Our PreSchool Blog

There is nothing better on a cold day than some warm and comforting soup! We read the book, “Chicken Soup with Rice” by Maurice Sendak, and then our friends helped make some chicken soup…with rice! They each took a turn adding in a different ingredient.

Our friends got to try chicken soup with rice, along with rectangle crackers at snack time!

Our art project was also focused on chicken soup with rice, so our friends used different colored rice and glue to make a bowl of pretty colored chicken soup with rice! They had fun using their fine motor skills to scoop the rice, pour it on the paper, and then shake it until it stuck to the glue.

Our theme this month is scary cute… MONSTERS! We read “Go Away Big Green Monster” and our toddler friends are already starting to make monsters of their own!

We also have lego-eating monsters. Our lego-eating monsters are used to teach our toddlers to match the color of the lego, with the color of the monster. With feeding the monsters, our friends are learning how to sort colors, use fine motor skills, and take turns!

Cutting with scissors requires the skill of hand separation, which is the ability to use the thumb, index, and middle fingers separately from the pinkie and ring fingers. Providing children with frequent opportunities to develop their scissor skills allows them to practice using the tripod fingers (thumb, forefinger and middle finger). The tripod fingers are what work together in controlling a pencil. Developing the proper pencil grasp attributes to good handwriting. Strong scissor skills also leads to strong hand muscles and improved fine motor skills.

This activity is all about exploring their names to help the boys and girls begin to recognize them. Recognizing their names is the first step to early literacy.  Their names have meaning and value to them…it’s personal.  One of the best places to start early letter recognition is through name activities.  Be sure to make it fun…write it with chalk when you’re playing outside…write it in the sandbox or even in the steam on the bathroom mirror after bath time.  If you’re feeling adventurous use play dough to spell it!  The great thing about play-based, name recognition activities is they won’t even know their learning…they’ll just know their spending time with you!

This month in the Toddler room is all about Bugs! We will be discussing things that live in the garden in the month of April. In the sensory tub is all sort of bugs, bug catchers, buckets to sort and flowers. The boys and girls will have so much fun exploring in the sensory tub!

In small groups with Ms. Caroline, the boys and girls are working on letter recognition! For some of the children, they match letter magnets with letters on a sheet. Others are working on matching the letters in their name. No matter what the children are working on, this is a great way to introduce letters, sounds and their names. The boys and girls have so much fun playing and learning with these games!

We continued our letter Ss study while building our hand strength in small groups!  Continuing to develop large and small muscle strength in the hands and forearms is extremely important during the preschool years.  When the large and small muscles of the forearm and hand are slow to develop, weakness and incoordination may result.  The large muscles of the forearm may overcompensate for weak inner hand muscles.  As a result, the child will find ways to hold, pinch and grip small objects in awkward ways.  By now your little ones should have transitioned from their fist grip on their writing utensils into a more developed grip.  Find the age appropriate pencil grip development chart here.  If you notice that your child shows signs of awkward grips, never hesitate to contact their teacher.  Click on the picture below for easy activities to build fine motor strength and hand strength at home.

We took advantage of the little bit of the snow on the ground and brought it inside to play with! The boys and girls had the chance to scoop and pour snow and ice into cups. It was a very fun and cold activity!