Pioneer Children!

The week of Pioneer Day, we learned about pioneers and what their life was like as they crossed the country in their covered wagons.

The kids enjoyed making their own covered wagons for project that week.

 

 

 We danced like the pioneers often danced for entertainment out on the plains.

 

 The highlight of the week was definitely dressing up as pioneers!  They were darling!

 

The kids worked together to load up our pretend covered wagon with sleeping bags, cooking pots, dishes, and food for our journey!

 

 And then we set off across the wild west keeping our eyes out for buffalo and other interesting sights!

 Once we had arrived at our stopping point for the day, we built a fire, cooked dinner and danced around the fire!

 

After our dinner, we slept under the stars and rested from a long day of traveling! 

Imaginary play is a very important part of preschoolers' development both cognitively and socially.  Pretend play fosters creativity and flexibility later in life as well.  Here is a great article on the need for pretend play and how it benefits young children:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/beautiful-minds/201203/the-need-pretend-play-in-child-development

Enjoy your sweet children as they learn and grow!

Volcanoes Erupt!

Volcano week was a fascinating week!  We learned all about magma and hot lava and how a volcano erupts!  The children were mesmerized by our classroom volcanoes! A little baking soda and vinegar go a long way!

 After seeing our volcanoes erupt in class, we made our own volcanoes with play-doh.  The kids really liked adding bits of orange play-doh as lava for a more dramatic effect!

 

 Imagination is a wonderful skill to develop and strengthen during these early years, so we used our imagination as we played "Hot Lava!".  Our tile floor became the hot lava and the children had to carefully climb over the lava in order to safely arrive on the other side of the classroom!  This was also a good large motor skill builder.

 

 For one of our projects, we created paper volcanoes complete with erupting lava, of course!  The kids loved the freedom to form and glue their lava just how they wanted it!

 

 

 Our 3-day/week class did a fantastic job carefully painting another volcano including the smoke and ash that spew from the volcano as well.

During centers, we work on a variety of developmental skills.  

Puzzles are a great tool for developing early math skills, problem-solving, and self-esteem as they patiently work on and then accomplish the goal at hand.  Puzzles are a great preparation for kindergarten.

Stringing beads strengthens fine motor skills and gives an opportunity for creative design and expression.  It is also a fun way to work on pattern skills.

Playing together in our little kitchen area is a positive social setting where kids learn to work together doing the things they observe moms and dads doing at home.

Each day after recess, we wash hands and sit down for a snack.  This is a fun time for the kids to practice using their manners and social skills as they visit with their school friends!

We had a great week learning and exploring together!

Happy Birthday America!

Since it's almost the 4th of July, we spent the week learning about the U.S.A.!

To help familiarize the kids with the many different states in America, we played a fun game finding where the states go on a map and learning an interesting thing about each one. 

 

 We learned about our country's flag and then the kids each got to make their own flag to take home! 

 One of their favorite parts of the week was pretending to be in a parade and marching with their flags!  They thoroughly enjoyed marching to "Stars and Stripes Forever"!

 

They were all quite proud of their flags!

 

   The 3-day a week class learned about patterns.  This is a concept that takes a lot of exposure before most kids pick it up.  They practiced making patterns with red, white, and blue items!

 

 

 I love about being a preschool teacher!  I love the opportunity to teach these little ones to play and work nicely together, use their words to express what they feel and want, and to share with others.  In this week's pictures from centers I tried to capture those moments when they were using their social skills well and enjoying being together with their classmates.

 

 

 

  We had some new songs for music and movement this week! 

The kids' favorite was when we sang and acted out "10 in the Bed".  They loved rolling over and in turn falling off the "bed" until just the "little one" was alone in the bed!

 

 Keeping the preschool strawberry plants alive and thriving in the heat!

  Happy 4th of July!!  Have a great weekend!

 We are all very blessed to live in such a great nation.  Countless men and women have sacrificed much for this great land and it's freedoms.  Happy birthday America!

WATER!!

We had an outstanding week learning about WATER!  

With such hot temperatures, the kids all enjoyed splashing and playing outside in the water this week at our water party!

 

 What's a water party without popsicles?

 Since fish live in the water, we worked on number recognition with this fishing game (each fish had a different number on it).  This game is also a fantastic way to strengthen eye-hand coordination!

 

 We discovered first-hand that ice is water!  The kids held an ice cube and noticed how it melted in their hands and turned back into water.  We used this time to work on descriptive words like cold, wet, slippery, and smooth too. 

 One day we learned about sinking and floating.  We played a sesamestreet.org game with Cookie Monster as a class and then did our own experiments to find out what things would sink or float!  Here is the link to the game: http://www.sesamestreet.org/games?uuid=d1c1f2a5-12ee-4812-b39c-3aefff4d0aac  The kids loved making their hypothesis and then seeing what happened!

 During centers one day, this little girl took on the project of sorting all the bears by color!

 These girls loved role-playing in the kitchen center as they cooked and served up some yummy food.

 

 

Summer is a fun time to learn and explore together with friends!