Our PreSchool Blog

Our weather has taken quite a chilly turn the past few days.  The children enjoyed every second of it on Wednesday during recess.  Because of the change in weather we talked about how weather changes quickly and what causes it on Wednesday during group time.  We used an interactive weather maker to create all sorts of wild weather by changing the humidity and temperature gauges.  To round out our patterning unit in math we recognized and extended weather patterns on our magnetic board.  Weather is wild and wonderful!

Our weather was the topic of our discussion during group time on Tuesday afternoon.  It was a rainy, rainy, rain day.  It seemed to last forever.  We read the book The Rainy Day by Anna Milbourne which told us about how clouds are formed and what happens inside the clouds to make the rain fall.

The children shared their favorite things to do on a rainy day…playing games was the top on the list!  We played all sorts of Rainy Day learning games in small groups including Dominos, Colorama, and Seasonal Science Sorting Game.  Sometimes rainy days can be the best days.

We experimented with gelatin today by using a dropper and squeezing a variety different liquid water colors inside the gelatin.  It created an “explosion” of color within the gelatin that looked liked veins of color running throughout the mold.

We read the book, Celebrating Thanksgiving:  Giving Thanks during group time today and shared what we were thankful for…

Ms. Courtney’s sister joined us to make a special Thanksgiving Turkey out of popcorn, tissue paper, and a medical glove.  It’s amazing what little creativity to create!

In preparation for a successful future in writing children must, regularly, be using the small muscles in their hands and fingers to strengthen them.  We used small blocks today during small groups along with shaving cream and wooden spatulas to help build these muscles.  Children are also acquiring knowledge and skills which will provide an important foundation for later learning.  From the wooden shapes, your child solves problems and gains confidence.  Building with blocks helps children learn what numbers stand for, and it encourages children to practice scientific, trial-and-error thinking as well as critical-thinking and decision making skills.  And of course…it was a lot of fun!

Sorting was everywhere today in the PreK classroom.  We got our life size grid out at group time and sorted our shoes and even sorted ourselves!  The children decided that they could sort their shoes by color, type, size, and laces/no laces.  We also sorted ourselves by hair color…sorting is fun!

Laces/No Laces

Hair Color

We fine tuned our sorting skills today by identifying and sorting our buttons by their various attributes.  The children decided to sort them by color, size, shape, number of holes, and number of sides.  Sorting is a great activity to do at home.  You can sort most anything!

The PreK children strengthened their fine motor muscles and had some holiday fun today creating their own turkey treat for snack time.

Running Deer and Dancing Moon visited our classroom today to teach us about the Native Americans of the Southwest.  We have been talking about the pilgrims traveling to America and meeting the Native Americans that already lived there.  This was a great connection to what we have been learning about the first Thanksgiving.  We had the opportunity to visit four learning centers during their visit as well as hear a old Native American Cautionary Tale.  We learned about a variety of hunting tools they used to survive and how they made them out of items found in nature in around where they lived.  We also learned about the importance of corn.  We shelled corn and ground it into cornmeal using a mano and matate.  In the jewelry center we discovered the different types of items they used to create their jewelry, then tried our hand at making our own piece of jewelry to take home using duck feathers.  Lastly, we shucked our own corn and ate right off the cob for a snack.

We explored math today in preschool during small groups.  We talked about different constellations (or parts of constellations) during group time and viewed them on the smartboard.   Then, we tried our hand at creating our own “Number Constellations.”  We used our fine motor skills (important for successful writing in the future) and poked holes in black paper to create different numbers.  Then we traveled over to the light table to view our creations.