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Aesop's Fables in Preschool

9/3/2018

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Folktales and Fables - Keeping Treasured Literature Alive in Preschool

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The month of September has been devoted to Folktales and Fables and the study of literature that seems to be lacking in many preschool classrooms across the country.  I was thrilled to see that our curriculum partners at Mother Goose Time devoted an entire month to activities, stories, engaging play, S.T.E.M, Creative Arts, Music and Movement all centered around the beloved and time honored Aesop's Fables. 

This week we discovered the strength, but gentle kindness of Paul Bunyon,his ox Babe, his great big appetite, and Frozen Flames!  We built dams, learned about fire safety, measured ourselves and our friends, and so much more! 

Follow us for more and let the play begin!!

The Birth of Paul Bunyon

When introducing a new baby, such as Paul Bunyon, we always ask what his or her name is.  Paul's name, like ours, is a very important and unique attribute and one of the very first ways we notice that letters create words.  This creates value and desire in the young child to know his or her own name and how to spell and write it.  It makes learning personal and unique to each child instilling pride as the task is mastered from recognition to accomplished writer.  

We teach name writing and recognition in a variety of ways but these personalized name builders were such a hit and easy to make and send home for play and practice with our families!

My how you've GROWN!

One of the sweetest things we get to do as preschool teachers is to watch our little learners blossom from infant to kindergartner.  All along the way our curriculum partners at Mother Goose Time provide fun measuring projects that help us gauge a student's progress.  Here we cut out leaves practicing our fine motor skills to build a growing tree.  Each student had a leaf on the tree as their height marker.  

What a darling BaaaAAAAbbbAAAYYY!!!
Self Portraits

One of the ways we sneak in assessments is by self-portraits.  In this Creative Arts activity we provide children with the simplest instructions; Draw YOU!

Today, since we were discussing baby Bunyon, we decided to make ourselves as babies as well.  We framed these sweet masterpieces and proudly posted them on our classroom window for all to enjoy!
They turned out BEAUTIFULLY!
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Since there is no right or wrong way to do this activity it allows a child to work at their individual level and interest.  Some of our younger students are in the scribbling phase and some have matured in skill and strength and are in Stage Four: Pictures of object or people.  

Giving our young learners repeated exposure to a variety of art medium is vital to brain development. Even though chasing our tiny tots as they draw "lipstick" with markers can become quite a challenge, it is important that they are allowed to create and discover and have access to materials that allow for exploration of expression.  

"Creativity is a bridge to learning. When your child is creative and curious, she can come up with answers to the problems she encounters—like how to keep the block tower from falling. Creativity helps your child become a thoughtful, inquisitive, and confident learner later on, when she starts school.One of the most important ways that your toddler is tuning in to her creativity is by experimenting with art materials. As she grabs that chunky crayon and gets to work, you will see her art and writing change and become more controlled and complex as she grows.

For very young children, art and early writing skills are one and the same. At first, it’s all about just figuring out what these cool things called crayons can do. Then your child discovers the link between her hand holding the crayon and the line she made on the page: Presto! She experiences the power of cause-and-effect. Imagine how exciting this must be for her! She can now make a real “mark” on the world. This leap in thinking skills is helped along by her new ability to hold things in her hands and fingers. The growing control your child has over the muscles in her hands lets her move a marker or paintbrush with purpose and with a goal in mind.

For very young children, there are four stages of drawing and writing that you may see as your child grows from 15 months old to 3 years old. Note that the timetables listed below are approximate; your child may master these skills faster or slower and still be developing just fine. Growth doesn’t happen at the same speed for every child, but by offering repeated fun experiences with a variety of art and writing materials, you will see forward progress over time.

Stage 1: Random Scribbling (15 months to 2½ years)

This is the period when young children are just figuring out that their movements result in the lines and scribbles they see on the page. These scribbles are usually the result of large movements from the shoulder, with the crayon or marker held in the child’s fist. There is joy in creating art at all ages, but at this stage especially, many children relish the feedback they are getting from their senses: the way the crayon feels, the smell of the paint, the squishy-ness of the clay.

For other children, this sensory information may be too much and they may not enjoy some art activities at this stage (like finger-painting). As they grow to tolerate more sensory input, you can incrementally re-introduce art activities into their routine.

Stage 2: Controlled Scribbling (2 years to 3 years)

As children develop better control over the muscles in their hands and fingers, their scribbles begin to change and become more controlled. Toddlers may make repeated marks on the page—open circles, diagonal, curved, horizontal, or vertical lines. Over time, children make the transition to holding the crayon or marker between their thumb and pointer finger.

Stage 3: Lines and Patterns (2½ years to 3½ years)

Children now understand that writing is made up of lines, curves, and repeated patterns. They try to imitate this in their own writing. So while they may not write actual letters, you may see components of letters in their drawing. These might include lines, dots, and curves. This is an exciting time as your toddler realizes that his drawing conveys meaning! For example, he may write something down and then tell you what word it says. This is an important step toward reading and writing.

Stage 4: Pictures of Objects or People (3 years to 5 years)

Many adults think of “pictures” as a picture of something. This ability to hold an image in your mind and then represent it on the page is a thinking skill that takes some time to develop. At first, children name their unplanned creations. This means that they finish the picture and then label their masterpiece with the names of people, animals, or objects they are familiar with.

This changes over time.

Soon you will see your child clearly planning prior to drawing what he will create. You will also see more detail in the pictures, more control in the way your child handles the crayon or marker, and the use of more colors. What else to be on the lookout for? Children’s first pictures often build off circles. So, you may see a sun—an irregular circle, with lots of stick “rays” shooting out—or a person (usually a circle with roughly recognizable human features).

Once your child has begun to purposefully draw images, she has mastered symbolic thinking. This important milestone in thinking skills means that your child understands that lines on paper can be a symbol of something else, like a house, a cat, or a person. At this stage, your child also begins to understand the difference between pictures and writing. So you may see him draw a picture and then scribble some “words” underneath to describe what he has drawn or to tell a story. When your child is able to share his story with you, he will be motivated to “author” more and more work as he grows.

Stage 5: Letter and Word Practice (3 to 5 years)

Children have had experience with letters and print for several years now and are beginning to use letters in their own writing. Usually children start by experimenting with the letters in their own names, as these are most familiar to them. They also make “pretend letters” by copying familiar letter shapes, and will often assume that their created letter must be real because it looks like other letters they have seen (Robertson, 2007).

During this time, children also begin to understand that some words are made of symbols that are shorter and some words are made of symbols that are longer. As a result, their scribbles change. Rather than one long string of letters or letter-like shapes, your child’s writing now has short and long patterns that look like words or sentences. While these letters and words are probably not technically correct, it does not matter. This exciting milestone means that your child is beginning to understand that text and print have meaning." https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/305-learning-to-write-and-draw

Opportunity, resources, and time...all in a day of play at Woolsey Academy!

Resources and References (from https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/305-learning-to-write-and-draw)Farrell-Kirk, R. (2007 February). Tips on understanding and encouraging your child’s artistic development. Downloaded on June 10, 2008.
Gable, S. (2000). Creativity in young children. University of Missouri Extension. Downloaded on June 10, 2008.
Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service. (n.d.). My child is an artist! The stages of artistic development. Downloaded on June 10, 2008.
Lagoni, L. S., Martin, D. H., Maslin-Cole, C., Cook, A., MacIsaac, K., Parrill, G., Bigner, J., Coker, E., & Sheie, S. (1989). Good times being creative. In Good times with child care (pp. 239–253). Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State University Cooperative Extension. Downloaded on June 10, 2008.
Levinger, L, & Mott, A. (n.d.). Developmental phases in art.Downloaded on June 10, 2008.
Robertson, R. (2007, July/August). The meaning of marks: Understanding and nurturing young children’s writing development. Child Care Exchange, 176, 40–44.


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Digging It!

5/21/2018

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The month of May is one of my favorites as Winter finally gives way to Spring fully.  We have beautiful days filled with blooming flowers and trees, discovering worms and insects, and observing how a tiny seed creates a stem and leaves, vines and vegetables.  

We LOVE planting a garden.  Each year since we live a stone's throw from the river we have to wait until May to plant our garden.  If we try to do this sooner, we get a late frost that kills all our plants.  Last year the flooding made us replant twice, but this year we are on track for a bountiful harvest. 

We have planted pumpkins, watermelon, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, cantaloupe, sweat peas, corn, and sweet potatoes. With all the little helping hands it is always a great accomplishment for our plants to make it all the way to harvest time, but we usually do!

Our Garden Theme is intertwined into all our learning activities all month long.

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There's not much that children like more than digging in the dirt.  They can dig for hours...add a bit of water we have entertainment for a week!  Not only do they benefit from using their gross motor skills to build up their digging muscles but they also get to work together to find insects and worms; treasures of the soil!

Our educational partners at Mother Goose Time understand that May is our gardening month and they have sent us books, creative arts, math, and science to go along with all our "hands-on" enrichment. Follow our blog to see all the fun and educational activities we have done inside too!!

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 Gardening is an amazing opportunity for children to learn about the world around them.  

It also "provides the perfect combination of skills and tasks to address your child’s development. For example, gardening is a great physical development activity.Young children can practice locomotor skills, body management skills and object control skills while they move from one place to the other carrying tools, soil and water. They will be moving their bodies using large muscles and using muscles to balance and manage objects too. Fine motor skills such as whole-hand grasping and the pincer grasp (necessary skills for writing) are employed in gardening when children use a trowel or rake and pick up tiny seeds to plant. Further, being outdoors in the fresh air and moving around a lot is a good way to get exercise.
Another aspect of physical development is the sensory stimulation that you can experience in a garden. Water is a critical part of gardening and, if your child enjoys nothing else, playing with the hose or the watering can be a highlight. Feeling the texture of the soil or the plant leaves is also interesting, as is the smell of the fresh garden and its plants.
Of course, most gardens are a visual explosion of colors, tones and shades. If you plant edible plants, this is one of the few areas where you can actually safely employ your child’s sense of taste. Children are often more willing to try a new food if they have been involved in the process of growing it.
Literacy skills can be part of gardening, too. Learning the names of different plants and reading what their growth requirements are on the seed or plant packages is a literacy activity. Another reading/writing activity could be making a map of your garden or your yard and labeling the plants in it. A map of the area that you plant can be really helpful when those seeds start to sprout and you are not sure which one is a weed and which is the vegetable or flower you planted!
Cognitive development is all about intellectual skills such as remembering and analyzing information and predicting outcomes. You can do plenty of that in your garden with children. By asking open-ended questions about what you have already done in your garden and what they think you should do next, you are helping them think through the processes of preparing the soil, planting, watering and weeding. Ask them to tell you about the differences between the various plants you are growing or the different parts of the plants themselves. Show them the entire plant—roots, stem, leaves, flowers and seeds—or let them draw the plant at different stages of growth." - ​Posted on April 24, 2017 by Kittie Butcher, Michigan State University Extension, and Janet Pletcher, Lansing Community College

We are "digging" everything dirt all month long at Woolsey Academy!  Follow our adventures here and on our facebook page!

