Happy Summer!

Dear everyone,

Well, here we are at the end of the school year. For most of the children in our class this year, it was their first pre-school experience. And what a foundational year this can be for kids. Since August your children have learned how to be away from home without a parent, transferred trust to teachers, developed skills to navigate our classroom and the materials in it, and also become part of our community. We have seen growth in height, language and social abilities. Some families have even grown! Kids have become accustomed to the routines and schedule of school, and next year they will be ready for more days and more hours (although it will be pretty tiring at first!). We feel so lucky to have shared this beginning with them and shared it with you as well. Thank you for all the helping you did in the classroom and the time you have put in on your respective committees. School wouldn’t be school without your children or without you!

We know some of you will be returning to Park West in the fall, and we look forward to seeing you then. Some of you will be moving on to other schools, and we will miss you. To all of you, thank you for sharing your children with us, entrusting us with them on this important journey of learning how to do school. And thank you for the end-of-the-year gifts. We are grateful for your generosity and kindness.

We wish you wonderful summers filled with ice cream, bikes and scooters, water play, picnics and neighborhood walks!

All the best,

Shauna, Katrina and Anna

Scenes from school

We’re cherishing these final days with your wonderful children and thought we’d share some scenes from recent days at school. 

Sand and puzzles:

Play on the blue rug:

Trainspotting:

Book and pizza time:

Calendars and facepage collage:

 Dancing after clean-up and calendar review:

Courtyard time:

New cylinders in the gym:

Gym games: 

1)    Pizza - based on the book, Pete’s a Pizza, some kids are the pizza makers and some are the dough. The pizza makers roll out the dough, add the toppings and put the pizzas in the oven. When the pizza makers are ready to take the pizzas out of the oven, the pizzas all run away!

2) Engine, Engine, Number 9 - The movements of the game follow a song we sing to start the game. Engine, engine, number 9, going down Chicago line. Kids are given imaginary tickets by the engineer to board the train. Once everyone who wants to board is part of the train line, we sing If the train should jump the track, would you want your money back? The engineer pretends to return payment to each child, and as they receive it, they sit back down.

Looking forward to more fun next week!

Talking About the End of School and Summer Break

It’s hard to believe we’re nearing the end of May! As the weather warms up and the end of the year approaches, we wanted to share with you how we will approach this change with children. We have begun talking about the change in seasons and children have identified things they have noticed as the weather warms up. We are reading books about summer and talking about the things that kids like to do during summer when it is warm outside.

As you probably know, we have a simple calendar on which we mark days that we do and do not have school. We use green dots to indicate days we have school and red dots for days that we don’t. On Thursday, we filled in the rest of our calendar, showing kids how many school days are left and then filled in an additional page with red dots to represent how long the summer is. We will count how many green dots we have left, and with each day that kids come to school, we will cross off that day and then recount and watch that number get smaller. Many kids will know about their summer plans and we will invite them to share about that. While some will refer to family trips or summer camp, others will be more focused on simple routines and activities that they enjoy, such as eating ice cream or playing at the beach.

These discussions can give rise to a range of emotions, from excitement about beloved summer activities, to sadness about saying goodbye or concern about not knowing exactly what to expect. For many, any excitement about upcoming events can be tinged with a bit of worry. There are so many unknowns for young children and a big transition like this can be anxiety provoking. In the coming days, we will provide time to talk about what will happen and how kids are feeling. In these discussions, we will reassure children without dwelling too much on any worry or sadness about saying goodbye.

Inevitably, kids will ask about coming back to school. While some kids will be returning to Park West and others will not, we will tell kids that no one will be coming back to be in this classroom with all of the same kids and teachers next year. Some will know that there will be school again in the fall, and we will acknowledge that while emphasizing that it won’t happen for a very long time. It can be hard for children to comprehend just how long the summer is. When you’re three, a stretch of more than a month represents a pretty large percentage of your life. This is a long time for kids to live with uncertainty about the fall. We recommend that you start talking about the new school year with your child at the end of the summer, when the start of school is imminent. At this time, you might make a simple calendar with them to keep track of the days before school starts to help them anticipate when it will begin. For those who worry about a new classroom, you can remind them that before they came to this room, they didn’t know any of the teachers or the kids, but now they do. So it will be in a new classroom or school. They will come to know the people, the routines and the materials.

As we wind down the year, we will revisit familiar classroom activities that children have enjoyed this year. We will discuss what we remember and sing familiar songs at grouptime. During the last week, we will pare down the toys that are out in preparation for summer. We will talk about the toys being put away until next year and will invite children to wash toys in the water table. These preparations help children to be active participants in the upcoming changes and provide opportunities for discussion about them.

It's always interesting to hear the variety of things kids remember about this school year. As much as we look forward to seeing how each child approaches this transition, we, too, have mixed emotions. We are so grateful to have had this time with your children at school. We are thrilled to have witnessed their tremendous growth and are excited for their next steps, but also sad to see them go. We wish all of you well and hope you have many wonderful experiences this summer. Whether you are coming back to us in the fall or moving on to a new place, we look forward to seeing you again in the future and wish you and your families well.

