Lucky Little Leprechauns Making Rainbows

Our preschool class from LVCC at Stones Crossing used their heads and hands to make a rainbow. Lucky for them, they found a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

Stones Crossing is going green…or at least dressing green. Toddlers tie-dyed and preschool had a green party while sporting some really sharp looking bow ties.

Storytelling with Art & Engineering with LEGOS

Bill Christine, or "Mr. Bill" as we call him, has once again taken on the role as Artist-in-Residence, this time at LVCC on Walnut Street. Mr. Bill uses language and literacy, visual arts, three-dimensional representation, and music in his lessons.

This week, we made up songs about when we were babies. We sang about a purple blankie and a baby bottle. Some of us danced with brooms as our partners while Mr. Bill played the guitar and sang.

Mr. Bill told us a story about his dog, Claudia, and his cat, Spunky, while drawing on the dry-erase board. In the story, his pets dressed up and went shopping when he fell asleep in his chair. When Mr. Bill woke up, he found tuna cans and dog bones hidden everywhere. We laughed because we thought this was silly.

We have been building a paper castle and acting out stories as we play with our handcrafted paperdolls. Along with construction skills, we have learned rudimentary geometry and practiced cutting and folding. Each week, we add to the castle and write down the stories. At the end of the 15 weeks, we will put all the tales together to have books to read about our adventures.

Thank you Allentown Art Museum and the Fowler Education Fund for making this program possible.

View More Photos of Preschool & Mr. Bill

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LVCC continued the Computer Explorers program for the spring 2012 season. LVCC at Muhlenberg Elementary students displayed there newly discovered LEGO robotics programming abilities. While working together on teams for the Smart Spinner project, students learned about how gears work and used problem solving skills for the robots to function properly.

Representative Steve Samuelson Engages LVCC Union Boulevard Students

State Representative Steve Samuelson of the 135th Legislative District of Pennsylvania, and a House Children & Youth Committee member, visited the children enrolled in the Pre-K Counts classroom at LVCC on Union Boulevard today.

The students were very excited to have such an important visitor. Representative Samuelson read Someday by Eileen Spinelli. This imaginative story was very inspiring of how the future has infinite possibilities. The Representative then entertained the students by spinning tales about himself and his own children. Everyone had fun and enjoyed his stories.

As a token of appreciation, the class presented Rep. Samuelson with an LVCC t-shirt and a beautiful display of preschool artwork, a five-foot tree created by the class. The tree trunk represented LVCC’s Pre-K Counts classroom. Written on the trunk were the words, “Please don’t ‘leave’ us behind.” The fruit among the branches bore the name of each child in the class. The class hopes the Representative will hang it in his office.

Thanks again to Representative Samuelson for taking time out of his busy schedule. He brought many smiles to some of his more petite constituents.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

What better way to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday than reading to a child? In celebration of Dr. Seuss and his of love of childhood learning, LVCC classes have been reading Dr. Seuss classics - an effective tool for teaching literacy. Using rhymes and witty humor, Dr. Seuss has been a favorite with children for years. This week constitutes Read Across America, a national initiative to promote reading as a fun and important activity. This evening, please continue the celebration by reading a book with your child.   Remember... the Cat in the Hat knows alot about that!!  ---------------------------------- Among all the many Dr. Seuss titles, Green Eggs and Ham ranks one of the favorites.  With a little food coloring and imagination, our classes (aided by our teachers) brought green eggs and ham to life. LVCC at Walnut St. even made green milk. The surveys are in - green eggs and ham are a yummy hit! We had lots of sticky fun in the young toddler class at LVCC Stone's Crossing by reading Dr. Seuss's wacky book of opposites, The Foot Book. Our guest readers were the most special of all... our parents! After painting our feet (or shoes), we ran across a big sheet of paper to show our left and right feet. We then compared our foot sizes with the other classmates. LVCC at Walnut St. read The Cat in the Hat. We learned about patterns when we created our own hats using red and white materials. Then we read 1 Fish 2 Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and created our own fish with watercolor paint. The next book we read was Hop on Pop, along with playing a rhyming word activity. Thursday, we read Dr. Seuss’s ABC’s and practiced our handwriting skills. On Friday, we of course read Green Eggs and Ham, and you can see from above how much fun we had.  LVCC's Fowler Center also held many great activities. We stamped cut-outs of our feet in paths leading hither and yon all around the building, in Seussical fashion. We each chose our favorite Dr. Seuss book, and after reading it, told our teachers why we liked the book so much.  To View All of Our Seussical Photos, Click Here

Budding Animators & Architects

John Borick of LVCC at Shafer School brings Disney characters to life with his pencil sketches.

You can usually find this blossoming animator in the creative process. Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) are some of his favorite drawings.  You may someday see this talented artist in the credits of a future Disney movie!

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No, we aren't playing poker! I see another Frank Lloyd Wright in the making. Our LVCC at Shafer School class discovered architecture through a deck of cards.

Our class practiced building objects with the cards. From pyramids to elaborately-layered structures, our students used their problem-solving skills to make an innovative house of cards. Building card houses and other card games can teach math skills - counting, number order, addition, subtraction and probability. When working together to construct a house, we use communication and teamwork to reach our goal. 

Be My Valentine... in Fleece?

Our Pre-K Counts class at LVCC's South Mountain held a Family Valentine Friendship Party. Along with our parents, we made bookmarks with bunches of heart stickers and yarn. We had a fun day making memories with our friends and families.

