Our PreSchool Blog

As the winter weather quickly begins to come upon us, please remember that WE WILL GO OUTSIDE FOR RECESS IF THE TEMPERATURE IS ABOVE 32 DEGREES.  Giving the children a break from the structure of the classroom and an opportunity to be physically active is a vital part of our day.

Please remember to dress your children appropriately for the weather- no skirts without tights or slip on shoes without socks.  One very important thing to remember is a hat and mittens. WE ASK THAT YOU SEND MITTENS WITH YOUR CHILD IN LIEU OF GLOVES. Imagine, if you will, putting on 24 pairs of gloves onto 48 individual itty bitty preschool size hands.  It is, to say the least, very time consuming and takes up some of their playtime outside.  Please purchase mittens for school to help us with the preparation for recess.  In advance THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FROM ALL OF US!

Fun with Friends

"Traffic Jam"

Friends are Forever

Chair Pose

Clock Pose

Ms. Laurel visited our classroom today for Yoga!  We had a great time singing (of course) Tick Tock Little Yoga Clock.  The kids FAVORITE song and yoga pose of all times!  They worked on all of their animals poses and learned the new Chair Pose.  The kids have loved using the new yoga mats and all the new songs Ms. Laurel has introduced this year during yoga!

Nice Work Will!

We practiced our scissor skills today using our yummy smelling gingerbread play-dough.  It’s important to remember  to keep the thumb pointing up to the sky, not letting our hands turn in upside down.  Scissor activities help develop the small muscles in your child’s hand that are important for writing.  Cutting letters out of magazines is a great activity to do at home on a cold winter evening.  Add a glue stick and some construction paper stapled together and you have everything you need to make your own letter book!  Have fun!

Great Job, Logan!

One-to-One Correspondence

Practicing Uppercase M & N

Do You Eat Grass?

We started full swing today after our Thanksgiving Break.  We began a new book this week called, “Do you eat grass?”  We focused on one-to-one correspondence, comprehension, and sight word recognition during our first reading today.  We also began working on writing our numerals from one to ten.  We will continue working on this skill during the month of December.  Consider practicing at home to help support our learning in the classroom.  We also focused on the letter Mm during our writing small group with Miss Katie.  The kids did a great job….keep working on those homework folders!

We had fun today making gingerbread play dough!  The mixing and mushing of the cinnamon scented dough kept them quite busy!

Today we had fun making the letter N using Noodles!  This was a great way to practice letter recognition as the kids stuck noodles onto the glue to form the letter N!  As we did this fun project, we talked about how Noodle start with the letter N.

noodles and the letter "n"

A turkey is a funny bird

The children have been using bright and beautiful water colors to create turkey feathers.  This week we have been talking about the Thanksgiving holiday and they couldn’t wait to create their own turkeys! Here is a song we have been singing that you can try to sing at home!

(to the tune of “Pop Goes the Weasel”)

A Turkey is a funny bird

His head goes Wobble, Wobble

He only knows one word…

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!

Our annual art has come and gone, but here are some pics to enjoy.  We really appreciate everyone joining us to celebrate all of the wonderful artwork the children had displayed.  They worked so hard and we LOVED seeing the kids take center state for the night!  We thank Ms. Penny for all of her hard work for the show AND with the children!

Dancing Moon and Running Deer came to visit us today to teach us all about the Southwest Native Americans.  We had the opportunity to pop the dry corn kernals off the cob and grind them on a matate.  A matate is the large stone on which the grain is placed. A mano is a smaller stone used to grind corn or other grains. It is rolled over the matate to break down the grains into a powder.  The powder is then used to cook many different things with.  We talked about all the different uses the native americans had for corn then we husked our own piece of cooked corn and enjoyed it as a snack.

Running Deer showed us all of the different types of tools and weapons that were used to hunt and provide food for the native american families.  We also got to see and feel a real deer fur and antlers along with a fox fur and skunk fur!  We explored and dressed up in native american jewelry and clothing and had a chance to make our very own piece of jewelry.  We learned that native americans would have used many different things to make their jewelry including shells, feathers, animal claws other things they would find in the area where they lived.

We learned that native americans did not have books like we do, they had “storytellers,” or people in their tribe that told stories to the young children.  These stories always had a lesson that the children could learn.  Dancing moon told us the story about “How Chipmunk Got His Stripes.”  It was an exciting story that taught us that we should not tease others or to brag about ourselves.  We will be reading other Native American Folk tales later in the week, including How Jackrabbit Got His Long Ears and Kissing Coyotes.  The preK children got to listen to a story on tape about another native american legend…The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush.

sensory table colored pasta

This week our sensory table is full of colorful noodles! The kids have been digging their hands in this colorful pasta and scooping and dumping it!  They have been using spoons to scoop the noodles into the bowls and pretend they are making soup!  Since all of the noodles are different colors this has been a great way to practice our color recognition as well!