the masks could be any color so they used their creativity to make a mask that suited them. Later in the week it was time for 'mamemaki' or bean throwing. Teachers Martha and Rida brought their class in dressed as onis and our class hid and threw beans at them. Then we wandered to Hillary and Masami's class and got to be the onis too! The children had so much fun taking turns scaring each other. Then they ate as many beans as their age. Some of the children loved them so much they wanted more...others just tried one :) Thank you to everyone for your help and participation in the past couple of weeks and in the weeks to come. The children and teachers have enjoyed all of the activities and can't wait to show you what we are doing with our latest endeavor...instruments!
Have a fantastic weekend everyone! This week, the children reflected on the excitement of our omochi pounding event that took place last week. They looked at pictures and talked about what their favorite parts were. Hamish remembered the smell of the rice in the big put (usu) while Charlotte remembered that when people pounding the rice they said, "Yoisho!" We talked about the different flavors of omochi that we tried and voted on which was our favorite. After we all had a turn choosing,we counted to see which was the most popular and the winner was...NORI (seaweed)! Coming in a close second was kinako (soy paste). And anko (red bean paste) came in last with no votes. Traditionally in Japan, kakizome or New Year's calligraphy is done at the beginning of the year. The children were excited to see their names in Japanese and many had never written their names in Japanese before. The children took turns using a special calligraphy brush and ink to write out their names in Japanese. They decorated their work and added a stamp to make it official :) It is displayed outside of the classroom so please have a look at their beautiful writing! This week the children also practiced counting syllables. The children learned that if they clapped their hands when they said names and words out loud, they could find out how many syllables there are. We went through the whole class and then the children were able to think of words that had one, two, or three syllables. We also practiced writing the letter "J" and found words that had the "J" sound in them like jack-o-lantern, jellyfish, Julie, and January. Well done, Pre-K friends! Finally, the children became very interested in a new idea or topic on Friday. Flat Stanley! Teacher Julie has a cousin who lives in LA and is doing the project at her school. She sent over her "Flat Lauren" doll and the children were able to meet her. The children were interested in who Teacher Julie's cousin was, how old she is, and what her school must be like in Los Angeles. Zoe suggested we send her back to LA in a kimono so Julie's cousin could see how much fun she had in Tokyo. Great idea! The children were so interested in the doll that they were SO eager to make their own. Many of them have started the process and we will continue to look into this idea and see where it goes next week. Have a great weekend, everyone!
-Julie and Bushra Welcome back, and Happy New Year, everyone! The classroom was filled with excitement and stories when the children returned back to school on Monday. As the New Year is a very special celebration in Japan, the children were able to play some traditional Japanese games and use some wooden toys. They really enjoyed trying to figure out how to balance many of them or explore them further! Another big tradition in Japan is to make and send New Year's cards (nengajyo) to family and friends. The children took turns making a card to be sent home to their families. Many of them used Japanese stickers or rooster stamps to decorate their cards. When they were finished, we went to the post box to send them out later in the week. We hope our Pre-K families received theirs this week :) On the way back from dropping off the cards at the post box, some of the children asked if we could look around the area for a bit. We took this opportunity to admire the city's beautiful views including Tokyo Tower. How lucky we are to be in such a beautiful area and, boy, do the children appreciate it as well! The children were also interested in the fabulous art of paper-folding through origami. They did their best to follow folding instructions to make airplanes, tulips, hearts, and cups. We look forward to observing what other new creations they fold up. Omochi Pounding time!A big traditional event here in Japan and at the ELC in January is Omochi Pounding. It is a New Year's tradition that many know and love. We were so fortunate to have parents from school and members of the community come and make this event possible. To prepare for this event, the children were responsible for preparing the rice. First, we poured it in a bucket and let the children observe it by looking at it and feeling it in its dry state. Many of the children said it felt hard and cold and others observed that this rice looked fatter than regular rice. Next, the children took turns washing and soaking the rice . And finally, it was time to attend the omochi pounding event! First, the children watched the professionals do it. Then they were able to smell the hot, steamy rice. Some of them got extra close to the rice because they reeeeally wanted to make sure they got a good whiff ;) Then, the children took turns pounding away and shouting Yosh! We were so proud of our strong, brave Pre-K friends for using their muscles and doing their best to pound the omochi. We had been building up to this excitement all week and were so happy that everyone could attend and participate! Please have a look at the slideshow to see all of our families participating! If the children's favorite part of the day wasn't pounding the mochi, perhaps it was eating it. Everyone tried at least one piece, while some at several pieces. The children chose from soy sauce (shoyu), soy powder (kinako), dried seaweed (nori) and red bean (azuki). At the end of the day we asked the children how many pieces they thought they ate and the answers ranged from four to fifty-seven!!! Thank you again so much to everyone for their participation and for a fantastic week back at school! We hope your children enjoyed returning and had a wonderful experience with today's event. Enjoy your weekend and see you all on Monday!
