Pod A

Today was a pretty chilly, but many children still chose to play outside! In the morning we had a bike ride around the school again that the children really enjoy. We went on a picnic lunch to a new spot, between Anspach and Pearce Halls. It was a nice place to enjoy our lunch. We also had snack outside today, which the children seem to really have fun with. We have brought some new things outside this week, such as laminated books and puzzles and games for the picnic tables. We also brought out puppets for the children to use in the amphitheater, and they are putting on many puppet shows. Despite the weather, it was a really great day!

Miss Echelberger

5.31.12 Pod B

Hello,
Today was a cold windy day at the CDLL lab. We spent most of the day outside as we usually do and the kids didn't seem to mind the cold weather. They took bike rides around the building with a couple of our teachers, and continued to wash babies outside in the water table. We also continued in the classroom with cutting wood with real saws, playing with the flubber we've made this week, and painting with the puff paint that we make daily. We also went to a picnic area by the Engineering and Technology building. Lets hope for warmer weather next week to continue the fun activities.

-Miss Fisher

Wednesday May 30th 2012 

POD A 

Today POD A ventured to the gazebo, one of our favorite spots on campus for our picnic lunch. With the weather being a bit cooler today many children chose to split their time between outdoor activities and indoor centers. New activities this week at centers include shaving cream, watercolor, and colored sand at the light table. In the art area we have provided the children with the materials for experimenting with color mixing and a color wheel to help assist them.

POD A Children at the light table

POD A Student makes green from blue and yellow!

-Ms. DeBets 

POD B 5/30/12

Hello Families!

For starters, today was Alyssa's birthday! We also had a long day of continuous planting with Mrs. Potter. Every time we were outside, she was laying down gardening soil and planting plants and seeds. Children helped spread out the soil with rakes and hoes, as well as walked around with watering cans to water plants around the playground. We had a picnic lunch at a new location today, under apple trees, right next to where our new campus garden will be! The children explored and tomorrow some children will have the opportunity to plant in the new garden. At the end of the day, there was a story read under the bridge on our playground, as well as a dance party that children from both Pod's participated in. Although the weather was a little cooler today, there was still a lot of time spent outside!

-Ms. Musa

Tuesday, May 29 Pod A

After a very long weekend, we are all excited to be back for another week of school.  This week our HDF 409 student teachers have taken over all of the classroom's responsibilities, we are all looking forward to the next three weeks of class! Here are some pictures of what our school was up to today while we had beautiful weather outside.
a 

Some of our children helping Mr. Jonaitis install our new drinking fountain for the playground. 

The new carpet area used for construction continues to be a popular area during outdoor centers time.

Aisha and Bryanna enjoying this weeks outdoor sensory table; washing babies.  This idea was a hit all day!

Our staff's efforts to create more space in our storage room means more take home projects during the summer.  These children are working on designing picture frames and boxes.

Tomorrow we are planning to revisit one of our new favorite picnic areas on campus, the new gazebo near the library. Also, keep a look out for our plans for our field trip.. we are hoping to go to the bowling alley at the SAC! See everyone in the morning!

Ms. Willyard

Social-Emotional - 1,2,3

Tuesday May 29, 2012 Pod B

Hello!


Today starts the third week of summer classes, and the first day the 409 students completely take over the teaching in the classrooms!


We had a great day, and everyone has finally settled into our new schedule that includes outdoor center time, which this week included new things like gears puzzles, and special art projects at the picnic tables! We also spent a lot of time planting in the flower beds, and working on the sunflower garden. 




Ms. Varner 


Teaching Strategies Cognitive #11: Demonstrates positive approaches to learning
Science and Technology #27: Demonstrates knowledge of Earth's enviornment

Water Day! POD B

Hello,
Today was a beautiful day and the kids enjoyed spending most of the day outside. We had a picnic under the maple tree across the street from the school, then after rest time this afternoon we spent outside with sprinklers all over the playground and a slip and slide that was set up also! There were lots of laughs, and smiles as the children ran around with the teachers and the other children. There were also students from the science department who joined us outside and had many different activities with bubbles. Some had experiments with how you can blow bubbles with different objects. There was a station where the students stood inside a kiddie pool with soap and water at the bottom and had a hula hoop around them and a bubble formed around them when the hula hoop was pulled out of the soapy water. Included are some of the photos that were taken during water day.
- Miss Fisher

Water day! Pod A

Today was a beautiful day to end our week! We had sprinklers and the slip n slide out in the afternoon, and everyone had a great time. We also had a picnic lunch across the street from the school, which was a perfect shady spot on such a warm day. The children also continued to collect insects outside to put into our habitat, and we continued to have art activities available outside as well. The summer is off to a wonderful start!

Skills: Demonstrates knowledge of the characteristics of living things
Establishes and sustains positive relationships

Ms. Echelberger

Wednesday, May 23, 2012- POD A



Today was another beautiful day for the children to spend the majority of the day outside. On Wednesday's and Thursdays we have a picnic lunch in different areas around campus. Today the children enjoyed lunch in the newly finished gazebo near the University Center and pond. When the children were done eating we broke into our small groups to do different activities. My group as well as Ms.Willyard's went on a nature walk in search of insects and other interesting parts of nature.

