Our PreSchool Blog

On Friday, we continued our “How We Go” transportation theme with HOT AIR BALLOONS! We read the book “Up, Up, Up”…Our question of the day was: “Which hot air balloon is your favorite?” {the blue hot air balloon got the most votes!} We do the question of the day to give the children a chance to interact during group…and I use it as a chance for them to recognize their names when I hold up their little person. “H-A-N-N-A-H…..who is H-A-N-N-A-H?” {“me!!!”} “Hannah, Which is your favorite hot air balloon?” This also gives the other children a chance to learn/practice their classmates’ names.

Next we talked about hot the air that is used to make a hot air balloon fly is HOT. Cold air is what makes it sink in the sky. I got a hair dryer and a grocery bag to demonstrate how the hot air blows into the balloon to inflate it, lifting it into the air.

In one of our small groups, the children decorated hot air balloons. They used their fine motor skills to glue tissue paper onto their “balloon.” In another group, we painted butcher paper with combs to make the hot air balloon basket. While we painted with combs, we practiced pre-writing words like “up”, “down”, “across”, “straight lines”, “curvy lines”, etc. This will help the children develop the vocabulary necessary for learning to write. {i.e. “Today we are making a ‘B’…it has a big straight line and two little curves.”}

Ms. Sarah

Today in our group time we talked about helicopters. We compared them to airplanes by discussing the features of an airplane then discussing the features of a helicopter.  We discovered that they are VERY different. We talked about the propeller and how it works. I brought in a little “helicopter” for the children to see and try. We also did a question of the day: “Which do you like more? A helicopter or and airplane?” Each child had a chance to come up and place their person cutout by the plane or helicopter. Surprisingly, they tied! 🙂

Ms. Sarah

Today we had our first official day of doing a name activity! The children had to find their photo (with their name printed below it) and clip on the corresponding clothespins with the letters of their name written on each clip.

Our group time was centered around our form of transportation for the day: AIRPLANES! We read the book “Flying” by Donald Crews and talked about planes. We did a question of the day: “Who has flown on an airplane?” …using our personalized people cut-outs as our way to count how many have or haven’t flown before.

Then I made a paper airplane, and we talked about the wings of a plane. I had a child come up and try to throw a plane sheet of paper to see how far it went. It didn’t go far. So I made a paper airplane and the paper FLEW because it now had wings! The children each got a chance to throw the paper airplane.

Today we learned how to use team tags for our small groups. We have three groups that rotate…when the chimes ring, the children move to the next “station”. Today we focused on learning how to transition, and at each station we learned how to play at a specific center.

The children that transfer over from the preschool room to the Early 3’s class helped model how to use the clips to play at a center. They had to show the group how to take the clip off the center tag, clip it on to the bottom of their shirt, play at the center, then return the clip to the center tag.

In Early 3’s today we continued to practice up our lining up routine. Check out our fantastic line we made!

Here are a few snap shots from our time on the playground!

WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL!!! We are looking forward to a fun year of learning together!! Check out a few faces from our 2013-14 Early 3’s class!!

Ms. Sarah

This is a combination of Wednesday and Friday’s small groups! We have been doing LOTS of reviewing at the end of the year. Check out what our past two classes have involved:

{line dotting}

The children used their fine motor skills to follow the various types of lines by stamping dots on the lines.

{Rainbow Fish}

In this group the children learned about sharing and how happy you can be if you share. The concept of sharing is something we have talked about all year, and we want the children to understand the importance of it. The objective is to help the children’s social development.

{ocean art}

The children used bubble wrap to paint “water”, then they used stamps with various sea creatures to put in their “ocean.”

{number review}

In this group, the children practiced their fine motor skills as they traced chalk with wet paint brushes. We talked about the different numbers, and they had to tell me what number I wrote on their boards.

{aquarium discovery center}

On Wednesday, the children had the opportunity to have a fun sensory experience as they played with aquarium rocks, water, and fish/lizards.

{shape review}

We have been working on shapes throughout the year, so the children used the stampers to trace the shapes that we have learned about throughout the year.

I apologize for the lack of blogging recently. Been having internet issues for about 2 weeks. :/

Here is what we did last Friday…

We played music with water at various levels in glasses. The children used a metal spoon to tap the glasses to make the sound. We talked about how the glass with the least amount of water had the highest pitch and the glass with the most water had the lowest pitch. Each child had a chance to play their own “song” on the glasses. This activity covered science, music, fine motor development, and cognitive development…all the while going with our theme!

This week we did the activity: “Sink or Float.” I would show the children an item, they would raise their hands to vote whether or not it would sink or float, and we would test it out. After I tried each item, the children each had a chance to come up and drop an item into the bucket of water to see if it would sink or float.

On Wednesday, we talked about the ocean, animals in the ocean, and the saltiness of the water.

During our whole group time, we graphed our favorite sea animals. This activity focused on the children’s math skills development…as well as our theme.

The children also got to experience the taste of the ocean. I explained to the children that the ocean may look beautiful and appear to taste good, but it is SUPER salty. I prepared cups with salty water for the children to try a sip of. We had a few brave volunteers try the salt water and let us know what they thought of it. They will most likely not ever forget that taste based on their reactions. 😉