MAY
In the Garden, I Can Help Care for the World Around Me, Musicians, Balance It!
Global Gull: Suela, Mariposa, Semilla, Flor, Gusano, Jardinería Suela, Mariposa, Semilla, Flor, Gusano, Jardinería
May is full of growth, confidence, and discovery for our Penguins! Over the next four weeks, children will enjoy engaging learning experiences that build listening comprehension through stories and shared discussions. Penguins will practice basic hygiene skills as part of their daily routines and show growing confidence as they try new challenges. With support from teachers and peers, children will explore different ways to solve simple problems and practice adjusting to changes in play, strengthening flexibility, independence, and social skills.
Children will have many opportunities to build story comprehension through activities like Picture Walk, which invites them to explore and make sense of a story before hearing the words. Comprehension also grows when children talk about their own real‑life experiences connected to stories. During At My Park, children describe what they enjoy doing with their families, practicing sequencing their thoughts and language—an important skill that helps them understand the order of events in stories.
Children build healthy habits by practicing personal hygiene as part of their daily routines. While skills like handwashing are reinforced throughout the day, this month’s activities place a special focus on dental care through Brush Your Teeth. In Tissue Time, children practice the sequence of blowing their nose, throwing away the tissue, and washing their hands, helping them understand and remember each step.
Children build confidence in many ways, and several activities this month are designed to highlight and strengthen that growth. In I Can Do It, teachers offer positive feedback and reflection, helping children recognize their successes. Incredible Me Chart invites children to share what they like about themselves, while Compliment Web helps them see and hear what others appreciate about them; building self‑awareness, confidence, and connection.
Activities that encourage children to ask questions, try possible solutions, and predict outcomes help strengthen problem‑solving skills. In Color Changing Playdough, children explore what new color might appear when two colors are mixed together. Throughout the month, they also observe and make predictions as a sunflower seed grows into a flower, using past experiences to think about what plants need to grow and change.
Children begin learning how to adjust to changes in play as they explore early cooperative experiences with peers. With teacher guidance, activities like Act It Out invite children to think about how they might respond in different social situations, encouraging flexibility and problem‑solving. In Emotion Check In, children learn that people can feel differently in similar moments, helping them recognize emotions, respond with care, and build the skills needed for cooperative play.
Teachers will provide stimulating activities and share stories that connect to our enhancement theme, “In the Garden!” Through storytelling, sharing feelings and accomplishments, teachers support children as they discover their peers’ shared likes and dislikes and model what it means to be kind.
In this unit, our Penguins will be exposed and introduced to our Spanish Core Words, such as ‘play,’ ‘sleep,’ ‘bathroom,’ and ‘all done,’ and our monthly words that accompany our theme of ‘In The Garden’ in Spanish. Children will learn the Spanish words for ‘soil’ (suela), ‘butterfly’ (mariposa), ‘seed’ (semilla), ‘flower’ (flor), ‘worm’ (gusano), and ‘gardening’ (jardinería). Teachers will use these Spanish words in day-to-day interactions, conversations, songs, and storytelling with our young children to further increase exposure and awareness and to offer a form of communication and language learning. Teachers will provide exposure and repetition through various opportunities for our young children to practice and further explore their newly discovered language!
In our Paints and Pianos program, our Penguins will experience a range of feelings as they listen to well-known musicians: The Beatles, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Ray Charles. They will move, shake shakers, and wave scarves as their bodies and brains connect during these magical musical moments. Through these artists, children will hear beautiful harmonies, fun nonsense words of Scatting, the pure emotion of the Blues, and the stories told as these songs unfold. Our Education Coordinators will provide language describing the sounds of instruments and the feelings they evoke while Penguins become familiar with musical legends.
In Fit Buddies, our Penguins will practice balance and hand-eye coordination while walking. Using a plastic egg and spoon, they will attempt to keep the egg on the spoon as they move. This challenge strengthens their core, arms, hands, wrists, and grip. Our Education Coordinators will provide encouragement and support while emotions of joy, laughter, and maybe a little frustration occur when the egg falls off. Penguins will move around the room to match the egg color to the bucket color while keeping the egg balanced. To end each class, we will practice yoga and meditation poses to help children feel connected to themselves and focus on their overall mind and body wellness!
In The Art of Living, children learn how to care for the world around them. Exploring our garden beds, clearing old vegetation, and preparing spaces for new plants helps children begin to understand the passage of time and the importance of caring for living things. By watching for items that do not belong outdoors and could affect plants or wildlife, children take early steps toward environmental stewardship. Through teacher modeling and shared experiences, children learn, “I can help care for the world around me,” building independence and pride both in the classroom and beyond.