We did not let the rain hold us back today. We were busy exploring all things apple. Our story time was a little different today in that we started it at the table. We read a book about apples and learned that there is a secret star hidden inside every apple and in the star you can find the apples seeds or pips. We just had to see for ourselves so we cut several apples open to investigate. Sure enough, every apple had a star full of apple seeds inside. We then had the opportunity to taste all three varieties. We concluded story time at the rug where we voted for our favorite apple and sang a few songs. We enjoyed some marble painting this morning using the apple colors of red, green, and yellow. We finished our day with a great sensory activity. It is always interesting to me who is interested in getting messy and who prefers to avoid it. I presented the children with a small tray (to contain the mess) and a dollop of shaving cream. I sat back and watched as the boys and girls explored. Slowly almost everyone began to explore the sensations, smells, and fun of the shaving cream. There is always one or two children that really want no part of the mess. And that is ok. I want them to feel comfortable in making that choice. They were just as happy to watch their friends and hopefully when we try this again they will be willing to test the waters a bit more. On the other end of the spectrum it didn't take long for the exploration to advance from just our finger tips to fist-fulls and then sleeves of shaving cream. The beauty of this activity is that with a simple rinse the mess is gone! Enjoy your weekend and pray we get a break from this rain! Next week we will be learning all about bats!
What an exciting morning! It was dark and dreary outside but we didn't let that stop us from having fun together. The children enjoyed painting, dancing, and playing with apples all morning. For our art time, we used corks to stamp red, green, and yellow apples on paper. We also enjoyed some time working on color matching. Today we used red and green stickers and matched them to red and green apples on a picture. We are getting pretty good at peeling stickers from their backing. Looking forward to some apple taste testing on Friday!
Our morning was full of excitement. We sang and danced at chapel, painted lily pads, kissed a frog, and worked on our fine motor muscles. During our story time we worked in a little graphing activity. Each child had their picture and was able to vote whether or not they would kiss a frog. They loved coming to the poster and casting their vote themselves. After the tally we read a funny little book titled, I Know an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Frog. Each child received a picture of an item the old woman swallowed and as their page was read they were able to come forward and place their object in her mouth. This kept everyones attention and all were eager to feed the old woman. Next, we tapped into our inner artist and sat down to do some painting. Today we thought we would paint some lily pads. I had some extra bubble wrap on hand and each child got a square. We used blue and green paints to paint the bubble wrap and added a pretty white flower to complete the look. Painting on something other than paper really ups the interest factor. We LOVED this creative project and the outcomes were quite pretty. For our fine motor activity we used some jumbo push pins to poke holes in a piece of card stock. We discussed the need to be safe with the push pins and to only push them into paper. This activity encourages experimentation with the pressure needed to write with a pencil, hand eye coordination, pincer grasp, and target control. I asked the boys and girls to try and only punch holes in the green circle. That didn't seem too difficult a task but as you could see by the punch outs that went home in the totes today we need more work on our target practice. This will come through all the play with a purpose activities we will challenge ourselves with this year. Over all a great start and everyone used the push pins with great care and caution. Next week will be spent talking about all things apple! Hope you enjoy your weekend.
Our day was full of adventure! If your little ones don't nap or sleep well tonight I'll be surprised. We learned all about frogs today and were treated to a visit from the Zoo Man and several of his animal friends. We worked on counting, tracing lines, fine motor work, color sorting, stamping, spoon control, and exploring frogs. The boys and girls are really enjoying this exploratory time as they arrive. These trays are set up to define individual work space as well as provide an activity that requires little or no help from me. The activities are set up to promote self discovery, problem solving strategies, exercise critical thinking skills, and work with peers to reach success. I love to watch what they are attracted to and where they spend the most time. You can see on their little faces just how much concentration goes into completing the tasks. These learning invitations are presented in such a way the children feel they are simply playing. We were very excited at story time. My story bag had a fun frog puppet as well as a set of frog eyes. After I read the story (with the glasses on), everyone was eager to try them on as well. Our story bag always has a fun attention grabber. We make some pretty cute frogs! While we waited for the Zoo Man to visit we thought we would introduce scissors. This is always one of my favorite skills to teach because the growth by the end of the year is astounding! For some of these little ones they have never used a pair of scissors before. They have no idea how to hold it, some even preferring to use two hands. Little hands don't have enough muscle memory yet to open and close the scissors. For a novice, it takes very deliberate concentration to make the hand do what you want it to do. An envelope with our clippings went home in totes today. We were very proud of our work. Our wait for the Zoo Man was finally over and we were so excited to meet his friends. Some of us were even brave enough to hold the hissing cockroach! Like I said before, we were busy today! Looking forward to another fun filled day on Friday. See you then!
