Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, we are getting into the holiday spirit!
We started by making open ended creations using red and green gum drops and tooth picks!
We went on a letter hunt in pretend snow! (Even though it happened to be 60 degrees outside at the end of November!)
We painted with star shaped cookie cutters! Our December shape is the star, and color is red.
The students were able to make homemade red, peppermint play-doh! We will use this in class activities throughout December.
Leading up to our class Thanksgiving feast, we talked all about how the first Thanksgiving came about!
We discussed that the Pilgrims came to America on the Mayflower and met the Indians who taught them how to hunt and farm in the Spring time. At the end of their harvest they had a feast to celebrate their hard work and new found friendship. We brought this all back to the student’s own lives and how it connected to their Thanksgiving today. As a class, we decided that the holiday was based around appreciation and being thankful for what we have 🙂 We made a list of what we were most thankful for on the board following this exercise.
To help us better understand the story of Thanksgiving, we retold it together as we created a symbolic necklace. Each colored bead on the string symbolized a part of the story. The kids had fun making the necklaces and it helped them to remember the story in a unique way! We sent a key home to parents so they could talk about the Thanksgiving necklaces outside of the classroom.
Just like the Pilgrims and Indians, we prepped our food for our feast!
And then we got to enjoy it together!!
We had a blast with our November farm theme in Preschool/Preschool Prep! Below the students are washing the “mud” (brown paint) off of the pigs to reveal a letter to identify!
The Preschool class acted out the story “I Spy on the Farm”. It was a fun and interactive way to retell the story step by step.
After reading “Chicka Chika Boom Boom”, we collected leaves outside that had letters on them and we created our own fall version of the alphabet tree!
Practicing our cutting skills by giving the trolls a haircut!
Matching letters to the correct beginning sounds
Measuring with nonstandard objects
Fine motor fun!
Counting our way through Preschool!
We went on a bear hunt in the PM Preschool and Preschool Prep classes! We read the story, “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” and reenacted it by going on our own classroom bear hunt!
Through the grass “swishy swashy, swishy swashy”
Through the water “splish splosh, splish splosh”
Through the mud “squelch squerch, squelch squerch”
Through the forest “stumble trip, stumble trip”
Through the snow storm “hooo wooo”
Through the cave “tip toe, tip toe”
We ended the day with a bear “hunt and color” sort!
We embraced our October theme whole heartedly this month! What’s better than giving academic time a Halloween twist?? Here’s a taste of what we did this month!
Spider Counting!
Building letters with pumpkin seeds
Letter building with candy corn
Halloween cutting center
Feeding the Alphabet Zombie (he loves his letters!)
Acting out the Five Little Pumpkins
Spider swatting and number recognition!
Fall Number Mats
Wicked letter find and sort!
Silly Monster Craft!
The Preschoolers and Preschool Preppers have been apart of many fun, hands-on explorations this month! We opened up a pumpkin, made our own homemade applesauce and had some animals visit the classroom!
We have been working on our prewriting and fine motor skills in the PM preschool and preschool prep classes! We are getting our hands ready to write!
We had our first music class of the year with, the one and only, Ms. Joanie! The kids just loved her! She comes once a week to sing with the kids, let them play/learn new instruments, and teach them music vocabulary!
Music is very important for our preschoolers. It ignites all areas of child development (intellectual, social, emotional, motor, language). Music helps the body and mind work together, and can teach them sounds and meanings of words.
In the PM Preschool and Preschool Prep classes, we have been planning our days around a children’s book and integrating other curriculum objectives into that theme.
For example, we read Pete The Cat as a class and the kids were able to snack on some of the different foods Pete steps in to help retell the story (strawberries, blueberries, chocolate- in place of mud, and water). To incorporate letter recognition, we had the children feed letters to our Pete The Cat Character Box. If it was not a letter we had learned yet, the children would say “goodness no!”- just like in the story. To continue with this theme, we had a question of the day for the children: “What color would you turn your shoes? What would you need to step in to turn them this color?”
We were able to integrate literacy, letter recognition, sense of taste, color recognition, and story retelling!
Creative Tots has specialized in the private education of both toddlers and preschool age children for over 15 years. We began in the heart of Madeira and now also have a new Mason location. We are specifically designed to focus on early childhood development for children ages 18 months to 5 years.
Click below to learn more about our program offerings: