// What we have been up to these days... //

Week of February 25

Through daily practices of hanging their name tags on the tree, upon arrival and drinking from their own cups with their labeled names, the students are able to recognize their names with little or no assistance.  In the language area, we introduced a children’s picture/ name matching work which aims to recognize their friends in the classroom, making the connection between picture and word.

We have also  been working on tracing the letters of our names. This pre-writing skill reinforces name recognition and develops a strong pincer grip and emphasizes the use of fine motor skills.

Another skill that was introduced this week was the scissor cutting work. We are focusing on practicing hand placement, opening and closing with safety scissors. Some children are able to cut along the line across a strip of paper.  

Week of March 4

We started the month of March celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday.  We made our hats from the book “The Cat in the Hat” and the children colored in the red stripes and wore their  hats proudly around the classroom.  In circle time, we  read Dr. Seuss books “The Cat in the Hat”, “The Foot Book”, and “Hop on Pop”.  All these Dr. Seuss books and more are available to explore and read in our library.

The children explored many new seasonal works in the classroom.   A new favorite work in the Practical Life Area, was the toothbrushing work.  This work contains a large dental teeth model  and a toothbrush using baking soda to clean  the model. This activity teaches children to practice good oral hygiene and strengthen fine motor skills.  

In the Cultural Area, the children are exploring living and non-living things.  They are given a set of objects and learning how to match the objects into living or non-living things.  Also, looking around their environment, some children are able to distinguish which things are living and non-living.