Tuesday, January 31, 2012 -- POD A

Today was a very fun and busy day in Pod A.

In the Art Studio, we have  'bubble paint' available. It's a mixture of watercolor and water, and the children use a straw to blow into the bowl and create bubbles with air. Then, they can put a half sheet of paper over the bowl and bubbles to make a pattern or design. We have been having a lot of fun seeing what we can create with this special kind of paint!

Tyler and Henry working together in the Art Studio using the Bubble Paint

Some of our small groups got the chance to work more on our ongoing class project. For those of you who do not know, each small group is creating their own flag, and when we are all finished with our own flags, we will combine them to make one large class flag!

It was also much nicer to go outside today for outdoor play time! It was noticeably warmer and less windy and much easier to run around and play with our friends on the playground.

We look forward to nice weather and fun times in the classroom together!

Miss Van Hamme

TS Gold, The Arts, 33: Explores the visual arts

January 31st POD B

Hello Families and friends! 

Today in Pod B the children were introduced to ramps. The children had their own individual ideas on how to build the ramps. Some children were using cars and others were using ping pong balls to rolldown their newly built ramps. The children used a lot of trial and error when the ball or car got knocked off the ramp they found a way to fix the issue.

Today in the pretend area children where introduced to new foods and nutrition. They enjoyed making healthy food for others and their babies. They seemed interested in learning about their bodies and what they can do to stay healthy.

Toward the end of the day we had a guest speaker who will be coming in every Tuesday for the next eight weeks. Today she talked about germs each child got the opportunity to participate in song and dance and making healthy snacks.

 Intellectual Development 4- Children move from solving problems through trial and error

Nadia Crescentini

POD A

Hello everyone!

Today we continued with morning wire appointments and open centers. The floam material at the texture table has continued to spark interest in shapes and feel. In the art center bubble paint has been introduced. Students are given their own individual straw and instructed to blow bubbles inside a bowl that contains paint, water, and dish soap. Once bubbles have been blown inside the bowl, a piece of paper is placed onto the bowl and voila! a work of art has been created. Two students in particular chose independently to create multi colored bubble paintings.
Today we also had two new speakers speak with students. The first person was a speaker on the Native American Culture and the second speaker spoke about germ sanitation. Both speakers were received well by the students and some even began washing their hands and singing the "wash wash wash your hands" sound after Mrs. Mcgee spoke with students.

Have a great week!
-Marshelle Jennings



Teaching Strategies: Intellectual Development 4- Children move from solving problems through trial and error   Language and Literacy 4-Children grow in their capacity to use effective listening and understanding

Monday January 30th,2012 POD B

Today we had different colors of playdough. The children explored with and realized that each colored play dough was scented differently. The purple was a grape scent. A guest speaker talked to the children today about Native Americans Traditions. The children seemed to enjoy the sensory table with the water because the children were pouring water into the different cups that had different size holes in them. The  children were using other cups to see how fast or slower the water rain out of the holes in the cups.
I hope everyone has a good week!!

Michigan Standards: Social Studies 2.6, Creative Development 1.3
Amy Patterson

Thursday, January 26, 2012 POD B

Hello everyone!

Today in POD B we had a lot of different things going on both inside the classroom along with in the hallway. In the pretend area children continued to put on shows and sing on stage. They love when they have an audience. Many children made up their own songs while others sung songs that they previously heard, such as songs on the radio and songs on television shoes.

 In the discovery center children continued to explore both the water table and the sand table. In the water table we have had cups with holes in the bottom. The children are starting to figure out why the water isn’t staying in the cup as they lift it out of the water. We have also added blue dye in the water, so they can really see the water as it empties out of the container. In the sand table a lot of children are using the dump trucks to bury other tools and trucks in the sand table.

In construction children have been playing with the blocks and animals a lot throughout the week. Some specific things that I saw today was children making train tracks for the cars and trains. They were also building more homes for the many different animals. Children are starting to distinguish between the different types of animals and make appropriate habitats for each.