-Julie and Bushra The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activities, planning, and celebrations! Last week, as the children continued to practice the letter "C" by writing it and pronouncing items with the hard "C" sound, the prepared for a "C PARTY!" They were able to choose items from a sheet and had to figure out what they all had in common. Among the items were" cat, carrot, cupcake, crocodile, crayon, cloud and cow. They quickly realized that they all had the hard "C" sound. What better place to put these "C" items but on a crown! They enjoyed coloring and practicing the sound. Later that week, they had a "C Party" where they were able to bring a guest with them to school and enjoy cookies. They brought a stuffed toy from home and ate their "C" cookies together. They each had a chance to introduce their friend to the class and talk about them. What a fun day and activity. We are hopeful that the letter "C" has more meaning to the children now ;) The fall weather has also been stunning! As the children are so fortunate to go outside twice a day, they could not ignore the gorgeous colors surrounding them outside. A popular activity in the past weeks has been collecting leaves. Some chidlren chose them by size, others by color. It was a rainbow of foliage outside so we had to get a picture as a class before some of our friends set off on vacation! Although our classroom made a huge game board on the floor that was for a dice game, they were able to use this area for another activity: Math book making. Teacher Bushra led the children to a table full of objects that could be counted. Each child then had to get a number card and place it in order in a row in the boxes and place the corresponding amount of objects in the same squre. Some of the children were then able to take a picture and use it for pages in their own book. The Pre-K and Kinder classes were fortunate to have visitors share Lego Robotics (as part of S.T.E.A.M. integration) with them. They got into pairs and used ipads to help guide them step-by-step in order to make small robots that could be controlled with the ipads. The children worked so hard and paid attention to every detail to ensure their robot would work. They really had a great time! Last week we also had a special visitor...a MYSTERY READER! The children took turns all morning guessing who the mystery reader would be. They had a feeling it would be a man as the first clue was "I have short hair." Other clues that were revealed were "I love running for exercise" and "I wear a suit for work". The final clue was what helped the children deduce who it could be: "I participated on the sweet potato dig." Thank you, John, for coming in and reading the Snowman book with us. The children loved it! TULIPS!As we are heading into the winter holiday, the children were provided with an experiment opportunity. They were each given tulip bulbs to plant and take care of. When they first saw them, they made guesses at what they thought the bulbs could be. Some guesses were onions or "plant seeds". When the teachers displayed tulips on the monitor, they were excited to see the various colors that tulips could come in. They made guesses at how big their tulips might grow and went outside to plant their bulbs, noting the color that they chose. KK knew so much about planting and said we had to give them water (not too much), sunlight, and good soil. Mya wanted to do an experiment so we decided that we would plant some bulbs inside the classroom (with no fresh air or sunlight) and another on the terrace outside of our classroom (with fresh air, but no sun) to see if a tulip could grow as successfully as those planted in the sun with ample moisture. We will observe our findings when school resumes. The children have been checking their bulbs to see if there have been any changes. Some of the children have already noticed some color in what seems to be a sprout in their tulips. We can't wait to see what changes come after the winter holiday! We also have a new job in the class: plant helper. He or she will be in charge of watering the plants or making observations about the bulbs to see if any changes have taken place! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!The children have been working hard all week to prepare something special for their mommies and daddies. As much as they love receiving gifts, they truly enjoyed planning and making gifts for someone special. They chose between a canvas painting or a picture frame and decorated it using various materials of their choosing. We've said it before, but children really spend more time and are more intentional about their work when they know it is going to be given as a gift for their parents! Our holiday gathering was so lovely and it was great to have so many enthusiastic parents come in to see the children perform their holiday songs. The children especially loved decorating the adorable holiday shaped cookies that Hamish's mommy made (Thank you, Tammy!!!) as well as giving their gifts to their parents. Thank you all so much for coming and the lovely gifts for the teachers as well! :) A final thank you!Teacher Julie and Teacher Bushra really want to thank you all so much for everything in this first term of the school year. We can honestly say that the children have grown so much, both in their independence and social skills along with all of the wonderful learning they are experiencing. We are so grateful for the thoughtful words and presents given to us at our holiday gathering. We appreciate everything and are so fortunate to have all of the wonderful support from the parents and children this year! We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and safe travels to those of you who are going abroad. See you all in January!
