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