Week of January 26-30, 2015!

What a snow storm we had! The children enjoyed playing in the HUGE snow drifts today! Don't forget to send your child with snow pants and waterproof gloves everyday.  

This week was short and sweet and we wrapped up our Inventors unit! We learned about the inventors of the Barbie Doll and Lego blocks! We also set up various learning stations around the room for the children to explore during free play.  

Do you know how Barbie and Ken got their names? The founder, Ruth Handler's children are named Barbara and Ken! Ruth designed the dolls for her daughter who loved playing with paper dolls and fabric clothing.  In 1959 the Barbie was born! 

The Lego founder, Ole Kirk Christiansen, was a carpenter who designed wooden toys.  He wasn't fond of how the wooden toys did not interlock and would collapse when manipulated.  He experimented with plastic and the Lego was created! 

Both the Barbie and Lego discussions lead to projects in the preschool classroom! See our pictures below!

Next month also brings lots of great curriculum topics! With Groundhog's Day on February 2nd, we will discuss and investigate shadows! And then Chinese New Year is upon us! We love learning about Chinese New Year and all of the great traditions.  The noodle snack is always a big hit!

Friendly reminders:

- Don't forget your child's snow gear! We go outside everyday!
- Tuition is due on Monday, February 2nd
- Families DO NOT have to send in Valentines.  We will be creating valentines at school with the children.  
- School will be closed on Monday, February 16th in observance of President's Day

*Don't forget to vote for us on HulaFrog!!!! Voting ends on February 14th so there are only 2 weeks left! Click Here to vote! Sign up is quick and easy and HulaFrog has lots of great local resources for families too!*

And a very special thank you to all of the families who supported our school and purchased books from the Scholastic Reading Club! Your purchases helped us earn books for our classroom.  Stay tuned for the next flier arriving in February!

Making Paper Dolls with Fabric Scraps

Block Learning Station: Can you fill the outline with blocks?
Lot's of teamwork happening!

Snow explorations with colored water and eye droppers

Lego Challenge: Can you make the first letter of your name?

Learning Station: Can you make a pattern with the colored blocks? (The light table was shining bright as the children manipulated the blocks)

Week of January 19-23, 2015!

Inventors month continues! This week the children learned about how the popsicle and Tollhouse cookies came to be!

The popsicle all began when eleven-year-old Frank Epperson from San Francisco accidentally left a jar of flavored soda water with a stir stick in it outside on a chilly night.  When the morning came, he awoke to a frozen treat on a stick! And in true preschool fashion, this kind of information calls for an experiment!  When asked what happens to a popsicle if it is left in the classroom, the children responded with answers such as, "it will melt" and "you need cold or else it will melt." The children knew just what would happen.  But, what would happen if we put it on the light table or in the dark?  So out came the popsicles and the children decided to put a popsicle in the closet (dark), on the light table (heat), under a lamp (heat) and outside (cold).  Since experiments can take some patience, the children tried out their own hypotheses on how to make the popsicle melt faster! They naturally gathered around the light table and tried putting animals and fabric around the popsicle, "If we put all this stuff around it, it will help melt it, we have to make the cup hot!"  Very cool! Check out the pictures below!

On Friday, we introduced the children to the story of the chocolate chip cookie!  Did you know that Ruth Wakefield, from Massachusetts, created the Tollhouse Cookie in 1930?  One day, Ruth began making chocolate cookies for her guests at her inn named The Tollhouse Inn.  She ran out of bakers chocolate and decided to substitute semi-sweet chocolate morsels instead.  She hoped that once she baked the cookies, the morsels would melt making the chocolate cookies she had made for years.  The chocolate chips stayed in tact in the oven and she decided to serve them after all!  The guests loved the cookies and Ruth originally decided to call them Chocolate Crunch Cookies and the recipe is the same Tollhouse Cookie recipe we use today! So, of course, we just had to make our own Tollhouse Cookies today! Check out our pictures below!

Reminders:
- All scheduling additions/changes for Fall 2015 must be submitted as soon as possible.

- Spread the news! Our Open Houses are scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, January 24th from 9-11am and Saturday, February 28th form 9-11am.  Tell your friends!

- Don't forget to send your child with warm winter gear for outdoor play! We try to get out everyday!

