The weeks seem to be going by faster and faster as the year rolls along!  My apologies for missing a couple of blog updates earlier this week and at the end of last week; I was having a technology malfunction, but we’re all clear now and I’d love to share some highlights from our day on Monday along with today’s fun.

On Monday, we had the pleasure of welcoming Sophia’s mom, Lena into the classroom as our parent teacher.  Now that we’ve entered our second month of parent teachers in the classroom, many families are beginning to feel more comfortable sharing parts of their lives with the class.  Lena brought her violin (which we later learned is also called a fiddle in other styles of music–more Fs!) and played a few tunes for us at Circle Time.  She even played the tune of our “Days of the Week” song so that we could sing along!  The highlight of the morning was certainly when each child had a chance to play the violin with Lena’s help–what a special treat!  Not only did the group at large gain valuable exposure to an instrument some of them had never seen, but Sophia was also able to demonstrate pride and excitement about her unique family experiences.  Thanks for sharing, Lena!

Yesterday, after the blog post had gone up, Peter alerted me to some impromptu F fun that could not go undocumented:  a class fishing expedition!  During nap time, children who do not sleep or wake up early participate in quiet activities while the class finishes napping.  Yesterday’s crew was exploring the straw connectors when one of them noticed that, when connected into long lines, the straw connectors looked like fishing rods, which starts with the letter F!  Check out how much fun they had!

Today’s group enjoyed continuing to collage our turkey feathers using cardboard and scraps of fabric, paper, and ribbon.  On Monday, we decorate two large red fathers and we added yellow and orange today.  Like many of our art projects, the children strengthen their fine motor skills by experiencing a variety of materials.  When using glue sticks, they use their hands differently than when they use liquid glue.  They also use different methods of selecting and grasping depending upon the material they are adding to the collage: paper, fabric, ribbon, or button.  Finally, working on these large feathers in small groups helps to foster team work and develops the children’s ability to work together to accomplish a goal.