Making Connections & Celebrating Our Roots

Greetings Peach Room Parents,

This week we completed our Peach Room Family Tree and it's now on display next to our documentation board in the hallway. Our friends also created a beautiful collage using clear contact paper, flowers and leaves. You can see it displayed in our window where it makes a lovely sun catcher. As we were doing this work, friends were able to explore the many colors, textures and scents from the flowers and their leaves and stems. We talked about the different parts of the flowers- stem, leaves and petals. They experimented with pulling the materials up and re-sticking them in a different position. A few friends really liked the way the sticky paper felt on their hands. Also in our hallway by the bench outside our room you may notice their paintings. These were created by using a flower as a stamp or paintbrush. Again we explored the scent and texture of the flowers using paint as a medium. Some friends focused on using one color at a time, others liked to see what happened when they mixed the colors together. We noticed they were switching colors and flower paintbrushes mostly independently, needing few verbal cues from us. This was a proud moment to see their cooperation. Gavin was asking for the color paint he wanted correctly by name. Shyli, Guy and Ronan pointed to colors. Leah new most colors or would offer her flower paintbrush in trade for the one she wanted. 
 
Some of our friends are experiencing a real bloom in their language development, proudly picking up and naming familiar items in our room or pointing and naming the color of something they see. We are even noticing some 2-3 word sentences. This is so exciting to hear! We are encouraging this growth by repeating back to them, "Yes, you're holding a yellow banana."  and then asking a question like, "Do you like to eat banana's?" In play, work and provocations we try to ask more open ended questions where we don't already have an answer in mind or there isn't a "correct" answer we expect from them. In supporting language development, it's more about extending the conversation at their level. You probably already do this with your children at home without even really thinking about it. Try making a game out of it. See how many question and answer exchanges you can get them to do before they lose interest. You will not only be encouraging them to flex their expanding vocabularies, you are teaching them the art of reciprocal speech or conversation.

Thank you to those of you who were able to join us for the Grandparents Day Celebration! It was so special for our friends to feel that family connection here at school. We truly are so blessed to have such a warm community at CJP!

Wishing you all a restful Shabbos,
Morah Ora and Morah Lindsey