January: the quiet month

I took a break with the blogs in December because of the extreme business that takes over all of us; literally from the 1st to the 31st.  I also held off becaue of school shooting that happened in the U.S primarily because it has taken me quite awhile to comprehend what happened, without getting upset.

But now that things have settled, been accepted, movws on, and attacking those so-called New Year resolutions, it's time to get back to blogging those preschooler moments!

As an early childhood educator, I always found January to be a quiet month in regards to program planning.  Although you can do the standard "winter" themes which I am guilty of for the past few years, I also deem it a month when you can teach something different.  There's no special holidays (New Year's doesn't real mean much to a preschooler), no significant themes you feel obligated to do, and I put the months of November, March, and June in this category too.  Again, there are the obvious ones for each of those months but really, can you drag on Rememberance Day or Father's Day for a whole month?! 

So with that said, I've decided at our school that will be dedicating January to science!  As per usual, each week and day will be designated to some kind of aspect related to science.  Hot topics are going to include weather, the human body, life cycles, rocks and minerals, space, senses, and all the inbetweens.  We're also going to do a short, quick experiment each class, every class that will only consist of 5-10minutes of paying attention.  I figured I would do this when we're in a transition mode like from snack time to outdoor play.  Not only will expose them to think outside the box, but it will also let them SEE outside the box with things they never thought possible.  For example, watching a bottle of diet cola EXPLODE because of a mento.  Or creating various colours with food colouring and milk.

Needless to say, Pinterest is really helping me out on this.

Anyways, the 3 day groups have a scheduled trip to the science centre at the end of the month and the two day groups have a biology teacher coming in.  Should be fun!  I'll keep you posted on progress but oddly enough, as much as I was the kid who absolutely HATED anything related to science - I'm pretty pumped to be teaching it!