Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Tuesday, October 13



Today our avid learners began the first official unit of Joy School--Joy of the Body. We learned about many of the amazing things our bodies can do! Outside the kids traced their bodies with chalk, crawled through a tunnel, and worked on balancing their bodies on a wooden balance beam. Inside we read books about the human body and worked on body puzzles, tumbling (which turned into getting under a big blanket and pretending to sleep), and learned about the five senses through an air popping popcorn exercise. The popcorn & clementines became our snack.

Annika loved making art projects today and created an additional project where she glued together a collage of shapes.
Abby loved tracing her body on the sidewalk.
Ava loved doing the date and weather and did an impeccable job sitting on her mat and being a special helper.
Imani loved reading books under the tumbling mat.

They all loved learning about sight, sound, smell, taste and touch with the popcorn popper!

I loved seeing all their unique personalities emerge!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Thursday's class - Oct. 9, 2009



Hi Everyone!

I thought the lesson today went great--I definitely lost them to the toys but I thought they all did such a good job sharing and learning today. The second intro lesson was mainly a review of the rules, and I just couldn't stretch the rule-learning out as long as the lesson suggested so there was lots of extra time to play in Imani's room. They did a great job sitting on their mats for story time (I think Imani has the hardest time sitting on the mat - but she's catching on).

Things they liked today:
- They all LOVED the welcome song (Will You Stand Up). They were all SO cute standing up when their names were called with big smiles. In fact, Imani, Ches and Annika sang it all the way back to Elizabeth's in the car!
- Meeting Joy Boy and giving him a high five
- They LOVED helping with the calendar and talking about the weather (we used the weather magnets).
-Singing songs (esp. 5 little ducks)
-Free Play time
-Art time--the girls seemed especially excited to use real scissors (I was a little nervous about it but they all did great with cutting and glueing and there were no cut fingers!)
-Bean bag game (they's remember a rule and toss their bean bag into a "hoop")
-Wearing a special clean-up hat

**Chess was a great example for the other kids. I think he really helped with teaching the others what to do for the welcome song.
**Annika loved the rocking horse and talked about her favorite color being green and told us about her green witch costume.
**Ava was an excellent artist - she was so focused on her project and did some pretty advanced stuff with yarn. I loved her black cat glued under the moon.
**Imani did a great joy sitting on her mat for the weather and calendar.
**I loved how Imani and Annika got so excited when Ava arrived.

I attached a couple cute pictures from the day. I feel really positive about Joy School. Molly and I already talked about this but it seems like the kids are stimulating each other in ways that we can't - illustrated by how tired they are when school is over. Imani is already singing the songs throughout the day is learning new things freom class and from the other kids.

Thanks everyone and see you next time. We missed Abby but hope her 2 year appt. went well!

Nazneen

Welcome to Joy School

Joy School started this Tuesday. By Thursday's class period, they were already singing some of the songs and talking about seeing each other!

Tuesday we introduced the weather chart, the calendar, the concept of helpers and individual mats to sit on. We also sang Look Around the Room with Me and The Rule Song. The girls loved dancing during their "resting time", and although none of them wanted to share the object they brought for sharing, they were excited to show us all what they brought.

-Imani brought a stuffed puppy with a Superman cape
-Ava brought her Cinderella doll
-Annika brought her Princess Annika doll
-Abby brought a stuffed puppy and a stuffed ducky

They also had fun doing our art project of arranging crayon shavings on a piece of paper and then having it melted by an iron to see what the design would be.

Annika was especially good at following instructions. Abby had fun participating in the Rule Song. Ava was good at sitting on her mat and being a helper, and Imani led everyone in the dancing and running around.

Overall, we're off to a good start!

Mary