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Showing posts from August, 2015

Using Scissors

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We transformed our nature table into a temporary cutting station. We noticed the children's interest in using scissors about the same time we realized many of our young ones didn't know how to hold them much less cut with them.    We set this up and invited the children to cut to their hearts content. The table was supplied with different thicknesses of paper, foil, yarn and plastic straws.  This activity allowed the children to use their hand muscles while practicing fine motor skills.

Matching Shapes

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I overheard one of our young ones being very excited when he thought two like items were the same. " look these are the  same!" It started me thinking about creating a provocation that would encourage the children to match shapes. It's simple but the children really seemed to feel a sense of accomplishment when they matched all the shapes. One of my friends called me over to the table saying " Look! I did it, I did it! Bright colored chalk on black paper and a basketful of shapes. Sometimes it's the simplest things that children enjoy the most. It gave us a great opportunity to talk about size, colors and shapes. We used words like "same" and "different".

Our First Week

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A new school year has begun, bringing with it a new co-teacher for me, fresh new faces to our school and a pack of little ones who have moved over from our two's room. It's always a bit of a shock how young they are. I am always needing to remind  myself that slow is the very best speed.  We spend the first weeks of school getting to know each other, learning the classroom rules and generally just getting the hang of this new world that is the preschool. Our seniors are always such a big help with the little ones. Yet another reason why I love mutli age classrooms. It's great for our older kids to feel big and important and it's sweet that our new friends want to be seniors someday just like their helpful older friends.  We took a lot of pictures this week. Photography is a very useful tool in our classroom. It helps us get to know our friends, remember things that happened and gives us opportunity for reflection. While looking back on our first week in pictures I was s