October 31st 2012

Today in Walnut children were exploring birds and continue to work with the birdseed and the nest as well as pounding golf tees in pumpkins.

In the Oak room Mrs.Bristley continues to do appointments with black, and white to make different shades of grey.

In large motor the parachute could be heard flapping through the hallway. The children played popcorn with the parachute.

The children in Maple used all the building blocks to make a structure and ideas were still being formed about the box in Pine room.
Recipes were made made using the new recipe cards as well, making soup was a hit!

Ms. Schaller

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

In the walnut room, the light corner is increasing in popularity along with the marble chutes and magnet construction items! Children have been exploring mixing colors in the oak room art studio as well! We went outside for the afternoon - dressed in full rain gear! The children continue to enjoy the bikes and wheelbarrows outside, interacting with one another to push each other in the wheelbarrows or share rides on the bikes. In the pine room, recipe making was introduced and the large motor room had a parachute available as well.

Ms. Gratz

Monday, October 29, 2012

Happy Monday!!

Everyone was very busy today checking out all the different things to do in all the classrooms.

In the large motor room this morning and afternoon we played popcorn with the parachute and took turns running under it. In the Discovery/Walnut room the children enjoyed hammering golf tees into the pumpkins.

The children are also interested in the birds that we have in the discovery room. We put birdseed into the dry sensory table for them to scoop and use funnels with.

In the Art/Oak room we still have the shaving cream but we added some powdered paint to it to give it some color! Painting also seemed to be a hit today. The children were sketching things and using shades of gray, black and white to paint the sketches. In the Construction/Maple room children were building a structure with different blocks. A few children started it and eventually more children chipped in to help stack the blocks.

In the Pine room today we added money, credit cards, and checks to the farmers market for the children to use. They seemed to enjoy writing out checks and being able to use different forms of payment in the farmers market.

 

-Mrs. Smith

 

 



Thursday October 25, 2012

Happy Thursday Everyone!!!

Today was a nice day so we spent most of the day outside and then had a Pod B closed in the morning for centers and had Pod A open for centers and then outside was a center. In the afternoon we had Pod A closed for centers and had Pod B and outside open for centers. There are new toys to play with outside. The children really enjoyed the new toys to play with. For small groups a lot of groups went outside to go on a nature walk and collect nature items on their walk to bring back into our classroom for us to use at the collage table, the light table, and in the discovery room. Children were using the bristle blocks to make towers and castles with them by connecting the bristle blocks together and stacking them on top of each other. In the Maple room children were exploring with the geo- boards. The children were placing rubber bands on the geo- boards to create different images and designs. In the Walnut room children were playing with marbles and the marble maze. The children would build a marble maze and drop marbles inside it and let the marble roll through the maze. Today was a good day for the children to spend a lot of time outside since it was very nice out today, we played with a parachute outside.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!!

Ms. Patterson

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Hello Families!

Today in the Walnut room, the writing center was hoppin'! The children used markers and colored pencils to draw pictures. They also used stencils and scissors to add texture to their drawings! Another popular attraction was the marble tubes. The children pieced together the different parts to build tubes for marbles to flow through! Some were tall, some were tilted and some were only a few pieces big!

In the Oak room, children used water colors to hand paint wooden beads. The beads are very colorful and each one is unique! The children also had the opportunity to "shave" today! They used shaving cream and Popsicle sticks to shave their faces and their arms. Painting at the easels was also an option for children. Many children focused on the theme of rainbows when it came to drawing or painting.

The Maple room was busy as usual. Real pieces of wood and nails were new this week and the children showed quite an interest! They took turns hammering the nails into the wood and then prying them back out. The children also used materials from the Maple room to construct train tracks!

In the Pine room, a continuing theme was working at a restaurant. Children and teachers sat at the table while children took orders. The orders were placed and they began to cook the meals. Some of the "daily specials" included pizza with onions, mushrooms and cucumbers, soup, hamburgers and root beer. All of the children worked together to make the restaurant run smoothly!!

While outside many children found different bugs on the playground due to the moist conditions!

Enjoy the rest of your week!
~Ms. Cummings

Tuesday October 23, 2012

Good Afternoon Everyone!!!

Today was a busy and fun day!! We went on a field trip to Papa's Pumpkin patch. The children were able to pick out their own pumpkin to take home, there was a pumpkin maze, a hay ride and a gator ride around the pumpkin patch, we had cider and donuts, and  tractors children could  play on. In the walnut room at the sensory table children were able to explore the inside of pumpkins and play with the "guts" and the seeds that are inside a pumpkin also at the light table there was green sand to explore with rocks in the sand. In the pine room we have a large box that some children have been saying it's their building to go with their fire truck. In the maple the children are able to work with hammer and putting nails into wood with the hammers. In the Oak room the children are painting beads and hanging them up around the classroom. Also children were very interested in at the writing tables we added stamps and ink pads for the children to use. The children were pushing their stamps into the ink pads and placing the stamps they wanted to use on their papers.
Ms. Patterson

Monday October 22, 2012

Happy Monday!

In the Walnut room, we got the pleasure of carving out pumpkins and digging through the mess! We picked out the seeds and spooned the guts into a bowl as well.  We also had marble building tracks that the children could stack up pieces high then watch the marbles spin on down.  That was a big hit today!

