Special Guests

Special guests are a great way for us to bring the community to us and show the kids a good time. They enjoy having an extracurricular activity during the day. We have multiple regular guests that we welcome monthly and other guests that we invite for special themes or occasions.

 

Big Motor Time

Outdoor play is crucial for big motor development in children. Weather permitting, each classroom is out and about twice a day. Whether they are running laps, playing with chalk, using the play structure and equipment or riding bikes, they are using big muscles and getting the exercise they need to grow! 

 

Learning Facial Expressions

Learning how someone is feeling through their facial expressions begins at birth. Children start to pick up on faces, tone and speech and learn from these. Once they are a bit older, they too start to play with their own expressions in many fun ways. Once these feelings are put together with facial expressions, they can become quite funny to watch! Whether they are happy, silly, surprised or mad, finding the right one takes some practice. 

 

Back To School Art

Back to school crafts are a huge hit this week! Our PreK students were using color block paint to make school buses this morning. Using their own vision of what a school bus looks like and then making it come to life on paper with their paintbrush. This is a great activity for all ages to build their imagination and comprehension of ideas. 

 

Strong Circle Time

 Strong circle times are a key way to start their day! Having a class activity where they are being introduced to new material, or practicing previous material together helps with their encouragement and team work. Preschool 3 was pointing out their letter sounds within a sentence and using the help of their classmates if needed. 

Lego Stamping

Toddlers were busy doing Lego stamping for "Let's Build It" week. Using their imaginations and crazy intuitions to make masterpieces! Handling different textured object, especially using them to paint, is important for their motor skills and creativity. We love to see how different each painting becomes! 

 

Under The Sea

 

It is under the sea week at Academy of Seaboard Lane! Our Infant 2 class is really loving the feel (and taste) or our ocean sensory buckets. We used blue Jell-o and made our very own ocean to explore the animals in. More of them dug right in and once they figure out it also tasted good, they were even more eager to dig out the whales, sharks, start fish and other ocean friends. Using sensory buckets with this young age group is essential for their small motor development and they allow them to explorer more than one sense at a time through hands-on play. Who doesn't love an activity they can eat! 

Elephant Toothpaste for Circus Week

Pre-K 2 wanted to incorporate animals into their science this week with..  ELEPHANT TOOTHPASTE! Science experiments are so much fun outside, making a mess! Talking to the kids about the ingredients, the reactions, the hypothesis, and then watching it all unfold is a great way to keep their curiosity engaged at this age. We ca not wait to see what else they will come with this summer! 

 

Sensory Paint

Sensory art at this age is a fantastic way to engage their senses and foster creativity. You can use materials like colored rice, sand, puffy paint, or water beads for them to explore. Finger paints, playdough and textured papers are also great options. Always remember to supervise and keep a close eye on this age, curiosity gets the best of them!

 

Big Motor Skills

Big, giant, enormous motor skills! Intentional outdoor play is vital for physical and emotional growth. Infant 4 was busy this morning with tunnel peek-a-boo. Learning to navigate something new, watching others' turn and repeating a new skill are all great ways to develop big motor muscles and build trust.  

 

The Sweetest of All Circle Times

Circle time in our Infant Three looked like this today! They were busy with Frog Street curriculum, learning baby signs and singing songs with Ms. Hilda. Spending time outside is great for building observation skills and has a positive effect on focus, skills they will use ongoing.  

 

Building New Relationships

Sometimes when a new child enroll, it is likely it is their first experience with other children their age or at all. We love to see the different interactions throughout the day between the babies. Although they do not have the skill to speak yet, they are still communicating with each other through play and actions. When they connect with each other this way, they build the necessary responses they need to carry on relationships at all ages. 

 

Moving a Skill from Learning to Memory

The masters at color sorting are in Preschool 3 today! They are practicing not only their colors but also their counting. Doing simple worksheets like this daily will drastically improve these skills at this age. The only way to move these skills from learning, to memory, is to practice!