Our PreSchool Blog

We read the book, Celebrating Thanksgiving:  Giving Thanks during group time today and shared what we were thankful for…

Ms. Courtney’s sister joined us to make a special Thanksgiving Turkey out of popcorn, tissue paper, and a medical glove.  It’s amazing what little creativity to create!

In preparation for a successful future in writing children must, regularly, be using the small muscles in their hands and fingers to strengthen them.  We used small blocks today during small groups along with shaving cream and wooden spatulas to help build these muscles.  Children are also acquiring knowledge and skills which will provide an important foundation for later learning.  From the wooden shapes, your child solves problems and gains confidence.  Building with blocks helps children learn what numbers stand for, and it encourages children to practice scientific, trial-and-error thinking as well as critical-thinking and decision making skills.  And of course…it was a lot of fun!

What is on your Thanksgiving plate?  Mr. Turkey!  Today, Ms. Lori worked on fine motor with the boys and girls as each child painted his/her own turkey.  Using water color paint, the children did an excellent job of dictating where the paint should go with a very tiny brush.  They made quite the array of Thanksgiving masterpieces!

As the season of thanks gets into full swing, we have been discussing things that we are thankful for.  We worked together to come up with our favorite things that we are thankful for.  The children did an excellent job telling why they were thankful and drawing a picture to represent that.

As Thanksgiving nears, it is that time of year to learn about Native Americans.  Ms. Penny and Mr. Ron joined our class today to teach us all about the Native American culture.  The children rotated between four centers: crushing corn to make corn meal, jewelry making, learning about weapons used to hunt, and corn shucking & eating.

In the first center, the children learned how to pick the corn off of the cob, gather it onto a rock (similar to a mortar) then using another rock (similar to a pestle), crush the corn into cornmeal.  The children learned how to work together towards a common goal by helping each other pick of the corn and crush it.

In the second center, the children learned Native American traditions when it comes to jewelry.  The boys and girls were able to try on different pieces, learn about the different textures, then make a necklace of their very own!

In the third center, the children were able to discover bows and arrows, arrow heads, different animal skins & furs, and real bear claws.  The children enjoyed learning about the need for Native Americans to hunt and gather their food.  Holding a bow the proper way showed the children just how difficult hunting can be!

In the fourth center, the children were able to shuck the corn, just like the Native Americans did, and eat it right off the cob.  This was our most delicious center!

The letter H is one of the easier letters to write.  Writing it in crayon, pencil and marker is excellent practice.  Writing it in paint makes it a memorable experience.  Today, Ms. Lori showed the children how to create a capital H and a lowercase h using art dot painters.  The children caught on quickly and enjoyed using these special art utensils!

There is never a dull moment when our friends from the Cincinnati Museum Center join us for the day!  In keeping with our farm theme, Ms. Deann brought a lot of (pretend) furry friends that live in the barnyard or the backyard.  The entire presentation is interactive as each child gets his/her own barnyard or backyard animal to hold on to.  One-by-one, the adult version of the animal is pulled out and matched with its baby.  Each child was able to come up, learn the proper names of the animal and its baby, and discuss if it is found in the backyard, barnyard or pond.

At the end, Ms. Deann brought a very special furry friend – a live bat named Griffin!  The children learned the term “echolocation” and what that means.  Before they got to see Griffin, they were able to use a finger puppet bat and bug to actually play out how echolocation works.  Just another day on the farm!

We explored math today in preschool during small groups.  We talked about different constellations (or parts of constellations) during group time and viewed them on the smartboard.   Then, we tried our hand at creating our own “Number Constellations.”  We used our fine motor skills (important for successful writing in the future) and poked holes in black paper to create different numbers.  Then we traveled over to the light table to view our creations.

Math is always a little more fun when there is food involved!  This time, we used paper plate pumpkin pies (next Tuesday we will be baking the real thing!).  Everyone loves add a little whipped cream to make a pie extra delicious.  Using some cotton balls and our imaginations, the boys and girls topped their pies according to the number in the middle of the pie.  Ms. Lori challenged the children by starting with lower numbers, then switching them out for higher numbers.  By the end of this activity, we were all ready for yummy Thanksgiving treats!

The children kept themselves very busy in small groups today with droppers and paint!  We put our fine motor skills to the test with pinching the tops and dropping the paint in just the right spot.  The children were very focused and worked hard to use a steady hand.  Practicing the pinching, letting go, then pinching again, became easier and easier each time.  Once this process was established, the boys and girls were able to focus on how much paint they wanted to suck up in the dropper.  Water color paint can be runny on paper, but the children got an excellent fine muscle work out with this process.