Idea web

We started to web our ideas for our exploration of tiny things.  We have been recording the explorations done in the classroom, and are getting a good visual of where we could go from here.  Our idea of "Tiny Things" has transcended content areas and is something that continues to very much be a point of interest to the children in the classroom. 

Tiny Things

Over the past few weeks we have noticed that the children in our classroom have become very interested in tiny things.  We had a parent bring in small Legos for the children to use and we noticed the interest begin to spread after that. 

With the Legos, we started by having the children just use them to construct.  We did introduce 3-D models to them, specifically an Eiffel Tower made from metal.  The interest in tiny things has carried over to small types of building materials, small animals, and small "pretend play" objects.

We brought in tiny puzzle pieces for the children to construct with - they aren't actually puzzle pieces but small construction materials that look like puzzles and can fit into each other.  The children have been very excited and have used them to create objects like lightning bolts, robots, and tracks.  

Our plan is to read the book, Tiny Perfect Things by M.H. Clark.  The book is about going on a walk through a neighborhood and noticing small details in nature and everyday life.  I am curious as to how the book will inspire the children.  Our plan is to read the book a few times in the classroom so the children are familiar with it and can use it as a resource if needed. 

September 2019

Dear Families,

Welcome to a new school year!  We are so excited to be working with you and your child this year and look forward to a very busy beginning of the school year.

My name is Catie Stone and I will be the lead teacher in the classroom this school year.  I have my Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from U of M-Dearborn and my Master’s Degree in Special Education from U of M-Dearborn as well!  Go Blue!  I have been working at the ECEC as a lead teacher for 11 years but have worked as a student staff member here as well – and I even went to preschool here as a child!

My name is Toni Addington, I will be the Teacher Assistant in the classroom this school year. I graduated from Grand Rapids Community College with my Associate’s degree, with plans to go back to school. Currently, this is my 2^nd year here at the ECEC, however this is my 13^th year teaching.

As I am sure you are aware, we do have some significant allergies in our classroom this school year.  Please make sure you are not sending peanut butter or peanuts in your child’s lunch – you can use Sun Butter or Almond Butter as alternatives.  We are also not permitting food at drop off time or for birthday/holiday celebrations.  Alternative suggestions are listed in the Parent Handbook.

One of the big questions parents are wondering at the beginning of the school year is drop off routine.  We want the children to come into the room, wash hands with soap and water, put away their backpack, find their lunch label and put their lunch away, and then sign in as their families sign in.  This consistent routine was very effective last year and helping your child through this process each morning builds consistency and helps the children get comfortable quickly in the classroom.  It is amazing how practicing to write their names each morning with their families has built fine motor skills over the school year.  We were blown away last year with how quickly the children caught on to the routine and began to read and write their names!

Some of the families have already expressed interest in knowing if there is anything needed in the classroom for the beginning of the year.  We can always use Matchbox cars, books, small houseplants, dry erase markers, small trains and tracks, large woven baskets, and Clorox wipes!

Thursday, September 19^th is our fall Curriculum Night!  You are invited from 5-6pm (open house style) to the classroom to see some of the things the children have been doing the first few weeks of school!  We will be demonstrating how different goals and objectives spanning content areas are incorporated into play throughout our school day.

Friday, October 11^th is a professional development day for teachers so there is no school for children on this day.

Saturday, October 12^th the ECEC is doing a meet up at Plymouth Orchards from 12-3pm.  This is a great chance to meet up with families from our program, see animals, go on tractor rides, and pick a pumpkin!  Parking is free and tractor rides are a few dollars, but fun is endless!  Many of the classroom teachers will be stopping by as well.  Bring your whole family!

Just a reminder to dress in layers for unpredictable Michigan weather!  We will be spending as much time outside as possible – especially with beautiful fall temperatures. 

Please know if you ever need anything or have any questions to let us know.  We look forward to a great year.

Catie Stone & Toni Addington

Dollhouse!

Over the winter semester we worked on concepts related to building.  We had two Early Childhood Interns focusing on different concepts related to building - specifically stabilization, shape of a structure, and parts of a structure.

We wanted to create something as a class that combined all of these concepts.  The children have been very excited about bringing in wooden dollhouses to the classroom so we decided to building a group dollhouse using all of the new ideas and concepts we have been working on.

