New Year, New Post!

Happy New Year! We hope you all had a great holiday and have had a chance to enjoy the snow! Here at SEE we have had a few chances to play in the mounds of snow that took over our playground and even got to do some sledding!

Since returning to school after the holiday break the kiddos have been extremely busy and dove right into our next curriculum topic, “Things that go.” Our block area turned into our very own “Auto Body Shop.” Everyone has been having a great time pretending to be the customer who needs their car fixed, the receptionist who has to check everyone into their appointment or the mechanic who is there to fix up our broken car! It has been fun to watch the kiddos transform into their roles while working at the auto body shop. I think we have some future mechanics on our hands!

We began the month by learning about the wheel and how it works with an axel to make things move easier. We all agreed that without the invention of the wheel it would take us about a trillion hours to walk to school each day, riding a bike would be really hard to do, and in order to pull our wagons around, we would need to use a lot of muscle since the wheels wouldn’t be there to help us out. We then moved onto a classroom favorite, trains. We talked about the different kinds of trains, how they move and what we might find on each of the different types. This past week we have been learning about planes and the four different forces that effect how they move: thrust, drag, lift and weight. We discovered that the thrust needs to be stronger than the drag to move forward. The children got a chance to see how that works with balloon rockets! 

To go along with our unit of “Things that go,” we have been reading our book of the month, “The Little Engine That Could,” by Watty Piper. In the story the Little Blue Engine is able to help a stuck train get over a mountain even though he wasn’t the biggest, shiniest or oldest train. He chanted over and over “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!” and he eventually made it over the mountain! This began a discussion of things that we can do and things we are good at doing. We discovered that we can dance, make dog treats, ride bikes, go bowling and much more!

As we wrap up the month of January we will be introduced to our artist of the month, Ansel Adams. Ansel Adams was an American photographer best known for his black and white photographs of the American west and Yosemite National Park. We will all get the chance to be a photographer for a day and use the classroom camera to capture an image of nature outside on our playground! 

What's Up Next?

In addition to our Ansel Adams studies, we will continue with our "Things That Go" unit and finish up with boats! We will discuss how and why they float and the different types of mechanisms that move them (sails, oars, motors).  We will also study shadows in honor of Groundhog's Day. "Where do shadows come from" and "How is a shadow made" are just a few of the questions that we will be exploring. 

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

February 1: February tuition is due

February 16: Parent's Night Out (aka Movie and PJ Night at SEE) 5:30-9:00pm. Email Joanna to sign up and for more info!

February 19: SEE closed in observance of President's Day

February 19: February Gathering at Goldfish Swim School, see Evite for more info and to RSVP!

March 1: March tuition is due

Pictures from the past few weeks:

Getting ready for our paper airplane races!

Working on that broken engine is hard work!

Making train tracks with paint

An auto body customer completing their intake form

Have you ever went sledding on a cafeteria tray??

Welcome to the Auto Body Shop!

I hope you all enjoyed what we've been up to these past few weeks! Stay tuned for more fun!
Ms. Tiffany

November's Happenings!

The classroom has been extra busy lately and, as a result, the blog has been a little quiet! I am so excited to hand the blog over to Ms. Tiffany this week to tell you all about what the kiddos have been up to these past few weeks! Enjoy! 

From the notes of Ms. Tiffany:

Can you believe it is already December? Before you know it, we will be ringing in the New Year! The month of November was a busy one for us here at SEE. We started the month off by introducing our “Book of the Month” to the children. Each month we will introduce a new book that we will read to the children throughout the month, do art projects, talk about the characters, the setting and sequence of events, and do other supplemental activities with the kiddos. In November we focused on “The Leaf Man” By Lois Ehlert. We gathered leaves outside and each child got to make thier own creation with their findings just like in the story. We had Leaf Men, Leaf Bunnies, Leaf Birds and even a few Leaf Monsters! 

