Pod A

Hello All!

Today we spent the whole day outside, minus rest time of course! The children had many different centers to keep them busy. We still had the woodworking center from last week but implemented many new centers this week as well. The children enjoyed the new clothes washing center where they stayed busy taking baby doll clothes and washing them in the discovery table filled with soapy water. After washing the clothes the children took the clothes and hung them up to dry.

            The second discovery table was also filled with soapy water but it was used for bubble making. Some of the children enjoyed making the bubbles, while others enjoyed chasing after the bubbles. 

At the paint center children used large paintbrushes to paint the slate on the side of the building. When the slate was wet it turned black displaying what design the children painted onto the wall.

In the Zen garden children played baseball, had sack hop races, and built with waffle blocks. “Home run!” Vinny shouted after hitting the baseball out of the garden.

           

            In addition to having all of the centers outdoors the meals were outside as well. When the children arrived they were invited outside to enjoy their cereal bars and pears, which they found exciting. At lunch it was off to the Zen garden for tacos, ants on a log, carrots, and chocolate milk. The end of the day snack was served on the playground, along with freshly made lemonade!

            Today was another great day at the CDLL, it seemed like there was endless smiles and laughter. Hope tomorrow goes just as well!

Until next Wednesday,
Katie Murphy

Pod A Student Teacher

Early Learning Expectation: Children develop healthy relationships with other children and adults. 

Wednesday, June 15th Pod B

Today was another exciting day in Pod B! Our morning started a little cooler, but the weather slowly warmed up. The children were outside for most of the day and they seemed to enjoy it very much. Today we even had breakfast outside for a change; the children adjusted easily to this. After the children ate their breakfast they played outside and remained outside until it was time for small group, unless the children wanted to come inside the classroom to play instead. While outside today some children utilized sidewalk chalk to trace their bodies on the pavement.

Jenny tracing Yuna on the sidewalk

There were lots of centers open for the children outside. The children were able to wash clothes, "paint" the building, dance in the amphitheater, play in the sand box, blow bubbles, there were lots of activities open today.

Kaliyah, Andrew, and Rose painting the building with water

The children also enjoyed cooling down with a nice cold glass of lemonade before they ate lunch. The children chanted, "we love lemonade!" while drinking their lemonade. Some of the children chose to sit on the ledge/bench outside of the building and talked with their friends while drinking their lemonade. After the children cooled down with lemonade, they played for a while longer and then we ate lunch out in the zen garden. Today we had a special lunch which consisted of tacos, ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins), celery with cream cheese, grapes, carrots, and chocolate milk. The children enjoyed their tacos and special celery treats!













After lunch the children continued to enjoy the outside centers. Tomorrow we are hoping for warm weather so we can go outside some more.

 Michigan Standards of Quality for Pre K: Creative Development 1.1 Children show how they feel, what they think, and what they are learning through experiences in the visual arts.

Until Next Wednesday, 

Ericca Peters

Tuesday June 14th Pod B

Dear friends and family of Pod B,

We had a different kind of day than usual today.  We spend the majority of the day outside, with the option to go into one of the classrooms to use the centers inside.  We brought a lot of our materials outside so that the children could enjoy some of the indoor toys outside.  The children had a fun day and went back and forth from the stations outside to the table with their water bottles.  Some of the children walked around to other children reminding them to stay hydrated!

Kailey and Alana drinking from their water bottles.

The usual outside centers were open, including the sandbox.  Some of the children had read a story about treasures in large group in the morning; so many children were digging for treasures in the sandbox!  The sandbox was open the entire day and many children visited, building sandcastles and digging deep holes.  Some children even buried their feet or a friend’s feet in the sand.

 

Bikes are constantly used on the playground, so many children took advantage of the bikes being out to either ride by themselves or to have a friend ride with them!  Outside art was also open.  Children could draw or paint outside.  Basketball is another opportunity that the children have.  There are small basketball hoops set up and many children enjoy playing with a couple of other children, usually forming teams.

Abby, Kyle and Ava working on outside art

Sam throwing the basketball

Sydni waiting for a riding buddy

Many new centers were also opened because we would be spending the majority of the day outside.  One of these new centers was a wooden ramp that had a divider in the middle.  The children could bring the toy cars from inside and race them on the ramp.  There was also a tube that some children used to send their cars down as well!  The parachute was also used today; many children had the opportunity to do games involving the parachute. 

Sam, Jaedon and Cormack running to bring their cars back

Baseball has also been a big hit with the children!  The children take turns hitting a ball that a teacher pitches to them.  The children are getting great at hitting the ball, some of them hitting it quite far.  Another new center that was open was music in the amphitheatre.  There were scarves and homemade musical instruments for the children to play with along with music playing so that the children had the opportunity to dance or sing along.

Children could water plants today as well.  Ms. Murphy, from Pod A, was outside helping the children water plants.  The children used watering cans and helped to water all of the plants on the playground.  There were also foam blocks that many children used to build large structures with.

Sergey, Kyle and Liam creating a foam block structure

The children ate lunch with the other pod today!  The children were excited to eat with the children from the other pod and to be able to interact with them all day outside.

 Michigan Standards of Quality for Pre K, Physical Development 1-3: Participate actively and on a regular basis, in games, outdoor play, and other forms of exercise that enhance physical fitness.

