ask me about wednesday, august 28, 2024

We talked about analyzing things today.  We talked about studying to notice how things are the same or different.  We also talked using the words all and some as we compare.  We looked at these beautiful flowers and noticed many similarities and differences.  I guided them by mentioning color and shape of the flowers.  We also looked at some of the leaves.  Ask me to tell you what I noticed.  

We passed the Talking Cauliflower today.  The Comfort Cauliflower stuffie is having to do double duty as I have lost my Talking Carrot.  I ordered a taco stuffie that I hope will help us by taking over for the Talking Carrot.  We use these talking stuffies to help us in learning when to talk and when to listen.  The children sit around the perimeter of our big carpet and we use the stuffie to remind us when we can talk and when we need to listen.  We will do this often at the beginning of the year as part of getting to know each other.  The children hold the stuff and say their name in a sentence then tell us something.  For example, today we read the book Layla's Happiness by Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie.  This book was about a little girl who about things that make her happy.  We passed the Talking Cauliflower and the children said their name in a sentence, with some prompting, then said what made them happy.  We tried to remember to give a thumbs up if what the child shared was something that made them happy as well, instead of blurting something out.  The children are really doing a great job of listening to each other.
We practiced counting the math way.  To count the math we, children put their fists up the start with the pinkie finger on their left hand so they are counting left to right just like reading left to right.  When they get to five, that is their thumb, and for six they put their thumb out and count six all the way up to ten with their pinkie finger on their right hand being ten.  Right now in math, they are just learning to five, but I did show them to ten.  I'm including a video of a teacher showing caregivers how to do this counting with a few ideas of how to reinforce it at home.  We just started this so it's a little tricky for some of the kids to move those fingers the way we are asking, but they are trying!

Our Choice Time, really self-selected play time, happens after lunch since we go to recess later in the afternoon.  Today we opened the art station.  Right now they are working with cutting and gluing with our Just-a-Dot glue bottles that only put out a little glue at a time.  The children that went to the art station could use regular or fancy scissors, hole punchers or fancy punches, and construction paper.  I modeled how they could use the pieces of construction paper I cut into different kinds of rectangles and different sizes.  They did a great job following directions and not using other things off the art cart.  We also have housekeeping station open and can have five children in that station at a time.  They love playing with the babies and the food.  Cleaning up is a chore, and they have already figured out they can put things in the sink then just dump the sink and everything falls into the cabinet below.  We are going to have a serious talk about where things go soon!!!  They are very advanced because most years that trick isn't learned until the second marking period.  The children can also use building materials, foam blocks and these tiny Lego pieces that are meant to make mosaic pictures.  They are doing a good job of cleaning up and it seems like they are having a good time playing.  

Have a nice evening!
Miss Wolfe