Charlie, Teddy, Osito, Steve. Those are just a few of the names that preschool’s teddy bear has had since September. The home/school connection is an integral part of our preschool curriculum and what better way of fostering it than with a traveling bear? Since the start of the new school year our teddy bear (along with the Teddy Journal) has gone home for the weekend with a different preschool friend and participated in all of that family’s activities. We asked the parents to sit down at the end of the weekend with their child to document their experiences and provide a photo or drawing to go along with the journal entry.

Oh boy, did the parents deliver! Every Monday our friends eagerly await circle time so they can share their teddy bear weekend along with the many photos provided by the parents. (Thanks parents, your involvement has made this our most successful collaborative project to date!)

Some of teddy’s fabulous adventures have included:

- Apple and pumpkin picking
- Seeing a movie
- Grocery shopping
- Seeing a lacrosse game
- Hike to Sleeping Giant
- Many birthday parties
- Trip to New Jersey
- Outdoors in the snow
- Yoga
- Out for pizza
- To the Apple store and the Yale Bookstore
- Peabody Museum
- To Kidcity
- Visiting Uncle Bill
- The Maritime Aquarium
- Jumping on a trampoline
- Bowling
- Visit the doctor
- Ice skating

Although Teddy visited many places, he also spent a great deal of time at home with his families. Siblings also seemed to enjoy Teddy as much as our friends.

Our journal is on display in our classroom and friends look through it daily, proudly sharing their stories, families and photos. Thank you preschool families!

-Ms. Andrea

The truth is that yes, filling the sensory table with rainbow spaghetti does come with some mess, but the benefits and learning that happens far outweigh the price of the sweeping and scrubbing that comes afterward.

In our sensory table, the toddlers are developing fine motor control by practicing scooping and pouring.  They are developing language skills by listening to us describe the textures they feel and the actions they use in their play.  Lately, we’ve even heard them attempt to label things themselves!  They are learning about science and math by experimenting with cause and effect and sorting by color and shape.  It has been really nice to see them sharing and working together to fill up and dump out the bowls.  Recently they have been very eager to trade items and make sure everybody has one, a sight that is not only lovely to witness but an important step toward connecting with others.  Perhaps most importantly, they are learning about self-control by resisting the urge to cover themselves and each other in flour!

The toddlers at Alphabet Academy are capable of much more than one may think, and we see this every day in something as simple as a sensory table.  Exposing them to such a wide range of materials and experiences results in a deeper level of play.  In turn, this translates into the toddlers not putting things in their mouth anymore and consciously choosing to keep everything contained.  So for us, their teachers, the clean up is well worth the look on their faces when they first set eyes on the lights we added to our sensory table and say, “The lights are soooooo pretty!” or when they touch oobleck* for the very first time.  It is just the tip of the iceberg because some very important learning is happening there.

*oobleck is a wonderful concoction of water and corn starch, taken from Dr. Seuss’ book Bartholomew and the Oobleck

This past December the parent of one of our Israeli  families joined our pre-k class for a project to highlight their holiday ritual of lighting the Menorah for Hanukkah. Noa, whose daughter was in the pre-k class (they have just moved- we miss you Neta!), led the class through a beautiful lesson about the significance of the menorah followed by a fun session of of candle-making. As you can see below, the candles wouldn’t fit into any menorah that we have ever seen but the concept was grasped and the children had a ball dipping, dipping, dipping.

The Year of the Dragon

As January rolled in, we looked forward to celebrating the Chinese New Year, especially as this is the year of the dragon! Our preschool and pre-k classes participated in many different activities to commemorate this festive holiday.

We started out by discussing the the holiday in depth and our friends were interested to learn that the holiday lasts for 15 days. Our friend Nina  brought in some home-made dumplings to try. Many of the children had never tried them before and loved them!

Art was a big component for this holiday celebration. Both classes created dragons for a parade- although each has its own distinct qualities. Our other masterpieces of art were created with gold glitter, red paper, yellow string, and Chinese characters.

