Missing Socks!

Attention ECFE classes:

February 4, 6 & 8

Please bring one sock per child to your next ecfe class.  It doesn't have to be HUGE, just a small one will do.  Kid sized ankle socks may be a bit too small.  : ) 

Beautiful Science!

We started watering our Paper Whites a few weeks ago with RED water.  Here is what we have found so far:

Still WHITE!  We are going to see what happens when we add more RED food coloring to the water!  

A friend of mine sent me some beautiful flowers!  What a perfect time for another experiment:

What will happen if we put BLUE food coloring in the water?

We decided that these flowers are the most likely to change:  WHITE daisies and YELLOW daisies!  What is going to happen?

Stay tuned . . .

The YELLOW flowers ended up with some streaks of GREENISH-BLUE.

The WHITE flower had no change!

And here are some of our results that we recorded!

Boy have we been busy!

I can't believe how much we have done in the past month!  We have planted bulbs, planted a sensory garden, done assessments for progress reports, played a lot, sang songs, used rhythm sticks and shakers and have learned tons of new things!  Here are some pictures to show some of what we have been up to!  Watch for updates on the bulbs and the sensory garden soon!

We planted Paper Whites.  We are going to water them with RED water and see what happens!

Did I mention that sometimes we help Roger clean?

And we play A LOT!

We have been so lucky to have Charlie Klimek with us everyday!  He loves the tea parties!

We colored All About Me Glyphs!  The kids did an AMAZING job coloring them!  I can't believe that they are only 3&4 years old!

ECFE we are having so much fun playing with all of our friends!

GYM NIGHT IS CANCELED

Early Childhood/ECFE Open Gym night to be held on January 22, 2013 is canceled due to the cold weather.  We chose to cancel the event in order to keep our families with young children safe in these frigid temperatures.  If you know of anyone in ECFE who is planning on attending, please contact them for us.  We do not want anyone out needlessly on the roads.  Thank you!!  

Stay warm!

ECFE Family Project

Monday-Wednesday-Friday ECFE will be making a family tree the week of January 14th-16th-18th.  This will not be an ordinary family tree where you have lines and boxes and specific people who are considered members of your family.  Instead, I am asking that you bring in SMALL pictures of people who are important in your child's life.  Of course, this would include members of your family but, also please include special friends/adults, birth parents if you choose, daycare providers etc.  These are all people who are "family".  I want to teach our kids that family extends beyond the walls of our homes. If you don't have pictures or small pictures of everyone important to you, you or your child may draw them or just write their names on the tree!  Your child will be the Trunk of the tree.  This is to help them to see how important they are to all of the people around them!  If you have any questions or concerns about this project, please contact me!  hplasek@pp.k12.mn.us

It's good to be back!

I was amazed at how well the kids fell back into the routine of school after such a long break!  They are such great and eager learners!  We started right in with our regular schedule.  In Focus Groups we have been talking about patterning.  Simple patterns such as red, blue, red, blue.  You can do these simple patterns at home using anything!  Encourage your child to practice making patterns!  We have been reading about a silly Penguin who really loves to go out and play in the snow.  The story is helping us count from one to ten.  Every morning at welcome circle we practice counting and recognizing numbers with our fun family chant.  Then we count backwards from ten!  We all know what happens after a count-down!  BLAST OFF!!  Ask your child to show you the rocket ships!!  

Here is our Family Chant! Read the lines to your child.  See if they can fill in the highlighted words!:)

Once there was a lonely son,

Sad ’cause he was only one.

Then along came Cindy Lou,

Now they were a happy two!

Next they met Joanne Marie,

That made them a happy three!

Then along came Salvador,

Now they were a happy four!

Soon they saw Roberto Clive,

That made them a happy five!

They went to the house of Nick’s,

Where they were a happy six!

Then along came Kenneth Kevin,

That made them a happy seven!

Next they met Melissa Kate,

Now they were a happy eight!

Then along came Caroline,

That made them a happy nine!

Finally they all met Gwen,

Ending up a happy ten!

Happy New Year!!

It is hard to believe that we are starting a new year!  The time has gone by so fast!  I am looking forward to getting back into our routine starting tomorrow, January 2!  We will be doing some exciting things in this new year!  We will begin learning to write our names, learn about glyphs and so much more!!  Watch the blog for pictures of all our exciting new learning adventures!