Pre-K: Community and Cubism!
Do not be surprised if your children are extra tired this weekend - it was a very busy week in Pre-K! Not only was there a lot of play and work, there was also a LOT of walking!
Language and Literacy
One of our goals for the rest of the year is to help children feel comfortable creating the lines used to make both lower and upper case letters. We are emphasizing starting all letters at the top, whether we are air writing, using our fingers to trace letters in sensory materials like coffee grounds or using an actual writing utensil on paper or another writing surface. We also talked about thank you notes, and children practiced them by signing and decorating notes to all of the people in Newton who made our field trips so special this week.
Math and Science Our week of math and science was filled with the game Connect 4, creating 3D sculptures out of paper and conducting an experiment about cleaning water with Martine, in honor of Earth Day. Ask your child what alum does - you will be impressed by how much they know!
We also had a special visit from Steve the Science Guy, who put on a fantastic, interactive magic show with his pal Bananas the monkey. The kids (and adults) LOVED it. Nina has Steve's contact information - he does birthday parties!
Art
We had an interesting discussion about Cubism in art and what shapes we might find in cubist paintings. Take a look at our hallway bulletin board to see Pre-K’s cubist portraits of themselves!
Gross and Fine Motor Development
Martine and I have learned a lot this year about how helping children to strengthen their core provides them with the stability necessary as they start to sit and write more. This week, we introduced wall pushups! Next week, we will be trying out some other core-strengthening activities...stay tuned, some funny stories may follow.
Community Exploration
The highlight of our week was exploring our Newton community and discovering just what goes into creating and maintaining it. For our field trips, we partnered 2 (and sometimes 3) children. The partners changed with each leg of our journey through Newton. We loved listening to all of the conversations that we overheard from your children, and are thrilled to report that Pre-K is truly a community of its own, with all that entails.
Next week, we will be continuing "Cc/Ch" and finishing off our alphabet with "XY" and "QZ" over the following 2 weeks. Thank you again to each of our volunteer chaperones, and we hope that you don’t get too soggy this weekend!
Have a relaxing weekend,
Emily and Martine