In the art studio children have been using the play dough and the foam paint. With the play dough many children were making different types of foods, such as a cake, pizzas, cookies, and noodles. The last couple days the children have used the foam paint to make pictures, but today the foam paint was sprayed on the table and the children were able to use their hands to make designs. We have also had more wire and clay appointments today that the children made a bunch of wonderful pots and sculptures.

As you have already heard there have been a few new things in the hallway. The grocery store, mail area, and the wrapping area are very popular. Children are taking turns buying groceries and being the cashier. At the wrapping station the children are doing a fantastic job wrapping different objects and boxes.

Lastly, I would like to mention the bend and stretch we have in the mornings and the rough and tumble play that we have in the afternoon.  Today many children went down to the large movement room to participate in these centers. We had to talk about safety issues today during group about what you can and cannot do during rough and tumble play. The children really enjoy being able to take their shoes off and jump around for a little while. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We are really looking forward to next week!

-Miss. Brady

Approaches to Learning 1-1 Social and Emotional Development 1-3

Thursday January 26th POD A

Hello Everyone!

We had an eventful day today! In the morning we finished up wire appointments with Mr. Jonaitis, working with tools to help us bend and curl the wire. We're also continuing with bend and stretch every morning, the children come back into the classrooms after bend and stretch excited for the rest of their day.

We've been having a lot of fun in the centers as well! We've been experimenting with powder paint and seeing what happens when the primary colors are mixed together. We have also introduced some new tools with the floam at the texture table; rolling pins, cookie cutters, and imprint designs have been very popular. Pretend gets more intricate all the time, the children have been talking about going to the doctors, taking medicine to feel better, and treating the baby dolls and stuffed animals with "medicine" so they feel better too. 

While playing outside today the children noticed that there was ice on the sidewalk and it made riding a bike through that particular spot challenging. So we had a crew of children that decided to shovel the ice off of the ground and get it out of the way so that the bikes can still pass through.

Have a great weekend!
-Ms. Tabeek

Teaching Strategy: The Arts 33: Explore the visual arts. Social Emotional 3: Participates cooperatively and constructively in group situations.

Jaedon finishes up a painting using powder paint and water.

Colton hammers a nail into a piece of wood to build a rocket ship!

Oliver, Bryanna, and Aaron shovel the ice off of the sidewalk outside so the bikes do not get stuck when they ride by.

Pod A: Pretend

It was another busy day in Pod A. The children continued with wire and pottery appointments. There was also bend and stretch in the morning and rough and tumble in the afternoon. Some of the children went down to the kitchen in the morning with Mrs. Kauppi to learn about the food groups. In the afternoon at small group the children continued to talk about their families.

Today the pretend area was very busy. There was a big bad wolf and bear that were coming after the children. They decided that in order to get away from the big bad wolf and the bear they had to get on a plane and take a very long ride to Mexico. However, the big bad wolf and bear got on the plane, but the children still got away from them. Some children were also acting as dogs and other children were there caregivers. They gave their dogs food and made them beds. 

The baby dolls are still popular with the children. The children dressed the babies and put them in a stroller or a car seat and packed a bag with snacks. They took their babies to the movie to see Beauty and The Beast. 

Have a good rest of the week!

- Miss. Minotas

Teaching Strategy: Creative Development, 4. Children show how they feel, what they think, and what they are learning through dramatic play.

Devin, Jordyn, and Aisha on the plane trying to escape the big bad wolf and bear.

Tyler, Jordyn, Devin, and Danielle being dogs and their caregivers.

Maggie, Samantha, and Gabby seeing Beauty and The Beast with their babies.

Pod B Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012

Today we continued to work with the new centers that were introduced to us this week.  Wire appointments continued and we had multiple students who loved to be involved with Ms. Weller and the wire tools.  The pottery wheel had a new instructor, who introduced new ways of creating masterpieces with the children.  We brought out new paint today that was in the texture of foam.  The children enjoyed using their hands and many tools to spread the paint around, and mix up the colors.  Some art pieces came out of this experiment, and this gave the children a new way of creating pictures.

