The Red Riding Hood Sequencing

Activity: 

Over the past few days we worked on sequencing the story of Little Red Riding Hood.  As the children became more familiar with the story, they were able to sequence the story and narrate what was happening in each picture.  

Purpose: 

• develop reading comprehension skills
• develop sequencing skills
• develop understanding of ordinal language (first, next and last)

Connection to the Lpfö-

The preschool should strive to see that each child develops....

his/her intrest written language and understanding of symbol and how they are used to convey information

Red Riding Hood Hide and Seek

Activity:

For the past week or so, we have been reading the story Little Red Riding Hood. We have read Swedish and English versions. The children acted out the story of Little Red Riding hood, by dressing up as the characters and playing hide and seek in the forest.  Everyone was very eager to have turn to be the wolf.

Purpose:

• reinforce learning of story grammar (i.e., characters and setting) of a story in a fun and interactive way
• develop pretend play skills

Connection to the Lpfö-

“I lek får barnen möjlighet att imitera, fantisera och bearbeta intryck. På så sätt kan de bilda sig en uppfattning om sig själva och andra människor. Lek stimulerar fantasi och inlevelse. Lek kan också utmana och stimulera barnens motorik, kommunikation, samarbete och problemlösning samt förmåga att tänka i bilder och symboler.”

Yoga In The Park

Veenu is a yoga instructor brought from India by the Indian Embassy of Stockholm to spread the yoga practice in Sweden.  We are lucky in that she will be joining us once a week to teach the children yoga.  This particular week, the peacocks and flamingos participated in yoga in the park.  The children were very attentive and determined to try all of the poses.  

Purpose: 

to develop the children's self control and body awareness

to develop the children's ability to follow directions

Connection to the Lpfö: 

The preschool should strive to develop each child's: 

motoric, coordination and understanding of their bodies as well as an understanding of the importance of taking car of their health and well-being. 

WELCOME BACK!

FALL 2018

Hello and welcome back Näsbypark preschoolers!  We are really looking forward to an exciting year with the exciting IPC theme...."Let's Pretend".  

Our Entry Point: 

To kick off the Let's Pretend unit, the children were encouraged to bring their favorite books and dress up as their favorite character from the story.  We had LOTS of Elsas, a Vaiana, transformers, batmans and a boy from Ghana.  The children participated in a character fashion show to show off their costumes.  The also took turns taking about their favorite stories.  This term we will use stories as the base of our Let's Pretend theme.  We will be targeting language and literacy skills in both Swedish and English.  The children will develop their story comprehension skills by being able to identify important story grammar components, sequence a story and retell stories to their friends.  We will also do a lot of play and act out the stories we have read.  Fun times to come!!

Gruffalo’s Child

language, creativity, science/nature, math

Activities:

The group read the Gruffalo’s Child by Julia Donaldson.  The children used pictures to retell the story and developed their phonological skills by focusing on initial sounds of keywords.  We talked about the animals in the story, paying a lot of attention on their homes and footprints as an introduction to our Animal Tracking activity.  They also developed their mathematical skills for addition by participating in a Gruffalo’s Child themed math activity.

 

Purpose:

• to develop story comprehension and language skills
• to use literature as a way to introduce animals tracking and Swedish forest animals.
• to develop mathematical skills

Connection to the Lpfö-98 revised 2016:

The preschool should strive to ensure that each child….

• develop an interest in written language and an understanding of symbols, and communicative function
• develop their ability to listen, reflect
• develop their understanding and knowledge of plants and animals

  

How Old Is This Tree?

Counting Rings

Measuring the Circumference

Making Tree Rings

Activity:

The children learned ways to estimate the age of a tree: counting the rings inside the tree and measuring the circumference of a tree's trunk. During the ring counting activity, we brought logs into the school from the playground. Needless to say, bugs came in with them. The children were really excited about the little visitors. It was a great opportunity to work on language and communication skills. We talked about how they bugs got into the school, made projections on how the spider may have felt being in the school and explored beyond the here and now, discussing where it may be going.

Teacher: Oh wow, wonder how that got in here!

Child 1: the log

(The children start to chase the spider all around)

Teacher: How do you think the spider feels when you chase it around?

