Our PreSchool Blog

The K Prep students did the first entry in their journals today about what we were thankful for, after reading Bear Says Thanks.  We saw a lot of family faces in those entries!

Journal writing is one of the foundation blocks of our language arts philosophy. Each week, the children have a set time to write in their journals. The journal serves as a valuable learning tool. The children are beginning to get their ideas on paper and learn first hand the power of words. Research shows that journaling is one of the most effective ways to teach and learn phonics.

Children at the beginning stages often use “scribble writing” or random letters to represent words. As they progress, they will begin to use the letters that represent the sounds in the words that they are attempting to write (“btrfli” for butterfly). We make good use of the children’s growing phonics by helping them listen carefully to the words they wish to use. Our ultimate goal is for each child to learn to communicate on paper whether it is through words or illustrations.

Children draw pictures as the main part of their communication at these early stages. Drawing helps them find the words they might want to use in their writing.  We saw a lot of words in these first entries….very impressive!

Today in Early 3’s we talked about butterflies and how they emerge from their chrysalis. The children were very interested in the topic, and I showed them a video of a Monarch butterfly emerging.

Here is a link to the video we watched: http://youtu.be/R5QH3bGF4uU 

We painted butterflies….

Keeping the “insect” theme, we worked on our cutting skills by cutting “grass” to “hide” the bugs on the page.

During group time, we demonstrated how a butterfly needs to struggle as it comes out of its cocoon. We talked about the importance of not helping a butterfly, even if we think it is struggling.

The K Prep students did their second entry in their journals today.  Last week our entry was about what/who we love.  We saw a lot of family faces in those entries!  Monday, after reading the book, We Love School we wrote/drew about our favorite thing at our own school.

Journal writing is one of the foundation blocks of our language arts philosophy. Each week, the children have a set time to write in their journals. The journal serves as a valuable learning tool. The children are beginning to get their ideas on paper and learn first hand the power of words. Research shows that journaling is one of the most effective ways to teach and learn phonics.

Children at the beginning stages often use “scribble writing” or random letters to represent words. As they progress, they will begin to use the letters that represent the sounds in the words that they are attempting to write (“btrfli” for butterfly). We make good use of the children’s growing phonics by helping them listen carefully to the words they wish to use. Our ultimate goal is for each child to learn to communicate on paper whether it is through words or illustrations.

Children draw pictures as the main part of their communication at these early stages. Drawing helps them find the words they might want to use in their writing.

"Painting Center"

"I like to play on the playground."

"Me and Bode Playing Basketball"

"To Draw with Sam on the Chalkboard"

"I like to play in the writing center."

"I like when my family comes to school."

This week we introduced our theme: bugs! We are also beginning to work on lowercase letters. Check out our small groups from Wednesday:

{group #1}

We discussed uppercase and lowercase letters. I showed them what an uppercase “E” looks like then showed them what a lowercase “e” looks like. We talked about how some uppercase and lowercase letters are the same –the lowercase letter is just a smaller version. In our activity, the children spun the spinner, and whatever letter the spinner landed on they had to find the corresponding lowercase letter cookie. We would discuss which letter it was and whether or not it was the same/different than the uppercase letter.

{group #2}

This group was focused on our theme: bugs! Ms. Diana talked to children about different bugs  ~how they look and what each bug is named. The children had to match their bug to the bug on the board.

{group #3}

This small group was our art small group! The children painted VERY colorful butterflies with their hands to go along with our book of the week: “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”. At the end he turns into a beautiful butterfly, so we made our own version of the butterfly!

This month, our theme is BUGS! Throughout the week we have been doing different bug or mud related activities.

At morning tables this week the children had fun painting bugs with fly swatters! This activity not only gives them an art experience, it also develops their gross motor skills as they swat the bugs on the table.

In our sensory tub, we have a colorful bug themed sensory experience. –Definitely a popular place to learn and play this week.

We also painted with mud and brown paint. This was a very messy sensory experience…but the children had a great time squishing the cold paint in with the dirt to make mud.

Lastly, during our group time we have been reading “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” After we read the story, each of the children get to “feed” the caterpillar (which is taped to a brown paper bag). After each child feeds the caterpillar by placing the picture of food from the story in the bag, I flip the bag on its side where I have a picture of a cocoon taped. After we talk about the cocoon and what happens to the caterpillar, the children guess what the caterpillar has turned into. Then I flip the bag to the back where I have a picture of the butterfly!

To kick off their “things that fly” unit, the early 3’s read Waiting For Wings by Lois Ehlert. We sequenced the butterfly cycle and then made our own butterflies using scrapbook paper! We practiced our glue stick skills by gluing our own pieces of the butterfly to construction paper.

The toddlers had a great time using their fine motor skills to squeeze the stamper bottles while decorating butterflies. The boys and girl took turns making rainbow butterfly wings. A heart shaped sucker was added at the end of the project for the little ones to enjoy at home!