Spring 2020

Sunflower

The spring of 2020 was probably the most uncertain time of all of our lives. I felt like I was waiting for something but didn’t know what I was waiting for nor when it was going to get here. It was an eerie feeling.

Kind of like that feeling before a snow storm. Although the spring of 2020 gave us so much to consider, I noticed it was a breathtakingly beautiful spring. The most beautiful spring I can remember. Unfortunately, our springs in this area have been reduced to a couple of weeks at best. This spring the colors were vibrant and vivid. The blooms were heavy, long lasting and big. The pear trees didn’t shed nearly as quickly as they usually do.

The sky was even bluer. We had a LOT of rain and unseasonably cool temperatures. This resulted in a technicolor spring. There are so many lilac bushes in Miss Amy’s neighborhood I could smell them every time we went outside. The tulips, daffodils, dogwood, red-buds all the early bloomers, really showed off. It gave me some comfort.

Getting to know the upstairs children took me out of my comfort zone and kept me on my toes as they are not easily impressed. We turned everything into a project. How many buckets does it take to return the sand to the playground from the dump buckets? The answer was 87.

We documented new birds that came to the feeders we made.

Mr. Peanuts, our squirrel, does indeed like peanuts although it took him 11 days to find them. Mr. and Mrs. Mallard were very social, they made some duck friends and they all slept in the puddles outside.

We learned the Hand Jive – Bob Bop Clap Clap Side to Side. Everyone is very coordinated except for me. I made Bananas Foster French Toast with whipped cream. It was delicious! Now we are all back where we are more accustomed to being. It feels like home. We planted some impatiens but they failed to come up. We planted basil instead. We also turned grass seed, selfies, and plastic cups into a “Chia Pet”. We continued our seasonal tree art collaboration that was inspired by a project from a few years ago.

Seasonal Tree

Until next time,

Ms. Micha

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THE BABY CARRIAGE 2000

Yesterday had all appearances of being an unremarkable day. It was a rainy and somewhat chilly day, so we opted to spend our morning indoors. Of course, we would rather be playing in the fresh air but we were determined to not let an indoor day dampen our spirits.

As the morning unfolded, the imaginations of our young friends began to engage in dramatic play. They discovered a couple of babies and proceeded to imitate life and the world around them in the shape of family. Almost immediately they began to collaborate by assessing what these babies needs will be. They shared their thoughts and ideas and they strategized what they would need and how they would go about caring for these babies.

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  “C” working on the design specifications

Their problem solving paid off and it was decided that a baby carriage would be a good start. So “C” flexed his excellent engineering muscles and set about designing the perfect baby carriage for their new little ones. As everyone made suggestions, “C” incorporated them into the plan and had me label all the ‘important parts’. Let me tell you this carriage has all the bells and whistles. It is a two-seater with lights, a phone charger, and a drink holder. It also has music capabilities with some pre-recorded songs ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ and ‘Rock A Bye Baby’. It will even include assembly instructions. After completing the specifications “C” dubbed his creation “The Baby Carriage 2000” and everyone applauded their approval.

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  THE BABY CARRIAGE 2000

“A” found a telephone and called in the order to ‘Amazon’. After the order was placed, she proclaimed “Maybe it will get here today!!” which made us all very excited and happy. My gears were quickly set into motion as I thought of a way to take this idea a bit further. I quickly sent Miss Jasmine downstairs to retrieve our baby carriage. When she arrived at the door with the carriage in hand our girls were so thrilled, they cheered in excitement and “C” stood with his hands on his hips nodding and smiling.

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  “A” taking our babies for a stroll in the Baby Carriage 2000

The remains of our day were spent taking turns with the carriage and taking care of our very happy babies.

Miss Stephanie

A Winter Smorgasbord!

Hopefully, the majority of the bugs, viruses, flu, colds, coughs, and all other ailments have passed. Thank you to our parents for keeping your sick children home until they are all better. Thank you for helping us with handwashing, nose-blowing, sneeze & cough catching.

Pajama Party Day!

Our Winter season birthday party was so cozy. The children piled onto the rug downstairs and watched Daniel Tiger together. We munched on some corn pops while we lounged in our PJs. I don’t know who enjoyed being in PJs more, the staff or the children.

We began counting in Italian when we returned from Christmas break. Some of the numbers were the same or similar to Spanish so the children caught on quickly. We learned to say Good Morning “Buongiorno” and Goodbye “Arrivederci”. We focused on Italian until Valentine’s Day. On Valentine’s Day, we prepared a huge feast featuring Marcy’s delizioso pasta! Thank you again, Marcy! Marcy sent enough for 40 hungry construction workers. She even sent plenty for our vegetarian friends. The children got straight to work making garlic parmesan cheese bread, salad, and home-made salad dressing. For dessert, Miss Amy shared her Valentine’s gift from Mr. Mike & each child enjoyed one chocolate. Mmmmmmm Gooooood!  Thank you, parents, especially Marcy, for bringing items for our Valentine’s Italian Feast!

Be My Valentine!

Our children thoroughly enjoyed Valentine’s Day! This wasn’t traditional, decorate a bag or an old shoebox and drop-in store-bought Valentines nor exchange of artwork which in my experience, usually results in tears. This was fun, different and a good experience. We measured, smelled ingredients like balsamic vinegar, garlic, & oregano. We mixed and stirred and used new words. Fractions and volume were demonstrated. A cooking lesson exposes children to so many opportunities to learn. I’m only highlighting a few. We like to reflect on past events and the comment that struck me the most was from one of our boys; he proclaimed “It’s not Valentine’s day anymore. I was really happy with that spaghetti”! Our students have evolved so much in the past eight months in every way. It looks streamlined with the new storage system. The riddance of the old carpet and the addition of the light-colored floor makes for a lighter, brighter classroom. The new traffic pattern and layout have created a cohesive floor that allows for more meaningful play.

We have decided on Chinese numbers, hello & goodbye. If you would like to follow along at home; a simple YouTube search will be helpful – that’s how I do it. We do two or three numbers at a time and I spend a whole week on each new addition of the two-three numbers. Currently, we are learning ‘Hello’ and numbers one – three. As of now, I’m not sure which direction our Chinese counting will take us. We will be watching play urges and listening to conversations from the children to see where this might lead us.

My darling dirty-faced child.

Mud Pies!

 

We remind our parents to label every item that their child brings from home. Even if it’s a one of a kind custom item, it is 100% necessary to write their child’s name on every single article. We go outside every day unless the temperature is below 20 degrees. We go outside even if it is raining. We are so very fortunate to have our porch as a play area. So, children MUST have a coat DAILY. We DO get dirty! They’re clothes, shoes will get soiled if not with dirt, mud, and sand. It will be with paint, markers, glue, flour, or some other amazing concoction.

Puddle Love!

Rainy Day/Fun Day!

Dig to China!

 

Miss Stephanie, Miss Amy, and I are currently working on individual goals for each child. We will be involving our parents with this. This is something I’ve been working toward since I started in June. While it will be casual and informal, my hope is to make each child’s experience personalized in addition to being able to track progress with data and input from teachers, aides, and parents. It’ a work in progress!

Until next time,

Ms. Micha

Happening Twos & Threes

There are so many “new” happenings in our two & three class with the focus on new ways of doing old routines. This has the children very excited and ready to learn!

 

 

 

Self Help

Open-Ended Play

Here are some highlights of our current and upcoming  projects:

• Counting 1 – 10 in Spanish! Not only Spanish, but we will also be learning to count 1 – 10 in ten different languages!
• Our indoor fairy gardens are well underway. Wait till you see them! We can’t wait for some fairies to move in. We are hoping they are good and helpful fairies and not mischievous fairies.
• We have three new sensory & fine motor areas. This is one area where the focus is on counting, sorting. These skills will help the children later on as they begin to flex their mathematical muscles. 
  

  Fine Motor Work

  

  Magnets

  

  Loose Parts

  

  Sorting & Counting
• The children are working hard to not only get those small muscles moving but we do “big work” or “heavy work” every day. This helps the children make that mind-body connection. 
  

  Stirring and mixing flour and water

  

  Big Work

  

  Heavy Work
• Everybody knows how important music, movement, & art is here at Miss Amy’s. In addition to the Music Together program, we sing and dance daily. We have learned so many new songs! Our favorite new song of the moment is Purple Stew and the children were wondering if the purple stew is real. Can stew REALLY be PURPLE? So, you guessed it, we will be making purple stew soon! 
  

  Balancing Practice

  

  Core Strength

We will keep you posted on our fairy garden, what languages we are counting in, and all the wonderful projects and collaborative things that we have going on.

Till then, to be continued ~ Miss Micha

 

Happy Mother’s Day

In the fours class (most of which are now mostly fives 😢) we spent the week celebrating mothers! We made gifts for them. While we were painting gift bags one little girl said, “I’m painting mine red because that’s the color of my heart!”. I heard lots of wonderful things about  the special women in their lives. I asked them, ” Why do you love your mom?”

• She always buys Dunkin Donut bagels! Also she is pretty special. – Landon
• My mom always gets me a lot of stuff for my whole life and I love her a lot! – Mia
• Well she always gets me a birthday present. Also she makes the BEST cookies, chocolate chip! – Brady
• Before we go to bed she always gives me a hug and a kiss. – Blake
• She takes me out for ice cream, but my Dad does drive us. – Ian
• She takes care of me the best and she she made me! – Leroy
• She always buys me donuts and gives me kisses! – Henry Garrett
• She always takes me to swimming pools. – Henry David
• Because we do everything together! – Scarlett
• She let me pick a beach vacation! – Norabel
• She made me and she loves me ! – Ember
• She buys me donuts! – Arya
• She always lets me have dessert ! – Fount
• My mom always has great ideas ! – Tucker
• My mom is so special, I just love her so much! – Reagan
• My mom always hugs me ! – Braxton

And “What does your Mom love?”

• She loves me and donuts of course. –  Henry Garrett
• Hearts! – Henry David
• Trophies! – Landon
• She loves me because I love her. I did that smooth dance on the cruise and I won for her ! – Mia
• She loves me, flowers, hearts, and pictures. – Ian
• My mom always loves to take pictures of me, but I do not want to do that! Oh wait, she loves working out and then I take pictures of her ! – Brady
• She loves me. – Leroy
• She loves me and flowers and hearts. – Ember
• She loves coffee and taking me to Poppy’s house. She loves using the computer. -Tucker
• She loves my new blanket, we just got it! – Blake
• She loves to blow bubbles with me ! – Fount
• She loves it when we make stuff for her ! – Norabel
• My mom loves heart stickers! – Arya
• My mom loves food and me. – Scarlett
• My mom loves me because I’m a cutie patootie and she loves going to the mall! – Reagan

Happy Mother’s Day!

-Miss Amber