Thank you for coming out to the Art Show!  It was an amazing night of celebrating all of the hard work your little ones have done throughout the school year.  We have some blooming Kandinsky’s this year!

{Whole Group}

Today we continued our exploration of the rainbow by making our own water bottle rainbow. I had 6 bottles of water on a table. I asked the children to look at the picture of the rainbow in front of the table to tell me which color comes first. They would tell me, then I would put the corresponding color of food coloring into the bottle. The children were VERY interested and engaged in the activity!

{Name Activity}

This is our new name activity that the children do when they first come to class. They have to use their fine motor and matching skills to match up each bottle cap with a letter on it to the corresponding letter on the rainbow.

{small group #1}

In this group we practiced our writing skills by learning to hold a pencil and write letters. We worked on a variety of letters while using our fine motor skills.

{small group #2}

In this group, we practiced our number recognition for numbers 7-10. The children had to identify the number on the top of their pipe cleaner, then string the corresponding amount of beads onto their pipe cleaner. –another good fine motor activity.

{small group #3}

This group was our art group where we made handprint leprechauns! Check out the cute results!!

We know it’s different in the summer.  It is time for vacation.  Visits to the lake house, the beach . . . home-improvement projects.  That’s why we offer our special summer programs for our students.   Activity themes that change weekly allow you to come and go as you please over the summer months.  Sign-up for one week or all of them as your child will have the opportunity to become a petite chef, paint like Van Gogh or sing and dance with recording artist Miss Joanie.  Whatever you choose, they are sure to have fun.  Who knows?  They may even learn something along the way.

Click Here for 2013 Registration and Description of Programs

Check out our small groups from today!

{Ms. Sarah}

{group #1}

In this group we practiced our matching skills while incorporating the colors (in order) of the rainbow. As an extension, we counted how many animals were on each color. We pretended like we were at a pet shop and had to organize the animals by color.

{group #2}

In this group, the children practiced their number recognition by rolling a die then standing on the paper with the corresponding number on it. At the end, they counted how many children were on each number.

{group #3}

In this group, the children painted with sponges to make “S” is for “sponge painting” for our alphabet book (which is SO CLOSE to being finished!!!). They used their fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination to create their textured painting.

Today in small groups….

{group #1}

In this group we learned about the letter “D”…by making “D is for Dinosaur.” We painted our fingers then painted “spikes” on the back of our dinosaurs. This was a fun sensory/art experience for the children as we discussed the sound that the letter “D” makes, as well as what words start with “D.”

{group #2}

In this group, we focused on cognitive development and counting skills as the children sorted shapes. As an extension, the children counted how many of each color there were of each shape (3 purple squares, 4 yellow squares, etc.)

{group #3}

This group was another focus on cognitive development as the children worked on creating a pattern using colored rectangles.

This month, our theme has been “space.” Earlier this week, we read about the moon and looked at real pictures of the moon up close. Today, we read a book about the sun and looked at real pictures of the sun. We followed it up with a discussion about what we love about the sun. Next, I had the children come up to the board, find their name, and choose which one they liked better: moon or sun. The sun was the winner! 🙂

{Ms. Sarah}

{forgot my camera today…so I had to use the iPod}

This month, our theme is “Space.” So Ms. Kate made a name activity for the children using bottle caps and space ship cut outs…to go along with our theme. The children had a lot of fun with this new activity.

This week we are reading “Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me” (By Eric Carle)…So the children had a chance to crawl/”climb” up the ladder to get the moon just like papa does in the story.

{group #1}

This activity promotes one-to-one correspondence and counting. The children rolled the die, counted the dots on the die, then put in the corresponding amount of glass beads into their cup.

{group #2}

This activity was part of our alphabet book. We made “A” is for “Alligator. “The children used their fine motor skills to grip the corks to stamp green circles onto green paper. Later I cut the paper into the shape of an “A.” …still need to add the eyes and teeth! 🙂

{group #3}

ART SHOW 🙂

On Friday, we read the story “The Mitten” to go along with our animal theme. The story is about a boy who loses his “snow white mitten.” A variety of winter animals come along and make themselves at home in the mitten. As I read the story, I had pictures of each animal’s face glued on a purple popsicle stick that the children got to stuff in the “mitten.” (I just used a large white sheet as the mitten.) The children loved participating in the story! At the end of the story, the boy finds his very stretched out mitten. We discussed why one mitten was bigger than the other mitten. Definitely a fun group time activity! 🙂

{Ms. Sarah}

On Wednesday, we had a lot of fun during small group time:

{group #1}

The children each got a chalk board. I wrote their name on their board. They each got a wet paintbrush and “painted” over the letters of their names. This activity helps develop their fine motor skills as they practice writing their names.

{group #2}

A very important fine motor skill is using scissors. The children practiced cutting paper strips and holding scissors.

{group 3}

Another fine motor activity with a focus on number recognition. The children rolled the die, and they put the corresponding amount of beads on their pipe cleaner.