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!