Walter Ambrose Family Center Preschool

Due to weather conditions, all Webster Groves School District after-school activities, athletic practices and events are canceled tonight, Monday, December 1. Preschool and Adventure Club will be closing at 5 p.m. but we encourage families to pick up children earlier if possible.

We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding of the need to put safety first.

On a walk at the beginning of the year, one of the Seedlings noticed her shadow and pointed it out to her classmates. The rest of the walk was spent watching our shadows and observing as they moved and evolved. Every time we changed direction on our walk, our shadows did, too!
This led to a fascination with light and shadow that only continued to grow. The Seedlings collected items from nature to create a shadow station and have been making predictions about what kinds of shadows each object will cast. We also set up a shadow area in our classroom and the Seedlings have been experimenting with making shadows with their hands and bodies, making shapes, and building structures to see their shadows.

The Sycamores have been enjoying discovering all things that move! It all began when we noticed that many of our friends were building rockets, cars, and delivery trucks. We began studying transportation and construction and went on walks to explore where those exist in our community. Over time, we saw that the desire to explore cars and trucks went deeper than just learning what their jobs were. We began building small ramps, creating tracks with blocks, and started to learn more about how things roll. We also noticed that our friends love to move their bodies, either doing yoga, songs, or storytelling.

The teachers knew we needed to transform our classroom to better support our study! We now have a ramp area where we can learn about how balls and objects travel. We also updated our storytelling area to explore the movement of light, shadows, and colors. The Sycamores also are enjoying deepening our knowledge of movement through moving our own bodies in our new yoga studio. We’re excited to discover how many new ideas this study will teach us about ourselves and our world.

Children in the Dogwood room have been focused on color. From rainbows to materials of varying colors, they have been creating, exploring and using their imagination to expand their knowledge of colors.

We have used light to enhance colors, created rainbows, gone on color walks, and explored colors in other spaces within the building as well as the forest.

A curious clue has appeared in the forest…
Several groups of children stumbled upon a mysterious bear among the trees—but here’s the twist: nobody knows where it came from! Was it crafted by a secret woodland artist? Left behind by a wandering storyteller? Or maybe it simply appeared on its own, as if the forest conjured it?
We need your help to unravel the mystery.
Who created this bear?
Does it already have a name—or will we be the first to give it one?
While we search for clues, we’re also holding a school-wide vote to choose the perfect name for the bear! Stay tuned for the results and help us discover the truth behind the Forest Bear!

The Oak Room has been particularly interested in books and stories and that interest has grown into a project to build a library in the classroom. The children discussed what kind of books should be in the library as well as how to organize them and use the library. After much discussion the children decided to organize different types of books into different boxes and label the individual books for their category type. Children brought in shoe boxes and painted them different colors for the different categories. The children applied colored tape to the books to make the boxes and help with keeping the library organized. A different child is the class librarian each week to help with decisions related to the library and keeping it in order. The children have had their first guest reader to the library and plan to schedule many more!

The library encourages a variety of literacy skills, sorting skills, work with systems, encourages responsibility, cooperation, and negotiation skills. A love of books follows children throughout their life in a positive way and we are very excited to see where else the children’s library journey will take us!

Over the past weeks, the Willow Room has been deeply engaged in artistic explorations inspired by color, light, and photography. Through these experiences, they have been investigating materials and discovering how art can express ideas, feelings, and perspectives. We have observed their curiosity guiding the process by mixing colors, noticing the effects of light, and revisiting previous creations to explore new possibilities. Each investigation builds on the last, supporting thoughtful expression, collaboration, and a growing understanding of the world around them.

The children of Magnolia AM have been wondering about all things rainbow. Through loose parts on the light table and in our Collaboratory space, children have explored the connection between light and color.

Using different languages, the Children of Magnolia AM were also about to create rainbows. Tiny colorful loose parts transformed into abstract rainbows. They explored each color in a deep way by creating the colors using the language of paint. Their papers came to life as the paint filled each page.

They also wondered, “What colors live in our community?” The children of Magnolia AM went on a community walk to document their findings. It turned out, all the colors of the rainbow live in downtown Webster Groves. This includes our Forest! Children were shocked to discover that someone had sprinkled the Forest with color.

In the Acorn Room, we start off our day with our morning meeting, which includes reading a story. We are continuing with Snake Makes Shapes. Most of the children are helping us read the book. They recognize the shape and shout out what shape is on the page. The children are creating their own snake out of rocks so that they can make shapes. Well done Acorns! We are continuing to focus on routines and procedures. The importance of these routines help provide security, build independence and confidence, reduce anxiety and behaviors and support social emotional behavior. We will continue to focus on these for a few more weeks.

Spruce Room has been spending their time exploring the classroom and working together. We have been noticing that the children are investigating multiple schemas such as rotation, enclosing and trajectory. The children are building ramps and seeing what materials they can send down them. They enjoy filling up space whether it's on a light table, a piece of paper with paint or loose parts. We are also enjoying the new “Bear at the Forest”. We have left it some gifts.

The Birch Room is exploring the themes of homes, habitats, and community. They've been building different types of homes with various loose parts and other materials, going on neighborhood walks to observe real-life examples, and reading books that help us learn about where people and animals live. These experiences are helping them understand how homes are built, what makes a community, and how living things adapt to their environments.