Children's Center Preschool Serving the Los Feliz, Hollywood, Silverlake , Atwater communities
  • Monthly Classroom Themes

  • May20

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    The Bug Fair Provided Great Specimens

    Posted in: Monthly Classroom Themes

    The Bug Fair last weekend at the Natural History Museum was a happy hunting ground for Ty. Armed with a list from the children and her own special interests, Ty spent Sunday gathering wonderful specimens for the kids.

    As the children came in to the classroom, silkworms greeted them from their mulberry leaves. They were busily munching and, it turns out, they eat alot.  With their hand magnifiers and gentle touch, the children watched and explored as the worms ate, pooped, and slept. Everyone laughed at their sleeping position, laid out flat with their head lifted up. We tried to do that  but it’s hard to do for very long. Over the next two days, the worms ate their way through many leaves and they have grown bigger. Even though we have a big bag of leaves in the refrigerator to keep them happy, we may be out searching for a mulberry tree in Griffith Park that I heard about years ago. We expect them to move into our caterpillar’s old home in about two weeks to create their cocoons.

    The other table held a wonderful array of beetles and butterflies mounted for viewing. After lots of looking, the children used the drawing tools to create their own bug display. Representing what they see in drawing is an important developmental step for 3-5 year olds. When a child substitutes an image for a real thing, she is developing the skills to understand representational and symbolic language in written form.  Early man started with petroglyphs to share how he saw the natural world. Over time, a symbolic language was created to share these complex images and ideas. When, as teachers, we label the drawings, we are helping the child to complete the link between  the real object, the representation of it , and the symbolic language that stands for it.

    A delightful book about ants was read at circle, Bug Safari by Bob Barner (2004). The story is about a little boy who follows the travels ( safari) of ants on their way to somewhere unknown; he is on his way back to a base camp and a picnic. As the ants encounter many different terrains,bugs, and small animals along the way, the ant population does get a bit smaller. But the boy is surprised to find that the ants and he are both going to the same picnic all along. And the ants are invited!

    Circle ended with a march of children( from a book The Ants Go Marching by Berniece Freschet ( 1973)) pretending to be ants, munching, crunching, climbing, hunching down, and meeting other bugs as they made their way to their own ant hill home.

  • May18

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    At Last, the Crystals Grew

    Posted in: Monthly Classroom Themes, science

    After John Gibbon came and shared his wonderful crystals, the children mixed up two batches of crystal making liquid. The first was a saturated brew of sugar and warm water, stirred until no sugar remained undissolved. The second was warm water and salt. We poured them into clear containers and waited for the crystals to grow. And waited. And waited, And waited. Periodically, one of the children would look at us and announce, it still just looks like water. Are they really going to grow crystals? The first encouraging sign came at the bottom of the salt crystal container.Hard to see with the naked eye, but we could see them with the hand magnifier, crystals. Very encouraging. Over the days, as we talked about evaporation, the crystals grew. The sugar crystals came together more dramatically; once they got going, there were some good sized chunks of crystals to see. So we are happy to announce- We Have Crystals!

  • May11

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    The Garden Journal Continued

    Posted in: From the Director, Monthly Classroom Themes, The Garden

    While the nights are still cool, the weather seems to be changing now. The kids are arriving in layers of clothes and as the day warms up, the layers come off and the water tables fill up. All of our garden seed packets say “plant when the evening temperatures stay above 50 degrees and the days are warm”.

    Perfect! It is time for us to plant. The green beans and the English cucumbers were the most fun because the children used their fingers to poke holes in the ground, put one seed in , and cover it up. The trellises that we used for the peas are ready for them. We continued to poke holes to plant the nasturtiums, plants we hope will spill down from our big containers and fill the yard with yellow, ruby , and rust flowers. The cherry tomato plant goes in this afternoon; it already has some flowers, a tomato eager to spread its seed.

    We have a packet of baby pumpkins that should be so fun when they ripen in the fall. 10 little fingers can push the dirt up into a hill and put in the  5 seeds. We will thin it to one plant; it should love the heat of our garden area.

    The lemon is finally looking like a real lemon tree. It had so many bad experiences being eaten by deer in my garden. It must be thrilled to finally get to grow. We are checking for flowers and the start of lemons.

    Watering is a daily activity. Without the children’s water, they will quickly wilt. The children are learning to check to see if the plants need them..

