I love spring
For every day
There's something new
Thats come to stay.
Another bud
Another bird
Another blade
The sun has stirred!
We are moving through our month of May and soaking in every last minute! The children comment about new things they see outside each day such as flowers, buds, green grass, bugs and birds on our feeder. Our basil is growing beautifully and should be ready to go home for planting next week!
On Wednesday, it was a special treat to play on the 2/3/4 playground with the other preschoolers!
What a gorgeous week!
Weekly highlights...
BOOKS! No matter what time of day, books can be found in these kids hand! Whether enjoying a book with a friend, looking at illustrations or reading independently, these children have a true appreciation for a good book. The still love going back and re-reading our class made books.
More patterning practice, but this time making beaded bracelets! We are quite the pattern makers!
The children are loving that the small magnets are back for building. They spend time figuring out different ways to building towers, bridges, houses and more! They are a great STEAM material.
We read the book Farm Shapes by Louis Ehlers, which includes illustrations of farm animals made from different shapes. Afterward, we completed a cutting challenge with scissors! We had to cut out circles of three different sizes, triangles and rectangles and turn those shapes into a pig. It was fun to look at how different shapes can be placed together to create new pictures. Their cutting skills sure have improved since the start of the year, shown through their ability to cut out all of the different shapes independently!
We completed our spring self portraits. Just as we did at the start of the year, the children used the mirrors to look at themselves and make note of the traits that make them unique. Their portraits turned out great and are full of new details! See if you can guess who is who...
Along with our self portraits, each child filled out a paper titled All About Me and wrote their personal favorites. They also thought of what they might want to be when they grow up! We had fun discussing these as a group and individually.
We began another science inquiry this week revolving around things that sink and things that float. Before investigating and experimenting with a variety of objects and water, we talked about what it means when something sinks or floats and did some thinking about why something might sink or float. After sharing in group discussion, the children worked in small groups exploring a variety of different objects to experiment with. First, they made predictions about whether each object would sink or float. Next, we tested the objects! It was very exciting to watch and some of the results were surprising!
Making predictions...
Testing the objects...
After our initial experimenting, the children did some thinking about why some of the objects floated and others sunk. Their ideas consisted of the weight of the object, shape, material it's made out of, how much air is inside the object and more. What surprised them the most was when they wanted to see if the plastic egg would still float if they put a heavy sinking object inside it. To their surprise...it did! They also discovered the plastic egg sinks when filled with water.
We ended the week with another sink and float challenge. The children were asked to design a boat using tinfoil, that can hold was many gems as possible, before sinking! Today, each child filled out a paper with their boat plan and made predictions of how many gems their boat will hold. Next week, we will construct and test out our boats. We will see if our predictions were accurate!
After our initial experimenting, the children did some thinking about why some of the objects floated and others sunk. Their ideas consisted of the weight of the object, shape, material it's made out of, how much air is inside the object and more. What surprised them the most was when they wanted to see if the plastic egg would still float if they put a heavy sinking object inside it. To their surprise...it did! They also discovered the plastic egg sinks when filled with water.
We ended the week with another sink and float challenge. The children were asked to design a boat using tinfoil, that can hold was many gems as possible, before sinking! Today, each child filled out a paper with their boat plan and made predictions of how many gems their boat will hold. Next week, we will construct and test out our boats. We will see if our predictions were accurate!
More to come with sink and float next week!
As we are finishing up our last month of school, we have been talking about our favorite preschool memories. During our morning meeting, we all closed our eyes and "pictured" a favorite memory from the year, trying to think of as many details as possible. The children shared everything from field trips, class projects, the playground, specialists and more. They each illustrated their favorite memory and wrote the words as well.
Dates to Remember:
Monday, May 28th- Memorial Day- No School
Friday, June 1st- Lower School Closing and Reception 1:30 in the Chapel.
*This is a semi-dressy event celebrating the end of the school year. Students are dismissed after the program/reception. Doors to the Chapel will be locked until noon.
