March 27th- April 13th Happenings!

Dramatic Play

We have been very interested in animals and have been pretending to feed and take care of animals outside, so this area became a zoo! We loved dressing up as zoo keepers and filling the buckets with food to feed all of the animals. We took "notes" and called each other on the walkie talkies. We loved getting into the different enclosures with the animals to cuddle and play. Bo, Joe, Reza, and Finn loved wrestling in the pool.

Block Area

We continue to love playing with the trains and building tracks. We have beed working together so well to make the tracks and then letting each other have turns driving on it. Bo, Finn, and Reza love to bring the toys up onto the sensory table to have them at eye level and watch them drive around in circles. The safari animals have been fun to play with alongside the trains and to further the zoo interest. We have been enjoying playing "house" with the different people and assigning them names and jobs.

Quiet Area

We still love reading books together and are starting to "read" them by making up our own words for the stories to follow the words on the page rather than just looking at the pictures. Bo read Finn a very funny story! We also are loving the babies. We have been practicing trying to dress them and Reza brought one to listen to stories with him.

Nature Area

The view finders are still very exciting. We have been really enjoying all the different animals and learning the different names. We have been sharing so well, letting our friends see what we are looking at. We still use the shells in lots of play, and have been trying to hear through them, as well as testing how our voice sounds in them! We also are exploring the magnifying glasses especially in the fish tank, trying to see their different colors up close.

Art/ Literacy

We have been really enjoying the art projects lately, especially anything involving paint! We tried a few different way of painting and explored the colors. We started using corks with colored paint. It was fun to figure out the best ways to get the paint onto the paper and using them like brushes or stamps. Then we explored black paint on white paper. We told very interesting stories about what we were drawing. Many of us drew our houses and neighborhoods as well as some of our favorite people and animals. 

Gross Motor

We have been loving going on the mattress together. We often want to play 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed, and sometimes we pretend we are in different vehicles together. We have also been doing lots of wrestling, both on and off the mattress. Bo often randomly hugs his friends which turns into a happy wrestling session.

Music Area

We love to dance! The scarves have been used lots, with us twirling and throwing them along to the music. We have been exploring different sounds with the frog rasps and the crow sounders. Its interesting to figure out how to make different noises and the best way to use them. 

Cognitive Area

The new pipe builders have been lots of fun. We have been very focused on trying to build different creations and figuring out how they fit together. We practiced sorting the different types and the colors. We loved coming up with new ideas and building together to make really big structures. The new latches puzzle has been fun too. We work together to open and close the different type of locks. We still continue to work hard trying to complete the jigsaw puzzles, it takes a lot of determination!

Outside

We had so much fun on our field trip to the zoo! We got to ride on the muni train and bus and loved the adventure of getting there almost as much as the animals! The bus driver heard us singing wheels on the bus, and played along: she was so fun! Once we got the the zoo we went straight to the giraffes, some of our favorite animal, and we went through the tunnels yelling "ECHO!" as loud as we could. We got to see the penguins and look and feel a penguin foot and flipper (not alive). We saw the tigers walking around and one came right up to the glass! We saw the lion family sleeping, and got to see a lion skull, a paw, and feel the mane (not alive). We rode the train together around and loved waving to everyone and going fast. We did such a great job walking and waiting for the bus at the end to go back to school.

In the backyard, we have been exploring building with pvc pipes. We had fun using them in the sand pit, filling them, digging, and building structures. We pretended they were water guns and used them to "water" the plants and each other! We've been having lots of fun together on the climbing wall/slide, going up and down over and over.We still love the swing, especially when we get on together and have been taking turns pushing each other. We took rides together on a "train" and ran to the destinations. The new window easels were really exciting and we painted with squirt bottles and colored water, then cleaned them with squeegees.

March 13th- 24th Happenings!

Dramatic Play

We are still very interested in fish and talk about going on boats, so this area turned into a fishing pond with a fishing boat! We loved rowing the boat, dressing up as fishermen/women, and trying to catch the different magnetic fish on fishing poles and in the nets. We played a lot together in the boat, pretending to be out at sea. We filled the boxes with our tools and all the fish we caught. We even sorted the fish by color and type.