At the start of December we began a new story, “The Mitten” by Jan Brett. If you are not familiar with this story, a young boy named Nikki loses his white mitten in the snow. A whole group of animals try to squeeze inside to stay warm and the mitten stretches and stretches. When the last animal, a little mouse, wiggles his way on top of the big bears noes, he causes the bear to let out a big sneeze scattering the animals and the mitten all over the woods. Nikki then finds his stretched out mitten and makes his way safely home to his Baba. The children each got to decorate their own mitten and we even acted out the story as a big group! The kiddos loved being able to snuggle up inside our big “mitten”!

Since it has started to get a bit chilly here, we decided it was a good time to talk about some Arctic animals. We began by talking about the Arctic region. Did you know that there are no trees there? The ground is just too cold and hard for them to grow. Mrs. M also conducted a “Blubber Experiment.” We used Crisco and Ziploc bags to represent the blubber and skin of some animals. The children each got to take turns using the blubber glove and sticking their hand into ice cold water. We discovered that the Crisco kept our hand warm, just like the blubber does for the animals! This week we started our study of the biggest animal in the Arctic, the polar bear!

In between polar bear facts and our readings of the mitten the children earned their pajama party for being good classroom citizens. We all enjoyed (especially the teachers) wearing our comfy PJ’s, munching on popcorn and watching a short video. The children are already back to earning more gems and are excited for their next reward for being good classroom citizens!

What's Up Next?

In the upcoming weeks we will be learning about another Arctic animal, the penguin, talking about different holiday traditions and what we all do to celebrate with our family and friends, and creating our top secret holiday gift to send home to our families before we have a nice relaxing week off!

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

December 21 and 22: Year-end PJ party and book swap - more info coming soon!
December 25-January 1: SEE closed for Winter Break 
January 2: School is open and we are back in action!
January 2: January tuition is due
January 15: SEE closed in observance of MLK Day

Pictures from the past few weeks:

One of our Thankful Turkeys

Prepping for our roles in, "The Mitten," recreation!

Every good performance has a plan in place

Ollie's leaf chicken

Laura's leaf bunny

Our Lois Ehlert wall!

The Jan Brett bulletin board!

November's artist of the month was inspired by ancient mosaics! Each child got to create the first letter of their name using different types of lentils!

I hope you enjoyed the blog this week! Have a great weekend!
Joanna and Tiffany

Show Me Your Muscles!

It was so great to have all of the parents in this past Tuesday for Curriculum Night! We just love showing off all of the children's artwork and school work. It was also great to see everyone. Thank you to all who made it!

This week the children were introduced to their muscles. We discussed why muscles are so important and how to keep them healthy! We learned that our bodies have more than 600 muscles and our strongest muscle is our gluteus maximus (aka our bum!).  The children also exercised their muscles during a movement group with Ms. Melissa. We all danced like ghosts and wiggled like worms.

This week also began fall explorations. Our very own SEE-grown pumpkin rests proudly on the manipulatives shelf. We worked so hard this summer to grow him we couldn't bear to carve him so he just hangs out among our jack-o-lanterns! Which brings us to our pumpkin explorations, there were lots of pumpkin guts to go around! The children, somewhat skeptically, scooped out the guts while the teachers and children planned what each jack-o-lantern would look like. This of course led to an experiment with Mrs. M! The children learned that a jack-o-lantern needs air to keep the flame inside alive. Without air, there would be no shining jack-o-lanterns on Halloween night! The children watched a candle inside of a closed jar slowly die out because the air was all used up. Same for the candle inside of the pumpkin with no face - there was no air to keep the candle alive. So, just as we had suspected, by carving a silly face in the pumpkin, air was able to flow through and the light shown bright! 

The children then used tweezers to carefully pick out the seeds from the pumpkin guts. Not only were the children practicing their fine motor skills, they also enjoyed prepping the seeds to cook for afternoon snack. The seeds weren't a big hit but the whole process was fun for all!

