Hello Aspen families!

Last week the children planted their garden on Aspen playground and this week they have taken care of watering it and watching it grow. This week the children also learned all about birds. They talked about how people are different from birds for example, where birds live, what they eat, how they get around (the children thought it would be silly if we had wings instead of arms), and they talked about how many kinds of birds they know of.

 This week in circle we read Hail to Spring, My Spring Robin, Around the Neighborhood, Animals at Night, and Boo Hoo Bird.  The children also started a flower experiment this week. We put four different colors of food coloring into four different cups of water and left one plain. The children noticed that the flowers in colored water started to change colors but the ones that were in plain water were staying the same. Great observation!  Then in art the children used flowers as their paint brush and did petal paintings.

During small group time the children had a High Scope math lesson with Ms. Mallison. They practiced their hand eye coordination by tossing bean bags into a basket, and they practiced counting the number of bean bags that made it in the basket and the number of bean bags that did not make it in the basket. Next week they will take that one step further and start comparing greater and less than by looking at how many bean bags made it into the basket versus how many did not. In literacy smalls groups, the children continued exploring letters with Ms. Megan. This week the children took a closer look at the letters /r/ and /d/ by tracing the sand paper letter, listening and making the letter sound, and coming up with words that start with the letters /r/ and /d/. The children also did a color sorting activity with Ms. Kate. The children counted, and color sorted the birds into their correct nest.

 The children continued to work on their fine motor skills with pinching and molding floam, and pouring and scooping sand. The children also had the opportunity to dig and plant fake flowers in the sensory table. The children were also able to make birds nest out of shredded paper and pipe cleaners.

 This week in music Ms. Kathleen brought in her guitar again and sang “Skateboard Songs” with the children. She also brought in a new book to sing and show the children called My Favorite Things.   In P.E. this week the children ran races outside and did some yoga stretches.

Next week the children will be diving into cooking and will be making apple sauce as a class. Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Megan, Ms. Kate, and Ms. Mallison