First week of Preschool!

 What a wonderful first week of preschool!  Our theme for the month is "I Belong."  Each week we have a sub-theme and this week's was "I Belong at School."  We played get-to-know-you games, sung songs with our names and learned the rules of our preschool.  We also learned the letter "I" this week!

We start each day with centers.  This is a great chance for the children to independently choose which center they would like to do.  It is also a wonderful time to work on social skills like sharing and taking turns as well as role-playing.

 For our small group project on the first day of school, the children got to trace their hand and then color it to show their parents just how big they are! 

One of our helper jobs is the calendar.  This is when we learn numbers and practice counting.  It is also a great opportunity for the helper to speak in front of the class to tell everyone the date.

 Music is a big part of our preschool!  Getting-to-know-you songs were really fun to help the kids feel loved, known, and accepted at school!

  

 Our Prekindergarten classes got a special visitor--Franklin the turtle!  We read a story about Franklin's first day of school and talked about how we were feeling on the first day.  Some kids felt nervous like Franklin and were able to see that just like Franklin's experience, they too would soon feel confident at school!

  We also had a REAL visitor this week in our preschool!  Suzy Safari comes to each class once a month to share with us what she's learned about animals on her latest adventures!  This week we got to see how big a baby elephant is when it is just born!  We love when Suzy Safari comes to sing songs, read stories, and teach us little rhymes!

 

We go outside to play each day!  This is such an important time for these young minds to get a chance to be loud, run around, and get some wiggles out ready to go back in and continue learning!  What looks like mere playing to adults is actually great hands-on-learning as well as a time to develop social skills and large-motor skills!  Their little minds are still learning physical coordination and confidence!

  

 

As part of our "School" theme, we learned how to use water colors at school so whenever we paint later in the year the children will know just what to do!  It was also a fun way for them to explore with colors and have the opportunity to be creative and paint however and whatever they choose!

 

Once a week, we have a favorite books time.  The children all really enjoy being able to choose the books that the assistant teacher reads!  

Like I said, we had a fabulous first week!  And what a great group of students! : )  I absolutely love them already!

Last week of summer preschool--Ocean Animals week!

 

What a fabulous last week of summer preschool we had!  It was so much fun to learn about all sorts of ocean animals from tiny creatures that live in shells to great big whales!   We finished up the alphabet this week as we learned the letters "O," "K," and "Y" as well as the number 8. 

  

The kids really enjoyed some hands on learning with seashells and playdoh!  They found it fascinating to see the impressions of the different types of shells in the playdoh.  

 

Working together to sort the seashells!

 

 These kids had so much fun with the ocean animal puppets!  It's always so fun to hear the stories they tell using the puppets!

 Hands-on learning!  Kids learn so much by touching, feeling, and handling things!  It was neat to see, hold, and touch the sea star, sand dollars and seashells!

Olive and Ollie Octopus visited our class this week to introduce the letter "O" and help us learn about octopuses!  The kids found it quite enjoyable to meet these two special visitors, introduce themselves, and have a chance to feel their tentacles and suction cups! : )

 Making our own octopuses!  The kids practiced their scissor skills and worked on patterns with this small-group project!

We loved how these cute octopuses turned out!

 We also learned about killer whales this week.  Since killer whales eat fish, we made a group graph to organize the fish we had.  We worked on taking turns, colors, counting, more and less, and most and least!  Math is fun!

Ocean themed sensory table time! 

 So many types of whales!

 We love when Mother Goose comes to visit!  We're so happy we get to see her every month during the school year!

Playing together, strengthening social skills, and learning so much!

Thanks to all the parents of these darling children!  Your kids are so smart and kind and we have had a wonderful summer learning together!  

Looking forward to the school year!  Just another week left before school starts!

Open House, Meet-your-teacher day, and Usborne book fair on Monday, August 25th from 12:00-2:00!  Hope to see you there!  Come check us out for the first time or bring a friend and say hello again!

Farm Animals Week!

 

Farm week was full of fun learning!  We sorted animals so we would know which animals live on a farm and then we grouped the farm animals together, talked about what sounds animals make and sang "Old MacDonald Had A Farm!" 

 

Although we learned about all the animals on a farm, we focused on cows and sheep specifically. 

 Playing farm animal memory match was a great way to reinforce what we had learned about the animals like their names and the sounds they make.  Not to mention the fact that it is a wonderful game to encourage kids to pay close attention and try to remember where the animals were.

 For my classes that just have kids going into kindergarten in a couple weeks, we had fun choosing a farm animal to draw and write a poem about!  They did a fantastic job on their illustrations as well as the words they chose to fill in their poems! 

 This week we learned the letters "H," "G," and "L," along with the number 9.  These kids really enjoy practicing writing their letters and couldn't resist making their own letters with their bodies!  This was a great activity for processing spacial relations and for those kinesthetic learners.

 

 When we learned about cows, we looked at many different kinds of cows and their different colors.  We also took a virtual field trip to a dairy farm and saw how we get milk from cows and what foods we get from milk!

 Snack time was a great opportunity to try some foods we get from farm animals like different kinds of cheese, eggs, and milk!

 We read a darling story this week called "Kiss the Cow" by Phyllis Root.  As part of the Utah State Standard for Preschool, we practiced retelling this story using our puppet theater and a few props!  They did a great job remembering the story!

 

Mother Goose rhymes are filled with farm animals!  We learned "Little Boy Blue" and "Hey, Diddle, Diddle" this week and again worked on taking turns retelling these rhymes using pictures and making their own nursery rhyme book!

 

Last, but not least, sometimes it's important to just let the kids relax and get some one-on-one time with a book!  Even though most preschoolers cannot read the words on the page, it is a crucial step in learning to read to just have their own time with books-looking at the illustrations and enjoying that quiet time!

Our last week of summer preschool we are learning about Ocean Animals!  Check in at the end of the week to see what we learned!

Field Trip to the Fire Station!

 As part of our transportation week, we visited our local Fire Department!  What an awesome field trip this was! The fire fighters were so wonderful with our kids and let them have so may hands-on experiences!

 It was so helpful when the firemen geared up to show the children what firemen look and sound like when they are putting our fires.  This helped put a lot of fears at ease.

 This was definitely one of the favorite parts of the field trip...spraying the fire hose! 

 

 It was pretty neat to learn about the old fire trucks!  And, some pretty lucky kids got to ring the bell on this old truck!

 Cover those ears for the sirens!

 What would it be like to ride in the fireman's seat?

 Checking out the inside of an ambulance!

And the jaws of life!

A huge thank you to the firemen at our fire station!  They are wonderful and we greatly appreciate their service to us and our community!  Such great life learning!

Thanks to all the parents and family members who came on our field trips!  It was so fun to have you come with us!

Now, we are moving on to Farm Animals and the letters "H," "G," "L," and the number 9!