My Boston bean has sprouted...now watch her grow!: September 2014

This year Emma has started nursery school at Park Street Kids. She will be going from 8am-12pm on Wednesdays and Fridays. Although she is missed at home we know she will (and already is) going to flourish at school!

On September 3rd, Emma, along with her mom and dad, went to an hour long orientation where she was able to meet her teachers and classmates as well as explore her classroom.

Here she is playing trains with her teacher, Ms. Katie.

Exploring the library.

Play-doh time!

Enjoying the view of the Boston Commons from her classroom window.

Two days later Emma had her first day of school! Here she is enjoying the scenic walk to school.

All smiles before we go into school.

Daddy helping Emma find her cubby and hanging up her backpack.

This is how we left Emma...

… and this is how I found her, playing contently next to her lead teacher, Ms. Stephanie.

Of course her mommy made her do a photo shoot afterwards :)

And finally here is Emma telling me I can only take two more pictures!

Her mom and dad would like nothing better than to be flies on the wall during the school day but fortunately her teachers post a few pictures ever week which we suppose is the next best thing!

Along with posting pictures, her teachers do a weekly newsletter keeping us in the loop about activities, books, songs, crafts, and events that are happening. I will gladly copy and paste bits of the newsletter here:

Week of September 8, 2014

I'd love to take this opportunity to welcome you again to the Transition classroom! This week, we look forward to diving in to our first thematic unit: Life on the Farm. We started last week by talking about a familiar farm animal - the sheep. We explored this with multiple sensory experiences. We felt the soft wool of a (toy) sheep inside the mystery box, listened to and recreated real sheep sounds, sang a song about sheep, read a story about a little girl and the sheep on her farm, and glued soft wool on our sheep craft! This week, we will learn about the barn as a place where animals are kept and the tractor as a vehicle for doing work around the farm. We will continue introductions to the classroom environment, centers, and routines! We look forward to continuing to support the students as they learn to self-regulate, build social emotional skills like self-soothing and functioning in a group, and grow in trust and security with their new environment and teachers!

Some of the vocabulary we will introduce and review this week includes school, listening, centers, choices, prayer, farm, sheep, barn, tractor, cow, sheep, wool, pig, horse, goat, dog, cat, and duck.

Week of September 15, 2014

Last week, we enjoyed learning about the barn and the tractor! We moved like animals in the gym, rushing back to the "barn" when it was "time for bed!" We learned a song about a tractor, glued together the parts of a tractor, and drove our "tractor scooters" in the gym. It is exciting to see personalities shine as the children become comfortable in our classroom!

This week, we will learn about a few more animals that live in the barn: chickens and pigs. We will read about Dora's eggs hatching, practice counting to ten while painting eggs, work as a team to collect eggs from the "henhouse" in the gym, match pigs with their tails by color, and create pigs out of shapes!

Some of the vocabulary we will introduce and review this week includes school, listening, centers, choices, prayer, farm, barn, tractor, cow, sheep, wool, pig, horse, goat, dog, cat, chicken, rooster, egg, and duck.

Music Time!

Another song we sing each morning is the calendar song! It is sung to the tune of the Addams Family theme song...

Days of the Week

Days of the week, (clap clap)

Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week! (clap clap)

There's Sunday and there's Monday,

There's Tuesday and there's Wednesday,

There's Thursday and there's Friday, and then there's Saturday!

Days of the week, (clap clap)

Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week! (clap clap)

And one of the books read in class this week is:

Chatting with her friend Lily.

Music time!

Week of September 22, 2014

This week, we will continue our study of farm life by taking a look at the animals cow and goat, their characteristics, and their jobs on the farm! The children will learn that both cows and goats give us milk! We will have a guest in the classroom: Bessie the cow. The children will have the chance to "milk" Bessie and taste the results! They will also have the chance to taste different cheeses this week made from milk. We will taste two kinds made from milk from a cow and one made from milk from a goat. The children will develop their gustatory sense and practice expressing preference for different tastes!

Last week, we learned in our Bible time that God made each of us special! We will continue to develop this idea throughout the year, learning that each of us is different, and that each of us is special, and we can celebrate the way that God made us, and our friends, special! We will apply this concept this week by making fingerprint cows. No two cows have the same spots, and no two people have the same fingerprints! The children will enjoy pressing their fingers in ink to decorate their own cow with their individual fingerprints!

Some of the vocabulary we will introduce and review this week includes school, listening, centers, choices, prayer, farm, barn, tractor, cow, goat, milk, cheese, sheep, wool, pig, horse, goat, dog, cat, chicken, rooster, egg, and duck.

Music Time

Last week, we learned the song "God Made Me Special," which some of you might already know from Chapel with an older sibling! It was written by Kris Perkins, Associate Minister of Families and Church Development at Park Street Church. We had a lot of fun dancing and singing with the guitar!

God Made Me Special

God made me special,

special as can be.

God made me special,

He made me wonderfully!

I am not a butterfly, (flap butterfly wings)

I am not a bee, (bzzzzzz while moving finger)

I am not a kangaroo, (jump!)

I am not a tree. (put arms up like branches)

I am not a little mouse, (hold up "paws" and squeak)

I am not a dog, (woof with hands on head like ears)

I am not a kitty cat, (meow with hands on face like whiskers)

I am not a frog! (ribbit and frog jump)

God made me special,

special as can be.

God made me special,

He made me wonderfully!

Emma prefers colby jack cheese over cream cheese and goat cheese.

Milking Bessie the Cow!

Bessie the Cow is pretty darn cute!

Along with the excitement of starting school, Emma simultaneously had to adjust to her first ever move. She was pretty concerned when we were packing boxes - she didn't want any of her books, dolls, or toys left behind. After a couple of nights wondering when we would go back to her "old home" Emma has fallen in love with her "new home". She literally runs around in circles with all the new space.

All packed up and ready to go.