Watch Me Grow!

 Preschool 1 has been learning about their legs, feet, and toes this week during their All About Me unit! Throughout the week, they learned how these body parts work together to make their bodies move. Challenging children to move in creative ways is not only a great outlet of energy, but it works their cognitive muscles as well! 

Tunnels: Crawling through tunnels provide a great opportunity for children to work on physical and language development. As they crawled through, teachers were able to label what was happening. For example, "you are using your knees, hands, and wrists to crawl". 

Side Steps: This activity prompted children to differentiate between giant steps and baby steps. The teacher asked questions like "which steps gets you there faster?" 

Balancing: Which is easier to walk - baby steps or normal steps? After introducing the tape balance beam, teachers gave children a chance to evaluate their own comfort levels as they walked across. The teacher was there to hold their hand and support them along the way if this was needed by the child. This develops their skill of becoming self-initiated learners and decisions that reflect their own needs. 

We love seeing them reach small goals and the joy on their faces as they grow, learn, and play! 

Hispanic Heritage Month!

 This month we are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month through reading and exposure to cultural traditions. Miss Vanessa's family is from Mexico, so our Pre K 1 class had a special connection to this topic! After talking about the different countries and looking at their beautiful flags, the class worked together to make Papel Picado. They learned that this art is used as a traditional decoration for parties and celebrations. Thank you, Miss Vanessa for sharing your culture with your class!

Scholastic Book Fair

 This time of year is definitely a favorite of parents and children alike! Building a love for learning and literacy starts younger than many realize. Reading aloud to young children and allowing them to engage with rich language and illustrations builds their interest and their vocabulary. Sharing a story has such an impact on the parent child relationship, as well. Taking a moment to bond with your child and share in the calmness of story time can be a treasured memory for both of you. Children's eyes light up when they walk through the hall and see all of the books displayed. I can see the excitement in Parent's faces as well watching the joy in their little's face. To promote book fair and the love for reading we also had Clifford visit the classrooms! Book fair will likely be a memorable event for children throughout their school-aged years! 

 

Rockin' Fall Conference

Fall Conference was great this year! Our teachers were able to hear from the companies directors and gain hands on experience with Frog Street and Conscious Discipline. There is a lot to be said for a group of teachers meeting together to discuss strengths and weakness while leaning on one another to grow. We were divided up by the age group we work with which allowed us to have really purposeful conversations. To wrap up a day of growing together, our school was recognized as BEST SUMMER PROGRAM OF 2023!!! As you can imagine, we were all THRILLED! The teachers truly worked so hard to make this summer memorable for the students and we were so proud to see them standing and cheering with smiling faces. Enjoys a couple snap shots below :) 

Back to School

 We are Headed back to school! 

The Summer has been full of excitement as we explored different interests and themes! It is with mixed emotions that we say goodbye to summer and welcome fall to our halls! Fall means back to school! This week children continued to get to know their new teachers and classmates. Many faces around our school are familiar to all of the children and families. We see this as a perk to our small school family. Regardless of if you are in Prek or Tods, your child will have had many opportunities to meet and know our Aocs teachers. This makes transitions times a little less intimidating for our students. nonetheless, new spaces and routines are hard so we take this time of year very seriously. Teachers spend time exposing children to new classroom norms, building community with games and activities, and filling their walls with the work of the classes newest members. We strive for all children to trust that they are taken care of, safe, and loved. That is always the goal of our back to school week - ensuring them that they belong and we are happy they are here with us! 

A very familiar face to even the youngest of our learners ... we all know and love him.... is Pete the cat! He kept it groovy this week putting smilies on all of our faces. We love incorporating Pete books this time of year. The series does a fantastic job addressing common worries and provide children with coping mechanisms in a silly fashion. 

Thanks, Pete! 

Summer Wrap Up Celebration!

 FOAM PARTY!!!

This summer has been one for the books! It was a special moment spending the morning laughing with the children. The joy of a child goes a long way & witnessing them enjoy their foam party with their friends and teachers is something we won't soon forget. 

    We have loved every second of learning and playing together this summer. Incorporating weekly themes keeps things fresh and new for the kids and certainly plays apart in their engagement over the course of the summer. We couldn't have had such a fun summer without the involvement of our special guests, our family volunteers, and the thoughtful planning from our teachers. As we say goodbye to summer, we are already planning for the wonderful memories coming our way this fall! 

Happy Campers at Camp Academy

 The summer is quickly wrapping up, but we are remaining fully immersed in our few final summer themes. This week is Camp Academy. We've seen a lot of dramatic play and imaginative learning. This requires children to access their cognitive thinking skills and encourages them to make connections to reality. They think they are just having fun and playing (that's the goal!), but they have no idea how hard their brains are working and how much development is taking place while they play with friends. We feel fortunate to have teachers that put the extra thought and attention into purposeful lessons and activities to prompt children in making these strives towards learning. 

Lantern Making:

Campers love to fish: 

Map Making: 

Fireside Tummy Time (Tent Version):

Literacy Development enriched with dramatic play:

Language Exposure exploring what can be seen while camping:

Making Forts and Manipulating Shapes:

A snack after a long day of Camp: