ECC Weekly News - 5/7/21

Early Learners

The Early Learners have been very curious about bugs and insects lately! We started off our week by creating a class web of what we already know about bugs. We read lots of different books and one of the favorites was Bugs and Spiders. The children used this book to try to figure out what kinds of bugs were in our sensory buckets, what kind of bugs we found on our nature hunt, and to find out answers to their questions such as "is this one a beetle?" and "what are the ant hills for?" Once our class caterpillars arrived the children were very excited to observe how they change! Each day they made observations about how they looked and what they thought was happening. Here are some of their observations....

Djuna: "They're so little...they're moving their heads."

Rocco: " They will turn like a butterfly."

Josie: "They need to be big and strong. Those ones are stuck on to the top. That one's moving his head! That one looks like a J!"

Carly: "This one looks like a C!"

Mackenzie: "Everyday we will see if they turn into butterflies...and make their cocoons and sprout and crash and then BOOM a butterfly!"

Cormac: "I see this one moving and this one isn't. Hims touching the food...him eating the food! I see one hanging. You know that's not him arms, that's hims feet."

After reading Caterpillar to Butterfly, we acted out the butterfly lifecycle from egg all the way to flying butterfly! Some children used different shaped pastas to create sensory bottles to represent each stage of the lifecyle. They also started to create art to represent each stage for a big class mural!

Pre-School 1

The Preschool 1 classroom has been busy this week with all sorts of fun activities for spring, shadows, and the letter Z. We have finally finished our letter of the week theme, and the kiddos really enjoyed making zebras for our art wall. We also focused on counting and the number zero with movement. Every time I asked for a certain move (like dino stomps) with a number they would count out the moves. Then, when I asked for something like “show me zero bunny hops” they’d stand still and smile. I just couldn’t trick this clever group! Zipper practice was also a great activity to round out our week of the letter Z. The kids are getting really good at it, and are even helping out their friends if they get stuck. Since the sun finally joined us today, we were able to decorate our line up area with beautiful chalk drawings, and Mrs. Marotta even joined us to be one of the shadow models! The building center was extra fun this week because we set it up with some dark paper and flashlights. The kids were able to build together and then shine the flashlights to cast shadows on the wall. They enjoyed changing the buildings up to see how the shadows would look if they were taller, wider or had windows. Our flower seeds have sprouted finally and the kiddos are taking very good care of them by checking to make sure they are not dry and that the sun is on them. The class also enjoyed scissor practice, yoga, super cute reading groups and secret crafts for Mother’s Day. I still can’t believe how much these little busy bees accomplished this week! Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing moms, grandmothers and special aunties out there, we appreciate you! Have a great weekend!

Pre-School 2

With Mother’s Day approaching, preschoolers were very busy making special gifts for their mom’s. Everyone is super excited to have their mom’s see what they have been working on.

We made it to the end of the alphabet and learned about letter Z this week! Children made paper plate zebras. They added stripes to their zebras (but some might look like whiskers. Also for “Z” week, we practiced zippering our jackets. It was a great fine motor and hand/eye coordination activity.

Our class continued with the “Shadow and Reflection” unit. We focused more on reflection this week. Preschoolers used mirrors and flashlights to see what surfaces the light would reflect on. We even took advantage of this rainy week and went outside to look at our reflection in puddles!

We spoke about bugs and insects. Preschoolers made fossils by placing toy bugs into playdough. They were so amused to see the imprints. For Math, we played a ladybug “roll and cover” game. Children rolled the dice then used the number to see how many dots to cover on their ladybug. Preschoolers worked well together and took turns. The book of the week was The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. The children loved it and by the end they were reading along!

Pre-School 3

Our Preschool 3 friends had another great week filled with fun and learning. Everyone was so excited about working on the letter Z. Jenna said, "We did it! We learned all of the letters in the whole alphabet!". The entire class cheered and gave themselves a round of applause. To go along with the final letter of the week,

the children made zebras and practiced writing the letter Z on whiteboards. In honor of Mother's Day coming up, the children spent a lot of time talking about their moms and why they are so special. The preschoolers also put in a lot of hard work to complete thoughtful gifts for their mothers to show them how much they love and appreciate them. Our new Lynch unit is "Shadow and Reflection". Last week we focused on shadows while this week we explored the reflection piece. The children were given different types of mirrors to study their reflection and tested many different surfaces and objects to determine whether or not they could see their reflection in those as well. They discovered they could see their reflections in windows, tin flower pots, the shiny floor, and in water. They were excited when they realized that puddles reflect very well. The Preschool 3 class was very busy all week but they still managed to squeeze in a few group art projects for our upcoming art show. These children truly amaze me!

Pre-K1

It was a busy week in Pre-K1 celebrating the letter “Y” and getting prepared to celebrate our awesome mothers. The children can’t believe next week we celebrate the last letter of the alphabet. They are so proud of themselves that they know how to identify and write all of the letters in the alphabet. They also know the sounds of all 26 letters. What a big accomplishment! We spent a lot of the week talking about our amazing mothers and all the things they do for us. We created cards, made books about some of our favorite things about our mothers, and made lilies for them out of our hands. The students agreed our mothers ROCK! Center time was very exciting this week because of the new STEM magnetic toys Ms. King purchased for our classroom. The toys promote critical and creative thinking in young minds. The toys are not only a hands on way to discover and learn, but they also help the children develop their fine motor skills. Towards the end of the week when the weather got nice the students went outside and spent time investigating things in nature. They turned over rocks to try and find worms or insects and used magnifying glasses to study budding flowers, rocks, and anything else they may have stumbled upon. They had a lot of fun pretending they were scientists. We want to wish all of the mothers out there a great, relaxing Mother’s Day. We appreciate you all!

Pre-K2

Pre K 2 had a great week. We worked on the letter "Y" and Mother’s Day gifts. The class is so excited to create something special for their Moms. I can’t wait for all of you Moms to see your special gifts. We made beautiful art work with yarn and glue. The children loved creating pictures using items other than paint, crayons, or markers.

During the week we worked on math and language in small groups. The class did a great job creating math sentences, counting and figuring out which number is higher or lower. We also used dice and unifix cubes for a fun math game.

For our language small group activity we created site words with magnetic letters, matched upper to lower case letters, and matched the correct letter to the word picture.

Pre-K 3

The Pk3 class has been very busy working on some special Mother’s Day projects this week! I will keep the gift a secret but will share a couple of pics of them working on their cards and gift bags. I am so proud of the way that they all applied their very best effort knowing that they were making something for their moms. They have been learning how to use the symbols greater than, less than and equal to while comparing numbers. After shaking a die, they identify and write down two numbers and then choose which symbol applies. They love this “game” and it really helps them to grasp the concept. They have also been combining first, middle and last letter sounds to read words. We played a game we call disappearing words on the whiteboard yesterday. I wrote down twelve words that were easy to sound out and had them come up one at a time to erase a word. They did a great job listening for each sound and then finding the word on the board! The letter of the week is “Y” and they had a lot of fun using yarn to create some unique artwork! I am happy to announce that all of the kids’ sunflowers have sprouted and we have four caterpillars in the chrysalis stage! Have a great weekend, and to all the moms out there...have a wonderful Mother’s Day!!