All About Apples!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Columbus Day weekend.  This week was all about apples.  During morning choice some friends painted apples on trees using Q-tips, dotting red, yellow and green apples on a picture of a tree.  Both groups had an apple tasting and the green apple won for best taste over a red and yellow ones.  Some children shouted out that apples are “delicious and yummy!”  Later in the week we peeled apples with a hand cranked peeler and then cooked the apples to make delicious apple sauce!

The preschoolers read the book "Ten Apples On Top" by Dr. Seuss and the children made a neat mathematical picture, rolling the dice to find out how many apples to put on top of their lion. This activity also incorporated one-to-one correspondence while counting up to ten.  Together with the Pre-K class, Mrs. M did a special apple seed experiment. We explored the question, "What will happen when we put apple seeds in water?"  Will they sink? Will they float? First the seeds sank, then we experimented with baking soda and vinegar. The children were so excited to see the apple seeds float and dance around!

Pre-K sang the song "Farmer Brown Had Five Red Apples Hanging from the Tree" and played pin the apple on the tree.  The  children (and myself!) all took a turn being blind folded and tried to place the big apple on the tree, but the apples ended up in some pretty funny places including Farmer Brown's head, cheeks, and even on the classroom calendar!  We made three dimensional apple trees using green and red tissue paper crunched up and glued to the tree and falling to the ground and finally they used a brown crayon to color the tree's trunk.  We also learned to spell and trace the word "BANANA." Some children said “what a big word,” but they were happy to learn how fun it is to spell.  We got some nice feedback from SEE parents that they really enjoyed listening to and watching their Pre-Ker's spelling. 

In Ms. Marybeth movement class the children transformed into autumn trees and leaves.  Everyone had a leaf and sang a song about leaves twirling and swirling gently to the ground.  They also took turns swirling beautiful rhythmic ribbons.

Mr. Ed came on Thursday, singing and playing his guitar to lots of apple and banana songs.  He also sang about pumpkins, Halloween, and, of course, the children had lots of fun shaking their sillies out. 

It was a short week filled with delicious apple smells, tastes and learning about the whole apple from skin to seeds!  

What's up next?

Next week is all about pumpkin explorations and the color of the week will be orange.

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

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:

Peeling apples to make applesauce

Making three dimensional apple trees

Learning to spell, trace and paint the word "banana"

Friends working hard with supervision from Wegman's "foreman"

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Pauline

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:

Pre-K's self portraits including all of their five senses and more!

Artist of the Month: Paul Cézanne! The children used
his painting, "Les Pommes" (1890) as inspiration

Friends making a train with connecting hula hoops

Enjoy your long, Columbus Day weekend. See you on Tuesday!

Ms. Pauline

The Fourth Sense is Touch

This week we explored the fourth of our five senses, touch. We started out with a mystery bag filled with rocks, pom-poms, macaroni, blocks, ribbons, sand paper, toothbrushes and paint brushes. The children described their mystery findings as soft, hard, smooth, rough, wavy and bumpy. Some of the children liked the toothbrush because it was both soft and hard. During morning choice time the children were invited to use eye droppers and water color paints on hard rocks and soft cotton circles, great for fine motor skills! The children's favorite seemed to have been watching the cotton absorb the colored water. 

To kick off touch week, the pre-k children started making a texture book of their very own on Monday. Starting with the first page, the feeling was "soft" and children added fluffy pom-pons to the page. Tuesday's word, and page two, was "hard" - macaroni was added to the page. Wednesday's texture was "rough/bumpy" - various types of textured paper were added to the page. Thursday's texture was "smooth" - silky ribbon was added. And finally, Friday's textures were "waxy" and "sticky" - wax paper and sticky stickers were added to the pages. What a nice book the children created as they chatted about the way things felt including many silly words to describe the textures. 

