Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Bricks 4 Kidz


Mr. Rob from Bricks 4 Kidz gave us a wonderful time with the Legos! It was not the usual free play with them rather it was a very well-defined and structured medium of teaching them math, letters, and geometry as well as social skills like listening to instructions and respecting the resources.
Preschool friend admiring his Lego apple! 

Each preschooler had their own bag of Legos to work with. They listened to instructions from Mr.Rob and built the Lego apple by using the blocks sequentially. They not only had fun playing with the Legos, but they also had an experience of working according to the instructions, working sequentially, and respecting the resources.

Mr.Rob explaining the rules of the game

Preschool friends admiring each other's creations and waiting for the next instructions.


Free play time with the Legos...during this time they not only played with the Legos but also talked about the shapes and sizes of the blocks they were using! Mr.Rob showed them two different blocks..one 2/2, which is the smaller block and the larger blocks which are also called the 4/2 blocks...some of the kids kept repeating the names when they were looking for the blocks.

He made a Lego train! He used different types of blocks for that. Each block on his Lego train had a specific function. He took care of lots of details!

During the whole session, the kids not only had fun playing with the Legos...but they also learned the concept of representation (the actual apple is represented by the Lego apple), solid geometry, and letter recognition as well as listening to and waiting for instructions.

Bricks 4 Kidz will be visiting again in the summer with more fun lessons!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Insects are Interesting!

Spring is the time when life springs and crawls out around us....so this is the best time to teach the preschool kids the importance of insects! Ms. Jane Gonzales from Mother's Nature 2, Inc. brought her "Insects are Interesting" program to our school with loads of informations about insects and hands-on activities for the kids.

Ms. Gonzales is helping to put the lady bug costume on one of our pre-k friends.
While doing so she also explained that an insect's body is made up of three parts (head, thorax, and abdomen).
She also explained that bugs use their antennae to communicate!

Our volunteer is wearing the full lady bug costume. She is also wearing the pair of antenna and she seems to be wearing a pair of glasses but they are not just any glasses...they are the compound eyes that a lady bug possesses!!!

We are getting ready to dance to the Insect-Pokey (to the tune of Hokey-Pokey).
What a great way to combine music-movements and science together!

Explaining the life cycle of a butterfly through the story, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."
We not only did life science, but also learned a new word..."METAMORPHOSIS."

Preschool friend looking through the eyes of a bug!!!!

Insects help make useful things...here is a preschooler holding real bees wax.
We practiced our scientific observation skills by looking at the wax, touching it, and smelling it!

Composting 101

Wes Duren from Marvin's Organic Gardens visited our school on March 5th and told us a lot about the importance of compost for growing healthy gardens and exactly how to make them!  He started with a topic which happens to be most interesting for the kids...WORMS!!!

He explained how worms are so important in the gardens and we should should store our throw-away fruits and vegetable pieces so that the worms can feed on them and turn them into compost, an imporatnt ingredient for good gardening.  It was amazing how the kids responded and the daily use of the classroom compost bins became all the more interesting after this session.




The kids couldn't wait to get their hands into the soil. They touched it, smelled it, and found interesting things like twigs and rocks when they investigated closer. Thank you Mr. Wes!