Beginners

A favorite spot for our little ones is the one by the window! They love to stand and look out at the world going by. We will focus their attention this month on the birds and their activities. We will hang up bird feeders and bird houses and then we will mimic all things bird. We will make nests, count eggs and sing a sweet song with our friends. Watch as the rooms turn green in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day when green play dough, green shaving cream and even some Leprechaun treasure will appear.

- March 4 – 8 –We’ve heard that birds of a feather flock together so we will be sorting bird feathers by colors and counting out eggs to match up with nests we may even build some nests of our own over in the block area.
- March 11 – 15 – We will be making a beautiful bird collage as the children practice tearing bird pictures out of magazines and gluing them on our large class mural. If you have any magazines with bird pictures you don’t want send them in!
- March 18 – 22 – The Leprechauns are coming and everything we do seems to be turning green as we make an paint our own shamrocks and make cool St. Patrick’s Day necklaces from green, glitter play dough.
- March 25 – 28 – This week’s cooking project is for the birds…literally! We will be making homemade bird seed treats with bread, peanut butter and bird seed. When we finish that we will make some kid seed treats with toast, sunflower seeds and raisins.

As adults, we become blasé about the changing seasons. Spring has followed winter for all the many years of our lives. We have no doubt that, again this year, the sun will shine, flowers will bloom, and the birds will sing. Young children still observe the change in their environment with awe, anticipation and suspense.

We will encourage them this month to utilize their observations in drawing conclusions about the irreversible laws of nature. As always we will capitalize on this interest in their environment to present developmentally appropriate learning experiences. We will investigate birds with great enthusiasm. What do they eat? Where do they live? How do they affect us? How are they different from mammals?

Beginners will use pictures of birds and related objects to increase their vocabulary. Balls will provide a lot of fun and improve coordination as children practice rolling, throwing, and kicking balls. Teachers will encourage the children to develop listening skills until they can follow two or more directions. To improve their fine motor control, the children will work at putting objects into a container (great preparation for putting away toys) and working with both interlocking and non-interlocking puzzles.

Preschool children will emphasize scissor skills. Children are first taught to hold scissors correctly, then to snip, cut a straight line, a curved line, and then detail. Encouragement is given all along the way to mastery of this difficult skill. We will also stress the importance of developing independence as they learn

to button, zip, and snap those new spring jackets before they go outside to work on bouncing and catching balls. In a more academic mode the children will be finding objects that are related by function, reviewing and reinforcing color skills, including recognizing color words for some of the older children. Children will also participate in activities related to the alphabet, days of the week, and seasons.