This morning we welcomed a few Maranatha High School students to be apart of storytime, in Room 3. These third year American Sign Language (ASL) students shared what ASL is and demonstrated their fluency with some fun stories! Our special guests read: How to Babysit Grandma, Butterfly Garden, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, Curious George Curious Kittens, and Ten Little Fish. They taught us a few words like: grandma, moose, puppy, and fish. It was a wonderful opportunity to gain exposure to a beautiful language that many of us do not get to encounter very often. Check out this clip from storytime!
Author: kgallardopcs
Zoo-pendous Day!
On our field trip today, Room 3 ventured out of the classroom to explore the Los Angeles Zoo! We used picture maps to find our way to flamingos, alligators, giraffes, elephants and other incredible creatures. As we trekked through the zoo with our little ones, we observed and discussed so many interesting characteristics of the animals around us. Together, we invested in building friendships, language development, color awareness, pre-reading skills, listening skills, gross motor development, and expanding our knowledge of the world around us. Check out some fun moments from our zoo-pendous day together!
Thank you to all of our wonderful parents for your participation and for keeping our little ones safe. You make our field trips possible so we thank you for helping us create these moments to remember!
December Days in Room 3
From festive fun to memory making moments, we have really enjoyed the month of December with our little ones!
We have been working hard, and by that I mean playing our cozy Christmas socks off! Playing isn’t only fun for the tiny humans, it is also the means by which they improve language, navigate social interactions, become critical thinkers and so much more! Take a look at some of the fun we’ve been having in Room 3…
This is Armen sorting by color, building with imagination, classifying each lego dinosaur with detail, and using words to vividly communicate his thoughts about his creations.
What may look like a simple moment of play is actually so much more! This sweet interaction between Jordyn and Harper is an example of our little ones practicing how to be cooperative and how to respect each other’s words—all while smiling and having fun together!
Performing arts isn’t defined by the stage you have or the costumes you wear, sometimes inspiration strikes while you’re walking through the garden with your tissue box guitar. This is Paloma, Zachary, Elijah, and Harper performing Jesus Loves Me, with a strong finish!
Here is just a glimpse of some of the Christmas activities we enjoyed doing together…
Mr. Tim, Max, and The Grinch visited our classroom for holiday story time!
Who doesn’t love a Christmas ornament decorated by their little one? Check out the Christmas gift to our Room 3 parents with love from your little angels and shepherds…
What a joy it is to celebrate the birth of our Savior! Our prayer is that amidst all the festive fun, our little ones know and share the true meaning of Christmas.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year with so much love from Room 3!
Bon a-PANCAK-étit
Our little chefs in Room 3 measured, poured, mixed, and cooked up some delicious pancakes this week, with Ms. Thelma!
Our friends flipped for our first cooking project! They licked their plates clean so it’s probably safe to say this one was a success.
Cooking with preschoolers promotes math, science and literacy skills. It also is a great opportunity to practice taking turns while building community, collaboration, and confidence.
Check out the pancake fun!
A huge THANK YOU to our generous parents! You made this fun project possible.
Color Eruptions in Room 3
This past week in small groups, we conducted a color eruption experiment.
Our tiny scientists practiced using pipettes to transfer liquid to a mixture of baking soda and food coloring. They made observations, verbalized predictions, and initiated a chemical reaction–AN ERUPTION!
The outcome of this experiment was validated in “WOW”s and excited screams!
Check out our scientists at work…
All About Three
Welcome to Room 3! We are off to an exciting start!
Our classroom is the final stop before reaching Pre-K A or Pre-K B. What is our focus, you ask? Play is our focus! Embedded in all our fun, are so many valuable skills, concepts, and values which are fundamental to becoming a little learner. While we play, we socialize, use language, solve problems, make decisions, expand our understanding of the world around us, and learn how to let our light shine for Jesus.
Above all else, we pray that every little heart connects to Christ. As we worship, pray, and read God’s word daily, we confidently expect those seeds that are being planted to take root. John 15:5 says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit…”
The Fruit of the Spirit so completely encompasses the “good” attributes we hope to instill in our children. Thankfully, God gives us (YES, even 3 year-olds!) The Holy Spirit— to help us, comfort us, and guide us so we are able to possess His attributes (love, patience, kindness, and self-control, just to name a few).
3 year-olds are AMAZING! Everyday new friendships sprout, curiosity grows, independence asserts itself, and imagination is taken to new heights. As educators, it’s our duty to ignite that curiosity, provide opportunities for independence, offer safe/appropriate choices and create an environment that builds confidence while learning. Here are some ways we strive to do that and more in Room 3!
We explore the Outdoor Classroom and Enrichment Patio!
We enjoy free choice play in our classroom!
At morning meeting, we sing songs, choose weekly helpers, discuss the calendar, count together, and pray over our day.
We enjoy family style snack! Our responsible “littles” bring their cups and napkins to the table, pray together, count the pictures on our snack board, serve themselves, pour their water, and practice table etiquette such as, taking turns talking and cleaning up after themselves! Serving and counting snack promotes autonomy, fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination and one-to-one correspondence.
We love Bible time! The Rhyme Bible Storybook is one of the children’s Bibles that we read from. It’s short, colorful and captivating—PERFECT for our growing attention span! To keep Bible fun and engaging, we implement visual aids, interactive skits, and so much more!
At small groups, we explore: Literacy, Writing, and Math/Science. We plan fun, age-appropriate games, activities, and projects to target an objective and practice a skill.
Art is critical for neural development, representation, expression and more! We have a creative God who made us in His image. Therefore, we have an amazing capacity to create!
We explore important concepts–like lines and colors through art.
Print is fascinating to us. We love to promote print awareness starting with the ability to recognize letters. We are seeing ALOT of self-directed exploration of letters and print in our environment.
At Big Field we exercise, practice gross motor movements, coordination, cooperation in a large group game, and listening skills. Our first fun pursuit was Red Light, Green Light!
PetCo Where the Pet Lovers Go!
Puppies have been the talk of the town, therefore we have changed our dramatic play house into a Room 3 PetSmart pet shop.
Remember our daily recap is available on our white board. This is a fantastic way to prompt your Room 3 friend to share more about their day.
We are looking forward to all the good things God has in store for us this year! More fun to come!
Fired Up for Fun!
To capstone our exploration of community helpers, Room 1 visited Los Angeles Fire Station 82 this past week. As we drove up to the station, ALL three emergency vehicles pulled out of the garage, sirens blaring! Our little ones were captivated while our adults were a little nervous that our tour would be canceled. But OH YEAH, that was just God’s favor…AN EXCITING look at a REAL response to a call. The firefighters returned within a few short minutes, skillfully backed the engines into the garage and our tour began! They showed us their fire gear, equipment on the truck, their kitchen and their gym. They even let us hold and spray a firehose! Check it out!
Thank you to our wonderful parents and grandparents who chaperoned, drove, and made this field trip possible and so much fun! And a HUGE thank you to the amazing firefighters at Station 82!
Check out just a few other fun things we’ve been up to in Room 1:
