Am-Tree Developmental Nursery School

11/15/2024

Hi . Due to technical complications, we have moved to a new Facebook group. To continue following along with all the fun activities we do at Am-Tree School, please Like and Follow our new page found here:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561214057043

At Am-Tree, we help children to progress socially, emotionally, and physically while they learn at play. All of our efforts are devoted to enhancing the parent/child relationship by having your children return home feeling happy and content.

08/20/2024

Hi everyone! If you’ve wondered where all our great content has gone this summer- fear not! We have moved to IG- and have a brand new Facebook too.

We love your feedback, and love keeping up with our alumni and their families even more. Please take a minute to follow those pages. ⭐️⭐️ twinkle twinkle 🌳❤️

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561214057043&mibextid=LQQJ4d

At Am-Tree, we help children to progress socially, emotionally, and physically while they learn at play. All of our efforts are devoted to enhancing the parent/child relationship by having your children return home feeling happy and content.

07/31/2024

Hi Am-Tree Community. Due to technical complications, we have moved to a new Facebook group. To continue following along with all the fun activities we do at Am-Tree School, please Like and Follow our new page found here:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561214057043

With each change comes an exciting new beginning. You can now find Am-Tree School on Instagram! To keep up with our many adventures at school, please follow on Instagram.

At Am-Tree, we help children to progress socially, emotionally, and physically while they learn at play. All of our efforts are devoted to enhancing the parent/child relationship by having your children return home feeling happy and content.

07/15/2024

It’s Animal Adventure Week at camp and children at our Infant and Toddler center enjoyed a variety of animal activities in their Creative Movement class.

We sang Laurie Berkner’s “Pig on Her Head” while balancing foam animals on our heads, searched through the rainbow scarf jungle to find all the animals, were delighted by the old classic Elefun, tried out a monkey ring toss, and had fun rounding up all the (beach ball) animals in the zoo. Infants who were sturdy enough for sitting also tried out our rocking horses.

We can’t wait to see what other wild adventures this week will bring!

07/12/2024

Students at our infant and toddler center experienced a special super hero training camp earlier this week. We did some stretches with our special noodle dancing props. Then it was on to flight practice and strength training with our cushioned bolsters and weighted water bottles. Look at how strong these tiny heroes are!

07/05/2024

Our campers started their 4th of July fun a little early with a morning of backyard barbecue games.

They played can topple, beanbag toss, washer toss, red white and blue cup stacking, dominoes, bowling, hopscotch, and jump rope. They showed off their grill master skills with a burger carrying obstacle course, danced with red white and blue ribbons to our patriotic playlist, and enjoyed a cool cup of lemonade after all the fun.

We hope you all enjoy the long weekend as much as we enjoyed our first few days of camp!

07/02/2024

Children at our Infant and Toddler center kicked off our short 4th of July week with a special Creative Movement class.

We danced with red white and blue ribbons, paraded through the school with our old fashioned pots and pans band, and exploded into the air like fireworks with “sparklers” made from brightly colored pipe cleaners and string.

Infants worked on their grasping skills as they tried to pull red white and blue scarves through the slats in a laundry basket.

05/07/2024

Our Elements of Art study culminated in our first ever HIGH TOP FAMILY ART NIGHT. Students brought their special adults for some opportunities to show off what they have been creating in their classes, and try out some low mess art experiences. Each class chose an element to structure their activities around, and families were able to participate in collaborative group pieces, finger fitness activities, as well as many make and take projects so families could explore a host of PROCESSES BASED ART activities.

You can learn more about the importance of process based art at: https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/tyc/winter2023/what-will-we-make #

It was a wonderful way to build relationships with families, and inspire the artist in all of us. Enjoy this movie of the event. It’s long- but we were busy!

05/07/2024

High Tops and Pre-K classes are exploring Mexican Folk Dance this week in honor of Cinco de Mayo. We watched some clips of this performance by Ballet Folklorico Mexico Danza before trying some of our own dance steps.

Ballet Folklórico México Danza performing a Jalisco dance piece for the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival in June 18, 2016. Choreography by Martin RomeroIn...

05/01/2024

Our 7th and final element of art was FORM. Simply put for preschoolers, form is art that exists in three dimensions. That in and of itself is a lot for young children. We began by examining some flat and 3-d shapes. Children were able to observe and intuit the relationship between the two. We worked together to pair CIRCLE/ SPHERE, TRIANGLE/ PYRAMID, SQUARE/ CUBE, etc. After our book, Look! Look! Look! At Sculpture, students passed around my mini forms collection while we drew conclusions regarding forms and their two dimensional counterparts.

This week found everyone working on three separate FORM projects. The entire school created two recycled ASSEMBLAGES: WARM & COOL. Each age group worked on a grade level piece, (MOBILE, STABILE, and RELIEF). Every class got their own make and take art piece as well. Lizards used colored modeling clay to make flower reliefs, while High Tops used their hands (or feet) to bend and twist cardboard tubes into sculptures to paint. Pre-K worked with pipe cleaners, beads, wire, and project scraps to make one of a kind beaded line stabiles.

Just wait until you see it displayed.

05/01/2024

Element Six was TEXTURE.

We used Eric Carle’s book, The Artist Who Painted The Blue Horse to examine how artists use TEXTURE to add detail and dimension to their work. After story time, we played a few rounds of TEXTURE DETECTIVES. In this game, children chose a famous work of art card and examined it for an example of texture. After naming a texture they noticed in the painting (SMOOTH, BUMPY, FURRY, WOVEN, etc) they looked through swatch cards to find a matching example. It was a fun way to introduce new vocabulary and practice taking turns and listening to each other.

But it would not be STEM if we didn’t experiment and make a mess- so all classes experienced the element of texture in a hands on fashion. Leaping Lizards used assorted textured materials to paint some poster boards in their class color to be used in a future lesson. High Tops worked to create a Rip & Rub collage. The tearing of paper and peeling crayons for rubbing are great ways to practice using both hands, and the modeling clay we used for the mini reliefs really gave our hand and finger muscles a workout. Pre-K STEAMers worked with our KoolTool kid safe glue guns to create texture collage prints. Check out all the cool stuff happening in the lab.