Our PreSchool Blog

Preschoolers are ready for many mathematical discoveries. If you provide them with opportunities, then they will learn.  Preschool is a terrific time to lay the groundwork for mathematical thinking and understanding.  One core mathematical understanding is patterning.  We continued to practice our patterning skills today with Halloween Bats and Ghosts!  The children are gaining a better understanding of patterning but it is still a work in progress!  Practice makes perfect 🙂

ABB Pattern

AAB Pattern

AB Patter

ABB Pattern

AB Pattern

One of a child’s most anticipated days of the year is, of course, their birthday.  We look forward to celebrating along with them on their special day.  We were lucky enough to be able to celebrate two birthdays today!  Happy Birthday Olivia and Chase!  We love you!

Olivia's Special Lightning McQueen Cake was Delicious!

Celebrating with Special Halloween Cupcakes

Ms. Penny joined our class today to talk about a famous Japanese artist, Katsushika Hokusai.  Hokusai loved to draw when he was child and as a teenager loved to make woodcut engravings.  The children learned today that he was famous for his block printings.  He made his art by carving a picture onto wooden blocks, rolling them with ink and pressing them onto paper.  He would use one block for each color.  His most famous print was The Great Wave Off Kanagawa.  The children followed in Hokusai’s footsteps today and tried their hand at block printing.  They made their own carvings, rolled them with paint, and printed a picture that will be presented at our Art Show on November 13th.  Here’s a sneak peak…

Block Printing

Preparing our Block for a New Color

The Great Wave by Hokusai

We are working on patterns this month in our Preschool Classroom.  The kids used the counting bears to create all different kinds of patterns during small groups today.  We completed AB, ABB, and AAB patterns by size and color (i.e. large-small-small; yellow-green; red-red-blue).  Some of the children caught on very quickly and were creating their own patterns independently before we knew it!  Way to go boys and girls!  Patterning is fun activity to practice at home, especially in the kitchen.  Click on the picture for some ideas…have fun!

ABB Pattern

AB Pattern

AAB Pattern

Ms. Joanie came today for a great musical experience!  We used rhythm sticks, bells, and cymbals to create our own orchestra.  We listened carefully and followed our leader to create our masterpiece.  The kids did a fantastic job listening (which is sometimes a challenge at this age).   Keep up the good work!  We also had a chance to play “Brownie,” which is one of Ms. Joanie’s special guitars she shares with us.  Each child had a chance to choose one of their favorite songs and help Ms. Joanie play the song on the guitar.  We heard everything from the theme song from Toy Story to Batman to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Ms. Joanie will be back next Friday morning for another musical adventure.

miss joanie taking requests

We talked last week about how trees change during each season.  We sequenced these seasons during group time after reading A Tree is Nice.  We discovered that a tree “sleeps” during the winter even though it may look dead without the leaves.  We also discovered that all the rain in the spring brings small buds on a tree, which are the beginnings of the leaves.  Summer trees are full of bright green leaves but they begin to change colors during the Fall and tumble off the branches.  Some of the children in our Wednesday class had the opportunity to create their own seasonal tree using their arm as the trunk and fingers as the branches.  We added details to the trees with our fingerprints whether it be fall foliage, white snow, small green buds, or a full green canopy.  We are still working on these and our seasonal forest will continue to grow throughout the next week.   Check them out!

our seasonal forest project this week

When your child arrives don’t forget to have them find their name on our class name board by the sensory table and to answer the question of the day!   Some of the answers we get are just a hoot!  If you have a child in our PreK class, don’t forget to have them sign their name when they arrive in our Signature Book!  We encourage you to have your child carry their own backpack, find their name on the cubbies, and hang it up along with their own coats etc.  These are great experiences in independence, fine and gross motor development, name recognition and responsibility.  They all doing a fantastic job with being responsible in the classroom, we are so proud of all of them!

Class Name board and question of the day

Our Tuesday Class used their hands and feet to create their own herd of Moose.  It was a great sensorial experience!  Don’t forget to check them out!

The first time I saw a light table was at a Reggio Emilia inspiried preschool in New York City.  Every classroom had one and I began to wonder what they were all about.  After researching the various ways these could benefit preschool age children in their learning process, we decided to get one for our own classroom.

Today as I walked by our light table I overheard a child saying, “Let’s count the squares!  While the other child responded, “I’ll count the diamonds then we can count them together!”  They were referring to various translucent geometric shapes that had been placed on the light table for the children to manipulate.  We have been talking about classifying and sorting objects by different attributes (color, shape, size, number of sides, etc.)  What I was witnessing was the children taking what they had learned in small groups and applying it to their other classroom experiences.  Great work kids!

Our light table allows children to experience everyday objects in a whole new way.  In the coming months we will be using the  light table for a multitude of activities as well as free choice play with ever changing manipulatives.  Here are some of the activities that may take place at our light table this year:  building our names and sight words with special translucent letter tiles, exploring and creating colors with color paddles, using various stencils, using the light table to trace our letters and names, manipulating shapes to become more aware of spacial relationships through the use of translucent geometric pieces while discovering the basics of geometry,  viewing x-rays of various types of animals and shells, and finger painting on parchment paper (just to name a few).  These should be great experiences for your children and ones that they will not soon forget.

We continued name practice today with our Pumpkin Seed Letters. The preschoolers Identified the first letter of their name and placed pumpkin seeds all around that letter. Our names provide so much exposure to those important letters of the alphabet and are such a great tool for teaching. We talk about the first letter of our name and how it is ALWAYS uppercase while the rest of the letters in our name are lowercase. These types of activities are not only great for letter recognition but they start our students down the road of becoming readers! Children are excited to be able to read their own names and feel very proud when doing so! What a great confidence builder, too!