Development
The children are improving their fine motor control by working in several different areas of the classroom. For example, we have changed our morning procedure to allow our kindergarten-bound students to sign-in by writing their first and last names using upper and lower case printing. Our younger friends are encouraged participate as well by writing their first names using upper case letters. The children also enjoy using our writing center (peeling off stickers, writing notes to Mom and Dad, cutting with scissors), painting at the easel (using shoulder muscles to strengthen their arms and improve fine motor control, snack time (using scissors to cut open snacks, ), and various art projects.

There are many different ways you can extend these skills at home with your child. Working with clay or play dough, peeling stickers off a sticker sheet, squeezing a palm-sized ball, or stringing beads will all help improve your child’s developing fine motor control.

Theme Recap
It’s a buggy world!! We have had a great time learning about all kinds of insects for the past two weeks. We learned how many legs they have, their body parts, and much, much more. The newest addition to our classroom is an ant farm. We’re having fun watching the ants create their habitat as they tunnel and carry “ant waste” from one place to another in their controlled environment. With the nice weather upon us, make sure you take a bug box out on your walks. Your children will definitely find some interesting insects to bring home and observe!

Math
The children had fun sorting pictures into INSECTS and NOT INSECTS. It’s a good thing they sorted Miss Sue’s and Miss Kelly’s pictures as Not Insects! They have also enjoyed extending patterns using different colored bugs and different types of bugs.

Language/Literacy
We’ve enjoyed many books about insects, especially those by Eric Carle! As a pre-reading activity, the children helped retell stories using the picture cues from the books, sequencing the beginning, middle, and end of the stories.

Science
We’ve had many insects to observe in our Science Center. Some of these have included crickets, mealworms, Rosie our tarantula, an ant farm, bumblebees, and a cicada exoskeleton. The children love studying these insects using magnifying glasses. As a group, we also made a huge spider web with a ball of string. This was a big hit!

What’s Next?
After Spring Break we will start our unit on Space which will coincide with our all school field trip to the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center where we will visit the Planetarium. What a blast!

After our Space unit we will study the Ocean. Watch as we transform our pond mural in the hall to an Ocean/Marine Life mural! Over the next couple weeks we will start some flower/vegetable plants from seeds in the classroom that will be transplanted into our own gardens as the weather really warms up.

Important Dates Coming Up!!

~Field Trip to the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center, April 22nd

~Donuts with Dad! April 28th and 29th (be sure to check the times!)

~Scholastic Book Fair Week of May 3rd

~Muffins with Mom! May 5th and 6th (be sure to check the times!)

If you would like to pick up your child’s winter gear (snow pants, boots) we would be HAPPY to send them back home:)

With warm weather upon us, it’s time to sign up for Summer Camp at Pembroke Kids!!!