As always, we wish you well and we hope you get to play today!!

​-L
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Dirt, water, sand, and FUN!

5/7/2018

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These sweet babes just steal my heart!! 

Look at that joy on his little face because he found, "Da' mos' pweddy fwower, Ms. Donna!" 

Swooonnnn.......

I LOVE living in preschool world.  Sure...we can corner the market on tantrums, but days like THIS make up for the challenging moments a thousand times over. 

This month is all about flowers and soil and growing gardens!  We will discuss the roots, leaves, worms, and dirt and EVERYTHING it takes to make a flower grow from seed to maturity.

But first a little prep work...

It took time and patience and TOOLS to prep this soil for our garden this year.  It was hard and dry.  It was unforgiving as we scraped, hammered, and dug our way in.  It did not want to relent in the late spring heat.  We had little rain and just the tiniest bit of water made mud fast which was fun for play but not to great for actually prepping the soil!  

We learned words what a rake, hoe, and shovel were.  We added a trowel and pitch fork to the mix.  We beat it, and raked it, and finally it softened enough to mix the fertilizer in and give it a good long drink before adding our seeds and plants.

Next we learned that parts of a plant so we could properly care for it.

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Roots, stem, leaves, flowers! This is how we grow!!  We learned the parts of a plant and what each part does.  We also discussed that each part of the plant has its own job to do and that the plant cannot grow or even survive without all its parts working together toward the same goal, growth!  It is the same thing with a school or a family or a friendship.

It takes everyone working together toward the same goals so it can grow.  We are all different, but together we make an amazing team!

We built some flowers with all its parts using yarn, pipe cleaners, construction paper, and tissue papers

As we laid all the resources out on the tables we held up each piece and asked, "What plant part does this look like?"  They would answer "roots' or 'stem" as they carefully chose and placed the parts on their own papers with a bit of heavy glue!! Our education partners at Mother Goose Time provided a "harvest" (pun intended) of games, crafts, science, math, language arts, and sensory for us to "dig" into all month long and this sweet "Plant Parts" project was just one craft from the above "Plant Parts" lesson plan.

Each "plant" turned out uniquely beautiful and it helped them to better understand plants parts to have some hands-on creative arts moments to determine placement and size.

We added the letter "f" for "flower" and we named it's upper and lowercase partners.  We counted leaves and stems of our flowers and we took a walk to the "f" farm to pick some "f" flowers to give little learners some sun, scents, and sensations all around the fields of the farm.
Picking flowers, prepping the soil, taking long walks in the fields and the farms is all part of our days in May at Woolsey Academy for Young Learners!

As always we wish you well and we hope you get to play today.

​-L
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Octopus Math!!!

4/20/2018

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Anyone that has read our class blog for very long knows I HEART games that teach!!!  This sweet octopus counting game is no exception!!  Just look at his happy face!  How couldn't you not be drawn right in and want to play with him?!?

Another thing I LOVE about the games we receive from Mother Goose Time is that they are not of a competitive nature, but rather they promote teamwork and a "We ALL win together" attitude.  The children have to work together, take turns, make observations, create solutions, and practice self regulation to reach a common end goal of "winning the game."

This game involves rolling dice and using the round counter tabs in conjunction with the number of the dice to correspond to the amount of counter tabs to place on the octopus tentacle. (At least that is how we played it!)

I had one child roll the dice and the other child count out the correct number of tabs.  Then the child that rolled was able to place the tabs onto the octopus.  Then the children would switch rolls until the octopus was full.  The children would then count all the tabs together and tally how many rolls of the dice it took to reach the end.  The fewer rolls the better, but in the end, they reached the last place on the last tentacle and it was HOOOORAYS all around!!

Our Ocean Commotion month has been filled with math opportunities. 


Our educational partners at Mother Goose Time provided us with an ocean themed matching game with real pictures of ocean animals, and these beautiful shells to count to the number 15 and 16 with (our focus number this month).  We used these little ocean gems to match sizes, order from largest to smalled and reverse, count from 1-16 (and beyond since we had about 40 of them), group into 2, 3, 4, and 5's for skip counting and to imagine what types of animals called them home (not math, but some fun physical science!).  
 
Giving children objects to hold, count, order, and compare is math and science in real time that little minds can concretely make meaningful connections with.

We utilize "teachable moments" with our little learners that encourage hands on learning that is far superior than rote flashcard memorizations.  Yes, the clean up can be a bit more daunting, but the results speak for themselves...

Www.education.com supports this method, " In an attempt to foster their child’s academic development, many well meaning parents may be tempted to provide flash cards as an initial learning tool. This is not the best method for teaching young children math skills with understanding, says Grace Davila Coates, Program Director of Family Math (Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California at Berkeley) and co-author of Family Math for Young Children. “Many three-year-olds may be able to identify a 3, but they don’t understand what 3 means. It's important for parents to understand the difference between conceptual learning and skill development," she says. "Instead of flashcards, look for teachable moments, count things that are familiar to the child as she plays or helps you with simple chores. Counting socks, toy cars, or other toys will maintain her attention and have more meaning for her. Play is learning for three and four-year olds.

Follow their interests and create environments that encourage creativity and exploration.” https://www.education.com/magazine/article/preschool-number-recognition-counting-easy/​

Following our preschooler's interests and creating environments that support those are what we do at Woolsey Academy for Young Learners everyday.

As always, we wish you well and we hope you get to play today!

-L

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The Little Octopus And The Oceans...

4/15/2018

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Children LOVE to study oceans and the life inside of them.  Shells, fish, whales, coral, water...especially the octopus!

In all my years as lead "awakener" here at Woolsey Academy, the octopus ranks right up there in preschool land with the dinosaur.  

It has 8 arms or tentacles, it has a squishy body, it squirts black ink it has suction cups!!!  What isn't to LOVE about these amazing creatures of the deep?

This month our educational partners at Mother Goose Time paid homage to this amazing ocean dweller with this sweet study and craft.  

They provided a math study counting it's arms by adding and subtracting to make 8.  We added another lesson to that curing our S.T.E.A.M. project by adding these fun round stickers to create "suckers" on the tentacles as we counted how many we added.  We then brought a little introduction of multiplication as we stated that, "If I have 2 suckers on each arm (8 arms total), how many do I have all together?"  

We counted by 2's and then we observed that we had 16!  

After reading the book, "How To Hide An Octopus", we pretended to be an octopus and find camouflage to hide in, on, and under.  We practiced using these positional words (pre-math and language comprehension) as our older children assisted our littler ones in performing the task.  
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​The Amazing Octopus!

This S.T.E.A.M. project required our little learners to practice their fine motor skills as they stuffed ribbons with their fingertips into a shower cap!  We tied off a top portion of the cap and then our preschoolers used scissors to snip eight octopus arms.  The thin lightweight cap plastic was PERFECT for giving the impression of an octopus swimming through the water as it went up and down. 

This project, provided by Mother Goose Time in conjunction with our octopus studies was  a fantastic "Make and Take" activity for our children to excitedly share with their families as they reconnected and discussed everything they learned in their day with us at www.woolseyacademy.com.

As always, we wish you well and we hope you get to play today! 
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Commotion in the Ocean!

4/15/2018

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Commotion on the ocean!  Our preschoolers LOVE ocean animals so we decided to spend a few weeks learning about the creatures, coral reefs, animals, and environments of the ocean.

By adding sharks, fish, whales, jellyfish, eels, starfish, and shells to our  dough, moon sand, and water beads, we created several science and sensory stations to capture the imaginations of our little learners. 

​Of course it is EASY to have lots of meaningful conversations stemming from these natural elements of play.
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Look at those little hands and faces!!  SWOOOOOONNNN.....  

When children are engaged with all their senses they are LEARNING!  We were able to answer many questions about what types of animals were in the sand and water beads.  Were they mammals or fish? Did they eat plants or other animals?
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Even our littlest learners (ESPECIALLY our tiny tots) get to play and learn along side their older preschool playmates.  We do not separate by age, rather, we diligently work to create an inclusive environment for our students of all abilities and ages and by the looks on their faces I would say it is a grand SUCCESS!!!

The importance of daily sensory play for preschool.

​"Sensory activities facilitate exploration and naturally encourage children to use scientific processes while they play, create, investigate and explore. The sensory activities allow children to refine their thresholds for different sensory information helping their brain to create stronger connections to process and respond to sensory information." - http://www.educationalplaycare.com/blog/sensory-play-important-development/
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"Here are 5 reasons why sensory play is beneficial:
  1. Research shows that sensory play builds nerve connections in the brain’s pathways, which lead to the child’s ability to complete more complex learning tasks.
  2. Sensory play supports language development, cognitive growth, fine and gross motor skills, problem solving skills, and social interaction.
  3. This type of play aids in developing and enhancing memory
  4. Sensory play is great for calming an anxious or frustrated child
  5. This helps children learn sensory attributes (hot, cold, sticky, dry)"

We LOVE sensory play for calming an anxious child.  We have several children in our preschool with varying degrees and varieties of SPD's. Water beads, sand, and dough's give these children a calm focus and allow them ample self-directed play time's that provide them with total control of themselves and quiet play practice with others.  

We also have added lots of math and language arts with our Ocean Commotion studies with our curriculum partners at Mother Goose Time!  See our following posts for how simple shells provide fun hands-on opportunities for matching, adding, subtracting, and sorting here at Woolsey Academy!

As always, we wish you well and we hope you get to play today!!

-L

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Ocean and the life inside of them...

4/3/2018

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We love animals of all varieties, but if you were to ask a preschooler what their FAVORITE animals are to learn about it would be sharks and dinosaurs EVERYTIME!  