Thank you so much! Julie and Bushra On Monday, many of the children were eager to share what they did or where they went over the Thanksgiving break. Can you guess who said what? "I go to...I forgot its name. And there was like, this arcade downstairs. There was so many stuffed animals. I couldn't win anything so they closed it down. So I had a fun time and I goed in the pool. It was so sunny. It only rained one time." "For Thanksgiving I ate mashed potatoes and for dessert I had ice cream and macaroons and cookies. I made a chicken crown...out of paper!" "I go to Singapore with my mommy. I Have a playdate with my friends." "I go to Disneyland (with) Mama." "I went to Hawaii and then I buy two new shoes." (showed light-up shoes to everyone) "I go Mikazuki...car...Daddy." "Go to Shimoda. I go to the aquarium and got a squeaky dolphin like Zoe. But you squeeze it's fin to make the sound." "I was in Holden's house. I comed in a fat big taxi. Daddy and Mommy and my little sister." "James...sleepover...chicken." "Osaka...necklace." "I had a sleepover at my house." "I went to Hawaii with my mom, dad, and baby brother." On Tuesday, the children were treated with a wonderful performance of the Stinky CheeseMan in the community room. They sat so nicely and attentively through the musical performance and observeed the costumes and characters. After finishing, they went back to the classroom and drew their favorite part of the performance. Charlotte said she liked the Cheeseman the most, the prince, princess, and fox stood out to Ben, KK, Kaname and Cona. Well done, Pre-K friends! The children were also excited to play a familiar game, but with a twist. The popular snail boardgames they had been playing in their math center had come to life...this time though, instead of using snail pieces to move on the board, the children were able to move rolling a big die. This game was a great way for the children to practice their counting, taking turns, number and shape recognition, and just have a great time overall. The children were also excited to show one of the Kindergarten classes how to play the game as they are interested in games. They watched closely as the children demonstrated and explained the rules. It was a popular game all week! The children were also excited to celebrate a special birthday in the class. Our special friend also shared with us a new puppy that his family adopted. The children were so happy to share who had a dog or cat at home or who wanted one. It sparked a whole conversation about real animals versus stuffed toys which we will continue to talk about in the future. Recently the children have been very interested in taking a clipboard and walking around the classroom with it. Some of the children have been going to the writing center to find their classmates' names and writing it on the clipboard. Others have been asking their friends and teachers to sign their names. When the teachers asked what the children were going to do with these names, it was explained that they were planning a party. As they have continued to do this throughout the weeks, the teachers offered them an opportunity to plan their own 'real' party at some point. The children and teachers had several discussions about what goes into party-planning. They decided that they needed decorations or snacks like cookies. The teachers loved these conversations and will continue to plan this out. This week the children practiced writing the letter "C" and making the hard "c" sound ('k'). It was a bit tricky for children to differentiate C and K but they did their best to think of things that started with C and came up with: car, carrot, cake, camera, and Cona! Next, they used crayons to form the letter C. Finally, they practiced writing on blackboards and in their books. Speaking of the letter "C", some of your children may have come home declaring they are now a coach. As the children continue their learning when they go outside, they have been working on problem-solving and making rules as they play games. Recently, soccer has become popular and aside from kickers and goalies, a new position they have created is the coach. Teacher Bushra was very helpful towards the children in expressing why soccer teams need a coach (they help make strategies, give ideas, and make sure friends are playing safely.) We love this new position and the children do too! :) Have a look at our proud coaches on the sideline below! Thank you for a great week! Have a lovely weekend!
