Category Archives: Classroom Posts

Connecting with all of you has been wonderful this first week of school. It’s a huge part of the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education and is simply something we believe deeply in as a center as something that truly helps children learn and grow. Yesterday we wrote a blog post about connecting to the community and how that is also a part of the Reggio Emilia approach.

A great aspect of the college being our community is that there are so many wonderful and amazing places to visit! We have a theater, a library, an automotive shop, an art studio, a police station, a track, and many fountains and other departments along the way. We want to explore with them. This could lead to a lot of neat investigations into the campus community.

We are planning to do one field trip each week and to rotate the field trips so that it’s on a different day each week. We already have a schedule for our walks and the nice thing is that you can put it on your calendar now if you would like to walk with us on a walk. Having family members there not only helps keep children safer when walking around campus, but it also helps children see that their families value their school experience. Having a shared field-trip experience can sometimes be unforgettable to a young child.

All of the locations are not planned yet, but we will have a plan when the day comes. Volunteering to walk with us means arriving with your child before 8:45 when drop-off ends, staying for group time when we go over where we are going, and then walking with us from probably about 9:00 a.m. until about 10:00 a.m. (give or take a little bit of time in either direction).

Walk 1: Wednesday, August 28, Plant observations

Walk 2: Thursday, September 5, Plant observations

Walk 3: Monday, September 9

Walk 4: Tuesday, September 17

Walk 5: Friday, September 27, Library

Walk 6: Monday, September 30

Walk 7: Tuesday, October 8

Walk 8: Wednesday, October 16

Walk 9: Thursday, October 24

Walk 10: Friday, November 1

Walk 11: Tuesday, November 5

Walk 12: Wednesday, November 13

Walk 13: Thursday, November 21

Walk 14: Monday, November 25

Walk 15: Wednesday, December 5

Walk 16: Tuesday, December 10

A sign-up document will be available in Room 4. This will be an ongoing thing. We hope to never reschedule or cancel, but we might have to due to rain or something else that comes up. We will ask that you put a contact email on the list so that the teachers can let you know if anything changes.

These walks also help children get exercise and learn responsibility and safety when they venture out into the larger community!

This is going to be an exciting semester. We are glad you are all along for the journey.

-The Teachers of Room 4-

In Room 4 this semester, our goal will be to blog each day from Monday through Thursday.  On Fridays we have our planning meeting, so we won’t have time to write a whole blog post.

During the past two days, the children have been drawing plans for the garden box and talking more about what they are planning.  Due to some issues with technology, there are no photos of this activity to share on the blog yet.  However, imagine, if you will, that the children are drawing ideas on maps that are in the shape of our garden box.  It’s pretty exciting to see their plans!  We are writing the children’s names under the plans and their garden ideas.  We have seen even more ideas develop about the garden just in the past couple of days.

To take this investigation to the next step, we would like to schedule a walk next week.  We would like to walk onto campus on Wednesday, August 28, and observe the plants we see on campus.  We could walk to the Horticulture area and to other areas of campus.  The children could sketch the plants they see and we could take photos of plants.  It might help us refine our ideas of what we could plant.  We need volunteers for this walk from 8:45 until about 9:45 or 10:00 a.m.  We can only go if we have enough adults in our group to keep the group safe.  If you can walk with us, please email Laura at Lpaciorek@miracosta.edu or sign up in the classroom near the sign-in book.  We hope to walk on a Tuesday or Thursday in the next week or so, so please keep that in mind if your child attends one of those days.

Taking a walk onto campus helps children connect with the larger community.  One aspect of the Reggio Emilia philosophy, which we embrace at the Center, is a connection to the community.  Here at the CDC at MiraCosta, that means going on walking field trips.  We cannot leave campus, but that’s okay.  There is a lot we can learn just by walking on campus together.  Many of the children talk about it as the “big school” where their family members may even be attending class.  We have observed great excitement in the children when they get to explore the “big school” beyond our yard.

We know that families are eager to help with the gardening in our garden box.  We are still thinking deeply about what to plant, but we could start to work on the soil, for sure.  If you have any soil that is safe for children to handle and/or compost for us to use (Oceanside residents can get it for free – ask Laura how!), we will gladly take donations to help us get our garden box more ready for plants.  We may do container gardening at some point and we can always use extra soil and compost no matter what, even if we get more than we can immediately use.

Thank you for reading this update!  It has been a great week so far.  We can’t wait for tomorrow.  We will start up our blogging again next week.  We will also start up highlighting interest areas once we can upload photos here again.  Have a great Friday and weekend.

Yesterday, we highlighted the writing area as an important area in our classroom.  As a part of that, we talked about how children gain print awareness in the preschool years.  This is that “aha” moment when they realize print matters and carries meaning.  That first important word is usually their names, but could be other things.

We started two things today that help the children with name recognition.  We will have more soon, too (e.g., better cubby labels with photos and names).  In the meantime, here are two things:

First, we have a new clip chart where children can move themselves from “Home” to “School” when the arrive to school.  When they leave, they can move their clip back to “Home.”  This is something you can do with your child upon arrival and departure each day.  Children can start to recognize their own names and the names of their classmates.  They have gotten good, already, at learning the names of their classmates!  (Keep reading – the post goes beyond the photos.)

We also have a new chart that the children use that help them know if they are playing indoors or outdoors.  There are number slots so that there are 12 children, at most, in these locations at any time.  Today we counted the numbers together (1 through 12) and put names on the spots.  The teacher will pull the clips out of a basket and have the children choose what they would like to do.  We switch mid-day, and sometimes children may choose to go back indoors or go outdoors if there’s room, so everyone gets to do both each day (unless weather prevents it!).  Children learned mathematics here, too!

