Spring break starts Friday March 30th and runs the first week of April. Hope everyone has a great school break and stays healthy. The spring allergies are starting to sprout, I’m hoping most of us will be able to wipe their own nose by the end of the school year. :)
After break we have seven straight weeks of school, then one more three day weekend, then four more days of school! In those eight weeks, K1 will be busy prepping for the remaining IEP meetings, Open House is at the end of May (more information once I receive it), and many spring art and sensory activities. Enjoy your spring break enjoy some time outside together!
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The rainy days are creating some opportunities for more playtime and inventive ways to use our gross motor muscles. I'm thinking tomorrow we will have a dance party. If you haven't seen your little one dance to Justin Timberlake's Can't Stop the Feeling then you are in for a real treat. I'll try for a video clip tomorrow.
Now some housekeeping updates:
That's it for this week. Have a great night! Phew. We did it. We made it through Spring Picture Day. Overall, the day went really well. Instead of our playground time, we walked up to the office with our walking rope. Kiddos managed to sit on the risers and the four adults found room for themselves too. I thought we were done. We did it, just a class photo and good to go. Oh, we are doing individual pictures too? Oh ok. Grab the walking rope and head into the MPR. We have all the cameras to ourselves. Breaking up into four groups of three, I tell the camera people, if it doesn't work in three tries we are moving on. I'm done with my group, time to check on the others, "How's it going in here?" "We are good." Next group, oh this is too different, ok let's go, next group just one more. Great. We did it! The class picture went well and everyone tried to take an individual picture. You all know your kiddos, a front facing camera (selfie) gets a more attentive picture. Everyone should have received a Valentine's Day picture, those were all done with the front facing camera and trying to not get the adult in the picture. Anyway, it was an experience every year there will be picture day, or three, and with some Big Breaths it's over. The walk up to campus and back down was probably just as long as the entire picture day.
The past few weeks have felt busy. We are working on developing those play skills with peers, potty training for those that are showing that they are ready, eating "healthy" first and then some crunchy foods, movin' and groovin' during circle time, and ending the day with centers. Our schedule hasn't changed, yet the mornings seem to be flying by! Maybe it is because Spring Forward is this weekend. :) The themes this month is about animals. Our center activities will focus on farm, zoo, Animal Boogie animals, and wrapping up the month with dinosaurs. Be sure to check out my teacher-gram page for snaps of art work! DIY home sensory bins ideas -plastic grass and eggs: fill the eggs with animal figures, coins, candy, etc. Open and close the eggs, shake and guess what is inside, find them in the grass -corn kernels with curled pipe cleaners and animal counters: color sorting, animal identifying, pinching with fingers or tongs -lentils and animal figures: seek and find-search the bin for animals, lentils are a particularly soothing sensory experience, finding the hard animal figures won't be too challenging! Have them help you clean up any beans or sensory items that splash out of the container. A little brush and dust pan to help sweep is another great motor experience. Have fun! It's a busy transition time of the day: snack clean up and waiting for circle time to start. One is in the bathroom, one is having a hard time cleaning up the sensory experience of a banana peel, one isn't feeling well and is going home, some are outside putting their snacks away and zipping up their backpacks, some are at circle time waiting for their friends and dancing along to "Wheels on the Bus." Then the phone rings. All of a sudden you are playing 20 questions while still dancing along to Wheels on the Bus and helping kids find their chair. Oh and it's a rainy day so the physical therapist is providing service in the back of the room. Ok, everyone has made it to circle time, you look at the clock on the wall-it's been 5 minutes. Needless to say, we did some extra Big Breaths that day.
Everyday we take three Big Breaths to kick off the second circle time. These breaths help calm our bodies and self-regulate. We practice everyday so when we reach a challenging part of our day, we have the tools to deescalate. Those 5 minutes were busy, loud, lots going on, lots of people in the room, but everyone remained safe and the rest of the day ran smoothly. I know everyone has full days outside of school, or feeling like you are getting pulled in every direction, or someone is asking you for something that you don't have, or simply just aren't understanding what what a tiny person is saying! Just take a Big Breath. Enjoy your weekend, stay dry or go puddle jumping. Your little superstar will have a blast. See you Monday. |
ThemesLearn with your child about the theme of the week and what you might be able to do at home. Archives
February 2019
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