Our day was full of fun! The children enjoyed exploring some dramatic play. I sat in the center for a while pretending the pies were hot. Children at this age and stage of development are just beginning to explore dramatic play. They need some guidance and modeling to feel comfortable pretending themselves. Once they understand the expectations their imaginations run wild! Outside we continued to enjoy the climbing structure. The children also discovered some large building blocks we keep in a shed on the edge of the playground. We carried the blocks, built towers and even a bridge to walk across. A few even ran into their siblings on the way back inside. During circle time Tootsie brought us a little apple puppet. We sang a little song following Tootsie's directions to hold our apples high, tap on our nose, hide behind our backs, and touch our toes. We also sorted apple stickers in red, yellow, and green on the proper colored trees. During centers the children explored new offerings. Enjoy your day off tomorrow. See you Friday!
Another fabulous day in the books! The children began their day with some snack and then we were off to Motor Skills with Ms. Amy. From Motor Skills we made our way to the playground to enjoy the beautiful day God blessed us with. The bird were chirping and the air was crisp. We really enjoy climbing and working out our gross motor muscles. Back in the classroom Tootsie brought us a special book. In the story the children went to a farm for the day. During their adventures they were on the look out for shapes. Tootsie thought we would enjoy a shape hunt so she had a magnifying glass for each child to use as they searched high and low throughout our room to spot as many hidden shapes as they could. This class is made up of some very talented shape hunters! Our shape hunt was very exciting! Next we went to work creating some shape stamped artwork. We also had the opportunity to learn how to use pipettes. These are wonderful fine motor tools. I use them a lot in science explorations throughout the year. But before we can do experiments we need to learn how to use them. As simple as they may seem, using a pipette is a multistep learning process. We worked on pinching the upper bulb in the air and holding it tight while placing it in a cup of water. Once in the water you need to release the bulb and the water moves up the tube. The children worked hard to master this process. We transferred water from one cup to another, over and over again. This activity really engaged everyones interest. After a while some children wanted to explore pouring the water from one cup to another. We didn't worry about spills. We weren't working with too much water and the trays contained the mess. I even showed the children how they could clean up spills using the pipette! During center time the children continued to enjoy building with our magnet blocks and checking out other games throughout the room. I hope you all have a restful weekend. I am looking forward to next week as we begin learning about apples.
Our day began by exploring some of the new invitations to play that were available to work with today. We counted pegs and built towers with them, sorted shapes by color and scooped and sorted in the sensory table. Next, we were off to music class with Ms. Aline. We sang songs about our names and worked on rhythm. On the playground we enjoyed the slides, climbing the big structure and chasing each other. Back inside we painted with paint sticks. I love them because they have such rich color and no dry time. I bought them at Michaels and they would make a great stocking stuffer come Christmas time. We also got the opportunity to use real glue bottles. We discussed how sticky glue can be and how we need to use our hand muscles to squeeze the glue bottle. Controlling the pressure we need to use only comes with practice. We repeated over and over, "Dot, Dot, not a lot." as we worked to fill the bubbles on the paper. Once these are dry we will add them to our Fine Motor Journals. On Monday, while in the garden with some Life Skills students we came across a dead butterfly. He had such beautiful colors. So I scooped it up and shared it with the children today. They were very curious, yet extremely gentle with the fragile butterfly. During center time, the children built with magnetic blocks, worked on puzzles and discovered the dress up collection. Friday we look forward to learning more about shapes and going on a Shape Scavenger Hunt throughout the classroom. See you then!
We are two weeks in and the boys and girls are just now beginning to take an interest in one another. I noticed them making an effort to use each others names today and asking each other to share toys. Children are playful by nature. Their earliest experiences exploring with their senses lead them to play, first by themselves and then with others. We continued learning and discussing colors today. The children did a few color mixing experiments. In the first they finger painted to mix the primary colors into secondary colors (this was a little messy and I totally missed any pictures of it). And for the second experiment they melted to primary colored ice cubes in a cup of water to create a secondary color. These simple experiments are perfect for our naturally curious little scientists. Perhaps you could make some colored ice cubes at home this weekend and try color mixing together. Play activities are essential to brain development. Play is the work of the child. It teaches children to: Figure out how things work Take risks in a safe environment Pick up new ideas Develop language and communication skills Build muscle control and strength Solve problems Learn to cooperate with others and so much more! We enjoyed playing outside, working on the games in the classroom, painting with water colors, and working with play dough. It was a full day of playful learning. You can see by the expressions on their faces the children are having a wonderful time. They are focused on their work. Play is their work!
We had an incredibly busy morning. Your little ones are going to sleep like rocks tonight! Our day began with a quick circle time. The children had an opportunity to answer the question of the day. Are you wearing green? They each placed their vote, Yes or No on the board themselves. Tootsie told us we would be learning about colors this week and brought us a special book called Blue vs. Yellow by Tom Sullivan. She also brought two cans of playdough and told us we were going to do a color experiment with them. We worked hard to combine blue and yellow play dough to make GREEN! These little hands stretched and pulled and squeezed away until they made a new color. Each child got to bring the green play dough they made home. After all that work we headed out doors for some fun. We started off on the toddler side of the playground but were just too curious about the "big kids" side. It was exciting to see how fearless they were. Back inside we got to work on more fine motor development. This year I am going to try Fine Motor Journals. The focus of these journals is just to strengthen, develop, and increase hand strength and dexterity. These skills will be the foundation for future reading and writing skills. In your totes today was a letter explaining the objectives of these journals along with a developmental continuum of the kinds of lines we will work on, examples of the typical pencil grasps, and scissor skill development. As you will see in the next set of photos everyone is right where they should be! Over the course of the year the class photos will document growth through each stage. The more practice we can provide the better the children will master the stages. This morning we began with making dots. As you can see we are still in the fisted grasp stage. Right or left dominance has not presented yet. The more the children have experiences like this the stronger those muscles will get. Next, we did a little sticker work and I introduced scissors. We had a little discussion about how scissors are only used with an adult and on paper or play dough. For many young threes this may have been their first attempt at scissors. You will notice in the photos that the children hold their scissors in the most awkward positions and upside-down. Making them open and close with one hand can be overwhelming. Using scissors properly is a very complex skill. Little brains are trying to figure out how to open and close one hand while holding on to a piece of paper with the other hand and trying to make it all work at the same time. It is hard work! Everyone was so proud of their cutting work they wanted to bring them home. You will find their efforts in their totes in a blue envelope. During center time the children explored some new offerings for the week. The sensory tub was a hit! This week it is full of colored chickpeas. They make the greatest sounds when scooping, pouring, and dumping into those little tin cups. Enjoy the slide show. I still can't believe we fit all that into four hours! Enjoy your day off tomorrow and I can't wait to see what Friday will bring!