We continued our week of owl studies. The children are learning the routines and rules of the school day well. I am so proud of how well this group has begun to work together. We enjoyed working along side our new friends and sharing toys. During our table time today we created some pretty impressive mixed media art work. We used green chalk to draw some grass and then added colorful yellow and blue flowers with paint. Bravo! We also worked on a color matching activity while Ms. Sylvia, our classroom aide, was with us. We talked about our colors and identified the colors we were wearing. Then we were each given a paper with many different colored dots. Our job was to cover the dots with a sticker that matched. Peeling stickers is a fine motor workout for little fingers. Some had to concentrate really hard in order to peel the stickers off the sheet and transfer them to a sheet of paper without flipping the sticker or folding it in half. Extra stickers went home with their papers so feel free to work on it at home for some fun. This simple activity worked our pincer grasp, hand eye coordination, color matching, and transfer from one place to another. Simple but loaded with learning fun! There was a surprise waiting for us on the playground...Bubbles! This was very exciting and helped us enjoy our time out in the fresh air. Thank you for all of your support and words of encouragement during these first two weeks. We are off to a great start and have so much to learn together! Next week we will be learning about frogs. See you then!
We were very busy today learning all about owls. We counted, sorted, patterned, and painted owls. We even had an owl puppet read a story to us at circle time. Seems this group of children really enjoy puzzles. They visited the puzzle center every chance they got this morning. They worked independently as well as with a friends help. They must be exposed to a lot of puzzle work at home because they did really well working out puzzles that are new to them. Our time on the playground was spent working our gross motor muscles. We tried balancing on the playground trim, climbing through tunnels, collecting sticks, monkeying around on the bars, and sliding down the twisty slides. We even got a special treat when the garbage truck arrived to empty the dumpsters. We also worked on some fine motor skills. We hid beads in play dough and then dug them out. We also had more fun with pipettes. This time we tried to balance water from our pipettes in the little cups on the backs of bath clings. This helped us work on controlling our pressure when using the pipettes. More owl fun is on the way for Friday. See you then!
We are off to a tremendous start! The children had a wonderful day and were throughly engaged in everything we did today. I am amazed that this is the first school experience for these children. They have been pros! We gave our fine motor hand muscles a workout today. After reading a story about a little boy who used too much glue the children had the opportunity to try their hand at controlling a glue bottle. We repeated the phrase, "Dot, Dot, Not A Lot" over and over. The temptation to squeeze your heart out is strong but the boys and girls did a great job! The children were also introduced to pipettes. We use these simple science tools all the time! They are a great way to strengthen their pincer grasp which will in turn set them up for great success when holding pencils in the future. The pipettes require just the right amount of pressure to work. The kiddos did amazing! I have never had a group of children pick this skill up so fast! They loved working with them and transferring colored water from one glass to another. Yes, we work with real glass. I feel the children respect the materials more when they know I trust them with the real deal. Some of the children also experimented with pouring the water from one glass to another. A natural progression and one I was happy to see them try. If you are ever looking for something to keep the kids busy for 20 minutes, hand them two glasses and some water and be amazed at their focus. Looking forward to another exciting week where we welcome the final two Owls to our class. It is going to be a great year!
We had a fantastic start to the new school year today. The children are very excited and eager to learn. We enjoyed exploring our surroundings, making friends, and meeting new teachers. The children also enjoyed an introduction to water colors. Our playground time turned into quite the adventure! We were exploring the area when all of a sudden the sprinklers went off! Much to our surprise we were trapped in the rear corner of the play space and had to run through them and the mud to get to a dry area. Never a dull moment in preschool. We were a little damp but nothing that would slow us down. We finished up our morning making bracelets. Lacing beads is quite a fine motor workout! The boys and girls did really well figuring out how to manipulate the materials and all were successful! Looking forward to Friday's parent teacher meeting in the D Wing.
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Why Blog?Here you will find little snippets of our days together. When my children were in preschool and would come home I would always ask, "So, what did you do today?". All they ever said was, "Played." That didn't tell me much. I hope this blog will be a place to share what we have done and help you ask more directed questions of your child. You will see first hand just what we do after you kiss your little one goodbye in the morning. It will also be a great place to visit and see just how much your child has grown and learned throughout the year. Archives
March 2024
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