Nursery I April Newsletter By Rachel, Brooke, and Emma

Sensory This month, the children have been very interested in the sensory table! We have filled our classroom’s sensory table with sand and hidden extra large letters throughout it for the children to find. Along with that, they have access to materials such as cups, funnels and spoons for scooping the sand in and out of. Not only is the sensory table fun for the students, but it is also enhancing many of their developmental skills. By engaging in sensory table play, the children are enhancing their social and emotional development. Allowing the children of Nursery 1 to be in complete control of their actions and experiences creates this confidence for them in decision-making. They are able to interact with other students by communicating about things such as sharing a certain material in the table, what they find in the sand, etc. Along with social and emotional development, the sensory table is keying into the physical development of children. They are able to use and strengthen their fine motor skills by mixing the sand together, measuring it into the funnel and scooping the sand in and out of the cups! The children have had a blast exploring the aspects of the sensory table this past month and we look forward to introducing new materials as we head into our last few weeks of school!

MovementIt has been a long and cold winter. Due to weather conditions keeping us inside, we’ve been incorporating more movement into our indoor activities in the Nursery I classroom. For one activity, we covered the table in paper and put out rollers with paint. During this activity, the children were able to walk around the table while creating various designs using the rollers and paint. We have also been bringing the mini trampoline into the classroom. This allows the children to work on their gross motor skills. At this age, children are beginning to feel more in control of their bodies and more comfortable taking physical risk. Movement helps children learn about their bodies and spatial awareness. Activities with

movement involved also encourage children to work on their gross motor development, such as jumping, skipping, hopping. Movement is an essential part of development, which is why we have been bringing it into more activities in the Nursery I classroom.

StorytellingThis semester the children have been learning how

to develop their ideas into stories that can be carried out through a beginning, middle, and end. Over the past couple of weeks we have noticed that the children have been communicating their ideas more frequently and coming up with stories to go along with the specific activity that they are working on at the time, and our goal has been to cultivate those ideas to construct creative, thoughtful, and detailed storytelling. In particular, the children have been highly fascinated with trains and they have been constructing stories about them, where they are going on them, and who plays what role on the train.Storytelling is a common occurrence in early

childhood. Children are developing and communicating the ideas that they have acquired about the world and the way that it works. Based on

the National Association of Education for Young Children, storytelling supports language and enhances cognitive development by allowing the children to use a higher level of thinking, exercise the concept of ordering, and practice their current language skills with teachers and peers. Developing complex stories encourages children to gain a repertoire of new words and ideas, nurture social and emotional skills by interacting with others, and create stories with purpose and meaning.

Important Dates:April 30th @ 11:00 Family PotluckMay 7th Last day of Nursery I