In preschool, after creating Chinese-inspired name art with gold tissue paper and red and black paint, we studied dragon art and then worked on creating our own drawings using colored pencils.

A big than you to Nina’s family who brought in some of their own personal collection of Chinese New Year decorations.

At the beginning of December our preschool class, in anticipation of the holiday season, took an imaginary trip to the North Pole on the Polar Express.

Our preschoolers came prepared in their pajamas, ready to travel. As our friends arrived to school they enjoyed our themed stations: a train track set up like the North Pole, hot chocolate, water color painting, and a mini marshmallow counting station. Digging through hot cocoa powder was (surprise) a favorite sensory experience…and it was also the most delicious smelling station too!

When all of our friends had arrived at the “station” we began reading the much beloved story, following along with the story’s elements. As the little boy boarded the Polar Express, we boarded our greek theater train equipped with train tickets. We then sipped hot chocolate as our trip took us through the dark forest, up the mountains and came to an end at the North Pole.

Just like the boy in the story, every preschooler received a bell, which you can only hear ring if you truly believe!

-Ms. Andrea & Ms. Karin

Our preparations for the feast began last week as we investigated the story behind Thanksgiving. After discussing what Thanksgiving means to us; family, food, walks, love, etc., we read a few books that told us about the Pilgrims wanting to leave England. The children learned that the king of England was not allowing them to make their own choices, so we talked about how that would make us feel if we couldn’t make meaningful choices of our own. Everyone agreed that we should travel to a place where we were free to make these important choices, just like the Pilgrims. Together we built the Mayflower, packed things we would need to survive in a new world, signed the ship’s log and boarded.

On our journey we felt some of the same things the Pilgrims experienced. Such as…

“It’s hot”, “It’s crowded”, “They slept on the ship too”, “We can’t eat anymore because we need food for the nighttime too”, “Don’t make crumbs, we’ll get bugs”, “We can go fishing”, “I caught 13 fish”,  ”We can’t drink that water, it’s saltwater”, “It’s yucky”, “They sang songs, they also played games”, “Stop coughing, everyone is going to get sick.”

As each of these quotes were said by one of our friends, we discussed how it affected the Pilgrims voyage. And then it happened…we had three friends jump ship because they forgot to bring something or wanted to throw away their trash.  These were the few that did not make it to the new world. Finally as a friend climbed up to the crows nest, we heard “Land-Ho!”

Upon our arrival we decided to use the wood from the Mayflower to construct our first house in the new world (outside in the playground).  The children worked really hard carrying everything we needed over to our new playhouse (which we lovingly call, “The House That John Built.”) They built walls, beds, and made some shelves for our belongings. The process was very tiring and we decided that the Pilgrims had a rough life.

The next day we “planted” some of the bean seeds that we had brought with us from England.  We also read another book that detailed the life of a Pilgrim and the Wamponoag Indians called Giving Thanks by Kate Waters.

Fast forward to yesterday.  At meeting we discussed what a Thanksgiving feast entails.

1. Cleaning your room/house in preparation for your guests arrival (classroom)
2. Organizing
3. Cleaning the cubbies
4. Being nice
5. Saying goodbye

So we set in motion and the kids were really into helping prepare for the arrival of our guests. They cleaned the chairs, tables, window sills, and shelves.  They moved the tables, chairs, books, and science center. Next we covered the tables, added some decorations, and then went outside to greet our guests. It was really nice to see everyone working so hard and as a team.

During the feast many of the children took a step out of their comfort zone and tasted some new foods.  (BIG SMILE) Afterward they reported that they enjoyed many of these foods and hope to have them again.

The turkeys everyone constructed out of a toilet roll and burlap looked great and we hope they will adorn your tables for many Thanksgivings to come.

Enjoy your holiday!

Ms. Mireille, Ms. Michelle, Ms. Kim

While the children were eating the corn, they each had something to say about what they were tasting:

Hannah – “My daddy makes corn for me.”

Gavin – “I love corn! My mommy doesn’t know that I like corn.”

Kameron – “I like to eat corn for dinner.”

Logan – “My mom makes it at home and puts it on the table.”