Executive Functions

For kids in 3-Day, this is often their first school experience. Because of this, we talk a lot with families about the social and emotional development taking place in the classroom as kids make their way through separation and manage their feelings of being away from home without a parent. Kids are also navigating their peers, learning how to be with them and voicing their likes and dislikes to each other or through the support of a teacher. We thought we’d use this week’s newsletter to tell a bit about the cognitive development that we see at school as well, specifically executive function skills, a group of skills that can help us throughout our lives. As adults we use executive function skills on a daily basis. These skills help us hold a grocery list in our head, focus on an email amidst background distraction, and change our route home if a street is closed. Executive function skills can begin to develop in children through play in settings that promote social relationships, varied experiences, and safe and stable environments. School can be that kind of setting, and we’re certainly noticing the early development of executive functioning in the classroom. 

Executive function skills can be broken into three categories: working memory, inhibitory control, and mental flexibility. Following the rules of a game is calling upon working memory - knowing the different steps to take and which order to do them in is working memory in action. As we described in last week’s newsletter, we’ve been playing a game called Feed My Dog at school. By introducing games that require a multi-step process to play, kids can start to develop working memory by holding those steps in their head and then carrying them out through the process of the game. We’ve used eye droppers throughout the school year in the water table and also when we colored the rice in the sand table. Now we are using basters in the water table, tools that require the same kind of multi-step process as the eye droppers. We’ve been using the basters to empty and fill tubes in the water table. Similar to using eye droppers, using basters calls upon kids to 1) put the baster in the water 2) squeeze the top 3) stop squeezing 4) take the baster out 5) squeeze the water into the tube (or into the water table). This multi-step process, as in the Feed My Dog game, is another way kids begin to develop their working memory in the classroom.

We know we ask a lot of kids while they’re at school: drive the truck instead of crashing it, stir the bubbles instead of splashing them. Sometimes what kids want to do impulsively isn’t what’s best for the materials or the kids around them. Asking kids to inhibit some of these behaviors can feel challenging. Through play, however, kids can practice inhibitory control, another one of the executive function skills, without feeling the challenge or the demand they may feel outside of play. We’ve played a game in the gym called Color Shoe. Kids line up on one side of the gym and wait for a teacher to say a color. If that color is on their shoe, kids can run to the other side of the gym. For kids who don’t have that color on their shoes, they’ll need to wait for the teacher to say another color to see if it can be their turn to run. For most, the fun of the game is the running. By waiting for a color to be called, more importantly, a color on your shoe to be called, kids need to suppress that desire to run, the impulse to run. They need to practice inhibitory control. By following the rules of a game, kids may not feel as restricted in their behavior compared to how they might feel outside of a game setting if an adult (say a teacher) tells them not to run (say in the classroom 😉). 

Finally, the practice and development of mental flexibility is a daily occurrence at school. Using toys in different ways (a wrench as a mustache or a block for cat food), turning a puzzle piece around and around until it fits, hearing how another kid is using the blocks on the block rug and then changing your idea so you can fit into their play - those are all ways that kids are exercising their mental flexibility. Having exposure to new ideas, just realizing there are other ideas out there other than your own, is a way for kids to develop mental flexibility. That exposure can be a big part of group time. Kids get to hear other kids’ ideas about what body part gets stuck with bubble gum or what food to add to the soup, and they get to see what kids act out when it’s their turn to go in the middle. Each kid might have a different idea which means everyone is getting experience with how others think differently from them. 

So much is happening at school everyday, from washing hands upon arrival to hearing a story just before dismissal and everything in between. We certainly continue to enjoy all the parts of the day with your children and delight in seeing the growth that’s been taking place throughout the year.

Games with Rules and Farewell to Dhruv

The second half of the school year is when we begin to introduce games with rules to children in the 3-Day class. The first game we typically introduce is teddy bear bingo. First, we offer just a selection of colored bears with a board covered with dots of corresponding colors. Children are charmed by the bears and enjoy matching the bears to dots of the same color. Placing one bear on one circle helps children to develop one-to-one correspondence, a precursor skill that is required for counting. After children have some experience with the bears, we add a spinner. Children are then encouraged to use the spinner to determine which color bear they will place on their boards. Since there is only one spinner and four boards, children must take turns to use the spinner and this inspires a lot of conversation and negotiation. For some, it takes some time to accept the notion that they will not choose the color of each bear they take. Many decide to point the spinner deliberately at whichever color they’d like to take when it’s their turn.

After introducing teddy bear bingo, we offered children a simple game called snail’s pace race. This game has a board with colored squares, snails with colors that coordinate with those squares and a die with a color on each side. To play the game, each of the snails is placed on the square of the same color on one side of the board. Then, each player takes a turn to roll the die. The die will show one color on the top and that color snail gets to move forward one space.

