Pillar Kids End of Year: December 2022

January 6, 2023 by Amirh Davis Leave a Comment

December 2022 at Pillar Kids

Welcome to 2023 everyone! Even though December flew by, we hope you all had a chance to slow down and enjoy some relaxing family time. Reflecting on last month at Pillar, the teachers and children had a great time learning about various holiday

traditions, including Christmas, Hanukah, and Kwanzaa. The classroom was revamped with lots of beautiful decor, including a new fireplace for chilly days! Thanks Ms. Angelina for creating such a fun addition to the classroom. Of course there were plenty of exciting holiday activities for the children to explore. We also had a great time celebrating at our Pillar Holiday gathering thank you to everyone who came out to close the year in celebration!

Toddler Group (Ms. Lam’s group)

The toddlers got to explore an Arctic Sensory Table filled with penguins, polar bears, walruses and whales. Ms. Lam enjoyed watching her friends use their fine motor and engineering skills to creatively arrange the sensory items, like rocks that they stacked together, adding animals to finish their creations. The group also talked about how the arctic animals move their bodies, for example walruses using their fins to move vs. penguins who waddle. One of our table activities involved matching an arctic animal with their corresponding feet.

Here are some of the books the children enjoyed reading:

1. “That’s Not My Snowman” by Fiona Watt ( They enjoyed touching the different materials in this book)

2. “Little Blue Truck’s Christmas” By Alice Schertle and Jill McElmurry

3. “Clay Boy” By Mirra Ginsburg

Next Up for Toddlers!

We will be learning about Bugs and Insects this month. Ms. Lam will be setting up an “I spy” sensory bin filled with Ants, Bees, Spiders, Ladybugs, and Butterflies. Ms. Lam will be reading “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” for circle time and will try to set up an actual lifecycle of butterflies for the children to observe.

Preschool Group (Ms. Angelina’s group)

The children were eager to make lots of Christmas crafts, playing and exploring with Christmas-themed activities. We were also fortunate to have Ms. Amirh and her children visit the class to teach us about Kwanzaa, and, of course, we loved having Mr. George visit us for music time. I sincerely hope that your holidays were restful, and you were able to enjoy quality family time together.

Next Up for Preschoolers!

We hit the road running in January talking about the Winter Season and Snow, and using investigative skills to experiment with ice. This month, we will also explore snowmen while incorporating science, math concepts, and fine motor skills, to name a few. The preschoolers will continue to learn about Arctic animals through the end of this month. We will be busy little learners, starting the year off right!

Reflecting on November 2022

January 6, 2023 by Amirh Davis Leave a Comment

A Month in Review: November 2022

What happened this month at Pillar Kids?

During November the fall-related activities continued. Our friends got a chance to explore more about this special time of the year, where many transformations occur in preparation for the winter season. Both groups explored some intriguing subject matters, and had a chance to participate in new activities, including cooking with their teachers! George, from One Heart Music, paid us another visit, where friends of all ages were able to sing, dance, and let off a little steam. We’re excited to have him visit again this month.

Toddler Group (Ms. Lam’s group)

Ms. Lam’s group began the month learning about farmers. We discussed how farmers have more than one job, where they grow food and also take care of the animals that live on the farm. During our exploration of the foods grown on a farm, the toddlers got a chance to husk corn! Once they were done husking the corn (putting fine motor skills to work), they helped Ms. Lam put it in the Instant Pot to steam it and enjoy a yummy treat. The friends also had an opportunity to learn about the lifecycle of seeds. They got to see what a seed looks like, by exploring an apple that was cut up. They engaged their sensory skills as they removed the seeds from the apple, touching them to see how they feel. Because the children were so into the farmer and farm animals, we will continue to learn about the farmers in December.

Books that we read to support the curriculum included, “Machines on the Farm” by Lisa Amstutz and “Where, Oh Where, Is Rosie’s Chick?” by Pat Hutchins. The toddlers also enjoyed finger play songs, “Way Up High in the Apple Tree” and “5 Little Acorns all in a Row”, where we practice memorization, rhyming and counting skills.

Next Up for Toddlers!

In addition to talking about the holidays, December will focus on another interesting topic of Arctic Animals, including polar bears, penguins, walruses, and snowy owls.