Child 2: Scared

Teacher: Why do you think it might be scared?

Child 1: because it is small.

We went out into the forest and measured the tree trunks of various trees, recording our findings. We later used string to demonstrate the different trunks and use comparative language such as big/bigger/biggest, short/shorter/shortest, fat/fatter/fattest to compare and contrast the trunks. They then created their own colorful tree trunks practicing their fine motor skills (cutting, drawing circles and coloring within the lines).

Purpose:

• sensory exploration: tactile, visual, olfactory
• language skill development: superlatives and comparative (big/bigger/biggest, etc), taking on the point of view of others, making predictions/talking beyond the hear and now 
• Math skills: ability to compare and contrast, make inferences based on known knowledge, use of measuring tools

Connection to the Lpfö-98 Revised 2016:

"Children search for knowledge and development through play, social interaction, exploration and creativity, as well as through observation, discussion and reflection.  A theme based approach can broaden and enrich the child's learning"

Shadow Trees:

Activity:

Today the children reviewed the parts of a tree by making a model of a tree using branches, twigs and leaves. They then used the materials to make a shadow tree. After they made the shadow tree they explored how they can use their bodies to create different shapes and shadows.

Some of the children had difficulty understanding how to move their bodies to cast a clear figure on the wall. We talked about how our movements had to be big and how we had to hold our limbs far apart to create clear lines.

The children also got creative using props to stage scenes. The really appeared to enjoy the activity and vocalized disappointment when we had to end the it. We will definitely need to repeat this activity in the future.

Purpose:

to review the parts of a tree in a new and exciting way providing them an opportunity to collaborate, cooperate and use free expression in a creative way.

Connection to the Lpfö 98- revised 2016

The preschool should strive to ensure that each child......

• develop his/her ability to build create and construct using different techniques, materials and tools
• develop his/her ability to function within groups
• be provided opportunities to develop his/her ability to observe and reflect.

Green Flag

Green Flag

Green Flag 

Our work: 

This year our school will work to earn our Green Flag through Håll Sverige Rent http://www.hsr.se/. Through this work we aim to help the children develop a respect for nature, an understanding that the relationship between humans is reciprocal and the survival of both is dependent on each other.  We also strive to develop the children's understanding of ways humans impact the environment and what types of things we, as humans, can do to help sustain our environment for the future.  We have chosen the following themes this year: garbage and waste (skrap och avfall), animals and nature (djur och natur) and global participation (global samverkan).  Below you can follow our journey to help make the world a better place! Enjoy!

Theme: Garbage and Waste (Skrap och Avfall)

Paper Free Day Project

Our Goal: 

We will collectively work to reduce the amount of paper used by staff and children in the school by educating the children on the importance of trees and participating in a “paper free” day once a month.  Each group will take their children into the woods and talk about the trees.  The children will learn about the different parts of trees, types of trees and the life cycle of a tree.  We will also learn how to tell the age of a tree.  Each group will choose a tree in the forest and follow it as it changes during the seasons and record the changes using the iPad and other types of technology. We will also talk about the air cycle and the important role of trees.  We will also talk about how trees can be the homes to many animals.  We will also discuss how humans use trees to build homes, make paper and magazines, manufacture things from the syrup and bark and provide food.  This learning will be carried out through the year and projects and activities will be steered by the children’s interests and inquiry. Once a month we will have a “paper free day” day at school.  We will place waste baskets for paper around the school.  At the end of the first month, we will weigh the bags to determine our usual paper waste per month.  We will then have a “paper free” day the first day of the following month. This means no photocopies, no printing, no worksheets, no paper towels, etc.  We will weigh paper at the end of the month and have a “paper free” day every month throughout the year, recording the weight to see how much we reduce our paper waste from month to month.

The children and staff will work together to identify ways we can reduce our paper use within the preschool. We will develop a plan based on the children’s and staff’s suggestions.  