This game seems pretty simple, but for children this age, it takes a great deal of self-control to wait for a turn, resist moving your favorite color snail and then move the snail whose color was rolled just one space.

Many children are inclined to choose one color of snail to always move, but that isn’t how snail's pace race works. In this game, we aren’t racing against each other, rather we are helping all of the snails to take turns racing to the end of the board.

Aside from providing practice with self-control and turn-taking, this game reinforces those same early math concepts as teddy bear bingo. Matching colors is one skill that is required to play the game. Children must also use one-to-one correspondence as they move each snail one space each time they roll. This seemingly simple skill is often tricky for young children. Playing this game gives children the requisite experience to develop this precursor skill necessary for counting with meaning.

After children had some experience with both of these simple games, we introduced feed my dog, which requires counting. In this game, children roll a die with either 1, 2 or 3 dots on each side. They then take that number of plastic chips and place them in the dog bowl on the game board. We limit the quantities to just 1, 2 and 3 because we know that children need a lot of experience with these smaller quantities in order to have a deep understanding of them. Number knowledge builds, so having a firm grasp of small quantities helps children to eventually comprehend larger numbers. Children have been enjoying feed my dog and can choose whether they’d like to play it solo or with a partner.

We are sad to let you know that Dhruv will no longer be attending Park West. We will miss him and his family and are grateful for the time we got to share with him in the classroom this year. Last week we let kids in 3-Day know that Dhruv has gone to a new school. We told them they could make a picture for him if they wanted to. Some kids did, and we passed those on to  Dhruv and his family. We will no doubt continue to remember Dhruv, especially when we gather on the rug after playtime and notice if any kids didn’t come to school that day. We wish the best for Dhruv, Garima, Yash and Samar.

Hammering

This week we introduced hammering in the classroom. We offered foam blocks with hammers and tees. Children were pretty excited to see the hammers. While some kids said they were familiar with them, many had never used a hammer before. With this group, we like to use foam blocks that have some pre-existing holes that children can insert the tees into before they hammer. This means that they can concentrate on aiming the hammer and not worry about accidentally hammering a finger. Most needed to be shown how to position a tee in a hole and aim the hammer. It takes children some time to figure out just how much force is needed to make the tee move and they worked diligently at hammering until they saw movement. Once they were able to successfully pound a tee in, kids were thrilled with their accomplishment!

Once they hammered in all of the tees, children faced another challenge: removing the tees. Teachers demonstrated that the tees could be pulled out, either with the claw on the hammer’s head or with fingers, and children set out to remove their tees in order to start over again. There is some variability in how much power is needed to remove different pegs. Some slide out easily while some really need to be pulled hard. The claws can make this job easier, but they only work on the largest tees and their use is not intuitive. Children must differentiate between the two sizes of tee, then be shown how to hook the claw on the tee head and finally rock the hammer in order to remove the tee. Some are able to remove a tee by just pulling up, but it can still be a challenge to get the claw positioned on the head of the tee. Children were highly invested in this activity and worked through these challenges, occasionally asking for adult help. It is exciting to watch each child’s sense of competence grow as they master this new activity.

Marble Painting

We introduced marble painting to the classroom this week. This is a multi-step activity that incorporates fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills. First, kids use a spoon to lift marbles out of small cups filled with paint. Then they transfer the marbles into a box with a piece of paper lining the bottom. After returning the spoons, kids can pick up the box and tip it side-to-side or back-and-forth to help the marble move across the paper making lines of paint as they roll. Similar to watching the balls roll across the sand table during paddle ball painting, kids can see the path the marbles take across the paper as evidenced by the paint trails left behind.

During the activity, some kids left the box on the table and just jiggled it making wiggly lines with the marbles. Some kids liked using a spoon to move the marbles around. If the marbles rolled off all their paint, kids could spoon them back into the paint cups and then return the marbles to the box to do more tilting and jiggling to create new lines of paint across the paper. We will be displaying the paintings in the classroom and eventually sending them home.

Welcome Back to 3-Day!

It was great to have kids back in the classroom after a week away! There were some new activities for them to try as well as activities that were familiar. In the sand table kids could use large droppers and watercolor to turn the rice blue. There were rakes to help mix the watercolor into the rice. Some kids flipped the rakes and used them to scoop the rice instead. 

We’ve added staplers to the shelf with the different writing materials. Kids stapled individual pieces of paper and also used the staplers to connect pieces of paper.

Familiar shapes turned into new shapes. Soup, pizza and pasta in the kitchen.

Baking with moon sand: cakes, cupcakes and doughnuts. 

Kids scooped some ice cream too.

There’s an obstacle course in the gym. Kids practiced balancing and waiting for turns and also got a lot of jumping in.

There’s a new jumping place too. And more crash pads!

There’s a soft cylinder that kids can fit inside. It was very popular, so we made a sign-up sheet to help kids take turns using it.

We have some colorful dots and a die. Kids took turns rolling the die, counting how many dots on the die and then counting out the same number of colorful dots to match the number on the die.