That's why we were just giddy when Mother Goose Time announced their April learning emphasis would be Oceans.  This gives us SO much to talk about! We opened the box to whales, sharks, sea snakes, shells, coral, octopuses, fish, lobsters, crabs and MORE.  Our little learners have been delighted to utilize all these little critters to ask questions about, build habitats for, and engage in social/emotional language building skills with (i.e.play!!!)

This above pic is no exception!  We used our homemade dough recipe this month and added a bit of blue and a bit of yellow to make hues of blues and greens just like the ocean for our creatures to dwell in.  This became a cave, an ocean, a wave, a boat, a beach, and more.  Their immense imaginations allow for unlimited potential with the proper educational materials supporting them.  

But that's not all.....



We added some brown moon-sand and made indoor sand castles and moats.  We added water beads to squish and for our magnetic alphabet fish to "swim" in!

We used our letter stamps, scissors, and tongs in the sand to practice our fine motor skills for picking up pencils properly and our alphabet stencils to press and recognize in the sand.

And we learned the cutest little songs...

The sea anemone lives down in the bottom of the sea. The clownfish swims all day all day, safe in anemone!


This sweet tune is a Woolsey Academy original!  We made up this fun finger play song to go along with our clownfish learning theme.  We studied the clownfish and we learned that it has a "safe place" in the sea anemone.  We discovered that the clownfish gets used to the anemone stings during its life and then it does not hurt anymore so it can hide safely in anemone from its predators!  What an AMAZING superpower!!!

Songs, finger plays, animal recognition, habitats, and special animal powers are all part of a fun filled day at Woolsey Academy for our little learners!!

As always, we wish you well and we hope you get to play today.

​L
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Rock Planets!

4/3/2018

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This week we began by learning that all planets fall into one of two categories. They are all either gas planets or rock planets and this week we focused on the rock planets.

But first....we had to learn one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE space songs.  It is from the old Blue's Clues shows.  This one never gets old...just take a look and a listen!
PictureOne of our darling astronauts!
"The Sun's a hot star, Mercury's hot too; 
Venus is the brightest planet!
Earth's home to me and YOU!!
Mars is the red one, and Jupiter's most wide.
Saturn's got those icy rings and Uranus spins on it's side!
Neptune's really windy, and Pluto's very small (yes, we know it is now classified as a dwarf planet!!).
Well we wanted to name the planets and now we've named them all!!"

One of the things I LOVE about studying space with preschooler's is that there is a WEALTH of great children's literature on the subject like this one!

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And this one!

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We were immersed in space words like "Sun", "Earth" and "Mars" with our emergent reader book from Mother Goose Time!

I love the word pointers that emphasize our site words like "look", "up", and "and".  They draw attention to our special words and make it easy for our little learners to find their site words in these emergent readers and in our other space books too.  We use them to write the words and turn it into a matching game.

In addition to stories and songs we received some new Tangram puzzles from our curriculum partners at Mother Goose Time with a special space theme.

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We built rockets, a space station, the Sun, and astronauts using diamonds, squares, circles,triangles, and hexagons! Our preschoolers played this again and again and it is the perfect way to teach shapes minus the flashcards!  We observed how we can use shapes to make pictures of things we recognize!!
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Tangram puzzles are amazing for developing a math and logic minds and we utilize them daily here at Woolsey Academy. 

"During my psychology training, one of my lecturers used to say that if you gave a child no other math instruction bar Tangrams for one whole year, they would be more advanced mathematically than if you followed the regular math curriculum. The simplicity of this bold statement has stuck with me ever since. Imagine if something as simple and fun as playing with Tangrams could really advance math skills more than a year of regular instruction?! While I have not found anyone willing to try this experiment (yet!), I recently employed Tangrams in my Math Genius club with great success."https://catherinehallissey.com/2012/12/21/tangrams-the-easy-way-to-develop-mathematical-thinking-skills/  

These seemingly simple puzzles are full of potential and possibilities.  They are easily configured to any topic and can be reused and redesigned as the child's logic grows.  

Math, Science, Music, Movement, and Literature! This was a great beginning to our week studying the rock planets!

As always, we wish you well and we hope you get to play today.

L
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Blast Off Into Space All Month Long With Woolsey Academy!

3/7/2018

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Our preschool learning and fun takes us to outer space all month long!  This week we are studying "Space from Earth" as we discover the stars, sun, moon, astronomers, and comets!

Basic Concepts To Reinforce At Home:

Letters: Rr, Ss, and Zz
Numbers: 13 and 14
Color: Yellow
Shape: Star

Of course we have lots of music, songs, stories, arts and crafts, dramatic play, and S.T.E.M. in store for our little learners as we BLAST OFF into another play-filled month of curiosity!

​Just look at what we have done so far!

Constellations Mapping and Star Size Recognition

I LOVE the interactive and engaging method for teaching our young learners to recognize small, medium, and large stars WHILE becoming familiar with patterns high in the sky!  We received these from our education partners at Mother Goose Time and they were an instant hit! So far we have learned to recognize the constellations Cassiopeia, Andromeda,  Orion, and the Big Dipper!  You can help make this come to life as you take me outside and gaze at the stars pointing these out as you see them in the night sky!

Oh Mister Sun, Sun, Mister Golden Sun....

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We discovered that the sun is a fiery ball of gas that is VERY big!  We painted with red and yellow and observed that as we swirled the colors together they made shades of orange.  We learned that the 3-D shape of the sun is a sphere, but that we were making our suns on "circle's".  Even our littlest bitty was able to join in the this science and sensory painting experience.

Up In Space! A Counting Book by Chris Lensch

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"Up In Space, A Counting Book," by Chris Lensch has to be one of my FAVORITE new space books.  It includes the names of the planets, simple facts about gas planets and rock planets, and it counts backward, then forward and back again!  It is an educator's dream for reinforcing math and science in a beautifully illustrated piece of preschool literature!  

Thank you, Mother Goose Time for providing this for us educators! 

Our "Number Stars" game work seamlessly with "Up In Space!"

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We played this sweet and simple game two ways.  First, we used the cards with our glow in the dark stars to count one to one recognizing the number on each card and then counting correctly the corresponding number of starts.  

Secondly, we used our cards and lined them up in order from 1-10 and then from 10-1, making sure each number was in it's proper place!

Our own little telescopes help encourage us to star gaze!

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Many of our little learners immediately turned our bright blue and star stickered cylinders into megaphones, hooting and hollering to their neighbors.  But many understood the concept of what a telescope is and that it helps us to see far into outer space.  We were excited to take these home and look up into the night sky to see the planets, moon, and stars!

We will continue to discover comets and asteroids in the coming days, rock planets, gas planets, and methods of how we research and study about the galaxies all around us. 

We are moving and grooving our way through March with some exploration, discovery, and most importantly....play.

As always, we wish you well and we hope you get to play today! - L 
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Wonder Around The World

3/6/2018

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This month our studies took us all around the world.  We visited The Great Wall of China, The Grand Canyon, The Serengeti, Matterhorn, and The Great Pyramids of Egypt.

But this little lesson about the picture language of the ancient Egyptians captivated us all.

We received this from our curriculum partners at Mother Goose Time and we immediately observed that different pictures had letters that they symbolized.  We discussed how we use pictures too on our phones to convey words and emotions, so we are not so different from the people from very long ago.

We turned this lesson into an opportunity to spell our names in hieroglyphics.  I think the smiles below tell the story very well of how engaging this was for our students.. 
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I loved the hieroglyphic alphabet!
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Our 4 and 5 year olds quickly cut out their letters and pasted them in proper order noticing that their names were no longer made out of "A's, b's, and c's" but rather, 'bird, staff, hand, palm leaf, water!"

Our 2's and 3's practiced cutting out their letters and some asked for help while others arranged and rearranged their letters until they got it just right!
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This lesson made reading their names more challenging as they had to find their individual paper to take home after it dried!  

Silly and sweet and ready to read!!  All in a day of play at Woolsey Academy!

As always, we wish you well and we hope you get to play today!

​-L
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This is the way we go to school...

3/6/2018

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This is the way we learn about our world!

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With literature provided to us from Mother Goose Time, "Let's Wonder Around The World," by Leslie Falconer and Chris Lensch, we learn to recognize places around the world and that children live and go to school near these places.  We learn to recognize the special places near our own hometown! 

This is the way we learn how about mountain goats of Matterhorn!

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This is the way we learn to read!

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This is the way we discover the pyramids!

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Each and every day we read, play games, learn, laugh, draw, create, and discover with our little learners.  

All in a day of play with Woolsey Academy!

As always, we wish you well and we hope you get to play today!!

​-L
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Every Once In A While...

2/7/2018

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Every once in a while a wonderful book crosses my path that explains complex concepts with ease.

During our cultural study with Mother Goose Time's, "It's a Small World" we are observing peoples, traditions, foods, and clothes of different cultures around the world. It is giving us lots of opportunity to discuss what makes us similar and unique!

"What If The Zebras Lost Their Stripes," by John Reitano deals with the topic of racism with childlike innocence.  One of the things I LOVE about small children is that they don't even know to notice skin tone as something that makes them different from another anyway. They will excitedly relay to us how "My fwiend and me look JUST alike, Ms. Donna!!" because they are both in ponytails or they both have pink shoes.  Small children only "hate" when someone takes their favorite doll or gets to "their" swing first.  "I HATE 'dem, Ms. Donna!"  to which we are able to reply, "You may be upset that you someone took your toy, but let's work together to fix it!" 

Children readily see past the surface and take note of acts of kindness, smiles, and silly moments shared.

When a child does point out someone in a book with features or tones that they consider different than themselves, we discuss it. We then move to the things we have in common with different cultures; because you know what???

If we spend too much time focusing on things that make us different, we fail to see all the unique beauty we each possess that draws us closer to one another.  If we can draw any universal truth from history, it is that we are all in this together.  And THAT is a concept worth teaching.

While searching for new books at a local outlet I came across what, at first glance, was a book about Zebras. 

"Perfect!" I thought as I quickly scooped it into my basket thinking I found a book about African animals.  It was SO much more!  "What If Zebra's Lost Their Stripes," by John Reitano easily explains to my students how silly it is to decide if we like someone by shades of light and dark of a meek shell that embraces the soul.

"What if Zebras lost their stripes, and some lost black and some lost white?  Would they think that it's all right, or would Zebras start to fight?"

