a holistic pre-school and kindergarten

Monday, December 22, 2008

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

News of the Day 12-16-2008

  • During arrival we worked on jingle bell bracelets for the BB Winter Celebration and read some books on our own
  • During Hello Meeting we had our "Hello Neighbor" greeting and read 'Can't You Sleep, Little Bear?' by Martin Waddell
  • During Explore some of us worked on building a tent in the meeting area while others built different marble runs and tried them out
  • For Snack we ate chips and carrots with Hummus (thanks to Otis's family)
  • During Art with Abby we first worked with stamps in our journals then on a project that will be a decoration for the Winter Celeb
  • Outside we spent much time scooping ice and water off the sandbox tarp. We also worked on turning a snow pile into a snow castle
  • During Lunch we practiced the songs for our Celebration

Friday, December 12, 2008

News of the Day 12-11-2008

  • During arrival we worked at the project table with "recycled materials". A favorite of the group as we sing "reduce, reuse, recycle... bottles, paper, cans." Some of us also read books and talked about growing our beards.




















  • During Hello Meeting we had our Ball Greeting where we tossed a ball to a friend while greeting that person thereby practicing both social and gross motor skills. We then read 'Ant and Honey Bee What a Pair!' by Megan McDonald.
  • During Explore we all rent right to the Block Area and continued to build upon Otis and James's structure from Tuesday. We then decided to build a tent and campfire in the meeting area. The whole group had a great time camping and want to get right back to it on Tuesday!
























  • For Snack we ate rice cakes with hummus and carrots and cukes. (thanks to James's family)
  • During Morning Meeting we talked about, and practiced the songs we are going to sing for our Winter Celebration. We read "Giggle, Giggle, Quack" by Doreen Cronin
  • Outside we pretended to be baby mice in the snow. We did a bunch of shoveling and broke up the frozen chunks of sand in the sandbox.
  • Lunch and goodbye.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

News of the Day 12-10-2008

  • During arrival we started to construct a train track on the project table. We gathered in the meeting area and read 'Teeny, Tiny Mouse: A Book About Colors' by Laura Leuck.
  • During Morning Meeting we had our slipper greeting and then had our dance party. We sang "If You Are Happy and You Know it", "I've Been Working on the Railroad", "Monkey...", "Ladybug...", and "Coconut"... with an a Capella version of "Jingle Bells" accompanied by Otis and Anika's bells. We then read 'Ant and Honey Bee
  • For Snack we had a picnic (due to the train set-up on the table) and ate muffins (thanks to Isaac's family)
  • During Explore time we then read 'Ant and Honey Bee" by Megan McDonald, "Angus and the Cat" by Marjorie Flack, and "Who Said Red?" by Mary Sefozo. We continued to work with our train set-up as well as push dollies around in shopping carts and strollers









  • During Outside Time some of us worked to shovel the water off the tarp over the sandbox. We then scraped the light snow cover off the ground and the swing set. Then we went super-fast down the slippery slide.
  • After lunch we worked on puzzles in teams and individually


Tuesday, December 9, 2008

News of the Day 12-9-2008


  • During arrival we created an emergency vehicle with our chairs in the meeting area and raved around to emergencies... This is a class for of dramatic players!!!
  • During Hello Meeting we had our Slipper Greeting and noticed that we were down one. Nico was out today. :(
  • During Explore we continued using our emergency vehicle, this time to rescue a baby bunny from a crocodile (with thanks for Otis's stuffed champ for playing the role of the crocodile). We needed to devise an elaborate plan, complete with tools, to retrieve the poor bunny from danger (ie- stuck behind the couch in the meeting area...)
  • For snack we ate homemade muffins and pea pods
  • During Art we first worked with stencils in our Artist Journals. We then used clay to work on a mystery project...













  • During Morning Meeting we read 'Gingerbread Baby'
  • Lunch and Adios...

Sunday, December 7, 2008

News of the Day 12-4-2008

News of the Day 12-3-2008

  • During arrival we drew with markers at the project table
  • During Morning Meeting we had our slipper greeting and read 'The Snowy Day', 'Snow Crazy', and 'Billy Bean's Dream'
  • For Snack we ate crackers and hummus and SMOOTHIES! Yum!!! (thanks to Lily's family)
  • During Explore time we sang our usual songs as well as learning "Coconut" by Harry Nilsson. We received calls from various sources in the dramatic play area and wrote down messages












  • During Outside Time some of us worked at balancing on a piece of wood while others droves vehicles on the driveway. Most of us played runaway cookies before heading inside for lunch











  • After lunch we worked with puzzles and ran Andy in circles... ;)

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Thursday, November 20, 2008

News of the Day 11-20-2008


  • During arrival we used play dough and shape cutters to make snow people and stars and gingerbread babies
  • During Hello Meeting worked on our new 'Hello Neighbor' greeting. We really like this one! James also invited a 'Mouse Greeting" where we squeaked to each other.
  • During Explore some of us used the easel for the first time...


























some of us created a BIG structure in the blocks












We then all became interested in play-acting as firefighters. We put out fires throughout the BB
using our hoses...





















  • For snack we ate veggie booty, tings, and apples
  • During Morning Meeting we told our News of the Day. We read 'Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse' and 'Library Mouse' (a mouse theme developing?)
  • Outside was chilly! We continued our dragon/dinosaur game and played some Runaway Cold Cookies!
  • Stories, stories, stories during lunch...

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

News of the Day 11-19-2008

  • During arrival we worked with the our new play dough that the Tues/Thurs crew created
  • During Hello Meeting we sang our Hello Greeting with Jambo and Hola as substitues for Hello. We had our slipper gretting and read the books 'Firefighter Piggy Wiggy' and 'Hey, Pizza Man!'
  • For Snack we ate oranges and pretzels and booty
  • During Explore we spent almost all of our time painting at the easel for the first time

























  • We also spent a little time before Outside Time exploring texture with shaving cream






















  • During Outside time we used our vehicles to roles around the yard and we also tried to catch snowflakes in our mouths...















  • After lunch we worked on our puzzles... delighting in mixing up all the pieces! ;)

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

News of the Day 11-11-2008

  • During arrival we continued working with tape and TP rolls. Today a police car was created. We all read a snake book to our "real" snakes.
  • During Hello Meeting we had our Slipper Greeting. We sang "Monkey and the Engineer" and had a danced to it. Andy introduced some new materials: 2 new puzzles, a new peg board, and a castle block game. Lastly, we read 'Superdog'
  • During Explore we played with the new pegboard and tried to make the pegs reach the ceiling. We also worked with the castle block game in which we needed to recreated structure from an instruction book












  • For snack we ate apples and crackers (thanks Elena's family)
  • For our 1st Art Class we created leaf etchings, cut them out in various ways, and them glued them onto matte board. We had a wonderful class and we're really looking forward to next week.
  • While waiting for everyone to finish their art project some of us worked on the new puzzles. When everyone was finished, Andy read the first part of 'Poppleton, Everyday'
  • We had lunch before Outside today because of the timing of Art. We'll see how this works in the coming weeks.
  • Outside it was chilly! We need to remember to go potty before going outside...

Monday, November 10, 2008

Projects, Projects...

It always starts with tape...









...Rowan had an idea...









...and James was inspired...













...they worked hard...









...and Rowan admired his fire engine!