Block Area

We have all been interested in trains, bringing them from home and talking all about them, so the train set is back! We have loved building different tracks together, and taking turns driving our trains around. We have been practicing great teamwork while building and helping each other. The arches are also getting lots of use, mostly as tunnels for the trains and busses. We still love the airplanes and helicopters and often fly them around. 

Quiet Area

We have been really interested in the babies lately, pretending that they need lots of things. We often put blankets on them and give them pacifiers or bottles but we also have been reading to them, taking them for walks and giving them toys. We still love the tee pee and reading books together on the "blob."

Nature Area

The new view finders have been very exciting! We have been looking at all the different animals and are fascinated in how they work. Some are more nervous to look inside, but everyone is still very intrigued by them. We even brought them to the dramatic play area and pretended to use them like binoculars!

Art/Literacy

We worked on our fine motor skills, patience, and focus trying to string beads. The strings will eventually become a hanging art piece. It was harder for some than others, but we kept trying! We also have been making lots of paper creations. Joe and Alex like making "bats" by rolling up paper and hitting the balls around. 

Gross Motor

The rocking horse came back and we have been enjoying riding it. We have also been sitting on the mattress to wait our turn and pretending to be on a ride. We have been doing lots of "wrestling" on the mattress rolling around on each other. Joe and Aria pretended to fall asleep, and then wake each other up over and over.

Cognitive Area

We continue to be enthralled with the bristle blocks, often spending quite a while building independently and together. We have been very creative with our ideas of what we make. Joe made an airplane shooter, Finn made lots of different vehicles and Alex made a plane that converts to a car. The new letter and number pieces have been lots of fun on the light table. We enjoy finding the different letters from our name and sorting them into color groups.

Music Area

The pianos came back, inspired by our interest in sound and playing music together. We have enjoyed playing them along with the shakers and rain sticks. Bo and Reza have been experimenting with playing the pianos with different objects. The scarves are also back and we have loved running around with them covering our face. We pretend to be ghosts and play peek-a-boo. We also have been dancing with them and watching what happens when they twirl around.

Outside

With the storms mostly gone, we have been outside a lot! The sandpit is always a hit, with us creating lots of different games to play together. We often take turns filling the trucks and buckets and have been making lots of "food" Aria, Joe, an Alex pretended to have "Animal Power" (I still do not really know what it means) and went around finding and feeding animals. The mud kitchen was filled with some rain water and we had fun playing in it, adding different dirt, rocks, blocks and trucks to it. We've been exploring the creek bed and looking for bugs in the rocks. We have found that the stumps are fun places to sit and find it hilarious to all sit together! Joe figured out how to spin it while still on. The climbing wall has been used lots. We have been trying to climb up the slides and think it is funny when we fall and slide back down. 

February 27th- March 10th Happenings!

Dramatic Play

We have been very interested in fish, in the tank, in books, and from the "pet store," and we have been pretending the ball pit is water to "swim" in. So this area became an Underwater Coral Reef! We loved pretending to dress up as scuba divers! We put on our wetsuits, goggles and air tanks to go swimming in the ocean with all the different fish and sea creatures. We pretended to be researchers in the submarine and caught lots of fish with the nets. 

Block Area

We continue to enjoy driving the different vehicles together around the ground and through the air! The dump truck is often used to transport more blocks, people or animals. We also have been buildings lots of towers with the blocks. Finn built lots of ramps and enclosures for the planes and helicopters. Bo figured out that the children fit into the holes on the airplane and took them for a ride.

Quiet Area

We have been spending lots of time reading, and really enjoy reading to ourselves! Often we will all sit near each other and look at books. We love reading together too! We have been enjoying role playing with the babies, making sure they have what they need. Bo and Cyrus made sure they had a pacifier and bottle, and Aria made sure to keep them warm in a blanket when we clean up.

Art/Literacy

We have been drawing lots of pictures of our families and friends and have been making lots of things to give them. We enjoyed using the fish stickers, especially the sparkly ones! We also tried using the big stamps, first on our own papers and then we worked together to make a big poster full of sea creature stamps. 

Gross Motor

We continue to play lots of soccer together with the small soccer balls and just love throwing them! The ball pit is still a big hit and we are loving jumping into it over and over again. We love running and often run from one end of the room to the other together. The mattress is still lots of fun and we often bring other toys to play on it.

Cognitive Area

We are still making lots of creations with the bristle builders! Most often we are making vehicles or planes, but we have also made castles, roads, buildings, and playgrounds. We enjoy helping each other and driving our vehicles around the rug "racing." The cubes on the light table are still lots of fun. We have been stacking them, and using them as materials for lots of different play. Bo loves naming the colors and collecting them to fill the truck. Cyrus and Bo thought it was fun to push the different things back and forth on the abacus.

Music Area

We had lots of dance parties, where everyone found instrument and we danced and played together. We have be experimenting with different sounds and have been interested in how to change the way things sound. The rain sticks have been especially fun to both shake quickly, and turn slowly to see what changes.

Outside

We went on two different adventures! Because we have been wanting to play soccer in the classroom and in the backyard, we went on a walk to the Golden Gate Park Polo Fields! We got to run around and play on the real soccer fields and score goals in the net! We got all our energy out and then picked daisies. Bo even passed them out to all his friends.

Then we went on a big adventure to the Academy of Sciences Steinhart Aquarium! We walked with our walking rope to the train stop, rode the train to 9th Ave, and walked in to the museum! We had so much fun looking at all the different fish and exhibits. We saw the penguins get fed, spotted some sharks and sting rays, watched the jellyfish and got to see the big coral reef and scuba divers! We watched the divers clean the tank and they talked to us about the reef and all the different fish. We had lunch together and then made our way back to school. Everyone was tired, but we made it! Bo and Finn even rested their heads on each other on the train.

In the backyard, we played in the sand box making cakes, castles, and roads. We used the outdoor blocks to make lots of different structures and Aria made a gate for the bridge. We went on the swing together and we went on bug hunts on the patio. Our blueberry bush is starting to ripen so we have been enjoying finding more and more every day!

February 13th- 24th Happenings!

Dramatic Play

We have been talking lots about animals, and enjoyed role playing with the stuffed animals in the quiet area, so this area became a Pet Store! We had so much fun picking out different animals, filling shopping carts, and playing with the cash registers. We used the leashes to take ours puppies for walks and gave them "food." Finn loved putting the fish tank on his head, and Bo loved taking the fish for walks in the cart. Alex and Joe flew the birds around, and Aria made parties for all the animals!

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Block Area

The airplanes, helicopters, and wooden cars are still lots of fun and we have been finding lots of ways to use them. We especially like to fill them up with people and fly them around together. We have been building lots of structures with the wood blocks, making bridges, towers, and "garages" for the vehicles. Bo and Reza enjoyed filling the dump truck with people and shells, and then dumping them back out!

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Quiet Area

We have been really enjoying our new "blob" bean bag! It has been a great place to cuddle and relax reading books, and just to sit when we need a break! The tee pee has been fun too, especially for hiding, but also for sitting and reading. Reza went in there to lay down and read all by himself! We often mimic our friends, and find our own book to read next to someone.

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Nature Area

The kaleidoscopes continue to be very exciting. We love using two at a time and finding different things to look at! We especially enjoy looking at each other and seeing how silly it makes our faces! The shells and rocks are still great materials that we love to explore and use in many different ways.

Art/Literacy

For Love Day, we had lots of heart materials, and we loved making different things for ourselves, our friends, and our families! The sparkly stickers were lots of fun and we practiced glueing trying to put the doilies on the heart shapes. We have been really enjoying markers and drawing lots of pictures with very imaginative stories! We also celebrated Aria's birthday! She got to choose the colors (pink and purple) for the collaborative canvas painting we all worked on.

