The children loved exploring magnets and trying to figure out how magnets “work”. They wondered why some magnets would stick together and other magnets would push apart. They thought it was fun to take two repelling magnets and make them “dance” away from each other.

Last week our class discussed the importance of wearing safety goggles to protect our eyes from debris. The children made sure to always put on their safety goggles before conducting any experiment. Above, a child uses sand to try and make the wheels of this device turn.

We had a blast learning about weight. The children used scales to measure and compare the weight of objects in the classroom. We made sure to record our observations. (4 plastic bears weigh MORE than 2 plastic bears!)

One simple and fun experiment our class did last week was a water/ice experiment. The children took a container and filled it with water. They then used a marker to record where the water was in the container. After marking the water the children placed the water filled container into the freezer. When the children took the container out of the freezer they discovered that the water froze into ice and that the ice was higher than the line they marked when it was water. They were amazed by this and had a great time trying to get the ice to melt back to water and go back down to the marked line.

We’re having a blast in preschool. The children learn so much each day. It is truly rewarding to help inspire them and to watch them grow.

Yours Truly,
StayNPlay Preschool Teachers

To help children understand the difference between fresh water and salt water, we began the week by allowing them to taste both water with salt and water without salt. We then recorded which type of water they liked best, as well as some comments about each type of water! 

It was neat to listen to some of the questions children had over the week;
“Why do some animals have to live in salt water?”, “Why do crabs have pinchers?” and one of the teachers favorite questions to receive during the week, “Why does sand stick everywhere when you are at the beach?”. 

Sticky or not, the children had a great time digging in our sand filled sensory boxes. As they buried animals in the sand, we were able to have wonderful class discussions about the types of animals in the boxes. The sand itself was also of much interest to students and they were very excited to learn that this was “real sand from the beach”. 

The students had a lot of fun learning about dolphins. They had a blast using their imagination to “watch for dolphins” from our class boat. 

One of the most exciting activities this week seemed to be learning about sea turtles.  The children loved relating our “under water exploration” theme this week back to the movie “Finding Nemo”, and they named our sea turtles Crush

We watched several videos on YouTube of sea turtles hatching and we learned about how mommy turtles bury their eggs in the sand and then later the turtles hatch and climb out of the sand.  We watched sea turtles climbing out of the sand and making their way towards the ocean and while watching it we tried to guess how many turtles their were, which exercised the children’s math skills and challenged their conceptual thinking.
      “My favorite part of watching the sea turtle videos was that every time we watched the turtles crawl to the ocean, each child would ask me, “where is their mommy?”  I would explain that the mommy was out in the ocean waiting for their babies to find them and that the babies were very smart and once they got to the ocean they would find their mommy. ” -Mrs. Monica.
It was amazing to listen to the concern our kids had for the safety of the turtles and how they were able to think abstractly and relate themselves to the turtles and their mommies.

After a week of learning by reading, researching, watching animals on the computer and exploring with their senses, the children were ready to draw what the ocean was to them. They worked collaboratively to recreate the sea! They drew animals like jellyfish, clams, clown fish (like Nemo) and more.

 If you haven’t done so already, we suggest to our parents that you pull up a few ocean videos online at home and watch them together with your children! It is truly a rewarding experience and such fun to do together.  

Sincerely,
StayNPlay Extreme Ice Teachers.

We began our week by observing our new class pets, Harry and Lloyd.
Students have been very excited to watch them swim in their water environment. This week students were able to help care for our new pets by changing out their water. This created a great opportunity to talk abut how cleaning the water was one way we could take care of the fish’s environment.

Circle time has been focused on reading books to learn about ways we can take care of Earth through proper waste and recycling. It has also given us a chance to explore some of the natural elements of our earth such as sticks, wood, rocks and soil.

Students loved sharpening their gross motor skills by playing catch with our giant Earth ball.

Our art project this week has been painting our world.  The kids have learned that blue, green, and yellow represent the water, earth, and sun.  They had a lot of fun painting with sponges to create their own version of Earth.

We were very impressed by the initiative our kids took during free time.  We used the felt board pictured here during circle time to discuss weather, weather appropriate clothing, and how we stay healthy by wearing the right clothes.  After circle time, our children were so interested in the felt board that they went back to it, gathered around and played together with it.  They talked about all of the different kinds of weather and what happens during weather like rain, or a tornado.

Felt boards are super easy and inexpensive to make.  Wal-Mart sells felt by the yard or in sheets in the craft section.  You can easily make pieces to go along with story books, or create your own pieces.  These are great additives to reading and learning and a great way for you and your child to do a creative project together.

This link   http://www.kaylaaimee.com/2012/12/how-to-make-your-own-flannel-board-free-printables/ includes instructions and printables to make your own flannel board at home!  Give it a try and send us some pictures of you and your little one playing!  We’d love to share them on our blog!

