Yay for it not raining everyday! When we can, we will play outside. The fresh air and sunlight is so good for them, though the park is quite shady. We ask the children to remove their masks when we are outside due to warnings about children wearing masks in the heat. We also do frequent drink breaks. We often have to refill bottles at the park, so we bring a big bottle of water from school. We also offer to spray the children with water when we get to the park to help keep them cool.
When we can't go to the park, we play in the playroom. This offers different physical challenges, as well as inviting the children to be creative in making up games with each other.
The children made craft stick photo frames. These were completed over a number of days. The children painted them, and then glued them together and added some accents. We designed this as a parent's day craft, since we realized we could not do an official Mother's Day craft this year, so we combined it with Father's Day. We hope you Papa's understand and that you all enjoy your child's creation.
Our first Parent's Day Zoom session showed you a typical teacher center time rotation. During this type of center time, the students are rotated through five or six centers, two of which involve teacher instruction to small groups. This is when we typically cover literacy skills like alphabet recognition and phonics, as well as math skills such as counting, shapes, and addition theory. These center times are completed over two days, so that we have adequate time to work with each child. All children will visit all centers over the two days.
Everyday we start with a warm up, radio taiso, a Darby dance, and a GoNoodle dance. The children have started taking turns to lead their friends in radio taiso (Ms. Maki and I help from the back).
We did a Super Simple Draw on Friday. We will do these throughout the year. They are great for fine motor development, as well as following directions, and obviously building artistic skill.
I am really sorry I was unable to join the Parent's Day Zoom. Though I am glad Ms. Catherine is always available to help out the class, and it's nice for the children who got to know her in Preschool last year.
Please don't forget to wash and return your child's hat on Mondays. It helps protect them from the sun, and it is a school rule that they must wear a school cap when they are outside. We let them borrow a cap when they don't have one, but their own caps usually fit better and are more comfortable.
Please keep sending in your reading logs. We are no longer losing, but we aren't winning yet either. We can do it! If everyone reads at least one story to their child everyday (bedtime stories are a fun, comforting, and proven way to improve reading skills later in life) and some extra on the weekends I know we can win!
See you Tuesday at 16:00 for our Coffee Hours!
Ms. Darby and Ms. Maki