For touch week, the preschoolers were introduced to a mystery box with something soft or hard inside. Each child took a turn reaching inside the box to feel the object.  Without using their sense of sight, the children guessed what was inside the box. As the week continued, the children painted with corn. The group discussed  how it felt and all of the children agreed that it felt bumpy and smooth.  The children also liked seeing their pictures come out all bumpy. 

Ms. Mary Beth's movement class was all about apples. They danced around the apple tree to “It’s a brand new day” and recited a poem about apples, too. Everyone had a picture of a red, green or yellow apple and when they heard their color they held it up high and picked the apple off of the pretend tree. 

Mr. Ed came with his guitar to sing and dance the hokey pokey, as well as, shake your silly’s out and they sang about apples. There were lots of smiles, singing and laughter going on during music, its great to be a kid at SEE!

To finish up the week, all of the children enjoyed a felt story called “The Little Old Lady.” This week, the Little Old Lady was trying to find her senses. Colored felt pieces were added to the felt board when the children responded to the questions, “Why do I have ears, mouth, hands, nose, and eyes?”

What's up next?

The children will explore the last of our five senses, “sight.” We have lots of fun things to see next week! 

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 3: October tuition is due
October 5: Curriculum Night - check your Evite for more details and to RSVP!
October 10: SEE 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 closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 23: SEE closes at 3:00pm
November 24-25: SEE closed in observance of Thanksgiving

Pictures from the week:

SEE's very own artists hard at work!

Texture book pages, "soft" and "hard"

A bumpy picture made with corn

It was another great week at SEE! Have a good weekend!

Ms. Pauline

Smells and Tastes

This week we continued learning about the five senses. We talked about how we smell with our nose and taste with our mouth.  We discussed what we smell, how we sneeze and some things that we do not put up our nose! We also discussed how we eat and what we can and cannot eat. We learned that our tongue is a muscle in your mouth and the bumps are taste buds for sending taste messages to our brain.

We began the week with an introduction to smell and taste, we read the book "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly," by Pam Adams and "My Five Senses," by Aliki Brandenberg.  Each child was given an item to explore their senses and share with the group which senses they used.  For example, reading a book, holding a piece of apple, or playing in the sand table.  We also played a color game to strengthen our listening  and following directions skills. 

The preschoolers did a sniff test using scented makers to see if the smell was Yummy or Yucky. Yummy included cotton candy, marshmallows and watermelon and they labeled barnyard and lemonade as yucky. The preschoolers each took a turn shaking cinnamon into the sensory table for and additional sensory experience. One child remarked, “This reminds me of pancakes, I think I’m going to ask my Dad to put cinnamon on my pancakes instead of syrup.”  

As the week continued, the pre-k children drew a still life of a real flower in a vase and then used scented kool-aide to give their flowers a wonderful scent such as lemonade and watermelon. However, the children thought that the sour apple smelled kind of yucky or as one child said “This smells disgusting.”  Another day we tasted lemons and limes and we watched each other’s lips and face to see how they reacted.  Most of our friends liked the lemon taste and said it tasted "sour," "normal" or simply, "like lemons."  

To wrap up the week, the children used white glue to make designs on black paper and then sprinkled paprika, cinnamon, basil and dry mustard onto the glue, they called themselves, “artist.”  They talked about how cinnamon reminds them of breakfast and basil reminds them of pasta.  For snack, we all made smoothies with fruit and yogurt what a fun time we all had!

        

Ms. Mary Beth's movement class was all about our families. The children each had a moment to tell the class who is in their family. We all sang "Where is Thumpkin," "Down Down Baby," "Rock-a-Bye Baby" and we danced to "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge.

        
Mr. Ed was back from vacation and the children were very happy to sing along with him and his guitar!

What's up next?     
Next week we'll be exploring another of our five senses, touch.

