A Glimpse into our Week in Room 42

September 15-19

Grace, Alyssa and Angelina used the texture blocks to build an, Ocean Palace. The girls were
pretending to be mermaids. Grace was the baby, Sofia, Alyssa was the sister, Ariel and Ange-
lina was the mommy, Ana. They demonstrated an awareness of their own personal interest and
sense of accomplishment in drama.

Dominic, Lily and Hasan used the wooden blocks to build a car track. They worked together to
build the track across the carpet. They then used the cars to drive across the track. They
used team work and communication as they worked together, demonstrating the ability to take
turns and share while engaging in their play activity.

Lana, Abby, Sophie and Esma were independently sorting the coloured teddy bears and trans-
portation manipulatives. Esma sorted all the teddy bears into blue, yellow and red. Sophie sort-
ed the teddy bears by size and said the bears were, big, small and little. Abby lined up the
vehicles side by side sorting them by type. The children developed their mathematic skills and
knowledge by sorting and comparing the objects as well as describing their attributes.

Alex, Fauzan and Mariana enhanced their science awareness as they used the internet to re-
search information about snails. They discovered what a snail needs and at their nutrition
break they collected various items such as leaves, rocks and sticks. Once inside we got a plastic
container and Fauzan and Alex set up the snails habitat. The children identified ways in which
they could care for and show respect for the environment and living things.

Eyad, Landon and Maki coloured pictures to make a book. They used their imagination and crea-
tivity as they used crayons to illustrate their books. Landon created a story about Ninja Tur-
tles and Maki drew a picture of different houses in the world. They both labelled their pic-
tures with the corresponding words. Landon and Maki practiced sounding out and properly
printing their letters, building on their knowledge of the correspondence between letters and
sounds.

Dylan and Olivia utilized problem-solving skills and their imagination to create visual art forms
by using various art materials such as paper, pencil crayons, pom poms, pipe cleaners, googly
eyes and coloured craft sticks to make snails. They each used their creativity and fine motor
skills to design and glue the different materials together to create their very own unique snail.



Liyana and Saleem explored with the magnets enhancing their science awareness and property
of various materials. They went on a magnet hunt to see what the magnets stuck to through-
out the classroom. The children conducted their own investigation and made predictions and
observations before and during. They discovered that the magnets stuck to the table chairs,
metal rings and cookie sheets, but not to the plastic toys, shelves or sensory tables.

Darius and William used the Mobilo and Duplo to construct their creations while using the de-
sign process. They used their creativity, fine and gross motor skills as the stacked and con-
nected the materials. Darius built a large tower with metal on it. He said there was a heater
and air conditioner in it. William built an aircraft carrier. He pretended it flew overhead as he
mimicked the sound it made.

Kendra, Olivia and Victoria took turns and used teamwork to put together the train tracks
along the circumference of the carpet. We did it together, Olivia cheered. They set up the
stations, street signs and forests. They connected the trains and drove them from one end of
the track to the other. The children communicated and recorded their results and findings af-
ter constructing the train tracks as a group.

Jordan and Matthew explored their senses as they manipulated the play dough. They used
their hands to roll the play dough into different sizes. Matthew made a snail and Jordan made
a baby snail. They compared their snails and categorized them according to size; small, medium
and big.

In pretend play, children use language and thinking skills to compare, plan, investigate materi-
als, problem solve, experiment, negotiate, and evaluate. Engaging in pretend play also supports
childrens development of self-regulation and subsequently strengthens their ability to learn
through engaging with people and resources in their environment.
The Full-Day Early Learning-Kindergarten Program Draft Version, 2010-11, page 70.