What's Up Next:
Halloween is coming and we will continue with pumpkin explorations. We will also continue learning about our muscles with exercise stations in the classroom and a muscle experiment. 

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 29: Halloween Trunk-or-Treat! See Evite for more info!
October 31: Happy Halloween! Costumes will be allowed at school 
November 1: November Tuition is due
November 10 : SEE closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 22: SEE closing at 3pm 
November 23-24: SEE closed for Thanksgiving

Pictures from the week:

Pumpkin Exercises

Scoopin' out the guts!

Fishing out letters from the oatmeal sensory bin

Look at that perfect grip - separating pumpkin seeds!

The little one in the middle was grown in the SEE garden!

Hope you enjoyed the blog! Have a great weekend!

Joanna

Dem Bones!

These past couple of weeks have certainly been "all about me." The children have been learning all about the bones in their bodies compared to the bones of other creatures! Ms. Tiffany discovered that the New England Aquarium loans animal kits to educators. She excitedly pickup an animal bones kit and the children have been able to see and feel what real animal bones are like. The largest bone that we received is the whale rib bone which measures about 28" long! The children were very curious and were excited to guess what kind of bone it is. Some on the guesses included a snake bone, dinosaur bone and a dog bone. The bones are displayed on the science table for the children to observe - parents will get a chance to see the display at Curriculum Night tomorrow night! 

In addition to seeing lots of interesting bones, the children had many discussions about the bones in our bodies. They learned the names for the arm bones (humorous, radius, ulna) and also why our heads are so hard (to protect our delicate brains). 

Now that fall is officially upon us, we are beginning to use our outdoor environment as inspiration for projects and activities. The children painted with pinecones, practiced their cutting skills to create 3D pumpkins and used marbles and paint to make spooky spider webs! We can't wait for everyone to see all of the art around the room!

Lastly, our artist of the month focus this month is on the ancient cave painting of the Lascaux Cave in France. The cave was discovered by a boy and his dog in 1940. The cave paintings date back to 1500 BC! Our students discussed that today we read books that tell us stories and back before books, people used pictures to tell stories. When shown pictures from the cave, the children observed that the figures in the paintings were mostly of animals including stags, horses, cattle, bulls, birds and bears.  The paleolithic people who created the art used minerals and possibly charcoal to create the paintings and colors they used. The children replicated the cave paintings which are now proudly hanging on the bulletin board in the classroom!

What's Up Next:
On to muscles! How do our muscles helps move and how can we keep our muscles strong?

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 17: Curriculum Night for the pre-K and preschool groups - see Evite for more details and to RSVP!
October 29: Halloween Trunk-or-Treat! See Evite for more info!
October 31: Happy Halloween! Costumes will be allowed at school 
November 1: November Tuition is due
November 10 : SEE closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 22: SEE closing at 3pm 
November 23-24: SEE closed for Thanksgiving

Pictures from the week:

A whale vertebrae! It's huge!

A collection of bones!

A tusk

Marble painting = cool spider webs!

Cave painting replications

And another!

The beautiful display of our student's cave paintings!

We look forward to seeing everyone at Curriculum Night tomorrow! Have a great week!
Joanna

We've Hit the Ground Running!

It seems as though we blinked and these past two weeks were gone! We are loving our new school year and all of the new friends we are making. The children have been busy with their portfolios to prepare for curriculum night. We have also been getting to know all of our classmates really well. 

Last week the children brought in their "All About Me" bags. Each child had an opportunity to share all of their favorite things with the class. It was so much fun to listen and learn about our friends. The children brought in pictures of their family, favorite snacks, favorite activities, etc. The children were also asked a question of the day about their favorite things. We now know so much about everyone which makes our heart happy! 