Purpose:

1.  to develop the children's understanding of the parts of a tree and it's life cycle
2. to develop the children's important role trees play in the environment
3. to develop the children's understanding of seasons
4. to develop the children's awareness how trees are needed for life and the impact humans can have on trees. 
5. to develop the children's use and understanding of technology to investigate, explore and create
6. to develop the children understanding of how we can positively impact our environment and awareness of conservation

Connection to the Lpfö-98 revised 2016

The preschool should stress the importance of the environment and conservation.  An ecological approach and positive belief in the future should be characterise with in the school environment and embodied in the pedagogical approach of the preschool.  The preschool should help the children develop a respectful approach to the environment and natur as well as an understanding of his/her role in the cycles of nature. The preschool should also help the children develop an understanding how everyday life and work can be developed sto that it contributes to a better environment for today and the future. 

Choosing Our Tree

Choosing Our Tree

Tagging Our Tree "The Peacocks Tree"

Picking our leaves so we can identify they type of tree

Identifying Our Tree

Activity: 

The children took the leaves from the tree we chose.  Using the i pad they visited the website https://www.skogssverige.se/skog/svenska-trad to identify the type of tree we will be following through out the year. 

Purpose: 

• to use technology to investigate, explore and answer questions
• to learn that there are different types of trees and how leaves and parts of trees can be used to help identify them

Connection to the Lpfö 98- revised 2016: 

The preschool should strive to ensure that each child....

• develop their understanding of science and raltionships to nature, as well as knowledge of plants, animals and also simple chemical processes and physical phenomena

Pressing Leaves

Identifying Our Tree

Identifying Our Tree

Documenting Our Experience

Activity: 

The children started to doucment our Green Flag project, a Paper Free Day, by sequencing the events of our journey thus far and creating books, using the App Book Creator.  First, they used pictures from each step of their experience and sequenced them focusing on language such as beginning, middle, end and first, next, last.  They then told the teacher what they wanted the text to say on each page and recorded their voices for an interactive book.  

Purpose: 

• To develop the children's sequencing and story comprehension skills
• To provide the opportunity for reflection and the opportunity for the children to engage in their own documentation

Connection to the Lpfö-98 Revised 2016

• The preschool shall place emphasis on stimulating each child's language development and encourage take advantage of the childrens curiosity and interest in written langauge. 
• Multimedia and ICT can be used in the preschool in the application of creative processes. 

Drawing Our Tree As It Looks Today

Sequencing The Storyline

Using Book Creator

Chemistry Day:

Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide Cycles

Activity: 

Every year, one of our traditions is Chemistry Day.  The children explore different aspects of chemistry and participate in activities and lots of fun projects.  This year, in line with our Green Flag theme: "A Paper Free Day", the children continued to learn about the important role of trees by investigating the oxygen and carbon dioxide cycles.  They participated in experiments to see how oxygen plays a role in combustion (fire), the rusting process and decomposition. The children had a great time testing how long they could hold a cup over a candle before the fire would extinguish. They also had fun seeing who could make it go lowest. 

Child 1: "whoa, it was next to gone!"

They also learned how oxygen plays a role in the rusting process and made predictions about what objects would rust when left in water.  

Teacher: "Now, you guys choose two objects.  One you think will rust and one you think will not, and tell me why."

Child 2: (choosing a paper clip and uno card), "This one will rust (paper clip) and this one will not (uno card)."

Teacher: "Why"

Child 2: "Because this one is metal (paper clip) and this one is paper (uno card)" 

We also talked about how oxygen is needed for decomposition.  The children filled bags with soil and placed a pieces of fruit inside the zip-lock bags.  In the first bag the fruit when directly into the soil and in the second bag the children placed the fruit into another bag, squeezing all of the air out, before placing it into the bag with soil.  Next, they hung the bags in the window so they can visit them periodically in the following weeks and discuss any changes they might see.

Lägg till bildtext

Oxygen and Fire

Oxygen and Rusting

Oxygen and Decomposition

Purpose: 

• To demonstrate ways oxygen plays a role in our everyday life
• To demonstrate how oxygen impacts certain chemical processes 
• To demonstrate the important role of trees 
• Engage the children in hypothesizing 

Connection to the Lpfö-98, Revised 2016: 

The preschool should strive to ensure that each child develops an understanding of science and nature, as well as his/her knowledge of plants, animals, simple chemical processes and physical phenomenon. 

