The Lending Library!

We started our lending library this week!  It was so rewarding to see how excited these kids were to get to take a special book home from school to borrow!  It is never too early to instill a love of books and learning!  

 

 Each child got a unique library bag to use for the school year to keep their Treasure Tree Academy library books safe!  This was a great opportunity to teach the students how to treat books and care for them so we can continue enjoying such wonderful books!

 It was fun to see which books the kids chose!

 Checking out books is a special time!  The kids are learning to file their library card under the first initial of their name.  It is a good way to let them make independent choices in which book they want to take home. 

 

Some fun pictures from this week's centers:

 

 

Play-doh makes a great medium for practicing letters at home or at school!

Each week we learn a new letter.  This week's letter was "S"!  Ask your child to point out the letter "S" now as you read books together and on signs as you're out and about.  This will help solidify what we've learned this week!

 

Our classroom set of small whiteboards is perfect for kids to practice writing their letters!

 After learning that the "S" makes a sound like a snake, the kids took turns making an "S" snake!

 This was a sparkly, fun project to heighten the kids' familiarity with their name in preparation to be able to recognize and write their own name independently.  It was also a great way to strengthen those fine-motor and concentration skills as they carefully glued sequins onto the first letter of their name.

 

 Music and movement classes were simply magic this week!  From dancing to playing different instruments--they had a great time!

 

We're looking forward to another wonderful week next week learning about "Family!"  Be sure to bring a family photo for your child to share with their class!  It will be neat to see how each family is different as well as the similarities between families!

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!