On to this week! Did you know that there is a special shape inside of an apple? We cut an apple open to see and sure enough there was a star! Have you ever seen the star inside of an apple? All you have to do is turn an apple on its side and cut across the middle! This week, the group was introduced to apples as part of our fall unit! The children learned about the parts of an apple (skin, flesh, stem, core and seeds aka pips!). The children made yummy apple sauce taking turns to use the hand crank apple peeler. Everyone got a taste after the apple sauce cooled down. 

Lastly, our classroom Shutterfly share site is now live. Everyone received an invite via email earlier today. Check it out and look for monthly updates! Enjoy seeing the children busy at play! 

What's Up Next:
Next week we will continue with the fall theme while touching on the "all about me" theme from September with studies on bones! What are bones? Where can you find bones? How do bones help us? Are just a few questions we will be exploring next week!

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 2: October tuition is due
October 9: SEE closed in observance of Columbus Day
October 17: Curriculum Night for the pre-K and preschool groups - see Evite for more details and to RSVP!
October 29: Halloween Trunk-or-Treat! See Evite for more info!
October 31: Happy Halloween! Costumes will be allowed at school 
November 1: November Tuition is due
November 10 : SEE closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 22: SEE closing at 3pm 
November 23-24: SEE closed for Thanksgiving

Pictures from the week:

Apple Printing!

Peeling apples with a hand crank peeler is so much fun!

Working on portfolios! Check out this family portrait!

I hope everyone has enjoyed the warm week we've had! Have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you all on Monday!
Joanna

Welcome Back, Students!

After a whirlwind of a summer, we are back in action for another fun-filled school year! Last Tuesday was our first day of school and we were very excited to greet our returning friends and welcome in our newest friends. Our newly promoted Pre-K students entered the classroom with a new sense of pride as they began their final year of preschool. I just have to say that this was one of the smoothest transitions to preschool we have had and I do believe I have the Pre-K kiddos to thank as they took our new friends right under their wing! Today ends week two of the 2017/2018 school  year and we could not be happier to have a classroom full of chatter and laughter! 

The children spent last week exploring the classroom and settling back into a routine all while learning about their new friends. This  past week we dove right into portfolios to see how much everyone has grown in the past year. The children also had the opportunity to share a few of their favorite things from home. The children attentively listened to each classmate present their favorite things to the group. And finally, we welcomed Mr. Ed back to our classroom and we all had a blast singing and dancing along to his familiar tunes. 

Have you heard about our "Good Citizen" Jar? A good citizen helps friends in the classroom, helps during cleanup time, helps keep our art supplies tidy, etc. Every time a teacher catches a student begin a good citizen, they get a gem to place in the jar. Once the jar is filled with gems, the students will have a pajama party at school! Everyone is so excited to fill the jar with gems that our classroom has been exceptionally tidy lately :) We are off to a great start! 

Don't forget about our Little Free Library!
Have you gotten a chance to visit our Little Free Library? It's located just outside the front door to the building near the picnic table. Take a look and see what is there! Please remember that the LFL is run on a take a book/leave a book system. You are also welcome to borrow a book are return it when you are done. The idea is to keep books circulating around the community.  Our LFL is looking to all of you for your generous donations! If you have books to donate, we are especially looking for children's book (board books are ok too!). Teen and adult books are always welcome as well! If you would like to label them with our LFL labels before adding them to the library please drop them off with the teachers and we will happily add them to the library for you. Thank you all for your support!

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

September 24: Karate class at Rising Storm Training Academy - see Evite for more details and to RSVP!
October 2: October tuition is due
October 9: SEE closed in observance of Columbus Day
October 17: Curriculum Night for the pre-K and preschool groups - see Evite for more details and to RSVP!
October 29: Halloween Trunk-or-Treat! More info coming soon! 
November 1: November Tuition is due
November 10 : SEE closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 22: SEE closing at 3pm 
November 23-24: SEE closed for Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has had a great first two weeks like we've had! We look forward to many more joyful weeks full of curiosity and learning!

Joanna

A Reflection of Another Wonderful School Year!

