The Children's School Three's Program 

Here's the BUZZ on the happenings in the Red Room and Blue Room...

On this bright and sunny Monday the friends were buzzing from room to room engaging in play that included:

-exploring "Honey" A.K.A yellow, glittery slime with honey comb shapes and play bees

-playing ant hill game on the red rug

-dressing up as bumblebees and buzzing from flower to bee hive in the dramatic play center

-building homes with kapla blocks for animals

-painting with watercolor

During circle time, the Red Room and Blue Room friends began this weeks focus on Bee's. The Red Room friends talked about what bees look like, including the colors yellow and black and the parts of the bee body, while looking at a big book all about a bee's life. Then the friends sang and shook shakey eggs to the song "Bumble Bee (Buzz Buzz)" by Laurie Berkner. The Blue Room friends explored bees while reading "The HoneyBee and the Robber" by Eric Carle. After the friends had an up close look at an old bee hive, exploring the parts of a hive and what the bees use it for.

During Discovery Area, the friends continued exploring everything bees while:

-using paper mache and a balloon to create a large bee hive

-using black and yellow dot stickers to create lines on a bumblebee cut out

-sorted shades of yellow pom poms balls acting like a bee inside a hive

-built homes for bugs with magna tiles

For snack the friends ate bread with butter then headed outside. The friends enjoyed digging in the sand, sliding down the slides, building with the large blue blocks, riding bikes and more.

Dear Morning Red and Blue Room families,

Here are the highlights from our morning at The Children's School...

- We used watercolor paints to decorate gift bags for the undergraduate students who help at The Children's School.

- The friends created little bug worlds with sticks and flowers and rocks at the Red Room loose parts table.

- We fed and gave water to the Blue Room ant farm. A few drops of water and a couple small slices of apple were on the menu today.

- The children had music class with Mrs. Hraber today and she taught us a few new songs about butterflies and ants. We played rhythm sticks, tamborines and scrapers before using the colorful scarves and parachute to pretend to be caterpillars and butterflies.

- Snack today was a fruit medley with cottage cheese.

- The rain kept us inside today so we got the chance to play with some of the Green Room friends in the Discovery Area and the Green Room.

Have a wonderful weekend and we'll see everyone on Monday!

The Three's Team

On this sunny Wednesday morning, the friends were eager and excited to play. The friends...

-explored loose parts with tree blocks, rocks, flowers, and pretend ants

-observed the Ant Farm's

-built on the Lego table

-painted with watercolor

-built tall towers with foam blocks

During circle time, both the Red Room and Blue Room had some fuzzy, fluffy, yellow visitors. The friends were excited to observe 2 chicks that came to visit from the Kindergarten. They watched with pure excitement and joy, as the baby chicks walked around the red and blue rugs and even showed off how they are getting their flight feathers, and demonstrated some small lift offs. Each friend was allowed to give a "2 finger touch" if interested to feel how soft the chicks were. After the visitors returned to the Kindergarten, the Red Room friends listened to the story "One Hundred Hungry Ants" by Elinor J. Pinczes, while the Blue Room friends listed to "All for Pie, Pie for All" by David Martin.

After circle, the friends enjoyed bananas and sunbutter for snack. Then they headed outside, where many friends visited the mud kitchen and water table, engaging their sense of touch (and being covered in much water and mud!). Other friends enjoyed digging in the sandbox, sliding down the slides, and riding bikes.

The friends were busy exploring life through play this morning!

 

For circle time, the red room:

- Talked about tunnels the ants dig to build a "home" underground

- Sang, "The Ants Go Marching" and marched around the room, then crawled through a tunnel, like ants do!

- Read, "All for Pie, Pie for All" by David Martin

 

For circle time in the blue room:

- Read, "Two Bad Ants" by Chris Van Allsburg

- We learned about how ants will follow trails left by scout ants to find food for the colony. Practiced this by following a sit-upon trail left by "Scout Any Salinetro" to find food for the blue room ant colony.

