As we rock and roll our way into the new academic year, teachers and children spend the first month really getting to know each other to make transitions easier for everyone. But we quickly dove into our everyday activities! For the next two months we will be studying the country Turkey. Children have been learning Turkish songs during music class and working hard hard learning about Turkey!
Our music teacher Phil is having the babies explore musical instruments; they feel the vibrations on the strings of the guitar, as well as pluck them. He also showed them different sounds on the guitar!
Outdoor music with Phil, getting the last of the summer in!
Painting apples for Fall, we love exploring paint with our hands!
Our younger toddlers practiced many practical life works such as washing animals, pouring and filling up containers with materials that hold water. They also enjoyed experimenting by mixing primary colors together in the sensory buckets!
Toddler children really enjoyed their new math activities; they worked on fine hand coordination, counting and identifying numbers by filling up different sized containers to see how many would fit in each one. They dump the numbers out and try again as many times as they like which makes it so fun!
Practicing separating shapes on the peg board using a set of knobbed cylinders. This is great for coordination, fine motor and learning about different proportions!
We took advantage of story time this month and loved interacting with the teachers and singing along to the heritage song book collection!
Our older toddlers thoroughly enjoyed making marble paintings, based on our Turkish cultural unit. They worked together to prepare the sensory activity and added all the materials together, then carefully mixed it with a popsicle stick to see the marble effect! They made their paintings and the results were beautiful. 
The marble effect.
Toddlers continued their practical life works by helping prepare some mashed potatoes together!
Outdoor playtime!
Preschoolers were busy bees this month acclimating themselves to their new classroom. During this time newer children learn through the Montessori grace and courtesy curriculum about classroom expectations and focus on practical life activities, while the older children continue their learning from the previous year. Children practiced rolling rugs, walking on a line and around mats, dressing themselves, serving water and snack, flower arranging and many other things.
Practicing cutting
Preparing morning snack
A trip to the library
They have been enjoying drumming with Alice and Yoga/movement classes with Kimberly too. They are also learning sign language during circle time. In one of the classrooms children looked at Turkish art and talked about the colors shapes and designs they noticed. Based on the photos, they made paintings, colorings and also worked on some mosaic designs.
Working on mosaics
Children were introduced to an Abacus this month and they loved used it for many different things! They practiced their counting, made different repeating patterns, learned about even numbers as well as counting by tens.
Making patterns with the Abacus
Children have been practicing their Turkish songs with Ms Nesli, our teacher who is from Turkey! She practices the songs with them in turkish while explaining their meanings and also discussed the history of the Turkish flag and many other things.
Using bells in the music center
We read many books and spent a lot of time exploring the outdoors during this last month, observing the changes from summer to Fall and began working on Fall themed activities.
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