Look at the difference between a typical preschool child's hand (left) and a typical 7 year old hand (right). Want to know why a preschool aged child isn't able to write yet? This is why! Their hands are still developing and are not fully formed. So what should they be doing to support this? PLAY!!! Playdough, coloring, cutting, gluing, playing outside, digging in dirt, sensory play, dress up, science experiments, lacing activities, puzzle manipulation, throwing balls, climbing up a slide, all of this and more. These things help develop their hands. When they are physically ready to write, they will! No need to rush them. They will show you when they are ready. (via@Raisingherbarefoot) This nugget has been floating around many of the preschool blogs/sites I follow. I thought it was a brilliant visual to demonstrate what we will be doing all year. Our morning was full of many of the examples listed above. We began our day with Circle Time. Today our class puppet, Tootsie the Owl, brought us a new CD and some egg shakers. She wanted us to listen to a special song and when we heard the music play we shook our eggs. When the music stopped we froze. So much fun!!! Next, we were off to Motor Skills. This is a PE style class taught by Ms. Amy. She works on listening skills, taking turns, patience, personal space, and gross motor skills. Today the children took turns crawling through a tunnel, choosing a ball, and running it to the other side of the room to throw in a basket. They also used hula hoops to visualize their own personal safe space. When traveling through the building we all hold on to a "donut". This helps keep us all in a row and on task. The children have done an amazing job so far. Our first visit to the playground did not disappoint. The boys and girls loved climbing up the stairs, through the tunnel, and going up and down the slides. As long as we are safe and know the slide is free, I have no problem with the children climbing up the slide. It works so many muscles and gives them a safe place to take risks. Risky play is also an important part of how we challenge ourselves and build confidence. Treasure bags were also a hit. We pretended we were pirates searching for treasure. Stick, acorns, pebbles, and mulch make great treasure if we use our imaginations. Once back inside we got to some art work. We finger-painted! I was pleasantly surprised that everyone enjoyed this activity. Very often I will have a student that does not want to get his or her hands dirty. Not today! Once dry, these masterpieces will be cut into each child's initial for a truly one of a kind work of art! During center time the children explored different areas of the room. I also had some sticker work for them. We discovered Theraputty too. Truly the best fine motor workout there is. I highly recommend it. You can find it on Amazon or at Lakeshore for around $4. I used to keep it in my purse for when we went out to eat. I hope you have a restful weekend. We had a fantastic start to our year and I am so excited to see what happens next.
We did it! I am so pleased with how the children settled it to school today. The few tears we had only lasted a minute or so. My goal today was to familiarize the children with our room and how we do things. Thank you all for your patience as we worked out the kinks in drop off and pick up. Hopefully Friday will be a bit smoother with no rain! We started with some fine motor work. We made celebration necklaces today in honor of our first day. Lacing is a wonderful fine motor skill that really puts little hands to work. As you can see by everyones faces they were eager and determined to get those little beads on the string. The trays help define individual work space and keep things tidy. The boys and girls enjoyed exploring the room. I was excited to see how wonderful they were at sharing the toys with new friends. Playdough trays captured our attention for almost 25 minutes. This is also a wonderful and engaging way to build those fine motor muscles. In addition to fine motor skills, we explored some dramatic play while working with the playdough. Several children made birthday cakes. We sang "Happy Birthday" to each other and pretended to make a wish and blow our candles out. It was a wonderful opportunity to help develop some oral language skills as well. We capped off our day with some lunch and some eager talk about how Mommy's and Daddy's were going to be picking us up soon. Today was a big success and I am so proud of our little owls. Friday, we will meet at noon at the picnic table to the left of our playground. Feel free to park out on that side of the building. Bring a lunch to share with your child and we can discuss what the year will look like. Our meeting/lunch will not take more than 25 minutes so those that need to pick up siblings from other rooms will not be late.
Thank you for sharing your children with me. Feel free to share leave comments and share this blog with family and friends so that they can see the milestones your child will achieve throughout the year. Today was our Meet the Teacher visits. It was so wonderful to meet the children and their families. Everyone seemed very excited and eager to explore. I know, despite the challenges COVID will present, that we are going to an amazing year! Enjoy your last weekend of summer! Looking forward to seeing you all on Wednesday!
I am eagerly preparing for Meet the Teacher this Friday, and our first day of school next Wednesday. This is going to be an exciting year. My hope is this blog will be a wonderful place for you to view what we are up to every day. This year, more than any other, I hope this blog helps you feel more connected to our class family. I will post after every class to let you see first hand what we did while your child was at school. This blog will help you get to know your child in a whole new light. You will witness first hand the children's growth throughout the year, and the young 3's experience a tremendous amount of growth over the course of the year. View the posts with your child and ask them about their day, to explain what is happening, to point out their friends. Feel free to share this blog with friends and family privately. I ask that for privacy sake the link to the blog not be shared on social media. Check us out often and leave comments. I am so excited to see this space full of little faces and hear their sweet voices!
|
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
Categories |