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 3: October tuition is due
October 5: Curriculum Night - check your Evite for more details and to RSVP!
October 10: SEE closed in observance of Columbus Day
TBA: Halloween celebration
November 1: November tuition is due
November 11: SEE closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 23: SEE closes at 3:00pm
November 24-25: SEE closed in observance of Thanksgiving

Pictures from the week:

"This lime smells sweet"

                                      

Some glue and spices made a beautiful scented picture

                                      

A great ending to smell and taste week - we made smoothies!

Ms. Pauline

The Five Senses begin with hearing

Our first full week back to school and everyone is happily settled in. This week we have started learning about the five senses, beginning with hearing and sound. The children had a fun time making, singing about and listening to popcorn popping. We sang the Popcorn song: 

You put the oil in the pot and you let it get hot
You put the popcorn in and you start to grin.
Sizzle, sizzle, Sizzle, sizzle, Sizzle, sizzle,
Sizzle, sizzle, Sizzle, sizzle, POP!        

Everyone loved listening to the sounds of the popcorn as it popped and as it overflowed from the air popper into the big bowl. It was just as much fun to hear how it crunched when they ate it!

As the week progressed, we learned about the structure of our ears and how there are three parts, the outer ear, middle ear and inner  ear which work together to allow us to hear sounds. The outer ear collects sounds, the middle ear changes the sounds to vibrations using your eardrums and the inner ear tells our brain what we hear.

We played a sleeping, wake up and listening game where after you "wake" you move about the room making sounds like an elephant, monkey, bird and so on.

During Ms. Marybeth’s music and movement class they learned about counting musical beats. We discovered some friend’s names had one beat and some had as many as three beats. We clapped along to louder and softer beats of music, too.

We have also spent some time during our preschool and pre-k curriculum groups learning about sounds. The preschoolers played the game “Can you guess what’s in the box?" The children took turns shaking a mystery box with a surprise item inside: one had pom-poms, one had wooden beads and one had popcorn kernels. They also listened to the rain stick and made some guesses about what they heard including popcorn, marbles and rain. 

The pre-k children discussed the sounds that an elephant makes with his truck ("PPPFFFF") and his feet ("thud") and then we all drew a picture of and named our own elephant. We also each had our own fun instrument to play in our school band and sang the song B I N G O. It was so much fun, especially when we did not say any letters and just used taps, 2 slow taps, and then 3 fast taps with our instruments! During the week some friend decorated the tapping sticks.

The teachers continued to work with the kids on their portfolios and spending some quality time getting to know your child.

We have some exciting plans for next week as we continue learning about our five senses. On to smell and taste week!

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 3: October tuition is due
October 5: Curriculum Night - check your Evite for more details and to RSVP!
October 10: SEE closed in observance of Columbus Day
TBA: October's monthly gathering
TBA: Halloween celebration
November 1: November tuition is due
November 11: SEE closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 23: SEE closes at 3:00pm
November 24-25: SEE closed in observance of Thanksgiving

Pictures from the week:

                   Mr. Potato Head can hear really well with four ears.

Listening to popcorn pop, hit the big bowl and crunch as we ate it!

Our ears have three parts

Tapping to the song B I N G O

Ms. Pauline

Welcome to SEE!

Hoping everyone enjoyed Labor Day weekend. What a terrific start to our new school year! It was a pleasure having met some new parents and seeing some familiar faces as well. The teachers are very excited to see that the children have happily settled into a routine and they are enjoying making new friends! 

This week we introduced classroom jobs back into the classroom. The children really enjoy having a job. We explained that not everyone will get a job everyday but everyone will get a turn. The morning jobs include the "hello stick," calendar helper, schedule reader, weather watcher, line leader and snack helper. 

To set the tone for our classroom, the teachers and children did some role playing about being respectful and kind to one another, sharing toys, taking turns with classroom materials and to respect one another's hard work. All of the children are learning our classroom language and beginning to form new friendships.

