Day Two In PreK....

What an incredible day! The children entered the classroom confident, relaxed and very ready to begin their day with their new friends in PreK. We sensed a comfort level from the children and their involvement and work today reflected a wonderful sense of well being and adjustment. We have tried to capture the day for you through photographs of some of the activities the children were involved with throughout the day. The classroom was truly "alive" and it was so heartwarming to observe the connections and joy the children experienced as they explored their new classroom and began to make connections with each other as well as with their teachers.







































































 

The flow of the day was truly organic.  The children weaved their way through the classroom learning areas exploring the new and interesting materials.  The children were very drawn to to our Art Studio and at all times today children were observed working with playdough, markers and collage materials to make 'scrapebooks' in a very social setting.  The Dramatic Play area again, was quite a popular spot and the children explored the dress up clothing and engaged in creative imaginative play using all of the fun kitchen and baby props.  It appears that we have creative and  enthusiastic block builders!  The collaborative work that we observed today in the block areas was amazing!!  Children listened to each other's ideas and the area was full of conversation and joy!

We had a surprise visit from a very special friend today!  Nancy Stevens, administrative assistant to Rich Nourie, stopped by to meet our children and to share her collection of gold buttons with us.  After visiting our classroom last week, Nancy was so excited to see our Art Studio and  realized she had a collection of gold buttons  that she thought the children may enjoy working with in the studio.  The children enjoyed meeting Nancy and  had the opportunity to make a  personal connection and begin to experience our larger AFS community.  We learned that Nancy has grandchildren and that she loves to read books to children and spends lots of time making quilts.  Nancy invited us to visit with her in Upper School and promised  to visit with us next week to read in our classroom. 

 

Annabelle and Miranda were very interested in exploring the gold buttons.  After handling the buttons for a few minutes, they decided to take paper from the Print Center and sorted the gold buttons by shape.  They counted as they sorted and compared the different groups of buttons.  What a meaningful math experience to emerge from this unexpected visit! 

We visited with Gwen, our Lower School librarian today an had a brief tour of the library.  The children loved the the many puppets and books that Gwen showed them and were excited to listen to a story in the beautiful Lower School Library!  Gwen read the book  Paddington to the children and this time spent was a wonderful first connection. We will be visiting the library regularly during our 7 day schedule and the children will  be able to borrow books. 

Our day was wonderful and we look forward to sharing this year with all of our new families.