-Julie and Bushra Our Pre-K friends have been hard at work in the past couple of weeks. They enjoyed a variety of activities according to what they were interested in. As Teacher Julie and Teacher Bushra had some lovely flowers decorating the classroom, the children were curious about them. They were given the opportunity to create observational drawings according to what they saw. Our Dinosaur Doctor unit continued as the children added even more details to perfect what they had envisioned. The cave group decided to add an owl to their cave and looked at various photos of caves so that they could make one for their own. They tried various sized boxes to see what would be the most comfortable for the owl, then used yarn to make the bars. It was a long process but well worth it in the end! The ambulance group worked hard on putting something comfortable inside of the ambulance so the dinosaurs being transported would be comfortable. They searched through several of the art materials and made a bed out of milk boxes and lights using bottle caps to make the ambulance look more real. Finally it was time for the children to enjoy the collaboration of their hard work. The cave was set up, the owl had a place to hide out, the food was ready to be eaten in the hospitals once the ambulance filled with dinosaurs arrived. It was wonderful to watch the children interact with each other and their hard work! Some of the children have asked to add more items to the center which we are happy let them do. Let's see how long they play with this and continue to build on it! The children also continued their interest in sweet potatoes. They used ink to stamp some beautiful patterns using different shaped and textured potatoes. On a different day, they were able to eat 'just sweet potato' as Hugo had suggested. In addition to having the sweet potatoes by themselves, the children also had the option of trying melted butter or brown sugar with their potato. Teacher Julie and Teacher Bushra were SO proud of the children as every single one of them tried it! On Friday, the children were fortunate to have some mommies come in and do some cooking with the children. They were excited to choose what went inside of their onigiri. Some picked salmon, others picked only salt, while some chose everything ;) Some friends were super excited to have a little visitor as well! Thank you, Madoka and Akiko for making onigiri for the children! Finally, the children were very excited to learn about the letter "H" this week. As we have several friends with the letter "H" in their names, it was a popular letter and they had fun exploring letters that start with "H" as well as writing the letter on their boards. Well done, Pre-K friends! Thank you so much!
-Julie and Bushra Wednesday was a big day for our Pre-K friends as they had been counting down the days until the sweet potato dig. The children arrived with excitement and happily boarded the buses and arrived at the sweet potato farm. When it was time, they dug and pulled using their muscles in order to find so many sweet potatoes. They found big ones, small ones, skinny ones, fat ones. Every time they pulled one out they beamed with pride and placed them in the large bags to be taken back to school. We wanted to say thank you again to all those who were able to participate and help out on the fun adventure! Enjoy the plethora of photos! :) For even more photos, click on the slideshow below! When the children returned to school, they were eager to wash the potatoes. They took turns rinsing them off and examining their texture, shape, size, and some of their imperfections ;) We have been providing the children with opportunities to examine and 'use' the potatoes in different ways. So far, the children have used the sweet potatoes in their play as they divided them up among each other to count them (we ended up with 126 total!) and use them to make various shapes and letters. We've even begun talking about what we could do with all those potatoes. Some suggestions were send them home, do experiments with them, or plant them. Someone suggested eating them which sparked a whole list of things we could try to make with them. Some of the choices were: sweet potato cupcakes, pie, sandwiches, rice, curry, and even salad! Let's see what the most popular sweet potato dish will be soon :) We look forward to watching the sweet potato discussions and activities unfold and will do our best to provide opportunities for the children to see, try, and taste some of the ideas they have come up with. Stay tuned!