Dmitri – ” is how you say corn in Russian (кукуруза)”

Jonah – “It tastes like popcorn.”

Max – “It’s yellow.”

While our morning drop-off time activities were a hit, center time was an even bigger success! We set up our shucked ears of corn with Play-doh to experiment with prints. At another table we had ears of corn with paint. The preschoolers loved using the ears as a painting utensil.

The most popular station was, by far, where we had cans of corn kernels dumped on the table for our friends to manipulate using bowls, jars, spoons and most importantly, their hands. The temptation was too great for some and they snuck a few bites. Judging by their smiles, when they got caught, it was worth it!

-Ms. Andrea

Recently we took our pumpkin carving outside on one of our unseasonably warm days. Our friends discussed what the carved pumpkin reminded them of. One of the most popular answers was, of course, pumpkin pie! After the pumpkin was opened, the investigation continued. Some friends were brave enough to dig in with bare hands, others were eager observers.

Our pumpkin donor, Kameron, suggested we continue our pumpkin investigation by witnessing its decomposition. His inspiration for this experiement was inspired by our reading of the book Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell. In the story, we follow a jack-o-lantern that was carved by a little boy and brought out to the garden after Halloween. We placed our pumpkin in a plastic bag and put it on a table to be observed for a few weeks. We have since noticed the pumpkin getting “squishy,” “yucky”, and moldy.

Our Halloween celebration was a big hit. The preschoolers entered the classroom excited and proud to strut their costumes in front of their peers. To our surprise, the classroom was quickly filling up with dragons and princesses (with a few other fantastic costumes thrown in.) We paraded through the other classrooms then made our way back to our classroom where fun games ensued as well as a delicious Halloween feast! Thank you to Jack’s mom for the creepy spider cupcakes.

It’s been a really fun fall!

-Ms. Andrea

Ciao! Recently our two year old friends celebrated Pizza Month. With our chef hats on, we read the book Pizza by Saturnino Romay. The book explains all the steps necessary to make pizza, so with every turn of the page, we stirred, mixed, measured, rolled and sprinkled right along.

We all then enjoyed pizza that Ms. Melissa made and brought in for us to share. The room echoed with giggles and cheers once the pizza was served. Here is what our pizza connoisseurs had to say:

Lucas- I want to share with Madison

Landon- Yummy, I like raspberries

Madison- Good!

Lilly- Yummy pizza

Theo- I eat pizza at home too

Ian- It tastes good

Ryan- I like it

Jonah- Good, it tastes good

Sophie- I like to chew it

Lukas- Mmmmmm

Kylie- It smells hot. I don’t like it

Hey, there’s a critic in every bunch!

After we ate pizza, we continued our celebration by “making” a pizza of our own…..as an art project that is. Some of our children wore chef hats, aprons, and even oven mitts, while others held wooden spoons and bowls. We explored different materials such as burlap, and translucent paper. We then sponged on paint for our tomato sauce and added on our toppings.

What came out were masterpieces! They looked almost good enough to eat…look out Mario Batali, there are some new chefs in town!

Recipe for Ms. Melissa’s Perfect Pizza:

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Sprinkle some corn meal on a pizza stone so your dough doesn’t stick. Roll out or hand stretch whole wheat dough into whatever shape or size you desire. Spread sauce evenly over the crust. (She used her mom’s sauce) Sprinkle with reduced fat mozzarella cheese seasoned with italian spices and garlic powder. Place in oven and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from pizza stone and let cool for 10 minutes. Slice and enjoy.

Buon Appetito!

-Ms. Stephanie

The large fenced-in fowl area was full of various types of chickens, ducks and turkeys. The chickens were calmly roaming about allowing the children to approach and pet them. While the facilitator held one of the chickens and we were petting it, a friend touched its comb (the red part on the top of the head) and reported that it felt like a “gummy”. Some of the chickens were in their coop laying eggs.  The children were curious to find the chickens relaxing in their little “cubbies” and that the eggs were warm.