 

During Discovery Area, the friends:

- Practiced cutting grass with scissors,

- Finger painted flower petals

- Explored bugs in the swampy habitat

- Bugs and bug catchers in the sand

- Worms on the light table with translucent homes

 

In the make shop:

- Friends made various ramp formations and sent balls in motion through the paths

 

The friends enjoyed Yogurt and Diced Peaches for snack!

 

Have a pleasant evening!

Three's Educators

The friends enter the classroom today excited to see that the ants have begun to make beautiful tunnels in the ant farms. They were busy with play that included:

-telling stories with fabric bugs on the felt board

-drawing at the writing center

-observing the ants in the ant farm

-squishy playdough and adding flowers and gems

-painting with watercolor

During circle time, the Red Room friends sang "Out comes a beautiful butterfly" and talked about all the things were learned about butterflies. We then shifted over to our focus bug this week, Ants. The friends helped tell Mrs. Armbruster the parts of an ant, while she drew one on the large paper. They then looked at the big book "The Ant's Go Marching!" and sang the song while acting it out. The friends learned that ants are hard workers who dig tunnels underground, look for food that can be leaves or other bugs.

The Blue Room friends listened to the story "One Hundred Hungry Ants" by Elinor J. Pinczes. Then they sang "The Ant's Go Marching". The book and song helped the blue room friends tell in detail how he should draw an ant, focuses on putting the legs and antennae in the right place.

The ant exploration continued during Discovery Area time, where the friends:

-draw ants using oil pastels

-peeled and stuck on a wiggly line, black stickers to represent ants marching in a line

-searched and sorted bugs in the sand table

-matched colored worm counters at the light table

-painted our hands to make handprint butterflies on a large poster board as a thank you to the Cyret Center friends for our playground playdate last week

The friends enjoyed apples and cheese before heading out to the playground. The friends were busy riding bikes, digging in the mud kitchen, watching the Green

Dear Morning Red and Blue Room families,

Here are the highlights from our day at The Children's School...

- Friends used colorful loose parts to decorate butterfly shapes traced onto a large piece of burlap.

- We continued to create inventions with K-nex and bristle blocks.

- The children helped feed granola to the ants in our ant farms and the Blue Room friends saw that 3 butterflies had emerged from their chrysalis. Then at snack we realized there were 4 flying in the net and one had come out sometime during the morning.

- The Red Room friends listened to the story, "The Duckling Gets a Cookie" by Mo Willems. It was read to the group by Kiley's older sister, Addison!

- The Blue Room friends listened to the story, "Waiting is Not Easy" by Moe Willems. It was read to the group by Nolan's older brother, Everett!

- We snacked on pieces of broccoli with ranch and Sun Chips.

- Because of the beautiful weather, both groups headed to the playground early and ran races, swung on a low tree branch, splashed and played in the water table, shot basketballs in the hoops, and found real ant hills around the mud kitchen.

Have a wonderful weekend and we'll see everyone on Monday!

The Three's Team

The friends were busy playing and learning that the day just flew by! First the friends:

-observed the new addition to both the red room and blue rooms....ANT FARMS!

-painted with bright colors then folded the paper in half to make symmetrical butterflies

-used tape, scissors, and crayons to create one of a kind masterpieces

-tended to the babydolls in the dramatic play

-explored the felt board with pieces that matched the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"

During circle time the red room and blue room friends joined together to listen to Miss Debbie read "Butterfly Butterfly" by peter Horacek. They joined in singing our hello song and the "Praying Mantis Hokey Pokey". The friends also listened to the story "Bee Dance" by Rick Chrustowski. Then ended the day with searching for the hidden bug on the felt board, taking turns picking which large bug it was hidden by.

The friends took turns visiting the Kindergarten, where 4 baby chicks have hatched! They were very excited the see what colors the chicks were and are looking forward to seeing how many more chicks hatch before we visit again tomorrow.

