Our letter of the week as usual is being weaved into the Reggio curriculum according to the interests of the children. We covered letters N, M, T, D, W, and C during the months of November and December. It was amazing to see how children connected the letter they were learning with other current ideas in the classroom, making the flow coherent and interesting to learn.
For letter N, children collaged it by writing Numbers on their letter N. Friends who couldn't write numbers yet at least tried forming the number as closely as possible through observing their older peers or trying to copy from the number chart.
Doing a cooking project most weeks has been an ongoing trend of our preschool too. For letter N, friends loved making Nachos where they followed the recipe and stacked the toppings one after the other.
For letter M, friends decorated the letter using Markers! Later they thoroughly enjoyed making and eating Mac and Cheese. Mmmmmm!
During that week very modern and complex structures were put together by friends using MagnaTiles. Now this was was super cool, where the boys balanced a house over a thin tower. Fascinating!
More different and unique constructions...
For Letter M, friends also explored marble runs and various magnetic constructions!
During letter T week, friends were talking all about metal since we were building the Polar Express train. As a result, we used tin foil and tape to give our collage a metallic look...
We also made turkeys as centerpieces for the Thanksgiving holiday! Friends poked feathers in play-dough, used a thick pipe cleaner to make the neck, and gave their pieces some finishing touches with eyes and beaks.
Finally, they put their turkeys in foil bowls and friends suggested to get tanbark piecess and hay from outside in the yard to make a cozy nest in the bowl!
Later, we tried tasting different kinds of tortillas like white flour, whole wheat, corn, and tortilla chips. Friends explored the textures, taste, and smells of each kind!
Playing with trains, our own Polar Express train project, and talking and making tickets were some activities friends were deeply involved during the T week!
For letter D, friends decorated it using dinosaurs and decoration stamps.
The also loved counting the numbers in the letter D activity and filling it up with dot art!
For letter W, friends made the letter look like water using blue and green and a little gold to represent the ocean...
We also enjoyed cooking waffles together and eating them fresh and warm right off the waffle maker!
We ended the month of December with letter C with focus on Christmas/winter holidays. It seemed almost everything related to holidays -- candy canes, cookies, snowmen, gingerbread, snowy pine trees, Christmas flowers, and lots of winter scenes.
That week we also celebrated the CRAZY WEEK with five days of craziness - crazy dress day, crazy hair day, crazy sock day, and crazy hat day!
M being a hairstylist making crazy hair for N :)
Our crazy socks...
On the letter C collage, friends choose to do a candy cane pattern. They also used actual candycanes to look at the pattern and tried to follow the same!
Making snowmen with modeling clay...
Friends glued sticks on a cardboard frame...
Next they sprayed the SNOW paint to make it look like a winter forest...
Finally they glued their choice of Christmasy decor to go up on their pictures frames...
Making gingerbread ornaments...
Making gingerbread to eat...
We talked about the famous Christmas flower, aka the Star flower - Poinsettias!
Friends enjoyed learning all about the flower. We even watched the short video clip of the legend of the poinsettia. Later we painted our own flower using acrylic paints and real artists' brushes!
Friends made fun holiday jewelry for themselves and their families...
It was interesting to see how friends problem-solved the issue of beads falling off the other end as they strung their bracelets. Some friends got very frustrated and in the end came up with an idea to hold one end of the string with their mouths. This let them easily nail down the project :) All the other friends loved the idea and applied the same...
Gravity kept the beads far from their mouths, but of course we watched and talked about being safe with this method. They made symmetrical patterns just like in real jewelry and enjoyed wearing them or packing them as a gift for their family members...
We also decorated cookies while enjoying Christmas carols with our families...
We ended our 2015 year by creating winter scenes and wishing each other a happy vacation!
Voila! :)
Happy new year!
Keep seeing you'll around,
Hugs,
Teacher Rashida.