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Gross Motor

The ball pit is back! We were all very exciting to play in the balls again. We often pretended it was water and went "swimming." Bo discovered it is a lot of fun to dive from the mattress into the ball pit and everyone else followed him doing the same. We played and sang 5 little monkeys on the mattress and took turns falling off and pretending to bump our head. 

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Music Area

We have been talking lots about bands, and wanting to play the instruments together to see what sounds we can make. The rain sticks have been fun especially comparing their sound to the real rain outside! We have also been using the drum sticks to bang on different things, exploring the different sounds they make.

Cognitive Area

We continue to find many ways to build with the stretch builders and enjoy playing with them together. We have been making lots of vehicles and robots. Finn liked to build "drills" and find different things to fix around the classroom. We have been really interested in the puzzles, and love to name the pieces and put them together as a group. We have been interested in finding the letters in our names and our friend's names on the Abacus.

Outside

We spent a lot of time in the sand pit. We love building roads and filling buckets and pots to make different things. The dump trucks are always fun to fill and dump, and the big shovels are lots of fun to use. We all went on the swing together and had so much fun laughing and spinning. We used the outdoor blocks to build towers and barricades on the bridge for us to jump over. Aria even used them as food to cook on the stove. We love throwing the hoops and watching them spin, as well as rolling them down the slide. We searched for many bugs, finding some in the creek bed and in the bricks. We loved watching them move around. Our blueberry bush is starting to bloom and we have enjoyed searching for and tasting the ripe blueberries. Everyday we go check to see if any more have changed from green to blue!

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January 30th- February 10th Happenings!

Dramatic Play

We continued to be fascinated with the fire station, so this theme stayed for further exploration. We loved acting out play scenarios in the fire truck and using all of the different tools and hoses. The boots are still the favorite dress up item, with many of us wearing them all day long! The new puppet theater was an exciting addition! Everyone enjoyed putting the animals on and making sounds. Joe and Alex had long conversations with the different animals talking about what they were doing. Reza noticed the clock on the theater was just like the one on the wall!

Block Area

The new slide builders have been lots of fun to try to put together. We have been very creative coming up with new ways to use them and imagining lots of different ideas of what they are. The new fire trucks have been a great extension from the dramatic play area as we use our imaginations driving them around. Joe discovered that the little ladders fit into the big ladder and made the "people" climb on and balance. Bo and Finn discovered that the shells fit in the same way! The planes continue to be used and Zachary loaded them up with all of the people and told a story about who they all were. Joe Alex and Aria found the sea animals and projected a story line onto them, acting it out throughout the different areas of the room.

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Quiet Area

We have been reading books to each other, and especially enjoy pointing out which characters we are. We continue to use our family pictures both when we are feeling sad and when we just want to talk about them!

Art/Literacy

We had lots of fun exploring the water balls in our sensory table! They started out really small and we watched them grow in the water! They got squishy and were so much fun to hold and squish in our hands. We used spoons and cups to sort and count, as well and fill and pour. We used lots of stickers on our art and spent some time molding clay. It was fun to add little bits of water and see how it changed the clay- making it softer! 

Gross Motor

We made a new ladder inspired by the fire station and our interest in ladders! It was a lot of fun to walk and jump through as well as pretend to "climb" on our hands and knees. We practiced coordination trying to avoid the rungs.

Music Area

The drums have come back out after our desire to use other things (blocks, sticks etc.) as drum sticks on various pieces of furniture! We have loved making music with them and finding ways to make different sounds.

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Cognitive Area

We have been really enjoying the light table with the cube blocks! We have been stacking them, sorting the colors and sizes, and lining them up in different groups. We also continue to enjoy building with the stretch builder, especially vehicles! 

Outside

In the breaks from the rain, we went on three different adventures! We went into Golden Gate Park to see the ducks and find different nature materials. We found lots of acorns, pine cones, and tree bark that was fun to touch! We went on a walk to test out our new walking rope  and to find fire hydrants. Everyone loved holding on and playing follow the leader as we walked. There were lots of giggles! Finally, we tried to go on a trip to the fire station, but they must have been out helping people. Instead we got to see the big construction vehicles getting ready to work on the road, and lots of pipes that will be going under it!

