Exploring Bugs

Teachers Reflection

October was not very cold to explore outside-we were lucky to have chances to explore Caterpillars, lady bugs, earth worms, Bee, etc. Children were curious and excited to observe them. Sometimes we collected lady bugs and caterpillars in your bug jars and brought them back to our class room  .Children were looking at them –they wanted to know what they eat-where do they live –how they walk-it is a huge topic  to cover. It was my challenge to study about bugs-collect books from the library and share many stories about them-we read Hungry caterpillar ,Grouchy lady bugs, The old lady who swallowed fly—who created all the bugs? How can we be kind with them .This week I set up my science table with many kinds of bugs. Children were exploring, creative and investing how many wing they have, eyes and colors? So many questions to answer –we extended this activity to our art table as well. Inshallah I will share it to my next blog.

Animal foot printing art activity

 He picked one animal from the plate and said,"Rain Deer".

 E said ,"I have a small goat -let me see how does it look like?"

 A is wondering with two feet how he can do his art?

A was stamping on the paper and said,"I like orange "

Teacher story.
We have been learning about Creations of Allah .We were sharing stories about Prophet Ibrahim ,"Eid ul Adha "animals we sacrifice,forest animals etc. --Following their interest,I decided to set our art table with tempera paint and some animals. Children were delighted to observe various animals on their art table.They were sharing their ideas about animals, they picked for art-how they help us?What they eat?Where they live?and they we were comparing with each other how does each foot print look like ?

Our Hajj project

Introduced children about "Kabba" ,we have been talking and sharing stories about our Prophet Ibrahim(PBUH) AND HIS sacrifice for Allah Subhanawa'tallah

  Children Started group art activities, painting "Kabah"

 How does "Kabah" look like ?what shape and color is it ? where  is" Kabah"?

 While children were coloring ,we have been talking about what to wear during Hajj-Name is Ihraam ,what color is it?showed picture and video about "Tawaaf"

First week of our learning at sprouts of Iman Childcare and Preschool

 A was busy to match the Arabic  alphabet and  teacher was sitting beside him and saying Alif - Ba

 He was very curious on how to practice inserting the alphabet in the lace.

 Helping to clean up and organize the shelf Mashallah.Block activity not only helped them to learn shapes but also teaching children problem solving,sharing,enhancing their imagination and creativity ,and developing their social skills while working with other children .

 Group activity hand tracing -to make a connection  with each other,to express their feelings,to share and communicate .

 I found that children were interested with cars and adding this block was more fun for the centre activity.

 Tempera paint and brushes on the easel is the most popular activity for some children, beginning the school year.They explore.touch and experiment with different colors.

I Make an Ice-Cream for Mommy

                                       Most popular activity in my Preschool.

                              Children were delighted and excited to play with the Moon Sands.

              Z was carefully scooping the sand and said,"I want to make something".

                             L said ,"I am  making rice for lunch".

                                        Z was really careful not to drop the sand .

                             She was observing what other children were doing?

 I added some marbles to make this activity more interesting for them .

 Z filled the egg cup with the moon sand and made a ball and shouted--"Teacher look what I have made!"

                               She dropped it accidentally and said ,"Oh no it's broken."

She took a long time to scoop the sand again in the egg cup and when she finished ,she said "I made an ice -cream for my Mommy."

Teachers story :
I found that sensory activities in my preschool are really  interesting and engaging for most of my students.Z was distracted that day- she was moving from one activity to another and  was not engaged with any one activity more than one minute.While other children were engaged at the sensory table, I decided to join them and invited Z with me. She joined with me and started to scoop the sand with the ice cream scoop.She was touching it, pouring it from one cup to another.Sometimes attentively observing what other children were doing and trying to follow their activity. I was so surprised to observe that she went to the science table and grabbed some egg cups from there. She filled it with the moon sand and placed it on the table upside down and shouted ,"Teacher look what I made!"She wanted it on her hand,once I helped her to put it on her hand and then she said "I made an ice cream for my  Mommy".

Our Little Architects!

 2:It was amazing to observe a child and his thoughtful style of creating something with the same color and shape

 He was thinking what he should do with three Hexagons?

                                    Teacher I made a tower!

 D picked all red Trapezoids and 1 Green triangle to make a tree.

 M was making a pirate ship and she was taking a long time to set it and match the color as well. Mashallah!

             My boat is sailing

 S decided to make a house for her princess .

Reflection: I often hear, "Children only play at preschool, but I don't see that they bring home any homework or writing from school"-this is a very common comment from parents.

I am an experienced Early Childhood Educator and preschool teacher- yes we do teach children in a fun way, but this is how they learn best.We want to provide the environment where they can have fun, interact with each other,make friends and encourage them to be creative with all the open ended materials. Children learn best from hands-on fun activities.  They do not learn well from worksheets and homework at this age.

The above pictures show some of our last two weeks actively.  As we have a few new children with our older children -it helped for both groups -some of them were learning about basic shapes and colours. On  the other hand, others were creative and thoughtful while they were making something.
It was very interesting to observe them making stories with all the colorful shapes.  They are still interested, so we are continuing with this activity-Mashaallah!

Many Ways To Play With My Blocks

                                                     I am making a building for my dad.

                                           I am making a city

                                           My animal house.

       M just started his preschool this week--he was enjoying stacking the wooden blocks, Mashallah!

                                           I made a boat --

My reflection:
Few new students joined with us this week -so I wanted to keep my classroom activities with simple and open ended materials for both older and new children to explore, communicate, and interact with each other.Today I found out children were more interested to engage with all the wooden blocks.  At the beginning, all of them started to work individually.  I was observing M, he was the youngest one in my class. He was observing carefully what other children were doing and gradually he started to pick up large wooden blocks from the block unit. I was amazed to see the way he stacked each block on the other blocks. He was holding it gently and putting it so that it would not fall on the floor. E told me, "Teacher look at my boat-it is ready to sail now." Z stopped playing at the dramatic play area, joined with E and both of them pushed the wooden boat for sailing. Z decided to add some animals in his creation. Mashallah! I was surprised and amazed to see their unique style of playing with the blocks and it was such nice team work like adults.They were communicating,sharing, and waiting to take turns .

Exploring Lines

H was carefully drawing lines. 

She made little curve with her felt.

                                               They are going to the water Park.

                                        Mama Mermaid, Dada Mermaid and baby Mermaid.

                                         There is a monster.

•My Reflection :

This is a completely new concept for me to encourage children with drawing lines. I was wondering how I can introduce this activity to my preschoolers. What will they do –will they stick to just drawing lines?  Will they scribble or draw something else? It filled all of  my thoughts this wonder and I was curious to observe them. Morning Class –when all of the children came -I sat down with them and on a large paper drew a line with a felt and told them ,”This is a line.” I Also  encouraged them to find some lines from around our class room. They all were excited to find lines –they pointed table edge, poster  , ceiling, door - everywhere they found lines. Once we finished our line hunting adventure, I set the art table with felts and large white paper for each child.

•I was observing all of them and they all were drawing lines carefully .Some of them were interested to change the felt color as well. “H” was using brown felt for her lines-she drew a few lines and told me –Teacher, look, water –I was wondering what she was trying to draw. I said, I can see you drew some lines –I can see that its look like water. She made a little curve with the felt which gave the water little wave .She was changing her felt color, sometimes she picked green and sometimes yellow. She was enthusiastically drawing and took a long time to finish her art. Once she was done, she said—inside the water there are Mama Mermaid, dada mermaid and baby Mermaid. They are  going to the water park .I noticed that all of them were holding hands-she said ,they are holding hands or they will be lost. Finally she drew another figure and said –look this is sea monster-all mermaid need to hide now.