Forest Animals

We moved from the desert to the forest as we spent the week learning about animals like deer, bears, raccoons, skunks, and foxes.  The children were more familiar with these animals since we live close to the mountains and many enjoy the forest with their families. 

The Pre-K classes were fortunate to get to meet a live forest animal this week!  Now domesticated, wild ferrets lived in the forests and are related to other forest animals like the skunk.  Thanks to the mom of one of our students for bringing Arthur to our preschool to let us pet him and learn more about this interesting animal!  The kids asked some very thoughtful questions so they could learn more, I was impressed.

Forest animal graphing!  This was a fun educational game the kids really enjoyed playing.  They took turns spinning the forest animal spinner and used a graph to show the results of how many times we spun each animal.  With this game we worked on math with counting, science with animal recognition, and social skills with taking turns. 

 

Another project we did this week was making our little "Forest Animals" book.  The kids cut out the pages and chose which order to put their book in.  We talked about the title of the book being on the front just like other books.  This was a great activity for beginning readers as well as those not ready to read yet as the words on the pages were very predictable and easy to follow so they could feel like they were "reading."  This is actually an important step in learning how to read.

Each week, we change the books we have in our book basket according to our weekly theme.  This week, we had books and Zoobooks on forest animals.  I love these pictures of how interested the children are by these books full of animals!

Using fine motor skills as well as social skills as they build with Legos during centers.

Imaginative play, like these boys are engaging in, is very important as they figure out how to work together and which roles each child fills in our classroom. 

Thanks to a donation from one of our preschool parents, we got a new tree for our preschool!  The kids were quite mesmerized by this new toy they could discover on their own or with a friend at centers.  It's always exciting to have something new to play with!

All About Desert Animals

Continuing our theme of animal habitats, we learned about desert animals.  We learned about camels, gila monsters, rattlesnakes, lizards, tortoises, and many other animals, as well as what the desert is like and what plants grow there.  We worked on our letter recognition and writing skills as the Pre-K kids wrote various names of desert animals. 

  The 3-year-olds practiced letter recognition too as they matched and glued the letters of the word "desert" on their pages.  They strengthened their finger muscles by coloring their picture instead of writing the letters.

 As part of our desert theme, we read "The Tortoise and the Hare."  The kids showed us how fast they could hop if they were a rabbit or a hare and how s-l-o-w-l-y they could crawl as a tortoise. 

 After the majority of each class voted that the hare would win the race, we read the story.  They were amazed!  It is so rewarding and delightful to share such traditional and well-known stories with these cute kids!  They love taking it all in.  Then they each got to make their own little puppets so they could retell this classic story to their families. 

 Retelling a story is a great way to increase comprehension and build language skills as well.  And, it can be very fun!

The kids always love it when we get the scarves out for them to dance with!  Music is a beautiful thing and I love how much children enjoy listening to and moving to the music!

 

 

  We also had a special visit from Mother Goose!  This time she brought lots of books and stories about babies.  It was darling to see how much these sweet preschoolers love babies!  Many of them have a baby brother or sister at home, but even those who don't really delighted in Mother Goose's stories and rhymes!

 

 

A couple pictures from centers:  centers help structure the developing mind of a child by providing a reliable autonomous period of time when the child has structured free time guided by adults' encouraging attention and scaffolding (helping them when needed as support). Parents, you could set up such carefully guided, structured activities with your kids at home too!  Remember, children learn so much through play!

Animals in the Polar Regions

We're so happy to be back after the wonderful holiday break!  The children each brought a toy they got for Christmas for Show and Tell.  They loved getting to share with their friends and see what they got for Christmas too!

We are learning about Animal Habitats during January and February.  Animals are so diverse and interesting and such a great way for kids to learn about the world around them.   We started with animals from the Polar Regions!  When we learned about polar bears in the Arctic, we read some great non-fiction books about how polar bears live and what they are like.  We learned that polar bears use their huge paws and claws to dig their dens in the snow.  As a class, we pretended to dig our own little dens and then the kids curled up like polar bear cubs in their den!

Then the kids worked on their polar bear pictures for their project.  They turned out so well!  The kids glued down the "snow" and the polar bear, drew the moon, and drew claws and the polar bear's face.

The children enjoyed looking at the polar bear and penguin books after snack time.

When we learned about the penguins in Antarctica, we learned that they huddle together to stay warm when it's so cold! We also watched a little clip of "March of the Penguins" so the kids could see real penguins in action!!

We learned that penguins swim really fast in the sea and catch fish, squid, and krill to eat.  For snack, the kids pretended to be penguins and ate penguin food!  The older kids measured out their snacks of fish and "krill" (goldfish, pretzel fish, and sunflower seeds)!  They thought it was a great snack! 

For project, we went fishing with a "penguin beak" in the icy water for fish.  This was a lot of fun and a perfect way to strengthen those fine motor skills that children need as they learn to write.  This was also a great activity to hone their eye-hand-coordination.

Our letter this week was "P."  We practiced writing the letter, writing our names, and then the kids got to draw their own picture.  Drawing on white boards is another wonderful way to let kids practice writing and strengthening their little muscles.

Pictures from centers!  I love how well these children play together!  They are working on their social skills every day!