National Reading Month!

If you read our post on Dr. Seuss’s Birthday, you’ll remember that March is National Reading Month! Here at the Friedberg JCC Early Childhood Centers, we have been so busy filling our days with books from some of our favorite authors.  

Some of our classrooms have been spending time on Author Studies. For and author study, we pick an author we love or are want to learn more about  and then select a number of books.   We read, review and re-read the books and then participate in fun learning activities and art extension projects.

Over at our Merrick/Bellmore branch, some of our favorite authors were Don Freeman- Corduroy Lost and Found, Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark- Franklin, Eric Carle- The Tiny Seed, and Gail Gibbons- The Planets. We had so much fun studying them! It was great learning about our solar system and making our own solar system pictures to go along with it. We also  learned how a seed becomes a plant!

One of the coolest art extension projects we did was to make our own Corduroy! We painted his brown body and overalls green with sponges of all different shapes and sizes. Afterwards, we made sure to place eyes on his face, and painted his buttons onto his overalls!

The Author Studies continued over at our Long Beach branch. Our Twos read Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and took part in shadow play that taught us about day and night. We also made some great caterpillar and feather art extension projects after reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and Feathers for Lunch by Lois Ehlert.

Long Beach Threes also read great books by Margaret Wise Brown! First, we read Baby Animals and learned how different animals sleep with an acting activity. We also became bedroom architects after reading Brown’s Robin’s Room! After reading The Wind Blew and We’re Going On A Picnic by Pat Hutchins, we were so thankful for the beautiful weather as we took our lessons outside! We enjoyed our morning snack picnic style, and learned about the wind by making a parachute and kites!

Our Long Beach Pre-K program took inspiration this week and learned all about team building from David McPhail and his books The Great Race and Jack And Rick. First, we had a great deal of fun recognizing our individual abilities by participating in an animal relay race, and then learned about working together by running a three-legged race! Check out this great video of our animal races:

In Oceanside our reading focused on Passover preparation…

One of our favorite activities leading up to Passover is making Matzah.  Miss Yochi (Jewish Culture Specialist) visited the Nursery and Pre-K classes teaching them about Passover with stories and songs, and highlighting the experience by making homemade Matzah with the children. Miss Yochi took the learning a step further, when she and the children made their own fresh butter to put on their matzoh. What fun everyone had!!  We also read books and stories about Passover which led to a unit on Frogs. Miss Caryn's Pre-K has Frogs here there and everywhere!

This week definitely proved how much fun you can have learning through reading! We hope you are all reading at home with your families and friends. Want to dedicate yourself to learning through reading? Try taking the Reader’s Oath from the National Education Association (NEA). We love it!

Happy Reading Everyone!