The poignant message of this sweet book with beautiful illustrations by William Haines,  and great rhyme and meter, is that the color of their fur is not their doing as it asks "What if they lost their stripes?"  

"Teach only love, for that is what you are."
​Dr. Becky Bailey

Could you even imagine teaching children anything but love?
Picture"What If Zebras Lost Their Stripes." by John Reitano
By the end we see that Zebras would be far too smart to let their colors "tear them apart!"  

I love CommonWorld's review of this book as they state, "If the zebras lost their stripes and became different from one another, some white and some black, would they turn and fight each other and stop living life as loving friends? 

Very little in today's market addresses issues of racism for children with the rare combination of sensitivity and humor captured in this book. Without being defensive or heavy-handed, this book raises the kind of innocent questions any child might ask then answers those questions in simple, life-affirming ways. Both entertaining and eye-opening, the book allows all readers-young and old alike-to imagine the possibilities of a world without prejudice." - https://www.commonword.ca/ResourceView/2/8790

This literary jewel perfectly illustrates with ease a valuable lesson in seeing people beyond their colors, past their fur, and into their hearts.  

This is one we will be reading for a VERY long time to come.  And for the record, I do NOT receive any funds from reviewing or linking to this book, I simply think it is fantastic...

As always, I wish you well and I hope you get to play today!

-L
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It's A Small World...

2/5/2018

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This beautiful little map with it's cheerful animals has drawn much attention over the past couple of weeks.  Our preschoolers gravitate toward it daily and to ask questions about what they observe.  The monkeys in South Africa, the buffalo in North America, and the narwhals way at the top capture their eyes.

This map, along with many others, provided to us by our education partners at Mother Goose Time, have prompted conversations and questions.

This is exciting for us teachers because we know that inquisitive little learners are engaged in organic education about the world allllll around them.

​And it truly is a wonderful world.....

Sensory and Science


We used shave cream (with close and careful observation) with blue and green to represent land and sea as we swirled and squished and mixed colors around our "globe".  This simple little paper plate craft manufactured some, "EWWWWW!" and some "OOOHHHHHH!!!"  as our students experimented with q-tips, paintbrushes, fingers, and palms. 

No matter their age, they ALL were knee-deep immersed in this Science and Sensory Creative Arts undertaking.  

Stories and Songs

Spending our days this month focused on the places, peoples, and animals all around the world is a great big concept for little minds to comprehend, but stories and songs bring it closer to home.  "What if Zebra's Lost Their Stripes" has been just one of my new favorites.

"Wonders Around The World" by Leslie Falconer, is a picturesque tour through wonders such as The Grand Canyon, Ayers Rock, and The Leaning Tower of Pisa.  It is sprinkled with simple facts that our preschoolers can relate to as it asks questions, "What can you climb?" as it introduces Mt. Everest.​
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Simple books with beautiful illustrations as these are the perfect way to introduce global concepts.  Further, providing rich reading experiences paves the pathways for success as children become emergent readers themselves.  This begins at birth and we, as educators, build foundations with books such as these with meaningful content that can be connected to real life. Asking questions during reading "helps children connect the story with their own lives or that help them to compare the book with other books that they have read. Ask questions that help the children to notice what is in the book and ask them to predict what happens next."  Wonder Around The World does just that.  It provides many opporntunities for questions and follow up as it asks, "What will we wonder next?"

"In the landmark 1986 review Becoming a Nation of Readers, the Commission on Reading, called reading aloud to children "the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for success in reading." https://www2.ed.gov/teachers/how/early/teachingouryoungest/page_pg5.html

Music and Movement, Rhythm and Rhyme!

Singing familiar songs to instruments we made is even more fun!  We made these sweet little drums as part of our "Africa" study and then we sat circle style while tapping to Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star!  

We observed that our drums were cylinders and once we glued the tops on they made a wonderful sound.  We proudly displayed these in our classsrooms and were able to take them home to share with family and friends!!

Music in the classroom.

Children learn through music.  They are able to retain longer and learn faster when complex concepts are conveyed through music.  The music/neural connection is well documented even for adults.  We do not let a day go by without "Music and Movement" and this is why...

"Exposing young children to instruments can help to achieve the following:
  • Increase gross and fine motor skills and helps to develop muscle tone in the hands and arms.
  • Develop a sense of beat and rhythm
  • Reinforce hand-eye coordination
  • Encourage imaginative play and storytelling through sound effects
  • Increase listening (and hence, reading) skills
  • Reinforce and emphasize self-discipline and self-control
  • Enhance comprehension of music notation (in its simplest form), dynamics, and musical form
  • Develop patterning skills and learn basic mathematical concepts of sequencing, numerical order, counting forwards and backwards and addition/subtraction (for advanced students).
  • Develop understanding of where sound comes from and how it changes (according to instrument played)
  • Develop a sense of teamwork and social skills such as sharing, taking turns, etc.
  • Develop sense of cultural awareness
In addition to these benefits, neuroscientist Professor Nina Kraus has conducted research that has proven that playing a musical instrument enhances the brain's sensitivity to speech sounds. She states, "Playing an instrument may help youngsters better process speech in noisy classrooms and more accurately interpret the nuances of language that are conveyed by subtle changes in the human voice."

Besides that, music is just plain fun!!!  Check out our favorites!!!

Though these two are completely different, they both provide exposure to movement, rhythm, and body awareness as we move and groove through our preschool days.

Counting our money at the Sushi Shop!

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Part of this month's studies is to learn about different cultures and the foods they eat.  During this month we have introduced our sushi shop to our Dramatic Play area.  This is giving our little learners the opportunity to build and play with foods that look different than what they may find in at their dinner tables.  

They have enjoyed wrapping rice rolls and reading from the sushi menus.  

We have also learned more about money by purchasing the sushi we have made in our restaurant  We carefully count out how many dollars our friends are asking for and counting back the change when we give them "too much.".  
We tried Japanese sweet crispy rice too!  Not everyone was a fan, but they all gave it two "No Thank You" bites as is our tradition when trying something new!

New foods, new cultures, new stories and songs.  It's all in a day of play at Woolsey Academy for Young Learners!

As always, we wish you well and we hope you get to play today.

​-L
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An Epic Week With The Dinosaurs: Volcanoes!!

1/26/2018

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Sweet Peppa joined us in making our very own volcanoes to celebrate our final week with the dinosaurs! 

With lots of paint, some paper bowls, and bit of red tissue paper and some imagination, we turned these raw materials into some hot S.T.E.A.M play for our little preschoolers.

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Even our bitty ones get to build those little pincer grasps, create with colors, mix paints, and experience Creative Arts through play.  We simply put them in their highchairs and let them determine how long and how much they want to participate.  This is vital to proper development and our mixed-age approach to learning provides LOTS of sensory awareness and practice through play.  

Our curriculum partners at Mother Goose Time understand and promote this approach to learning and provide materials for every child in our group ages 9 mos-5 years!
"Art has the role in education of helping children become like themselves instead of more like everyone else." - Sydney Gurewitz Clemens
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Mix in some Science!  

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We couldn't resist the opportunity to create some baking soda volcanoes with our home made dough, vinegar, and baking soda! This is the recipe we use for our ever popular homemade dough.  We add glitter, sparkles, confetti, food coloring, etc. depending on our current monthly themes.  It is by far the very BEST recipe we have EVER used!!

Materials
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
  • Food coloring
  • Saucepan
  • 1 cup flour
Directions
  1. Combine water, oil, salt, cream of tartar, and food coloring in a saucepan and heat until warm.
  2. Remove from heat and add flour.
  3. Stir, then knead until smooth. The cream of tartar makes this dough last 6 months or longer, so resist the temptation to omit this ingredient if you don't have it on hand.
  4. Store this dough in an airtight container or a Ziploc freezer bag.

And a dash of Emergent Reading...


This week we studied the letters "V" and "E: for volcano and we practiced using it in our word puzzles.  We found the letter sounds at the beginning, middle, and end of the words.  This helped us understand the how the letters sound and what it means for a word to "start with" a certain letter.  

Dino Tic-Tac-Toe!!  We added a new game to take home!

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Our Dino Make and Take game began as a fine motor skill building activity that was quickly embraced as our little learners excitedly understood that they would be taking THIS game home to share with moms and dads!  We carefully cut along the dotted lines and asked the teachers and our friends for help when we felt we needed it.  We worked diligently to create our rectangular pieces.  Some needed a bit of tape, but that just makes the process even more fun!!

Why do we send these seemingly simple games home?  


"Tic-Tac-Toe: A Game with Competing Goals
While the game of tic-tac-toe is really old, dating back to ancient Egyptians at around 1300 B.C., the underlying principles of the game have endured the test of time. The game seems simple enough. Two opponents, one using X and one using O, use a 3 x 3 grid to mark their symbols. The first one to get all three of his/her symbols in a row, whether it’s diagonal, horizontal, or vertical, wins the game. The ingenious catch here for children, which adults find trivial, is that the game is designed to end up in a draw. Only when one opponent makes a mistake will the other opponent win. This is where the simple game of tic-tac-toe gets a little more complicated.
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When playing a game with only one opponent, you ultimately have two goals: to win and to not lose. As an adult, you know that the game of tic-tac-toe will result in a draw so you follow a strategy where neither you nor your opponent will win. You’ll think that this is a flawless combination of your two goals. But for children, they go for either and both goals. For example, in a 1993 experiment from Carnegie Mellon University, the researchers let a 5 year old girl play tic-tac-toe against a computer program. The results were that every time the child aims to win, she loses due to failing to block her opponent, but when she aims to not lose, the games result in a draw. This continued in alternates for 16 games. This experiment showed that what you thought as a simple integration of a goal was not always so stable.

But you might wonder what has this got to do with children’s cognitive development?
Think-Tac-Toe: The developmental values of the game with a brain
The game of tic-tac-toe is a game of predictability. The moves that are believed to be important are highly predictable. This also makes it a game of opposites in a way, because this goes against the definition of an “important move”. But this predictability is what helps foster strategic thinking in children. They can learn through observation what their opponents’ next move is and think ways on how to block them, a simple but effective version of chess. In order to figure out what else they can do in the game to win, the children are encouraged to think more logically. They, therefore, naturally develop their logico-mathematical thinking, which can help them in subjects such as math and engineering in the future.