Thank you, Julie and Bushra Last week the children had their first cooking experience as a Pre-K class as they enjoyed making pretzels. We had special visitors join us and help us measure, pour, and mix various ingredients to form dough. The children (and adults) quickly realized that making pretzels was much stickier than anticipated as we needed LOTS of flour to get the right consistency. The children enjoyed the ooey gooey mess and did their best to form pretzel shapes as well as first initials and shapes. Thank you again, Hamish's mommy and grandma, for joining us and making pretzels with us! More Dinosaur FunThe children continued to work hard in their dinosaur hospital groups to follow their plans and keep trying to see what works. The cave pair used a whole lot of black paper to begin the process of making under the loft dark and a little bit scary, per their plan. They decided to crumble the paper to make it look bumpy. Then, after measuring and using LOTS of tape, they began to stick the paper to the ceiling and walls of the loft. They plan to hang leaves and ask friends to bring flashlights to school when the cave is complete for added effect. The hospital group originally wanted to tape two or three boxes together for their building. However, after placing dinosaurs in the boxes, it quickly became apparent that the dinosaurs could not fit comfortably (nor could they fit beds) in the boxes altogether. So they problem-solved in pairs. Two friends made a bed out of blocks and made sure the dinosaurs could fit. Another pair used a tissue box for a bed. It was later decided that one bed and dinosaur per cardboard box might have to be the new plan. They will continue on with this... The food group continued by looking at their original plan they had drawn after researching what food dinosaurs consumed. They chose types of paper to design, draw, cut and glue the food they had listed on their plan. They paid attention to detail and asked each other how they could improve their creations to make them look more realistic. The ambulance group was eager to start taping their box together. They had their eyes on one box in particular but when they realized it was too small for what they had envisioned, they changed to a bigger box. They covered the box with white paper and stuck as much tape as they could. It wasn't until they had covered the whole box that they'd realized they had forgotten to cut the door open! :) They explained that they would do it when they reconvene next week. The teachers have enjoyed watching the children go through several processes of designing, checking to see what works and what can be improved, and then going back and improving what they have done. This problem solving not only builds their critical thinking practice, but also allows the children to give suggestions and work together to figure out what they can do to make creations that are truly from them! Our First Mystery Reader!Last Friday, the children were so excited to welcome our first mystery reader of the school year in our class. Throughout the day, the teachers shared various clues about who would come. The first clue was, "I like to wear my hair in a pony tail" to which some immediately thought was "Mr. Banana-head" our school yearbook photographer. From that point, it was hard to point them in the direction that our mystery reader might be a woman. After several more clues and asking various visitors in the class if they were the mystery reader, we drew whom we thought the mystery reader would look like. Kaname's mommy showed up and the children were so happy to welcome her. Thank you again for joining us, Hisae! We loved the book and had a great time guessing who you were :) Thank you so much for a wonderful week!
-Julie and Bushra What fun we've been having in our Pre-K class! Last week, we had our school annual Fall Family Festival and there was plenty of excitement in the air. Teacher Julie and Teacher Bushra's class hosted face painting and the collaboration between parents and children did not disappoint! Please take a look at the slideshow below for more fun face painting pictures! HOW DO DINOSAURS GET BETTER?The children have been very interested in dinosaurs lately. From reading dinosaur library books to incorporating them into the block center for some dinosaur play, they have begun to take note of many aspects of these prehistoric creatures. The teachers noticed that a common theme for playing was taking the dinosaurs to the doctor after they were injured...which prompted a whole conversation about what hospital they go to and how they are transported. The class agreed to go with Dinosaur Doctor study in the next few weeks. They decided on four groups that they thought were important for this to come together: ambulance, cave, food, and hospital. Each group worked with Julie or Bushra and looked at photos in books, on the internet, or used their prior knowledge to decide what they needed to design their plan. They considered building materials from our art center and junk art area and even tried out a couple of prototypes. Finally they shared their plans with the rest of the class. The children are so imaginative and also paid attention to detail. We look forward to watching this unfold in the coming weeks. Some of the children also enjoyed pretending to be paleontologists by digging out dinosaur fossils from the sand table ,then sweeping them off with brushes! In addition to the play and planning surrounding dinosaurs, they have also practiced using some of the new vocabulary they have learned. Some dinosaur-related words you might hear them using are: skull, skeleton, fossils, triceratops, stegosaurus, beak, predator, protect. They have also been observing the various shapes in their groups as they determine what shape they need to make their buildings or vehicles and have been paying attention to size (bigger than and smaller than) as well as doing a lot of counting. This project will surely provide fun and learning opportunities galore! We can't wait to show you what they come up with next!
All the best, Julie and Bushra |