Tag: book study

IPS Pre-K and Junior K Book Studies

Last week’s blog introduced the literacy study units that are occurring at The International Preschools in February and March. This week’s blog will spotlight the units taking place in our Pre-K (4s) and our Junior K (4s/5s) classrooms.

The children in these classes are focusing on either a chapter book series or on a singular chapter book. Art projects, science centers, dramatic play centers, math, music, and more carry the book’s theme throughout the classroom. This type of unit showcases the play-based learning that occurs inside of our school every day!

Scroll down for photos and descriptions of the books chosen by our Pre-K and Junior K teachers.

76 Pre-K 1: Zoe and Sassafras Chapter Book Series by Asia Citro

Zoe is a scientist who tackles conundrums with her cat, Sassafras. Each book in the series shows Zoe using science-based learning such as asking questions, creating hypotheses, making predictions, and conducting experiments to solve the mystery at hand. The Pre-K 1 children’s current theme is science, where the children conduct experiments at meeting time, work in a “science lab” in their dramatic play area, and explore science-heavy topics such as the solar system.

76 Pre-K 2: Dinosaurs Before Dark (from the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osbourne)

Jack and Annie are the main characters in the Magic Tree House series books. Dinosaurs Before Dark is the first in the series. The Pre-K 2 class at 76th Street is learning about dinosaurs in conjunction with their book study. The children made a tree house, dioramas to use with toy dinosaurs, and have been exploring fossils, to name a few exercises. They even played dinosaur-themed dominos as a math activity!

86 Pre-K 1: Don Freeman Author Study

Each year, IPS hosts an online auction for our annual Spring Benefit. Due to COVID-19, we will not be celebrating in-person this year…but the auction lives on! One of the projects that is auctioned off are journals that the children contribute to. In these journals, the children take home a stuffed animal character from the book/books that they are reading, and write/draw what the animal did with the child during their stay. 86 Pre-K 1 is conducting an author study on Don Freeman, who wrote the book, Corduroy, among others. Each child is making his/her own COVID-safe paper “Corduroy” to take home for adventures, photos, and writing!

76 Pre-K 3: My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett

In honor of 76 Pre-K 3’s reading of My Father’s Dragon, each child made his/her own striped dragon using construction paper, paint, and paper.

86 Junior K: Stuart Little by E.B. White

The Junior Kindergarten at 86th Street is reading Stuart Little by E.B. White. Each child will take a mouse (a.k.a. Stuart Little) home to embark on a journey with the Junior K students. We are looking forward to learning about Stuart’s journey, which will be documented in their classroom journal!

Next week, be sure to visit the IPS blog to learn about the Green Room (3s) author studies!

Interested in learning more about the IPS curriculum? Read all about our play-based learning philosophy on our website!

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Literacy Studies at The International Preschools

The children in the Green (3s), Pre-K (4s), and Junior K (4s/5s) classrooms at The International Preschools have been working on literacy studies throughout the months of February and March. The Green Rooms primarily choose one author to focus on, while the Pre-K and Junior K classes choose either a book/book series or a chapter book/series to concentrate on.

At our 76th Street location, the Pre-K 3 children are reading My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett. Here, they have drawn, colored in, cut out, and labeled the animals and characters in the book for a classroom bulletin board.

As in all of our play-based learning themes, the classrooms are transformed to reflect the topic at hand. Dramatic play centers, discovery centers, and book shelves will exhibit books by a particular author or topic. Art projects and writing/drawing activities will represent characters and plot lines from the books being read. This way, the children will fully immerse themselves in the books they are reading, and usually, better understand the text and concepts being taught.

Green 2 children at our 86th Street location create spiders to coincide with their Eric Carle author study. The spider is the main character in Eric Carle’s book, The Very Busy Spider.

One may ask, are chapter books age-appropriate for the Pre-K and Junior K children? Will the information and stories be difficult for them to understand? The answer is no, provided that you pick the right books…which our teachers have certainly done. The chapter books and chapter book series that have been chosen by our teachers this year all include illustrations, which help provide the children with a visual source for plot lines and characters. At the same time, the lesser amount of illustrations allows for children to use their imaginations, creating their own versions of what the characters and the settings in the stories look like. With less pictures for visual comprehension, chapter books require children to fine tune their listening skills, as they will need to rely on their receptive language to understand what is going on in the story being read aloud.

Be sure to return for next week’s blog entry, which will spotlight the Pre-K and Junior K classes’ work on their book studies. (The Green Rooms’ author studies will be highlighted the week after.)

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76th Street Museum Night at The International Preschools

76 Pre-K 1 created a replica of the Empire State Building for their New York City-themed book study.

Families observing the Pre-K 3 exhibit at the 76th Street Museum Night.

On Tuesday, April 9th, The International Preschools’ 76th Street location hosted its second annual Museum Night for the Green Rooms (3s) and Pre-Kindergarten classes (4s).  Museum Night first took place in 2018, as a Green Room function. Families were invited to observe artwork, photos, and other projects created during each class’ curriculum theme.  Pizza was served and children were invited to dress up for this special evening celebration!

This year, our Pre-K classes joined the Green Rooms in displaying work from their winter author and book studies. Read on to find out more about this special event!

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Author/Book/Character Studies in the Red (2s) and Green (3s) Rooms

harold-and-the-purple-crayon
A scene from Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson…

purple-finger-painting
…and the Red Room children at 86th Street, reenacting Harold’s drawing adventures at the art table!

The author study season is well underway at The International Preschools!  Classrooms at all three locations are thoroughly immersed in learning about their chosen author, book, or character.  This curriculum theme is an effective way to promote early literacy among young children.  In keeping with our play-based learning approach, each classroom will create interdisciplinary activity centers about the books being read there.  This method will assist in children retaining as many skills and as much information as possible about the books at hand, while having fun at the same time!

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