Our PreSchool Blog

Our toddlers have had a lot of practice with triangles so far this month. Because we know how important repetition is in order for our toddlers to learn, we incorporated triangles into most of our daily activities! Below you can see how we implement the triangle into different parts of our day.

At our art center our friends practiced sticking tissue paper triangles onto contact paper on our easel. 

In one of our small groups we practiced using a glue stick to paste triangles on a bigger triangle and made a triangle mosaic. We also used triangle sponges to paint triangles onto our triangle paper. In the other small group, we made triangles, using popsicle sticks, and practiced counting the 3 sides.

Our toddler friends practiced using a glue stick again in their art project with Ms. Kristen! They made owls using the triangle, too!

We even used snack time to practice making triangles with pretzel rods! 

Each week we focus on a new letter, and then use it in our daily activities. We learn about our letter of the week during small group time, such as what it looks like and how it sounds, and then implement the letter into our daily activities. Because repetition is a crucial part of a toddlers’ learning, we then use our letter of the week in our morning activity tables and even for art projects!

My magic reading finger helps me learn how to read.  It helps make sure my mouth says what my eyes see.  When my finger’s under a letter, my mouth makes a certain sound.  It moves faster when I’m blending, for sounding out it must slow down.  For sight words it can HOP SKIP JUMP, these words I read with ease.  It covers up tricky parts, and makes looking for chunks a breeze.  This magic finger will help you, but there is one thing it please.  Keep the magic in the finger…by only using it to read!

-Jodi B. Whalen

Open-ended center exploration time is an important part of early childhood education.  Children are allowed to make their own decisions.  It might seem pretty basic to us, as adults, but it’s incredibly important to young children.  It gives them more ownership over their learning experiences.

Open-ended play also allows children to express themselves in play freely and creatively, not bound by preset limitations. Playing with open-ended materials with multiple uses and limitless possibilities, such as molding clay, wet sand, paint, blocks and other loose parts, allow for imaginative play. There are no rules to follow, no expectations, no specific problems to solve, and no pressure to produce a finished product when engaging freely in open-ended play.

Our theme this month is scary cute… MONSTERS! We read “Go Away Big Green Monster” and our toddler friends are already starting to make monsters of their own!

We also have lego-eating monsters. Our lego-eating monsters are used to teach our toddlers to match the color of the lego, with the color of the monster. With feeding the monsters, our friends are learning how to sort colors, use fine motor skills, and take turns!

The preschool prep class was able to go on a fall leaf hunt this week! We found leaves from maple trees, birch trees and oak trees. We sorted them by color, size and shape!

We had our first rainy day of the school year this week. You know what that means… indoor recess! Our friends had fun with parachute games and songs. We also had Ms. Joanie come in Tuesday for music. Combine that, with a lot of dancing during music and movement, it was a rainy day well-spent!