Tag: green

Earth Day is Every Day: Honoring Our Planet at The International Preschools

Children at both locations learn that the Earth’s two main colors are green (land) and blue (water). Many “free art” projects center around these two colors to help reinforce the students’ learning about the Earth. This is a concept that even our youngest children can understand.

Curriculum at The International Preschools (IPS) in April often centers around planet Earth and, ultimately, Earth Day, which falls on April 22nd. Children in every age group, from the Red Rooms (2s) to the Junior Kindergarten (4s/5s), learn about the topography of the Earth, as well as what we can do to help keep the Earth safe and clean for plants, animals, and people.

The 76th Street Green Room children practiced working at a recycling center by sorting paper items from plastic items during a fun game.

At our 76th Street location, a special in-class celebration was held for Earth Day. The Red (2s) and Green (3s) Rooms learned about recycling by playing a sorting game; the children had to find plastic and paper from around the classroom and place the items in the appropriate boxes. The Pre-K (4s) Rooms repurposed cardboard boxes from packages to create toys and buildings to play and build with. Everyone gained a new understanding of the importance of recycling for our planet!

One of our Pre-K classes at 76th Street display their “reused items” project, where the children repurposed cardboard boxes as building materials.

At our 86th Street location, individual classrooms approached the topic of Earth Day in different ways. Some classes collected cardboard boxes, paper, and plastic and used it to create magnificent art projects. In the Junior Kindergarten (4s/5s), children are learning about the solar system, to help determine the Earth’s place in space.

A student at 86th Street reuses boxes, cartons, and bottle caps to create a project of his own!

Happy Earth Day to all!

Want to learn more about IPS’ play-based learning approach? Visit the curriculum section of our website.

Ready to join the IPS community? Apply online today!

Red Room Color Units at IPS

The Red Room at 76th Street creates a paint/collage masterpiece in honor of Orange Week.

While our Green Rooms (3s), Pre-K Rooms (4s), and Junior K (4s/5s) are concentrating on their author and book studies, the Red Rooms (2s) are hard at work learning about colors! The children in the Red Room spend six to seven weeks throughout February and March learning about primary and secondary colors. Each week, a different color (red, yellow, blue, green, orange, and purple) is highlighted, with the seventh week being the “favorite color week” for the children.

Throughout the designated color week, children are invited to dress in clothing of that color. The children participate in a “show and share,” where they are asked to bring in an item from home in the color of the week. Art projects, games, books, and even snacks often highlight the specific color that the class is studying.

Scroll down for some photo examples of the Red Rooms’ color units…

The Red Room at 86th Street explores mixing yellow and blue paint to create the color green during their class’ Green Week.
At 76th Street, the Red Room children work on a “friendship finger painting,” where they work in pairs to mix yellow and blue paint, creating the color green, during their Green Week.
Red Room children at 86th Street are dressed in the color green for Green Week!
It’s “Green Week Show and Share” time at 76th Street in the Red Room!

The Red Room will focus on learning shapes in the coming weeks as well. Cheers to our littlest students for all of their hard work!

Interested in learning more about IPS curriculum? Take a peek inside of our classrooms by visiting our website.

Ready to join the IPS community? Learn about the IPS admissions process by visiting our website.

Earth Day is Every Day (Even Remotely!) at IPS!

Pre-K Earth Day art!

The International Preschools celebrated Earth Day on Wednesday, April 22nd.  Though we are weeks into our remote learning experience, the children were able to immerse themselves in the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling…and taking care of the Earth…with the help of their amazing teachers!

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Celebrating Lunar New Year at The International Preschools

Lion dancers (left and above) perform at IPS in honor of Lunar New Year.

The International Preschools welcomed some special visitors this week.  We celebrated Lunar New Year with a performance by lion dancers at all three of our locations on Friday, February 1st, to commemorate 2019 as the “Year of the Boar.”

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Celebrating Earth Day 2017 at The International Preschools

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Our youngest students learned about Earth Day via planting activities.
Our youngest students learned about Earth Day via planting activities.

Earth Day is every day at The International Preschools!  Of course, during the month of April, celebrating Earth Day becomes a focused portion of our play-based learning curriculum.  Every year the teachers and students at IPS commemorate this day with a rich, impressive, and varied curriculum.

Many classes embarked on their Earth Day-related units by planting.  Lima beans and grass seeds were popular plants among the classrooms, and are great choices:  both sprout quickly, allowing for the children to witness the growth process.  Children learned about the parts of a plant (i.e. stems, leaves, roots) and what is needed for seeds to grow (sunlight, water, soil).  Then, via hands-on activities (daily plant watering, placement of plants on the windowsill for adequate light), students assist the plants by giving them what they need!

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