We Belong in our Community!

This week we learned about belonging in our community.  We talked about how our community is our neighborhood and our city and the people around us that help everything run like the police officers, fire fighters, mail carriers, store cashiers, farmers, etc.

Some of the children enjoyed playing with our community road map as part of centers this week.

In preparation for our field trip to the post office in our community, the children made a letter "M" project and got it ready to mail to someone at their house on our field trip.  This way, the children would get to see how the mail system works and enjoy the anticipation and excitement of knowing the mail carrier would deliver their letter to their house!

Thankfully, we had great weather for our walking field trip and wonderful parents who came with us!  It was fun to see many businesses and buildings in our community.

Once at the post office, we learned what happens to letters and packages when they get dropped off there.

The children were all very excited to put their own letter in the mail box and send it on its way complete with stamp and address!

The Pre-Kindergarten classes got to dress up as community helpers for one of their projects.

Many of them even practiced being a community helper!  They really had a blast role playing and working together. 

These pictures were too cute to pass up!  These kids were tasting different kinds of apples for snack after they learned about apples!

And this cutie was quite proud of herself for putting all of these puzzles together during centers!  What an accomplishment!

What a joy it is to teach all of your beautiful children and to see them learn and grow!

Happy Friends!

What a delightful week we had with our preschool friends!  The 3-year-olds got to meet Mother Goose this week and were fascinated with her stories, songs, and her basket of eggs!

As part of our monthly theme of "I Belong", we learned about our friends and how to be a kind friend to others.  We talked about the friends we have in our preschool class, at home, and in our neighborhood.  There are so many things we can do with our friends!  This class built a "friendship castle" together!

For one of our projects, we taught the children how to make a little friend out of Play-doh.  For many of the pre-kindergarteners, they have often played with Play-doh, but never made a person.  They did a great job!  I loved seeing the many variations in their little friend figures!  This was a wonderful activity to teach a new skill, expand the children's creativity and ability, and strengthen their fine motor skills.

Another project we made during friend week was making little rowboats for us and our friends to ride in!  We worked on gluing and coloring skills.  The 3-year-olds colored little friends who could go in and out of their boats

The older students drew themselves and a friend in their boat!  They were all so proud of their boats and people!

Then, the kids made little boats with a class friend and they "rowed" their boats back and forth as we sang "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."  This is always such a fun activity that the children really enjoy!






At the end of the week, the older kids got to focus on this week's letter: A!  We  learned about apples and noticed how each variety of apple looks different in color and shape.  Then, the children each got to make their own apple to hang on our tree mural! 









What fun, colorful counting and sorting blocks! 

Role playing during centers.  These kids love playing picnic together with their preschool friends!

Friends are important in the classroom and out of the classroom!

We Love our Families!

This month our theme is "I Belong."  This past week we talked about belonging in our families.  It was so special for the kids to bring their own family picture to share with their classmates.  I love how much these little children love their families- no matter how big or small!

As we learned about families, we made family puppets!  The older kids practiced cutting with scissors and colored their puppets.  These puppets were so fun!  The children were really excited to take them home so they could play with them.

Since all of our preschoolers are so big now, we talked about many ways they can help in their homes and families.  They loved taking turns doing each little job as we sang a song about helping our families.  They helped take care of babies, swept, mopped, dusted, picked up toys, stirred and helped cook to name a few of the ways they helped!

The Pre-Kindergartners put their drawing skills to the test as they drew pictures of themselves, their family, their home, and a way they can help their family.  I like giving the children a drawing project  at the beginning of the year to see where they are at.  We have artists of all different abilities which is wonderful.  I feel it's important to give children opportunities to grow and discover new things they can do as well!

The children loved playing our musical instruments this week.  We learned each instrument's name and how to play them.  The children did a great job taking turns and trying out each instrument.

What a wonderful treat this week...Mother Goose came to visit!  She comes each month with her puppet "Goosey" and sings songs and tells rhymes and reads stories to the children.  They all love Mother Goose!

I love capturing these sweet moments when little friends are learning and playing together!







Each day we work on learning the number and letters.  One of the classroom jobs is to help with the "ABC" song.  I love how eager each of child is to help in our classroom!  What precious children!

This week we learned the letter "X".  These kids can make "X" with their fingers and arms!

Another wonderful week!  Next, we'll be learning about belonging with friends!