Green Flag

Green Flag 

Our work: 

This year our school will work to earn our Green Flag through Håll Sverige Rent http://www.hsr.se/. Through this work we aim to help the children develop a respect for nature, an understanding that the relationship between humans is reciprocal and the survival of both is dependent on each other.  We also strive to develop the children's understanding of ways humans impact the environment and what types of things we, as humans, can do to help sustain our environment for the future.  We have chosen the following themes this year: garbage and waste (skrap och avfall), animals and nature (djur och natur) and global participation (global samverkan).  Below you can follow our journey to help make the world a better place! Enjoy!

Theme: Garbage and Waste (Skrap och Avfall)

Paper Free Day Project

Our Goal: 

We will collectively work to reduce the amount of paper used by staff and children in the school by educating the children on the importance of trees and participating in a “paper free” day once a month.  Each group will take their children into the woods and talk about the trees.  The children will learn about the different parts of trees, types of trees and the life cycle of a tree.  We will also learn how to tell the age of a tree.  Each group will choose a tree in the forest and follow it as it changes during the seasons and record the changes using the iPad and other types of technology. We will also talk about the air cycle and the important role of trees.  We will also talk about how trees can be the homes to many animals.  We will also discuss how humans use trees to build homes, make paper and magazines, manufacture things from the syrup and bark and provide food.  This learning will be carried out through the year and projects and activities will be steered by the children’s interests and inquiry. Once a month we will have a “paper free day” day at school.  We will place waste baskets for paper around the school.  At the end of the first month, we will weigh the bags to determine our usual paper waste per month.  We will then have a “paper free” day the first day of the following month. This means no photocopies, no printing, no worksheets, no paper towels, etc.  We will weigh paper at the end of the month and have a “paper free” day every month throughout the year, recording the weight to see how much we reduce our paper waste from month to month.

The children and staff will work together to identify ways we can reduce our paper use within the preschool. We will develop a plan based on the children’s and staff’s suggestions.  

Purpose:

1.  to develop the children's understanding of the parts of a tree and it's life cycle
2. to develop the children's important role trees play in the environment
3. to develop the children's understanding of seasons
4. to develop the children's awareness how trees are needed for life and the impact humans can have on trees. 
5. to develop the children's use and understanding of technology to investigate, explore and create
6. to develop the children understanding of how we can positively impact our environment and awareness of conservation

Connection to the Lpfö-98 revised 2016

The preschool should stress the importance of the environment and conservation.  An ecological approach and positive belief in the future should be characterise with in the school environment and embodied in the pedagogical approach of the preschool.  The preschool should help the children develop a respectful approach to the environment and natur as well as an understanding of his/her role in the cycles of nature. The preschool should also help the children develop an understanding how everyday life and work can be developed sto that it contributes to a better environment for today and the future. 

Choosing Our Tree

Choosing Our Tree

Tagging Our Tree "The Peacocks Tree"

Picking our leaves so we can identify they type of tree

Identifying Our Tree

Activity: 

The children took the leaves from the tree we chose.  Using the i pad they visited the website https://www.skogssverige.se/skog/svenska-trad to identify the type of tree we will be following through out the year. 

Purpose: 

• to use technology to investigate, explore and answer questions
• to learn that there are different types of trees and how leaves and parts of trees can be used to help identify them

Connection to the Lpfö 98- revised 2016: 

The preschool should strive to ensure that each child....

• develop their understanding of science and raltionships to nature, as well as knowledge of plants, animals and also simple chemical processes and physical phenomena

Pressing Leaves

Identifying Our Tree

Identifying Our Tree

IKT and JOLLY PHONICS

 

Activity:

The children practiced identifying intial sounds and segmentation of words by finding images that started with each target sound.  Once they identified a word, they typed the word into the computer, requiring them to use their segmenting skills to identify the individual sounds of the word.

Purpose: 

• Provide an opportunity for the children to explore technology 
• Practice Jolly Phonics sounds and segmenting skills

Connection to the Lpfö 98- revised 2016

The preschool should strive to ensure that each child....

