We have had another fun couple weeks! We are really enjoying school and all of our new friends. We are learning so much, using our imaginations and building new skills.
Dramatic Play
We were loving playing with all the food and putting them in and out of different containers so we saw the dramatic play area change into a Grocery Store! The shopping carts were so much fun and we practiced loading them, then paying for and bagging our groceries! We pretended to read our shopping lists and even dressed up as grocers! Bo enjoyed using the carts for carrying around the water bottles.
Block Area
The addition of the train set has us working on building different roads and playing together. We continue to use the large wooden train, and animals, driving them around the room. The doll house has been a great space for us to act out different scenarios.
Nature Area
Magnifying glasses have been added to the nature area, and we have loved discovering how they work, inspecting the details of the pine cones, shells and even our fish friends in the new fish tank!
Quiet Area
We have loved reading books to ourselves and our friends and have enjoyed looking at and talking about everyone's family photos.
Gross Motor
We still love to run up and down the classroom and are enjoying the addition of the tunnel both for crawling and hiding! And of course the balls, have made their way into all areas of our play!
Art/ Literacy
The play dough is still a big hit. We are using it to make cakes, pizzas and different animal shapes. We are learning how to roll it flat and what happens when we mix colors! The drawing boards have been a fun way to draw out stories and watch them disappear and we still love drawing on paper with the markers and crayons. We tested out some animal stamps, after loving all of the animal figures, and loved using them as well as our hands to make hand prints! The new water/sensory table with cloud dough has been so much fun. We filled containers and explored the different textures when it is pressed together or when it crumbled apart.
Cognitive Area
We have been enjoying doing the puzzles as a group, especially the alphabet. We practice taking turns saying the letters and pointing or placing them where they go! The magnatiles have gotten lots of use, building towers and knocking them down. Joe has enjoyed building houses for the animals, especially the elephants!
Music Area
The drums and shakers continue to be well used, and we are enjoying dancing together with the silk scarves either to requested music or our own!
Outside
We have found so many ways to use the new hula hoops outside: trying to spin them on our hips and arms, sliding down the slide with them, and making and obstacle course to jump through to just name a few! We are working hard to learn to pedal the tricycles and the space under the slide continues to be a fun hideout especially in this heat! We are loving drawing on the chalkboard and filling all of the blank space and well as drawing with the chalk of the tree stumps and blocks. We worked together to build a "bed" for all the chalk with the outdoor blocks. The sandpit is still very fun, especially the dump trucks! Our Peas are finally ready to eat and we have been loving picking them off and eating them as a crunchy snack outside!