You will also notice some subtle changes in what we call the activities of our morning.  For example, "free play" is changing to "social play" as we focus on socialization and fostering friendships.  This first week of school was laid back as the children had many opportunities to freely explore the classroom.  We had many activities available each day including homemade playdough, stringing beads, trains, kinetic sand and an assortment of building manipulates.  We also began to work on each student's portfolio to prepare for Curriculum Night (more info coming soon).

During Mary Beth's music and movement class, we met an imaginary fairy named Princess Rosie. We pretended she was listening as each friend had a chance to roll the ball to another friend and say his or her friend’s name. We sang and danced before we said goodbye to Princess Rosie.  Mr. Ed will also be back soon.

To wrap up the week, our friend, Emily, read "The Three Little Pigs" to the class like a pro, she really captured the attention of the class as she read. Great job, Emily!

What's up Next:

Next week we begin learning about our five senses. This week we will begin with our hearing sense. We will also wrap-up the children's portfolio work. We are very excited for you to see your child's portfolio at Curriculum Night.

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 3: October tuition is due
October 10: SEE closed in observance of Columbus Day
TBA: Curriculum Night
TBA: October's monthly gathering
TBA: Classroom Halloween celebration
November 1: November tuition is due
November 11: SEE closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 23: SEE closes at 3:00pm
November 24-25: SEE closed in observance of Thanksgiving

Pictures from the week:

Exploring colors while practicing fine motor skills

Scooping and pouring sand in the sensory table

Exploring Magformers

Thank you to all the parents, children and SEE teachers for a smooth transition back to school.

Pauline and Joanna

The Great Month of August!

Hello SEE families! It has been a few weeks since our last blog post and we are very excited to catch you up on all of our classroom happenings! Now that the new school year is underway and everyone is settling into their new classroom routine, the blog will return every week.  Each new blog post will go live by the end of each weekend.  "Like" our Facebook page so you can stay updated will all of the latest news and blog posts.  Lastly, Ms. Pauline, our Head Classroom Teacher, will be taking over the blog for a little while beginning with the first week of school.  We are looking forward to a great school year! 

The month of August was hot, but we enjoyed science, farm, dinosaur and mythical ocean adventures week will with pirate and mermaid explorations! Here is a little recap of all the fun we had:

Science Week:

During Science week the children learned about magnets and chemical reactions.  To start the week off, we were visited by the Mad Scientist of Greater Boston who did mini volcanos (baking soda and vinegar) made Lemonade soda (lemonade powder, baking soda and water) and mixing dough (flour, salt and water).

As the week continued, we read the story "Mouse Paint" by Ellen Stoll Walsh about color mixing.  We placed water mixing trays on the table for the children to explore with droppers: the children loved mixing primary colors to make new colors.

The activities didn't stop there, Mrs. M was SEE's very own scientist, teaching the children about chemical reactions using baking soda and vinegar and soda and mentos candy. We asked the children what would happen if we put a baking soda and vinegar solution in a ziplock bag.  The children answered saying it would bubble up and the bag would explode! So we tested out the children's hypothesis; everyone sat in a no splash zone, while Mrs. M filled a plastic bag with baking soda and added vinegar. Then we watched and waited to see what would happen. Sure enough, the children were right, the bag filled with gas and burst at the seams when the bag couldn't hold any more.  The next day, we took our experiment outside. In true scientist fashion, we asked the children what they thought would happen if we dropped mentos candy into a large bottle of coca-cola.  After all of the hypotheses we dropped a sleeve of mentos into the coke bottle and the soda shot over 10 feet into the air! So awesome! Who knew science could be this fun!

Farm Week:

Next up was farm week and we explored different types of farms  including a produce farm, dairy farm and livestock farm. We began exploring produce farms by giving the children different types of produce to cut up to make a fruit salad. Exploring dairy farms lead us to explore cows and discuss the foods that are made with milk including cheese, butter, ice cream, chocolate milk, yogurt and pudding! The children also experienced what it is like to milk a cow.  The teachers filled a non-latex glove with water and poked a small hole in tip of each "finger."  The children took turns "milking a cow" as they squeezed each "utter."

