Winter Stories

This cold week has been so full of fun and light in pre-k. A thread that has connected much of our winter is around the theme of storytelling. This class loves to tell stories, and we teachers have been thinking of ways to scaffold the storytelling experience as we weave stories into our day. On Monday we introduced students to some new ideas about writing. With the general goal being that students understand that symbols (letters and words) can carry meaning, we modeled the many different ways that children can convey their ideas. One of the first developmental steps in learning to write is scribble writing. We modeled leaving spaces between the scribbles, just like we have spaces between words, and even making a period at the end of our sentences. You'll see that this writing approach typically progresses to writing random strings of letters, and eventually to some phonetic spelling. The class LOVED getting right to work writing their stories- perhaps your child brought one home to read to you!

Enjoy some pictures from the week, and don't forget that there's no school on Monday or Tuesday. See you Wednesday!

Yay! We've figured out how to use the sapling next to our climbing stump as a fireman's pole.

Snowy Monday morning meant LOTS of tracks in Wildwood Forest.

We've created a small stage (see the tape on the floor) for "acting" during circle time. We've acted out different social skills, and are also having a great time acting out the stories that kids are writing!

A snowy expedition tracking "turkeys" kept us warm on Monday!

Check out the new bulletin board outside the pre-k classroom to see some fun "buddy" marble painting.

Ask your child about how they made paintings with marbles and a cardboard box :)

Melissa worked with some kids to add information to our "Animals in Winter" bulletin board. We're doing a lot of thinking and learning about the different ways animals survive winter!