Our fingers and ears are very useful.

This week we learned that our skin has nerve endings. 

The nerve endings are touch receptors that send messages to our brain giving us important information about the world around us.  

One of the ways we explored 

 our sense of touch was through art.

Art develops creativity, imagination and self-esteem.

Art allows a child to share with us their thoughts, beliefs, and understandings of the world.

Through this collage activity, our friends are developing vocabulary, and expanding their conversations with their friends. 

Brexton: Glue is sticky.

Shoshi: String feels like string. The paper feels like paper.

Moshe: The pipe cleaner is scratchy.

Eli: It feels rough.

Evie: This one is different. It's soft.

Evan: The pompom is fluffy and the sponge is bouncy.

 

Shaving cream is always favorite in class. 

 It is a fantastic sensory experience with endless opportunities for imagination and learning.

Sensory play is unstructured and open-ended. 

At the same time, it provides language development

as our friends use descriptive words of their experience.
Brexton: It's tickly. 
Shoshi: It's soft and smooth.

Zoey: It is smooth and soft.

Moshe: It feels like a puff going up.
Evan: We can draw in it.

We used the touch receptors in our skin to help us sort different textures.

Providing a print-rich classroom environment exposes children to reading in a functional way. 

One aspect of a print-rich classroom is labeling.

 Labels help children recognize that words have meaning.

We explored our sense of hearing this week.

Morah Katie:Why is our sense of hearing important?

Moshe: We listen to all people in the whole entire world.

Morah Katie: What do we use to hear? 

Evan: Ears.

Evie: We listen with our ears.

Morah Katie: Sounds are all around us. What are your favorite sounds to hear? 

Evan: Music.

Moshe: Shows.

Shoshi: Listening to videos of Dora.

Zoey: Sounds in my house.

Morah Katie: How do your favorite sounds make you feel? 

Evan: Happy.

 We explored our sense of hearing through music.

We played freeze dance.

We listened to an audio book about an orchestra.

We played with musical instruments.

 

Next week we explore smells and tastes.

It is great to be back!

Our first week of school began with warm greetings of smiles, fist bumps, hugs and lots of fun play with friends. 

 

Our newest group of young leaders immediately began helping and encouraging their friends.

Evan: I can help you Evie. 

(Morah Jillian helps a little.)

Evie tries again.

Evan: Evie! You did it!

Moshe: Shoshi when we move the table we need to use both our hands on it.

Zoey really wanted to jump from the slide structure.

 Evan: Do you want to see how I do it? (jumped)

Eli/Evan: You can do it. Try. 

Zoey did and she had a lot of fun.

We are beginning our year by exploring the world through our five senses.

We took our "seeing" scopes and went on a nature walk.

We saw leaves and flowers and big yellow patches on the path. 

We saw green trees, and the top our sound garden!

We also saw a big truck and fork lift doing their work!

Our eyes helped us find not just 2 cucumbers, but 7! 

They had been hiding under the leaves!

We used our sense of sight to enjoy and explore color. 

Our sense of sight has many helpful uses.

We use our eyes to paint or draw to create the pictures we want to see.

We need our eyes to help us put puzzles together.

We are so grateful for our eyes:

Eli:  I can see everything, like my friends.

Evan: I can see a lot of things, all my friends.

Zoey: I can see all the fun toys.

Shoshi: I can see Mom and Daddy.

Evie: I see all the fun toys.

Next week we will explore our sense of Touch