Our PreSchool Blog

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  • Winter in the Toddler Room!

    The toddler class is making the most of our time indoors on these cold days.  We have enjoyed some extra center time, baked, painted, crafted, crawled through an arctic cave and bounced “snowballs” on the parachute!

    Sensory play supports language and cognitive growth, fine motor skills, and problem solving skills.  It aids in enhancing memory functioning and  is great for calming.  The sensory tub and discovery bins are popular in our room.  This is truly hands-on learning!

    We provide an environment that is safe and interactive.  Learning centers allow children to understand the social world, develop communication skills, and build relationships.  Our classroom is designed as an invitation to play and explore.

    Our dramatic play center was converted into a veterinarian office.  The toddlers enjoy pretending to take care of the puppies.  They use new vocabulary, take turns, and get a little puppy snuggle.

    Creating is important for the toddlers.  They improve their fine motor skills, experimenting with materials is the foundation for science, and it provides a sense of pride which boosts self confidence.  We often do crafts in small groups which allows for instruction and discussion of shapes, colors, letters, counting, and theme vocabulary.

    Cooking with children provides practical experience with many skills such as following directions and measuring.  It helps toddlers develop fine motor skills, eye hand coordination and even early concepts of math and science.  We make chocolate chip muffins when talking about the letter M then oatmeal cookies when focusing on the letter O.  The toddlers also tasted chicken soup with rice after reading the book by Maurice Sendak.  Fun process – yummy product!

    Large motor skills helps children gain strength and confidence in his/her body.  It also helps them to get exercise and physical activity, which is important for a healthy lifestyle.  The toddlers love to play outside but the parachute and tunnel are a special treat!

     

     

  • Pumpkin Muffins!

    Baking in the toddler classroom is a fun way to learn through our senses.  We made simple pumpkin muffins with mini chocolate chips.  The toddlers used their eyes and noses to experience the orange pumpkin that we added to our batter.  We put together all the ingredients to a big plastic bag and took turns “mixing”.  Each child took a turn scooping a teaspoon of mini chocolate chips.  The result:  yummy pumpkin muffins for snack!

     

     

  • Week 3 – Cooking Summer Playdate

    Do you know the muffin man?  We baked up a storm during the cooking summer playdate this week.  We all worked together to make blueberry muffins on Monday.

    If You Give A Mouse A Cookie…   We used the big mixer to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch on Tuesday.  The toddlers had one for snack and one to take home!  We also watched the mouse jump on the parachute!

    We had mini donuts on Wednesday after reading If You Give A Dog a Donut!  We also worked on a donut craft and Kona Ice outside!

    Pancakes on Thursday!  Each child got to choose a color and help flip the pancake!  Yummy snack!

    We also worked on cupcake crafts, played in discovery bins, had fun outside, and enjoyed music time with Ms. Joanie.  A fun week!

  • Pumpkin Muffins!

    Cooking is a fun way to use all five senses.  Last Friday we made pumpkin mini muffins.  This was an easy three ingredient recipe so we all took a turn adding items (1 box of spice cake mix, 1 can of pumpkin puree, and 4oz of apple sauce (one little snack cup).  Chocolate chips are optional.  We put all the ingredients into a large ziplock bag then squished it all together.  I cut off the corner of the baggie to squeeze into greased mini muffin tin.  It was fun, easy and delicious.  Bake 375 for 18 minutes.  This would be fun to do at home on a cold winter day!

  • Prechool Prep-April Part Two

       

       

        

    Acting out the butterfly life cycle!

       

  • If You Give a Moose a Muffin

    Happy 2017 from the toddler room! The transition back from holiday break has been so smooth, and we are so excited to have all of our friends back with us!

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    We have started off the month of January with focus on the letter “M” this week. We read the book, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, and made our very own chocolate chip muffins!

    We practiced taking turns, and sitting for longer periods of time. We followed directions and used our recipe to help guide us along! A lot of our ingredients are white, which is perfect because we are learning about the color white this month! Check out our muffin-making process below.
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  • Thanksgiving Bakers!

    The preschool prep class made homemade pumpkin pie to celebrate Thanksgiving! It was delicious!

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  • Fall Leaves and Thankfulness Trees!

    Fall season is coming to an end, but we have had so much fun with the colors of Fall, and the leaves that come from trees in the Fall. We also had some Thanksgiving stories, art projects, and got to make our own mini apple pies for a Thanksgiving treat in school! We are so thankful for all of our students in the toddler classroom.

    Painting our leaves for our Thankfulness Tree! Each child got to paint their leaf, and then tell us what they are thankful for this Thanksgiving season 🙂
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    Fingerprint turkeys!
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    Making our own mini apple pies! Yummm

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    Finally, to taste them!
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    We hope you enjoyed your time off spent with family and friends, and we hope you had a very happy Thanksgiving!

  • “If You Give a Preschooler a Cookie…”

    We have lots of great bakers in our preschool prep classroom! We all worked together to make homemade chocolate chip cookies that we were able to eat for snack! Yumm 🙂

     

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  • Cold And Snowy Days Call For Hot Chocolate!

    Snow is falling and the temperature is dropping…What a perfect time to make hot chocolate! The Preschool Prep Students took turns stirring and adding ingredients into our mix. They were able to enjoy their hot chocolate at snack time!

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