Hanging with Almond

 Today we celebrated all Miss KyRonn is! We are so thankful for who she is and what she brings to the Almond classroom. She loves the kiddos and gives them the biggest part of her, her heart. We appreciate everything she does for us and how much she puts into helping me teach the almond friends day in and day out! Thank you for everything today and showing Miss KyRonn how much she means to us! Here are some fun pictures of today and different days we have with Miss KyRonn. Happy 21st Miss KyRonn! 

 On Monday this week the art invitation was black paper and chalk. The kiddos love having chalk outside on the bike track or on the playground to cover the sidewalks in it. It's such a fun and easy activity that leaves the perfect kind of mess. It helps the kids fine motor skills as well so that's an extra added bonus. On Tuesday we decided to explore the different ways you can use chalk, one being, get it wet. The Almond kiddos got to see a little bit of a science experiment added to it when they dropped the chalk in the water and saw how the chalk reacted.. making bubbles as it started to dissolve. After letting it sit for a few minutes they took it out and used it on their black paper, creating chalk paint!  During small group, we talked about the different ways we could break chalk. The kids came up with using a hammer, their hands, throwing it on the floor, or stomping on it with their feet. We laid a big piece of black paper on the floor and let each kiddo choose a piece...

 On Monday and Thursday this week the kiddos painted their hands red, yellow and orange in the classroom and atelier. (and just to make it more interesting, we painted our feet too) They were given brown paper and told to place their hands on the paper three times in a row. We encouraged them to paint their hands with a paintbrush on their own helping them grow in their independence throughout the classroom and activities. We've been talking about thanksgiving and what we're grateful for this year. Most of the kiddos said mommy and daddy or "I don't know yet" but later in the week we got the answer of "the whole world" and I think that's pretty great. We added what our friends were thankful for on our feathers, and you can see them hanging up in our classroom during friends and family day.  Indiana Learning Foundations: CA3.1: Demonstrate creative expression through the visual art process or experience, CA3.2: Demonstrate creative expression through ...

 Lately the kiddos have been exploring building things with the magna tiles. Our free play is filled with moments of "look my house has a garage!" "Want to build this with me? it can be a castle!" "Miss KyRonn, where are the people?" "Ms. Hannah, can you give me more magna tiles now?" They have been noticing that certain houses are small or big, and long or short. Some friends have been adding garages to their houses and then creating new shapes to make their roofs. The kiddos have been working together and using their words that the people in their lives have been modeling for them. I love hearing them say "Can I help you please?", or "Do you want to put the roof on?", and even sometimes "I don't want to share this right now." "I want to build by myself." They have been working so well on advocating for themselves and solving their own problems before needing a teacher, when they can. Building relation...

 Today we had our very first Shabbat Party with our friends in the Fig room! We were invited to join the Fig class for Shabbat this morning at 9:30. Some of our friends in the Almond room are close with the Fig kiddos because of aftercare and some outside of school play dates! We enjoyed getting to see how they did Shabbat, and we will be hoping to join them again, but in our classroom next time! A big thank you to Ms. Alisa and Miss Melanie for letting us join them and have some fun time to explore their space and compare it to ours!  Indiana Learning Foundations: SS3.1: Demonstrate awareness of the world in spatial terms, SS3.2: Demonstrate awareness of places and regions, SS5.1: Demonstrate awareness of citizenship, APL3.1: Demonstrate development of sustained attention and persistence