Wrapping Up and Moving Forward!

Whew! It's officially Summer as of Sunday, 1:45 am. Summer is always a super busy time at Nonotuck, with new families orienting to the program, teachers and families going on vacation, children moving from one classroom to the next, children 'graduating' from the school... It's easy to get swept up in all of the comings and goings! Before that happens, we wanted to take a minute to reflect of our last few weeks of curriculum.

It's really hard to write a post about costuming curriculum without including pictures of the children in all of their finery! Since three year old's are all about feeling magical and very powerful, we tried to make some costumes that would work with those themes...

Sparkly capes, modeled by our glamorous, giant jar o' beads...

Fancy badges inspired by a school visit from our local police department...

...Plus princess hats, no-sew puffy skirts, and paper bag robot costumes!

We are starting to think about what we are going to do next. With all of the comings and goings, we will most likely be keeping our curriculum fairly simple. We are, however trying to hatch these again;

...this time, we are being pretty low key about the whole process with the children. The kids know the eggs are in the incubator, but it isn't the whole focus of our curriculum. If the chicks decide to hatch, they should be doing so by around June 30th. We shall see...

If April Showers Bring May Flowers...

...And Mayflowers bring pilgrims, then what do June Showers bring?

Slugs!

Pretty big ones, at least by East coast standards...

The Frogs have been delighted by the recent influx of slugs on our playground. They have literally left no stone unturned in their ongoing quest for more of the slimy little guys. Recent teacher/child discussions have included the ethics and practical concerns of slug handling. We have tried to impress upon the Frogs that slugs are not for holding!

That said, you might want to check your child's pockets before you do the laundry...

Answers to Questions You've Never Asked! *

Q: Why does my child sing the alphabet song/ask me to sing the alphabet song whenever they are washing their hands?
A: A few (slow news) weeks ago when a certain virus garnered a staggering amount of media attention, we teachers took current events as a cue to re-up our commitment to scaffolding good personal hygiene habits with the kids. Since we are in a group setting with a lot of young children, we are pretty adamant about enforcing frequent hand washing breaks. Time and time again, we have seen successful this simple act is at discouraging the spread of illness. We will admit, however, that it isn't always easy to get a child who just wants to get right back into playing to do a very thorough cleaning job at the sink. For the last few weeks, our hand washing ritual goes like this; soap + water + rubbing hands together, (including the backs of the hands and in between the fingers) while singing the ABC song from start to finish. The only difference is we have changed the last verse to "Now I know my ABC's, and my hands are clean which is totally awesome!"
* If you have a general question that you want us to answer,go ahead and leave it in the comments section!

Classroom Still Lifes: Dinosaur and Baby Edition...

Lately, the most popular toys in the classroom are the baby dolls and the plastic dinosaurs. Here are a few photos of some of the vignettes we have come across in the corners of the classroom once clean up time has come and gone...