Thursday, September 10, 2026

Today began with joy and excitement. Having the entire class together for the first day is always a big moment at BHNS. After some gentle celebration it was time to get down to business. The children listened to the message and learned a bit about what their day would look like. Then they answered the question of the day: What is your favorite color? The children very quickly started noticing similarities between the answers of their peers. For example “Look, two people like red!” After everyone had a chance to answer the question it was time to add another felt ball to the big jar. This jar will help the children build an understanding of quantity as we count up to the 100th day of school! Then teachers helped the children to look over the schedule and get a more detailed look at the day ahead. Finally the children were introduced to a new part of meeting: the weather graph. Teachers gave a very brief introduction to what a graph is. Then the class worked together to identify the day’s temperature, sky conditions, and wind conditions. The children continued to work on raising their hands and waiting to be called on while teachers also taught the children about waiting to hear the question before raising their. 

Literacy:

Today the children engaged with two different literacy activities during whole group times. The first activity was Heggerty. These are short lessons all about phonological awareness. We will do these fun lessons each day and will periodically send out informational newsletters such as the one below. At this point in the year the lessons include rhyming, blending, segmenting, isolating initial and final sounds, and singing the ABCs. 

Heggerty Parent News Letters.pdf

Download PDF • 75KB

The second activity was part of the phonics curriculum: Lively Letters. This lesson focused on the difference between voiced and unvoiced sounds. The children discovered the difference by putting a gentle hand on their throat and tuning their voices on “ahhhh” and off. You can ask your child how to show the difference between the two. 

You may be wondering what is the difference between phonological awareness and phonics. Phonological awareness (in this case Heggerty) is work with oral language. Phonics (Lively Letters) is the work done with print and the connection between the 44 phonemes we see and the sounds we hear. 

Math:

Today in math, we had lots of fun learning about numbers through movement and play! We played an exciting dice game that gave the children a chance to practice counting while getting their bodies moving.

Each child took a turn rolling the dice and then choosing an action to match the number they rolled. They could stand up and clap, jump, or spin the number of times shown on the dice. The children had so much fun making their movements match the numbers while counting along. This was a wonderful way to bring math to life and show the children that numbers can be explored in active and playful ways!

We also explored finger number cards. The children practiced looking carefully at the hand shown on each card and figuring out which number it represented. We then practiced holding up our own hands to show different numbers and counting together as a group.

Through these activities, the children were building their number recognition, counting skills, one-to-one correspondence, and confidence with numbers—all while having fun and moving their bodies!

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Closing Meeting:

At the end of the day teachers read: The Rainbow Fish

Choice Time:

Today the children enjoyed having many options while playing, some new and some familiar choices from their first day. At the easel the textured brown paper continued to be open for painting exploration. As it will be every day; art exploration with a variety of materials was available. The children took advantage of drawing with different materials and gluing gems! In the sensory table the children continued to play with cups, gems, slotted spoons, and water. You can read more about the benefits of this seemingly simple activity on The OT toolbox blog. Playdoh was the other sensory activity for the children to enjoy today. This activity builds fine motor skills, helps children regulate their bodies and emotions, and encourages creativity. The children used one to one correspondence when counting out pegs to match given numbers. At the light table the children built with colorful translucent legos. Legos are another great activity for building fine motor skills, especially strength. In pretend the children played family, carefully caring for the friend who was the baby. In the building area the children explored gravity and velocity as they rolled different objects down a ramp they built. 

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Fun on the front yard:

Before the afternoon outside time today the children got to take a safe peek out the backdoor at all the work being done in the backyard.

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Reminders

• If you have not done so please send in a crib sheet and a thin blanket for your child during rest time. Your child does not need to sleep; however, everyone does take some time to relax on a rest mat.