Guest visitor, Marie Miller from Allentown, brought some canine friends to our LVCC's South Mountain Pre-K Counts class. Marie wrote a story about her dog, Nitro, who didn't look both ways before crossing the street and was hit by a car. What an important lesson - don't cross the street without looking both ways! Nitro is fine today because of a veterinarian who made him better with a screw in his hip bone. The other dog, Lil' Dog, played fetch with us in the classroom. 



Annual Fleece Week has arrived at LVCC at Nazareth Area Intermediate School! Ms. Colleen brought in sewing machines and yards and yards of fleece for us to choose from. After carefully measuring the material, we cut away!

Our classmates with the rubber ducky print material have expectant mothers. What thoughtful siblings they are for making their new baby brother or sister small no-sew blankets!

Winter Fun at Fowler

Since we haven't received much snow so far this winter, our older toddler class at LVCC's Fowler Center created our very own indoor winter wonderland.

To practice fine motor coordination, we brushed white paint onto grey paper, creating a blizzard on the bulletin board. Snowballs inspired this activity. To exercise our fine motor development, we glued cotton balls, representing ice and snow, onto the igloo shape to make a 3-D igloo. We also painted coffee filters, which are shaped like igloos, using colored dot markers.

Once we finished our artwork, we discussed things that are white - snowflakes, paper, crayons, and even blankets. We sure found lots of objects that can be white.

All this busy crafting made us hungry! It's a good thing our teacher had a healthy snack of bananas and goldfish waiting for us. Water washed it all down into our full bellies!

Go Team!

Are you ready for some football?!! LVCC's South Mountain is!

Our toddler and pre-school classes celebrated the upcoming pro-football championship game by having a Superbowl party. Children and staff sported attire from their favorite teams. NY Giants, Oakland Raiders, and many other teams were represented. We even had a few cheerleaders to lead Team LVCC in songs!




We have spirit!
Yes we do!
We have spirit!
How 'bout you?


LVCC at Walnut Street had the team spirit this week too! Our preschoolers stretched, sang, and danced to the music of The Banana Song. We have lots of fun singing about healthy snacks like bananas, oranges, potatoes, and avocados.

What Do Firemen, Nature and Book Fairs Have in Common?

...they are all things we did at LVCC's South Mountain this week!

The Allentown Fire Department gave us a demonstration. Our heroes taught us what to do in case of a fire at home. We learned how important a fireman's job is (but we also had a great time playing inside their firetruck). The Allentown Police Department and Allentown Health Bureau also visited earlier this month to talk about health and safety.
 

Our fantastic friends from LVCC at Truman School sent us some wonderful gifts - a tree, mushrooms, feathers, and more - to help us learn about nature. We wanted to show our appreciation, so we brainstormed on how to make a nature thank you card. In this photo, Mrs. N from the Truman School Age program is modeling the thank you cards that Pre-K Counts South Mountain made.

Our Pre-K Counts class excitedly read different kinds of books to prepare for our Scholastic Book Fair from February 6th-10th. Each year Scholastic Book Fairs, in partnership with schools across the country, hosts more than 120,000 book-sale events that give more than 35 million students and their families access to thousands of affordable and educational products, helping foster a lifelong love of reading.

Snowflake Has Arrived

We are so excited about Snowflake arriving! No, not the white stuff that falls from the sky - the Wells Fargo Bank mascot!

Mr. Roy Detweiler, III and Ms. Evalys Flores (pictured on the right) from Wells Fargo Bank, located on Union Boulevard, visited us at LVCC's Union Boulevard and brought along a 4-foot plush pony named “Snowflake.” Each bank branch donated a pony to a children’s organization of their choice; the staff at the Union Blvd. branch chose LVCC. This year's pony, Snowflake, is modeled after a Wells Fargo express wagon horse from the 1880s. The historical Snowflake led a team of horses that helped deliver money, merchandise, important papers, and packages from Jersey City across the Hudson River into Manhattan.

Now, Snowflake is delivering smiles and giggles to all of our classrooms. We hugged and snuggled with Snowflake the whole day! Our teachers also instructed us on how to properly pet and care for an animal.

Our LVCC classes made a large thank you card with our painted handprints that Ms. Sharon delivered to the wonderful staff at Wells Fargo.

Thank you Wells Fargo Bank! We will take care of Snowflake for many, many years!

Click here to see more photos of LVCC with Snowflake.

Frosty the Snowman

Did you know Papier-mâché in French means chewed paper? We didn't chew the paper when we made this paper-mache snowman in our preschool class at LVCC's Walnut Street. Instead, we pasted strips of newspaper onto a blown-up balloon. We made the paste out of water, glue and flour. When the paste dried, we painted the snowman white and gave him some facial features and painted buttons. Once the paint dried, we gave him some finishing touches of a hat, a scarf, and pipe cleaner arms. Everyone worked as a team to create this cute guy! The whole class decided to name him Frosty.

When we were all finished, our teacher took us outside to play in the snow. We pretended to be Frosty the Snowman and let the cold snow drop onto our noses! It's a good thing we were all bundled up to stay warm. The real Frosty would have melted!

Winter Mosaic

Our school-age class at LVCC at Forks School explored art and animals this week with Ms. Josetta Vadala, our new Center Director.  Since winter is upon us, we discussed animals that enjoy the cold and how they live. Did you know penguins like the cold? Their funny little tuxedo bodies keep them warm and waterproof!

We also discovered the beauty of mosaic art. Mosaic art is a collage of materials assembled to make an image. The greatest part of making a collage is that it doesn’t have to be perfect!

We made our very own penguin mosaic using cut paper. The bow accents distinguish the male and female. Our penguins, however, are NOT waterproof.