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In the backyard, the sandpit continues to be one of our favorite places to play. We love pretending to make food and building castles and roads. Joe and Alex were battling a dragon and had to block it from crossing into their house. The slide was often wet, but we had fun climbing up the wall and finding things to slide down the slide. 

January 16th- 27th Happenings!

Dramatic Play

Inspired by our interest in fire trucks and sirens that we hear outside, our dramatic play area turned into a Fire Station! Complete with our own fire truck, fire hydrant and burning house. We loved dressing up as fire fighters (especially the boots!), using the hoses to put out fires, and playing inside the truck and the house. We enjoyed plugging the hoses in to the different places and finding lots of different things that fit inside them! Bo discovered that they made his voice sound funny when he talked into one end. We put fires out all over the room with the fire extinguishers and loved driving the truck all over town.

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Block Area

The new wooden planes and helicopters have been lots of fun and inspired lots of imaginative stories. We especially like putting the people into the planes and decided who they are. Finn even discovered that the trees and signs fit into the holes! The trains continue to be popular, with everyone working together to build different tracks. The wooden cars became race cars on our car mat and we enjoyed playing with them alongside our friends.

Quiet Area

We've been reading lots of books, both together and alone. We also enjoy going into the tee-pee, to play hide and go seek, to have some alone time, or to play with the animals. Finn helped give the baby a pacifier and everyone likes seeing their eyes open and shut.

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Nature Area

We are using the kaleidoscopes in many interesting ways. Joe found that they roll in circles because of their shape and Bo and Finn found that they are fun to line up and stack. The magnafying glasses continue to be fun to look through.

Art/Literacy

We explored dry rice in our sensory table,with lots of different pouring tools. We discovered which worked the best and explored the sound as the rice fell through. We continue to enjoy coloring with markers and crayons,often making pictures for our family members. We enjoyed trying out new play dough tools inspired by our desire to cut and make different shapes. 

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Gross Motor

We continue to love running and jumping on our mattress. We often play follow the leader and run from one end to the other. Sometimes we are riding on a train or a plane with the leader being the conductor/ pilot. We also often crawl and pretend to be animals. Alex and Bo were bunnies hopping and Joe and Aria were horses. They all went to "sleep" on the mattress.

Music Area

We have loved exploring the new rain sticks talking about the sound they make and comparing it to what we hear when it actually rains. We often ask to listen to music and always use the ribbons to dance along to it.

Cognitive Area

The new light table has been an exciting addition! We have been exploring light and color with geode rick slices. We continue to enjoy creating with the stretch builders and using teamwork to try and put the puzzles together.

Outside

We spent lots of time outside in between the rainstorms and enjoyed seeing what the rain would do. Our mud kitchen was often filled and the sand in the sandbox was damp- perfect for making castles! When the slides were wet, we didn't want to slide down them, but discovered it was fun to put other things like the trucks down it instead! We still often use the dump trucks to move sand and play together making different things. The hula hoops have been fun to watch roll around and we continue to attempt riding the tricycles. We decided to use the balls as soccer balls and had fun running around together trying to kick them. When everyone wanted a turn on the swing, we decided to try to fit together and discovered it was even more fun than alone! We still love looking for bugs, especially in the creek bed. Zachary tried to see if there were any underneath the bridge.

January 3rd- 13th Happenings!

Dramatic Play

We were excited to see the kitchen back again, this time to play "house!" We cooked lots of meals and made many sandwiches for each other, and loved putting things into the oven to wait. We sorted the fruits and vegetables into the different containers, and practiced setting the table with plates, cups and utensils. There were lots of cleaning tools that we used to clean the window and the kitchen, as well as lots of other things around the classroom. The squeegees were especially fun to use on the mirror and fish tank! We used the brooms and mops all over, cleaning real and pretend messes. Finn even thought the new rocking horse needed to be cleaned!