And just like that, here we are, the last day of school. It has been a wonderful year full of learning, friendships, explorations and discoveries! We feel so lucky to have spent the last year with an amazing group of kiddos. We are also thankful for the amazing team of teachers who are nothing less than incredible. I call them all super heroes because that is in fact what they should really be called! These teachers created a school year full of curiosity, wonder and excitement for learning. I know for a fact that that is no small feat. It takes a special person to be able to create wonder out of the simplest things in life. I feel truly blessed to have these teachers in my life. 

The month of June has been our busiest month all year. We were practicing daily for our play, creating costumes, feverishly painting backscratchers for father's day (Happy Belated Father's Day! We hope you put those kiddos and backscratchers to good use!) and learning all about metamorphosis! 

The children had a blast learning about our caterpillars. It also worked out perfectly that they were ready to be released as we also said goodbye and good luck to our new kindergarteners.  The children arrived at school each day excited to see how big the caterpillars had grown. It seemed like they had doubled in sized each night. After a few days in the classroom, one by one the chrysalis' formed.  As we waited for our butterflies to emerged we learned the words metamorphosis (the process of transforming from a caterpillar to a butterfly inside the chrysalis), chrysalis (the protective casing for which the caterpillar goes through its metamorphosis), and proboscis (the mouth of the caterpillar; used for drinking nectar from flowers and fruits).  It seemed like we waited forever until one day the children discovered that one butterfly had emerged. It took two and a half days until all five butterflies were fluttering all around our butterfly habitat. After eating lots of yummy orange slices and after a chance to observe their beauty, we happily released them into the world. This past Monday, we bid farewell to Ana and Elsa. On Tuesday we said goodbye to Prince Hans (who wanted nothing to do with being released!) and finally, on Wednesday we let Lightening McQueen and Jackson Storm fly free! We wish you all a safe flight - Painted Lady Butterflies are migrators and will fly great distances to be in their preferred location. Isn't nature the coolest?!

I do have to say that the children's end-of-the-year adaptation of "The Hungry Thing" by Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler was quite outstanding! Everyone worked so hard to make the show a success! I am always so delighted to see the children shine on stage and that is what it is all about! We also had a blast at our cast party with lots of yummy treats that the families of our school donated (thank you!!) and it was an extra bonus to have Ms. Melissa and her sister, Sarah, face painting!!! We are so grateful for everyone's generosity and a shout out to our awesome neighbors, The Real School of Music, for graciously letting us borrow their stage and auditorium for two days!!!

Lastly, this past week the school year began to wind down with lots of time spend with friends. We asked the children what they most looked forward to this summer and we got some great/silly answers such as "I am going to do lots of cannon balls into the pool," "I am going to watch dolphins swim," and "I can't wait to play in the snow and go skiing!" We are not so sure about the last one but we all hope you find your snowy mountain! 

Don't forget about our Little Free Library!
Our Little Free Library is ready for more books! We need you to help us fill our library up! We are especially looking for children's book (board books are ok too!). Teen and adult books are always welcome as well! If you would like to label them with our LFL labels before adding them to the library please drop them off with the teachers and we will happily add them to the library for you. Thank you all for your support!

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

June 30: July tuition is due
July 3-7: SEE closed for Summer Break
July 10- August 29: SEE summer program!
August 1: August tuition is due 
August 30-Septmeber 4: SEE closed for new year prep and Labor Day
September 5: First Day of School! 
September 5: September tuition is due

Some pictures from the last few weeks:

Baby Caterpillars: Day 1

No longer babies: Day 3!

Drinking "nectar" (aka juice) from our proboscis!

The children sang "Let it Go" as Ana and Else Flew away!

The set of "The Hungry Thing"

 And there you have it, year number six has come to a successful end! We look forward to a super fun summer and another wonderful school year this fall! 

Have a restful summer break! We'll see you on July 10th!

Joanna