    The birds are waiting for me to stop writing and refill their feeder. We have five different kinds of birds and there is an unending parade of hungry eaters. At first the children noticed them every time they arrived, but like anything that happens all the time, it takes a good noise from one of them or a disagreement to get the kids’ attention. The children have watched as the birds learn how to wait on the fence and the wall until it is their turn. “Just like our waiting chair” some one announced.

    The birds are calling and the watering is not yet done; I have the good fortune of going back into the garden again.

  • Mar17

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    Family Green Morning!

    Posted in: Family events, Monthly Classroom Themes, Projects

    This St. Patrick’s Day, the parents and children joined together in another family gathering, the kind we have every month or so. We began the morning dressed in green and sampling kiwi, green grapes, and honey dew melon. Leaves in different shades of green were painted and added to our “classroom tree”; that tree mirrors our deciduous outside tree that burst into leaf this week. We also made wonderful “green ” collages using the recycled materials.

    The ending was a great retelling of Green Eggs and Ham. Each child chose a book page representing one of the items in the book- a fox, a box, a mouse,a house, etc. and the parents were the “Greek”chorus- “I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them Sam I Am”. Regular family gatherings give parents a shared school experience  with their child and create opportunities for parents to know each other better. This sense of  shared community is an important part of our school.

  • Mar4

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    Fire fighters & their truck visit our preschool

    Posted in: Monthly Classroom Themes, Weekly Happenings in the School

    Today was very exciting at the preschool- the fire truck and the fire fighters came to visit. We had been planning for a visit from the fire department and were ready with our questions. For example, How do you come into a building when it is on fire? Why do you have a bell at the station? Does your dog, Sparky, save the animals?

    They arrived at 10 am with the hose truck and 4 fire fighters. First, they showed us how they suit up and prepare to go into a fire. The fire fighter added his oxygen tank and face mask and became unrecognizable. He told the kids  that if they ever saw him like this in a fire that he was there to help them. He reminded them not to run away from them and to yell for help so he could hear them. Read More | Comments

  • Mar3

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    A Doctor in the House

    Posted in: Monthly Classroom Themes, Weekly Happenings in the School

    This week has seen a lot of activity in the “doctor’s office”.

    Numerous patients in the form of bears, dolls, children and teachers have been given medical attention and good care. The children have acted out  many of their  experiences using stethoscopes, reflex hammers, bandages, and thermometers and talked about shots, check ups, sick grandparents, and worries about someone dying. We also enjoyed  the doctor who listened to my complaint of a broken ankle and then announced sadly that her office didn’t fix ankles so I would have to hop across the street to a different hospital.(Health care reform, anyone?)

  • Feb18

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    Post office & Doctors-Children’s Life & Community

    Posted in: Monthly Classroom Themes, Weekly Happenings in the School

    Valentine’s Day was the natural beginning to a study of the post office and mail delivery. So we set up a mini post office with a mail slot for each child. Children wrote cards and letters, drawings and designs; they delivered them to each other. 

    Our favorite book was The Giant Hug, in which a hug is delivered across the country by the many workers (as cute animals) at the post office. Letter writing will remain a part of our curriculum throughout the year.

    We are moving now to doctors and hospitals.  Several of our children and their family members have been ill, seen the doctor,  and had tests. Our curriculum often emerges from the children lives and interests. Our  housekeeping/dramatic play area will be partially converted into a doctor’s office/ hospital. Through their play, our children will work through their experiences and their worries. As we read books and tell stories, we will give  our children information to help them make sense of those experiences.

  • Jan18

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    Families and Cultures

    Posted in: Monthly Classroom Themes

    What do China, Italy, Sweden, Mexico, Thailand, Croatia, The Philippines, Guatemala, and Ireland have in common?

    Some of our children! They are the  2nd generation children of families who reflect the cultural diversity of these  countries of  origin. We have a wonderfully diverse group and we celebrate the richness of their backgrounds.

    This month we are studying families.  Our picture pages on the wall show photographs of the children with their parents, siblings, grandparents, and important others.  We are creating family trees and will mark the map to show the many places that family members came from.  As always, food will be a part of things as we try selections from these different countries.  Cultural experiences in music, dance, and art will add to the celebration of our diversity.

    This process opens the door to conversations that embrace both our differences and our similarities.  Our goal is to go beyond teaching tolerance.  We want to develop an appreciation of one another by learning more about each other and the value of our cultural heritage.  As children develop a respect and a recognition that different often means something interesting and good, they are becoming better prepared to  participate fully in the diversity of the larger world they are soon to enter.

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