It Finally Feels like Spring!

Today felt like it was the first day of spring and it seems like the snow is almost all gone!  It was the first time we didn't need to wear all of our snow gear, which felt amazing!  We all took advantage of this weather and played outside for our outside time and we also closed two rooms down for PM centers so that the children could choose to go back outside if they wanted to or still hang out inside in the walnut or pine room.

If the children weren't outside playing, they were experimenting in the pine room because a post office and a campground were added to the room, which were the busiest places for the day.  The post office allows children to make their own mail and stick it into a mailbox for their peers and families.  The campground has sleeping bags, a campfire and chairs for the children to pretend that they are in the woods and relaxing.

Teaching Strategies: The Arts #36 "Explores drama through actions and language"

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

Hopefully this weather stays and enjoy your short week this week!

Ms. Bennett

Heat Wave!

Mother Nature was kind to us today so children had the option to play outside twice today; once during regular scheduled time and then again during p.m. centers! New toys such as carts and scooters were offered on the playground as a result. "It's so warm!" Mark said as he pushed one leg behind the scooter. Many children even found ways to use the last signs of winter to make creative sand/dirt/snow-pies! Bon appetite!

While inside, children took note of the new materials available in the sensory tables of the Walnut Room. Orbie Water Marbles were added and many enjoyed the sensation of squeezing them between their fingers along with toy fish and beakers. "Look how big this one is!" Chloe H. exclaimed as she noticed the various sizes.

Teaching Strategies: 

Science and Technology - Demonstrates knowledge of the physical properties of objects and materials. 

Mathematics - Compares and measures.

 -Ms. Gross

Coffee Filter Coloring!

Last week in the Oak room, children continued to color coffee filters with water color paint. They used eye droppers to drip the paint onto the filters and watch the colors spread. These filters will be used to make butterflies in the future. 

 Some children made designs such as lines and circles, and some children decided to mix colors to see what new colors they could make. 

"It's mixing!"

 The children started to notice that if they put a lot of water color in one spot, the color will leak through to the newspaper. They began dripping color all over the filters instead of putting it in the same spot.

We look forward to making butterflies in the future! Have a great weekend, and remember we have a short week coming up! -Miss Kubbe 

Teaching Strategies, Objective 33- Explores the visual arts. 

Silly Putty Stretch!

The Oak Room has featured Silly Putty at the texture table for a few weeks now and the students cannot get enough of it! The students explore the silly putty using many different manipulations such as rolling, stretching, flattening, and molding it into shapes.

 Above, Chloe flattened her silly putty and pressed her palm into it to make a hand mold. "Look, you can see my hand in it!" she said.

 Haley stretched her silly putty out to see how far it could go until it would break in half. "This is so stretchy, it won't break for a long time," Haley noticed.

 Wesley used two hands to roll the silly putty into cylindrical shapes. "I am making a long snake and then I am going to make a spider web."

The children are allowed to explore their creativity, practice their fine motor skills, and experience new textures when they spend their time playing with silly putty in the Oak Room!

Have a great weekend and we will see you all on Monday!
-Miss Nolan

Teaching Strategies Gold Objective 7a: Demonstrates fine motor strength and coordination; Uses fingers and hands

Musical chairs... with a twist (or two)!

Large group at the end of the day is a time to get up and move! One of the teachers introduced an activity for the children: musical chairs with a twist!

The teacher set many carpet squares in a circle on the group rug and had all the children and teachers find a carpet square to stand on. When the music began, everyone walked around in a circle. When the music stopped, each person had to find a carpet square to stand on.

Each time the music stopped, another carpet square was removed. This made the game more challenging, as some children and teachers had to get creative and share carpet squares!

The children also chose different ways to move and dance as they walked around in a circle. Some moved their arms up and down in a graceful motion. Then all the children decided to hop from one square to the next, all around the circle.

The circle gradually grew smaller as children left, one by one, to go home with their families. It was a fun and energy-filled way to end this week!

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Hill

Teaching Strategies Objectives for Development and Learning

The Arts #35: Explores dance and movement concepts

Doggy, Doggy Where's Your Bone?

This afternoon the children in the Maple/Pine classrooms were able to enjoy an exciting new game! The children learned the new game, "Doggy, Doggy, Where's Your Bone?" and were given the task of hiding two dog bones and the rest of the class would close their eyes and find the hidden dog bones. The children enjoyed finding places to hide the dog bones and some managed to hide the bones in some unlikely places! After the children learned the new game, they enjoyed making a train with all of the teachers and we paraded around the room yelling, "Choo! Choo!," while pulling our "train horns."

 

"I can hear Edison hide it!" - Charlie

 

"Come help me find the bone, Larry!" - Joey

 

Teaching Strategies Gold: Physical: Objective 4: Children demonstrate traveling skills.

 

Have a good weekend!

-Miss Wheaton

Spring is in the Air.. We Hope!