We asked for donations of boxes to our classroom and our families were wonderful about bringing in materials!  We were able to talk about what a house needed, and the children decided on rooms, windows, door, and roof.  We began to design the skeletal structure of the house!

After the exterior shape was created, we had to think of a way to make it more sturdy.  As of right now, we are in the process of applying paper mache to the exterior of the dollhouse.  The children were all very active participants in this process and were excited to see how it changed the house as it hardened. 

We will continue to work on our house and can't wait to see how it turns out!

Candling our ducks

In about a week our ducks should start "pipping" and emerge from their eggs!  We have had the opportunity to "candle" the eggs - meaning we are shining a very bright light into the eggs to see what is inside.  

At the beginning stages of development, a black spot and veins are visible as an egg is candled.  

As the duck grows, more details become visible.

In the next few days of candling, beaks and feet will be showing when we look inside of the eggs.  So far we have about 15 eggs that are showing development, so we are hoping to have several ducklings soon!

Ducks!

Hello!

We are very excited to say that we have a new adventure this semester.  Room 8, Room 2, and Room 7 have ordered some duck eggs!  They are in an incubator right now and in the next few weeks we are hoping that we have some that hatch!  We have shared the news with the children and they are very excited!  After they hatch, we will keep them in our school for a couple of weeks before they go to their new home (one of our former teachers has an enclosure and pond and will be keeping them on her property).

We have 4 different types of eggs so it will be very neat to see how many hatch and if we notice any differences right away in the appearance as the eggs mature and the ducklings hatch and grow.

Inspirations for Week of the Young Child

These are some inspirations for our Week of the Young Child from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

Monday- Music Monday

NAEYC’s 2019 WOYC™ kicks off with Music Monday on April 8! When children sing, dance, and listen to music, they develop their language and early literacy skills while being active and encouraging movement.

Tuesday- Tasty Tuesday

On April 9, focus on healthy eating and fitness at home and school with Tasty Tuesday! This fun, food-themed day is about more than just cheese and crackers. Cooking together connects math with literacy skills, science, and more. With the rise in childhood obesity, you can encourage healthy nutrition and fitness habits at home and in the classroom.

Wednesday- Working Together

NAEYC’s 2019 WOYC™ rolls along on April 10 with Work Together Wednesday! When children build together they explore math and science concepts and develop their social and early literacy skills. Children can use any building material—from a fort of branches on the playground to a block city in the classroom, or a hideaway made from couch pillows at home.

Thursday- Artsy Thursday

NAEYC’s WOYC™ continues on April 11 with Artsy Thursday. Children develop creativity, social skills and fine motor skills with open-ended art projects where they can make choices, use their imaginations, and create with their hands. On Artsy Thursday celebrate the joy and learning children experience when engaged in creative art making. Use any materials—from crayons to paint, clay to crafts!

Friday- Family Friday

WOYC™ wraps up with Family Friday on April 12. Engaging and celebrating families is at the heart of supporting our youngest learners. NAEYC applauds family members’ role as young children’s first and most important teachers.

Researching Robots

Construction project

The teachers have been talking and since there is such a huge interest in construction- we would like to offer the children the chance to construct a more permanent structure. We are thinking of constructing a dollhouse of our own- starting with cardboard and making it stronger with paper mache.

To help us with this- we would like to put the word out that we want to start collecting cardboard boxes and tubes. Anything from empty (and clean) food boxes to empty cardboard tubes. If you have anything to donate, please bring it in!

Classroom Update

This semester we have noticed that the children are much more comfortable with the classroom routine, with each other, and with classroom practices.  At the beginning of the school year, there was a large interest in the kitchen, dress up, and movement.  This term the focus has shifted quite a bit. 

The children have shown a huge interest in building, shapes, construction, and creating connections.  We noticed right away that the block area was a huge area of interest after getting back from winter break.  They were creating structures, and building tall.  This posed a problem sometimes when their structures were falling down – so we talked a lot about stability and helping things to stay up when building.  Ms. Kat has brought the incline slide into the classroom as a building surface for the children.  She is currently exploring with them which types of blocks are easier to build with when their building surface is tilted.  The children utilize a variety of problem solving strategies to get their structures to stabilize on the angled slide and we have noticed that they have a preference as they build with the types of blocks they will use – because they know those blocks are more stable on an angled surface.  We want to continue exploring the surface of the incline – if that changes in texture will their structures change?  Will the angle of the incline impact their building?

