We're having a great start to the school year!

The children are already busy learning their new classroom routines and getting to know their new friends.  Come and take a look!

Classroom Routines

I'd like to send a big thank you to the preschool families for helping to teach their children the morning routine; they are already getting so independent and comfortable with it! Things are running amazingly  smoothly for such an early point in the year, and that leaves more time for fun and meaningful play! 

Maeve washes her hands as she enters the classroom.

Sean adds his name to the number line.

Hudson collects his lunch and folder from his cubby.

The children are also becoming experts at using our Choice Board--a great learning tool that helps the students to make purposeful choices, negotiate sharing and turn-taking, and immerse themselves in a variety of activities and groups of friends throughout the day.

J.R. and Silas decide which activity to choose next. Dress up looks like a promising option!

Building A Community

This week, we introduced the word "community" as a group of people in which everyone feels special, important, respected, and everyone helps each other out. We read Leo Lionni's Swimmy and talked about how each fish worked together to solve their problem. We read Shane DeRolf's The Crayon Box That Talked and discussed how each different color helped to make a beautiful picture when they all cooperated with one another. Then we asked the students how they could be good members of their community. Here are some of their ideas: 

• We could play with our friends. (J.R.)
• We could help people. (Sami)
• We could hug our friends if they're sad. (Ololara)
• We could have a play date. (Maeve)

All this talk of being a good community-member has had a great effect on the children's interactions with one another. Toward the end of the week, the teachers observed Chaendra helping Silas button up his costume in the dress-up area, Eliah holding Harper and Ozzy's choice cards for them while they went to the bathrooms, Ozzy helping to bury Eliah's hand in the sand table, Lorelai helping Kyle at the shapes table, and Maeve sharing her chalk with Harper. We heard Chaendra congratulating Elsie on finishing a puzzle. All the children cheer each other on when they are running during "Duck, Duck, Goose". Oh, and then there was this conversation:

Sami: Eliah, are you my friend?

Eliah: Well, yeah! Everyone in this class is friends!

Sami:Yeah! Everyone in the whole world is my friend!

These children are on track to building a strong and caring community: the kind of place where learning happens best! This week, we'll be reading Karen Katz's The Colors of Us as we celebrate the beauty and wisdom our diversity brings; we'll also introduce Carol McCloud's Have You Filled A Bucket Today?, a brilliant book that puts empathy development right into children's terms. "Filling buckets" is a theme that we will carry throughout the year, so feel free to find the book at a local library and familiarize yourself with it--or even better, come into the classroom and read our copy with your preschooler! When the children hear their families and teachers talking about "filling buckets", they're bound to get excited about it!