Today we had two of our project groups go for walks around the building outside. The two project groups were the nature and photography groups. They both went looking for signs of spring. I hope they found some!

" The bubbles are popping up and down" "If you add all of it, it just mixes"- Madison

There is also a popular experiment taking place in the Walnut Room. In clear jars, there is water and baby oil. The children add drops of water color and see what happened like explained earlier this week.

"I wonder what will happen if I add this" "the gold color and blue made green!"- Talia

In the morning several girls were curious about this experiment. They liked to add many colors into one of the jars to see what colors they could create. Once they were finished and were rinsing out the jars they noticed the different colors in the sink and watched them go down the drain.

Teaching strategies Science- Uses scientific inquiry skills

Ms. deGeus 

It glows !!

Children loved painting in a community school project. The dark room of our Walnut Room had orange,pink and a neon green color of glow in the dark paints.

"When I stir green on top of orange it turns brown"

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

Miss. Miller

Story Time!

      This afternoon the CDLL welcomed a group of students as guest speakers to read to the children.  After rest time, the children gathered in the Indoor Movement Room to have snack if they chose, and to listen to a story.  The group of students listened to and watched the guests act out the book, The Day the Crayons Quit, by Drew Daywalt.  

     Each of the guests were dressed in a different color to act as a different crayon from the story.  When the color of crayon that the guest was dressed as had their turn to speak, they showed the students a prop and acted out that crayon's role in the story.  

     After the story was done, the children talked with some of the guests and even got to look at the book closer.  It was nice for the children to hear and see a book being read and acted out this way.  It's also always nice to see new faces at the school for the children to interact with :-)!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Miss. Adcock

Teaching Strategies Objective 18: Children comprehend and respond to books and other texts.

Walnut Wonders!

There is no shortage of things to do in the Walnut room! This week we have added a new experiment. Ameir and Liam were the first ones to test out what happens when you add drops of food coloring to a mason jar filled half way with water and oil. The children were able to make predictions, test their ideas, and analyze the results of the experiment.  

"It Exploded!"-Ameir

"It drops to the bottom. The top bubbles are little. It's staying on the top and they're falling." -Liam

The water wall has been another big hit. The children can take beakers of water to the pipes, and add funnels and tubing to watch how water moves. 

The Walnut room's table manipulatives include connectors, wedgits, and puzzles. This is always a calming option when children need a break from the busyness of the day!

Have a restful night!

-Miss Wolf

Teaching Strategies Gold Objective 24: "Uses scientific inquiry skills"

It's Finally Spring!

Happy first day of Spring! The children celebrated the first day of spring by getting the bikes back out during outdoor recess time. The resounding chorus of "The bikes! The bikes are out!" could be heard throughout the playground.

One section of the bike path was still covered in snow and ice. The children quickly found out that they could not ride the bikes over this area. Some children discovered that they could work together as a team to push the bike across the ice, and then resume riding.

It might not have been the warmest of days, but the children were very excited to ring in the spring season.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Wright

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

Shark Attack!

Happy Thursday! 

This morning before large group in the Pine room, some of the children made shark fins and taped them to their backs. 

Liam, who was the first person to make a fin, got the idea from the shark that was on his shirt. As the children arrived at school, they noticed Liam's fin and wanted to make their own. Liam showed the other children how he made his fin and helped them make their own! 

In other news, the train came by while the children from Pod B were outside; always an exciting event!

Have a great weekend!

-Miss Schubert

Teaching Strategies: Social Emotional 3C - Interacts with peers

Rainy Day

Today was an active and eventful day for the children of the CDLL. We did not go outside due to the rain. Instead the children played in the indoor movement room and hallway. In the hallway children played hopscotch and acted as though they were dogs. In the Indoor movement room children read books to each other.

In Pod B during PM group William Wang read the group a story he had be writing all day. After William read his story the children engaged in an obstacle course. The children did not let the rain hold them back. 

Teaching Strategies # 5. Physical: Demonstrates balancing skills.  #18. Literacy: Comprehends and responds to books and other texts

-Ms. Thomas

So Much Art!

Today in the Oak room many children were busy doing various art projects! The Oak room had silly putty open once again, collage making, mask making, and brush painting going on during center time. The children brought out their artistic side and got creative with many of the options in the room.

At the collage table we had students working with many different media and using the glitter glue along with buttons, flowers, pom-poms, and jewels.

At the silly putty table we had students experimenting with stretching and tearing the putty. We also had students getting creative with making the putty into things like gloves and super powers.

At the drawing table we had many students creating masks today! We had some very interesting masks around school including, iron man, transformers and Frankenstein!

Lastly, at the brush painting table we had many students mixing colors with the "sweepers" trying to create new colors! We found that mixing white with another color makes the color darker!

I hope you enjoy the rest of the day!

Ms. Boone

T.S #7: Demonstrates fine motor strength and coordination

Getting back into the swing of things!