We hope you enjoyed some extra family time during spring break. And we hope you enjoyed a glimpse of kids settling back into the activities and routines of school.

Boundary Setting and Consent

At our staff meeting last week we discussed a recent document released by the Chicago Public Health Department that focuses on boundary setting and consent for children of all ages including those in their early childhood years. We found that the language and approach described in the document reflects the way we communicate and work with students at Park West. We thought it would be informative and helpful to share the document with you. Please find it here.

In our 2-Day and 3-Day classes we know that for most kids, this is their first school experience, perhaps their first time being with other kids their age without a parent or caregiver with them. In the beginning of the year at the Parent Orientation, we talked about the transference of trust that takes place during the Separation process. Not only do we want children to feel safe with teachers, we also want to provide students with the tools to make their own environment a safe and comfortable one for themselves by setting boundaries and advocating for themselves. Teaching children the words they can use when they want another kid's action to stop, whether it’s a classmate taking a toy, offering a hug or hitting, is one way we help students advocate for themselves and set boundaries with others. We might say to a child You can say No or Stop if you don’t like what ______ is doing. Sometimes children aren’t ready to use those words on their own. In those situations, a teacher can help in a variety of ways depending on what actually happened including modeling the language and saying the words for the child.

 Teachers can also help seek consent from a child during play. It looks like ______ wants to put their car on the road you built. Is that ok? Or It looks like ______ wants to touch the sparkles on your shirt. Can they do that? We also prompt kids who are seeking the interaction to do the asking as well. You can ask _____ if you can put your car on the road they built. Throughout these back and forths, we hope to normalize setting boundaries as well as giving children the tools for how to do it.

As teachers we are mindful of the power differential between us and the students we teach. We want children to feel as safe as possible and to be able to practice as much autonomy as they are able. When a child needs to use the bathroom, for example, we have a number of questions we may ask a child: Do you need help? A child may let us know what kind of help they need in the bathroom, and if they don’t, we’ll ask. Do you want me to help pull your pants down? If they don’t respond, and they don’t pull their own pants down, we’ll let them know we will help. It looks like you need help with your pants. I can help you. We want to make sure children know what to anticipate from an adult and give them opportunities to voice what they need from us.

We also pay attention to what comforts children. There are some children who do respond well to a hug if they’re missing a parent or if they got a bump or hurt in some way. There are also children who just need a quiet moment to recover and don’t want physical comfort. We take note of those children and make sure they have a book to look at if they’re sad or a quiet spot to sit until they feel better.

If there are times, and there are, when a teacher needs to help a child stop an action after asking them to stop, we will let that child know I’m going to help you now and remove them from the situation. Again, it’s helping children anticipate a teacher’s behavior in our effort to both keep that child safe as well as those around them, depending on the circumstance. 

Our main goal is to help children begin to understand how to set boundaries with others and seek consent as well. In the 2-Day and 3-Day classes, we introduce these ideas in ways that are simple and age appropriate. It’s a first step in building a foundation for these children’s ability to communicate clearly as a means of self-advocacy. 

We were reassured by the approach taken by the Chicago Public Health Department. We hope you have a chance to take a look at the document they released this month as this is an important topic for families to address with children throughout their lives.

Name Cards and Sign-Up Sheets

You may have noticed in our last newsletter that we have introduced name cards for children to use at school. Each member of our class has a card with their first name printed next to their picture. The cards are all attached to the wall with Velcro so that children can easily grab their own or someone else’s if they’d like to know what a name looks like.

Children have been interested in the name cards and are using them in various ways. Some were excited to use the cards to start writing some or all of the letters in their own names. Some are eager to get their card and look at it, but ask for a teacher’s help to write their name. In these cases, we are coaxing kids to try one letter, or even one part of the letter (such as the vertical line in the letter T, E or L) or writing the letters with children, holding our hand over theirs. Some children are interested in looking at the cards, but aren’t yet interested in trying to write any of the names. Many are noticing similarities and differences between names and there have been many discussions about this. Each of these approaches is valuable and reflective of where children are in their understanding about words and letters.

Last week, we made a sign-up sheet for some new toy trucks we are introducing to the classroom. Kids are very interested in these new toys and teachers set up a table with the sign-up sheet, a marker and a basket with the name cards in order to facilitate signing up. As children signed up for turns, we encouraged them to look at their name cards and attempt their letters. Some were up for this challenge, while others needed some help with it.

Now, the sign-up sheet is hanging up on the block rug, for children to reference as we give everyone a turn using the new trucks. This has generated new interest in names, as children search the sign-up list to know when their turn will be. We encourage all efforts, no matter how closely they resemble actual letters. We know that every mark a child makes on a paper represents their current stage of understanding about letters and are happy to see this. At this age, our job is to encourage each child’s attempts and recognize them as real writing. For those who aren’t yet attempting to write their names, they are gaining familiarity with names, letters, and reasons for writing.

