Imagine

 On a beautiful sunny day the children decided that it would be nice to have snack outside. We started talking about patterns and before we knew it they were making patterns with their snack!

Most of the activities we did for numbers week are always available in our work room.These are materials they work with throughout the year. The children spent a lot of time writing their numbers as well.

For years this has been our classrooms favorite book about opposites.  We are now happy to say we own this copy ! Feel free to take a moment and read it to your child on a day you have a bit of extra time. The children made their own opposite books.

Our preschool has gone through some changes! As teachers we are continually concerned with our own education and professional development. Our ideas and feelings about the work we are doing change with our evolving selves. We are learning and growing as teachers by pursuing knowledge of various educational theories. We are experimenting,exploring and learning new ways to approach subjects through different styles and theoretical practices. We want to provoke and inspire a rich preschool experience for our students and their families. Our new spaces are the"studio" and the "work room." The studio is deeply rooted in the Reggio Emilia approach to learning which emphasizes art and creativity. The space functions as a place for children to explore and learn about their world through different art mediums. The work room is influenced by Maria Montessori.The tools,tasks and  responsibilities associated with this space help build autonomy and practical ...

As you know we have been doing a lot of cool stuff with light. This week we made a "magic light box". Well, it's not really magic but it sure seems like it! We painted a box, put holes on the top and eye holes on the side. We taped tin foil on the top to help "reflect" the sun into the bottles. We filled the plastic bottles with clear and colored water. Although "refraction" is a concept beyond this age group,we  still thought it would be a fun and interesting project. We let the kids experiment with the different water colors and discovered that the clear water was much brighter than the colored water. We asked questions like, "what happens if there is no sun?" We covered up the box to find out. We simplified the concept of refraction by explaining that the water slowed down the light and captured it in the bottle. The kids liked the box but we found they got more out of it  when they were allowed...

There are so many things that can be measured. With water we asked the question, "how many cups will fill up the jug?" With sticks we asked "which one is taller,shorter,thicker,thinner?" We marked how tall we are on our "measuring stick" with colorful ribbon. Each child also measured their friend with blocks. We asked the question "how many blocks tall are you?" We also asked "who's taller?" and "who's shorter?"

As we continue with our light unit we delve deeper. How is sunlight different than inside light? How do black lights work? Why does light make it hard to see sometimes? While I think these questions take more time and are hard concepts for even adults to grasp, it is amazing to see this level of interest being expressed at such a young age. We started off a discussion on measurement under black light. With help from the insides of some highlighter pens we made our water glow! We also drew with highlighters on both black and white paper. The children were excited to see their drawings under the black light. Everyone was surprised to see how much brighter  the drawings were on the white paper.