While learning about livestock farms, the children read the story, "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" by Laura Numeroff which was followed by a pancake and maple syrup snack, yum! The children were then invited to create a pig mask by using chocolate pudding to represent mud. The children loved the sensory experience and even snuck a little taste, too!

As the week continued, Rebekah from Wright-Locke Farm visited our school and brought along her 2 ½ year old Nigerian Farm Goat, Rufus.  Rebekah talked about how goats produce milk just like cows and goat's milk is used for drinking, baking, making yogurt, cheese, soaps and lotions. In addition to products we eat, both male and female goats give us wool. We also learned that baby goats are called "kids," their feet are called hooves, goats have four stomachs and this horns are used to protect them from predators in the wild. We all learned so many new facts! Before Rufus and Rebekah left, everyone had an opportunity to feed Rufus and give him a pat.  Thanks for coming to see us, Rufus!

To wrap up the week, the children used their gross motor skills and practiced their hand/eye coordination while making basil prints with a rubber mallet on muslin fabric.  

Dinosaur Week:

The children were introduced to the three categories of dinosaurs - carnivore (meat-eater), herbivore (plant-eater) and omnivore (eats both plants and meat).  The children also learned the term, paleontologist - someone who studies fossils. As the children learned the characteristics of the each type of dinosaur, they began to categorize them based on their physical features.  The carnivores,  aka bipedal dinosaurs, stood on two feet and moved quickly to catch their pray - they also had big sharp teeth to grind their food. The herbivores were four-legged dinosaurs, aka quadrupeds, and ate plants. They had long necks to reach the yummy leaves on treetops and has smaller teeth for grinding leaves and twigs.  

As the week continued, the children had an opportunity to see a life size drawing of a T-Rex jaw (average length is 4 feet). We wondered if anyone was taller than the T-Rex jaw.  The children took turns laying down next to the jaw but no one was quite tall enough to be bigger than the jaw!

We also spent time learning all about volcanos and how they erupt. The hot liquid rock under the Earth’s surface is known as magma and once the magma travels to the Earth's surface, it then becomes lava. As a group, the children created a volcano out of sand.  Everyone had a chance to make the volcano erupt using baking soda, vinegar and red food coloring.  Each time vinegar was added to the baking soda, we all shouted, “HOT LAVA!”  

Ocean Adventures Week:

    Aye aye matey! During the final week of summer camp, SEE went on an ocean adventure. We learned about pirates and mermaids. The children played "pin-the-eyepatch on the pirate" while blindfolded, worked together to create a beautifully decorated mermaid/merman tail and made treasure maps. After making their maps the children went outside to begin their treasure hunt. To the children's surprise, a crew of pirates came through our playground and left their treasure (shiny sequence) everywhere! The children quickly filled their treasure bags and brought their treasure back into the classroom to weigh and measured their findings.  And, of course, every good pirate needs some lingo! We practiced our pirate words including, "Ahoy, matey," "walk the plank" and "shiver me timbers!"

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 3: October tuition is due
October 10: SEE closed in observance of Columbus Day
TBA: Curriculum Night
TBA: October's monthly gathering
TBA: Classroom Halloween celebration
November 1: November tuition is due
November 11: SEE closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 23: SEE closes at 3:00pm
November 24-25: SEE closed in observance of Thanksgiving

Pictures from the month:

The children using their fine moter skills to manipulate the eye droppers to mix colors

Exploring light and shadows at the light table

Mrs. M's chemical reaction experiments

Exploring salt painting 

Look closely and you can see the soda explosion! 

Rufus the goat!

Basil printing

Muddy pig masks!

(More pictures to be added to Shutterfly! 2016/2017 Shutterfly account to be created soon!)
We had a blast this summer! Stay tuned for the first week of school post coming soon!
Joanna & Pauline