March Newsletter

Coordinator's Corner

This month we will be wrapping up our unit on Buildings and moving on to Recycling! Children naturally try and mimic the behaviors of the people around them (adults included). We can use this to our advantage by including them in household activities, making games out of chores, and taking some extra time to learn together! Here's a list of some everyday activities to try out

Building activities

• Measure, count and compare
• Using a ruler, or small measuring tape, practice measuring the height, length, width or depth of things are around the house. How tall is the tallest tower you can build? Depending on the age group, you may have to measure smaller objects (and don't worry about fractions yet).
• Open ended building
• Build with blocks, or magnetic tiles to make different structures. Talk about what shapes they used, any patterns, features of a buildings (doors, roof window, etc.) , who uses the building, does anyone work in it, etc.
• Open ended play gives children a sense of control over their environment which can lead to higher rates of self esteem and self concept. Give it a try and see where it takes you!
• Building Visits!
• Make a plan together to visit some different types of buildings. Bring something to write questions, and draw with. Some people like to make building books where they keep a journal of all different sorts of buildings they've been to. Here are some ideas of where to go,
• Your local town hall, Library, Elementary school building (on the vacation or weekend when it's less busy), the bus or train station, a local laundromat, construction site, try a new restaurant or coffee shop, the mall,

Activities for Recycling

• Sorting/ Graphing
• Learning about what things are made of is a part of scientific exploration for kids! Sorting recycling and counting how many things are made of each material (paper, plastic, metal) is a huge skill and tons of fun! Use graph paper or draw boxes to represent your results
• Recycling Towers
• Using washed and dried recycling, how tall of a tower can you make? How would you make it taller? Can you measure it like you did for the building unit?
• For bonus points try and use materials that have printed words on them for increased literacy skills
• Recycled inventions
• What do they want to build? What are different objects made of? Can you make something using paper and glue (like papier-mache'), cardboard, plastic or other recycling?
• This is an activity I suggest to families with kids 4-6, that are more likely to continue a multi-day project. You may need to let paint or glue dry before you test out your inventions.
• Recycling Puzzles
• Take the front of their favorite cereal box, or other packaging and cut some shapes into it. Putting puzzles together gives you the chance to see how their spatial reasoning is, and you can talk about different types of lines (curved, or straight) as well as the shapes you see.

Check out this month's workshop!

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