Weekly Update March 6 - Exploring China, Celebrating Dr. Seuss, and the Students Become the Teachers!

Reminders:

• Daylight Saving Time is this Sunday. Don't forget to set your clocks one hour ahead!

• Good Friday - April 3rd NO SCHOOL

• Save the Date: Preschool Prom - Saturday, April 4th - Sign up here:(https://www.signupgenius.com/go/805054BAFA62F4-62748028-foxhill)

• April Vacation Week - NO SCHOOL - April 20-24

• Teacher Professional Development Day - NO SCHOOL - Monday, April 27th

We had our first full week of school in what feels like forever! We were very busy learning all about China, celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday, transforming our dramatic play area into a classroom, and creating beautiful works of art.

Traveling to China: The Year of the Horse

We continue our travels around the world, last week flying to China just in time to celebrate the Chinese New Year which began on February 17th. The children are enjoying learning about the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals which each represent different lunar calendar years. 2026 is the year of the Horse! We talked about and graphed each student's Zodiac animal according to the year they were born. Ask them if they are a Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, or Pig!

To solidify our knowledge of the Zodiac animals, we played a card matching game which strengthens memory and attention span and reinforces turn taking and patience. We played another Zodiac animal matching game where they had to match the animal picture on a clothespin with the correct animal picture on a wheel. Pinching the clothespins really strengthens their finger muscles and pincer grip which are essential to developing the proper pencil grip for writing.

Our sensory tables were filled with strings of yarn for "noodles", chopsticks, and Chinese food containers! The children loved using the chopsticks to pick up the noodles and place them in the containers, more important finger muscle work and hand-eye coordination. In yoga last week, Ms. Erin read the book "The Great Race" by Emily Hiles which tells the Chinese legend of how the 12 Zodiac animals were chosen through a great river race organized by the Jade Emperor. We had fun practicing yoga poses based on the 12 animals and listened to soothing Chinese string instruments during our savasana!

We finished the week creating our own plum blossom trees that are found in China. We rolled balls of clay, stuck sticks into them, then crumpled up small pieces of pink tissue paper and glued them to the sticks. This art project reinforced their fine motor skills in many different ways, from using hand muscles to roll the balls of clay, to improving dexterity by pushing the sticks into the clay, and isolating their finger joints by crumpling small pieces of paper, which fosters the precision needed for penmanship.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Monday March 2nd was Dr. Seuss's birthday! We explored some of his many books through reading, rhyming, and art. We read "The Lorax" and the children designed their own truffula trees using tongs and tweezers to pinch beautifully colored fluffy balls and place them on laminated pictures of trees. We read "There's a Wocket in my Pocket!", a silly tongue twisting book of rhymes, and separated pictures of letters and numbers by putting them in the correctly labeled pocket. Knowing our letter sounds was very helpful in distinguishing letters from numbers.

Our art project was inspired by "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish." The children painted either red or blue stripes on a white piece of paper. Then, using an art technique called monoprinting, each child painted a rubber fish the color of their choosing and pressed a white piece of paper onto the painted fish, transferring their creations onto the paper! We then mounted the cut out fish onto the Dr. Seuss inspired striped paper. For yoga, we read "Ten Apples Up on Top" and practiced our balancing skills, stacking beanbags on our heads while trying to do yoga poses!

Dramatic Play: The Students Become The Teachers!

Our Tigers (downstairs) Dramatic Play area was transformed into a classroom at the request of the children! The classroom is complete with an attendance board, chalkboards and chalk, and even a couple of teacher pointer sticks! It has been so endearing watching them act as the teachers, take attendance, and direct lessons! They have done an impressive job of taking turns and sharing the materials with each other. Perhaps we have some future Fox Hill School teachers on our hands!