PRESCHOOL NEWS:

4/25-4/26: Progress reports sent home.
4/30/13  Family Skate Day at Extreme Ice Center – 12pm-1pm
5/10/13: Spring Portraits begin at 9:00am – Sign up for your time slot.
5/13-5/17: Parent / Teacher Conferences. Sign up for your time slot.

At StayNPlay, we stand behind our belief that children learn best through play, active exploration of their environment and thoughtfully planned out activities.

It is our opinion that teaching with “themes” that arise from the kinds of events / child conversations that take place within the classroom is a great way for our teachers to engage children in the learning process. With these themes, teachers are helping students to make connections about the world around them through ideas that they are naturally curious about and sincerely interested in.

Last weeks theme was all about “Pirates” and “Under the Sea”. This theme came about as the children were playing pirates a few days in a row during their “free time” . Our teachers sensed that this idea of “Pirates” was something the students were very excited about and wanted to learn more about  . .  so they planned an entire week of fun & learning around it. It was a HUGE success!!!

Above the children are exploring a sensory bucket full of pirate treasure. They then had to sort their treasure by different attributes. They loved searching for seashells, coins and jewels.

Our pirates went fishing for letters with our ABSeas game. The game helped our learners to become more acquainted with the letters of the alphabet (visual discrimination) while also learning corresponding uppercase and lowercase letters.

The treasure map and globe were a big hit with last weeks pirates! We use the globe to talk about different places around the world. Our pirates were able to compare the shape of the place we live “United States”, with other places on the globe. We also talked about how we might get across all that “blue stuff” . . . water, and decided that we could take a plane   . .  but we would rather take our pirate ship (although flying would be faster).  We used our treasure map to transition into circle time each day and our pirates practiced following directions on the map to guide them to the “X” on the circle time rug. Such FUN.

We are constantly amazed with how much our students are advancing with their ability to read! They LOVE group reading. Some students are able to read complete sentences, others are pointing out high frequency words or letter combinations they recognize and some of our youngest readers simply enjoy following along with the page numbers and pictures. It is an enjoyable experience for everyone. Last weeks group reading and homework was based on the book pictured above, “Under The Sea“.  Your child should have received their own take home copy to share with you.

Did you hear that our class went island hopping last week? Well we did! It was a blast.
Hula Hoops represented Islands during music & movement time. As the music played, pirates swam in the ocean around the room. When the music stopped, pirates quickly had to find an island. Slowly the islands disappeared and pirates had to share their islands with each other until everyone was on one island! It was a great game that encouraged cooperation and sharing!

What to expect this week!  3/11 – 3/15

This week we will be exploring the beginning of the spring season. We will focus on “weather” and have fun with props that center around “St. Patricks Day”. A few of our morning centers this week will include using microscopes to examine slides (science) and number recognition / clover matching, clover addition & subtraction (math). Students this week will also create their own St. Patricks day book (Lang/Literacy). We are excited and looking forward to a wonderful week of fun and learning!
*Parents, please look out for your child’s daily completed classwork assignment sheet. Children receive a stamp for each assignment (center) that they complete each day while in class. The daily assignment sheet is designed to keep children on task during the preschool day and allows parents to see in detail what we have accomplished each day! Praise your child for completed assignment sheets. They are hard workers and you should be very proud of them! 

It was so neat to watch our little learners at work!
Last week was all about Doctors. (Different types of doctors.) Doctors that we see for regular check-ups are just called “Physicians”.   Doctors that help take care of our teeth are called “Dentists”.  Animal doctors are called “Veterinarians”.

The preschool classroom was divided into these three centers of doctors last week. Children had the opportunity to explore each center freely .

At the Physicians office the children took turns role playing nurse and physician. They weighed themselves (and talked about weight) by stepping on a scale. They took turns measuring each others height, explored skeletons and looked at x-rays. They were also excited to play the game “Operation”, always a hit in the classroom (and great for practicing fine motor skills).

At the dentist office, the children examined giant tooth brushing models. They counted teeth, practiced brushing, examined teeth x-rays and talked about food that is good for teeth. On Friday we had a classroom visit from a dental assistant. She brought in a special kids video that talked about taking care of our teeth. She also handed out new toothbrushes and coloring books to our students.

At the Veterinarians office, our little learners took turns taking their animals in for a check up. They put their dogs on leashes and went for walks.  They cared for their animals by feeding them and grooming them. We compared similarities and differences among animals  and looked at animal x-rays.

Art was amazing this week. We painted with surgical gloves (that all doctors wear) and made prints with cut up apples (a food that is good for teeth).  The children had a lot of fun getting messy and  letting their creativity flow!