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Block Area

Our continued interest in trains has led this area to have both little trains and tracks, as well as the big wooden train. We have enjoyed building lots of different tracks together and filling the big trains (with the new sea creatures!) to drive around. Finn enjoyed using the tunnels to cover the trains and animals and Joe liked knocking over the people like "bowling." 

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Quiet Area

We can never get enough books. We love to read them together as well as on our own, and talk about all the different characters, images, and stories. We are starting to figure out which books are others' favorites and bring them to them, and Bo likes to point out all of the "moons." Reza enjoyed exploring the different body parts on the baby. The family pictures have been fun to talk about, especially as our wall expands. Finn and Bo laid them out and practiced labeling themselves, their classmates as well as who is in each family.

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Nature Area

The shells and pine cones continue to be explored and used in many interesting ways, and the new kaleidoscopes have been lots of fun to use. We talked about how they change what we see and compared them to the magnifying glasses, deciding how they were different.

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Art/Literacy

Our continued love for all things cars and construction trucks inspired the sensory table this week. It was filled with beans and rocks, lots of construction vehicles, and cups. We loved scooping the beans up and filling dump trucks, feeling them in our hands and hearing them fall back into the bin. We also brought the sea creatures to "swim" in the beans, and we buried them until they were covered. The added knives and rollers for the play dough extended our desire to make cookies and cakes. We enjoyed practicing flattening, cutting and shaping the dough.

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Gross Motor

Our new rocking horse has been a fun addition, with everyone taking turns riding and petting it. Joe dressed it up with necklaces, Bo gave it a drink from a cup, and Reza gave it kisses! The mattress is still lots of fun to jump and roll around on, providing a great outlet for our excitement! We also have been crawling together like follow the leader, up and down the room.

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Cognitive Area

The new stretch builders have been fun to make different creations with. They are sometimes tough to move in the way we want, but we are working hard with them! The puzzles are still exciting to talk about and work to fit together, and a new more difficult puzzle, inspired by our fascination with bugs, has been fun to attempt to build.

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Music Area

The ribbons continue to be our favorite music prop, always requesting to dance to music with them. We also enjoy running with then and waving them around.

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Outside

With all the rain, we have been enjoying our mud kitchen filling up with water! We had fun splashing in it, filling pots and cooking them on the stove. We decided that the plants hadn't gotten enough water so we filled cups and walked around watering all of our plants. It was fun to pour them out and watch the water fall. We learned that it is hard to walk with a full cup without spilling! We continue to love the big chalkboard, collaborating to draw "ghosts" this week. We used the track rollers in the sand pit, making different roads for our friends to walk on, and we continue to make lots of cake, pies, and castles. In the cold weather, we found a sheet of ice on our block bin! We talked about how cold it was and had fun cracking it and watching it melt in our warm hands.

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December 5th- 20th Happenings!

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Dramatic Play

This area became a train station inspired by our desire to pretend to ride and drive trains. We had been running to the couch together and riding a "train" from one end of the room to the other. We really enjoyed seeing this idea come to life! We dressed up as engineers and worked on the train with tools, we passed out tickets and collected money, we packed many different things into our suitcases and enjoyed running around the room pulling them. We talked about different places we would go, pointing them out it the room and on the map, and different types of trains we would ride. We especially liked turning the light on and off.

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Block Area

We still are loving the construction trucks, driving them all over. We built lots of vehicles, especially planes and helicopters with the foam blocks and enjoyed flying them around the classroom. Aria added the ribbons to make hers fly. Bo liked turning the arch blocks upside down to watch them rock, and Reza discovered they fit around his belly and were fun to bang on.

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Nature Area

We continue to explore the shells, Alexander discovered that you can blow through them. The added Christmas tree branches have been fun to smell and talk about how they feel: Pokey!

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Quiet Area

We love reading books! Especially when our friends are reading too. We also have enjoyed the babies, feeding them and trying to dress and undress the babies, it's hard work! 

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Art/Literacy

We wanted to decorate the classroom for Christmas, so we made Christmas trees and ornaments to hang up. We practiced gluing and tried to make the paper look like colored lights. We turned our handprints into reindeer and decorated ornaments for our Christmas trees at home! We also enjoyed collaborating on a large painting to hang up, exploring how the paint rollers work. 