In addition to being a meaningful tool for literacy learning, sign-up sheets give children a concrete way to understand that they will get a turn with something, even if they must wait and a way to know when their turn is coming. As the year continues, we will introduce more activities that require signing up and look forward to seeing how each child approaches this task and supporting their growth in the coming weeks.

Now, children are busy exploring the new vehicles at playtime and are further experimenting with letter forms as they play with magnetic letters. 

Exploring Quantity at Snack Time

Every day at school, we have a snack together. This is a time that kids typically look forward to, as we enjoy some nourishment and have conversation. Though it may seem simple, our snack routine provides abundant opportunities for learning and growth.

As you may recall, we began the year by offering children a portion of snack already on a napkin along with a cup filled with water. We then moved to having children take their own snacks from serving bowls and pouring their own water. Each of these steps has provided logistical and physical challenges and encouraged children to notice and get to know each other. 

Now that kids have the hang of taking their own snacks and passing bowls, we offered another challenge: the snack board. On the snack board, teachers record how much snack each child can take. We ask children how many they think our drawing represents. Kids might be able to tell just by looking (called subitizing) or may try to count from their spots on the rug. Many will hold up the same number of fingers that they think it is. We discuss all of this, and then count the quantity together, as a teacher points to each picture on the board. There might be conversation about this – how did someone know how many it was? Look, someone is showing three on their fingers. Someone else has a different way to show three on their fingers.  Someone else might be holding up a different number of fingers. How many are you holding up? How do you know? How could you check? 

During snack time, the board is placed where kids can refer to it. Some children are able to remember the amount they should take or check just by looking at the board. But many really need to go close to the board and physically point to or touch the pictures while they count them to be sure. Then, they’ll return to their spots and recount the snack items to make sure they match. Sometimes they’ll go to the board and count, return to their seat and count and return to the board again to count. Some children hold up their snack items next to the drawings of them on the board. 

This routine provides children with the concrete experience they need to develop a strong sense of quantity. It generates many conversations about number. If someone looks over at my napkin and tells me I didn’t take the right amount, I might protest, but then I’ll probably look again. 

How does one know how many three or four is? They come to know it through repeated experience. Though most children are able to recite the number sequence in order, this is very different from having an understanding of quantity. Children really need to construct these concepts through meaningful experiences. The snack board is just one of the ways we encourage mathematical thinking and discussion in the classroom. It is especially powerful since children are so deeply invested in snack. We hope that these early experiences provide a foundational understanding of number and an appreciation of mathematical concepts that will endure throughout their lives.

A reminder about using Remini at dismissal:

We’ve noticed that not all kids are getting checked out at dismissal. When picking up your child or when another caregiver is picking up your child, please use the QR codes on the fence along the sidewalk to do so. Please make sure you have the Remini App downloaded and/or have shared your caregiver’s Approved Pickup Code with them so they can check your child out from school. Here are the instructions from the portal.

What's happening in 3-Day

Here’s a look at a few of our school days over the last two weeks. Some things are the same and some things are different! Kids have been trying new activities that we’ve recently introduced as well as enjoying activities that have been available most of the school year.

Car painting! Kids rolled cars, trucks and motorcycles in paint and got to see what happened when they drove them around the paper.

We took the rice out of the sand table, and now it has balls, tongs, buckets and tubes.

We took the sand out of the water table, so now it’s just water again. Plus some fish, nets, shells and bowls. 

We have putty in our class for the first time. Kids have used the colorful people and cats in other sensory materials before, but now they’re using them in the putty.

Nets, hockey sticks and pucks are new for our gym time.

Mats and crash pads aren’t new, neither are the big, soft blocks, but kids are using them in new ways. Some kids stacked the blocks to make a movie theater and then sat down to watch Encanto. The mats are stacked higher than they have been on previous days, and kids had fun jumping from new heights.

Our first game to play at school: Color matching with bears. Kids take turns to spin the arrow to see what color bear they will pick and then match to the same color circle on the mat.

Developing Physical Knowledge Through Sensory Play

Remember our last newsletter about sensory materials? Recently, we introduced rice to our sand table. Aside from providing a different tactile experience, rice has different physical properties than sand does and therefore behaves in different ways. We offered the rice with funnels, clear tubes, spoons, cups and jars with lids. We also included pvc stands that allow the funnels to be at eye level, allowing children to better observe the rice as it travels through funnels and tubes. Additional funnels and tubes were included for children to use without the stands. 

Many children have been engaged in pouring rice into the funnels, experimenting with attaching various tubes and figuring out how to help the rice through funnels and tubes when it gets stuck. Some enjoy filling vessels with rice and pretending they are making soup or pretending to fill jars with peanut butter while others are content to bury their hands in the rice or listen to the sound it makes as it falls into the table. Each child approached this activity in unique ways, exploring their own questions and making their own observations. Below are a few quotes from children that reflect their observations and thinking as they explored the rice. Some compare the experience to familiar activities, while others consider questions of measurement, observe the results of their actions or act out familiar activities. 

