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!

Money and Math

 1:Children were learning about Canadian Currency .

 2:They were counting how much they had and sharing their thoughts to with each other.

 3:I added paper money with the coins.

 4:They were planning what they would buy with their money.

 5:Some of them were already familiar with the terms - Dime-Tooney-Looney.

6:One child said he wants to be a Banker.

I wanted to provide something interesting for the children's math activity.We had been focusing on using shapes puzzles, colour sorting , and shapes with various objects from September until now. When I set up my little classroom corner with Canadian currency, I was joy-filled to observed the children enthusiastically interacting with each other and with the money.They decided to move the money to the dramatic play area where we had a grocery store and cash box.They were selling the veggie and coffee -and taking turns to use the cash box.

Learning About Weight and Balance

A hands-on exploration into math concepts...

We presented the children with the boxed scale.  We looked at the box's pictures and words, asking the children question about what could be inside. "What do you see in the picture? What do you think might be inside?  What do you think it might be used for?"  Then we explored the scale, introducing the idea of weigh, balance and math vocabulary. 

I wonder what weighs more- A real or a plastic banana? 

 What happens when you add other items to the scale?

I wonder which side has more- Lets count together...

Which one feels heavier to you?

Does a train weigh more or less than plastic fruit?  This side is lighter.

I wonder how many items it takes to make them even- balanced?  

In case you are wondering...The real banana weighs more?

No bananas were harmed in the process of this exploration.  The children were great at being very gentle. :)-