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Cognitive Area

The new abacuses have been lots of fun to practice counting, naming all of the different items, and spinning! We have been using the puzzle pieces in lots of areas of the classroom, especially the bugs, flying them around.

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Gross Motor

The ball pit has been a very exciting addition. We love diving into it and burying ourselves beneath the balls. Bo and Reza had fun making faces in the mirror, and everyone played follow the leader crawling around as lions and tigers.

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Music Area

We continue to use the pianos together, and have found many uses for the tambourines. Joe called them a crown and Aria tried them on her legs. The new ribbons have been lots of fun to dance to music with, testing lots of different motions.

Outside

We continue to love playing in the sand pit, using the rollers, dump trucks, and shovels and buckets. We also made lots of different cakes and pies with the pots. Bo and Reza are practicing getting on and moving the big tricycles, and everyone loves trying to use the hula hoops. Alexander pretended they were baskets to throw the balls through and Aria liked sliding with them. They tried rolling them on the grass and making sure they had space to spin with them. Bo discovered how to go up the climbing wall, but would rather slide back down it! 

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November 14th- December 2nd Happenings!

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Dramatic Play

Everyone's interest in the stuffed animals, as well as the books about animals inspired this area to become a zoo! We enjoyed dressing up as zoo keepers, playing with all of the different animals and talking about what sounds they make and where they live! The masks were a fun way to pretend to be different animals and make their noises. We acted out the "Goodnight Gorilla" book, unlocking and locking the cages for the animals. The keys were used in many areas of the room and we loved calling our friends and family on the walkie-talkies. Aria inspired everyone to go swimming in the pool with the water animals and Joe extended her idea saying the other animals needed to drink the water! Then they all decided the animals needed baths and brought them all in.

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Block Area

The construction trucks continue to inspire lots of play, we especially have enjoyed acting out different roles and using the trucks in both parallel and cooperative play! Bo and Reza have been practicing balance and stacking with the wooden blocks, trying to be very careful to place blocks on top without knocking it over! Bo enjoyed finding the doll furniture that has doors and finding little pieces to fit inside.

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Quiet Area

We continue to love reading, together and to ourselves, and applying the ideas in the stories to our play.

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Art/Literacy

We celebrated Joe's birthday by collaborating to make a special canvas with the colors he picked. We enjoyed helping each other fill the canvas and mixing the colors with both our brushes and hands! We enjoyed coloring with the markers and crayons, and adding stickers to make "mail" for our friends and family members. We practiced our fine motor skills with the scissors, cutting up the paper into very small pieces! Bo discovered that when he put the pieces over his nose, he made a funny sound! Reza enjoyed squeezing the scissors together really hard.

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Gross Motor

We tested many different objects in the tunnel, seeing what rolls well and what doesn't. Bo and Reza discovered that they could fit inside the cubbies and enjoyed climbing in them and playing peek-a-boo.

Cognitive Area

A maze puzzle was added and we loved trying to use the magnet tool to move the different color balls through the maze! We especially liked working together and each using a different color. The new gears were also lots of fun to build and watch turn. We tried connecting them in many different ways and discovered that sometimes they move together and other times they stop each other and won't turn!

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Music Area

The new pianos have been so much fun to play together. We came up with many different songs and experimented with playing fast and slow and how that changes what the music sounds like. We enjoyed dancing with the scarves to each other's music. After playing our pianos, when we listened to music we tried to find the songs that also have piano playing in them!

