Our PreSchool Blog

Today, we continued reading our nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle, Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle.” After we read, I brought out a fiddle/violin! 🙂 The children always love seeing/hearing a new instrument. We discussed the difference between a guitar (which they are very familiar with) and a violin. I played a little for the children to hear the difference in sound and how the sound is made in comparison with a guitar.

{Ms. Sarah}

“The dish ran away with the spoon”

…Using our fine motor skills to paint the dish from our nursery rhyme.

We put those little muscles to work in another small group this morning! We have been learning all about the animals in the Sonoran Desert. The preschoolers practiced using control and slow movements while painting hummingbirds. Art is so much fun AND get for that fine motor muscle development.

Now that we are in the second half of the school year we will be working with our names at least once a week. Recognizing and writing names is an important skill for moving on to Pre-K. Expose your preschooler to their name as much as possible. Have fun tracing the letters in their name in flour, sand, sugar, dirt, whatever you can find! Point out signs that have letters in their name. Talk about letters in the beginning, middle, and end. Sound out each letter of their name. Count the letters. Build their name in the bathtub with foam letter blocks. Write letters on masking tape on legos and build a name tower. The possibilities are endless! Have some fun with it!

On Monday the preschoolers practiced their scissor skills. We talked about the correct way to hold scissors (two fingers in the bottom hole, one in the top, thumb always facing up), we strengthened our fine motor muscles by snipping straws. Cutting materials other than paper is a  great way to develop those tiny muscles. Straws, pipe cleaners, brown bags, pasta, playdough, and other household items are great to use. This morning we used these straw bits to thread pipe cleaners. The tiny pieces are awesome for working on the pincer grip. These activities are perfect for handwriting basics. Have fun exploring ways to develop fine motor muscles at home!

This week we are learning about the nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle, Diddle.” During group time, we read the nursery rhyme. We talked about the part with the cow jumping over the moon, then each child got to “jump over the moon” while saying “moo.” This was a fun little gross motor activity for the children. During art, the children glued a moon onto paper then glued a cow jumping over it. This activity not only corresponded with our theme, but it helped developed the children’s fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination.

{Ms. Sarah}

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.

We began talking about the difference between 2D and 3D shapes in math group today.  Seven 3D shapes were introduced along with reviewing six 2D shapes.  Then, we had the opportunity to sort them on our smartboard game.  Click the first picture below to follow the link to the game we played.  It’s a great game for the computer at home!

The preschoolers practiced tracing lowercase sandpaper letters this morning. We used the numbers and followed the arrows to practice correctly tracing the letter. This builds a strong foundation for handwriting processes and writing next year in pre-K.

While learning about the Sonoran Desert in Mexico this month we had fun exploring with sand in finger paint!