News from Miss Maria November This Week’s Concepts This Week... We learned last week how soldiers protect us and help our country. For the rest of November we will be learning about other important people in our community that help us every day. We began our unit with a together time smartboard activity with Miss Barb’s Class. We had a discussion about people around us who help us. We viewed pictures of familiar community helpers such as doctors, police officers, and firefighters. We looked at their uniforms and discussed the various components. We identified hats (and talked about whether they were hard or soft), jackets, boots, badges, and coats, and stethoscopes. Then we discussed how these special people help us each day in our communities. This week we had a very special opportunity. Miss Amy’s husband is a firefighter and she brought in his gear for the students to explore! During together time students examined various parts of the uniform and had fun trying it on. We learned that a firefighter’s hat is very hard and that his coat is very heavy. We learned that his boots stay inside of his pants so that he can get dressed very quickly. Students learned about the different vehicles that some community helpers use. We learned that police drive in a police car and that it has lights and sirens. We learned that a fire truck has a ladder to help firefighters climb into tall buildings. We also learned that fire trucks have lights and sirens as well. Young children learn to make sense of their environment and what they have learned through play. This week in our class we helped to support our students by modeling pretend play schemes such as a visit to the doctor and riding inside of a fire truck! Pretend play also helps children with problem solving, understanding of spacial concepts, speech, and social skills. 3’s Week ending November Learning Centers Cars/blocks: Bus tent, wooden and cardboard blocks, community helper figurines, trucks, cars, community center, doll houses Feeling Table: rice, amber colored leaves and pumpkins, shovels Math Center: Tangrams Dramatic Play: Doctor’s Office/Workbench Playdoh Center: Black Playdoh Writing Center: Chalk, crayons, markers, dry erase boards, paper Quiet Cozy Reading Center: plush couch, bean bag, books, stuffed animals Jefferson Early Childhood Center 130 N. Hazelton Ave. Wheaton, IL Math: Completing AB Patterns, Sorting Objects by color Color of the Month: Brown Literacy: Turing individual pages of books, pointing to named pictures in books Social/Emotional: Pretend play skills Vocabulary: Big, Little, On Top, Inside, firefighter, police office, dentist, boots, stripes, hard, heavy, badge, coat, sirens, ladder Upcoming Events November 18 th through 24 th – Bucks for Books Reading November 25 th through 29 th – NO SCHOOL Thanksgiving Recess Tuesday, December 3 rd School Resumes Thanks so much for all you do! Have a great weekend! ~Maria