The first week of school is all about checking out new centers, new friends, and new routines.

Zoey's at the science center almost every day.  She loves to sort the natural materials and explore with the magnifying glass.

More sorting and scientific discussion!



Noor and Suri were also intrigued by the science table.  Noor is placing objects in an ice cube tray, using small tongs.  She's strengthening her fingers which will help her when she's using a pencil or marker.



When we introduced our first focus letter, Aa, Jake was quick to say, "I have an a in my name."  The other children immediately followed suit.  This led to an impromptu discussion on beginning letters versus those in the middle of your name and also who had more than one a in their name.  We decided to take advantage of this discussion and created a graph for the next day's sign in, DO YOU HAVE AN Aa IN YOUR NAME?  Once everyone had signed in, we were able to count and compare the 2 columns.  Hooray for Jake for the inspiration for this math and literacy lesson!

We use pointers each day during the calendar and poem reading portion of circle.  Tracking left to right (moving your pointer in that direction)  is a pre-reading skill the children need to acquire.  You can see these girls are happily on their way to doing just that!!

Do you know the South African folktale ABIYOYO?  Its about a very scary monster and a father and son who work together to make that monster disappear.  This book is most definitely the favorite of the class so far.   It is always the first book chosen when the kids are finished with snack.  We love to see them all gathered around the book! 

Cutting is often a hard skill for pre-k children to master.  Our sensory table started off with strips of red paper and the children needed to cut them in much smaller pieces.  You can see construction paper, tissue paper and even some cellophane, all of which require different amounts of pressure when you're cutting.  Saul wasn't quite so sure he wanted to be involved in this......

so the next day we tried him cutting at the table with the teachers right there to encourage him.  It certainly worked because soon he was calling over some friends!

More cutting.  Next week we will begin our treasure hunt for the first initial of everyone's name and some other mystery objects so the table needs to be quite full!

Alex loves woodworking.  Using real tools is always exciting to children and gives them a better sense of being able to handle more grown up activities.  And don't worry...we had Alex push the goggles up so you could see who it was!  The children wear the goggles correctly when hammering.

Building with blocks happens every day in our room.  It is an opportunity for the children to work, converse and plan together since space and materials are limited.

Looks like Daniel is being treated by 2 doctors.  Dramatic play is another area where we see children talking and playing together, sometimes in real life situations and other times in pure fantasy. 

Our guided reading poem is all about circles and our first art experience combined printing, tracing and cutting and critical thinking.  Please look at the full documentation of this multi-step process on the board outside our room!

Play dough is wonderful for fine motor development.  Govind is rolling  and Emma just finished pounding.  Each movement uses different sets of muscles and requires fingers to move in different ways.  We usually talk about this in relation to writing but think about the fine motor needed to open up all those thermoses, baggies and containers in lunchboxes!

A quiet moment for Charlotte as she's very carefully moving the extra playdough away from the person she created.  It's a delight to see a child so engrossed in an activity, regardless of the "hubbub" surrounding her.

We'll hope to post each week with more stories and snapshots of the class.  It's going to be a busy year!