 

In the hallway, the children we loving the musical instruments! They were experimenting with the tuning forks and we even had a little band and paraded down the hallway!

                                          

In the Oak room, the children could paint beads with watercolors.  They came up with a very creative way to do this, although it was a little messy. The children would paint their hands with the watercolors then rub a bead between their hands to paint them.  The children were also having fun playing the matching game at the table toys section of the room. 

In the Maple room, the children were pretty busy building today.  They had fun with the colored legos at the light table and enjoyed hammering nails into wood with real hammers!  The rubber band boards were a big hit! The children loved to make shapes, designs, and even letters!

 

In the Pine room, the children were cooking a lot in the pretend kitchen and were busy at the writing center playing with the stamps.  The stickers were also used a lot for great creations for home and for friends at school!

Outside we had a special project today where the children could paint with spray bottles! We put a special paint in the bottles so the children could add to a big mural.  It looks great!

                                               

Hope everyone has a great week!

-Hannah Mazzie

      

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Today, the CDLL had visitors from CMU come in and explore nature with the children.  They brought dirt and worms.  The children were encouraged to dig in the dirt and find worms.  The children talked about how the worms felt and what they saw! This was very interesting to the children and most visited the area or wished they had had time to visit!

In the Walnut Room, cups were added to the magnet wall area.  Below Ayden W. and Alexander explore the uses of the cups when sliding wooden balls and marbles along the ramps. 

There were also smaller pieces similar to the magnet wall added to the Walnut Room.  The children are able to connect the various pieces and see how the marbles move through them.  Below Allen is working on making a route for his marbles to move.

In the hallway, more musical instruments were added. Below David and Laura are exploring the different options available.

Lately in the CDLL, the indoor movement room has had an obstacle course for the children to work toward mastering! There are tunnels to crawl through, loops to step through and stairs to balance on! At the end, they toss stuffed items into a bin. The children have really enjoyed this activity!

- Ms. Gratz

Wednesday October 17th 2012

Today in Walnut the fun continued with shaving cream and shadow play. The children can dig in the dirt with tools and look for fake insect and worms. 

In the Oak classroom children painted beads using the watercolor paints and made designs in the clay today using the stamps and other clay tools. We made a fresh batch of play dough with the children and they discussed adding more water to make it less dry. 

The Maple classroom had many construction pieces displayed today as children used trains, cars, and tracks  to make sheds and other structures.

In Pine the children use the baby and laundry room to care for babies and do laundry. They pretend to play babysitting and they talk on the phones across the room from each other. 

There were also mixing and measuring appointments today in the kitchen and an obstacle course set up in the indoor movement room for kids to enjoy. 

Ms. Schaller

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Last week, the morning sign in for the children changed.  The children are asked to match their typed name and their picture. The children really enjoy this each morning!

In the Maple Room, there is a recycling center filled with cardboard, plastic and paper items.  Today, Davis worked with tape and two cardboard rolls to make his own telescope.  Once finished, he decided that it could best be used in the Pine Room by himself and other children as they engaged in imaginative pretend scenarios.  

The outdoor art cart continues to be exciting for the children.  Along with the paint dobbers, there are now crayons available for the children to make leaf rubbings.  Below is a picture by Damian M.  He says, "It is me and I am jumping in a pile of leaves!"

After learning about clay tools last week, the children can now visit the Oak Room and explore the uses of the tools on clay during center time. Below Drew, Tanner and Allen are pictured. Allen is showing Ms. Gratz the piece of clay that he used the tools to cut from his clay.  

Also in the Oak Room, the texture table continues to have play dough.  THe children have been exploring what it feels like, what it smells like and even how to make it! Ayden P. is pictured rolling out his dough so that he use the cookie cutters. 

Outside the children used the tree cookies and tires to create a pathway.  They walked along it, balancing carefully.  Together they worked to move the items in order to change the pathway to different places.

Monday October 15, 2012

Happy Monday everyone!

We had a very busy Monday with new things to do throughout the school.

 In our am group we discussed the new instruments that are located in the hallway. One of the new instruments was the Ghana Xylophone. We discussed how to take care of it and how to properly use it. The children seemed to really enjoy listening to the sounds it made.

 

In the Maple/Construction room children were busy building and constructing things. Some children were interested in building sheds and towers. The recycle center was also busy. Children were using the tape to tape different objects together.

 

In the Oak/Art room children were able to help make the play dough for the classroom. Some children enjoyed using the watercolors to paint beads. While many others worked on making collages.

 

In the Pine/Pretend room the writing center was very busy. The children enjoyed making different things and putting them in the mailbox to send to friends or family members. Also the items that the children purchased at the farmers market were available in our own farmers market in the Pine classroom.

 

Lots of new things were added to the Walnut/Discovery room. Dirt and bugs were available where children could dig through dirt and find different types of bugs and worms. The shaving cream was available again this time with mirrors so the children could see themselves using the shaving cream. The children also enjoyed building towers for the marbles to go through.

 

The children were digging in the sandbox today and found a real worm!

 

-Mrs. Smith