Another good intellectual quality of tic-tac-toe is that it’s a game with rules. According to Fromberg & Bergen in their book “Play from Birth to Twelve” (2012), children playing games with rules can help in their intellectual, sociomoral, and personality development. This helps develop an advanced interpersonal understanding which result to better negotiation of conflicts with other children. They recommend that these educational games with rules be a vital part of children’s early education. But of course, the educational value of games such as tic-tac-toe become efficient depending on what you, the adult, will do. To help them develop their skills, you shouldn’t be giving them the answers outright. Let them figure it out and aid them by asking questions that can help direct them to the answer. Also, activities such as these develop the bond between you and your children.

Educational Games and Their Effect on Spatial Ability
By encouraging logical thinking, tic-tac-toe helps children develop their spatial skills. This skill is important for their problem solving abilities—from everyday simple chores to complex mathematical equations"

In closing this week, I leave you with this...

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And that wraps up our month of playing with the dinosaurs at Woolsey Academy.  

As always, I wish you well and I hope you get to play today...

-L

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Week Three With The Dinosaurs: Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes! (and maybe a claw or two!)

1/23/2018

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Seriously?  Do they make them ANY cuter??  I get to spend my days filled with the most DARLING Wild Things!!  

Our dinosaur hats set the pace for this fun filled and educational week.  This week our dinosaur studies focused on Dinosaur Bodies and we learned about their heads, bones, habitats, and foods.

We learned that some dinosaurs had heads as big as a car and some were very small.  As we further discussed the types of foods they ate, we discovered that their heads and teeth were larger for the the meat eaters and seemed smaller for the veggie eaters.  We hypothesized that maybe it is because it is harder to chew up a burger than a lettuce leaf so maybe they needed those big teeth to help them survive!  

Check out our Wild Things!!

These haute hats were courtesy of our education partners at Mother Goose Time and went along with our weekly lesson about dinosaur bodies.  We discussed the things that all dinosaurs had in common which were eyes and teeth.  Some dinosaurs had noses on their heads and some had big teeth while others were quite small, but they all had them.  As we cut and pasted and placed our dino's facial features where we thought they should go we were learning about the proper geometric placement of facial features which is a developmental milestone in young learners.  (Chalk up another win for the team for making learning into play!!  Way to go team Woolsey Academy!!!)

Puzzles, puzzles everywhere!!

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Our education partners at Mother Goose Time sent us some simplistic puzzles that went along with our newest book, "Jurassic Jam".  Our students excitedly recognized the  characters and went to work building each three piece puzzle back into it's proper single unit form.  Keeping fresh materials (like new puzzles) available for our little learners is vital to development as it "Allows children to learn that a whole is made of parts. Develops hand-eye co-ordination and fine motor skills. Builds visual-perceptual skills. Develops attention, concentration and thinking skills such as recognizing, remembering, matching, sorting and problem sorting." - https://www.lifeslittletreasures.org.au/prematurity/support-for-families/prematurity-articles/how-puzzles-can-help-your-child-develop/


​Card Sharks!

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I think the backward cap says it all when it comes to how seriously this crew takes it's card playing!  We LOVE card games and this one was a dinosaur card game based on the old favorite "War".  The cards each had a differing number of dinosaurs on their face from 1-10 and the children had to count the dinosaurs quickly as a card was drawn to determine who had the card with the "most" dinosaurs on it.  The card with the most took the all the cards with "fewer" dinosaurs.  This is a complex math concept for young children that is easily mastered when put into a game format.  During this game one of our teachers sat in to aid in "following the rules" and "recognizing more and less."  
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In the article, "Using Card Games To Teach Basic Math Skills" by Sheldon Soper states that cards are a great way to teach children math skills utilizing a social format that is FAR more fun than worksheets and I AGREE!!!  

"There are three reasons I love this approach:
  • Playing cards are cheap and readily available.
  • Card games are timeless, portable, and fun (read: way more fun than practice worksheets)
  • Card games incorporate family members and fellow students in the learning process making it collaborative and social"
This simple game of Dinosaur War requires our students to recognize the number of dinosaurs on each card and then to compare their numerical value.  Games that teach are one of my very favorite methods for helping my little learners naturally increase their math skills through the power of play.

Dinosaur Skeletons and Oodles of Noodles!

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Using LOTS glue of differing types of noodles was a fun and effective way to compare the different types of bones in a dinosaurs body.  This activity was part of our S.T.E.M. and discovery provided by Mother Goose Time.  Our children determined what types of noodles they felt best looked like legs, spines, and heads!

Lots of opportunities to build our knowledge of Language Arts!

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“Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.” (Zig Ziglar)

Our Dinosaur Emergent Reader books from Mother Goose Time have been read again, and again, and again.  Repetition gives children predictable outcomes that lay solid foundations for learning complex concepts.  These books are now memorized and predictable so the next steps can be made from holding and hearing the books to beginning reading and writing.  Since our students can follow along with each word and count the number while recognizing the types of dinosaurs it is a natural progression to show them which words, names, and numbers go with the pictures.  This information is easily retained as it is predictable.  We can then move to writing the numbers and words as pictured here. 

We picked a page and some writing strips to focus on two to three words of the sentence.  We recreated those words as we carefully recognized the name "Stegosaurus" and the number "4" in the sentence.  We worked diligently to copy the text as written in the book. 

This provides excellent writing practice, word recognition, and a sense of pride upon completion!
Regular writing opportunities in the classroom also allow us as teachers to assess in real time how our students are progressing along with their emergent writing skills.  These skills begin as a child's first scribbles and progress along a predictable path.  
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Each stage is just as important as the next and cannot be skipped!!
These activities are just a small part of the fun we have had learning all about dinosaur bodies!!  From songs to stories, heads to toes, we are singing, dancing, reading, and writing our way as petite paleontologists all month long at Woolsey Academy!  

As always, we wish you well and we hope you get to play today!!

-L
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Week Two: Dinosaur Stomp!

1/16/2018

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I just LOVE the photo-bomb cutie is the background of this sweet pic!  My little One'asaurus in the foreground is busily painting her Triceratops with greens, browns, and white. 

Look at that developing grasp!! Swoon...

But my little Three'asaurus in the background is focused in his explorations with our "Eye Spy" paper glasses provided by our education partners at Mother Goose Time that came as part of our dinosaur themed Emergent Reader book, 

This week we focused on 5 popular dinosaurs similarities and differences.  

We learned the words "herbivore" and "carnivore" and what those meant.  We also discovered that we, as humans, are "omnivores" since we eat both meat and plants.  We discussed the different types of plants that we eat like apples, oranges, and lettuce.  We wondered if the dinosaurs might have liked those pants too?

The making of a GREAT week!

"Explode," by Dancing Beats from Mother Goose Time is the newest addition to our YouTube Dinosaur Dance playlist.  It is perfect for helping our tiny dino's how to move and groove to the beat with easy to follow dance steps they can quickly mimic and master!

We are the Dinosaurs!

NO preschool day is complete without LOTS of singing, dancing, and wiggling to the music 

This one is a  HIT and always has them begging to "STOMP!"

This one has been great to help them learn dinosaur names and it has all of us singing in an Aussie accent!

And of course, the Dinosaurs A to Z song!!

But we're not just singing and dancing all day....we have SO much more to do!

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Like building with dinosaur bones to make a T-rex or Pterodactyl!
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We painted with friends as we counted 17 bony plates on the Stegasaurus.

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We built geometric awareness as we used shapes as materials to construct a dinosaur!

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We practiced rhythm and patterns with out newest book (and a whole lot of instruments), "Jurassic Jam!"

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Jurassic Jam provided by our educational partners at Mother Goose Time, provides a great rhythm and meter as each page describes a grand gathering of dinosaur friends cheerfully entertaining on their instruments.  Our students quickly caught onto the patterns presented and began finishing the sequence by stories end.. 

And we are reading even more dinosaur books each day!  We LOVE these....

We are learning about dinosaurs each day as we count our way up to 31! Even our daily circle time board is dino themed!  

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We have been matching our dinosaur friends to their information cards and learning about each one!  This week we have discovered dinosaurs as long as several buses put together and one as small as a mouse!

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From Music and Movement to Science and Discovery this week has been FULL of opportunity for dinosaur discovery and education through play!

As always, I wish you well and I hope you get to play today!  -L
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Our Month Long Dinosaur Study: Week 1, "The Dig!"

1/14/2018

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Being stuck inside can become dull quickly with a group of energetic preschoolers, but this month we decided to study all things "Dinosaur" with our educational partners at Mother Goose Time.  

Our little learners discovered what a Paleontologist is and does as they dug into fun with this science and math filled week. 

Language and Literacy

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Our Field Journals provide Language Arts for our Emerging Readers, writing and pre-writing practice with shapes, letters, and numbers; plus plenty of space for recording our own observations!
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We began our week discovering what the word "Paleontologist" means - a person (scientist) that studies the history of life.  In this history we are studying dinosaur bones.  We then discussed what an "Excavation Site" was as we made our very own dirt dough to excavate and imprint fossils in to take home and share with our families.

Science and Sensory

Our dirt dough was made with coffee grounds, flour, salt, and water all measured and mixed to create a soil like consistency.  This provided full sensory immersion into our fossil review as our Paleontologists pressed dino feet, heads, and bodies into mounds of "mud" then placed them into the oven to harden, simulating the solid fossils like those found in real digs.
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Q-tips and our favorite homemade dough make easy to create fossils. 

Our teachers joined in the fun creating Pterodactyls, Brontosaurus, and T-Rex (always the crowd favorite!)

Units of Measure

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It is important to provide little learners with tools that allow them to explore  complex concepts like "fossils" and these little assorted dinosaur fossils that we ordered from Amazon fit well with helping them to understand what a "fossil" is. Here is the link http://a.co/4mIEsDh.  

We used these for making imprints and impressions, for painting and stamping and here we used them to measure length, height, and width, comparing our veggie eaters (herbivores) and our meat eaters (carnivores).

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These child-sized rubber dinosaur math manipulatives and counting cards are set up on one of our math shelves and allow our students to independently add and subtract their way to 10.  We also use these as game pieces in our new math game, Dinosaur Dig!  

