Our PreSchool Blog

A new month means new activities in our centers!  The children had the opportunity to rotate around the centers to learn the new games and activities.  Being able to do the activities properly ensures that the children are learning and practicing the skill the activity is meant to teach/reinforce.

As we usher in a new month, the children have the opportunity to discover new things in our centers.  All of our centers have new items, but today we focused on the math, literacy and art centers.  Learning how to do new activities is just one more way to practice/learn a skill in a different way.

Our little scientists geared up to learn about two of the three properties of water.  We started with measuring an ice snowman first thing in the morning.  By the time we were ready for small groups, our snowman shrunk!  Discussing temperature and how ice turns into water (and vice versa), the children discovered why the snowman was melting.  We also compared a glass of ice to a glass of water in height and weight.  The boys and girls did an excellent job of recording their findings.   What budding scientists!

Our fine motor skills are really shining through!  The boys and girls did an excellent job getting those little fingers moving while practicing their cutting.  Cutting out and decorating a mitten was a fun way to get those little muscles working!

Today we made….you guessed it!  Patterns!  Using our pattern blocks, we created ABABAB patterns using shapes and colors.  We also used pattern block templates to discover the shapes and how they work together.  They also learned how to use simple objects at home to create a pattern.

As January comes to a close, it is clear that we have pre-writers emerging into eager little writers!  The boys and girls did an excellent job practicing V, W and X, along with other letters we have introduced.  The magnet boards that we used offered a fun and unique way to practice our writing!

Matching the upper and lowercase letters can be tricky, especially for the letters Ee, Dd and Rr (to name a few).  Today, the children challenged their letter recognition skills while playing a letter matching memory game.  This is a great way to quickly assess which letters your child knows, and which need more practice!

Rectangles are so similar to squares, they are easy to confuse!  They boys and girls were rectangle detectives today as we found items around the room that were in the shape of a rectangle.  We prepared ourselves by reading a book about rectangles and discussing the similarities and differences between rectangles and squares.  Can’t get much past these boys and girls!

Building a snowball takes good fine motor control.  Today, the children had the opportunity to build their very own snowball!  Crumpling up paper, painting glue onto it, then pulling apart cotton balls to apply to the paper, are all excellent fine motor practice.  The children had a ball making their own special balls!

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!