POD A students on a nature walk

Skills: 
-  Demonstrates positive approaches to learning. 
-  Participates cooperatively and constructively in group situations
-  Demonstrates traveling skills
-  Demonstrates knowledge of earth's environment


Parents this is a reminder that we are having a water day tomorrow, Thursday, May 24th. Please send your child to school with their swimsuit and a towel with their name on it. After rest we will have sprinklers in our grassy area in front of our school and water in our sensory table on the playground. Thank you! 


                                                                -   Ms. DeBets 

Enjoying the Sunshine (POD B)

 If you haven't already heard, we've switched up our regular schedule so that we have more time to be outside. The weather has been perfect, so why not let the children soak up the sun? We've decided to do our afternoon group meeting and activity outside from now on. Today we had limbo and dance party happening in the amphitheater, as well as a story being read under the bridge. This was new for the children, but they all seemed to enjoy it!

-Ms. Musa (POD B)

Teaching Strategies: Cognitive #11: Demonstrates positive approaches to learning.

    

Tuesday, May 22 Pod A

Today was a sunny and beautiful day to be outside for the majority of the day.  We have changed our schedule a little by allowing children to venture outside during open center times, which happens twice a day.  Most of children take this opportunity to enjoy extra time running around outside.  During this time we have centers set up both outside and inside as well as having an exercise activity planned which allows for many options for the children to choose from.  

Aisha and Neva working together to make door hangers for home

Mateo adding his insect to the school's insect habitat

Mateo and Mrs. Venglar beginning the obstacle course, our morning exercise activity.

In one sensory table outside we are building a wet environment for toy animals that live in water!

Ms. Willyard

Skills: Participates cooperatively and constructively in group situations; Demonstrates traveling skills; Demonstrates positive approaches to learning; Demonstrates knowledge of earth's environment

Monday, May 21, 2012 - Pod A: Outdoor Time

It was a drizzly morning, but that didn't stop us from soaking up extra time outside today. A variety of outdoor centers were available for the children to participate in: an art center out on the picnic tables (which included scratch off drawings, the opportunity to create kaleidoscopes, and work on ongoing collage project), a center for making grass heads (decorated pantyhose stuffed with grass), and an obstacle course. In the afternoon, the sun peeked through and we headed outside for our large group time. The children seemed to really enjoy all of the extra opportunities to spend time outside today!

 Kyla & Carson H. (pictured above) made kaleidoscopes.

Henry (pictured above) continued work on the collage, which has been ongoing school project.

 Sydney (pictured above) worked on scratch off drawings.

Aisha & Sydney (pictured above) share a conversation about their scratch off drawings.

Mrs. Venglar

Skills:  

- Demonstrates positive approaches to learning.

- Participates cooperatively and constructively in group situations

- Demonstrates traveling skills

Monday, May 21st - POD B: Outside Centers

It was a rainy and dreary day, but that didn't stop us from having fun outside! Today, we changed things up a bit and had morning and afternoon centers outside on the playground. There were stations for making kaleidoscopes and an art center.  There was also a table for making grass heads, which the children can watch the grass grow out of. It was nice to be outside longer today, especially after the weather cleared up for the afternoon.

Students from POD A and B creating rainbow drawings

In the afternoon, a project of making play dough from scratch took place in the Maple room! It got a little messy, but was definitely fun! 

Playing with the play dough

 One of the biggest interests today was looking for bugs.  Especially the rollie-pollie bugs. Many children were collecting them all day. 

Looking at a group of ants eating a piece of food

Ms. Neubecker

Skills: Participates cooperatively and constructively in group situations; Demonstrates traveling skills; Demonstrates positive approaches to learning; Demonstrates knowledge of earth's environment

May 5th 2012 Pod B

Today we had many different activities going on inside and outside our classroom. We took a walk to the sledding hill we go to in the winter and we took a picnic. After we ate there we got the chance to run around in the grass and play different kinds of games with each other. We walked back to the classroom and continued our day outside on the playground continuing our games we started after the picnic. During afternoon centers we were accompanied by the Science Discovery Department which consisted of other college students on our campus. They had tubs of water and different objects for the children to guess if they would sink or float when placed in the water in the writing center. The children also got to explore caterpillars and water in the discovery center. We will be accompanied by these students from our school every Thursday for different activities in our discovery center. We also had a parent and student teacher meet and greet after class from 3:30 until 4:30 where parents got to ask us questions about our own personal lives and what we were planning to do in the future. We enjoyed allowing the parents to get to know us, and we look forward to seeing more of you in the next few weeks to come.

Ms. Fisher

Michigan State Standard 4.1.1, 4.1.3, 4.1.4

Star Power POD B

We had a great day today, involving the community. Children, families, and teachers throughout the area joined us for our first annual Star Power event! The day started with outdoor activities, ranging from face paint to bean bag tossing. The group then gathered into a parade and walked around campus, handing out information to people passing by. We then gathered back at the CDLL for lunch, which was the proceeded by more outdoor activity time. We are pleased to announce that this event was a success and we couldn't be more excited about the community we established. Visit starpower.greatstartforkids.org for more information!

-Ms. Musa