Our PreSchool Blog

While learning about the letter “x”, we decided since we made a xylophone out of the letter “x”, we would actually learn about the xylophone and how to play music with it! We sang different songs, such as, “Row Row Row Your Boat” and “Do You Know the Muffin Man?” and our friends practiced playing along with the xylophone. Since we didn’t have enough xylophones for all of our friends to play at once, we took turns and those who weren’t playing a xylophone got to shake a maraca. We were just like a real band! Ms. Joanie would have been so proud 🙂

Our color for the month of April is the color “blue”. What a great excuse for us in the toddler classroom to make blueberry muffins all together! The toddlers love to help mix in each of our ingredients when we make different recipes, all of them waiting as patiently as they can for their turn! Turn-taking is a very important step in cognitive development for toddlers and young children, and the beginning stages of being able to communicate back and forth with their peers. Because of this, we focus on turn-taking as much as possible in our classroom. Taking turns in larger group activities also helps toddlers practice for when they encounter turn-taking in one-on-one situations during free play and/or recess.

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.

The holidays are upon us, and nothing beats the different smells of the holiday season! Continuing on with our exploration of the five senses, we made no-cook peppermint play-dough during group time. Each of our friends took a turn pouring in a separate ingredient, making sure to smell some of them along the way, like our peppermint extract! They loved adding in the food coloring, making our play-dough red, which is our color of the month!

Although our peppermint play-dough smelled good enough to eat, we let them explore with their sense of taste at snacktime with a peppermint patty treat! Exploring with our senses is not only fun, but tasty, too! 🙂

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!

The favorite part of our day…show and share!  But how are the children benefiting from the experiences?

• Learning How to Ask Questions and Answer: many preschool children do not understand the difference between a statement and a question, and so going through the process helps teach this concept.

• Speech Development: for the speaker, show and share provides an opportunity to use descriptive language, concept thinking, story telling and so forth. Overall, it helps develop effective communication.

• Emotional Development: giving children time to share a part of their home life, their interests, with the group creates an environment of caring and fosters their emotional selves.

• Respectful Listening: show and tell can create structure for preschool children to learn how to be respectful when someone is talking and to use proper manners

• Children Take the Lead: the act of show and share, from choosing the item, to talking about it in front of peers, to showing it to everyone, provides children the chance to be in charge, and have their choices and voice honored. This is especially true for the more shy children in the group.

After we read “Up in the Artic” we played Iceberg Hop.

The children worked on one-to-one correspondence, fine motor skills, and taking turns.

The colorful clips and clothespins hanging around the preschool classroom might seem odd at first glance but the system and reasoning behind them has added a whole new sense of responsibility and indenpendence in the students. At each of our many Centers there is a Center Sign along with its matching, brightly colored clips. Each of these centers offers a wide variety of ever changing themed choices ranging from Dramatic Play and ABC Centers to Bookmaking and Block Centers. During our Free Choice time you can witness the students participating in any number of activities; whether they are playing a game individually or taking turns with a friend the centers are always a place for FUN as well as academic growth and development.

You may have heard a teacher asking the question, “Do you have a clip on your clothes?” once or twice. Placing a clip on our clothes is chosing to play at a center and while at that center it is the preschooler’s responsibility to play a game or work together on an activity with friends. When a child is finished visiting a center it is their job to make sure they have put their tools and toys away so that the next child to chose that center may come play. They put the clip back on the Center Sign and move onto their next center of choice.
The children have done a fantastic job picking up the new ways to enjoy and take care of our classroom. Great work, preschoolers!