Thumb up and elbow down….turn the paper instead of our hand. We learned all about how to use scissors effectively and safely during small groups today. They children did an AMAZING job!
Snow Clay Dough
Christmas Collages
Catch me if you can…
The month of December we will be creating, building, and playing with things that have a top, middle and bottom! During group time we decorated a tree and for small groups we built a snowman. Keep checking the blog to see what we will be creating next!
After all of our hard work preparing for our Thanksgiving Feast we decided it was time for a dose of artistic creativity to wrap up the week! We explored a variety of abstract paintings, learned what the word abstract means and tried our hand creating our own. We have a classroom full of budding artists!
The K Prep students did the first entry in their journals today about what we were thankful for, after reading Bear Says Thanks. We saw a lot of family faces in those entries!
Journal writing is one of the foundation blocks of our language arts philosophy. Each week, the children have a set time to write in their journals. The journal serves as a valuable learning tool. The children are beginning to get their ideas on paper and learn first hand the power of words. Research shows that journaling is one of the most effective ways to teach and learn phonics.
Children at the beginning stages often use “scribble writing” or random letters to represent words. As they progress, they will begin to use the letters that represent the sounds in the words that they are attempting to write (“btrfli” for butterfly). We make good use of the children’s growing phonics by helping them listen carefully to the words they wish to use. Our ultimate goal is for each child to learn to communicate on paper whether it is through words or illustrations.
Children draw pictures as the main part of their communication at these early stages. Drawing helps them find the words they might want to use in their writing. We saw a lot of words in these first entries….very impressive!
This past week we talked about cows and how they make milk for us to drink and use to make other foods.
Ms. Susan planned a special small group where the children got to help make whipped cream and butter.
We had to shake, shake, SHAKE the containers of cream to turn it into butter:
Then the children got to help make whipped cream!
In another small group, we practice “milking a cow” by squeezing the water out of a glove and into a pail.
We had a very special snack: Our very own homemade butter on bagels and our whipped cream on crackers!
Creative Tots has specialized in the private education of both toddlers and preschool age children for over 15 years. We began in the heart of Madeira and now also have a new Mason location. We are specifically designed to focus on early childhood development for children ages 18 months to 5 years.
Click below to learn more about our program offerings:
