Seeds Grow

We have been  learning about plants for the past two weeks. It was a huge and interesting  topics to covered with the preschoolers.  I encouraged the children to collect seeds and branches from home and outside while we were walking. We were sharing our thoughts and ideas about seeds and fruit when we were having our morning and afternoon snacks. Planting is a very interesting activity for most of the children.They feel valued and respectful when they have the opportunity to engage with this practical activity. I grabbed some Mung bean from my home and saved some avocado seeds for our science experiments in the classroom. Once I placed them with the magnifying glasses,Alhamdulillah, it was amazing to observe  how excited and curious the children were.They were putting the seeds in the cup with soaked cotton balls, they also buried the seeds inside the pot with soil.  All of them were so excited to pour water into the pot. They were sharing their ideas about what they have in their back yards, what they have seen in the garden, what kind of fruit they love to eat, etc. I asked who created all the plants for us, and they said Allah!

Rainbow Butterfly

 1:Children have been learning about butterflies and their life cycle.

 2:We extended this to the art activity and discussed about the Butterfly's Body parts.

 3:Children were observant and creative while they were designing their Butterfly.

 4:Some children decided they needed to add antenna, so we grabbed pipe cleaners from our art cupboard.

5:One child explained that his Butterfly was so happy because we had a Sunny Day.

Spring is coming soon, Mashaallah, so many Caterpillar were at the outdoor play area .Children were curious about their body parts,what they eat, and how they grow. We created the learning environment where children can investigate,observe, explore, and can get all the answer they were curious about. We started our discussion about who created butterflies and how they help us.  Also, why we need to be kind to the the creation of Allah.

Children were adventures to find what is inside the butterfly body.  How they use their wings, why their wing are too soft. We tried to answered their question by reading a book, showing the video clip about butterfly life cycle, and also we did some movements to show how the butterfly flap their wings-Alhamdulillah  Allah created a beautiful world for us. When we extended it to the art activity, I observed that children were curious and creative when they were decorating their butterfly .They wanted to colour it with various felt pens. They also wanted to glue it with the pipe cleaner and I was amazed when one child asked me to provide glitter for her "Rainbow Butterfly", Subhanallah .

Group Projects

We are working on Group Projects that have more than one step- and take more than one class to complete. Our goals are to build cognitive understanding of project sequences, team-work, cooperation, problem solving skills and creativity- also motor skills, but that is a positive 'side-effect' of our activities.

The children are delighted to work on a project for their outdoor space. Stay tuned to see the finished project once it inshallah is hanging in our outdoor space.

They are also working on a mural, but this is more about the PROCESS than the product, as this activity if full of learning that may not be as evident in the product- understanding shapes and attempting to cut them out (a challenge for young children), sharing work space, following a sequence, creativity, scissor skills, gluing, working with different material, and so on...