The School for Early Excellence's Blog!: The Last of the Five Senses: Sight!

This week we explored the last of our five senses: sight. During morning choice, the children discovered the "I Spy" table and magnifying glasses were used to look at silly pictures. In addition to the I Spy table, some friends helped to make a batch of Moon Sand and all of the children enjoyed playing with it. Many moon castles were made and the children were amazed as it turned back to sand.

This week, the Pre-K children learned to spell and trace the letters in the word APPLE; their pictures are proudly hanging on the wall. They also listened to the story “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle. A calendar style book was made using all of the Pre K children's pictures they had drawn and we read our version titled, “Pre-K, Pre-K, Who Do You See?” Later in the week we read “It Looked Like Spilt Milk,” by Charles Green Shaw. The book describes pictures of spilled milk that look like objects such as a rabbit, an ice cream cone, a bird and more. Afterwards each child had an opportunity to cut out their own spilled milk pictures. Some children had drawn robots, jewels, hearts and pyramids. They had a fun time deciding what they saw in their cut out.

In keeping with the "sight" theme, the preschoolers played an I Spy game and learned about the different part of the eye. They learned that the center of the eye called the “Iris." Each child then had the opportunity to look at their eyes in the mirror and announce what color their own eyes are. They also read the book “It Looks Like Spilt Milk” and made a white painting on blue paper. The children squirted white paint onto a folded piece of blue paper. They each smooshed the paint around between the folded halves of paper and opened the paper to reveal a neat looking paint splotch. Each child was was asked what they saw in the paint - as if looking at clouds in the sky to find animals and objects.

Music and Movement with Ms. Mary Beth was all about exploring our senses. Many themed songs were played that incorporated using our fire senses. They enjoyed dancing to “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” by Leo Sayer.

On Wednesday, we started the Artist of the Month curriculum. For October, our artist is Paul Cézanne, the French artist and Post-Impressionist painter. The children used Cézanne's "Les Pommes" (1890) as inspiration as they painted a still life of a bowl of apples. The paintings were presented to the children in eight simple steps using basic shapes (mostly circles!) and bold color. The paintings turned out beautifully and they will soon be hanging in the classroom.

The teachers and parents had a nice evening at SEE’s Curriculum Night this past Wednesday. It was so nice to meet the parents in a more relaxed setting and for them to learn about what the preschoolers and Pre-K children have been learning and to see some of the fun projects that they have been doing. We also had an opportunity to share the learning goals that the teachers have for all the children this year.

What's up next?

As the sense unit wraps up, next week we’ll be learning about apples!

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 10: SEE is closed in observance of Columbus Day
October 22: Trunk-or-Treat at SEE! See your Evite for more details and for instructions on how to sign up!
November 1: November tuition is due
November 11: SEE is closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 23: SEE closes at 3:00pm
November 24-25: SEE is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday

Pictures from the week: