Sensory play: Autumn Leaves

We brought nature inside as we filled the tables and sensory play boxes in the classroom with autumn-related items (autumn leaves, acorns and other nuts, rocks and stones, pine cones, etc.).

They stimulated our senses, increasing the sensory inputs into the brain. Everything smelled incredible and different, the leaves were vibrant fall colors, each item had a distinct texture, and the leaves made crunchy noises.

Tongs, chopsticks, and spoons were added to the boxes to encourage fine motor development.

It was great fun to sift through the leaves to find various objects. Empty jars were placed in the sensory boxes to encourage children to, for example, count how many acorns they found by placing them one-by-one in the jar.

If you try this at home, please do so with close supervision as toddlers may put small objects in their mouth.

Fall Festival - collages

(click on collages to enlarge them)

 

Parent workshop: 2s & Toddlers Information Night

We’re having a

2s & Toddlers Information Night

Tuesday, October 19th 7:00PM – 8:00PM

How can I best support my child at home in reinforcing what s/he is learning at school? What are Windsor’s major academic and non-academics goals for two-year-olds? What is a developmental assessment and how is Windsor implementing it this year? What are ways for me as a parent to get involved at Windsor, form closer ties with teachers, and improve home-school communication?

Parents of toddlers and 2s are invited to attend an informal gathering at 3475 Notre Dame Drive to discuss these questions and more.

There is no fee for this event. Please bring paper and a pen to take notes. If you are unable to attend, kindly send an e-mail message.

Save the Date: Fall Festival

We’re having our

Annual Fall Harvest Festival at Washington Park

Thursday, October 28th 3:30PM – 6:00PM

Come join us for a costume parade, fall-themed activities, a performance, food, and general merriment! Parents are strongly encouraged to play dress up with their children and come in costume. We ask that all family members partake in the festivities. :)

Photos from last year: http://windsorpreschoolacademy.blogspot.com/2009/10/fall-party-pictures.html

Children's thoughts on last year's party: http://windsorpreschoolacademy.blogspot.com/2009/10/party-feedback-from-children.html

Parent Workshop: Balancing Work & Family

You are invited to a parenting workshop: Balancing Work & Family, with the marvelous Sue Dinwiddie of Parents Place, Tuesday, September 28, 7:00-8:30 p.m., here at the library.

Learn secrets to balancing work and family, and how to include self care in the mix!

You may register online at: http://www.libraryxo.org/balance 

This free program, for adults only, is sponsored by the Friends of the Mountain View Library.

 

 

Fire Safety Event

(click above to enlarge collage)

The Fire Safety Event had something for everyone...

What's the difference between a fire engine and fire truck? Most parents and teachers didn't know.

What number do you call if Mommy or Daddy are not waking up? Important information for preschoolers to know.

 

Firefighter Ron dressed up in full gear and carried an axe. Then he had toddlers (and preschoolers) give him high fives and touch his gear. This was good exposure therapy for our children since many children hide from firefighters during a fire. The hope is that being exposed to and seeing firefighters in full gear (in a safe environment with parents and teachers) will be an image children will remember and ease their anxiety during a real emergency.

Thank you, Santa Clara Fire Department, for visiting us. We had the most fun boarding the fire engine...again and again and again... :)

Dramatic Play: Tea Party

With the help of teachers, we moved little wooden tables and chairs together to coordinate a tea party.

Mommies and Daddies were invited to come using our yellow telephone. We brought out our plates and cups. Our infant baby dolls came along too. We sipped our hot, hot tea carefully. Oh, what joyous fun we had using our imaginations!

Due to children's continued interest, and in order to sustain their interest, we have permanently moved the extra table and chairs into the dramatic play area.

Why is dramatic play (that teachers scaffold) so important?
 Refer to earlier entry: http://windsorstars.blogspot.com/2010/08/pretend-play-airplanes.html

Ride a cock-horse

Ride a cock-horse
To Banbury Cross,
To see what (child's name) can buy;
A penny white loaf,
A penny white cake,
And a two-penny apple-pie.

Snapshot: Table Activities

We come to school and do fun table activities, which range from puzzles to Montessori work trays.  Different table work is put out on different days.

Other than the obvious academic content learned from these activities, we are developing our fine motor skills, which in the future will help us print (the most difficult task to learn in kindergarten, according to kindergarten teachers). 

Puzzles help us with developing our visual-spatial reasoning skills, amongst other things.

Alphabet and number puzzles give us a sensory experience as we feel the curves and shapes of the letters in the alphabet; this too will help with printing in the future.

Montessori work trays help improve our eye-hand coordination, which we will need for playing instruments like the violin and piano, sports, etc. They help with finger dexterity and fine motor development.

Being able to sit on a chair at a table and focus on tasks for short periods of time will help gently transition us to a structured school setting.

Taking turns with the table activities is important for our social development.

As we sit with our friends and explore these hands-on materials together, we feel a sense of group and community.

Enrichment: Big Red Fire Engine

We’re having a

Fire Engine Enrichment Activity

Friday, September 3rd 5:00PM – 6:00PM

Brrrnnnggg! Clack-clack-clack! Please join us at 3475 Notre Dame Drive for an in-house field trip. A big red fire engine and two to three Santa Clara Fire Department firefighters will be present to coordinate a fire safety event. Firefighters will supervise fun tot exploration of the fire truck. Siblings are welcome to join in on the excitement.

Please keep the curb area in front of 3475 Notre Dame clear so that the fire engine can be parked there. The Fire Department asks that parents accompany children under 2.5 years old - if you are unable to attend, please inform a staff member. Please bear in mind that if there is an emergency, firefighters must leave immediately and respond to it.

To enroll, please complete the form and put it in the mailbox by Wednesday, September 1^st . There is no fee for this event. Sign-up is first-come first-serve.

Bilingualism: The Costs and the Benefits, but Mostly the Benefits

Fresh off the press (just published yesterday), this New York Times article discusses the desire for many New York City families to expose their children to foreign languages early on. The costs and benefits, but mostly benefits are highlighted.

It connects nicely to our multicultural and multilingual program where our little students are exposed to Mandarin, Spanish, and Hindi throughout the day. Children are exposed to different languages during structured language classes throughout the week (see calendar; Hindi class in the works).

We learn classic Spanish nursery songs, rhymes, and finger plays during Spanish class (see above). All this new vocabulary we learn is reinforced throughout the day.

Our staff, using their understanding and observations of the children (that are under their care almost every single day, not just during a language class twice a week), is given time to develop the curriculum for and lead these language classes. Exposure to foreign languages is not a separate extra-curricular activity. By maintaining a diverse staff, multilingualism is built into our curriculum and part of what is already offered.

Further, and perhaps most importantly, having staff members teach language allows for informal reinforcement and exposure over the course of the whole day rather than during isolated language times with a language teacher.


Interesting tidbits:

At the same time, bilingual children do better at complex tasks like isolating information presented in confusing ways. In one test researchers frequently use, words like “red” and “green” flash across a screen, but the words actually appear in purple and yellow. Bilingual children are faster at identifying what color the word is written in, a fact researchers attribute to a more developed prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain responsible for executive decision-making, like which language to use with certain people).

In recent years, a number of neuroscientists and psychologists have tried to untangle the impact of bilingualism on brain development. “It doesn’t make kids smarter,” said Ellen Bialystok, a professor of psychology...

Bilingualism carries a cost, and the cost is rapid access to words,” Ms. Bialystok said. In other words, children have to work harder to access the right word in the right language, which can slow them down — by milliseconds, but slower nonetheless.


“Once you are trilingual,” she said, “your brain can break down new languages that make it so much easier to learn your fourth, fifth and sixth languages.”

In fact, research shows that learning a second language makes it easier to learn additional languages.

Bilingual Music class

On Tuesday, a music teacher from a local music school, Joyful Melodies, held a demo bilingual (Mandarin) music class for children birth to 5 years. We felt this was an interesting concept--to expose children to music and a foreign language at the same time. Since Mandarin exposure is offered to all children, we felt this would be good reinforcement.

Bilingual (Mandarin) music class

We are currently in the process of surveying different music programs to offer as an optional extra-curricular activity for the children, in addition to the daily music/movement time. We'd like to see which program and teacher will be most engaging to our children.

Here is one article sent by our Parent-Teacher Advisory Committee (PTAC) chairperson on the benefits of music in the early childhood classroom:
http://coalitionformusiced.ca/pdf/avocacy_articles/early_childhood_music.pdf
There are many articles like it.

Pretend Play: Airplanes

Any solid early childhood education program should have a strong dramatic play component. Dramatic play (or pretend play), when scaffolded by engaging teachers, results in more creative, imaginative, and self-regulated children. If you haven't already, please take a time to read this New York Times article about the importance of dramatic play in self-regulation, which is a better predictor of academic achievement than IQ tests.

The airplane outside is often used as a vehicle for adventures to far-away places. Children take turns pretending to be the pilot while the other children act as passengers. Teachers ask children where they will fly to today: "Africa" "India" "My home" "McDonald's!" Sometimes there is turbulence and the see-saw airplane shakes back and forth (to the delight of squealing children). Sometimes rides are pretty smooth while teachers lead songs on the airplane.

Take opportunities at home to extend your child's dramatic play and help them fly as far as their imaginations can take them.

A special visitor

delightful puppet show!

Emergent Curriculum: Construction

There happens to be some renovation work going on next door. The children (both toddlers and preschoolers) have been fascinated, so we decided to spend Friday morning observing.

We squealed in delight as the giant yellow backhoe loader filled its loader buckets with dirt and hauled it away.

We discussed the caution tape, the cones, and the different sounds the machines make.

We analyzed the way the friendly workers repaved the sidewalk and driveway.

The children were thoroughly engrossed. It was evident how critically they were thinking through the questions they were asking. A very exciting morning for all of us!

Peek into the classroom: Toddler streamer dance

The physical development portion of the planned experiences for the month of March included streamers.

We used our large muscles as we waved, twirled, and pulled the streamers!

Toddlers: Ring Around the Rosie

Another happy day at Windsor!

We were playing hard all morning.

The classic nursery rhyme "Ring Around the Rosie" was requested again...again...and again...!!!

Clapping and giggling ensued during and after each fall.


Ring Around the Rosie, Part 1

Ring Around the Rosie, Part 2

Peek into the classroom: Building with Marshmallows

Highlighted project: marshmallow structures

The children enjoyed the sensory experience of the fluffy, soft, squishy marshmallows in their hands.

Building was incorporated into the project by giving the older toddlers toothpicks to build marshmallow structures. Children exercised their creativity and imagination in this open-ended, hands-on exploration session as they built castles, trains, people, etc.

Poking marshmallows through the toothpicks also served as an excellent fine motor development activity for our pre-writers.

And, of course, devouring the marshmallow creations afterward (and during the project) was great fun. :)



Reminder: Children engage in planned experiences, like the one above, daily. Monthly or weekly lesson plans are posted.

Gathering Drum

It started with RK, but now all the tots are very interested in drumming...

Exploring the gathering drum

Socio-emotional development:
The gathering drum brings all the children together in a drum circle. The children love to make music together while looking at each others excited, giggling faces.

Physical development: 

As the children pound with their hands, they exercise their large muscles. Drumming with a drumstick allows for a different movement.

Cognitive Development: 

Children observe different sounds, rhythm, and experiences as they experiment with the drum. 

Idea for home: Give your child pots, pans, and spoons made of different materials (wood, metal, etc.). Have your child pound away! This will allow children to make different sounds (due to different materials) and analyze them. It gives your child a simple learning activity to do while you're making dinner.