Plants, Flowers, and More!
The first week of Unit 1: “Green Thumb” was primarily spent bonding. The bonding during the first week of school is essential as it helps bring a sense of team and unity to the class. During the week we adventured to various new parks, used our creativity in art, and did so many things that it’s hard to imagine this is only Week 1!
Circle Time
Circle Time was focused on getting to know our new friends as well as learning what our little ones can do. We did lots of dancing and singing in the mornings. In the afternoon we would play games, sketch, or work on our fine motor skills. We practiced our listening skills and memory in flower bingo and the flower memory game. The dinosaur hunt was a challenge for us all. We had to find a matching dinosaur to the one we were given to one that was scattered on the ground. There were 50 dinosaurs in total, so we had to not only use our eyes, but we also had to use teamwork to help our friends find their dinosaurs when they needed help.
Park Time
This week we went to a new park every day. Every park was different and it had many challenges for us to face. Some parks required us to use some arm muscle to climb to the top of the equipment, while others required us to balance or jump to the next step onto the apparatus. There were a few that required us to face our fears like in the picture. There was a tall bridge that was wobbly and a bit challenging to cross. Some friends held both sides of the bridge, while others held the side with one hand. There were even a few that could cross without holding the sides of the bridge.
PE
Our first PE class of the year was fun. We did lots of running, jumping, and skipping to get our cardio going. We were tested on our endurance and perseverance. We also had to use our listening skills to follow the teachers directions. We also practiced for our Sports Day by doing the shoe toss. It was difficult for some students to kick their shoes off, while others were able to kick their shoes very far. By the last kick we got a hang of how to kick our shoes off, but the tricky part was kicking our shoes straight.
Art
The art this week was to color and decorate our aprons for cooking day. One of our teachers made hand-made aprons for everyone. We then took some paint sticks and decorated our aprons. While some of us drew our own designs, most of us tried to draw some flowers we liked from our flower flash card collection.
Cooking
We made flower cookies this week. We helped count and add the ingredients to the batter. Then we used our fine motors skills to cut individual petals to make different flowers. We used various designs of cookie cutter, so there were many different flower cookies. After the cookies were done baking we decorated the cookies with icing.