This March, the Preschool 1 classroom at RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Patrick was full of excitement, creativity, and discovery! The children explored healthy habits, dental care, and self care, celebrated Holi and Ramada, created art and sensory experiences with playdough and oobleck, and even built a leaf mountain together!
This month, the children continued our project on self-care and hygiene. We talked about ways to keep our bodies healthy, especially learning about dental care. the preschoolers explored how to brush their teeth, why is it important to keep them clean, and how dentists help take care of our smiles. To extend this learning, we opened our very own Happy Smiles Dental Clinic In the classroom! The children enjoyed role-playing as dentists, dental hygienists, receptionists, and patients. They practiced taking turns, caring for others, and letting their Imagination run their play! all while learning about healthy habits. We were also lucky enough to have a special parent visitor who works as a dental hygienist. She talked to the children about how to take care of their teeth through a book called "Daisy Visits the Dentist" , showed real dental tools where children took turns exploring, and shared some dental goodies with the class. the children were very excited to learn from a real expert and asked many thoughtful questions. Later on, our dental clinic turned Into a walk In clinic where the kids would bring dolls or act as patients with "booboos". They would take turns being the doctors, nurses, and patients. With this growing Interest, we have another visitor, a parent who works as a doctor, to share stories with the class.
March was also a wonderful time to celebrate and learn about different cultures and traditions. We explored the colorful festival of Holi through story books and thoughtful conversations with Manisha, one of our educators who celebrates Holi. She shared that this celebration is all about colors, joy, and togetherness. Our classroom was filled with colors and laughter as the children explored different colors through our Holi art wall throwing colorful cotton balls and painting their friends and teachers with the color powders that they themselves made. The children also learned about the special month of Ramadan. A parent visited our classroom to read a story called "Ramadan Nights" and share about Ramadan traditions. The children later expressed their learning through Ramadan-Inspired art. Creativity and sensory exploration were also top favorites of the month! The children enjoyed our hand stamp art series, creating sea creatures with their hands, and explored classroom made oobleck and playdough, discovering different textures, shapes and how materials move and change.
We also spent time outdoors exploring nature. the children were so happy to finally see the sun and enjoy a nicer and warmer weather. They collected leaves and worked together to build a "ginormous" leaf mountain, experimenting with natural loose parts and cooperative play.
We have observed a lot of children sharing kindness in the classroom lately and this just fills our hearts! Our little friends have been demonstrating empathy and helping hands as they see friends who seems to need help, friends would step in to check In on them, offer help, and share a hug. This action seems to be really contagious in our classroom as the children would simply follow and pass the kind action forward to others. Indeed, we have come a long way, building deeper and more meaningful connections with one another.
Throughout the month, the children expressed curiosity, creativity, and kindness as they learned about healthy habits, nature, art, and diverse traditions within our community. These experiences helped build a strong sense of belonging, respect, and collaboration in our classroom.