I’m so glad Ms. Michelle thought to bring paper and pencils for our friends who wanted to draw some of the animals that they were observing. Our friends love doing art in the classroom but doing art out in the field was a fun treat.

Moments later we witnessed a pair of large turkeys get into a scuffle. As we were watching them someone said, “they are trying to see who is going to be the leader.” Such an insightful observation!

The sheep and goats were on the other side of the farm area so the friends from my group, grateful for the chance to stretch their legs, quickly made their way there. Once there, they observed that the sheep had very thick wool to keep them warm during the winter and they thought it felt bumpy. Watching the goats, someone correctly identified that the goat had “hair” and not fur.

We were also able to card a little bit of wool from the sheep. Carding is much like brushing whereby little balls of wool can be gathered. We discussed what we would use the wool for and that we can dye it using vegetable dye from colorful vegetables like beets and carrots.

Next we moved onto the prolific vegetable and herb garden. It was truly a great sight to see our friends pick different herbs, put it in their mouth to try and then watch their little faces.  Most of the items were swallowed, but some of them were “composted” into the soil.

We tasted fennel, garlic chives, mint, lemon balm, lettuce, broccoli flowers… A few of our friends decided they were hungry and were going to take some with them for the bus ride, but they couldn’t wait and it was eaten shortly thereafter.

The field trip was such a success that we hope to visit again in the spring.

Our “second” field trip was to Lake Wintergreen. We took a short hike along the red trail, collected some nature items, and discovered an earthworm party.  The children were so excited to see the earthworms especially after investigating them in the classroom. “Can we take them back to school?” they asked. I was very tempted to bring some back to add to our current earthworm colony in pre-k, alas, I had no vessel in which to carry them – although some excited friends offered to carry them in their hands. That would have been an adventure!

I would like to thank all of the parents that took time out of their busy schedules to join us and enjoy excitement through a child’s eye.

-Ms. Mireille

Each child entered the classroom in the morning with extra zip in their step, announcing what they were going to contribute to our Friendship Salad. They filed in with small bags of fresh ingredients, ready to create a masterpiece. With the children sitting around quietly (but piqued with curiosity) we added cooked and dressed pasta into a large empty bowl. This first step actually received a round of applause! Our eager little sous chefs wanted to eat the salad as-is. I agreed with them that the pasta did in fact look yummy, but what could we do to make this even better. Then, it clicked… and the children suddenly started listing off their ingredients that they brought in! Followed by statements like “I like tomatoes in my salad” “Cucumbers are my favorite” and of course “I love olives!”

As each vegetable was unveiled, the children approached the large bowl and emptied the contents. After each addition came applause. It was a riot! They marveled at the colors of the peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, peas, carrots, sun dried tomatoes and olives. They also noticed that our salad was multiplying in volume before their very eyes. After we carefully incorporated each additional ingredient, the children stood  on their tip-toes, waiting excitedly with their plates. While serving, I thanked each child for contributing and took the opportunity to reiterate, that without our friends, we would be noshing on a simple bowl of pasta. Pasta on its own is good, but together with our friends group effort, it was even better!

As we all sat together and enjoyed our bountiful feast, we teachers noticed that our “picky” eaters, were not so picky. They all seemed eager to taste test even unfamiliar food items, or ones they were convinced they didn’t like. While eating, we paid close attention to the comments that were made:

Ryan “It makes me happy”

Lilly “ It’s goooood”

Sophie “I ate cucumbers”

Landon “I share”

Ian “Pasta! mmmmmm”

Jonah “I like olives!”

Lucas “Olives and tomatoes, see? I eat it”

Cooper “I like broccoli best” followed by “yummy yummy in my tummy”

Kylie “TOMATOES!”

Luke “I like olives too”

Logan “Carrots and broccoli, mmm”

Lukas “tomatoes”

It was much more than merely making a snack. Being able to witness the bonds of friendship, watching as they encouraged each other, listening to the giggles and sharing in their critiques and opinions on the dish, filled us with delight. It was priceless!

-Ms. Stephanie, Ms. Cristina, Ms. Melissa & Ms. Arielle