All posts by website@magic-garden.org

“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall!” This month, the Sunshine students have been exploring the fanciful world of nursery rhymes. During Circle Time, our kiddos delighted in singing along to many preschool classics while honing their rhyming and print awareness skills. Infusing dramatic play and sequencing skills, the girls and boys acted out Humpty’s tale of blunder. Choice Time was a perfect opportunity for our students to flex their creative art muscles. Armed with paint and mixed media materials, the Sunshine kiddos created their own eggs, as well as a giant brick wall display. Do stop by and take a peek! To culminate all this hands-on learning, our pupils took part in a fun, hilarious egg race. The Sunshine Room was transformed into a track and, using spoons and real eggs, our kiddos carefully raced to the finish line. Don’t drop Humpty! Go Team Sunshine! Coming up: more Tumbling sessions with Ms. Jennifer and hands-on science experiments!

Cupcake by Charise Mericle Harper is a favorite cuddle-up, story time read in the Starburst Room. This book follows a spirited pastry who is tired of merely being “plain and white and ordinary.” Cupcake, our hero, grapples with her nerve and her individuality: a teachable, pertinent theme in early childhood education. The Starburst friends have enjoyed retelling and acting out the trials and triumphs of Cupcake. Of course, to extend this experience, the girls and boys wanted to bake their own treats! Following the author’s recipe, the Pre-k kiddos measured (practicing math skills), stirred and waited for their treats to bake. The result was a delicious (and fun) culminating celebration of uniqueness and friendship in the Starburst Classroom!

There are always plenty of child-centered curriculum to be seen in the Moonbeam Classroom! Our girls and boys are still engaged in a multi-faceted unit focusing on the five senses. This month, our children are having a blast as they investigate sight. This sense, as illustrated by a continuous cycle of hands-on explorations, provides us with countless pieces of information about the world around us. The Moonbeam kiddos have been busy, busy busy! Here is a sampling of just some of their educational adventures:

Using tools such as magnifying glasses to examine items in the Science Center, including leaves, shells and rare crystals
Checking up on our classroom bird (and sometimes squirrel) feeders. You might catch our children armed with binoculars!
Embarking on “night time” alphabet scavenger hunts with flashlights
Games of pin the nose on the pumpkin…blindfolded
Nature walks across our beautiful school campus
The daily use of sensory bottles and boxes

Up next: preparations for Magic Garden’s annual Solstice Sing-a-Long!

Vote, vote, vote! Our Rainbow students applied the spirit of election day to our year-long author study. Moving on to a new Donald Crews selection, the girls and boys voiced their preference. They stepped into the makeshift Rainbow voting booth and chose between Truck or Flying. Exploring math skills, the children constructed a giant graph and tallied the results. Voter turnout was remarkable and our big race was a nail bitter. At last, Flying emerged as the people’s favorite! After reading Crews’ fun, adventurous book, our students engaged in dramatic play, pretending to taxi into position, race down the runway and take flight. Extending this experience, the Rainbow pals helped Ms. Melyssa begin to construct and paint our own jumbo airplane. This project/installation will soon hang from the classroom ceiling, soaring above our kiddos. Up next: the Rainbow Classroom gears up for Magic Garden’s tenth annual Rosie’s Place Drive!