Lastly, we wanted to highlight the music and movement area in the classroom.  This has been a busy area of the room!  Music is mathematical (rhythm and patterns) and involves a different form of visual literacy (making sense of sheet music).  In the area, we have sample sheet music for children to see just so that they can get used to what it looks like.  We have a lot of percussion instruments like a steel drum, tambourines, rhythm sticks, and more.  We also have ribbons so that children can see their movements when they dance to music.  The area involves a large amount of motor skills (large and small), cognitive skills (remembering music and creating patterns), language skills (words and sounds), and social-emotional skills (music can bring joy and bring people together!).  It’s also science: a small drum may sound different from a large drum.

We have a large open space for music.  This is just some of what we offer (see the photo below).  We also sing and dance during the day.  This week the children have been singing “Flip Flap Jack” with the teachers.  It’s more of a chant and it’s pretty silly!

“There once was a man who was made of food and his name was Flip Flap Jack.

His head was made of a pancake.  A pancake?  A pancake.  His head was made of a pancake and his name was Flip Flap Jack.

His eye were made of blueberries….” (Keep going).

Hair: Whipped cream

Nose: Strawberry

Mouth: Sausage

Body: Waffle

Belly button: Raspberry

Legs: Bacon

Feet: French toast

Arms: Bananas

Ears: Oranges

Here’s Flip Flap Jack!  Have a great day and thanks for reading our updates.

We did some garden planning again today.  Like yesterday, you can read the ideas of the children below. The next step is to learn more about gardening with the children.  For example, some of the things listed by the children cannot be grown in our garden box.  The teachers already know this, but we don’t want to tell them.  Instead, we want to ask the children questions and investigate their ideas.  For example, we might ask, “have you ever seen that growing on a plant before?”  Or we could ask, “how can we find out how to grow ______?”  By investigating the ideas more, we can solidify our plans for the garden box.

Here are the things the children said today:

Wyatt: blueberries

Isabella: tomatoes and flowers (pink, purple, and green)

Alexis: lettuce and a snail

Addie: peaches

Kendra: strawberries and bananas

Mia: blueberries, tomatoes, and carrots

Aiden: tomatoes and bananas

Curren: red flowers

Madisyn: watermelons and pineapple

Kingston: cucumbers and carrots

Cameron: carrots, tomatoes, and lettuce

Caleb: flowers

Lexie: “a pink flower for me”

Lauren: “a pink rose for me”

Leah: tomatoes

Jasmine: bee flowers and strawberries

Esperanza: strawberries

Julian: swiss chard (after observing the room 1/2 garden and how they were growing swiss chard)

Caiden: flowers

Peter: blue flowers

Today our special area of the classroom to highlight is the writing area.

The writing area is a place where we may put things like pencils, markers, envelopes, stationery, stencils, alphabet cards, stamps and stamp pads, a hole punch, scissors, and other tools people use in writing.

The writing area is a place where children can explore these tools.  They learn how to control their hands using hand-eye coordination (involves brain development and practice).   Once they learn that print carries meaning (print awareness), they may begin to experiment with writing.

Writing is a complex process that involves an understanding of and interest in letters and words . It also involves fine motor skills, which can be built with controlled use of things like playdough, paint, Legos, and even dressing baby dolls.  All of these things can help with writing.  In fact, artwork is a beginning step towards writing.  It involves taking ideas in the mind and recreating them on paper or in another form of art.  Writing is a similar process, but letters and sounds are used to represent the ideas.  We are hoping to introducing signing in for the children in the next week or so.  For now, they are definitely using the writing area and using it together!

Something to do at home:

A child’s first name is oftentimes the first word in which they are interested.  Recognizing one’s own name is a great first step to help children learn print.  We are going to do a lot of activities at school that involve name recognition.  At home, you can show your child his or her name if you write it.  Having your child sign a card or his or her artwork can also be helpful.  If your child’s name doesn’t look like it should yet, that’s okay!  It’s part of the developmental process.  Please speak with a teacher if you have questions about this process.  In the meantime, we want children to use these materials and have fun with them in a way that promotes development and does not pressure them.  Thanks for taking time to read this blog post!

The children came to school ready to play and make friends.  We focused a lot on learning names and getting to know one another.  We also focused on learning the routine of Room 4.  It went great!  The children explored all of the areas indoors and outdoors.

Today we will highlight the garden box outdoors as an area of our environment.

It is an area that involves as much planning as other areas in the classroom.  We would like to involve the children in its planning, care, and upkeep.  We would also like to involve families if you would like to be involved!

(keep reading below the photo for more on gardening)

Children learn a lot from gardening.  They learn spatial concepts when planning where to put seeds and plants.  They learn science when they learn how much water and sun plants need.  They learn about how the earth and soil supports the growth of plants.  Children gain important social skills when they take the responsibility to plant in the garden and care for plants.  Children also learn the names of plants and may read them on garden markers (language/literacy).  Children may learn where food comes from, too, which can promote a healthy lifestyle and nutrition choices.

Here are the things children said they wanted to plant in the garden when we asked them today during small group:

Giovanni: Purple flowers

Wyatt: Blackberries

Thomas: Pumpkins to make a jack-o-lantern

Myla: Eggs

Peter: Blue flowers

Julian: Big flowers like sunflowers

Mia: Carrots

Esperanza: Pink flowers

Lauren: Pink roses and watermelons

Charlotte: Roses

Alexis: Pumpkins

Connor: Pumpkins

August: Rice

Addie: Applies, oranges, peaches

Tremon: Red flowers

Sidney: Carrots

Isla: Red flowers

As you can see, our garden definitely does not have much in it after the summer.  We have some rosemary, but that is about it.  If any of you are interested in contributing to the growth of our garden, please speak with a teacher in Room 4.  We can plan with you what may help us (time, seeds, plants, etc…).  Thank you!