Dinosaur Dig provided excellent opportunity for math skill enhancement through self directed game play.  We loved this easy to follow game and I wrote a bit more about it here...

https://www.woolseyacademy.com/blog/math-magic

Creative Arts

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Many of our S.T.E.A.M. activities are intertwined and provide for learning through play on 
multiple planes of achievement and skill levels that fit our mixed age group. This is just one of many that we accomplished this week. We stamped with browns, and whites as we mixed and swirled our stampers to look like dinosaur feet in the dirt.  We discussed how a dinosaur made imprints in the soil with their feet that could last for a very long time as they hardened in the sun.
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Week 1 of this month's Dinosaur Dig provided a strong foundation for our budding Paleontologists to discover with friends while building connections with creatures from long ago to their own backyard.  

As always, we wish you well and we hope you get to play today! -L
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Math Magic

1/9/2018

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I write a lot about games that teach.  I believe in teaching through play. I believe in experiences, music, dancing, squishy dough and finger paints, dress-up and dolls, trains and trucks that haul loads and whose tracks meander around our classrooms. 

Our dinosaur studies with Mother Goose Time this month have been full of opportunities for all the "fun"dementals of play and I have been like a kid in a candy store enjoying all the newness each day brings.

There are, however, certain games that make me FLIP!  These games are always an instant hit with our little learners and provide the freedom for organic learning through engaged involvement.

They don't realize the science behind the game.  They don't realize that I am providing these experiences because not only do I know they will LOVE it, but they will be building critical thinking skills and not even realize they are learning.  

​I can actually measure their expertise increase as they play.  

It is magical....

Sigh.....

What makes a game special?

 Dinosaur Dig has all the necessary components of a skill builder at a research level.

As the children move their dinosaurs along the board they begin to recognize key words and letters that clue them in to what the upcoming instruction square is going to say.  Some stated, "Find 1 bone," or "Subtract 2 bones."  These are Emergent Readers striving to learn so they can independently play a game (Language Arts).  

FORGET flashcards!!  Who has time for that???

As they roll the dice they excitedly count from 1-5 along the squares toward an instruction square.  We carefully add and subtract as instructed. Rounding the last square we tally each child's total (math).  

By the end we are BEGGING to reset the board and play again.  We are pointing out the "add" and "subtract" squares and giggling about how many bones we are going to collect THIS time!

This game is built on subject matter that our children love (dinosaurs) with game pieces that easily fit into their hands.  They pick out a new color dinosaur and we discuss it's name each time (science)​.  We have fun conversations about whether it is a "veggie" or "meat" eater as we recall the words "herbivore" and "carnivore".  (Language Arts, Social/Emotional, Science) and we are pretending to be baby birds eating the bones we have collected as we roll and recognize, then put into practical application the numbers displayed on our dice. 

Research is FULL of evidence (just google "how to best teach a preschool child math concepts" and you will find page after page of articles filled with doctoral dissertations about the "how to's" and "why's" and it all boils down to one concept.

Play games...specifically board games with your child.  Have your child attend a preschool that teaches complex and abstract math concepts through stories, songs, and playing board games.  This is what we are proud to promote each day for our little students.

Your child's math brain will grow.  Your child's social/emotional resilience will grow.  Your child's language skills will grow.  

Now...stop reading this wonderful little blog and go play :) !

​As always, I wish you well and I hope you get to play today!  -L
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The Easy Breezy Way To Teach Math In Preschool

12/21/2017

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Play.

Period.

End of discussion.

Mic drop.

If you want to create math minds,.. play. 

I am not talking about giving children toys and saying, "Here you go, play this." I mean play WITH them.  Create Invitations to Play that engage their senses and natural curiosity.

This is easily done in the preschool setting and our  educators at Mother Goose Time provide an excellent foundation for math skills through multiple Invitations to Play throughout the school day.

What is an Invitation to Play?  

Creating an "Invitation to Play" may sound complex at first, but it is very simple.  It is "staging" areas of play that the child is naturally interested in and stocking those areas with items that they can utilize that encourage skill building.  This can be done for Language Arts, Science, Social/Emotional, Math, Music, etc.
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This is just one of our simple, yet highly effective "Invitations to Play." 

Don't those colorful little blocks just say, "PICK ME UP!!!"???

Our children carted these from one area of the room to the next.  They placed them on the scales and weighed them.  Three blocks on this side, eight blocks on that side.  They would readjust the numbers and weigh over and over to see if 6 blocks weighed more than 2, and if 10 blocks weighed more than 1.  They would grab a friend and giggle and guess whose side would go up or down.  They would squeal, "I WON!!!!" with glee when their side was heavier or lighter depending on the rules they had set up for their newly created, self-directed math game.

Our partner educator, Mother Goose Time, sent us these 1 inch colored cubes with our Winter Wonderland theme for the month of December and by our children's reactions these will stay out for a LONG time!
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Here they decided to see "How many more would it take to make 10?" So one child set out a certain number of blocks (5 here), and the other child would count along from 5 to determine how to make 10.  This is algebra in the pre-k years.  It is play.  It is a beautiful mix of self-directed learning and mastery that makes this teacher swoon!!! 

Sigh........
-In this video one of our younger 3's became a bit excited as he grabbed the "7" from his older classmate.  She handled it like a champ!  We have a mixed-age, small private center and we teach our older children to be understanding and patient of the younger ones.  This little learner was focused on the task despite the distractions and obtained her goal!

​Aren't my kids the CUTEST?!?!

As Early Childhood Educators we must provide these experiences.

"The basic math skills teachers provide in early childhood education set the building blocks for the entire academic career. Without learning simple skills like number sense, math concepts and simple application of ideas like adding, children are not prepared to move into elementary education. ​"-Room 241 Team of Concordia University-Portland
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Not only did our students use these little blocks for counting, they used them to build rows and columns alone and with friends.  They use them each day for measuring how long one doll is in comparison to another, and how tall the T-Rex is compared to the Stegosaurus. 
​
"An ideal play activity for promoting early geometric and spatial sense is block building. Playing with blocks, a popular activity found in most early childhood classrooms, can contribute to children’s spatial reasoning, knowledge of geometric shapes, numerical knowledge, and problem-solving skills (Kamii, Miyakawa, & Kato, 2004; Ness & Faranga, 2007; Reifel & Greenfield, 1982). Building with blocks not only engages individual students but also groups of students, especially when block building takes the form of guided play — fun activities structured to provide opportunities for exploration and learning (Weisberg, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2013). Guided play can be used in early childhood classrooms to engage children in play activities that can connect to the curriculum and promote learning. Studies have found that teaching children through guided play can be more effective than didactic instruction because it encourages children to take on an active role in their exploration (Alfieri, Brooks, Aldrich, & Tenenbaum, 2011; Fisher, Hirsh-Pasek, Newcombe, & Golinkoff, 2013)."-By Geetha B. Ramani and Sarah H. Eason


When we look at the life-long benefits of math in preschool we must take an active approach to providing tools and games that will constantly engage our little learners.  

When these tools are mixed with time, we have a winning technique that draws in the child naturally and the process of laying foundational skills becomes effortless.   "Child's play", if you will...

As always, I wish you well and I hope you get to play today. -L

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Preschool and the Arts

12/18/2017

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Introducing children to new concepts is one of my favorite things to do in preschool. 

It is so easy to get into the ABC rut prepping them for Kindergarten from a "McDonald's" style checklist and even easier to drown in the mundane of daily routines and circle times.

We have to keep things fresh and engaging.  Part of that is not becoming bored ourselves and our Mother Goose Time curriculum ensures that every single day is fresh, inviting, and engaging!

This is why I LOVE introducing children to the Fine Arts.  It gives them a window into the bigger world they live in and gives us an opportunity to watch them interpret and create masterpieces of their own.

Some would say, "They are too little!" "Why bother?" "Just stick to the basics..."

The basics??!!  The basics assume that children are not capable of amazing things.  "Too little" is a adjective for small thinking.
"Why bother?"  Just look for yourself and see what these little learners created with some basic materials.  They are proud.  They are engaged.  They are imagining and creating and inventing and interpreting.  These activities build language skills, fine motor skills, observational and spatial relationship skills.  What's not to LOVE!!!

The Science of Art

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In this Fine Arts lesson we utilized Van Gogh's, "Olive Trees with Yellow Sun," provided by the educators at Mother Goose Time.

​Teaching Fine Arts to preschool children allows teachers and children to learn together through observation and conversation.  Much of how a child learns is first through conversation and engaging each student on the same level. 

"Teachers respond to a student’s comment on a painting by paraphrasing the comment and taking it to the next level,

"Perhaps a student will notice a figure. The teacher will then say, “so you are noticing this figure in the left-hand foreground of the painting?”
“We’re giving them language they wouldn’t normally have in a context that is meaningful to them right in the moment,” she said

"It is important for the teacher to paraphrase the student’s comment in such a way that the student feels understood and the rest of the group can grasp what the student has said, Gulden said. Teachers have to let go of their agendas and ideas and follow the child,"

"Using high-quality artwork is also important," Morin said, "particularly in terms of stimulating observations by the children."
“You can keep going back to a masterwork and see something different every time,” she said. “If it’s not a high-quality work, it doesn’t have that depth.”


,Grace Hwang Lynch, explained this concept well in, "The Importance of Art in Child Development."

"Developmental Benefits of Art

Motor Skills: Many of the motions involved in making art, such as holding a paintbrush or scribbling with a crayon, are essential to the growth of fine motor skills in young children. According to the National Institutes of Health, developmental milestones around age three should include drawing a circle and beginning to use safety scissors. Around age four, children may be able to draw a square and begin cutting straight lines with scissors. Many preschool programs emphasize the use of scissors because it develops the dexterity children will need for writing.

​Language Development: For very young children, making art—or just talking about it—provides opportunities to learn words for colors, shapes and actions. When toddlers are as young as a year old, parents can do simple activities such as crumpling up paper and calling it a “ball.” By elementary school, students can use descriptive words to discuss their own creations or to talk about what feelings are elicited when they see different styles of artwork.

Decision Making: According to a report by Americans for the Arts, art education strengthens problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. The experience of making decisions and choices in the course of creating art carries over into other parts of life. “If they are exploring and thinking and experimenting and trying new ideas, then creativity has a chance to blossom,” says MaryAnn Kohl, an arts educator and author of numerous books about children’s art education.

