Sep 19, 2022

Weekly Update + Upcoming Offerings

DINOSAUR Week

MR. NICK's NOTES

WELCOME TO DINOSAUR WEEK!

This week at Sapna our Roots kiddos had a lot of fun learning about dinosaurs. We started off our week doing a reader’s theatre of the book, How do Dinosaurs Learn to Read? by Jane Yolen. On this day, students also created their very own dinosaur feet.

On Wednesday, Roots students attended their very first social skills group. Students enjoyed learning about different emotions and then sharing a time that they have felt that emotion with their friends. Then students played a game in which they drew a face and their peers had to guess the emotion. They all did awesome! Students also had the opportunity to learn to draw a dinosaur during Christian's Little Artists offering. We ended this day with some free play and dino dancing.

On Thursday, the Roots participated in some dinosaur succulent gardening. They did a great job following directions to plant succulents and create a dinosaur habitat. Students also began interviewing for the Sapna Storytellers Podcast.

We ended our dinosaur week with an interesting science lab about dinosaur adaptations. Students learned how different dinosaur body parts helped them survive. The Roots students then created their own dinosaurs with adaptive parts using useful loose-parts materials.

What are loose parts?

"Loose parts are materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. The idea of ‘loose parts’ uses materials to empower a creative imagination. The more materials and individuals involved; the more ingenuity takes place.”

--Simon Nicholson, architect who developed the Theory of Loose Parts (1972)

This week our Mentors took part in some fun and engaging learning experiences. In the beginning of the week, they learned how to sew a button. While this was a challenge, mentors stepped up and didn’t give up! Mentors also attended their first social skills group. Mentors were able to learn about themselves and what the term “self-regard” means. We also took some time to discuss the differences between being a pessimist and an optimist.

We had a great time with Synthesis this week as our Mentors put their collaborative minds together to win the game Constellations. This week we also continued the Holes book club with reviewing Chapters 15-20 and a trivia game. Mentors were very engaged as they answered questions to earn points about what they’ve read so far. During this week, mentors also participated in a creative writing activity called “The Art of Storytelling”. The objective of this learning experience is to learn what it takes to create a movie or short film and then put those skills to the test!

We encourage our Mentors to keep exploring to learn their passions and interests. Our goal is to fill our time together with experiences and lessons aligned with your interests and learning styles.

We can’t wait to see you all next week!

That is it for this weekly newsletter, hope you had a great weekend!