While outside the children had a blast playing monster tag!  They knew how to stay safe in the areas where it looked icy, and they were respectful to each other when it was their turn to tag other children.

We talked a lot about families today in small group.  Some of the small groups drew pictures of their family, talked about how to be safe with their family, and talked about the similarities within all of the families that were present in the picture frames.  The children are very excited to get going on our school community flags, which will progress this upcoming week.

Have a great rest of the week and weekend!

-Miss Braley

Teaching Strategies: Social Emotional 3, Cognitive 11, Physical 7.

Pod A on Tuesday 1/24/12

Today was full of many exciting things in the Classrooms!

To start off, the students continued their clay appointments with Mrs. Bristley and the guest helper with the pottery wheel. During small group time, each group discussed who is in their families and drew pictures of them. Each small group will be decorating a flag with their favorite things to represent their group. They brainstormed different things they would like to put on the flags and will be putting them together really soon!

The hallway is a very popular place these days. There is a new Grocery store as well as a post office in the hallway for them to explore. With the post office, they are practicing wrapping presents and are able to put stamps on them and go through the process of mailing. At the grocery store, there is food to put in grocery bags and a cash register to pay for their grocery items.They are really enjoying the new activities in the hallway!

Have a great rest of the week!

~Laura Morris~



Michigan Standard of Quality: Social and Emotional Development 1:5 = Recognize and have positive feelings about their own gender, family, culture and language.

POD B: Tuesday 1/24/12

Today in POD B we had many student interested in putting on “shows” for each other on the new stage.  They enjoyed dressing up together in the pretend clothes and organizing who was going to sing when.  They would hold microphones and take turns signing songs.  Justin Beiber songs were very popular and the favorite to be sung. 

 We also had many students over in the construction area today participating in making different habitats.  They are building the habitats with the blocks and then adding farm, jungle, and forest animals to them. 

The students have also been exploring new things in discovery.  At the wet sensory table we have added blue die to the water and added measuring cups with different size holes at the bottom into the water.  The children have been taking turns going over there and studying why the water is draining and why it is draining at different levels.  Some are beginning to understand what is happening while other are still exploring and learning.  We are continuing on with our wire appointments, which seem to be a big hit!  We are looking forward to fun remainder of the week! J

POD A: Welcome Back!

Our first Monday back was a big day for the children in Pod A. In the morning we enjoyed appointments with Mrs. Bristley and Mr. Jonaitis. Students from the art department on campus came and assisted Mrs. Bristly with teaching the children how to make pottery on the pottery wheel and Mr. Jonaitis showed the children how to work with different types of wire. The children also enjoyed a nature walk today around campus. They were very interested to see that the pond located by the Park Library was frozen, yet there was water still on top! Another thing that the children really enjoyed today was the introduction of the new basketball court that was set up in the large motor room. The children learned how to pass the ball to one another and a lot of hard work was made towards making baskets on their first day! We are all looking forward to all of the fun things to come this week!

-Ms. Latkofsky

 Teaching Strategies: Large Motor skills and coordination

First Monday Back!!

Today we had many things going on! We had rough and tumble play in the afternoon and bend and stretch in the morning. This morning Ms. Weller came into Pod B and worked on wire appointments showing the children how to cut and bend the wire to a desired spot. This afternoon Mrs. Bristley came into our room and told us how to use a pottery wheel. We were told how to hold our hands to make the hole in the middle and how to hold our hands to make the sides of the dish move up to make it longer. We also learned how to turn the pottery wheel on and off with the pedal on the floor. Mason and Mya really enjoyed learning how to make pottery and can not wait to be able to try it on their own!

Teaching strategies: Demonstrates fine motor strength and coordination.