Living Stones Monthly Letter
Your children have been very busy in the past few months.
Toddlers 6wks to 2yrs
“Giving”
is playing a big part in our learning experiences in the past few weeks. In a
circle on the floor together, using our colorful plastic chains and each child
given a link . One by one, the toddlers are asked to give their link to a
friend. example(Moses, can you give your red chain to Johnathan?) We clapped
and smiled when each child complied easily. As we put the chain together we
then repeated the name of each color. It was heart warming to see how much
these children care for each other. Another exercise that promoted
“ownership” with the toddlers was using their (blankets and shoes ect)
We randomly placed the children's two items around the room, and then asked each
child to get their shoes/ blanket ect. All of the children were aware of what
belonged to them; and it wasn't long until the toddlers began teasing the
teachers, that the sought items didn't match the child and we then would
laugh.
Language
and songs We continue to work on our language arts through constant
communication, singing, signing, reading books, identifying objects, etc...We
have incorporated a regular circle time just before our morning snack time. Once
everyone is in their high chairs and before we pass out food we sing songs
together as a group, practice some signing, and say a prayer. The kids are doing
well with this and seem to be thoroughly enjoying the time we spend doing it. We
introduced a little math this week, counting cheerios. Some, of course, ate the
cheerios before they got counted.. but it’s all good. Some of us got to color
and write on white boards this week.
Motor
Skills The children really enjoy being outside, on the slides, playing
ball, running after each other, and most of all sand and water table
play. .
Rest time Rest time is going very well
2 -3years Room
Sensory
Is playing a major part in this classroom they are making their own play
dough and each morning most of them ask to play dough. They also enjoy finger
painting you can see their painting hung up in their room.
Music
Music time happens each day with a varity of music
. We are using sign language with several of our songs
Sharing
Is what we continue to try to accomplish is this room. We work with each
child on sharing with their friends. Playing games that each child takes a
turn,or we are in a circle and we pass toys too one another.
Language
/Reading We have been working on looking at letters and numbers and
repeating the name and the color of each item. Also as we are reading books we
point at the words. The children throughly enjoy reading time, as each
teacher is so animated when they are reading the children sit quietly in
amazement Working with each child to use their words when they need to
communicate and not to use their hands on their friends.
Writing
We are spending time with crayons and paper for them to do drawings. Its
is not recommended at this age to use markers, with markers they do not need to
use their small motor skills since the markers print with out any pressure
Motor Skills Outside play, they have been enjoying the game of chase each other.
The gravel has been a great place for them to play trucks. The boat has lead to
lots of imagination play.
Prek/after school age 3-5years
Academics
We practiced the letter of the Week and some writing and math skills. We used
buttons for math which gives them more of a visual as they count. Children’s
Bible the story of Cain and Abel. We all participated in questions and comments.
Id like to give you an example of how we have been teaching academics to make each
day fun and rewarding for the children.
This week our letter was "C". We talked about cats, cars, caterpillars, the circus
and carrots.
We read Cat in the Hat, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, The Very Hungry Caterpillar,
Corduroy and Chicka,Chicka, Boom, Boom.
We did Cheerio Art on a cat outline (it is posted on our classroom art wall) and
played parachute with an old sheet and a small ball.
Tuesday we painted with cars and our cooking lesson was making chocolate chip cookies.
Wednesday we used
cookie cutters to explore with in art and our Theater Arts project was putting
on the play of baby Moses.
Thursday was a fun day because we got to explore some games that are played at carnivals and circuses.
We played pin the tail on the camel, bean bag toss and played Simon Says for the Exercise segment .
Cooking
We made Cookies from scratch and got to enjoy some during lunch and 2nd snack time. We did a project called “Character
Building” that required celery sticks to sit in glass jars each having their
own food colors dropped inside (dark, medium and light) to show the difference
This glass had the lighter color and the celery appeared much healthier.
This was an excellent visual for the kids to see.
Sharing/Communication
We are working with the children to teach them how to communicate with each other,
instead of getting upset.. We will ask the children to talk to each other about
the situation and how they can make better choices. We will guide them into the
right choices. Snack time is a great place for them to communicate and learn to
let each other talk and not interrupt each other as they are
speaking.
When asking your child what they did today, be more specific what songs did you sing? What did we do for science this week? What Bible verse and story are you learning? Did you play any games today? what did you do for free choice? Did you help your friends today, What outside activity did you particiapte in today.