We began our study of the wonderful world of Greenland this week. It is an amazingly unique environment full of interesting creatures that we will be learning about throughout the month on January.
Getting back into the swing of things means reviewing old routines and practicing procedures. For our small groups, the boys and girls learned new games and activities that are available to them in our centers. Teaching them how the activities and games work ensures that the children are playing the game/activity the correctly, ultimately gaining the educational purpose it is designed for. A new month means new centers, which means new ways to learn!
Welcome back!! It was great to see everyone’s smiling face back in action today! To start the new year off, we introduce new center activities, along with a new January country: Greenland. With a cold climate and lots of white to see, the children have lots of opportunity to explore activities with letters, numbers and shapes that represent snow and ice. In Ms. Leslie’s small group, we played “Flurries or Snowstorm?” The children chose a number, then put the corresponding “snowflakes” onto our winter scene. In Ms. Lori’s small group, she showed the children several ways to build a snowman: rolling balls using playdoh, stacking different sized circles, and tracing a snowman. In Ms. Courtney’s small group, the children used “snow” to trace out the letters V, W and X. We had a snowtastic day!
It’s hard to believe we are on holiday break!! What better way to usher in the holidays than having a party?! Thank you to all of you who were able to make it this morning. The children always enjoy spending time with you while they are in action! Thank you for sharing your children with us. We truly enjoy spending our days teaching, learning and growing with them. We wish you all a safe and very happy holiday. We look forward to seeing everyone in 2011!
Flour is an important ingredient when it comes to baking cookies. Today, we found a different use for it: practicing our letters! As we focused on the letters K, L and U, the children got those fingertips moving to create the letters in the flour. How many times can they write the letter? Believe me, they would do this all day long if they could! This multi-sensory activity definitely made for a memorable experience.
During the holidays, there is a big need for scissors….mostly wrapping all those presents! Today the children practiced their scissor skills by cutting fringe for their place mats. Starting with scissor safety, the boys and girls used their fine motor skills to make one cut snips create fringe to glue to the end of the place mat. The children were so proud of how successful they were with all of their snips!
Friends are vital to Preschool & Pre-Kindergarten children’s healthy development. Research has found that children who lack friends can suffer from emotional and mental difficulties later in life. Friendships provide children with more than just fun playmates. Friendships help children develop emotionally and morally. In interacting with friends, children learn a lot of social skills, such as how to communicate, cooperate, and solve problems. They practice controlling their emotions and responding to the emotions of others. They develop the ability to think through and negotiate different situations that arise in their relationships. Having friends even affects children’s school performance. Children tend to have better attitudes about school and learning when they have friends to share it with.
Our preschoolers turned our classroom into Santa’s Workshop today as we turned red licorice and white yarn into a candy cane! This is no ordinary candy cane….it’s a number nine candy cane! In order to make this yummy creation, the children had to follow step-by-step directions, use their fine motor skills to twist, and use number recognition to create the number nine. It was a quite a treat to work on so many skills in one fun activity!
Sparkles anyone?! Activities with sequins, or anything sparkly for that matter, are always exciting. Digging through to find the exact color and shape that you want is excellent fine motor practice. Using the tips of their fingers, each child grasped and place sequins to trace his/her name. As we outlined the names in glue, the children were also able to practice tracing their names. Each child was very focused as they paid close attention to their sequin details!
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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