Today we finished up our focus on exploratory orienting (just like a curious cat looking for her bowl of milk). In keeping with this theme, we have cat, cloud and car activities…all of these are easy jump off points for exploratory orienting. Read more in the Coping Skill section below.
Our Story Time book for the week is Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes. We have our own preschool copy but it is also available at our local library…in English and Spanish..La Primera Luna Llena de Gatita. Today we also read How Many Cats? It doesn’t seem to be at our local library, but we have 2 copies that can be borrowed from preschool.
On Thursday we finished up the Car Problem group drawing. There was a simple track and lots of scribbled problems (oil slicks, banana peels, water, strawberries, a blankie and more!). We played with the paper moon that used to be above the cat water play table (first it was on the owl’s eyeball and then on Ms Kristin’s back!). Read on to find out more about Thursday and watch us play!
The morning class finished their journal based on our Story Time book about the cat. They made a lot of moons and bowls of milk! There were even ponds and cats too:
Here are 3 questions to learn more about our day:
What could you do with Mama Cloud?
Push her! These children did an amazing job navigating the space around them while having to reach up high to push the cotton ball filled pretend cloud.
We used the rest of the cotton balls to finish covering our big cardboard C.
What did you eat for snack today?
Note: I have adjusted our routine in hopes of having a less hurried experience with Snack Time. As soon as all children arrive we will gather to eat right away and it has worked great. We are sticking to it for now!
Children were invited to try to lap their water up like a cat would. This simple activity helps keep those mouth muscles toned which is beneficial for swallowing and speech development. We did it again outside around the chalk moon that the cat would surely think was a big bowl of milk.
In the morning we had a triple Birthday Celebration for Rain and brothers Gus and Max! We had cupcakes and Veggie Chips. In the afternoon we had snack from Scarlet and Cade: chocolate animal crackers and apple sauce. We took a little trip down memory lane recalling all our apple activities during A week. Thank you, friends! (Apparently I was busy enjoying snack time and didn’t get a picture taken either time).
Did we see any clouds outside this week?
We have been keeping track of the number of clouds we see during Outside Time as well. This is a prime example of encouraging exploratory orienting-a relaxed gazing at the sky.
The data was split 50/50 with 3 sessions seeing clouds and 3 sessions seeing no clouds. Thursday afternoon was complete with NO clouds being seen until the last second when one friend saw a tiny cloud peeking behind a tree then floating over the church. We had to cross out all the data and write YES!
BONUS: The afternoon class got the surprise of the air conditioner worker coming to install a part. Despite him removing a tile from the ceiling and then being gone, he was NOT in the vent, he was out in his truck (which we saw when we went outside). Thank you, worker!
Exploratory orienting: This week’s Coping Skill
This week we are practicing exploratory orienting (just like a curious cat looking for her bowl of milk and finding the moon, little bugs, trees and her own porch). In keeping with this theme, we have cat, cloud and car activities…all of these are easy jump off points for exploratory orienting. Read more in the Coping Skill section below. This is described as relaxed alertness to both internal and external environment, curiosity and gathering information about the environment with a low level of activation.
Practice together at home:
Sit together inside and notice things on the walls around you.
When riding in a car, rest your head and notice other cars, trees, grass, buildings passing by.
In bed at night, look from one corner of the wall and ceiling to the other, to the next and the next.
When walking outside switch between looking in front of you, behind you, next to you on both sides, over you. Is there a sidewalk? Trees? Houses? Sun beams? Shadows?
newcreationpreschool.com 