This week we have some creepy, crawly, colorful spiders in our sensory table. There are over 100 spiders hiding in the table and the children love searching for the small creatures. Once they’ve found a colorful spider they place it in the corresponding color bucket with the tongs. This spooky spider activity is great for a our fine motor skills!
Please join us for our First Annual Harvest Festival on Friday, October 30th. There will be a petting zoo, pumpkin decorating, apple prints, and of course, food! You won’t want to miss it! This Friday from 5:30 to 7:00. Bring the whole family!
We had a really cool visitor today in Pre-K! Our friend, Bentley, brought a very special show and share to school today….She brought one of her grandfather’s chickens that he shows at fairs. The kids were able to watch as Bentley took “Sparkie” out of his crate and strut around showing off his beautiful feathers. Wow, was he gorgeous. Thanks Bentley and grandpa!
Sparkie Strutting His Stuff!
Bentley and Her Friend, Sparkie
Today in small groups we used our fine motor skills to string a bead pattern onto our halloween necklaces. Fine motor muscles are very important small muscles located in your child’s hands that need to be developed in order to hold a pencil properly and attain the ability to write successfully and without difficulty. Scissor activities also help build these muscles needed to write. If you find your child having trouble holding scissors properly, holding a crayon or large marker incorrectly, small muscles activities are needed to help build the muscles. We include these activities into our daily curriculum through scissor “skill” activities, prewriting activities, playdough activities, through the use of stickers (it takes these small muscles in the hand to peel the stickers off the paper), beading, and the use of tongs in the sensory tables and center games…etc. Click on any of the pictures for other small motor activity ideas. Have fun!
Reading My Pattern
I did it!
Checking My Work
Stringing a Pattern
We are making great progress in our patterning skills. Some children have progressed into extending their patterns much further this week while others began making more difficult patterns independently. We observed some of the children choosing to create their own patterns at the art center this week with the halloween stickers available. In small groups we used our fall felt stickers to create fun fall patterns to take home and share our progress with you. We will be wrapping up our patterning unit next week and will revisit it at the end of the year.
patterning independently
Ms. Laurel joined us today for Yoga class and of course she brought her yoga music with her. One of the children’s FAVORITE songs is “Tick Tock Little Yoga Clock.” You might have heard you’re little one singing it around the house. Next week we will start using our NEW kid’s yoga mats that Ms. Laurel found for our school. Thank you, Ms. Laurel! Ask your child to show you some of their favorite yoga poses….warrior pose seems to be the favorite!
Our Pre-K class had a special art class with Ms. Penny on Wednesday. She taught us that artists create all kinds of art, not just paintings. We learned about Edgar Degas, a famous artist, who was not only a painter but also a sculptor! His famous sculpture was Little Dancer. Then, we tried our hand at sculpting. Our sculptures will be displayed at the art show on November 13th.
supervised scissor practice is key to developing important fine motor skills
Today we continued to practice our scissors skills with our happy face jack-o-lanterns. The preschoolers were given a strip of orange card stock with six pumpkins to snip out. We talked about how to safely hold our scissors, where our fingers and thumbs should be positioned while we’re cutting, and how to effectively “open and close” our hands to manuever our scissors just right in order to make a clean cut. We practice our scissor skills regularly with many different cutting materials to keep the task fun and exciting. When the students were finished cutting out their happy jack-O-lanterns we glued them into their green pumpkin patches. Great development with such a simple activity!
introduction to mathematics and sequencing using patterns
The preschoolers had a howling good time today when they used the halloween cards to create different patterns. We created AB patterns along with AAB patterns. Most children were able to extend the pattern I created, independently. The next step is for the children to create and extend their own patterns. We will continue patterning in math through the end of October. They are doing a GREAT job. Keep practicing at home…and have fun! Helpful Hint: Use the upcoming BUCKETFUL of halloween candy, before you begin to pass it out to the trick-or-treaters, to create yummy patterns (i.e. nerds-candy bar-lollipop; nerds-candy bar-lollipop; nerds-candy bar-lollipop).
sorting ourselves by hair length, shoes by color and frogs by pattern
We had a ball on Friday sorting on our giant math grid. We sorted our shoes by color and type of closure. We sorted frogs by the patterns on their backs and size. We also sorted geometric pattern blocks by color, shape and number of sides. And for the finale we sorted OURSELVES! We sorted ourselves by hair color, type of clothes we were wearing (pants vs. skirts), and hair length…Pre-K sorting activities are easy to incorporate into your child’s everyday play. You have so many opportunities to practice sorting with your child. Your child probably does some of it naturally- putting green blocks together, lining up matchbox cars, or putting farm animals in a play barn. Click the first picture for some other great sorting ideas to do at home.
Creative Tots has specialized in the private education of both toddlers and preschool age children for over 15 years. We began in the heart of Madeira and now also have a new Mason location. We are specifically designed to focus on early childhood development for children ages 18 months to 5 years.
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