Dramatic Play
Ready for Take Off! We have been talking about our trips and building lots of airplanes, so this area turned into an airport! We love handing out tickets and going through security with our luggage before boarding the plane! The big map has inspired us to think of lots of fun places to travel too and the pilot always lets the passengers know where the plane in headed. The dress up materials have gotten us excited to be pilots but also flight attendants! We love pretending to bring the passengers different drinks and snacks and making sure everyone has blankets and a place for their luggage. Speaking over the “intercom” to the passengers and crew has been one of our favorite things to do too!
Block Area
We have gotten very interested in building tracks with the ramps, and discussing how fast or slow things go depending on the design. We tested lots of different ways to try and make the balls or cars go all the way to the end. Once we were even able to get them to go all the way to the wall on the other side of the room! Most of the time they crash or fall off the tracks, but that’s been fun to laugh at too, and we enjoy the process of trial and error!
Nature Area
Our classroom has been filled with lots of chirping! All of our chicks have finally hatched and we had the opportunity to hold and pet them! After much discussion and debate with our peers, we named the chicks. The yellow one is called Egg-Head. The two all black ones are Mickey and Minnie Mouse. The two gray ones are Happy Fluffy and Fluff Ball. The dark gray one is Foxy Doxy, and the black and yellow one is Elsa. We love watching them each day and are constantly amazed at how fast they grow!
Quiet Area
We have been reading lots of books related to airplanes and still love reading books about chickens. We’ve also had fun revisiting our All About Me pages and discussing them with our classmates. Sometimes, we’ll play with the babies, read books to them, and pretend to be their mommies and daddies who need to feed them and change their soiled diapers.
Art Area
At Manos, we have created animal masks and electric toothbrush robots! For our masks, we determined which animal we wanted to make and carefully cut pieces of tape and the paper plate into varied shapes and sizes to create the physical attributes of our chosen animal. We then stuck the the pieces together with tape and the result was a room full of creatures of all kinds. We had lots of fun showing our friends and teachers our masks, and it reawakened our excitement for Halloween. For our robots, we molded play dough into a face of some kind and stuck it onto the top part of the toothbrush. Each one of us took the caps off of three markers and the teachers helped us tie it to the toothbrush. Undoubtedly, our favorite part was when we turned the toothbrush on and the robots started moving in repeated circles!
At school, we have been drawing treasure maps as well as creating images with magnetic shapes. We love drawing pictures of our family and doodling whatever comes to mind. We also really enjoy the sensory table that is currently filled with oats and insects. Sometimes we collect the bugs and sort them into separate containers, and at other times we hide them in the oats or create oat-houses for them.
Gross Motor
Our energy is channeled in many different ways when we play inside. We rock our bodies to and fro as we maneuver our boat, play catch, and squirm between chairs and under the tables in an unofficial obstacle course! We also have been practicing toe-ga and several other yoga poses, such as ant pose, plane pose, boat pose, plank pose, and lighthouse pose.
Music Area
With Charity, we have been singing and dancing to our old favorites, including “Lemonade,” “The Amazing Rocket Ship,” and “The Creeper Walk,” to name a few. We’ve also listened to the different sounds created by the flute and recorder and practiced doing the tango with our scarf! We sing Charity’s songs throughout our day, and especially love pretending to be Charity. We’ve also been creating our own songs by playing a melody on the piano and making up the lyrics as we go.