Strike a Pose!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Today during center time in the Oak room, Jood and Sophie were practicing their photography skills. They each had a camera and walked around the room taking photos of various things such as people dancing on stage and different people in the room. Sophie decided to take a photo of her family photo sitting on a bookshelf.

"Take a picture of me taking a picture." -Jood

Jood showing Sophie the photos she took. 

Sophie taking a photo of her family photo. 

The girls also enjoyed taking photos of each other making silly faces! 

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

Teaching Strategies #28: Objective 28: Uses tools and other technology to perform tasks

Busy Thursday

While there may not have been a lot of children in school today, there sure was a lot of activities going on.

Children have been very interested in making their own books. Today, Mitchell put together two books, one about Batman and the Joker, and another about Star Wars. When he finished his pictures, he taped the two pieces of paper together so that he could fold them closed like a book.

Teaching Strategies #19 Demonstrates Emergent Writing Skills

In the Indoor Movement room today, children were practicing their locomotive skills by traveling down a mat in different ways. Children were running, crawling, and jumping. Some children were even tumbling, rolling, or crab-walking. Ameir was crab-walking down the mat and yelled, "I'm moving like a lobster!"

Teaching Strategies #4 Practices Traveling Skills

Great fun was had by all today. Hopefully the weather warms up and we can resume outside play next week.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Ms. Wright

Can You Say Eventful?

Today in the Oak room there was so many activities going on all at once. Sophie was introducing the dancers on stage. The teachers called her the Mistress of Ceremony. The children were singing and dancing to, the now popular, frozen song Let It Go.

Jana and Ne'Siah were busy making fan necklaces to go with their performance to Let It Go. Ne'Siah made two fans into a necklace.

Teaching Strategies #36; The Arts. Explores drama through actions and languages. #33; Explores visual arts.

-Ms. Thomas

                   

Props: Check!

The dramatic arts small group is gearing up for their big play they are going to be putting on for the school and their parents. In order for a play to be successful the group decided they needed props. The group discussed over several days what kind of props they were going to be using and how they were going to construct certain props. Today the group worked on making a tree! The tree has several parts; the leaves, cherries, and the tree itself. Prosper was chosen to be the tree and with the help of Victoria and Sasha the three of them were able to construct a costume for Prosper.

While the three kids were busy making the actual tree the other group members were busy either collecting cherries or cutting leaves.

A great time was had by all and we are getting more and more anxious and excited for our play!

Your invites will be in the mail soon!

Keep warm!

Ms. Boone

Teaching Strategy #33: Explores the visual arts

It was an active Tuesday!

It was teamwork Tuesday in the Indoor Movement Room. The children were given tape, scooters, and wide open space. They decided to construct a track for all of the scooters to follow. They all took turns using the different colored tape to decide the directions. Everyone followed the line while one student would lay down the tape to test out the track. After the track was complete they each took a turn going all the way around the room. Along with the track several garages where taped off, and the track was expanded into several different routes. It was a lot of creative thinking and group discussion to make the track work, but in the end there were eight different tracks and three different garages.

Teaching Strategies Gold Social-Emotional #3: The children participate cooperatively and constructively in group situations.

Ms. Potter


Today was a big day for trains. Many children were engaged in the Maple room using the train cars. The children were guiding the trains all throughout the classroom. When the trains would run out of gas they would go to the gas station which was located in a certain area of the classroom to pump it into the train vehicles. They also implemented legos into their "train track" by building structures for the trains to move through.

Teaching Strategies Gold: Physical #7 Demonstrates fine-motor strength and coordination

Ms. Neych

Exploring New Activities During Centers

Today in the pine room, we introduced Anatomy to the children.  This was a great way for the children to think about the human body and all of our different parts that we have.  We were also able to actually see what certain parts may look like by taking them off and looking at them and then putting them back on the body where we think they belong.  Next to Anatomy we had a skeleton for the children to experiment with as well.  There was a lot of curiosity going on with this activity.

Teaching Strategies: Social Studies #30 "Shows basic understanding of people and how they live"

Another huge hit today was our park that was in the maple room, there were picnic essentials for the children to use and also dogs and cats with collars and leashes to walk around the park.  This allowed the children to be able to set up a picnic at the park with their peers and animals.  The children were very happy to see the park set up for them to play with during centers.

Teaching Strategies: Social-Emotional #3 "Participates cooperatively and constructively in group situations"

Have a great rest of the week! Hopefully it doesn't stay cold for too much longer!

