Our PreSchool Blog

Today we took a journey to our first country of the year, Canada!  If you were with us last year, it may seem that we haven’t gone too far, but we thought we would stay close by and study something relatively similar to our own country.  In our Pre-K class we talked about the different habitats that are found in Canada, including the Arctic habitat where we would found the Snowy Owl, the Mountains, and the Forests where we would find Bears, wolverines, bald eagles, etc.  We also talked about the ocean as a habitat.  We will focus on the Forest habitat during the month of October.  In our Preschool class we talked only about the forest habitat and what animals we would find there.  In both classes we located our own country on the map as well as Canada.  This will be something that will be repeated throughout the year with each country we visit.  The kid’s always love “traveling” and learning about new places and especially the animals that we find there!

Traveling to Canada

The preschoolers continued their focus on the numbers 1, 2, and 3 today with Ms. Manda’s very popular sticker activity. The students identified each numeral as they covered them with small stickers (great for those ever growing fine motor skills). Then it was onto the tricky part; How many is the number 1? The number 2? And the number 3? The students were asked to place the correct amount of smiley face stickers next to the corresponding number. The kids loved this activity and were very proud of their finished product. It was a great way to show the written form of the numbers as well as the spatial form.

Sorting, numeral sequencing and spatial arrangement. Unbelievable what a single exercise can convey.

We have been graphing the weather over the past three weeks and the children have been drawing their own weather cards to help keep track of our crazy Cincinnati weather.  Graphing activities for Pre-K (and Kindergarten) include collecting data and organizing it in a variety of ways.  This is one way we will be practicing this skill throughout the year.  We will be using these weather graphs to compare and contrast the differences in our weather throughout the different months of the year.  We will also be using them when we talk about the terms, Greater, Fewer, and Equal.  These graphs will be used to make predictions of future weather as well.  When children are making guesses (predictions) about what might happen in different situations, they are learning about probability. The more experiences they have with concrete objects or situations the more accurate their guesses will be in the future.

Sunny Days

Cloudy Days

Iron’s Fruit Farm Field Trip

Don’t forget to get your permission forms and fees in by this Friday!  We will be meeting at Iron’s Fruit Farm on Wednesday, October 7th at 12:45.  Click the Link Below to check out Iron’s Fruit Farm Website.

Today was a great day for puzzles, but not just any puzzles…puzzles of our very own names! The students put together puzzles of their names as well as the names of their friends.
A child’s name is quite possibly the most important word in their young and growing vocabulary and therefore can be a great avenue to letter recognition. They begin to not only memorize the letters in their own names but also the letters in the names of their classmates. The children took great ownership in their name puzzles and were excited to take them home to show to their families.
We will use our names for many activities and learning games throughout the school year and these puzzles are great preparation and practice for what’s to come.

We read Zoo Animals this week in reading group and worked on the sight words here, is and the.  All of these sight words were found in our book and we will be adding them to our word wall on Monday.  These words are called Dolch Sight Words.  Because these words are not able to be learned through the use of pictures and are meaningless on their own, these sight words must be recognized at at glance before a child can read with confidence.  Helping your child identify the words we are working in school in the books you read with them at home is a great way to support their learning and help them develop a better sight word foundation.  For a list of pre-k/kindergarten sight words and downloadable list you can print and cut out to use as flash cards, click the picture.

Pre-K Reading Group

Ms. Alexandra came to our classroom today to begin our study of the Spanish language.  She taught the kids a special birthday song in spanish to sing to our friend Lily who’s birthday was today!  Happy Birthday Lily!  We will have Spanish classes every Wednesday and Friday from 12-12:30!

Ms. Penny visited our classroom today and brought with her one of Paul Klee’s great works.  The children worked on step one of one of their main art pieces for the art show in November!  You can see the their own rendition of this piece on November 13th at Creative Tots annual Art Show!  Mark your calendars!  Miss Penny will be visiting us twice a week until the art show and we can’t wait to see what she has planned next!  Visit the blog often to catch a sneak peak at our creations!

This summer at Tots

The summer has passed and this year our pre-K program once again is near capacity.  Our graduates have begun school and are already getting rave reviews.  Kindergarten is a big step and the confidence with which our students leave the pre-K program is unmatched.  Academics are taught through an incredible array of avenues and this year will be no exception.  The popularity of our programs has reached an unprecidented peak this year and the varied experiences planned for our pre-K students is exciting.  Many of our kids were here this summer and are excited to start the new year.