Our PreSchool Blog

Open-ended center exploration time is an important part of early childhood education.  Children are allowed to make their own decisions.  It might seem pretty basic to us, as adults, but it’s incredibly important to young children.  It gives them more ownership over their learning experiences.

Open-ended play also allows children to express themselves in play freely and creatively, not bound by preset limitations. Playing with open-ended materials with multiple uses and limitless possibilities, such as molding clay, wet sand, paint, blocks and other loose parts, allow for imaginative play. There are no rules to follow, no expectations, no specific problems to solve, and no pressure to produce a finished product when engaging freely in open-ended play.

We learned all about apples in preschool!  We discovered the parts of an apple, how each different color tasted and conducted our own sink or float science experiment.  We even explored the seasons of the apple tree.  This is a great time to pick apples!

Cutting with scissors requires the skill of hand separation, which is the ability to use the thumb, index, and middle fingers separately from the pinkie and ring fingers. Providing children with frequent opportunities to develop their scissor skills allows them to practice using the tripod fingers (thumb, forefinger and middle finger). The tripod fingers are what work together in controlling a pencil. Developing the proper pencil grasp attributes to good handwriting. Strong scissor skills also leads to strong hand muscles and improved fine motor skills.

Young children learn in many different ways. One way they learn is through purposeful play and open ended activities. Open ended art experiences give them a chance to explore the world around them, ask questions, and see how things work. These art experiences allow them room to be themselves, make their own decisions, and just create. We used liquid watercolors, absorbent paper towels, eye droppers, and small paint brushes to create! The children loved watching their tiny drops spread and mix into a starburst as they hit the towels.

This week we began adding our Morning Table into our day!  Each day when the children come in, there is a fun activity for them to do on the table.  Sometimes it may be literacy related, shape related, or number related.  Other days it might just be some messy fun!  This week, one of our activities was working on the letter of the week, Letter A, and some fine motor practice as well!  Peeling off stickers is a great activity for your child to work on their fine motor skills at home too!

We have had a great first couple of days in the preschool room!  We have been learning how to use our clips when we want to play in a center, we’ve been making new friends, we read lots of stories, and we sang lots of songs!  We also got to do some fun sensory play while we learned about wearing team tags for our small groups!

We even practiced some of our letters!!

Once upon a time in a Kingdom not so far away, there were Princesses and Pirates celebrating a beautiful summer day!  Pirates and Princess week was a jolly good time. We searched for treasure, we made wishes with fairy dust and even learned to talk like a pirate. This week was a huge success and a lot of fun for both boys and girls!

Miss Mary Kate helped the ladies make a special sparkling princess potion! 

Pink Snacks fit for a Princess!

Pirates being silly

Treasure Hunt for Rubies, Emeralds, and more!

Piñata full of Treasure!

A party fit for a princess

…we made room for the pirates too

We had a ball!

Thanks for joining us, all you pirates and princess! Playing with YOU is so much fun. Hope to see you next week!

We have been working hard to strengthen our fine motor skills in the preschool room! Since we just visited Sunrock Farm, we added a farm animal twist to the lesson this week!