-Ms. Bennett

FeBURRary 24th!

Old Man Winter is not going to let up so neither will we! The children and staff ventured out for another fun day in the snow but were pleasantly surprised when the majority of it was more like frozen ice. Snow balls that were made last week now are hard as ice and stuck in the spot they rest on. Many of the children found the extra slickness made the sled ride down the playground hill a little more fun too. 

Michael T. and Liam trying to make something new out of the frozen snowballs and ice.

Teaching Strategy: Cognitive #11 - Demonstrates positive approaches to learning

While inside, there are also many chances for children to use materials in new ways. In the Maple Room, Thelma and Lamont decided to add tires to the boxcars, however, they did not use them as wheels as you might initially guess. Take a look below...

Thelma and Lamont using tires to build comfy chairs in their boxcars. 

Teaching Strategy: Science & Technology - Demonstrates knowledge of the physical properties of objects and materials

-Ms. Gross

Scavenger Hunt!

Today the nature small group had a surprise waiting for them at the beginning of group time. They were going on a scavenger hunt!

One of their teachers had hidden five Beanie Babies outside on the playground and then created a map to help the children find all of them. The map included playground landmarks, as well as photos of each Beanie Baby in the place where it was located on the playground.

As the children studied the map, one of their teachers asked how they thought they were going to use the map to find the Beanie Babies. Then Wesley piped up with a question:

"We're all going to find something, right?"

The teacher took note of that question, and then asked the children how they thought they might do the scavenger hunt in a way that allowed everyone to find something. Then Wesley had an idea.

"We could get into groups!"

The children starting pairing themselves off in groups of two and deciding which Beanie Baby to look for. Then they figured out where they needed to look to find that Beanie Baby.

"We're going for the house! We're gonna look for the unicorn!" said Sophie.

Taylor said, "We're looking for the duck! It's by the bridge!"

As soon as the children got outside, each team went to the spot on the playground where they decided they would look for one of the Beanie Babies. After each group found its Beanie Baby, everyone gathered back at the picnic table to talk about the scavenger hunt.

"It was really hard for us to find it!" said Mitchell.

But they found it, and the children already began to talk about wanting to do another scavenger hunt sometime soon.

Have a great weekend! -Ms. Hill

Teaching Strategies Objectives for Development and Learning

Social-Emotional #3: Participates cooperatively and constructively in group situations

Exploring with Black lights!

 

Today was full of exploration in the light room with the black lights! The children loved exploring the many colors with the highlighters and seeing them glow under the black lights. Some children chose to write their names and use stencils, while others chose to draw a picture or scene. William Wang drew a squid with many long tentacles. "A squid has one eye, right? I want to draw lots of tentacles." William proudly displayed his artwork in the light room by hanging it on the wall with tape!

 

 

Gavin was using a stencil to trace a car. He drew a road underneath the car and began to fill in the car with the highlighter. "I'm making it yellow, like my favorite yellow race car!" Sarah was also exploring the highlighters with the black lights alongside Gavin and William Wang. She started using a green marker but noticed it wasn't that bright. "I want a yellow marker. They are the brightest!" She used her yellow highlighter to draw a picture of herself standing on top of a stool!

 

Here is some more artwork displayed in the light room!

 

See everyone on Monday!

-Miss Wheaton

 

Teaching Strategies Gold: The Arts: Objective 33: Children explore the visual arts.

 

Water, Water Everywhere!

The Walnut Room was busy today with students exploring what the water areas had to offer. Pictured above, Sanuthi dives into the newly colored water. "The water is blue!" she exclaimed. She would put her hand in the water and watch the ripple effect as she moved from one end of the table to the other. "The water makes my hand blue," she observed.

Here, Noah explores the movement and flow of water by creating a track made of piping for the water to flow down. Noah described the process pointing to different parts of his track saying, "If I pour the water here it will go down the track and end up here." 

Max was another student who spent time in the water area. He was especially interested in how the water looked when it was being poured from one container to another. During his time playing and pouring, Max was exposed to different vocabulary including "baster" and "beaker."

The CDLL Staff wishes you and your family a great a weekend, and we cannot wait to see everyone back on Monday! Also, we would like to wish a very Happy Birthday to Jamie!

-Miss Nolan

Teaching Strategies Gold Objective 11d: Demonstrates positive approaches to learning; Shows curiosity and motivation.

