Our PreSchool Blog

Walking through the door this morning, the children were talking about how they have mittens to give other kids who can’t buy there own.  It is so heartwarming to hear three and four year old talking about the importance of giving to others.  We started our mitten activity by reading The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.  As we distributed mittens, the boys and girls sorted them by color.  After that, we sorted them into three categories: stripes, solid color and design.  Using an oversized graph, the children were graphing whizzes!  To finish our graph, the children identified the category with the largest amount of mittens (the design category), and ordered the mittens from numbers one to eleven.  We tried on a few different types of mittens, but we all decided it would be best to give to those in need!  Thank you very much for all of your generous donations and for helping us teach your child the importance of giving back.  We had mitten success!

At Creative Tots, the weather took a turn for the….tasty?!  The Arctic blast hasn’t stopped us from cookin’ up some yummy, seasonal snacks!  In Ms. Lori’s group, the boys and girls made and edible glacier.  Using Jell-O, wafers and Cool Whip, the children built the layers of their glacier while learning what a glacier is.  In Ms. Leslie’s group, the children made snowman biscuits.  We build the snowman by connecting three biscuits using toothpicks, drizzling on some honey to be sure that our “snow” (powdered sugar) stays put.  Next, we put on the finishing touches using raisins and pretzel sticks.  Miss Katelyn, our special helper and Ms. Manda’s daughter, taught the children about kayaks while making a celery kayak.  Using cream cheese, the children put raisins to represent the seat and pretzel sticks to represent the paddle(s).  In Ms. Courtney’s group, the boys and girls made snowflake sandwiches.  Folding and cutting tortillas was extra special!  Building a sandwich is easy, yummy and healthy!  The children enjoyed making (and snacking!) on our storm of food!

In part two of our snowman building, our snowmen received a blast of arctic snow, along with a face, scarf and buttons!  It was time to get ooey and gooey again with shaving cream and glue as we applied snow to our dry paper mache.  Everyone dug in as we put our finishing touches on our snowmen masterpieces!

On the first day back we read Polar Bear Polar Bear What Do You Hear? By Bill Martin Jr. The children reenacted the book by playing with different arctic animals.

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!

Because we cannot go outside, we worked on our gross motor skills inside!

Gross Motor skills are important for major body movement such as walking, maintaining balance, coordination, jumping and reaching and throwing.

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.

Reinacting real life in the dramatic play area is very helpful in strengthening socialization skills and respecting others.

Blocks come in different shapes, sizes and materials.

Building with blocks not only provides opportunities to create, cooperate and communicate but it also promotes social learning as children work together to share materials, space and ideas!

We build the blocks up……

and knock them down!