While observing rice travel down a clear tube: “It’s a roller coaster!”

Watching rice enter the funnel: “It’s goin’ inside.”

After pouring rice into the funnel and not seeing it come out: “It’s not going down the tube.”

While examining the spout on a funnel: “This one has a little hole.”

With a smile after holding a cup under a tube to catch the rice: “Look at this trick!”

While adding scoops of rice to a jar: “I’m fillin’ it up.”

After taking the lid off from an empty jar and peering inside: “We need to put some peanut butter.”

While offering a classmate a full scoop of rice: “You want some rice? You want 10?”

After listening to the sound of rice falling:“It sounds like drippity drop.”

While filling a small scoop with rice: “You need not that much because it’s very small.”

After adding rice to a jar and noticing that not all of the rice stayed in the jar: “Some of it went in and some came splashing out.”

After attempting to attach a tube with a larger circumference to the end of a funnel: “It doesn’t fit. We need a small one like this.”

Sensory Play

Sensory play is something we value so much that we always incorporate it into our school days. Sensory play refers to any activity that can be explored through the five senses. Most of our sensory materials have a very strong tactile component, but also involve sight, sound and even smell. A few of the sensory activities we have used in the classroom this year include dry sand, wet sand, water, play dough, floam, rice, cornmeal, putty and kinetic sand. Exploring and experimenting with these materials encourages the development of sensory processing abilities, language usage, motor skills, scientific concepts and mathematical thinking. 

The sensory system helps us to be aware of danger. If you put your hand on a hot stove, you will sense it and know to move your hand.  But not all signals are so clear. Something too hot is dangerous to touch, but how hot is too hot? Have you ever met a kid who insists on washing hands in ice cold water? This is someone who understands that hot things can hurt, but hasn’t fine-tuned their responses to temperature. In order to accurately interpret the signals we receive, we need a lot of experience with them. Each experience stimulates neural connections, and repeated experiences deepen those connections. Eventually, through repeated and varied experiences, children are able to better process and respond to sensory information. They are able to understand which sensory information can be filtered out and which you must pay attention to. Water that’s boiling on the stove is too hot to touch, but it’s ok to wash your hands in warm water. If you are sitting at your desk in middle school and the fire bell rings, you need to react. But if you’re in that same school room and someone giggles or taps their pencil, there’s no need to react. If you are good at processing auditory signals, you will be able to tune those sounds out and finish your work. So it is with each of our senses. It takes many experiences for the brain to develop its processing capacities. Sensory play provides some of this much-needed experience. Because kids are in control of their play, they can interact with materials in ways that are just right - that encourage their sensory system to grow without overwhelming it. 

In addition, playing with sensory materials stimulates language development, as children describe their feelings, observations and actions. Playing next to children with these materials provides opportunities for adults to model language usage in context. 

Sensory play also encourages the development of motor skills as kids use their hands to manipulate objects, knead dough, scoop and pour water. 

Providing open ended sensory materials provides opportunities for kids to develop an understanding of the physical world. As kids explore a substance, they observe what happens when they act upon it. Understanding how substances act in different circumstances provides the basis for important scientific concepts. What happens when I pour water into a container that’s already full? What happens when I drop a toy into the water? What happens when I push down on play dough? Once they develop some solid understandings about how things act, they might start asking questions about why, which might lead to a hypothesis that can be tested. Exploring and observing is especially important, though, because if you don’t play with things this way, it’s hard to know what to expect. Before you can have an idea about why water spills over the top of a full container, you have to know that it does that. 

On top of all of this, sensory play can be very soothing. Burying your hands in a pan full of corn meal or smooshing play dough is very calming. It seems fitting that the system designed to alert us to danger also provides avenues to soothe and calm us. Think about how reassuring it is when someone pats you on the shoulder or how a massage can help you relax. Tactile materials can have a similar effect. You might consider offering some of these materials to your child at home during times of stress or even giving them a try yourself. 

Sand Play

Has your child mentioned that we no longer have sand in the sand table?  One day, we had the sand and water tables pushed together and invited children to help us transfer the sand to the water table. It was pretty exciting to see the dry sand fill up the empty water table and watch the bottom of our sand table slowly become visible.

When we had transferred most of the sand, we left a thin layer in the sand table and provided condiment bottles full of sand and brushes. It was interesting to watch the sand pour out of the bottles and make patterns on the mostly bare sand table. Children also found it interesting to draw in the sand with a finger or create patterns with a brush.

Offering a familiar material in a novel way is a way that we spark children’s thinking and build their awareness of the world around them at school. When you have just a small amount of sand, you use it in different ways and notice new things about it. It also provides a different sensory experience. Children notice the different feeling as they drag a finger through the sand or pour sand out of a bottle onto their hands or fingers.

