February 22-26, 2016 

Creation of Imagination

What an exciting week in the Wonderful Ones Classroom! We have gone on voyages in our imagination and even ventured outside of The Willow School grounds, cleaned up and talked about pollution, and made up a play based on two of our favorite songs. More importantly we have nurtured he development of critical thinking through imaginary play, practiced our fine and gross motors skills, discussed environmental health and observed great leaps in vocabulary! 

One great invitation to play was inspired by the ideas from the infant team and became a great playdate between the two classrooms!  The infants have been exploring the concept of wind and suggested a game of flapper fish.  Well, flapper fish turned into actual fishing with water and nets.  Below is an amazing achievement as Everett captured a “fish” in his net.  

 Here are some more magical moments captured during this play date.

One activity we also explored was pollution and it affects on the environment.  We created an ocean sensory bin with wales and sharks.  When the teachers added wood chips to the sensory big there were many exclamations of “Uh oh!” and “Dirty!” This then began a game to rescue the wales by cleaning the wood chips from the ocean.

We began this ocean thread and look into boats when our wonderful ones began a game of boat travel a week or so ago.  We incorporated boats into our classroom in several ways and encouraged the children to make some boats at the art table

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We also went on a voyage outside of The Willow School!  This was really a quest to see what vocabulary our wonderful ones had picked up through our exploration of transportation. Below are some short videos taken during our trip.

Ms. Jolees began a classroom play on two of our favorite songs “Monkeys in the Tree” and “10 Little Monkeys.” The Ones love counting their friends just like they have seen their teachers do before we leave for the playground.  We love to hear those little voices recite the numbers they have learned “though not always in order.” A little friend came and stopped the recording before the play was finished, so there are two links below.  

Little Reminders:

Please bring the monthly wipes at your earliest convenience next week:

200 wipes for part time

and 300 wipes for full time.

We are always getting messy, so please make sure that there are 2 complete changes of clothes with socks included in your little student’s cubby.  Spare shoes are also a great thing to have in there.

And now a moment with Elias and our Boat Felt Board!

Sources and Further Reading:  

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/beautiful-minds/201203/the-need-pretend-play-in-child-development

http://www.parenting.com/article/10-easy-ways-to-fire-your-childs-imagination-21354373

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/a556988/encouraging-your-childs-imagination