Tu B'Shvat

Greetings Peach Room Parents,

We began exploring Tu B'Shvat, or the New Year for Trees, this week. Friends have been working on an ongoing group project. They are creating their own Peach Room Family Tree. Everyday we add some more to our tree as we talk about the different parts of the tree- roots, trunk & bark, branches, and leaves. They explored different textures and mediums in this collage work. Our friends began by painting our cardboard tree all together. Then they added some bark that we found on our playground. They glued tissue paper and sticks to create real branches with leaves. Look for more details to be added next week and we will display their finished artwork near our documentation board in the hallway.

In our sensory table this week we have soil with seeds and beans. We introduced the idea of planting a seed or a bean that will grow into something bigger. Each friend planted a seed in a clear glass jar. They have been watering them and checking the progress of their plants. As we do this we talk about all of the things that plants and trees need to grow healthy- soil, sunlight to make their own food and water. Hopefully they will be able to see some roots next week. Their plant will be a gift for their grandparent or special person at our Grandparents Day Celebration next Wednesday morning. Our friends actually expanded this work by adding some animals to the soil and it evolved into some fantastic imaginary play.

Our outdoor classroom has provided so many opportunities for exploration and discovery. With the addition of the tree trunk stumps, not only are our peaches enjoying some challenging gross motor play- climbing, stepping, balancing, etc. They are learning to take risks. Risk taking is an integral part of a child's work that sometimes comes with a few scrapes and bruises. It has been interesting to watch their individual approaches. Shyli and Leah have no fear, they both just goes for it! Guy and Gavin took a slightly more cautious approach, experimenting first with climbing from stump to stump on hands and knees before deciding to try standing upright. Ronan climbed up and stood, then immediately reached for a Morah's hand to before attempting to step to another stump. Caleb climbed right up when he saw the older children playing, but decided he wanted more space than they were giving him. He went back and attempted this again on a day when we came out earlier than the other classes so that he could go at his own pace. Angie has observed play on the stumps but not yet attempted it. This is a very valid form of play in itself. We can learn much by observing others. It will be interesting to see how they each progress in their play!

On Wednesdays, our peaches will be participating in the Parsha of the week with Morah Kayla and Morah Gitty in our outdoor classroom. This week's Parsha was the story of Moshe splitting/parting the Sea. Our Purple and Peach room friends worked together to construct a bridge using the large building blocks over the pool. Friends pumped and transported water to fill the pool which was to be the sea. Morah Ora added blue paint and sea creatures and fish. Then all of our friends gathered around to hear the Parsha from Morah Kayla. Each friend took a turn crossing the sea over and over.

Another fun outdoor activity this week was digging for worms. Morah Ora filled the pool with sand and water and then added cooked linguine "worms". Our friends got to practice using their fine motor skills with tweezers to pick the worms up and put them in buckets. Everyone enjoyed pretending the wiggly, sqiggly pasta were actually worms! We talked about how worms can help plants grow because when they create their underground tunnels it allows a little bit of air to reach the roots of the plants.

That is all for this week! If  you haven't already interviewed grandparents in person/via email or Skype and submitted their responses to Masha, please do so by Monday so that she can have things prepared for our Grandparents Day Celebration. That will be held from 9:30-10:30 am Wed. 1/31. We look forward to seeing you and or their grandparents or special people there!

Thank you,
Morah Ora and Morah Lindsey