Preschool Group (Ms. Angelina’s group)

Ms. Angelina’s group explored fall leaves, fall colors, farms, Thanksgiving, and woodland animals. The children were excited to learn about some of the animals that live on a farm, as well as some of the foods that we get from the farm like corn, apples, and pumpkins. To expand on the topic of foods grown on a farm, we shucked, cooked, and ate corn-on-the-cob. The children also tasted different color apples, and made a no-bake pumpkin pie treat that they loved! These cooking activities are a great way for children develop cognitive and mathematic skills, by measuring and mixing ingredients and following the steps needed to complete the recipe. Regarding woodland animals, we learned that raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, owls and bears all live in the woods. We will continue to learn more about these animals in the coming months. Friends read the “The Farmer and the Dell” book and enjoyed singing the accompanying song, followed by conversations about things that happen on the farm.

This month’s Vocabulary words: “nocturnal”, “shuck”, “woodlands”, being “thankful”.

Let’s Review October 2022 at Pillar Kids

January 6, 2023 by Amirh Davis Leave a Comment

What happened this month?

The month of October was abuzz with Fall and Halloween fever. The teachers and children had a great time decorating the classroom for the occasion. Naturally the children were excited to share about their costumes for trick-or-treating, and enjoyed the yummy treats from the festivities. Our first annual Fall Fest was certainly a success! We had so many of our past, present, and future families show up to enjoy the day. That was followed by our Halloween Parade in the office space. Thank you to all of the families who were able to participate, we had a BLAST!

Toddler Group (Ms. Lam’s group)

In October, our toddlers focused on the colors orange and red. For the color Orange, the children got to experiment with puff paint and glue to make a collage using leaves. For the color Red, we sang “Five Red Apples in the Apple Tree” during circle time. The toddlers learned to listen and wait for their names to be called for their turn to pick an apple off the tree. So fun!! One of the books they enjoyed reading this month is called “Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too?” by Eric Carle. They will love to read it again, here’s a read-along you may want to watch with them.

Up next – November’s theme will be woodland/farm animals.

Preschool Group (Ms. Angelina’s group)

Signs of Halloween were present throughout the classroom and reflected in the topics we discussed during the month. We explored the topic of spiders, learning they have eight legs, are hairy, and are not usually harmful to humans. We also learned about bats. We discussed how they are nocturnal (active at night), use sonar (sound) waves when hunting prey, and sleep upside down. While the focus was on Halloween, the circle time lessons were about taking the “scary” out of these subjects, while learning more facts about the subjects. We also addressed monsters, what they are and do we really need to be afraid of them? We also talked about the difference between a pumpkin and a jack-o-lantern. The children enjoyed finger painting, gluing, and using our imagination to turn everyday objects into beautiful works of seasonal art.

Vocabulary words introduced this month were autumn, smooth, rough, bumpy, nocturnal, sonar, arachnids, poisonous, venom, Frankenstein, and mummy.

Let’s Review September 2022 at Pillar Kids

October 7, 2022 by Amirh Davis Leave a Comment

What happened this month?

September was a fun month, as we officially said good-bye to summer and settled into a more regular school-time routine.

Friends explored many new topics and discovered new abilities along with it. In the classroom – Ms. Angelina introduced our new “Writing Center” that features dedicated space for friends to practice recognizing and writing letters and numbers, how fun!! Even our smallest friends enjoyed practicing to use writing utensils, working on their fine motor, pincer grasping skills.

Toddler Group (Ms. Lam’s group)

In September, the toddlers explored transportation vehicles, such as cars, tractors, boats, train and planes. We talked about how each type of transportation travels and how some are used to for people and other for cargo. One of our favorite books that we loved to read was the “Little Blue Truck”. Some of the activities the toddlers enjoyed included painting car tracks, which is great for their fine motor skill development. One of our friends realized he could also make track marks in the sandbox and noticed that track marks comes out better in wet sand versus the dry sand – what a great way to explore new sensory concepts. In October, the toddlers will be learning about all things FALL, in particular about the beautiful colors of fall in their artwork and daily activities.

Kaymbu Image 20221007 1905 2 Scaled E1665174871100

Preschool Group (Ms. Angelina’s group)

September was the month in which we learned about community helpers. These are people in our neighborhood, like police officers, firefighters, doctors, garbage collectors, construction workers, chefs, teachers, members of the armed forces, and so many more! We also explored the life of

a superhero, as we talked about their unique superpowers and how we can use our own “superpowers” to help our friends. The children enjoyed movement songs, cooking activities, and outside adventures that were based on the lives of the community helpers we explored that day. Vocabulary words that we learned included: Ingredients; Construction; Exam; Stethoscope; 9-1-1; Hero; Bravery; and Villain.

