Our PreSchool Blog

Our Tuesday Class used their hands and feet to create their own herd of Moose.  It was a great sensorial experience!  Don’t forget to check them out!

The first time I saw a light table was at a Reggio Emilia inspiried preschool in New York City.  Every classroom had one and I began to wonder what they were all about.  After researching the various ways these could benefit preschool age children in their learning process, we decided to get one for our own classroom.

Today as I walked by our light table I overheard a child saying, “Let’s count the squares!  While the other child responded, “I’ll count the diamonds then we can count them together!”  They were referring to various translucent geometric shapes that had been placed on the light table for the children to manipulate.  We have been talking about classifying and sorting objects by different attributes (color, shape, size, number of sides, etc.)  What I was witnessing was the children taking what they had learned in small groups and applying it to their other classroom experiences.  Great work kids!

Our light table allows children to experience everyday objects in a whole new way.  In the coming months we will be using the  light table for a multitude of activities as well as free choice play with ever changing manipulatives.  Here are some of the activities that may take place at our light table this year:  building our names and sight words with special translucent letter tiles, exploring and creating colors with color paddles, using various stencils, using the light table to trace our letters and names, manipulating shapes to become more aware of spacial relationships through the use of translucent geometric pieces while discovering the basics of geometry,  viewing x-rays of various types of animals and shells, and finger painting on parchment paper (just to name a few).  These should be great experiences for your children and ones that they will not soon forget.

We continued name practice today with our Pumpkin Seed Letters. The preschoolers Identified the first letter of their name and placed pumpkin seeds all around that letter. Our names provide so much exposure to those important letters of the alphabet and are such a great tool for teaching. We talk about the first letter of our name and how it is ALWAYS uppercase while the rest of the letters in our name are lowercase. These types of activities are not only great for letter recognition but they start our students down the road of becoming readers! Children are excited to be able to read their own names and feel very proud when doing so! What a great confidence builder, too!

Our Tuesday class did step one in their two part art process to make their first forest animal…the moose.  The kids giggled and laughed their way through getting their foot painted with brown paint and stepping down to make the head of the moose.  We will complete the project on Thursday by adding our handprints for antlers.  Look for these cool creations to be hanging in our classroom next week and don’t be surprised if your little one comes home with a yellow tinged foot!

Ms. Lori taught the children how to create their own log cabins in the block center last week.  Today the kids began making their own cabins in the “woods.”  Wondering what your child is learning at the block center?  The block center is ideal for large motor development and coordination skills as the children, lift, move, and stack the blocks.  They are acquiring critical social skills as they work, share, and talk with other children while they create with blocks and block accessories.  Children are also acquiring knowledge and skills which will provide an important foundation for later learning.  The children solve problems and gain confidence while working with the blocks.  Building with blocks helps children learn what numbers stand for, and it encourages children to practice scientific, trial-and-error thinking.  Other learning opportunities in this center include critical-thinking and decision making skills, making comparisons (more/less, taller/shorter), recognizing shapes, classification of objects (by shape, size, color, etc), matching and sorting, experimenting with balance, seriation, equivalence and creativitiy.  Never knew the children could learn so much from a collection of blocks!

What does your child learn in the block center?

We practiced writing our names today in sand.  This is a great activity to do at home, you can simply use salt if you don’t have any sand available.  We placed about a 1/3 of a cup of sand in a shallow tray (a baking sheet will work but you need to use more sand/salt) and gently shook it to make an even layer of sand for our writing area.  We placed a name card on the table in front of us to help us with our lowercase letters (remember to always have your child use an uppercase letter for the first letter of their name and lowercase letters for the remainder of the letters in their name).  We then used our fingers and off we went!  This was huge hit, the big question was, “CAN I DO IT AGAIN?  PLEASE?”  This is a great way to help your child practice the letter of the week at home too!  Letter Hh is our letter this week and don’t forget the lowercase h!  For another letter activity that is a hit in the classroom you can do at home, just click the picture!

Practicing Letters in the Sand

Today we took a journey to our first country of the year, Canada!  If you were with us last year, it may seem that we haven’t gone too far, but we thought we would stay close by and study something relatively similar to our own country.  In our Pre-K class we talked about the different habitats that are found in Canada, including the Arctic habitat where we would found the Snowy Owl, the Mountains, and the Forests where we would find Bears, wolverines, bald eagles, etc.  We also talked about the ocean as a habitat.  We will focus on the Forest habitat during the month of October.  In our Preschool class we talked only about the forest habitat and what animals we would find there.  In both classes we located our own country on the map as well as Canada.  This will be something that will be repeated throughout the year with each country we visit.  The kid’s always love “traveling” and learning about new places and especially the animals that we find there!

Traveling to Canada

Iron’s Fruit Farm Field Trip

Don’t forget to get your permission forms and fees in by this Friday!  We will be meeting at Iron’s Fruit Farm on Wednesday, October 7th at 12:45.  Click the Link Below to check out Iron’s Fruit Farm Website.

Hey everyone,  I was pondering some of the comments I have heard over the past few weeks about the struggle with potty training at home for some of your little ones.  I began searching for tips and found few I would like to share with you.  Click here for a link to a great suggestion from a dad who was struggling with potty training and found a great way to help his little one while making an unforgettable memory that will last a lifetime.

I have also heard many parents say that they still have to remind their child to use the potty in order to avoid accidents…well I’ve found a great solution that will help your little one gain independence and self confidence as the become more successful in the bathroom.   Click here to find a great product that might just be your answer.  Good Luck!

Today we practiced our developing scissor skills in Ms. Katie’s straw cutting/sorting activity.  The children had a ball cutting small bits of drinking straws and watching them shoot across the table…we didn’t know practicing our scissor skills could be so much fun!  Cutting is a wonderful activity to develop the small muscles in your child’s hand which is essential for writing.  For other small muscle activities just click the picture!

For more small muscle development skills activities click the picture above.