Dear Rainbows Families,
Lots of exciting activities in the Rainbows with two themes pervading: Neighborhood/Brooklyn and Our Bodies.
Neighborhood/Brooklyn – the Rainbows recently painted pictures of their homes at the easel; then after reviewing “what is your address?”, they put their street address on the bottom of the painting. Please see these paintings displayed around the room. The Rainbows also had a discussion about different places in our neighborhood that the children visit with their families. Responses included Cousin Johns, The Food Market, the bank, the pancake store, the pharmacy, the pizzeria, and the Animal Clinic. Then the teachers took the children on an “investigation” to locate all these places and find their street addresses. The children had such fun walking all around the neighborhood, excitedly pointing out these familiar sites and discovering the street addresses. FYI – it turned out the bank was Citibank, the pharmacy was Neergard, the pizzeria was Pino’s, and the pancake store was The Park Cafe. Another day the children made a map of our school neighborhood during work time. Then, taking the neighborhood theme into Small Group time, the teachers had the 4 small groups focus on the neighborhood. The group in the Block area recreated the school neighborhood map by building the places with blocks; the group in the Dramatic Play area turned it into Cousin Johns; the group in the Art area made an illustration of our school neighborhood; and the group in the Manipulatives area made different buildings from Legos. Each small group will have a chance to focus on the neighborhood in the different classroom areas.
Our Bodies – the children have become more and more interested in the human body, and the teachers have been exploring this interest with them. Some of the books they have read include “Me and My Amazing Body” by Joan Sweeney with illustrations by Annette Cable, “My Brain” by Sally Hewitt, and “My Heart and Lungs” also by Sally Hewitt. They have been having many discussions about the different parts inside the body and what they do to keep us functioning. Check out the chart of the children’s responses in the circle area. They also drew pictures of the insides of the body. And the recent words of the week were:
skeleton – esqueleto
lungs – pulmones
heart – corazon
brain – cerebro
Some final notes: this coming week is Love Week at the Collective and we will observe Valentine’s Day on Friday. The Rainbows have been making and decorating their own personal mailboxes to receive anticipated notes and cards from friends. (There will be lots of letter-writing next week in the Rainbows!) You are welcome to send in Valentine’s Day cards from home; and if you do, please be sure to send in a card for EVERY Rainbow. Thanks so much!
Also, we still need shoeboxes!! If you have any extra, please send them in.
Enjoy the weekend!
Martha