With Halloween coming October will be an exciting month for the children! We will talk about the traditions of Halloween, taking part in teacher guided activities that promote large and fine motor skills, social interaction, enhance the imagination, and math, science, and language skills in fun and exciting ways.

Let’s Review August 2022 at Pillar Kids!

September 7, 2022 by Amirh Davis Leave a Comment

August 2022

This month, we kicked off our 2022-2023 school year and we are excited to get things started! Our teachers have so many plans for play, exploration, and learning. Stay tuned each month as we share what is happening inside the classroom with our monthly newsletters, as well as weekly pictures and digests from Kaymbu.

Parents who want more insight into their child’s development may request a CORAdvantage skills assessment be completed for his/her child, which looks at 9 developmental domains: Approaches to Learning; Social and Emotional Development; Physical Health and Development; Language and Literacy; Mathematics; Creative Arts; Science and Technology; Social Studies; and English Language Learning.

Preschool Group (Ms. Angelina’s group)

This month we focused on the children’s favorite subject – themselves, in our unit “All About Me”. Through circle time discussions and teacher guided activities, the preschool class learned about each other’s favorite things, like colors and foods. We traced our bodies, learned about the important job of our skin, as we painted the children’s feet and handprints. We also measured how tall we are and how much we weigh, expanding our counting and math skills. We learned about the inside of our bodies, exploring language skills with new vocabulary as we discussed what our immune system does, how our food is digested and what happens to the food our body doesn’t use! Lastly, we learned about our skeletal system and how we move our body. This was a fun-packed month and the children enjoyed exploring this fascinating subject! In September, we will focus on community helpers.

Toddler Group (Ms. Lam’s group)

Our youngest friends in Ms. Lam’s talked about body parts as well, and how to use gentle touches with our hands. We also talked different types of emotions, asking children to model their “angry”, “happy”, and “sad” faces. They also enjoyed singing the classic song “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, which is always fun.

We introduced a couple of new songs during group time this month, one of them is sung to the tune of B-I-N-G-O where I sing, “I know a girl / boy who loves to play and ( Child’s name ) was his/her name O ( Spelling out the child’s name)”. Coming up in September we will be talking about transportation vehicles, like school buses, planes, and boats. We know the little ones will love this topic!

Books we read this month in Ms. Lam’s class:

“From Head to Toe” by Eric Carle,
“Eyes, Nose, Fingers, and Toes” by Judy Hindley
“Clap Your Hands” by Lorinda Bryan Cauley

A Month in Review at Pillar Kids – July 2022

August 15, 2022 by Amirh Davis Leave a Comment

This month, both our preschool and toddler groups, explored animals from “Habitats around the World” and it was amazing! By reading books, singing songs, and creating beautiful art work – we learned about different animals, including Elephants and Lions from the Safari, Tigers from the Asian Jungles, Polar Bears from the Arctic, and more!

Preschool Group (Ms. Angelina)

The preschoolers sharpened their language and cognitive development skills as they discussed animal “habitats” in the wild. We learned how animals like Bears and Lions protect themselves from “predators” by building special structures, called “dens”. And how chameleons change colors to “camouflage” or blend in to any environment!

This month we tried a new welcome song for circle, called “Willoughby Wallaby Woo” that we sang as we passed around a huge elephant, singing each friend’s name to welcome them.

Toddler Group (Ms. Lam)

We talked about which sounds different animals make, for example horses say “neigh”. The toddlers enjoyed singing the “5 Little Speckled Frogs” song. The kids also loved dancing to “animal freeze dance”. Try playing these songs for your little one and watch them light up!

Both groups honed in on their fine motor skills while glueing, cutting, and painting works of art. The children explored the different patterns found in nature, like the tiger’s and zebra’s stripes.

New to the classroom!

All of the children thoroughly enjoyed playing in our newly built sandbox this month! Teachers provided various open-ended items to the sand, i.e. twigs, blocks, trucks, etc. The children spent hours creating and playing together (and independently). The sandbox is definitely a breeding ground for all sorts of sensory, creative, and dramatic play.