• develop an interest for written language as well as an understanding for symbols and their meaning.
• develop their ability to identify everyday technology and explore how simple technology works

Peacocks Learn About The Water Cycle

Activity: 

In celebration of World Water Day on March 22nd and to get the children excited about our fundraiser Kids For Clean Water http://give.water.org/fundraiser/4934/ and summer charity party the children learned about the water cycle.  They also participated in activities that demonstrated precipitation and condensation.  

Purpose: 

• to teach the children about the water cycle

Connection to the Lpfö 98-revised 2016:

The preschool should strive to ensure that each child...

• develops their understanding of the different cycles of nature, and how people, nature and society influence each other

Peacock's Trip To The Museum

Activity

This week the Peacocks went to the museum to see the Human Body exhibit.  The children were able interact with the exhibits and demonstrate what they have learned thus far in our IPC theme, Super Humans.  The children were amazing on the trip there and back and appeared to enjoy their time at the museum.  

Purpose: 

To provide the children with the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned thus far in our IPC theme, Super Humans in an interactive setting.

Connection to the Lpfö 2016

The preschool should strive to ensure that each child....

• develoop and understanding of maintaining their health and well-being
• develop their curiosity and enjoyment, as well as their ability to play and learn

Lego Math

Lego Math

Activity: 

The children worked on developing their math skills by matching quantity to numbers.  They also used the quantity towers to develop their basic subtraction skills.  

Purpose:

to develop the children's ability to match quantity to number and introduce the concept of subtration

Connection to the Lpfö-98

The children should strive to develop their understanding of space, shapes, location and direction adn the basic properties of sets, quantity, order and number concepts.

Peacock's parachute fun

                           

                                                            Parachute Fun!!!!!

Activity: 

The children learned the importance of following directions and cooperation when working in a large group.  They learned that in order for the parachute activities to work and for everyone to have fun each one of them played an important role.  They also discovered how the activities didn't go as planned when someone was not cooperating.  In the end, they were all eager to demonstrate the required skills for the group activity and had an amazing time. 

                                 

Purpose:

* develop the children's gross motor skill

* develop the children's ability to follow directions and cooperate in a group

Connection to the Lpfö-98 (Revised 2010):

The preschool should strive to ensure that each child develops.......

* their ability to function in a group

* their ability to develop their motor skills and co-ordinate

Mathematics-peacocks

                         

Activity: Montessori math- tactile numbers and number rods.  The children worked with numbers and quantities through multi-sensory exploration. 

Purpose: To develop the children's awareness of quantities and numbers.  

Connection to the Lpfö:  the preschool should strive to ensure that each child.....

 develop their understanding of basic properties of sets, quantity order and number concepts

Skeleton Puzzle

The peacocks had a great time participating in the skeleton puzzle activity. It's was an opportunity to teach the children about the skeletal system by having the children break-up into groups and choose a friend and have their body traced with tape on the floor. Once the child's outline was created the children were asked to place the bones in their appropriate place.

The children helped one another and communicated beautifully with when deciding where the bones belonged.

Purpose:

To teach the children about the skeletal system.

Lpfö:  "develop their ability to distinguish, explore, document, put questions about and talk science."

Using Aurasma and the life cycle of a spider

Activity: 

In conjunction with our IPC theme, houses and homes, the peacocks have been learning about habitats.  Currently, we have learning about the rainforest.  Many of the children appear to be interested in the spiders of the rainforest.  The children used the iPads to view the different stages of the spiders life cycle and the app Aurasma helped bring the pictures to life. 

Purpose: 

To teach the children about different cycles of nature in a fun and interactive way. 

Connection to the Lpfö-98

The preschool sound strive to ensure that each child develop...

- their interest and understanding of the different cycles in nature

- ability to identify technology in everyday life and explore how technology works

Read it, make it, write

Activity:

 The children used these Read it, Make it, Write it mats to help develop their reading and writing skills.  They worked on blending by combing sounds to form words, segmenting by identifying the individual sounds to form words and fine motor, pencil grasp and writing skills by writing each word.  The children all enjoyed the activity. 

                                              

Purpose: 

* to develop the children's ability to blend and segment words

* to develop the children's fine motor skills

* to develop the children's reading and writing skills.  

Connection to the Lpfö-98:

The preschool should strive to ensure that each child.....

* develop their interest in written language and an understanding of symbols, and their communicative functions.