It happens to every child in one form or another – anxiety. As parents, we would like to shield our children from life’s anxious moments, but navigating anxiety is an essential life skill that will serve them in the years to come. In the…
Month: March 2016
Easter Blessings in Room 2
Easter is upon us! What better way to get the children to understand than by telling the story of our Risen King through a marshmallow! A marshmallow? All the classes make this yummy treat. You get a marshmallow to represent Jesus’ body (it is white and pure). The children prepare Jesus for his burial by anointing his body with oils and spices (butter, cinnamon and sugar.) They took the cloth (crescent roll) and wrapped Jesus’ body to lay him in the tomb (oven). After 3 days in the tomb (really only 20 minutes), the children notice that Jesus’ body is no longer there (the marshmallow melts leaving a hole in the cloth)!!
The children got to enjoy these special holiday treats along with fresh fruit and veggies during snack!
Hollow Blocks Inside
We changed things up a bit in the block area in Room 2. For a few weeks we got to borrow the large hollow blocks to see what the children would do with them inside. They made intricate walkways and roads!
Green Day
Yesterday and today brought wee celebrations of green, gold, and all things Irish. We made our own homemade Irish Soda Breads at the top’o’ the morn! Both savory and sweet we did bake. Yum! All our friends were so very careful to wear green as to not get our gold treasure tickled out of us. Thank you lovely supportive parents who made our festivities possible! We may be persuaded to share our recipe, but do give us advanced notice due to the fact we have to trek to the end of our rainbow to find it (we hid it with our gold😉)….
Lucky Little Ones in the Younger Pod
Room 5 mixed it up with our cooking activity this week. We opted for a healthy recipe given to us by one of our wonderful families, with a celebratory twist. We made GREEN banana soft-serve “ice cream”! The ingredients were simple and healthy and our friends had a good time hopping up in Mrs. Erin’s arms to hold down the blender and watch the ingredients transform into a delicious treat!
The ingredients are simple and sweet: frozen bananas, hemp milk (to make it lactose and soy free), vanilla, and honey. We just added a few drops of green food color to make our treats fittingly festive!
Out on the patio the younger pod enjoyed St. Patrick’s themed activities like crafting shamrock crowns, free paint with tones of green, and of course- green goop in the sensory table! It was a wonderful way to spend the holiday together. We are some lucky folks!
In the Spirit of Spring!
Spring is a wonderful time in preschool. We can focus our lessons around the concept of new life and new beginnings as we watch the children in our beloved classrooms turn another year older and another year wiser! In Room 5 we have included touches of spring in every corner. Our sensory table has a St.Patrick’s Day-meets-Easter motif, we have papier-mached and hand-painted our own Easter eggs, and our brightly colored connector flowers have inspired some friends to show off their fine-motor, matching, and building skills during morning activities!
(click on the images in the mosaic for a closer look!)
While friends at the sensory table are practicing classification, size, ordering, cause and effect, and new vocabulary, their classmates at the egg painting table are learning beginning geometry, working on their motor skills and hand-eye coordination, and increasing their self-esteem through their artistic expression-of-self! Check back for many more snap-shots of our springtime fun in preschool. But, before we end this post- here is an encore of our waffle-creation-station because these little guys are just too sweet to fit into one post (the subjects and their treats)!
Our Waffle Creation Station!
Room 5 had a blast last week making nutritious and delicious choices at our morning waffle-creation-station! Students were given the choice to add as much or as little of the toppings on the table as they liked. We feasted on gluten-free waffles topped with cool-whip, blue berries, pineapple, candy-coated sunflower seeds, yogurt chips, bananas, and more! Each child took turns helping themselves to their desired toppings and then passed the bowl to the next friend at the table. Their use of shared space and shared materials was fantastic and they each made their own healthy choices for snack. Thanks to all the parents who chipped in and made this yummy activity possible!
Hearing Screenings March 15 & 16
We are offering free hearing screenings to our preschool students on March 15th and 16th. Hearing is critical to optimal speech development and we want to be sure none of our little ones slip through cracks due to undiagnosed hearing concerns. Click here for a fantastic article that outlines speech development and the expected speech milestones in early childhood.
While we hope all of our little ones will participate in the screening, we would especially encourage those who exhibit any of the following characteristics:
- Mild or moderate speech delay
- Often “ignores” or seems oblivious to verbal commands or external noises
- Consistently asks to have things repeated
- Has trouble following age-appropriate multi-step directions
- Particularly sensitive to loud noises
- Particularly sensitive to noises of high and/or low frequencies
- Has difficulty with receptive language
- Has trouble with comprehension (ie. Can’t retell or recall parts of an age-appropriate story)
Please be sure to fill out a permission form so your child can receive this free benefit.
Early detection and intervention is key to success during the preschool years.
All Aboard!!
We have been having a wonderful time in Room 3 studying transportation with an emphasis on trains. From reading books about trains, playing with Thomas and other train toys, to watching train clips on YouTube, we have been learning so much. As has become our tradition in Room 3, we added to our train knowledge and experiences by taking a ride on the Gold Line. It was a fantastic trip that included our local Sierra Madre Train Station, the beautiful Los Angeles Union Station, and culminated with a stop at Olivera Street, and the oldest house in LA. The kids were enthralled by the entire trip from the first ticket purchase to the last sound of the train’s warning bells on the station platform. We want to acknowledge and give a special thank you to all the parents who came along and made this trip possible, we couldn’t have done it without you.
To the Train!
At the beautiful Union Station Los Angeles.
Heading over to Olvera Street and the Avila Adobe.
Lunch and heading back home.
It truly was a marvelous adventure and we can’t wait to see what we’ll do next!
Talking to Children About Anxiety
Many children face anxiety at some point or another. Let’s face it…we have ALL experienced some sort of anxiety from time to time. According to AnxietyBC, anxiety is actually a ‘good’ thing, as it helps us to prepare for danger, triggers our “flight-fight-freeze” response, and even stimulates a physical response in the form of increased energy to help us run away or fend off danger.
That said, children can often display heightened anxiety in situations that parents may perceive as ‘unwarranted’ (i.e. watching a “not scary” movie, loud noises, visiting new places, meeting new people, etc.).
Teaching children to recognize and understand anxiety is key to helping them work through and effectively manage their moments of worry.
Check out the following articles to help your child understand and recognize their own anxiety.
Talking to Your Child or Teen About Anxiety
9 Things Every Parent with an Anxious Child Should Try
If your child experiences unhealthy and/or overly persistent anxiety, be sure to see your pediatrician or family therapist. Persistent anxiety may be a sign that it is rooted in something deeper such as possible stress, side effects of medication, or nutritional reactions (i.e. consuming a triggering food such as gluten, artificial dyes, too much sugar, etc.).
Pasadena Christian Preschool 