Finger Paint

 As the school year proceeds, the class will do a lot of learning and exploring through sensory activities and art. This year we’ve decided to start with finger paint! This activity gives opportunities for children to practice a variety of skills, such as color and letter recognition, letter formation, exploring with cause and effect (mixing colors and materials), and sharing the space and materials.

Children are asked to write their name on the paper before they start painting. This encourages children to become more familiar with the letters in their names and also strengthens their fine motor skills to prepare them for writing more letter and numbers. Some children have also chosen to etch their names with the back of a paintbrush or their finger. This also is a fun activity to practice writing skills.

Teachers also guide the children in exploring and problem solving with other classmates. For example, a teacher may point out a child making the color purple. This comment may attract other children to the process of mixing colors, talking about how purple was made, or encourage the group to explore mixing different colors to make a new color.

Finger painting is also a good time for children to practice communicating their thoughts with each other.

These are some comments from classmates:

“Look at my wave! It’s really huge!” –Malea

“It makes really sticky goo. Want to make goo with me? You have to put glue on it. You have to use a paint brush.”- Daisy

“Look, I made a dark rainbow! Red and blue make purple. Pink and blue make purple.” –Ethan

“I’m actually mixing colors. Pink and orange. It’s called volcano.” –Malea

“Look, it’s grey. It’s like a pretzel.” –Patrick

P.E. With Sharon

 Our P.E. class with Sharon has begun! Sharon offers a variety of activities for the children that practice many skills such as, listening, following directions, gross motor development, and safety awareness.

During class, Sharon focused on a few new words for the children to become familiar with. The two words introduced during class were “boundary” and “safe”.  The focus of the word “safe” allows children to express their own interpretations of safe actions and acts as a key word to help them recognize when they are or are not being safe.

The focus of “boundary” supports children becoming more aware of their surroundings. Sharon sets up colored cones in a large square so the class has a visual aide in recognizing the boundary. The word “boundary” is also used as a tool to encourage children to help their classmates stay in the coned boundary.

This week the children recognized the different colored cones. They also took turns being the “leader” as they called out a specific color for the group to go to and chose how to move to that color (skip, walk, run, tiptoe, etc.).