Preschoolers connect with the Commander in Chief

INSPIRATION from the O  V  A  L OFFICE

 

Political venues are in our everyday experiences due to the upcoming presidential election. Politicians may vary in their message to the public, however there is one common goal they all agree upon: young children play an important part in shaping our future!  Last week we decided to connect with President OBAMA and called him during our morning meeting. We wanted to reassure him that at RES preschoolers are growing healthy bodies. We also shared that we continue to work and PLAY hard in being productive and respectful citizens. We informed him that our efforts would result in creating a bright future for us as individuals and globally for our world!  

In case you are wondering how to contact to the Commander in Chief it is easy… he spends most of his time in the OVAL office so dial O... V... A... L… and you will be directly connected to him:)

                Above a student made a sign and illustration that depicts President Obama in the OVAL Office. He is wearing a striped tie! We use the sign to help us dial the letters... O V A L on our pretend phones when we call him!

This week when we connected with President OBAMA, he was eating his breakfast and we found out he likes oatmeal and fresh blueberries. He was happy to talk and listen to us as we excitedly shared information of a new movement dance we are learning. The movement keeps us in constant motion for three minutes! We continued by telling him that not only does the movement dance strengthen our legs, arms and trunk muscles… the exercise helps us to be better writers! Without strong arms, shoulders, wrists and fingers it is impossible to hold a pencil. President Obama complimented our healthy lifestyle and learning efforts and told us to keep up the GOOD WORK! He challenged us to lengthen our movement routines to five minutes prior to the start of February! The challenge left us energized and eager to continue to MOVE our bodies!    

Afterwards, while researching the oval office to see if the physical space of the room was shaped like an OVAL… we found a photo of President OBAMA… HE MUST BE TALKING TO US in this PHOTO:)!  

    

Throughout the month of January we will spend ample time learning a variety of movement routines including the CHA CHA dance. Below are a few photos depicting us stretching and building strong bodies.

A CONDO for SNUFFLES

Snuffles the hedgehog has had a strong presence in our classroom for the past two weeks. Engagement has been so dramatic that our classroom rules needed to be stretched to accommodate high interest in the block area. Typically THREE FRIENDS CAN PLAY in the moderately small learning center, however this week as many as eight preschoolers collaborated as they constructed detailed ENCLOSURES for SNUFFLES.

The PM session children created the below CONDO complete with cozy warm beds and chose to keep the structure in place so that when the AM session builders arrived to school the next day,  they would have an opportunity to add to the structure.    

   

SNUFFLES was also more than happy to share his lush new living space with many new relatives. Earlier in the week, students were eager to create hedgehogs of their own by felting wool balls into hedgehog bodies complete with quills!