Our PreSchool Blog

The fun part about gingerbreads are decorating them!  Today, we traveled to our favorite nation, the imagination, and had a fun time pretending to decorate our gingerbreads.  Using number recognition, the children pulled a number, then put their one-to-one correspondence skills to work by putting the corresponding number of buttons on the gingerbread.  Working with the numbers four through nine really helped the children focus on their counting skills.

What better cookie to have to celebrate the holiday season than the traditional gingerbread cookie?  Today, the children helped to measure, pour and stir our ingredients.  We discussed wet and dry ingredients, smelled some of the ingredients (molasses anyone?!), and talked about getting the dough to just the right consistency to roll and stamp.  The children enjoyed all of the stirring involved and cracking the eggs, but I think kneading the dough, stamping out the gingerbread, and decorating topped their list!  Everyone brought home a festive, tasty treat!

‘Tis the season for gingerbread!  Ms. Courtney spiced up our fine motor skills by having the children cut out their own gingerbread houses.  The children worked on following lines while holding the paper with the other hand.  There was more fine motor practice when the children were eager to color their very own houses!

The winter weather is here!  With that comes heavy winter clothing.  With heavy winter clothing comes misplaced mittens, hats and coats.  Today we practiced how to keep track of our things.  We began with learning the “preschool flip.”  This helps the children put their coats on correctly themselves.  Ask your preschooler to show you how to do this new fancy trick!

Once we come in the classroom, the children build their responsibility and independence by hanging their coats on their hooks.  Showing the children that they can hang their coat using a “magic hook” inside their coat, the hood, or the top of their coat helps the children realize that there is a specific spot to help aid with hanging.  Putting their backpacks over their coats helps to keep the coat where it belongs.  Hats and mittens can be safely stowed in each child’s cubby.

With the month of December comes a new destination to learn and explore! We have traveled to the land of gingerbread, Germany! Today in small groups Ms. Lori and the students created the flag of Germany while strengthening their fine motor skills. By ripping bits of paper and gluing them in the right spot we worked together as a class to create the flag of red, black, and yellow. Along with a new destination comes all new activities at our centers. Some of the activities were introduced and practiced during small groups to ensure that everyone understands how to play and will benefit as much as possible during free choice time.

Our weather was the topic of our discussion during group time on Tuesday afternoon.  It was a rainy, rainy, rain day.  It seemed to last forever.  We read the book The Rainy Day by Anna Milbourne which told us about how clouds are formed and what happens inside the clouds to make the rain fall.

The children shared their favorite things to do on a rainy day…playing games was the top on the list!  We played all sorts of Rainy Day learning games in small groups including Dominos, Colorama, and Seasonal Science Sorting Game.  Sometimes rainy days can be the best days.

As we usher our way back from a restful holiday break, we got back into the swing of things by practicing our rhyming skills and matching upper and lowercase letters.  When rhyming, the children discovered that it does not matter what the first letter is, as long as the ending of the words sound the same.  When we found words that matched, the puzzle pieces fit together.  As the children matched the capital and lowercase letters, they had to find the picture that began with that particular letter.  If the letters match, the puzzle pieces fit!  The children did an excellent job exploring the letters.

We experimented with gelatin today by using a dropper and squeezing a variety different liquid water colors inside the gelatin.  It created an “explosion” of color within the gelatin that looked liked veins of color running throughout the mold.

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!