Next Week: 2/25- 3/1
Next week will conclude our “In Our Community” theme. We have visited so many places over the past few weeks. We will finish up with a few important helpers. We will continue with Physician (and talk about how to keep our bodies healthy). We will add two new centers; Fire Station/Paramedic  & Garbage Company.  To get our kids thinking about next week, we had a special visit from one of our mommies who is an Paramedic. A special THANK YOU to her for making last Thursday special for our children. They learned a lot about safety and even received some wonderful safety goodies.

Extra Curricular Schedule for week 2/26- 3/1

Monday- Ice Skating or Outside
Tuesday- Ice Skating / Fun with Balls
Wednesday – Stallings Park
Thursday- Bounce House
Friday- Outside

Thank You for being a StayNPlay Preschool parent. We value your family!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Emily, Mrs. Monica & Mrs. Cathy

We look forward to bringing you updates on all of our progress and discoveries.

This weeks extra curricular will be as follows:
Monday-Outside
Tuesday-Skating / Fun with Balls
Wednesday-Stallings Park
Thursday-Outside
Friday-Skating / Fun with Balls

*Please dress your child accordingly. (Coats, socks, helmets if needed.) Also, as it is the middle of the school year we would like to remind our parents to please label all of your child’s belongings with their name. (Lunch Boxes, Cups, Clothing, Bags, etc.)

Thank you for being a StayNPlay family. We are looking forward to a great week!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Emily, Mrs. Monica, Mrs. Fran

“A heartprint is formed when you do something kind.
Your love touches others . . . leaving heartprints behind!” This weeks Art & Soul class has been based on the book, Heartprints, written by a very dear friend of mine, P.K. Hallinan. It is a beautiful book that talks about being kind to others and how you can make someones day by doing something as simple as offering them a smile.

We sang the song . . . 

“How Many Heartprints” (to the tune of You Are My Sunshine.)

Children constructed their own “heartprint holder” to take home with them. This will allow them to track each time that they do something kind for someone.

Please help your child by pointing out any time you see them offer kindness to someone. Have them put a heart in their heartprint holder.
I look foward to hearing about all of the heartprints your child leaves.

Be sure to check out the Art & Soul photo album  on the StayNPlay Facebook page to see pictures of our artists in action!

http://www.facebook.com/staynplaykids

Thank you for sharing your amazingly talented children with us.

-Jennifer Flory
704.352.0158 / artandsoulkids@gmail.com

Kids have been having a blast this week in StayNPlay Preschool at the Extreme Ice Center.
We continue to work on patterning and have moved onto more complex color patterns .

We have also been busy exploring our post office and restaurant centers in greater depth.

This has allowed children to experience different roles in each setting. They talked about the words “Open” and “Closed”. Practiced reading menus and placing orders, exchanged money for goods and services and more.

In the post office area, the children were able to write letters, stamp envelopes and place letters to friends in the appropriate mailboxes!

It was neat to listen to the children dictate to teachers what they had “written” in their letters before mailing them to friends.

Our letter focus this week has been W.  Children traced capital and lowercase Ww’s with markers and then went over their letters with paint and finger.

Stay tuned for updates throughout the rest of the week! We are looking forward to some Valentines Day fun the next few days!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Emily, Mrs. Monica & Mrs. Fran

This week at StayNPlay preschool, our class will continue their study of our community. We will explore the post office, restaurant and also continue with our class grocery store.
Students will examine how the restaurant and grocery store are related (you must purchase food from the store to prepare, serve and sell in your restaurant). The post office will tie in nicely with the Valentines holiday this week. Children will be able to help decorate their own mailboxes and sort mail (valentines) to appropriate boxes.  Our letter for study this week is W.  Children will have an opportunity to serve and order “Water”  & “Watermelon” in the class restaurant. We will also take turns giving the “Weather” report during circle time.

We are looking forward to a wonderful week!
Check back for pictures and updates of this weeks progress.

Below is the extra curricular schedule that you can expect this week:
Monday-Bounce House
Tuesday-Park or Outside
Wednesday-Skating
Thursday-Skating
Friday – Park or Outside

Sincerely,
Mrs. Emily, Mrs. Monica & Mrs. Fran

This Saturday children will create their very own handmade Valentine’s Day cards. We will use a multitude of different items to create one-of-a-kind mixed media Valentine’s Day cards to give to friends and family.

Friendship will be at the forefront of our minds as we discuss ways to be a great friend to others as well as why friendships are important.  What better way to show you care about someone than to make them something with your own two hands!

We will be exploring friendship through music and story time as well, and your child will leave inspired to continue to find ways that they can be an amazing friend to others.

Learn more about Art & Soul by clicking the link below:

http://www.staynplayprograms.com/Art-Soul.html