Noah's school activity

January 2014 Newsletter » Mt. Whitney: Out of This World!

Hi Preschool Families,

Happy 2014! This month we were welcomed with an influx of new friends- Jackson Morantes and Silas Poppas. With them, they bring bright smiles, warm hugs and silly dance moves. We are beyond excited to have two more friends along for the ride.

Jackson vying for the class clown title

Silas with his signature silly frown.

“N”ew Year, New Goals

First stop - Letter “N.”  Being as it was the New Year, we based our curriculum around resolutions. The children came together to brainstorm goals for both the classroom and themselves. This social emotional activity encouraged them to try new things, become more self-aware of their actions and for some, continue to be silly. Here is what was said:

Taavi: "I would like to go to a new park that I have never been before."Noah playing bean bag hopscotch.

Colt: "I want to write my name all by myself."

Noah T. "I want to be brave and write my name too."

Lily: "I want to buy a new shoes."

Noah G.: "Nicer to my mommy, daddy and my Nolan."

Silas: "I want buy a big fridge for my home."

Reza: "I want to go to Mars and say ‘hi’ to the martians."

Jackson: "Poop on the potty and get choco-latte!"

Cruz: "I want to 'oh yeah, oh yeah ( spins around and dances)'…more!"

Eli: “I want to meet and be nice to my  ‘watermelon (new sibling)’. Oh I want to fly like Spiderman!"

Owen: “I don’t know. I just want to play with all my new toys from Grandma and Santa. I have so many!"

In addition to making number rockets, the children used their creativity to draw other things associated it like Earth, aliens and astronauts. Some even drew their own version of a rocket.In addition to sharing our goals for the new year with one another, we worked on another "N" word - number! We helped put together the days for the new month, counted down the days to Taavi's & Owen's B'day, played number/bean bag hopscotch and made a number rocket! These activities helped us with number recognition, rote counting and one to one correspondence.Cruz & Lily observing each other's masks.

“O”uter Space

As we continue our adventures through the year, many of our interests guided towards Outer Space. So fittingly, our next stop was far far out in the galaxy. Together with our child-made astronaut masks, we hopped on the Mt Whitney space shuttle, practiced counting backwards and blasted off into outer space. While flying, we used our imagination to see aliens, boats, shoes, rocks, moons and planets floaReady to take off!ting around, all the while being careful not to get "space-sick (Taavi)"! Once we arrived, we collected specimens such as "moon sand."Using our five senses, we closely examined this peculiar sensory item and made a few predictions of what "moon sand" was actuaAstronaut Reza & Cruz stayed in character as they checked out their specimens.lly made of. Eli "I think it's made out of cheese because when the astronauts are hungry they have something to eat" What do you think?

Exploring moon sand with block people

  

Here are a few other enrichment activities during this "out of this world" journey into space:

Learned about suspension and springs as we launched our rubberband plastic cup rockets.

Using shape recognition/fine motors, Reza trace/draw cuts out his planet which was later painted. Each child further their language and cognitive skills by explaining their planet's uniqueness. Colt called his "Planet Lily, where nice people live"

 Stregthening our fine motors, we carefully squeezed cornstarch/paint filled water bottles to create a galaxy.

Jax help kneading out salt dough to later mould into moonsPainting our freshly baked salt dough moons

This month also marked two big milestones for our friends - Taavi & Owen as they celebrated their birthdays. Thank you to their families for the yummy treats!

Next up, we will be hopping off the space shuttle and set sail on the ocean to learn more about Pirates! Arrgh. Argh.. Arrgh.. Can't wait to share our discoveries with you!

With love,

Ms. Mylee