Our PreSchool Blog

A phrase that is used frequently in preschool is Fine Motor.  This is an extremely important skill for 3 and 4 year olds to practice and practice and practice some more!  Fine Motor skills are those that work the small muscles in their hands.  They are used for things that we grownups take for granted each day, for example; using eating utensils, buttoning our shirt, sipping our coat, and writing our name.

We do lots of activities each week that help our students build these skills so that we can prepare them for independent activities such as the ones listed above!

This activity is a fun one as we work our small finger muscles to pick up tiny pom poms with small tongs and transfer them without using our other hand at all!  Our students loved it!

We had our first music class of the year with, the one and only, Ms. Joanie! The kids just loved her! She comes once a week to sing with the kids, let them play/learn new instruments, and teach them music vocabulary!

Music is very important for our preschoolers. It ignites all areas of  child development (intellectual, social, emotional, motor, language). Music helps the body and mind work together, and can teach them sounds and meanings of words.

We are using the dinosaur theme to incorporate fine motor skills, sorting, matching, position words, and more. We have read several dinosaur books including Dini the Dinosaur, we have learned dinosaurn fingerplays, and danced to Laurie Berkner’s We are the Dinosaurs. Toddlers are learning through play!

Our K Prep class worked together to create a collaborative art piece yesterday. We have been working so hard on mastering skills over the past few weeks, it was time to let our creativity soar without any thought of right and wrong answers. In open-ended art projects, there is no frustration, no anxiety, and no uncertainty. Creating an “anything goes” atmosphere during our project was a welcome relief for our amazing learners.

Collaborate art is also a great way to build community within the classroom, develop communication skills and learn from each other!

We are working hard with our letters!  We are learning to recognize them, name them, give their sounds, and build them.

Before we start learning to write letters it is important for children to really know what a letter looks like, and what kinds of lines it contains.  So for example, uppercase A is made of only straight lines but lowercase a is made of a curved line and a straight line.

We work hard to learn to build them the correct way, to make the transition to writing them much easier.  Starting at the top and going down is always important!

In the PM Preschool and Preschool Prep classes, we have been planning our days around a children’s book and integrating other curriculum objectives into that theme.

For example, we read Pete The Cat as a class and the kids were able to snack on some of the different foods Pete steps in to help retell the story (strawberries, blueberries, chocolate- in place of mud, and water).  To incorporate letter recognition, we had the children feed letters to our Pete The Cat Character Box. If it was not a letter we had learned yet, the children would say “goodness no!”- just like in the story. To continue with this theme, we had a question of the day for the children: “What color would you turn your shoes? What would you need to step in to turn them this color?”

We were able to integrate literacy, letter recognition, sense of taste, color recognition, and story retelling!

Sensory play is extremely important for children to engage in!  It allows them to learn and explore in a way that allows them to be successful.  There are many things in life, especially at school where children can do things in a “right way” and a “wrong way.”  Sensory play can be whatever a child wants it to be, and they can just be creative and have fun!  Sensory play is also a great way to engage in learning and allows children to engage in multiple senses.  When this occurs, children are able to learn more!  Playdoh is a great resource and one that we use frequently in preschool.  We mold it into shapes, letters and numbers and while we do this we are feeling the material, seeing the material become something specific and learning while having fun.  We can squish it, roll it, squeeze it, and flatten it which helps us work our hand muscles.

This month we have been learning all about the square.

We learned that squares have 4 sides and that they are all the same size.

We have been building with squares, finding squares in the classroom and making square collages!

Here are some awesome resources for you to use at home to continue learning about the square!

The Storybots Square Song

Searching For Squares Video

Hello Yellow!  The color focus for the month of September is YELLOW.  We have used all of our senses to immerse ourselves in yellow.  We have read a book called Hello Yellow about a parade, we have watched videos and sang songs about the color yellow, sorted items by color, and our “lemonade” sensory tub is filled with all types of yellow items for pouring and scooping.  During small group, the mystery can was filled with all yellow items (banana, corn, yellow crayon, yellow car, yellow monkey, duck, etc.).  We also tasted yellow lemons and did lemon prints.  The children combined our letter study and color study by string painting a “B” to create a yellow bumble bee.  On Friday, we took turns measuring and pouring and made yellow play dough!  We will continue to focus and yellow in the classroom throughout the month.  You can reinforce at home by having your child find yellow items around the house and pointing out yellow things in their everyday lives.

Friends are vital to Preschool & Pre-Kindergarten children’s healthy development. Friendships provide children with more than just fun playmates. Friendships help children develop emotionally and morally. In interacting with friends, children learn a lot of social skills, such as how to communicate, cooperate, and solve problems. They practice controlling their emotions and responding to the emotions of others. They develop the ability to think through and negotiate different situations that arise in their relationships. Having friends even affects children’s school performance. Children tend to have better attitudes about school and learning when they have friends to share it with.