MAXIS: This week we opened our reading season, all the children were encouraged to bring their favorite book from home and become little teachers during morning circle time, telling us about their book and it’s characters. On Monday we read a story about dinosaurs and we got very curious about different kinds of these interesting creatures, we found rubber and plastic dinosaur toys we had in the classroom and started comparing them to each other. Since children became so excited about dinosaurs, we decided to continue the topic this week and made cute little dinos from paper plates! It took a lot of time to paint and cut them but it was worth it! On Wednesday we had a field trip to another kindergarten’s playground, it was nice to play with other toys and use different slides and swings! On Friday we discussed body awareness and we learnt that we could show our friendship to our friends in the proper ways instead of disturbing or hurting them. We also made some changes to the learning environment of our classroom. The choices of the children accordingly, we brought some different toys into our classroom and put away some extra ones. Next week we will continue our dinosaurs learning and explore more!
VISKARIT: Another week has passed and we are well into November. We have been working on a few things that may possibly have something to do with the forthcoming Father’s Day. During our trip to Palolampi, we explored different ways of moving and played a game of floor is lava. Making our way across the forest without touching the ground was challenging but fun. The den we built was still where we left it, with a few additions added. The session ended with a relaxing lie down on the mossy rocks in silence, to hear and feel our surroundings. The underwater theme still continues, this time we tested the floating and sinking properties of various materials. We collected some natural materials from outside and added some synthetic objects to the mix. First we made our predictions, then tested our theory by dropping each item into a container of water. We discovered that a big wooden stick floats just as well as a small wooden stick, the children had predicted it would sink instead. The results were verified by repeating the experiment. As a final test, we tested a paper boat to see whether it floats and for how long. This experiment piqued the interest of some of the Viskarit and continued as independent experimenting during free play. The children made different kinds of paper boats and tested their floating properties by adding fins, rudders and side support structures. The week culminated in the much anticipated party for earning those marbles. Well done Viskarit! The Creation Station is in full swing, as requested by the children, now there is plenty of space for drawing, junk modelling, crafts and painting. Just the ticket to get those creative juices flowing!
Enjoy your weekend, everyone! 😊
MESTARIT: Hello lovely Preschool Families. 😊 This week we have dived into the wonderful world of water in a big way. The children had so many questions about water that we will continue exploring water next week as well. Our first question we wanted to know was where is there water? We explored this on Monday using Google Maps to discover where is water and what types of water are there? We then made a giant Earth showing where the oceans are. On Tuesday, we found out how much water there is in the world. Using a bucket of water to represent all the water, we found out that the water we use to drink (in lakes and rivers) makes up less than half a teaspoon of the total water! In the afternoon, we explored the letter J, finding out what sound it makes and how to write it. The next day (Wednesday), we explored the water cycle and ran two experiments, one showing how water evaporates and one showing how water condenses. In the afternoon, we did some secret Daddy things that you will find out about next week. 😊 Thursday was a day for us to unwind after our busy science experiments. We relaxed with some water yoga and learnt more about how to move our bodies in a careful way. In the afternoon, we started to learn about counting during our Math Lesson. Friday saw us putting on our science coats again while we explored the answer to the question, ‘Can we make fresh water from salt water?’ Our experiment will run over the weekend and then we will find out if we were successful! 😊 Friday afternoon saw us diving into our Bluebox games and relaxing with our friends.
I hope you have a lovely weekend and are ready for more wonderful water next week! 😊
NEXT WEEK:
MAXIS
Mon: Story time
Tue: Craft
Wed: Trip Day
Thu: Music
Fri: Craft (finalize dinosaur park)
VISKARIT
Mon: Craft
Tue: Craft
Wed: Fine motor and number work
Thu: Outdoor gym
Fri: Trip day, leaving at 9:00 (We are taking the train to Kauniainen.)
MESTARIT
Mon: Water story writing day/Finnish Class
Tue: Will it sink or float?/Letter K Day
Wed: Trip to our secret place/Social skills afternoon
Thu: What is a wave?/Math
Fri: Trip to the Library, leaving 9am/Bluebox games
IMPORTANT DATES:
9.11 Father´s day Party at 16
14.12 Christmas Party at 16