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Wednesday, January 27, 2021

2021 Winter Fun

 Winter Fun at HDC!

Snowmen and snow-women everywhere!

The Pre-K class has a winter wonderland set up in their dramatic play center where the children can build a cardboard box snowman, throw cotton ball snowballs and pretend to skate on the ice. 


The older Pre-K/K class have been working on their writing skills! Here they labeled the parts of their snowmen and snow-women. 


The Pre-K chose the words for their winter word wall and painted some beautiful snowflakes.

They have also been working their fine motor skills (pincer grasp) and working on name recognition by using snowball gems to build their names.



Ice painting!!! A fun art and sensory activity! Sonia & Mimi froze toy people and animals to let the children pretend they were skating on the ice! This lead to great discussions about how to stay safe on the ice.



Music and poems are a big part of our morning meetings! Here is a cute Snowflake poem to share.


The Kindergarten class is finishing up their author study of Jan Brett. Here is a fun poem they have been learning using the different animals from the book, The Mitten.


The Mitten in the Snow
The Mitten in the Snow
Help us please so we won't freeze
The Mitten in the snow
A _____ squeezes in
A _____ squeezes in
Help us please so we won't freeze
The Mitten in the snow!

Mittens! The children chose how they wanted to decorate their mittens, some glued paper onto them, some used the bingo markers and others chose to paint them. 


Our younger preschool class had fun painting snow for their snow globes, posing for pictures outside and helping Marcie & Destiny put them together!


They have also been working their fine motor skills and working on color recognition with this fun snowman pom pom press game.



They have done lots of winter painting too! 
Mittens at the easel and hats on the table.
When children paint at the easel they are working their gross motor skills and crossing the mid line which aids in their overall development. When they are seated at the table it is more of a wrist movement than a whole arm and it works a whole different muscle group. 
Click here to learn more about why crossing the mid line is so important!


We believe a print rich environment is crucial for helping children with literacy skills. It shows them that there is another way to communicate...through print. Here the children are putting their pre reading skills to use by looking at the picture and connecting it to the written word. 


The preschool children had a ball making snow! They had to measure the ingredients with the teacher and work their math skills by counting how many scoops of water versus the "snow" to make the right consistency. Such a fun sensory experience!


These are just some of the great activities going on at HDC this winter!!! 
Stay healthy everyone!!!

Monday, January 18, 2021

Kindness Challenge 2021

HDC Kindness Challenge 2021!

Hi everyone! Throughout the month of February we invite your child or children to participate in our HDC kindness challenge! We ask that you print out a copy of the calendar (or ask us for a copy) and check off which random acts of kindness your child completes. You do not have to do the exact act on the exact day but we invite you all to give it a try!

 At the end of the month we invite your child to bring in their completed calendar to the office for a prize!


Kindness and social emotional learning is an essential part of our school curriculum. 

 By taking the time to focus on the children's social emotional health it can help foster a child's self confidence and build their self esteem. When children are happy and feel safe with their peers there is less disruptive behavior and more time for actual learning!

A kind and positive school culture is a win win for students, families and teachers alike! 

Click here to check out this website which talks more about the importance of teaching kindness to children. 

"Make kindness an everyday practice for children, and see how humanity changes for the better!" -Child Insider