Feeling Thankful in Enrichment!
Good afternoon everyone!
The leaves continue to fall outside, and we continue to add our special leaves to our Thankful Tree. The list of things the children are thankful for gets longer and longer everyday! And there are NO WRONG ANSWERS. If they're thankful for "Light-up shoes" and "YouTube" it goes on the list! Each student gets a chance to vote every day, and I'm proud to say our voting average is much higher than the nations yesterday! As you can see from the picture below, our children have big hearts!
Our cooking adventure this week was Turkey Pretzel Treats. Using sun butter, Oreos and candy decorations the children created a fun and tasty treat!
We also started a new STEM curriculum today. We're learning how to solve problems like engineers! I've included a visual below that was introduced today, and will be used in the classroom. In our classroom we have an arrow in the middle of the circle to point to each step as we take it. Steps 2,3, and 4 can be repeated over and over again until a solution is found. What we're really trying to get across to the children is that there's usually more than one way to solve a problem, and that jumping to fix the problem doesn't always end up with the best result. To think, to try, to make mistakes, and to improve is all part of the important process of solving problems. We read a book called Problem Panda, where a panda was playing in the forest when he saw some "strange creatures". They walked on two legs, and were cutting down the panda's bamboo to put in boxes. Panda thought a box would be a good place to hide, but he fell asleep! When he woke up the box was moving and he couldn't get out! Panda had a BIG PROBLEM!
Well, luckily enough for Panda, their box ended up in our classroom! We went through the problem solving steps and everyone got a chance to help Panda get out of the box. It was wonderful to watch the children work together, try things out, try different things out, and help the panda.
Panda will be staying in our classroom, and will come out every once in a while so that we can help with other problems that come up. Feel free to use these steps at home if a problem arises that you can take some time to solve.
Our other book this week was My New Friend Is So Fun! by Mo Willems. We introduced the kids to some very special friends, Elephant and Piggie. This book is one of a series by Mo Willems that is funny, dynamic, and works through some common problems that 3/4/5 year old friends have. If you haven't heard of these books already, i recommend checking them out.
What was NEW in CENTERS?
Art- We've started making hats for our school wide Friendship Feast. This week each child colored in enough acorns to give to all the other friends in the class!
Easel- Lego corn painting- The children used Lego to paint a picture of an ear of corn. Using things in different ways is always fun for the imagination! These are hanging in the hallway on our bulletin board.
Math- Leaf hide and seek- We used colored frames to walk around the classroom and find different colored leaves hiding all around.
Playdough- We now have blue playdough with some feathers, and googly eyes, in addition to the rollers and pumpkin dough cutters.
The block area still has a play house, people, furniture, and vehicles, and continues to be a big hit!
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out!
Warmly,
Ashlee Taylor and Christina Renoni