Feather Painting!

Today in the Oak room, children enjoyed painting with feathers. They mixed blue, purple, red, and yellow to make new colors. They also viewed the different sized lines on the paper made by the feathers using soft or firm strokes. 

 

William noticed that mixing red and blue makes purple. 

Sasha mixed red and yellow to make orange. When William tried mixing the same colors, he ended up with red. Sasha said that it is because he used too much red and he needs more yellow. William added a little more yellow and said it looked like mustard.






Teaching Strategies- Physical: Objective 7- Demonstrates fine-motor strength and coordination, a) Uses fingers and hands


Enjoy the rest of your week!
Miss Kubbe

Fun in the Sun… Finally

First off, we celebrated two birthdays today, Chloe and Dylan's!

The sun was finally out! Many different project groups went on walks and everyone enjoyed outside time. Some of the project groups went to the “forest,” to hunt for mailboxes, and to the library for just some exercise.  

On a walk, Frankie noticed, “ No one is wearing a coat!” about the CMU students.

At outside time, there were children building snowmen, sledding, running around, and playing in the “sand box” area.

In the sand box area Edison and Sasha were making cheesecakes.  Edison made a chocolate cheesecake with sand and snow, while Sasha made marshmallow and strawberry. “ We are making some for Chloe’s birthday”- Sasha, “and Dylan’s too!”

Learning Science By Exploring

      

    

    Today, there were plenty of activities children discovered . Children had the opportunities to experience snow indoors with gloves. 

The Arctic Animals were mixed with real snow.




Teaching Strategies:

Science and Technology #24

Uses scientific inquiry skills

Children explored water movement by using plastic tubing. They placed clear tubing through holes watching as water dumped back into the sensory table. 









             Miss. Miller    2/18/14

A Very Snowy Tuesday!

With a winter storm arriving yesterday and into last night, it was a great opportunity for us to take full advantage of the fresh snow!  A group of children chose to go on a sledding field trip on CMU's campus, instead of staying inside during morning center time.  The children walked with a few teachers to the sled hill and enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air.

After realizing the snow was up to most of the children's waist and the picnic tables were buried, the children climbed onto what was showing of the tables and used the tabletops as platforms to jump off of into the snow.

Some children saw the snow hills that formed from the sidewalks being plowed further in the distance and decided to go climb those hills.  After getting to the top, the children jumped off into the fresh powder and pretended they were doing "polar bear plunges" but instead called them, "snow plunges."

Overall, we made the best of this snowy day and all children got the chance to go outside to enjoy the fresh snowfall.  Thankfully, it wasn't as cold as it has been these past few weeks!

Have a great week everyone,

Miss. Adcock

Teaching Strategies: Physical Objective 6 - Children demonstrate gross-motor manipulative skills.

Working Around Obstacles

Although the children in Pod A were able to get some fresh air outside today, the children in Pod B took a different route. Instead of braving the Winter winds, they were able to get a few laughs in with the book, "The Napping House", and maneuvered around an obstacle course. We had tires to step through, a limbo bar to go under, arches to jump over, carpet squares to step across, tables to crawl under, and chairs to "zig-zag" through! It's always fun to try something that is outside of the usual routine! 

Teaching Strategies Physical #6: "Demonstrates gross-motor manipulative skills"

The Lego table is usually a popular spot during Centers, and we've been hearing some of the children (and teachers too!) relate what they are building to the Lego Movie that is currently in theaters. 

Teaching Strategies Physical: "Demonstrates fine-motor strength and coordination." 

We missed everyone that wasn't able to make it to school today and hope to see you tomorrow! :)

-Miss Wolf

A Great Way to End the Week

With the end of the week upon us, the children were very excited to find out that FINALLY today we got to go outside to play. The children enjoyed taking out the sleds and pulling each other around, as well as sliding down small ice hills. Other children were digging with scoops to find the bottom of the snow. 

  

Teaching Strategies #6: Demonstrates Gross-Motor Manipulative Skills

After coming inside, the children listened to a story about playing in the snow. Many children knew the story well, and were able to follow along.

Inside, the children have been building structures using wood pieces and hot glue (with the help of a teacher, of course). Michael M. was working on a monster truck, and kept making it taller and taller. Other children were also making their own cars. After the structures were finished, the children could paint them.

 

Teaching Strategies #33: Explores the Visual Arts

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Wright