Whoa! I can hardly believe we are in the middle of October now! Time flies when you’re having fun! My apologies for not posting my weekly updates, time has slipped away from me!
Anyway, we have been super busy learners in Room 121 over the past several weeks. We wrapped up our “All about Me” Unit two weeks ago with the presentation of our All about Me Murals/Collages. Some parents that have children that are three were concerned because they did not receive their child’s body outline. We decided not to do this specific project with those children because we had them do something else that was more age appropriate. However, there were about 5-6 of those three year olds that were interested in the project and wanted to outline their body. We had them do it just for the experience. Do not be worried if your child did not bring one home. We had it planned that way!
Over the course of this year, you will notice that we do differentiate your child’s instruction and lessons to be where he/she is cognitively and social-emotionally. Sometimes you will see the four year olds doing something different than the three years olds and vice-versa. This is what you want to see in a Preschool classroom where you have mixed ages! With a huge age range and ability levels, you want to see your child’s teacher using best practice in differentiating their instruction. To learn more about what differentiated instruction is and looks like, please visit the following website: http://www.ascd.org/research-a-topic/differentiated-instruction-resources.aspx
Last week, both classes began to study TREES!!! What are trees for? What do trees provide for us? What are the parts of a tree? Those questions are the three of our guiding questions for the children to think about as we move through this unit. With all the beautiful weather we’ve been having, we had the opportunity to go outside each day to observe the trees changing around our school grounds. The children went outside and collected different types of leaves, sticks, and berries that they found. After that, we went back inside to sort our collections by color, shape, and size. Tuesday through Friday, we went outside again to observe a tree that is currently going through the process of absorbing the nutrients (chlorophyll), and moving from green to a deep red. The children got to see the tree go from almost all green to all red by the end of the week! The children illustrated their observations and placed them into their journals! They did an amazing job showing their understanding of this process we see every fall.
Upcoming studies in conjunction with our Tree Unit will be Pumpkins and Bats!
Have a spooktacular week!!!
Preschool in the City with Mrs. Gabelman 
