It is hard to believe that it has been 4 weeks since we started school! You probably have noticed less crying, happy faces, and children engaged in play. It has been wonderful to see so much growth in such a short period of time. Warm feelings and smiles can be found everywhere!

physical development is the way your child moves their arms and legs (large motor skills) and their fingers and hands (small motor skills). Social development helps your child get along with others. Emotional development lets your child understand their feelings and the feelings of others. Language and literacy development helps your child understand and communicate through listening, talking, reading, and writing. Thinking, or cognitive skills develop as children learn to think more complexly, make decisions, and solve problems.

Throughout our school year we will be assisting your child to grow physically, socially, emotionally, develop language and literacy, and thinking/cognitive skills. Through play kids find ways to interact with peers, to negotiate, to express self, to share, to be responsible,  and be a friend.

We have already done lots of observation and documentation to see what our classroom’s strengths and interests are. These are some of the things we have observed so far.

SHARING COMMON SPACELISTENING , FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS, AND LEARNING LANGUAGE THROUGH COOKING.

So far we have done simple short cooking activities that don’t require a long attention span, this will lead us to little expert “Chefs” later on. 😉

On April 2, we started “indoor planting.”  As you know young children lose interest fast, so we thought, “What will grow fast?”  Walaaah! “Beans!”  We read books about plant life cycle,  then planted beans in a zip lock bag and attentively watched for the outcome.  The children saw the different stages in a matter of 7 days.

We also planted many other plants; tomatoes, bell peppers, corn, winter squash, cucumbers, carrots, parsley, basil and chives.  “Come have a look.” We are hoping for the best garden ever.

“Bean”       “Root”                                                                        “Stem”           “Leaf”
                                

During the month the of February we shared different Bible stories about how God loves everyone, “1 John 4:8” and “Genesis 37-46.” We also read books such as “Love Monster,” “Llama, Llama I Love You,” and “Valentine’s Day Is Here.” We incorporated a few Valentine’s Day projects like a gift to take home, painting hearts, and making a special bag for valentine cards.For Chinese New Year we talked about Chinese characters, made decorations, introduced Chinese music, small drums and cooked fried rice and California Rolls. We read some great books to celebrate the occasion, “Bring in the New Year,” and “Dragon Dance.”

In addition, we are enjoying our block area and dress up corner and overall, having a wonderful time in preschool!

Welcome to the year “2018.” We pray for all our children, parents and families out there in need of God’s ever lasting love.

We started this month by exposing the children to the first letter of their name. We used cards with each child’s name, photo, and an enlarged letter of their first name to help them recognize both letters and name.

We have been talking about rain and how rain can be cold and sometimes turn into ice. We froze some water with Arctic animals. We touched the ice and had discussions on the kinds of animals inside. We also investigated what is happening to the ice with the sun. Continue reading “January Fun in Room 4” →

The month of October has come to an end and we in Class 4 did so many fun things with apples, pumpkins and many other fall items.

Cooking pumpkin power balls and pumpkin delight dessert while learning math and science at the same time was as sight to see and enjoy. Discovering and exploring different kinds of fall items was fun and messy! Reading different books and exposing children to new language and information was educational; among the books we read were “The Pumpkin Parable,” “The Biggest Pumpkin Ever,” “Pumpkin Patch Blessing,” and “Too Many Pumpkins.” We painted with Indian corn with fall colors and enjoyed our mini pumpkin patch! 😊We finished with a bag…YES, we were part of The Great California Shake Out.🤗 We practiced in class then we did the big practice by joining the big school.

Welcome to our first weeks of school! We are very excited to have seen your children in Room 4.  Their beautiful minds are learning and exploring new things every minute. They are doing very well getting to know each other, playing, discovering and getting familiar with their surroundings, friends and teachers.

You may not see or hear any more crying, but as you know, every child is different. We had a long weekend and your child may not understand why are they coming back to school after being home for so many days. It is hard to understand why it happens but some children may or may not cry as they come back to school from the holidays. It is perfectly normal if they do cry they are processing their feelings. Don’t worry !!!!!!

During these past few days the children explored and visited many areas of play in class as well as outside.

Have a  look and see your child/children in action. 😊

We had a super terrific fun visit from the Pasadena Fire Department today! They backed up their truck and ambulance into the driveway and brought us all over to take a picture by the fire truck. Then, Firefighter Mark showed us how they dress up in all their special gear! He explained to the kiddos that even though they look scary in their fire clothes they should not be scared because they are there to help  them. Then we got to meet each firefighter! There were five men and one woman firefighter! One of our girls has already decided that firefighting is the career for her! 😉 Then we were invited to see the engine and the ambulance! Boy, do they have a lot of goodies in there! Sadly, we had to say goodbye. I’m not sure who was more upset the students or the single teachers! 😂 Here’s a look see…..

Thank you Ms. Cindy for arranging this amazing event. Dressing up, singing and  reading all about  firefighters eased the children into this event.