Saturday, September 27, 2008

Learning To Fly (but I ain't got wings)

Preschool Flight 538 departed from JFK Airport Friday afternoon, non-stop to Mexico (the children also wanted to fly to: St. Louis, Philadelphia, Florida [Sea World & Disney World], grandma and grandpa's farm, 'downtown,' 'uptown,' and Utah). Weather conditions were cloudy and windy at JFK, and also in Mexico when we landed. The children made sure to check their luggage, and to claim it upon landing (and also to stop by the bathrooms!)

Passengers were served an in-flight snack consisting of popcorn and H20. We experienced mild turbulence, and a bump once we landed, and our flight was otherwise fast, safe, and FUN !



This week, we continued to work on all-things-flying. The children LOVED to create their own sculptures from paper tubes, which are currently hanging from the classroom ceiling. Airplanes, rockets, and a few mermaids and princess puppets. That's cool with me, because I believe that some princesses can fly (Super Mario Brothers, anyone?) The children worked incredibly hard on their creations (a good 45 minutes), and I had to beg and plead with them to leave them in school so I could hang them up. Tell them not to worry, they can take them home soon!!














On Friday, we made our first batch of preschool play doh. This is a wonderful hands on experience, and the children do all of the work until it is time to cook the doh (dough?) on the hot plate. During the day, we give the children as many responsibilities as we can, to really ensure that the process is created and experienced by the children, and this is no exception! Everyone gets a turn to add something and stir it up. Cooking involves measuring, and measuring means fractions, so at the basic level, the children can see that two half-cups make one whole cup. On Monday, when we play with the doh, the children will know that they created it, and will hopefully enjoy it that much more...just like how your meal will taste better if you labored over it in the kitchen (unless you are an awful cook).

The ingredients include: flour, oil, water, salt, cream of tartar, food coloring.






Here are some photos from the rest of our week. You will see that we are having a great time in gym class with Coach Marvin, working on our rolls and tumbles, as well as our balancing skills. You will also notice more than a few smiles on the playground, where the children love to ride cars and bikes, draw with chalk, hang out at the picnic table, play games, and create in the sandbox.

Have a great weekend!

(P.S.: NO SCHOOL TUESDAY OR WEDNESDAY)