Greetings!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
The Holiday season is here! We are excited for the coming weeks of celebration! We would like to celebrate several holidays in December and have included them below. We will be talking with the children about these holidays as well as others. If there is a fun family tradition or holiday you would like to share with the children, please let the teachers know.
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Dec.4: St. Barbara Day
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Dec. 6: St. Nicholas Day
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Dec. 13: St. Lucia Day
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Dec. 18-26: Hanukkah
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Dec. 16: Las Posadas
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Dec. 25: Christmas
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Dec. 26-Jan. 1: Kwanzaa
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FUN DAYS IN DECEMBER
Join us in participating in December FUN!
December 9: Winter themed shirt
December 16: PAJAMA Day!
December 23: Favorite (or ugliest) sweater
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HAT AND MITTEN DRIVE
This year we would like to have a hat and mitten drive. We are asking families to bring in new or gently used hats, mittens, and scarves for all ages. The hats and mittens will be donated to homeless children locally and out of state through a non-profit called Hats&Mittens. We will be accepting donations starting December 5 and going through January 5. If you are able to donate, please drop of your new or gently used hats and mittens to the office. Thank you!
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CENTER CLOSURES AND TIME OFF
Please mark your calendars in preparation for the holiday season:
Monday, December 26 in observance of Christmas
Monday, January 2 in observance of New Years
We understand many people have travel plans for the holiday season. Please let us know by December 12 what your attendance will be for the rest of the year. The classrooms will have a sign up on their door or send an email to Sarah. Thank you.
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MATH—AND CHILDREN—ARE AMAZING |
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“We can encourage mathematical exploration and knowing in kids when we allow them to merge with the physical world and immerse their full selves in it.”
- Wendy L. Ostroff, Exchange Magazine
You have likely seen the recent headlines regarding learning loss among elementary and middle school students during the pandemic. One theory to emerge from the studies around these results is that math scores fell further than reading because it is easier and more natural for parents and caregivers to support reading skills at home. Reading books together is a ritual many families begin at birth (or before!) and continue for years. Understanding how to support math skills as part of a family’s regular routine can feel a bit more challenging.
Fortunately, as with many areas of child development, children’s brains are wired for learning math; it is up to caring adults to offer opportunities and experiences that build mathematical connections simply by allowing children to do what they love, asking questions, and encouraging exploration.
In a recent Exchange Magazine article, The Embodied Nature of Mathematical Learning, Wendy L. Ostroff argues that their outcomes improve when children use their whole bodies to learn and develop mathematical thinking. She discusses how finger counting, movement accompanied by rhythms and sounds, and gesturing all contribute to greater understanding of mathematical concepts and improved problem-solving skills.
For example,
“Brain studies using fMRI have shown that children who are taught to solve math problems using gestures (instead of verbal explanations alone), are more likely to recruit the motor regions of the brain when solving future problems.”
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So how can we incorporate supportive practices into our daily routines at various stages of our children’s development? We can sing with children and use our bodies while we are doing so. We can spend time with our children outside, engaging with natural objects whose properties teach children about math and physics. We can encourage children to count with their fingers—or their whole bodies! We can ask children questions while they are playing with their toys: which one is bigger? What happens if you put this one on top? How could you sort these objects? |
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As an adult, it is sometimes easy for me to think about math as something I conduct in an Excel worksheet—a practice fairly limited in scope. But when I consider the ways in which children learn about math, I am reminded how amazing mathematical concepts are in helping us understand and describe the world, and how children’s brains and bodies are already made to fully engage with math in a three-dimensional way, with support from the adults around them:
“If we instead configure kids’ mathematical experiences and lessons as situated, whole-body endeavors, we embrace the beauty and depth, elegance and nuance, from which their cognitive skills have already evolved and developed.”
- Wendy L. Ostroff, Exchange Magazine
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TWIN CITIES
FAMILY EVENTS
Now-2/23 (Saturdays) Night Trains, TC Model Railroad Museum, St Paul
Find more local family events
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Especially for Children
3370 Coachman Rd.
Eagan, MN 55121
(651) 452-0043
Center Director
Sarah Barlow
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