Pre-experiment discussion

Popsicle under the lamp

Popsicle Outside

Popsicle in the closet (dark)

Popsicle on the light table

Popsicle surrounded by animals to make it warmer

Mixing up our Tollhouse cookies!

Cookies in progress! Yum!

Week of January 12-16, 2015!

This month is just flying by! As you know, this month we are learning about Inventors/Inventions and this week is electricity week!  Mrs. M has found some really cool stuff for us to experiment with! The children are learning how telephones came to be and how circuits work.  We first discussed telephones, the children explored how well certain sounds pass through a string telephone (i.e. a piece of string with a cup tied on each end).  The experiment included trying different cups, plastic vs. styrofoam vs. tin cans.  We wanted to see of different materials made different sounds, etc.  You will have to ask your child what happened! And if they don't know, you will have to try it at home!

The second half of the week, we introduced the children to Thomas Edison and explored with circuits and batteries (totally safe, we promise!).  Our lesson taught the children that to make a motor work, there must be a connection or a "loop".  With out a loop, the motor will not work.  Mrs. M found this great toy that showed exactly that, it is called an Energy Stick (purchased on the Steve Spangler website).  All 23 children stood in a circle and held hands.  The connection worked when all hands were connected but if the circle was broken, the stick would not light up.  Perfect example of a circuit! The children also explored with a tiny motor to make a fan spin and to make a light bulb light.  Very cool science!

Next week we will wrap up electricity and learn about how popsicles, crayons and toll house cookies came to be! 

Reminders: 
- We will be closed for MLK day on Monday, January 19th.  School we resume as usual on Tuesday.

- Our Monthly gathering is this Sunday, January 18th at 1pm at Collins Bowl-a-drome in Billrica, please RSVP via evite so we know how many children to expect.

- We are collecting non-perishable goods for the Burlington Food Pantry this month.  Please do not forget to bring in items to help our community!

- Lastly, don't forget to tell your friends and neighbors that we are currently enrolling for Fall 2015! If you haven't already done so, please email any schedule changes/additions to Joanna ASAP.  Spots are quickly filling up!

Take a look at all of the fun we had with electricity:

 Some wire explorations at the art tables

 Basic circuit

 Teacher demonstration of using a circuit to make a fan spin

 A student demonstrating how a circuit works with the Energy Stick

 Children working together to make a "loop"

At the science center exploring with the circuit and motor

Week of January 5-9, 2015!

Happy New Year! We hope everyone enjoyed their winter break! We are starting the new year fresh with a new curriculum topic and a discussion about our hopes and dreams for the new year (aka resolutions for kids!)

We are diving right into our new topic, Inventors! The children have found it very fascinating that cars did not always look like they do today.  We read, "Eat My Dust, Henry Ford's First Race" by Monica Kulling and "The Night Henry Ford met Santa" by Carol Hagen.  After we read the first book, the children held car races, first flat on the floor using force and then elevated on a ramp.  The children had a blast while learning about force, motion and acceleration!  

Now it is very unlike us to read a holiday book after the holidays but in the book, "The Night Henry Ford met Santa," Henry went to Santa's workshop and discovered the idea of an assembly line.  Henry then took the idea back to his factory and that is how the assembly line came to be! As an extension activity, the children sat at a long table and were each given a pile of one specific lego.  As the children added their piece, they passed it down to their friend who continued to add a different piece until the creation was complete!  

We also talked about our "hopes and dreams" for the new year.  The children told us what they hope to accomplish or try this year.  Some of the answers included:

"Helping my mommy with the baby"
"Making a big garden with a lot of fruit and vegetables"
"I am going to play hide and seek!"
"I am going to run farther"
"I want to try camping"
"I am going to be a good big brother!"

It was very special to hear the excitement in the children's voices as they individually shared their dreams for the new year!

In other news, the pre-k has been introduced to Scholastic News.  We are trying out this new program to support early reading skills and to teach the children about current events in short and easy articles.  So far it has been a big hit!

Our organization of the month is the Burlington Food Pantry! Please send in non-perishable items for families in need during the month of January.  We will also be collecting items at our monthly gathering next weekend.

Lastly, our monthly gathering will be at Collin's Bowl-a-drome in Billrica on Sunday, January 18th at 1pm.  Join us for some old fashioned bowling with good friends! Please RSVP via Evite! 

Check back next week for more pictures!  In the mean time, log onto Shutterfly and see what we were up to in December!