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Outside

After getting to explore our pretend zoo, we decided to go on an adventure to the real zoo! We were so excited to see all of the different animals. On the way we stopped at a big construction site and watched the workers and the huge crane lift lumber all the way to the top. We sang lots of our favorite animal songs on the way. Once we got into the zoo, we went through the cave/tunnels and learned about echos. We enjoyed yelling and then hearing "someone" talk back! We made our way to the giraffes and got to see them all eating! We talked about how big and tall they were and watched the baby giraffe play. We saw the gorillas and tried to figure out who was the mama, dada, and baby. There were so many of them that Aria said one was the uncle and Joe named one the godfather! We saw lots of the other monkeys playing and thought their structures look like a fun playground that we want to go to! We saw the lions and tigers sleeping and got to see the penguins eat. It was very interesting to see how they eat the big fish in one gulp! We heard all the lemurs making lots of noise and watched them jump around in the trees. Finally we got all our energy out at the playground and had so much fun playing "follow the leader!" We climbed up, around and went down the slide over and over again!

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In our backyard, we enjoyed the addition of sand rollers in our sand pit. They made lots of different tracks and we loved making "roads" for each other to cross and for the dump trucks to roll across. Reza tested it on the bench, and found it made a loud sound. Joe and Alexander tried to see if they would work in the grass. We drew lots of pictures on the chalkboard and went on a spider hunt, trying to catch them in buckets. We built lots of different structures with the blocks, Aria was making a spider house. Joe and Bo tasted some of our delicious strawberries!

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October 31st- November 11th Happenings!

We enjoyed celebrating Halloween together in our costumes! It was fun to see what everyone was dressed up as and talk about our characters. Everyday we are learning so much and creating great friendships. Our play is evolving to include more dynamic ideas and our language is growing to help us work together in the space!

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Dramatic Play

Our love for the small construction trucks inspired this area to become a construction site! We role played being construction workers, wearing the vests, hats and tool belts and did "work" together. The hammer and nail toys were lots of fun! We found many different uses for the tools, bringing them to "fix" lots of things! The cones were lots of fun, helping us make roads and lines. Bo liked unstacking and stacking them again. Joe used them in the sensory table to help pick up the material and Alexander thought they could be used on hair and noses! Aria used the tape measure as a leash for the dog stuffed animals and Joe put his animals in his tool belt!

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Block Area

More construction trucks, both big and small, were added to support our desire to do "work." The road rug inspired us to work on the houses with the tools and the trucks and talk about all the different buildings and roads. We pretended that some of them were our houses and school. We made block towers to knock down with our hands and with the trucks, and we enjoyed making different structures with the foam blocks.

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Nature Area

We've explored our growing nature collection, enjoying talking about shape size, and feel. Alexander figured out that the pliers could pick things like pine cones up. Bo and Reza discovered that the pointy shells fit into the screw holes on the shelves.

Art/Literacy

On Halloween, we enjoyed tracing pumpkins and adding stickers to them. We continue to love the sketch pads, making lots of pictures and watching them disappear again! In the first week, our sensory table was filled with a fine motor activity with pincher tools and farm animals in shredded paper. We had fun hiding the animals and uncovering them again, as well as matching the mommy and baby animals together and scooping them into cups. In the second week, it was filled with bugs, scooping scissors, labeled cups, and oatmeal to extend our interest in bugs and collections. We added the small construction trucks to help scoop the oatmeal, uncover and cover the bugs, and lift them into the different cups.

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Gross Motor

We continue to find new ways to incorporate the scarves, including making "costumes" and capes to run around in! Bo and Reza enjoyed playing follow the leader under and around the sensory table.

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Cognitive Area

We have continued to enjoy the hammer toys, furthering our construction interest. The puzzles are also fun to work on together and talk about the pieces and what sounds they make.

Outside

We went on an adventure to see real construction trucks and workers in action! It was so much fun to hear the sounds and see what the trucks could do! We were excited to come back afterwards and demonstrate on our own trucks too. In our yard, after all of the rain, we saw that our mud kitchen was filled with water! We added more things to the sinks to make soups and other foods. Joe added leaves and said they were fishies swimming around! We've enjoyed looking for spiders outside and watching them run away and hide. We found an earth worm after the rain and loved watching it find its way back into the wet dirt. The swing is lots of fun, and we have figured out how to spin each other on it too! We continue to use the hula hoops for lots of different play, and attempting to spin them around our hips. We also like to talk to each other between the crack in the slide when one of our friends is hanging our under them!

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