Visual Learning: Drawing, sculpting with clay and threading beads on a string all develop visual-spatial skills, which are more important than ever. Even toddlers know how to operate a smart phone or tablet, which means that even before they can read, kids are taking in visual information. This information consists of cues that we get from pictures or three-dimensional objects from digital media, books and television.
“Parents need to be aware that children learn a lot more from graphic sources now than in the past,” says Dr. Kerry Freedman, Head of Art and Design Education at Northern Illinois University. “Children need to know more about the world than just what they can learn through text and numbers. Art education teaches students how to interpret, criticize, and use visual information, and how to make choices based on it.” Knowledge about the visual arts, such as graphic symbolism, is especially important in helping kids become smart consumers and navigate a world filled with marketing logos.

Inventiveness: When kids are encouraged to express themselves and take risks in creating art, they develop a sense of innovation that will be important in their adult lives. “The kind of people society needs to make it move forward are thinking, inventive people who seek new ways and improvements, not people who can only follow directions,” says Kohl. “Art is a way to encourage the process and the experience of thinking and making things better!”

Cultural Awareness: As we live in an increasingly diverse society, the images of different groups in the media may also present mixed messages. “If a child is playing with a toy that suggests a racist or sexist meaning, part of that meaning develops because of the aesthetics of the toy—the color, shape, texture of the hair,” says Freedman. Teaching children to recognize the choices an artist or designer makes in portraying a subject helps kids understand the concept that what they see may be someone’s interpretation of reality.

​Improved Academic Performance: Studies show that there is a correlation between art and other achievement. A report by Americans for the Arts states that young people who participate regularly in the arts (three hours a day on three days each week through one full year) are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, to participate in a math and science fair or to win an award for writing an essay or poem than children who do not participate."

And now......The Masterpiece!

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As you can see from the variations of interpretations and level of development each child has a unique masterpiece.  These went home with smiles and compliments and were a grand addition to many art walls and refrigerators.  

We love providing the time and freedom to allow our students to experience the Fine Arts and recreate what is in their own hearts and minds.

All in a day of play at Woolsey Academy.

I wish you well and I hope you get to play today!

​-L
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Good Morning Mother Goose!

12/10/2017

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PictureOne of our sweet students excitedly observing that her paint is mixing as it melts and swirls!
Our children LOVE our daily routines with Mother Goose Time. From stories to science to Fine Arts, we are greeted each day to our student's questions, "What are we going to do today?" "What are we making today?"

They know we have a purpose and a plan for their day and they excitedly await our morning meetings to discuss what they are going to be observing, growing, reading, experimenting, painting, and learning each day here at Woolsey Academy.  Made even better is the fact that I know our approach to learning 

"uniquely weaves 33 research-based skills into playful games and discovery projects.
​
.The cross-disciplinary model supports a child’s on-going social-emotional, physical, language and cognitive development."

In December we get to discover "Winter Wonderland" and our first week was FULL of freezing and melting!

The Science of Discovery

Young children greatly benefit from discovery and being allowed to make their own unique observations through a variety of mediums. 

This fun lessons was packed with opportunity to scrutinize the process of frozen paint as it melted. "It's crunchy!"  "It smells funny!!" "It's squishy!!"  "Ms. Donna, Ms. Donna LOOK AT WHAT MY PAINT IS DOING!!!"  (swoon...)

To which I followed up with exploration and observation questions like, "WOW!  What is your paint doing!?"

"It's melting!"

"I am making GREEN!" 

"Ms. Donna, I see PURPLE!!!"  

We rightfully framed the beautiful masterpieces that our endearing artists created to give them their proper significance.  The S.T.E.A.M. process experienced provided our little learners with invaluable opportunities to extend art and science into play as we, "support children in their exploration by creating an environment that promotes observation, exploration and explanation, asking open-ended questions such as 'What do you think might happen?' or 'What do you see happening?'."

These types of activities are vital to developing, "strategies for active exploration, thinking and reasoning and develop working theories for making sense of the natural, social, physical and material worlds around them."

This was just one example of many experienced in our week of Freezing and Melting at Woolsey Academy!

As always, we wish you well and we hope you get to play today!

-L.
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This Little Piggy!

2/11/2017

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This little piggy went to market....this little piggy stayed home!

We began our day with these sweet little piggies counting, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5!" as we poked and punched them out of their frames courtesy of Mother Goose Time!

We laid them in rows.  We folded them and gave them little frowns, smiles, angry, and scared faces as we discussed the piggies journey from market, to home, to the dinner table and the piggie that was so, so sad because he had nothing to eat!  

We discussed what we would do to help our friends if we had something yummy or going to the store and our friends were sad.  

We decided that sharing our meal and asking mommy or daddy if our friends could come along would make our dinnertime and our shopping trips even more fun!

As they gave their little pigs emotions and words, I gave them time to retell their stories, their way.  I gave them time to pretend and play, to invent and dream up knew scenarios.

Retelling a story with props is a developmental milestone and a very important skill that preschool children need as stepping toward reading readiness.  

Utilizing well known and easy to obtain stories such as Nursery Rhymes helps small children with recall and helps them to connect their learning day with their family experiences at home.  

​"Children learn through retelling a story.  

The first telling of a story by the teacher to a group of young children is an exciting introduction to the content, while retelling of the same story allows children to revisit the tale and refine their understanding. This repeated pleasurable experience helps children develop concepts about words, print, and books (Morrow)

The magnetic quality of storytelling is the universal power to remember, entertain, inspire, create, and know—a personal process that connects to the language of the children. Drawing children into the telling actively engages the listeners, creating a shared experience that bonds the teller and listeners.

This co-creation is very different from the story viewing young children frequently experience in today’s high-tech world.
(28 www.naeyc.org/yc n Young Children • March 2002 2001)).

Several retellings of a favorite story by the teacher or the children over a period of time allow children to clarify their ideas and pick up additional details of the content. Each retelling increases the children’s familiarity with the story and offers more opportunities for their participation during the experience. These retellings also help children build frameworks, characters, and vocabulary to use when they create their own stories."​ http://www.naeyc.org/yc/files/yc/file/200203/Isbell_article_March_2002.pdf

We practiced our fine motor skills cutting money for the piggies to go to the market with, then our money counting skills by counting each "dollar" one at a time.  We added and subtracted by purchasing "roast beef", bananas, apples, baby clothes, and many other items at our market!

We took turns being the shop owner, cashier, and buyer.  We shopped, made decisions on purchases based on how much money we had in hand and how much items cost.

This was all wrapped up in teacher supported play.  I helped them as they needed assistance with adding and subtracting.  It prompted conversations about how much we could purchase and items we should save for another day. 

These social/emotional and math skills were all powered by P.L.A.Y!!  What a great way to promote S.T.E.M. in real time, child led, teacher supported moments!

As always, I wish you well and I hope you get to play today! - L
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Nursery Rhymes and that magic box...

2/9/2017

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Nursery Rhymes and that magic box...

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Each day during our morning rituals the preschooler's ask, "Let's do something fun today!"  I say, "What would you like to do?"  They run to that magic box and start digging.  

Packages and papers flying, experiments, loose parts, yarns, ribbons, paint brushes and books scatter until they land on it, "THIS!"  "We want to do THIS!"  There are squeals and hustle as we open packages and assemble the plans.  

We observe.  We discuss.  We hypothesize.  "So what will we need to do this?" I ask.  They think and plan...  "We will need....." and the planning and gathering turns into a process.  The process turns into progress and before we know it we have a full day of play ahead.  

I love their excitement. I love that they know I will help them accomplish anything they can imagine. I love it when holidays roll around and they are beaming to make hearts or clovers or Christmas trees.  

​There's nothing better than the twinkle of tiny eyes and paint covered hands. 

For now, we are studying Nursery Rhymes. We live in the world of "Bah, Bah Black Sheep" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" so turning this into a thematic unit filled with science, math, creative arts and, of course, literacy is child's play! (pun intended!!)
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Hickory, Dickory Dock!

Most of my little one's know many of the nursery rhymes we are covering. Today was Hickory, Dickory Dock!  This clock game is one of my favorite new math games from Mother Goose Time!  

We first looked at the clock and discussed how the numbers go all the way around the "face" of the clock and the the number 12 is at the very top.  This brought about questions...

"Why isn't the number 1 at the top? "Where is the zero?"  

Good questions.....

After explaining that clock numbers go in a circle we practiced walking around numbers we placed on the floor.  Like little mice we scampered around and around.  

We then allowed the 2's to continue this active, gross motor play while the older 3's and 4's played the game.  In this game they had to practice their social/emotional skills of turn taking, waiting patiently, and politely saying, "Your turn _______" if their friend becomes distracted and forget whose turn it was.  These skills are, in my opinion, even more important than the number recognition and counting practice they are receiving by playing this game.  

In fact the ability to self regulate is a better indicator of academic success than any other indicator (even better than scoring high standard test-based entrance exams!!) 

This is just another reason why I LOVE games that teach.  They can be "teaching" letters, counting, sequencing, that cows pass gas for heaven's sake, I don't care! What they are actually teaching a child in regards to his or her social/emotional development FAR outweighs being able to recognize a  lower case "r" or that 13 come after 12.  They are teaching patience, persistence, perseverance, taking turns, and that sometimes we win and sometimes we do not, but that we all get to play together.

But don't take my word for it.  Read the research...

“There is a lot of evidence to suggest that self-regulation can be taught in children.”  As an example she points to an intervention aimed at improving self-regulation in preschoolers.  “In one recent study,” she says, “we found that a series of classroom games in preschool designed to help children practice paying attention, remembering instructions, and demonstrating self-control significantly improved self-regulation skills, especially for children with low self-regulation.”  https://www.education.com/magazine/article/self-regulation-children/(Read the full article here.)

This article in ChalkBeat discusses the psychology behind self-regulation and the vital importance and superiority it holds over Kindergarten entrance math or reading levels.