Until next Tuesday,

Brooklynn Voyles

June 14 2011, Pod A

Hello all!

Today was a great day at the CDLL. Once the weather was so beautiful, we stayed outside for most of the day. We now have included center time outside and there are many options for the children.

One of the options are planting and watering plants. The dirt and the plants dry up quickly in the heat and so the children make sure they stay watered. Every day we go outside with a hose and many watering buckets. The children are so excited to water the plants in the rainbow garden and see all the flowers bloom into many beautiful colors.

 

We also have the woodworking station outside. Children are using wood glue and different pieces of wood to build a sculpture. We have had this station for a few weeks now but the sculpture keeps growing. Every child (from Pod A and Pod B) stops by and adds on to the sculpture. Everyone is working together to build this piece of art. I am excited to see what it will look like by the end of the week!

Another fun thing we started is decorating paper bags for the end of the year celebration. Pod B will be putting on a play and there will be popcorn for everyone. Every class has some paper bags and the children are decorating them. They are using stencils and writing their names. They are also using markers, colored pencils, and crayons. It should be interesting to see what the children come up with!

The children will be outside a lot for the rest of the week. The weather is going to be beautiful but don’t forget to bring some sunscreen if you would like your child to be wearing some. I look forward to all the outdoorsy fun this week with your children!

         

          Fondly,

          Samantha “Ms.” Corey

Approaches to Learning 3.5: Children show increasing invention and imagination in their work and play in all areas of the curriculum. Increasingly show originality and flexibility in their work.

June 13th, 2011

Hell Friends and Families of the CDLL!

Today was our first day of having some of our lead teachers out for the week for teaching conferences, and the day went very smoothly! The kids got along great and we had a lot of fun doing different activities throughout the day.

All week we will be taking advantage of this beautiful weather and going outside for lunch. Today Pod B went to the "Zen Garden" located right outside the main entrance of the CDLL building.  We had sandwhiches, chips, apples, and also got to play with baseball bats, read books, and throw a frisbee around!

Clara showing her bead work for the camera

Kailey in her small group activity

We also are working on a project that involves us stringing beads onto pieces of wire during small group time.  The students enjoy beading and making patterns :) We also discussed what friendship is and had the children draw pictures of what they considered friendship to be.

Outside in the sensory tables we have "washing babies" which the children enjoy doing.  They often sing songs about cleaning the babies while doing so!

Liam and Johnny "hanging out" on the playground:)

Abby and Emma having fun with the babies!

We've had a great start to the week, and can't wait to continue the fun!

 Sincerely, Miss Lepine

6. Mighigan Pre-K Program Standard: Formal and informal grouping practices are used to
strengthen children’s learning.

Pod A

 Its Thursday!

Today was a very eventful day!! The day started out a little gloomy outside, but inside, Pod A stayed very busy and active! Inside we had many activities to explore! The children took ample time to work on flowers and decor for the flower garden. They had really took their time beading the pipe cleaners with glass beads!

Jazmine, Alliyah and Ella working on their projects for the flower garden!

Being that the pass few days has been extremely hot, we have pulled out the water bottles. To make sure that the children are hydrated, we take the water outside while they are playing. So whenever the children felt thirsty or hot, they got a drink from their water bottles! 

Cambreon & Josiah enjoying a drink of water outside.

Today we also had our picnic outside! We enjoyed a great lunch and then made our way to movement activities! We played with the bouncing bags, sidewalk chalk, we raced each other and really enjoyed our post picnic activities! 

Today we also had our picnic outside! We enjoyed a great lunch and then made our way to movement activities! We played with the bouncing bags, sidewalk chalk, we raced each other and really enjoyed our post picnic activities! 

POD A playing outside!

Racing to Ms. Schere!

On your marks, get set, go!

Concluding the week, The teachers in POD A hopes that you guys have a great weekend and we look
forward to seeing you and the children Monday!

Regards, 

Ms. Armstrong : ) 

Pod B

Happy Thursday!

 
It was another wonderful end to a great week with the children in Pod B! It was a busy, exciting week; including visits to the different kindergartens that the children are planning to attend. Today a group of children visited Pullen Elementary, and the principal had a bunch of things planned for the children. 

The children got to tour around the entire school (including a tour of a second grade classroom, kindergarten classroom, cafeteria, gym, and the library), had a story read to them by a kindergarten teacher, and got to spend time playing on the playground. It was a really neat experience, and a good majority of the kids already knew some of the people that were at Pullen, which was exciting for them.

Today wasn’t as nice of a day as it has been the rest of the week, but the rain managed to hold off so the children were able to play outside. However, we didn’t want to chance them getting caught in the rain for our sack lunch day so we ate lunch in the Maple room. It was a fun lunch time followed by quality outside time on the playground which is always enjoyable for the children. 

Children are also working in their various groups to finish up stuff for the play that will be taking place on the last day of school. They all have been working hard trying to get everything together to be prepared for the last week.

This next week will be pretty challenging, with most of the teachers gone, and just the student teachers in the classrooms. However, we’re all working together and going to make it a great week for the children. See you all Monday!!!

Sincerely,

Kyra Ziehmer

Michigan Standards of Quality for Pre-K: Social and Emotional Development 3.8

Children develop healthy relationships with other children and adults.