February- Animals Classes

February was such an exciting month as we learned about many different animals and the main animal classes and culminated our studies by going on a field trip to BYU's Bean Museum!

First, we learned about fish.  We learned that they have scales, live in the water, breathe under water using gills, and that most fish lay eggs.  The children thoroughly enjoyed this fishing game as they practiced their eye-hand-coordination to catch a colored fish!

We also read the story "The Rainbow Fish" and talked about friendship.  The children got to paint their own fish however they'd like and then we added a sparkle fin just like in our story.  They turned out so beautifully!

Next, we learned about mammals.  We learned that mammals have fur or hair, they breathe with their lungs, their babies are born alive and drink mama's milk.  We used our puppets and sorted the animals into the different mammals and other classes.

This class loved dancing with the mammal puppets!

Even the 3-year-old classes worked on their cutting abilities as they made their very own mammal book!



Here the kids are practicing writing the letter "Z" which was one of the letters we learned this month.

For our "Z" project, the children made Z-shaped zebras.  We learned that each zebra has a unique stripe pattern in real life so the kids enjoyed making their zebras unique too!

During reptile week, the children learned that reptiles have scaly skin, lay eggs, and are cold-blooded.

Reptiles and mammals make for a fun music time!  These kids are singing and acting out "5 Little Monkeys" who tease Mr. Alligator!  What fun!

One of the favorite things we did during bird week was listening to the songs of many different kinds of birds.  Each day, the children looked forward to opening our bird book and listening to their songs and sounds!

What a lucky day!  One of the days we were learning about birds, these 4 cute girls all had birds on their shirts!

Our Pre-Kindergarten kids worked really hard on this project as they practiced writing the letters that were in the birds' names.  They are getting so much better at writing letters and using those fine motor skills.

With much excitement and anticipation, we made it to the Bean Museum!  

I love field trips!  They enrich a child's learning experience so greatly.  After learning about so many different types of animals in each animal class, the kids were fascinated by seeing the real animals up close.  It was so fun to see their excitement and hear all of their expressions as they saw all the animals!

Many of the children even got to touch a few of the museum's live animals!

We will be learning about insects towards the end of the school year, but this butterfly collection is always so impressive!

I love watching the children look closely at the animals they saw at the museum.  They are always thinking, observing, and learning from the world around them.

Seeing an elephant so closely is amazing and the kids got to see that elephants really do have hair which makes them a mammal!

The kids got to go on an animal scavenger hunt while we were going around the museum.

We also got to enjoy the Nature Photography exhibit that was just temporarily on display at the museum.  It was fun to look for the different kinds of animals we had been learning about.

These kids weren't so sure about this little cockroach!

This class got to see a special kind of frog during a live animal show.

Of course, we had to take a few minutes to enjoy the museum's little slide and play area!

A big thank you to all the parents who helped make our field trips possible!  We had a wonderful time!

The children always look forward to music time.  These kids really love playing our bean bag game as we sing a song and pass the bean bag around our circle of friends.

As part of our rug time, we stand up and do some wiggles and stretches each day.  This darling class LOVES going on bear hunts just like the story "We're Going on a Bear Hunt"!

Our Pre-K kids are working hard to get ready for Kindergarten as they say the Pledge of Allegiance as part of our "jobs" each day.

Outside time is important at Treasure Tree Academy!  We set aside time to go outside every day and after the big snow storms in February, these kids took advantage of the great packing snow and made the biggest snowballs they could!  They were so proud of themselves!

Letter review time!

In the middle of February, we took a little break from animals so we could celebrate Valentine's day!  The children loved playing Valentine memory match as they worked on taking turns and strengthening their memory skills.

They were also very excited to make their own Valentine to give to someone special to share their love.

Preschool is a wonderful time to learn and grow in all areas of development!  Thanks for letting us enjoy your children and be part of that growth and development.

January- "My Body"

In January, our theme was "My Body."  The children learned all about their bodies and the amazing things they can do!  This class really enjoyed seeing how the many important organs fit together inside our bodies.

We traced each child's body and then they drew their face and colored in their body.  This is always an exciting project!  They love seeing just how big they really are!





Another body activity we did had to do with a few parts of the body we are all very familiar with: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes!  Each child colored a little body picture and practiced cutting along the lines to make a few flaps so they could see the body part and lift the flap to see the name of that body part.



We spent a week in January learning about our 5 senses.  Mr. Potato Head came as a special visitor and the children loved helping him get all the parts of his body back on that he would need to use his 5 senses.  We also learned a little song about our senses: (sung to BINGO)
We use 5 senses every day
to help us learn and play:
See, Hear, Smell, Touch, Taste
See, Hear, Smell, Touch, Taste
See, Hear, Smell, Touch, Taste
We use these every day!

Playing a senses sorting game for our small group project.  They caught on rather quickly which senses we use for each item.

And, of course, we had to try out some of our senses!  We felt various objects and described their texture, we listened to different sounds, and we tasted at snack time! To taste sour, we gave each child a little piece of a lemon.  A few liked the lemons, but most puckered their lips as they bravely tried it!

As part of our Body unit, we also spent a week learning about our teeth and how best to take care of them.  We played a game in which the children chose a food item and then had to decide if it was a healthy food that makes our teeth happy or a sugary food that makes our teeth sad.  This was interesting for the children to try to distinguish between tasting yummy and being good for our teeth, but after a bit, they really caught on!

To help the children learn how many teeth they have, they got to make a big mouth and glue on marshmallow teeth- 10 on the top and 10 on the bottom!  Picking up small items and gluing them onto something helps strengthen fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination.

One of the weeks, we learned about staying healthy and what to do to keep our bodies strong.  We learned about eating healthy food so our bodies can get the nutrients they need.  The children really enjoyed finding foods from grocery store ads to cut out and place on their food groups plate.  They did a wonderful job!

Healthy snacks are an important part of our preschool each day!

In this activity, the kids pulled items out of a bag and sorted them.  We sorted into 2 categories: food to help our bodies be healthy and exercise activities to stay healthy.

One of the letters we worked on this month was "O."  I love this picture of this class showing the many ways they could use their body to make the letter "O"!

We also learned the letter "U" in January.  The children cut out and glued on the capital and lowercase letters all over their Umbrella page.



The Pre-Kindergarten children have been working on writing their names each day at preschool.  We are focusing on the first letter being capitalized and the other letters lowercase.  They are making great progress as they are preparing for kindergarten!

Reading and enjoying books are a big part of our preschool.  I love seeing the joy children get out of books as they look at them individually as well as in little groups!



A few pictures from centers that capture some of the darling preschoolers we love teaching and seeing how they learn and grow as they play together!





Helping our children have healthy, strong minds and bodies is a part of what we strive to do each day at Treasure Tree Academy!