Some children were a little worried about the change in our physical arrangement. Though we know this can be a challenge for some, we also know that weathering small changes can help to build flexibility. It also gave us an opportunity to voice some of these feelings for children. We affirmed what children noticed and tried to identify what they might be feeling. It looks a little different. Are you worried that things have changed? Everything else will stay the same at school. All of the other toys are here to play with and in their regular places. Tomorrow, the water table and easel will go back to where they were before.

Now, our water table has wet sand in it. Children are engaged in experimenting with how sand behaves when it is wet. We have provided a variety of sand molds, buckets, shovels and other tools for exploration. Children have experimented with using buckets to create sand castles, molding scoops of pretend ice cream out of sand and making big mounds of wet sand. Some children love the texture and feel of wet sand. For others, tolerating the way it can stick to your skin is a challenge. For those who find it more challenging, we provide tools so that they can interact with the wet sand without touching it, if they prefer. Engaging in such sensory experiences helps to build a child’s ability to process and organize sensory input. When they are done, we show children how to rub the sand off of their hands and refer them to towels or the sink if necessary.

Block Play

Block play provides rich opportunities for development. Through block play, children grapple with many mathematical concepts including counting, measurement, comparing, proportion, symmetry and balance. In fact, research has linked block play with math competence in later stages of life.  In addition, children gain firsthand experience with scientific principles related to gravity, balance and weight. Block play provides natural opportunities to make and test hypotheses, promotes both gross and fine motor development, aids spatial awareness and provides opportunities for collaboration and negotiation with peers.

Block building follows a natural progression, and once children have moved through more than one stage, we often see them fluidly move between different stages of block building and combining them in their play. Here at school, we provide large hollow blocks which allow children to build structures that they can play in as well as unit blocks, which are smaller and allow for more intricate constructions.

As well-loved as our blocks are, we have noticed that our numbers are starting to dwindle as blocks get worn out and retired or lost. We decided it was time to get some new ones and enlisted children’s help in taking inventory of our block supply. During play time, several children helped teachers identify the different block shapes and trace them onto a large sheet of paper. Then, these same children decided to trace some blocks onto their own papers. Some even tried cutting those shapes out.

As a whole group, we matched the actual blocks to the outlines and then counted them. Here are our papers with tally marks and how the blocks look stacked up all together.

Everyone agreed that it would be nice to have more unit blocks. Teachers ordered some and have been introducing them gradually. We started with the square shaped blocks, also called half-units. After introducing them at group time, we offered them to children on their own during short play. Having lots of only one kind of block has inspired new ways of building. It has been exciting to see children explore these new blocks and expand their block-building techniques.

Valentines Day

We will not celebrate Valentines Day at school with children in the 3 day class. For children of this age, we feel it is important to maintain a consistent and predictable schedule at school and so will not add any celebrations. Please do not send cards or treats to school with your child.

Gluing

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For the past two weeks we’ve had a few different gluing projects for kids to try. We started off with the glue in small cups and small brushes kids could use to apply the glue. One day we used white glue and the next day we used pink. Trays were set up with a piece of cardboard, a glue cup and a brush. In the middle of the table there were cotton balls, slices of paper towel tubes and wood pieces kids could choose from to put on top of the glue. Some kids enjoyed brushing the glue on the cardboard and then feeling done once the cardboard was fully brushed. Other kids spread the cotton balls, tube slices and wood pieces over different parts of the cardboard. Still others discovered they could layer the pieces, even fit the tube slices around the cotton balls, and added some height to their projects. This activity took some planning for kids who wanted to use the materials available to them from the middle of the table. Without the glue, those different materials wouldn’t stick, so kids had to make sure they first had glue on the cardboard before adding something on top. 

On one of the days we did the gluing we added a side project in preparation for the auction. As you may have seen in the Friday Bulletin, Park West kids have been busy making soon-to-be platters using different kinds of glass materials and gluing them on a glass base. Two kids at a time took turns sitting at one tray to decorate a large square of glass. They used the same cups and brushes that they were using for the cardboard projects and then could apply glass “sprinkles” and squares on top of the glue. Kids were excited by these new materials, and we needed to make a sign-up list to help us keep track of all the kids who wanted a turn. We’re excited to see the finished product which will be part of the live auction at the Gala!!!

For our second week of gluing we used bottles of glue (with blue and pink glue), cardstock as the base instead of cardboard, wood pieces, cotton balls and cut up fabric. Just as some kids were most focused on applying the glue with the brushes, there were kids whose main interest in this new gluing project was squeezing the bottles and watching the glue come out. Other kids enjoyed the layering of the glue and materials. This was kids’ first time using glue at school, and it was a great opportunity for us to observe how they explored the different ways to apply the glue as well as the ways they utilized the materials to be glued.

We’re going to enjoy these glue creations for a while on our classroom bulletin boards, so kids can admire their work and the work of their classmates (plus the work of the 2am class!). We’ll be sure to send them home, though, so you can admire them too!

