The Red Balloon was wonderful! If you are not familiar with the story, it is about a boy that is bullied by other children.  After the show, we discussed what it means to be a “bully” and thought of ways that “the boy” could have gotten help. It was interesting to listen to them talk about it with each other and to process all the feelings that they had while watching the performance. It was very exciting to come back to a room full of balloons! Thank you again, Romel! The first reaction that we heard was that the balloons had followed us from the show. They also thought maybe aliens brought them from outer space. The preschool years are a truly magical! That also explains why fears are so powerful and real for them. You can help them further understand “bullying” by talking about it at home and asking them what they think. We all want school to be a safe place to grow and explore!

These are the beautiful hats each LI child hand sewed in art with Paulette.  The class is studying pond life all year. This is but one inspiration

Can’t wait for next Thursday’s P. E. adventure!

LE II students discovered that all fruits have seeds and if we eat part of the plant itself, then it is a vegetable. This was a bit mind bending for some of us since many of the produce we think of as vegetables are really fruits!

The children had so much fun predicting whether produce was a fruit or vegetable and then cutting it open to discover if they were correct! It was fun to use some of our farmers market finds to make our very own “group soup”!

Community Project:
During the year we will do many Community Projects. Community Projects are designed to promote collaborative learning and problem solving among children in the class over a period of time. The Community Project is in continuous state of development for many days allowing children to work on the project in stages and with differing groups of children. When the project is completed the whole class can celebrate its collective accomplishment! Our first Community Project is creating a Family Tree. The children have painted the branches of a tree and each family has been asked to bring in a family photo to hang on our tree.

Engineering an apple ramp

The LEII students have been hard at work getting to know each other and their environment. Through songs, stories and games, we’ve explored personal attributes, likes and dislikes, and learned interesting facts about each other.

A recent apple picking adventure by one of our students has lead to a mini unit on apples! We have sorted, counted, weighed, rolled, stacked, tasted, and written about different apple varieties. Students are looking forward to using their new found “apple knowledge” to create some yummy recipes!