Fine Motor Exploration and Name Making

 Today we extended our name recognition by using play dough to create the letters in our name. We used our fine motor skills to roll the play dough out and create each letter. The children work to pick out each of their names between two options. The children also worked to identify the letters in their name with a little bit of help from the teachers. The children worked hard to also practice their names. The children talked with each other about how many letters are in their names. With their fine motor skills, the children worked on gathering rubber bands and placing them on peg boards to make different shapes. The children also worked hard to build different structures for the pretend people to stand on. 

Today the children also explored the light studio. The children were able to explore with different plants, lights, and shadows. The children were able to manipulate the different materials around the room as well as move and dance to the music playing on the projector. The children talked about the different shapes that were made from the plants as well as the different pieces that came together to create the different shadows. 

A small group of children collected leaves
to add to the light studio invitations.

The children reflected about their time in the light studio during our large group meeting.

Question:  What did you see or do in the light studio?

Olivia - "Flowers and leafs"

Rochel - "Picking apples and watching video."

Mabel - "Pink flowers"

Pierce - "I saw the lights.  They were white and I was turning them on and off.  Then, I started to play with flowers."

Ari - "I saw the plants."

Liora - "I saw flowers and lights."

Jane - "I saw the leaves.  They were this size (held hands 6 inches apart)."

Renn - "I saw flowers.  They looked like purple.  The light make shadows."

Izabel - "Flowers, we picked in the light studio."

Delilah - "Looked at lights."

Lavi - "I love flowers."

Millie - "Feathers shadow" (plant leaves that looked similar to feathers) 

Leon - "The light thing, white.  I bring on."

Hillel - "I liked watching the plants and seeing water (video projection).  The water was doing the thing water do.  The plants were doing the thing plants do."

Indiana Learning Foundations
ELA1.1: Demonstrate receptive communication
ELA1.2: Demonstrate expressive communication
ELA1.3: Demonstrate ability to engage in conversations
ELA2.1: Demonstrate awareness of the alphabet
ELA2.2: Demonstrate phonological awareness
ELA2.3: Demonstrate awareness and understanding of concepts of print