Category Archives: Mathematics

Family time Through the seasons

Family time Through the seasons

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As a Class community we really want to give the opportunity to be inclusive with every family uniqueness about their traditions and holidays. Traditions and celebrations are important part of how children get to know what brings the whole family together.

What are the Expectations of the Family time Through the seasons pages:

1) Make it a fun, child driven activity. Talk about with your child and brainstorm what to paste, draw or pictures to place in. For example: If the child had the opportunity of choosing the apples for an apple pie and wants to paste on the page the stickers that the apples had on and take pictures of the ingredients used.

2) Please make note to write down the child’s true dictation of the story told in the page. Try not to rearrange the sentences to make more sense of it. Reading to the children true dictation of the story told by them, is a great way for children  to reinforce the literacy and language skills.

3)There’s is no wrong way to do it. Be creative, work as a team and  have fun with it.

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Water Play : Wet and Wonderful

Splish, splash, bubble, bubble, pop! All They’re Doing Is Splashing, Right?

 

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Incorrect! Water play fosters learning in all developmental areas. It provides opportunities for children to experiment with math and science concepts, strengthen their physical skills, advance their social and emotional skills, and enhance language development

Problem-Solving Skills. As children manipulate water play materials, they begin to understand why and how things happen. For example, given sinking and floating objects, a child will soon discover that just because something is large in size does not mean it will sink.

Math. Children begin to understand and experiment with concepts such as more/less, same/different, many/few, empty/full, before/after, greater than/less than, and counting

Science.Water gives children an avenue to contemplate issues such as: What makes rain? Where does water come from? What makes mud? children also learn physics principles such as the effects of force (increasing the water flow through increased force); effects of gravity (water runs downhill); and change in state (solid, liquid, gas).

Physical Development. Water play encourages the development of eye/hand coordination through pouring, squeezing, stirring, painting, scrubbing, and squirting. Children strengthen their gross motor skills by running, dodging water drops, and hopping through a sprinkler. They widen their sensory experiences as they put their hands in different textures (gritty, squishy, and slimy) and different temperatures (warm, cool, and cold).

Social and Emotional Development. Water play is one of the most relaxing activities children can experience. After all, many adults relax in a warm bubble bath or hot shower! Water play relieves tension by encouraging children to release their emotions with pouring, pounding, and swooshing. In addition, social skills expand as children play cooperatively; negotiate; and share equipment, space, and materials.

Language Development. Children learn new vocabulary such as sieve, funnel, eggbeater, stream, bubbly, moisture, and evaporation. Water play is such a meaningful experience for young children that it can be extended to writing experiences as well. Children may draw pictures of sprinkler play, then dictate a description or story to the teacher. Another valuable writing experience involves the teacher writing down children’s predictions, such as how long it will take ice cubes to melt in the sand box or how many babies one batch of soapy water will wash.

Creative Development. Water encourages children to use their imagination. As the children play, they may pretend that they work at a car wash or live in a castle. Water also encourages children to try out new ideas and solutions to problems in a safe environment.

 

Recommended Resources
Crosser, S. (1994). Making the most of water play.Young Children (July): 28-32.

Hendrick, J (1996).The whole child: Developmental education for the early years.Columbus, OH: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

James, J.C. and Granovetter, R.F. (1987).Waterworks: A new book of water play activities for children ages 1 to 6.Lewisville, NC: Kaplan.

MacDonald, S (1998).Everyday discoveries: Amazingly easy science and math.Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House.

Miller, K. (1989).The outside play and learning book.Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House.

Schiller, P. (1997). Brain development research: Support and challenges. Child Care Information Exchange (September): 6-10.

ROOM DONATIONS -Recyclable Materials

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We have some exciting things planned for the next couple of weeks.

Kitchen area: our dramatic play kitchen moved to the loft area .Our second floor is under construction in becoming our “Farmers Market”. We have been talking about what does a market have, what things can you find and how you can use your senses while you are there. To enhance the investigation we need our parents help in donating some materials.
ROOM DONATIONS -Recyclable Material: There are some things that we would love to have for our classroom to enhance our Dramatic and Art area.
Please look around your house for things that can be recycled and collect 3 or 4 things that you were planning on throwing away or recycling and send these items to school with your child.

Some examples of items that can be sent to school with your child are:

• Empty Shampoo Bottles with caps (rinsed and Air dried ***)
• Empty soap dispenser (***)
• Laundry Detergent (all Sizes)(***)
• Empty Kleenex or tissue boxes
• Empty egg cartons
• Plastic bottles with caps (all sort of sizes : Water ,Juices, milk Half -gallon ***)
• Any Cardboard food containers.( cereal , spaghetti, crackers boxes)
• Plastic condiment bottles (Ketchup bottles ,Mustard, mayonnaise ,Dressing ***)
• Cardboard tubes (paper towel tube or wrapping paper) No toilet paper tubes please.

Thank you for helping in collecting these items. We hope that you have a great weekend. We will see you all soon! If you have questions, please ask a teacher in Room 5.