Last week was the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Week of the Young Child, celebrating children, families, and teachers. Each day, we had a different theme. In one classroom on Music Monday, we created our instruments with plates and pasta and learned about the Australian Symphony. On Tasty Tuesday, we used milk and food coloring to make our paint to create rainbow toast. We learned how to work together on Wednesday by building forts in our classroom. The children decided independently to work together to make an igloo. For Artsy Thursday, we set up tables with three different art materials. The tables consisted of crayons, paint, and stamps with ink pads. We took turns at each table by playing musical art tables and changing stations when the music stopped while continuing to listen to the Australian symphony. To incorporate what we learned from Tuesday, we also practiced mixing colors during our Artsy Thursday. Every time the children switched tables, they worked together to add to the previous group's work, continuing our lessons from Work Together Wednesday. To finish the Week of the Young Child, we participated in the Born Ready pledge and invited all our families to Kite Day. We enjoyed dancing, playing musical chairs, and building highways and fancy towers in our other classrooms. Some enjoyed dressing up in dramatic play and listening to our special guest, Ms. Glenda, from the lunchroom. She told them how she prepared food for our school and was invited to their tea party. We also made a "pretend" pizza with our rhythm sticks. It was a special week for these special children. It's always fun in Pre-K!
