Dear Parents,

Welcome to the Barnyard Buddies!  We had a great first week of school!  This week we had a nice, slow transition into the classroom routines and expectations.  It is a big transition from spending time at home to six hours of school, so we're introducing new activities one day at a time and building up the duration and expectations over the next few weeks.  

We spent a lot of time this week bonding with our students, engaging in quality interaction time, and exploring various toys and items in the classroom.  Vraj found some new favorite toys, like the flower chime garden and the Mini-lite box.  Ryan loved our new flower chime garden too, but the Mozart cube is still his favorite! Josh's favorite toys were the Baby Einstein drum and the Push and Spin ball popper.  On Wednesday, we had our very first Morning meeting! We practiced waving hello by using handkerchiefs and singing a song.  We played with mirrors to see who came to school, we woke up our senses by listening to bells, smelling lemons, tasting spoons, looking at lights, and touching leis.  Vraj and Ryan loved smelling the lemon scent!  Josh's favorite was touching the lei.  And finally, we did our weather song, where we felt water from a spray bottle (rain), watched a flashlight (sun), tracked cotton balls (clouds), and felt the wind from a fan.  

We also introduced story time on Tuesday.  Our stories are "sensory stories".  They incorporate tactile (touch), olfactory (smell), visual and auditory exploration in our themed stories.  We are starting out with our All About Me/Family unit.  This week we read Going on a Bear Hunt, where a family encounters all kinds of nature while the look for a bear.  We felt grass, mud (playdoh), a felt and smelled a forest (sticks and leaves), water, and a snowstorm (pompoms).  Then at the very end, we saw and heard the bear!! (from our ipad).  Josh and Ryan liked listening to and touching the rustling grass, but Vraj LOVED splashing in the water, so much so that he got all the teachers wet!!  

We made lots of new friends in other classrooms at playground time.  The other kids are very eager to interact with our Barnyard Buddies.  Josh had some new friends take turns pushing him around the playground and showed him all our new playground equipment!  Vraj and Ryan had some new friends push them on the swings.  Ryan had some friends from last year who were VERY excited when they saw him in the hallways this week!  


We were so busy having fun and bonding with our new students, that we completely forgot to take pictures!  So stay tuned for next week's blog, and I'll include some then.  We can't wait for Week 2!

-The Barnyard Buddies