Headphones

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One new item we have added to the gym is noise-canceling headphones. Despite our soundproofing, the gym can be a noisy place, as children run, jump and exuberantly shout. Many young children exhibit sensitivity to loud noises or can only tolerate them for so long. This is common and to be expected as children develop their ability to recognize and process sounds. On top of that, there is a lot to process in the gym. Children are not only processing sounds, which are harder to distinguish and filter over background noise, but there is constant movement. Having some power and control over noises can help sensitive children to better tolerate them. Our headphones lower the decibel level of background noise, but still allow for children to hear conversations. While some choose to wear them to give them a break from background noise, others enjoy hearing the difference between wearing headphones and not wearing them. Several children have experimented with making loud noises themselves when the headphones are on while others pull them off their ears in order to better hear language. Having these tools available for all to explore allows those that might become overwhelmed by noise levels to have a sensory break and others to explore how the headphones change sounds.

We are also offering a few enclosed spaces in the gym where children can retreat if they’d like. We have had a tent up for much of the school year, which children enjoy huddling inside. Some prefer to crowd in together while others like to be in the tent alone. We now also have a “dark den” in the gym, which blocks light. There is a flap in the front to enter and on a window, but when they are closed, it is very dark inside. Children have enjoyed retreating to the dark den and marveling at how dark the space is before popping a head out of the window to again see the light.

These materials offer children the opportunity to take a break from the sensory stimulation at school and explore physical properties in a new way. We look forward to continuing our exploration of these materials in the coming days at school. 

Ready to Return to School

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It was wonderful to see kids back in the classroom this week! Even though they had been gone for more than 2 weeks, they settled back easily into activities, the schedule and the routines of school. They remembered about washing hands and going to their cubbies to hang their coats upon arrival. They were ready to begin play, recalling where their favorite spots are throughout the classroom - in the playhouse cooking or tending to babies, on the rug with vehicles, near a teacher at the sand table, with a crowd of kids scooping cornmeal, at a table puzzling over a puzzle. They didn’t need much, if any, reminding about wearing a smock at the water table and could navigate, sometimes with some support, hanging the smock back up when they were finished. They knew gym followed play time and probably wished that snack followed gym, but they remained focused as they came up the stairs back into the classroom and to the rug for group time rather than to the tables where snack was waiting. They almost know school better now than right before break having had the chance to refresh and refuel from time away and time with family these past two weeks. It is clear to see that your children have a strong foundation of how to be at school under their small but growing feet. And that foundation will continue to develop and strengthen in the coming months. We look forward to being part of that journey!

Here are some photos from our first day back this week:

Something new in the classroom: Tape! Kids got right to it, pulling the tape off the roll and using scissors to cut a piece to stick on their paper:

Some kids just wanted tape on their paper. Some made drawings alongside the tape. Some cut their paper and used tape to put it back together:

Kids could also find comfort (and discovery!) in engaging in familiar activities like scooping cornmeal and playing at the sand table:

In the gym kids took turns jumping onto the crashpads and rocking each other in the rocking chair.

Back in the classroom we continued with our schedule.

Group time: a time to all be together as well as take a little breather after the fast pace of gym. Snack followed by short play: a chance for more easel painting, time at the sand table plus activities on the rug.

We finished our day, as we always do, with a story. As much as kids were ready to be at school that first day back, they were also ready to head home when it came time for dismissal. They remembered about going to their cubbies after hearing their name called and bringing their belongings back to the rug where teachers could help them with coats and zippers. We look forward to our next day together! 

Thank you again for your generous gifts last month. We feel fortunate to be your children’s teachers and grateful to be part of this school community with you.

Winter Break

Hi Everybody,

Thanksgiving feels like a week ago, but here we are at winter break! 

As we approach our winter break, we know that our school routines will be put on hold for a few weeks. However, we hope that amidst the excitement and possible busy-ness of the holiday season, you can help maintain some routines for your children at home. Routines help kids know what to expect, and that can feel reassuring to them. We know school breaks and holidays can bring some change to regular schedules, but finding places in the day where kids can feel some mastery through a routine (dressing, preparing for a meal, getting ready for bed) can help them feel secure. It’s also helpful to talk ahead of time about changes in schedules or new activities so children can anticipate events that may be confusing for them. 

As you near the end of winter break, you can help your children anticipate the return to school in January. Pull out the face page of kids in their class. Review the schedule. Even if kids are excited about coming back to school, they may have a hard time saying goodbye when they’re dropped off that first day back. We ask that you follow your child’s lead in what they need and what will help ease them back into the school routine. Although kids might need some extra reassurance when entering school after being away for the break, we know that they have internalized our schedule and routines and have established trusting relationships with teachers at school. You might remind them that they really do know what happens at school and that, as always, teachers will help children when they need it. 

Enjoy the upcoming family time! We hope you find time to take a breath as well. Ask your child about picking a flower and breathing in the sweet scent and then blowing off the petals. It can help slow down a moment if things are feeling too fast. 

Thank you for the holiday gifts. We appreciate your generosity and your thoughtfulness. We also thank you for sharing your wonderful children with us. We look forward to seeing them in the new year and continuing our time together.