Valentine's Day!

We took a short break from learning about so many animals to celebrate Valentine's day!  We read lots of stories and talked about how we show love to our friends and family.  These darling children all wanted to give their friends hugs after reading some books about giving hugs!  This age is so sweet and kind and have such big hearts!

 

 One of the days we spent making Valentine's cards for special people that we "love to pieces"!  They were so pleased with how their cards turned out!  They did a fantastic job!

 

We also decorated our bags to collect the Valentine's from our friends. 

The children were SO excited to get a turn to pass out their Valentine's for their friends.  The loved showing their friends how much they cared about them by giving them a special little something!

We also played a lot of games this week!  We had Valentine's delivering games, bean bag games, and Valentine's memory match!  As we played, the kids worked on social skills, eye-hand coordination, and paying attention so they could remember where the matches were.

Enjoying Valentine's stories!

Mother Goose and Goosey even got to visit during the week of Valentine's too!  What a splendid treat!

The kids had a fun time stringing beads as they worked on patterns.

We had a letter review this week.  These big Pre-Kindergarteners were practicing writing some of the letters they've learned this year.  They're getting so good at writing and remembering the letters!

What a terrific week!  Here's a couple of pictures from centers.  I love capturing those delightful moments when all the children are playing so nicely together!  We have the greatest kids here at our preschool!

Rain Forest Animals

We learned a couple of great rhymes and songs about rain forest animals this week!
 One was about toucans which we acted out with finger puppets:

Five little toucans sitting in a tree...
The first one said, "Won't you look at me?"
The second one said, "See my pretty bill?"
The third one said, "Your voice is rather shrill!"
The fourth one said, "Careful we should be..."
The fifth one said, "Never know what you may see!"
Then down flew the Harpy eagle, very fast in flight,
And the five little toucans flew clear out of sight!

And the other was about the 5 little monkeys who were teasing Mr. Alligator!  The kids always enjoy acting out the songs and rhymes, which helps them remember the words better.

There are so many fascinating animals that live in the rain forest!  For one of our projects, we cut and pasted baby rain forest animals and matched them with their mamas!  I am so impressed with the kids' cutting abilities!  They have really done well this year with learning to use scissors!

One of the interesting things we learned about rain forest animals is that toucans sometimes pass fruit back and forth with each other!  This made for a terrific activity for our preschoolers!  They practiced passing and catching some plastic fruit with a partner.  We had lots of giggles and fun together as they tried really hard not to let their fruit fall on the ground!

After looking at many pictures of various kinds of colorful toucans, the children used watercolors to paint their own unique toucan.  They paint so carefully now!  I love seeing how much these kids learn throughout the school year!

This class got to create their own rain forest scene.  I loved hearing what they said they were painting.  We had trees, vines, snakes, flowers, and even jaguar footprints!

 

Our letter of the week was "V".  We enjoyed listening to a story of a rain forest python named "Verdi" and then played a hide-and-seek game.  One child hid the letter "V" while another child was around the corner.  Then, the whole class sang loud or soft depending on how close the finder was to the hidden letter.  We reinforced the name of the letter every time it was found.  The kids were thrilled with this game!

Sometimes we don't set out specific activities, but let the children choose whichever toy they want to take off the shelves.  This freedom often leads to creative outcomes!  I love this picture during centers that captured these students acting out the story of "Little Red Riding Hood."  They came up with this and carried it out all on their own!

Building together with friends!

Making the letter "V" during snack time!  These kids are always thinking!

I love teaching these precious children!  What a joy it is to see them learning and growing each day!

Going on Safari!

This week was an adventurous one as we learned about animals we would see if we went on a safari in the African savanna.  This floor puzzle was a hit with the kids!  They loved identifying the various safari animals as they put the puzzle together with their friends.

Suzy Safari even got to come visit this week and sing some fun songs and teach the kids even more about safari animals!  We love when she brings her puppets along to help her teach the children!

For one of our projects this week, we played a safari race game.  The students took turns rolling a dice with safari animals on it.  They then circled the corresponding animal on their page.  As the game continued, they got to see which animal got the furthest along the path to the other side of the page.  They loved this game!  This was a great way to help reinforce the names of some of the safari animals.  

 

 This class enjoyed playing this eye-spy game with Ms. Ann as they took turns pointing to various safari animals at the watering hole and counting how many there were. 

 After pretending to go on an African safari as a class, we made a zebra that the children got to take home.  I love teaching these children about the many amazing animals around the world!  They love animals and have absorbed so much!  Your children are so bright and know so much!

 

 

 

 

 With the Pre-Kindergarten kids, we worked on writing our letter of the week: "G".  They also drew a picture of something that started with the letter "G."  We had everything from giraffes to a gorilla wearing goggles!  This week we also emphasized the correct way to hold a pencil as these kids continue preparing for kindergarten.

I love how much these kids enjoy looking at books after snack time.  Sometimes they look for our letter of the week or the animals we've been learning about or just take a minute to look through the pictures of a book we've read as a class.  I love how much they love books!

 These stencils at centers provide a wonderful opportunity for the children to make their own picture and be creative as they confidently trace and color the simple images in whatever arrangement they desire.

 I love seeing the little friendships form and blossom as the children play together during centers.  Developing social skills is an important part of our class.  After all, we interact with people every day at home, at school, and in public settings throughout our whole life!  Preschool is a great time to strengthen those skills!