The excitement continued as well ventured to the playground after eating crackers with apple butter. The friends watched in amazement as we released the 4 red room butterflies into the open air!

The friends were happily playing this morning!

 

For circle time, the red room:

- Sang, "Out Comes a Beautiful Butterfly"

- Madelyn's brother and sister read, "Waiting is Not Easy" and "We Are in a Book", both by Mo Willems.

 

For circle time in the blue room:

- Read, "Butterfly, Butterfly" and sang, "Out Comes a Beautiful Butterfly"

 

During Discovery Area, the friends:

- Played a color matching collage game in the easel

- Made play dough art with straws - did you know that butterflies have mouths like straws?

- We practiced our fine motor skills by using hole punches

 

Together, all the three's enjoyed a walk to the Cyert Center play ground to celebrate "Week of the Young Child"

 

The friends enjoyed Clementines and Pretzels for snack with our Cyert Center friends outside!

 

Have a pleasant evening!

Three's Educators

Today we began our final unit of the school year, Bugs. To kick off the unit, we will be talking about Butterflies. The friends began their exploration during free choice that included classroom favorites as well as caterpillar and butterfly fun:

-observing the 2 Butterflies that emerged out of their chrysalis in Red Room early this morning and the Blue Room chrysalis'

-use markers and crayons to decorate butterfly paper shapes

-using loose part pieces to design butterflies

-rolling and twisting play dough into various shapes

-moving bugs throughout our small world grass

 

During circle time, both the Red Room and Blue Room read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. The friends learned how butterflies lay eggs in yummy green leaves. After the egg hatches, the caterpillar will grow strong and healthy with eating leaves. They then learned how the caterpillar turns into a chrysalis, just liked how we have watched our classroom caterpillars do. The Red Room friends were able to watch a third butterfly emerge from it's chrysalis during circle time! The friends were very excited to watch the transformation happen in person and asked many questions while observing. The Blue Room friends observed a Praying Mantis Egg Case, a sack filled with many eggs.

 

During Discovery Area time, the friends:

-sorted colors by gluing paper pieces onto it’s matching color to create a colorful caterpillar

-explores play-dough and straws on the light table

-used a hole punch to “munch” the paper just like a caterpillar eats a leaf

-used our fine motor skills to bead on pipe cleaners to create our own caterpillars

-worked together to glue color tissue paper onto laminate to help create a large group butterfly

 

For snack, the friends ate graham crackers and applesauce. After the Red Room friends enjoyed dancing to music wth scarves pretending to be butterflies while the Blue Room friends looked at books friends brought in to share.

Dear Morning Red and Blue Room families,

To end our morning at school, the Red and Blue Room friends walked to see all of the neat things going up for CMU's carnival...

... But before that, we went to the university center to see the CMU buggies that will be racing during carnival. The friends got to see and touch a few buggies and show off some of our knowledge about how things work.

... But before that, we snacked on cinnamon raison bread with apple butter.

... But before that, both rooms conducted an experiment to see if an orange floats in water. We saw that an orange does in fact float! Then we decided to take the peel off of the orange and see if it still floats. We asked the children what they thought and some changed their minds and some thought it would still float. Interestingly enough, the peeled orange in the Red Room ended up sinking and the orange in the Blue Room sank at first but then floated back to the top!

... But before that, each group took a turn walking to the kindergarten to see the chicken eggs that are incubating there. The eggs are due to hatch next week and we are excited to see the baby birds in person, especially after watching the bald eagle cam and seeing the eggs and eaglets on the computer.

... But before that, the children were very busy engaging in the activities that have been available all week, such as the play dough, the play tree houses, the ramp builders, the paints at the art table, the construction vehicles, and the brick and foam blocks. By keeping the same materials out for extended periods of time, the children have the opportunity to explore them more deeply and even continue play from previous days.

Have a wonderful weekend and we'll see everybody on Monday!

The Three's Team