The teachers and students were all very talkative about the weather outside. Everyone seems to be thankful for the sunshine. Today was a great day to look at some campfire sequencing cards, in hopes of things to come! There were several sequencing activities going on in the reading center of the Pine room. The children were working together to get the order correct while sharing stories of things they would be doing in the summer. There was much talk of swimming, biking, and playing outside. Several people rotated in and out of this area with not a single person expressing that they will miss the snow once it was gone. Today's amazing weather brought on lots of conversation and teamwork!

Teaching Strategies: Cognitive - The children use classification skills.

Ms. Potter

Spring is in the Air!

The snow is melting and the sun was shining all day which means spring may finally be on its way. The children were also catching "spring fever" as they practiced some spring cleaning of their own in the Walnut Room. At the sensory tables, children have soapy water and a drying rack available to help them wash a few dishes if the urge strikes them! Osato and Julian had a fun time exploring the sponges and soap dispensers as they washed their dishes!

(Technical issues - Photo not available)

In the Maple Room this afternoon, Mr. Jonaitis challenged the children to build their own Lego car and see how well it held up after being pushed over ramps they made from clip boards. The children got very creative with their structures and persistently recreated them if they happened to break apart on impact.

(Technical issues - Photo not available)

Children and staff ventured outside today! Although there was not enough snow for sledding down the playground hills, the shovels were still available for children to dig and haul what is left of the snow and ice. Looking forward to warmer weather!

Teaching Strategies: Social Studies - Shows basic understanding of people and how they live

Science & Technology - Uses tools to perform tasks

-Ms. Gross

Back to School After Spring Break

Today felt like a Monday and we all had to get back into the swing of things with it being the first day back after a week of no school for spring break.

Today in the pine room, many of the children enjoyed playing in the dog park and the diner.  The students were using the different kinds of food from both areas by making meals and using them for whatever they chose to do.

Michael: "Teacher, what would you like me to make you?"

Teacher: "I'll take some tacos and a sandwich."

Michael: "Okay, coming right up!"

Teaching Strategy: Language #10- "Uses appropriate conversational and other communication skills."

Also in the Pine room, the dressing up area was a success with quite a lot of children throughout the day playing there.  They were able to try on the different types of clothing that included dresses, coats, heals, cowboy boots, and more.  The children were using their imaginations to pretend that they were somebody else by acting it out with their clothes that they put on.

Teaching Strategy: The Arts #36- "Explores drama through actions and language."

Hope everyone enjoyed their Spring Break and Happy Monday!

Ms. Bennett

Walk to the Woods!

Today the nature small group invited the photography small group on a walk to one of their favorite places: The Forest.

The Forest is a small wooded area on campus, just a short walk from the CDLL. In The Forest, children play in forts they have built, frolic in the snow, and just enjoy being out in nature. The nature small group wanted to invite the photography small group along so they could see the forest and get some ideas of photos they may want to take once it gets warmer outside.

Just before leaving the CDLL, the children gathered together to talk about the walk they were about to embark on. Ms. Weller asked if the photography group had any questions for the nature group, and Au'Maria' asked what kind of nature things there were in The Forest. Ms. Weller then asked the nature group if they wanted to tell the photography group what kinds of things they do in The Forest. The children erupted with different comments.

"We build stuff, what we want to make!"

"We play!"

"We find sticks!"

The children set out on their walk, and after 10 minutes or so, they finally arrived at The Forest. The children in the nature group immediately began their normal play for that setting, while the children in the photography group walk around, exploring and getting a feel for this new space.

Some of the children in the nature group started showing around the children from the photography group.

"Look at our fort!" exclaimed Sophie.

Isaiah looked around while he was in The Forest and said, "We're lost!"

Then the group migrated to a snow hill, where they climbed and jumped and slid until it was time to walk back to the school. Overall it was a good time had by all, and a great end to the week.

Enjoy your spring break!

-Ms. Hill

Teaching Strategies Objectives for Development and Learning

Social Studies #31: Explores change related to familiar people or places

B-I-N-G-O!

Today during Small Group Time, the construction group played Bingo! This was a special kind of bingo because the cards were handmade pictures from different students in the CDLL. The students were able to describe different colors and characteristics about the drawings, and would then see if the drawing was located somewhere on their bingo card. Lamont noticed, "That picture is green and blue."

 Pictured above, Maddie and Eassays are comparing their bingo cards with one another. "Look! We have the same picture!" exclaimed Eassays. "I got it!" Maddie said as she covered one of the pictures with a bingo chip. Eassays also took note of how many bingo chips he had by counting them and saying, "I have eight."

The students had a riot getting excited about covering their bingo boards and seeing whose would fill up the fastest. Charlie was ecstatic to see his card filled saying, "I'm bingotized! I win!"

The CDLL Staff wishes you a happy weekend and ten days off of school! We can't wait to see you when we get back!

-Miss Nolan

Teaching Strategies Gold Objective 11a: Demonstrates positive approaches to learning; Attends and Engages