"In psychology, this lack of self-regulation is referred to as “executive function.” Research shows that executive function is a better indicator of academic success than IQ or entry-level reading or math skills.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that a quarter of all children don’t have the skills they need to learn. Forty-six percent of kindergarten teachers reported in one study that more half of their children did not have sufficient levels of self-regulation. Another study of Head Start classrooms found problems with self-regulation, such as kicking or threatening others, occurred once a day for 40 percent of students.
There is, however, a silver lining: executive function capabilities can be altered quickly if caught and changed early enough. The problem is, parents are regulating their children instead of teaching their children how to get control of themselves.
Key findings in the book:
  • Praise doesn’t increase kids’ achievement It has been a long-standing belief of psychologists and parents that praise was an important motivational factor for promoting achievement. In fact, this type of nurturing based on constant praise is actually more likely to create children who are willing to cheat to get by. “It instills in them the idea that had they prepared well enough, or tried hard enough, they could have succeeded, rather than risk being told they have failed or that they aren’t smart,” said Merryman.
  • We are robbing our kids’ sleep Today’s generation of children get one hour of sleep less than children did 30 years ago, and the effects of this are just now beginning to be realized. New research has tied this sleep loss to numerous problems facing today’s children including ADHD, behavior problems, academic problems and even child obesity.
  • Obedience vs. self-direction “The idea is that how you nurture self-direction is not by drilling children or telling them what to do, but by fostering them in mature make believe play where they play a role which in turn helps them to regulate themselves,” said Leong. This is the sort of play that allows them to learn how to self regulate. “Preschool and kindergarten are really the only places left in the world where children really get to practice that if the teachers nurture that.”
  • The role parents play Kids playtime has diminished as parents have put an emphasis on teaching letters and numbers, according to Leong. She also pointed out that children are in very segregated age groups and don’t have much interaction with older children who can be mentors of play and learning for younger children. This leads to lessons taking three or four times longer to teach to children because they literally have to learn to play again. Parents can learn to be creative with learning opportunities that pop up while cooking, shopping, or running errands. “We put our kids in situations where they are isolated from real life, which is easier for parents in some cases. Parents spend a lot of time trying to keep their kids occupied rather than seeing these as opportunities to teach their children about real life,” said Leong.
  • Immediate benefits There have been a number of 1-year studies on children who entered kindergarten a year behind, entered a Tools of the Mind classroom and came out a year ahead of their peers, said Merryman. A few school districts in New Jersey have noticed a pattern of children who participated in Tools of the Mind landing in gifted and talented programs. In Jefferson County, the curriculum in preschools and Head Start programs has been so successful that first grade programs have begun to be rewritten because the kids were already so far ahead. “We saw that the more difficult the tasks the children were given, the more motivated they were to succeed,” said Merryman." By Alex McNa http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/co/2010/11/04/self-regulation-key-to-classroom-success/

The skill of self-regulation is a teachable, not an inherent skill and allowing children the time to experience conflict, decision making, and turn taking with the use of games that have predictable as well as non-predictable outcomes is vital to their academic success which translates well into their adult years.

So for you and all the little ones in our lives, I wish you well and I hope you play today!!

-L
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What it means to have an "inclusive" childcare.

12/21/2016

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Inclusive.

This term used to mean "everyone gets a turn at kickball," or "we all get to have our names on the clubhouse wall."  It still does, just in a different way. 

It now means everyone.  EVERYONE.  The 10 year old with a wheelchair, the 2 year old with a speech or hearing impairment, the 5 year old with an SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder for those that don't know.).  

It means we include everyone's names in our classrooms, our childcare's and our preschools.  But what does it look like?  

Let me tell you...

Sometimes it's magical.  

There are days when the child that has an SPD and is VERY sensitive to sounds, textures, or activity levels comes up with a new game or method of doing an art project that suits him personally, because finger painting literally makes him throw up (I mean projectile!).  It is an incredible moment to be part of.  I stand awestruck as my little one on the "Spectrum" and non-verbal grabs a nearby car so he too can join in the painting.  He came up with it himself!!  This is big.  BIG!  It means he understands his own needs.  He desires to take part.  He is making a way.  It is progress toward independence and it is beautiful.

I type with tears in my eyes just recalling the moment.

Then there are days...

Lord, help me there are days.

Days when my two little ones with SPD's of varying degrees plus my little on the "spectrum" are feeding off of on another's energy like the monster from Scooby Doo.  You remember the one.  The gang tries to zap it, catch it, feed it, starve it out.  NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO IT GROWS BIGGER, and BIGGER, and BIGGER!!  Any amount of energy in themselves or the environment makes it grow.

These are also the days we can't go outside because the wind chill is zero.  

I think about going out anyway.  I think about taking up smoking.  I wonder if I should put the Betty Ford Clinic on speed dial. (I am JOKING!!) 

These are days when parents pick up their children and I have to wonder if they think I am losing my mind!!  These are the days when I feel like I just might be!

Then I research.  I read.  I pray.  I reflect.  I remember the good times.  I recall the magical moments.  I welcome a new day.  

Who knows what it will bring? 

Here is what I know.  

Inclusive environments are good for children.  It is o.k. for me to help children see each other as "not the same" as themselves AND the same.  It helps them understand why one child gets a peanut butter and jelly for every meal (because that is literally all he will eat) or he will go hungry to the point of pain. (Spectrum remember.)

It is o.k. for parents picking up to see the good moments and the bad.  They have them at home too.  We are all in the same boat. In those moments they get to witness, first hand, that Ms. Donna won't duct tape them to a wall.  I may chase, use my "firm" voice, even hold one on my hip and one by the hand to keep them from literally climbing a wall and jumping from the trim (I have one that can do this, no joke). 

And we will come out of it.  We will all survive together.  It is good for children to see other children not being "happy" at all times and know that everything will turn out o.k.  We get through it together; the tantrums, tears, meltdowns, crazy, excited times.  We do it all TOGETHER because we are a family.  When one of us hurt, we all hurt.  When one is happy, we are all happy.  We celebrate, grow, and learn together.

But what about the times we have to say goodbye?  Those days when we realize that a little one's needs exceed our ability to maintain a safe environment or maintain safety for that one child or their friends?  

Those days are the most challenging in my role as Childcare Provider, parent advocate and friend, "day-mom," because you know what?  I grow to love each and every child that crosses my path.  I pray for them.  I think about them.  I research on their behalf.  I study. I read. I try what the experts say, "This works everytime!" (and then it doesn'.t).  I realize that it isn't providing lasting effects for a child.

I stress, have headaches, and morn decisions that mean we will no longer be able to be part of that child's life on a daily basis.  I dream about that child. I dream for that child. My heart aches when circumstances or challenges or job statuses mean that a child will be leaving us. 

Why? Because we are family and it's hard to say goodbye.  So, I say, "See you soon." I say, "We love you." I say, "I wish you well." The hard truth is that not every teacher, classroom, environment, or school is going to be able to meet the needs of each child.  

But we try and we try and we try...

Sometimes progress comes from change.  Sometimes it means hard conversations with tears, doctor after doctor visits for little ones looking for answers, and holding a mama's hand when she is at the end of her rope and saying, "I see you.  You are amazing. You are strong."

It is being willing to admit that you don't have the answers to what they are facing, but you wish you with every fiber you did. Be willing to sit silently while that mama cries....

Isn't that what matters most, being there for each other in the changes, the challenges, the easy times and the crazy ones even when you don't have the answers, especially when you don't have the answers just so they aren't alone?

I think it is...

I wish bubbles and suckers made everything o.k., don't you?  

As always, I wish you well and I hope you get to play today. - L


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When the trucks come rolling in!

12/12/2016

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I am incredibly blessed by the families of the children in my care!!!  They are the MOST supportive, wonderful people I have ever known.  

Each year when the "big kids" move to school and a fresh batch of beaming new faces begin, it's the same.  

Maybe it's the community, maybe I am simply lucky, maybe it's God's hand of blessing on my life.  Whatever it is, I know it's amazing and I LOVE it!!  

This day was just another bit of proof of how incredible they are.  During our Community Helpers thematic unit from Mother Goose Time throughout the month of November, we were introduced to MANY Community Helpers.  We discussed the Postman (lady), Nurses, Doctors, Sanitation Workers, Teachers, Construction Workers, Factory Workers, and on and on.  For the entire month each day was fresh and new, yet all circled back around to those great folks we see in our community making a positive difference each day.   

Today was EXTRA special because one of our very own daddies drive this big rig!!  Mr. Scott Williams with MoDOT was given special permission to bring a great, big, shiny snowplow for us to climb on, get inside, and explore!!!
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​We climbed under the plow!  We noticed that we are small and it is VERY BIG!

We then inspected the tires.  We touched the black surface that was smooth and rough all at the same time.  We noticed that it was warm, unlike the yellow metal and commented on the sunshine that was making it a different temperature. 
The most beloved feature of this big rig were all the buttons, horns, levers, and pulls.  We were allowed to experience almost every square inch under the watchful eye of Mr. and Mrs. Williams.  They helped us reach high and low as they left no button unpushed!!!
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When our visit was coming to a close and we had asked every question on a four year old's mind (believe me that's A LOT!!) we received the coolest pencils EVER!!! 

We wasted no time finding things to "fix" and "hammer" with these beauties!!  Each child took one home along with a "Traveling Safely with Mo" coloring and early reader workbook.

We waived and hugged goodbye to the big yellow snowplow as we watched it drive up the lane to a great big, "HOOOOOOooooooooNNNNNNkkkkkk!!!"
 of the airhorn.  

What a special treat, incredible learning experience and all around great day of learning and play at Woolsey Academy for Young Learners!!

A special, "THANK YOU!!" to the Missouri Department of Transportation, Mr. and Mrs. Scott Williams, and all the amazing men and women that work to keep us traveling safely on the roads in Missouri!! 

THANK YOU!!!

As always, I wish you well and I hope you get to play today! - L
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    Life is made of moments...

    "There isn't anything more full of hope, joy and peace than a child's smile... It captures the mundane and makes it extraordinary." - LaDonna Woolsey

    I am a Mother Goose Time Blogger. I decided to become one after trying their products because I they are comprehensive and serve my mixed age group well.  I do receive products to review from Mother Goose Time and do so with my own honest and thorough opinions.  For more information, please contact me at Ladonna@woolseyacademy.com

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My husband and I both work full time and during the year 2011 we needed a child care provider for our five year old daughter and our 20 month old son. I am a Special Education Teacher for the Willard RII district in Missouri. I found LaDonna Woolsey on the internet while searching for a child care provider.  I had called numerous places and never felt comfortable with any of them to even make an appointment to meet them in person. I called LaDonna, and almost immediately after the conversation started, I felt a sense of relief and made an appointment to check out her daycare in person, the following day.  When I saw her facility I was absolutely amazed. LaDonna answered all of my nervous mom questions and watching her interact with the children made me realize I had found the perfect person to watch my children during the day. She started providing Child Care services for my children immediately... - Lisa Lassley - Special Education Teacher for the Willard RII 

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