Ms. Sharesse noticed that as the children built, they started to talk about different shapes in their structures.  She began introducing them to different types of structures to see if they could pick out the shapes that created the structures.  They spoke extensively about the ideas of “tall”, “short”, “wide”, and “long.” The children then focused a lot more in depth about shapes and where they could be found in their everyday life.  The children began creating with shapes – using them not only in the context of building but in collaging as well.  What types of shapes are used for creation?  How will this continue to factor into making structures?

We would like to work with the children to figure out if there is a type of permanent structure (house, castle, roads, trains) that we could create in our classroom specifically intertwining all of the above mentioned concepts.  How will the children use what we have been talking about together to create a common goal?

Ms. Carrie and Ms. Hailey are also beginning to implement lessons in the classroom working on robots and clay respectively.  Ms. Carrie would like to see what the children know about robots, what they know about more “unconventional” robots (i.e. not transformers) and what the purpose of different robots might be.  Ms. Hailey has noticed that the children have been engaging with clay and making imprints.  She recently had a provocation of snake photos out with the clay to see how the children would react.  She noticed that the molding of the clay was something they practiced, but the children were more interested in the patterns and designs on the snakes – how might they start to represent that with clay?

As always, we will continue to keep you updated through ClassDojo, blog updates, and conversations!  Please let us know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns!

Building in different ways

This term the children have really continued with their interest in building.  We have noticed that certain concepts are more interesting than others to the children, but the children are all excited about building in general.

Ms. Sharesse has been working with the children on shapes related to building.  She noticed the children are interested in different shapes in structures, so she specifically worked with them to point out how structures have shapes in them.  She would like to further explore this idea.  She also noticed that the children were using words like "tall" and "short" as they built, but wants to see if they are truly able to represent these ideas as they create their own structures.

Ms. Kat has been working with the children on Mondays and Fridays.  She has also noticed a large interest in building.  Ms. Kat brought in a ramp for the children to create on.  She wanted to see if the idea of building on a inclined surface impacts how they create their structures.  She took it a step further the other day by adding carpet squares to the incline.  The rough surface wasn't something the children were used to building on in addition to the incline, so she noticed that it may have changed their strategies.

As the weeks progress, it will be interesting to see how the children change up the strategies they use as they work on different concepts.  We are also curious to see if the ideas that they work on Tuesdays and Thursdays with Ms. Sharesse transfer to the ideas that Ms. Kat is working on with them Mondays and Fridays.

Regie Rainbow!

Regie Rainbow!

Over the next few weeks the children in our room will be trying some new foods as part of the Regie Rainbow program!  Each week we talk about foods from a different color of the rainbow, how the fruits and vegetables help their bodies, and we get a chance to taste them!

Over the past couple of weeks we have tried red peppers, tomatoes, orange squash, starfruit, and yellow squash!  We have some more colors to explore (green, blue, brown/violet) as the weeks go on so it will be fun to see what the children are interested to try and how adventurous they get with trying new things!

Early Childhood Intern - Mondays and Fridays

Hello Parents and Family,

My name is Katherine Nealy and I am a senior at the University of Michigan Dearborn studying Early Childhood Education. This semester I will be working with your children in room 7 as an internship student from now until April. During my time in Room 7, I plan on getting to know your children while helping them learn as well as learning from them. My goal this semester is to engage your children in learning activities that will enhance their creativity, and knowledge towards specific subject areas. I will be working hands on with the children and teachers in Room 7 to give and receive the best experience from my internship as possible. I will be in attendance every Monday and Friday from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. I look forward to meeting you all soon.

Thank you,

Ms. Kat

Our Early Childhood Intern - with us Tuesdays and Thursdays this term!

Hello Parents,

My name is Sharesse Turner and I will be student teaching in classroom #7 with Ms. Stone and Ms. Eunice this semester here at the University of Michigan-Dearborn Early Childhood Education Center. I graduated from Henry Ford Community College with my Associates degree in Early Childhood Education and this spring I will be graduating with my bachelor’s in children and families.

I am a native of Detroit. I am a wife and mother of a fifteen-year-old daughter, Kierra who is in her first year of high school. I also have a dog, Pepper. In my spare time I enjoy bowling and singing. One of my most favorite things to do is to help children learn and evolve. I am looking forward to getting to know all of you in the next few months.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Sharesse Turner