Hello Aspen Families

This week in Aspen the children learned all about cooking. We discussed what tools are needed to cook, we looked at a recipe, and we made our own applesauce! In circle this week we read Gus Grows a Plant,  A Grand Old Tree,  The Apple Farm, Visit to an Apple Orchard, and The Biggest Apple Ever. 

In small groups the children had a basket toss High Scope math lesson.  They practiced their hand eye coordination by tossing bean bags into a basket, and they practiced counting by 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.  They also discussed greater than 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. This week the children took a closer look at the letters /a/ and /w/ by tracing the sand paper letter, listening and making the letter sound, and coming up with words that start with the letters /a/ and /w/. The children also did a measuring cups activity. The children filled different cups up with sand and poured them in a bowl and talked about which cup held more sand and which cup held less. 

The children continued to work on their fine motor skills with pouring and scooping sand. The children also had the opportunity to dig and plant fake flowers in the sensory table. During our cooking lesson, the children used plastic knives to cut up apples to put into our applesauce! The children also got to help measure water, salt, and lemon juice and counted out cinnamon sticks to put in the slow cooker for our applesauce.  It was delicious!

 In music this week Ms. Kathleen brought in her teddy bears to sing songs with the children. She also brought in her microphone to practice rhythms with the children. In P.E. this week the children did yoga stretches and had animal races outside.  And in art the children painted a paper and then used the apples to “stamp” on top of it.

Next week we are celebrating the end of the school year and welcoming summer!

Hope you all have a fantastic long weekend!

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