We all love receiving adorable art projects from our kids when they come home from school. Cute bears in caves, adorable scribble drawings that represent their interpretation of mommy cooking dinner, and fluffy cotton ball clouds. They line our fridges and they get stored in boxes in the basement to pull out when they are 20 and we feel like reminiscing. But there is so much more to art with children than the product, in fact the product for a teacher is the least important part of the activity. Each project is selected by a teacher for it's combination of theme representation, age appropriateness and specific skill incorporation. A simple gluing activity is so much more than meet the eye. It is a lesson in direction following, sequence, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and sometimes concept building (i.e. can you glue the bird in his home, can you place the nose UNDER the eyes) Balancing the many categories of art is important in early child care. Children should be exposed to various mediums and methods during art time equally. A week full of painting projects is leaving out so many other just as important activities. Keeping this in mind we at The Giving Tree have created a schedule of weekly activities for our art time. Each day the children will experience a new activity revolved around our theme of the week. Some days this will produce a project that they will take home, some days it will not. Below is a breakdown of our new art/sensory schedule.
We hope this schedule will give all the students of The Giving Tree, whether full or part time, a nice variation of activities during their school week. We hope you are enjoying the activities coming home. Be sure to ask your child what they made in art today! Dramatic Play for OctoberOctober is Fire Prevention Month and what better way to celebrate that create our very own fire station here at The Giving Tree! During the entire month our dramatic play area will be a fire center complete with burning building, fire truck and walkie talkies. The children will be able to practice dialing 911 on our play phones and putting out the fire with our homemade play extinguishers. They are already loving the new center.
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We apologize for the lack of posts these last few weeks. We have been concentrating on getting the children back into our school time routine and rules. The children have settled back into the swing of things this fall with ease. They are enjoying the new centers and are doing a great job remembering the rules of these new centers. If you ask them where the cars stay they will all chime in unison "In the car center!" We have begun a new circle time routine, taking what worked from last year and tweaking what did not go over so well. The children seem to be enjoying it a lot. to lightly introduce concepts that they will learn more about in kindergarten. We start each circle with a "who is here today" activity. Each child has a letter for our Chicka Chicka tree and they find their letter each morning and place it on the tree. Their letters are different colors and have their names written on them. Right now they are using the color and letter to recognize which one is theirs, however by looking at their name each day they are starting to recognize what it looks like and how to spell it. After we count how many children have come to school today (another skill we sneak in) we sing a simple day of the week and month of the year song. This introduces the names without pressuring the children to memorize them. Our biggest change this year is our weekly concept. Each week we will focus on a new concept, starting with the letters of the alphabet and then moving on to numbers 1-10 and then shapes. This week we are focusing on the letter A. The children get to say "Hello" to the letter and sing a little song to it, then we brainstorm some words that start with that letter. Everything is done through song which helps the children remember concepts easier. Tonight when your child comes home feel free to ask them questions about circle time. Let them sing the Days of the Week to you, or even "Hello A, how are you? My name is _______, it's nice to meet you!" You'll be surprised how even after 1 week they have caught on to these songs and concepts. Upcoming Weekly ThemesSeptember 26-30: An Apple a Day
Concept: B October 3-7: "Fall"ing Leaves Concept: C October 10-14: Fire Prevention Week (visit from firetruck) Concept: D October 17-21: Pick-a-Pumpkin Concept: E October 24-28: Ghosts, Ghouls and Goblins Oh My! Concept: F We hope all our families are enjoying their last week of summer. The Giving Tree staff have been working hard this week getting ready for our upcoming school year. Our Brand New CenterInfant SpaceYou may notice our infant space has moved. In order to give both of our age groups the best space possible we decided to attempt switching the spaces. Our infants will now enjoy their day in the middle room of the center. We have added some climbing mats for them to practice their gross motor skills on a cushy surface. The rocking chair has moved to this room for cuddle time and they have a great amount of floor space to roam and explore. This switch also allows our sleeping babies to be farther away from the louder, more active toddler space. Toddler and Preschool SpaceSwitching the rooms has allowed us to create a more educational space for the preschool and toddler students. The room is now divided into specifically designated centers for play. We have created a comfy reading nook for children who want some quiet time to themselves. This space will give them a place to relax, enjoy a book and even self-soothe if they are overstimulated or tired. We have created a dramatic play corner that will rotate monthly with different themes. This month we have created a store-front/restaurant theme. We have ideas for upcoming months that include a fire station, post office, and doctor's office. Our block and car center will allow children to use their imagination to create cities, horse farms, and whatever else they can imagine with a variety of toys and blocks. This is always a favorite place to play amongst our children. Another great area we have added to this room is a manipulatives center. This area is used for more quiet, educational play. It will house our puzzles, lacing activities, fine motor and counting toys and cooperative table activities. This is a very important center for children in this age group as it prepares them for the more structured kindergarten days ahead. School Age SpaceWith all of our changes we could not forget our school age residents. They will now enjoy their very own space at The Giving Tree. Our school age children will now have a space to call their own during the day. We have included games that are more geared towards their age level, a reading corner with various books from Kindergarten learn to read all the way up to chapter books for our older readers. There will be a homework station for children who want to get a head start on their nights work, and a craft box they can help themselves to. As you can see this area has already been kid tested and kid approved!
We can't wait to see you all on September 6th. Let us know what you think about our new Giving Tree spaces in the comments below. |