Happy New Year!

 
Here are some great activities you can do with your little ones to bring in the New Year!

• Countdown clock bags/ Balloon clock
• 2021 M&M number building
• New Years Eve bingo 
• New Years noise Makers 

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from The Academy Of Gateway!

Here are some fun activities you can do with your little ones during the holidays. 

• Mistletoes (paint their feet)
• Handprint Christmas tree/ -Fork Christmas trees 
• Scrabble Ornaments 
• Make stockings

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Sensory!

This week at The Academy Of Gateway we have been all about Sensory! Sensory play includes any activity that stimulates a young child's senses of touch, smell, taste, sight and hearing, as well as anything which engages movement and balance. Sensory activities facilitate exploration and naturally encourage children to use scientific processes while they play, create, investigate and explore.

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Hanukkah!

This week at The Academy Of Gateway we learned about Hanukah! Hanukkah is a Jewish festival commemorating the redirection of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. It is also know as the Festival of Lights. Many modern Jewish celebrate by lighting the hanukkiah. One candle per night of Hanukkah is lit, like Hebrew is read , from right to left. People might also play dreidel games and eat certain foods like sufganiyot(similar to jelly donuts) and latkes(fried potato pancakes). 

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Its Beginning To Look A lot Like Christmas!

This week we have been getting into the Christmas Spirt! We are learning about Christmas around the world this month! During a time of talking about the holidays and celebrations of different cultures, teachers and parents have a chance to open up discussions about differences and give children a chance to open to develop an understanding of why people have different beliefs and practices.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Thanksgiving is all about spending time with your family. 

Here are some great activities you can do :

• Handprint Turkey
• Talk about what you are thankful for
• How to cook a Turkey?
• Start a new Thanksgiving tradition
• Thanksgiving bingo 
•  Math Candy Corn game (Count )

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 Learning Happens EVERYWHERE!

As the weather becomes more enjoyable, you may find yourself looking for learning opportunities outdoors. One way to bring learning outside is to label four boxes “red, yellow, orange, and green”, and place them in a common area outside. Encourage children to find leaves of each color and place them in the corresponding boxes. This activity strengthens color recognition, gross motor play, and coordination. The children will enjoy the challenge and may even make a contest out of it. After you have collected leaves of each color, you may decide to do an art activity with what the class has collected. You could provide children with different shapes of hole punches and allow them to glue their cut-out leaves onto paper collage-style. This leaf sorting activity combines exercise with learning and art, all while enjoying the cool fall weather!

Let's Go OUTSIDE

Outdoor play provides meaningful sensory experiences. Think about how all 5 senses can awaken when children are playing outside! Children can “feel” what the temperature is like and touch different textures on the playground (rough, smooth, cool, warm,etc.). This helps children learn about themselves and the objects around them. Children can see nature, colors, and friends. Sight helps us to connect information from our other senses to add knowledge about plants, animals, weather, and other parts of nature. A child can see the object he or she touched, seasonal changes or how to safely climb a structure. Children use sounds to understand their environments also. Children also listen to language and tone of voice during interactions to build social skills with peers and adults. Taste and smell can work together in nature. Allowing children to grow fruits and vegetables in a garden will help them develop taste and smell with a variety of foods and provide positive outdoor experiences.

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Social & Emotional

 

Social and Emotional Competence of Children by Renata Henderson

“Little people feel big emotions.” A powerful message delivered in five simple words. Adults may sometimes think that children do not have the capacity to feel real emotions and feelings. However, families can help ensure that children learn how to regulate those emotions. Additionally, forming relationships, exploring.

The role of the family is to understand how children feel and process through it with them—a technique described as “Name, Claim and Tame.” Name the emotion. Claim that this emotion is what the child is feeling and explain what that means. Tame it by giving alternatives to emotions that lead to unmatched behaviors. “I see you feel angry. I think you wanted to play longer during playtime. How about instead of stomping, you say ‘Can we come back outside later?’ Now you try it!” This is an example of how families can empower children to grow socially and emotionally and build into their future as healthy and loving adults.

Family Activity

Play builds strong families! When you smile and giggle during a fun game, your body releases a “feel good” hormone called Oxytocin, which promotes family bonding and eases stress. “Emotional Animals” is a fun and silly game which teaches about emotions. All you need is two square blocks or boxes to use as dice and a way to put words on the blocks-permanent marker, paper, tape, etc. Write a different emotion word on each side of one block, such as happy, scared, silly, angry. Write a type of animal on each side of the other block, such as bird, dog, cat, monkey. Family members take turns rolling both dice and acting out the two words that land face up. For example, if “silly” and “cat” land face up, the family member will demonstrate how they think a “silly cat” would act! To extend the learning, families can talk about what might have made the cat feel silly, and healthy ways the cat can express silliness.

Fall!

 
This week we have been all about fall! We have been so excited to lean toward some cooler outside weather. The kids loved doing different activities with the fall colors. 

Activities to do at home: 

• Finger Print Art (fall colors)
• Fall sensory bins (leaves, pinecones, etc)
• Nature Scavenger hunt 
• Leaf Handprints

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Happy Halloween!!!

 

This week at The Academy Of Gateway we have been all about Halloween! We have done lots of educational activities that tie in with the theme. We also have let the kids make spooky snacks with their classmates. We had a chef  come teach the children how to make ghost balls! We toped it off with our class parties today!

Here are some fun activities to do at home:

• Candy Bingo 
• Spider Web fun with ring spiders( fine motor )
• Carving pumpkins and exploring the inside (sensory)
• Pumpkin seed counting 

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Community Helpers!

 

This week at The Academy Of Gateway we have been learning about Community Helpers! Community helpers are people who live and work in our communities. Learning about Community Helpers offers lots of benefits for kids. It promotes safety by teaching kids how to ask for help, and just as importantly, who to ask. We had lots of activities for them to learn about the different helpers. Some are plumbers, gardener, teacher, doctor, postman, farmer, and electrician's. We even had a Community Helper come visit! 

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Fire Fighters!

 

We have been learning about Fire Safety this week at The Academy Of Gateway! The children have learned what to do and how to be prepared if a fire ever happened around them. We had fun activities to teach them about what to look for and how to call for help! (and who to call ) All the kids practiced calling 911! We also had fire fighters come out to see us!

Here are some great tips for home:

• Don't play near fire places or stoves
• Keep flammable objects out of reach of children
• Make sure all smoke detectors are working
• Have an escape plan/Make sure they know your names

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Pumpkins!

 
This week at The Academy Of Gateway we have been exploring pumpkins. The children have loved learning about the pumpkins. We have had different activities for them to do to learn all about what you could do with a pumpkin. We explored our pumpkins by cutting them open and feeling the inside. The children colored them and counted its seeds! We even let our older classes taste the seeds after they cooked. Mother goose also visited us to tell us all about jack-'O- lanterns!

Here are some activities you can do at home:

• Pumpkin Carving 
•  Roast Pumpkin seeds
• Sensory by exploring the inside 
• Decorate the pumpkin

  

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