Our PreSchool Blog

Please join us for our First Annual Harvest Festival on Friday, October 30th.  There will be a petting zoo, pumpkin decorating, apple prints, and of course, food!  You won’t want to miss it!  This Friday from 5:30 to 7:00.  Bring the whole family!

Don’t forget the annual field trip to the Irons Historic Fruit Farm.  We will be meeting at the farm 12:45pm.  The address is 1640 Stubbs Mill Road, Lebanon, Ohio 45036. Phone number 513.932.2853. Check out the weather here .  Hope to see you all there!

The first time I saw a light table was at a Reggio Emilia inspiried preschool in New York City.  Every classroom had one and I began to wonder what they were all about.  After researching the various ways these could benefit preschool age children in their learning process, we decided to get one for our own classroom.

Today as I walked by our light table I overheard a child saying, “Let’s count the squares!  While the other child responded, “I’ll count the diamonds then we can count them together!”  They were referring to various translucent geometric shapes that had been placed on the light table for the children to manipulate.  We have been talking about classifying and sorting objects by different attributes (color, shape, size, number of sides, etc.)  What I was witnessing was the children taking what they had learned in small groups and applying it to their other classroom experiences.  Great work kids!

Our light table allows children to experience everyday objects in a whole new way.  In the coming months we will be using the  light table for a multitude of activities as well as free choice play with ever changing manipulatives.  Here are some of the activities that may take place at our light table this year:  building our names and sight words with special translucent letter tiles, exploring and creating colors with color paddles, using various stencils, using the light table to trace our letters and names, manipulating shapes to become more aware of spacial relationships through the use of translucent geometric pieces while discovering the basics of geometry,  viewing x-rays of various types of animals and shells, and finger painting on parchment paper (just to name a few).  These should be great experiences for your children and ones that they will not soon forget.

Creative Tots is ready for another year.  We are excited to build on the phenomenal school year we had last year and have quite a number of things in store that the kids are going to love.

First a small order of business for those of you who are new to the Creative Tots Toddler Program Only . . . the first week of school is considered a transitional week for just our toddler students.  What this means is that they will only be in school for 1 ½ hours for the week of September 8-11th instead of the regular full 2 ½ hours.  If your child is enrolled in the am toddler session it will run from 9:00 to 10:30. The pm session on Tuesday and Thursday will run from 12:00-1:30.  Regular hours 9-11:30/12:00-2:30 will begin the following week.

Thank you so much.  We look forward to an amazing year!

Creative Tots

Once again, Congratulations to all the new graduates.  We were excited to see some of our long time students move ahead to Kindergaten this year.  The ceremony was particularly fun as the kids were able to help create a video montage of photos from the year to show their parents.  In addition to the photos, Mrs. Manda had the children decide during the year what they thought they might pursue as a career.  It will be fun to see how their minds may change as they progress through school.  Each child was given a box of business cards with their photo and what they decided they wanted to do in the future.  The children found it particularly fun to trade the cards with one another on graduation day.  The reports from the Kindergarten teachers around the city are as always, wonderful reflections of what the Tots students have proven to demonstrate in their respective schools as the move forward.  Well Done!

We have been working diligently all summer to advance our curriculum this year.  With the teachers now returning from their continuing education conferences and various workshops across the country this summer, they are bursting with ideas.  As always, our focus on creating the ideal learning environment by inspiring by good functional color and design has us implementing yet another vision of what we think children should be surrounded by in order to instill creativity in academics.  This means a facelift to many of our regular areas.  In fact, we have had many of our returning students drop by to take a look around this summer.  At Tots, we are always happy to see our students take an interest in the process of learning.  Even if it means just grabbing a paint brush and helping out with some of the remodeling.  Its amazing how quickly skills develop in the kids that are given an opportunity.

The carnival was another success.  At last count, 112 suckers were taken from the sucker tree . . . 71 snow cones were eaten and 86 bags of popcorn delivered to the crowd.  Miss Joanie played roaming guitarist to the joy of her students and their families.  The spin art booth was swamped as always and provided a glimpse of what our art teacher Mrs. Carson has in store for the year.  Thanks to all the volunteers that worked all of the games and refreshments, many of them Creative Tots alumni from many years ago that seem to always return for the carnival.  The face painting was exceptional this year and it seemed that no one left without some design intact.  Congratulations to the winners of the free summer camp weeks, next summer will soon be here!  Thanks to all who came out.  It was a wonderful time.