We made some additional modifications to the arrangement of the room in order create more space for the children's dominant play themes. In order to emphasize and expand our puppet theater and storytelling, the puppet theater and materials have replaced the dramatic play kitchen. In order to promote and better facilitate paper puppet making, those materials have been moved under the loft for greater access and closer proximity to the puppet theater. This will allow teachers to help guide children's thinking while creating their puppet characters to act out various stories. Name writing strips have been added to the writing table in order to scaffold children's alphabet knowledge as well as letter and name writing. The class will also continue to expand their ideas and knowledge regarding seasonal change as we build homes and habitats for woodland animals out of clay, match animals to their homes at the science table, and observe live footage of animal behavior in their habitats on the computer.
-Materials: Clay, plastic woodland animals, cardstock, construction paper, tape, popsicle sticks, toilet paper rolls, found objects, watercolor paint, brushes, paper.
-Rationale: Children will continue to explore the clay and will apply their knowledge of animal homes by creating clay homes for the various animal figurines. Paper projects continue to be of great interest in the classroom so we added found objects to expand the creation of the children's increasingly complex three dimensional paper sculptures. The paper puppet making materials have been moved under the loft in order to allow greater access, facilitation by teachers and close proximity to the puppet theater. The light table will continue to be used for watercolor painting as many children have displayed interest in this activity.
-Skills: fine motor development, creative problem solving, eye-hand coordination, representational creativity, self-expression, divergent thinking and functional representation.
-Materials: Moist sand, containers, buckets, scoops, shovels and hand rakes.
-Rationale: Children will apply their skills of scooping, sifting, filling containers and exploration of new sensory materials to moist sand. Children will be able to apply their knowledge of building structures to the moist sand as it will keep its form when compacted in various containers.
-Skills: sensory awareness, creative thinking, spatial awareness, large motor, fine motor and construction skills.
-Materials: animal pelts, acorns, antlers, feathers, the computer, animal home matching activity, paper and colored pencils, Boxy the box turtle, and Bart the python.
-Rationale: Children will continue to learn about what animals do to prepare for seasonal change. This will continue to build awareness of hibernation and animal homes. For children who are more familiar with the concepts of hibernation and migration, a matching game is provided in which the children match the animal to their home. The computer will still be used to show videos of various animals' homes, food collecting habits, and sleeping habits as colder temperatures set in. Children will be given the opportunity to represent their observations of the live footage or items on the science table with paper, colored pencils and clay.
-Skills: learning about natural science, information gathering, observation, representation, matching, critical thinking and inquiry.
Math and Manipulatives
-Materials: Assortment of Lego pieces, people and platforms, puzzles, shoe strings with large wooden beads and alphabet beads, and lacing cards.
-Rationale: To encourage greater interest in beading, small alphabet beads will be added. In order to facilitate more complex Lego building, Lego people and platforms have been added for inspiration.
-Skills: Hand-eye coordination, spatial relationships, whole/part relationships, fine motor skills, and small-scale constructive play.
Dramatic Play and Blocks
-Materials: Baby dolls, baby bed, baby accessories, cardboard boxes, and various fabrics.
-Rationale: To promote dramatic play and interest in the baby dolls, baby accessories and furniture will be added to the classroom. Cardboard boxes will continue to be available to children as they combine them with their hollow block structures to act out imaginative stories. Fabrics will continue to be available to facilitate character development or to contribute to their structures during dramatic play.
-Skills: Role-play, pretend-play, peer-interaction, creating imaginary scenarios, construction skills, communication, negotiation and collaboration, and care taking.
-Materials: Animal puppets, puppet theater stage, our classroom community book, paper and writing utensils available in the classroom, simple multi page paper books, model name strips with child's picture and blank paper strips.
-Rationale: The new puppets and puppet theater will replace the kitchen area in order to provide more space and attention for utilizing these materials in meaningful ways. Children will continue to create increasingly longer stories with the multi page books in the writing center and will be encouraged to write/draw stories that they act out in dramatic play. In order to support writing, children's names will be written on paper strips with their picture. Blank paper strips of the same size will be provided to encourage name writing and letter consistency.
-Skills: Receptive and expressive language, cooperation, negotiation, creative thinking, divergent thinking, creative representation, alphabetic knowledge, letter consistency and fine motor skills.
-Materials: Monkey bar swings, bumpy slide rope climb, A-frame with ladder bridge, uneven mat obstacle course, climbing wall, Pedalo. Outside there are shovels, buckets, bikes, and wagons.
-Rationale: Many changes have been made to the gym this week. The Pedalo was added to promote balance, coordination, lower body strength, and turn taking. The A frame obstacle course is set up as a ladder bridge suspended between the two A-frames, which are connected to a course of bolsters to walk across. A rope has been added to the rolling slide so children can climb up the slide. On the monkey bars we have added ropes for children to practice swinging. These new additions to the gym will provide opportunities to practice skills such as grasping, jumping, balancing, and even upper/lower body strengthening. The wall ladder will remain in the gym for children to practice climbing. On the playground we will continue to promote meaningful play through process skills facilitated by raking, shoveling, hauling and unloading.
-Skills: Dynamic balance, lower body strength, spatial awareness, turn-taking, jumping and landing, sliding, upper body strength, grasping strength, risk taking, eye-hand/foot coordination, climbing, coordination, and climbing.
Monday - Crackers & craisins
Tuesday - Frozen peas & pretzels
Wednesday - Bananas & milk
Thursday - Bagels & pumpkin butter
Friday- Trail mix