Our PreSchool Blog

Ms. Joanie joined our K Prep classroom today for a special Music Enrichment class! She brought her rhythm sticks and the children used them to create spooky halloween sounds! Incorporating music into the Early Childhood classroom has a variety of benefits:

• It provides means to communicate
• An opportunity to express emotions
• Develops social skills
• Provides opportunities to participate in groups
• Enhances self‐concept and self confidence
• Enhances sensorial skills
• Refines listening skills
• Awareness of movement and body positions
• Enhances creativity and imagination
• Learn new words and concepts
• Explore cause and effect
• Develop large motor skills
• Improves balance and coordination
• Helps develop fine motor skills

and of course……..it’s fun!!!

In Preschool we were completely crazy learning about the letter Cc.

The developmental process of learning to read can be broken down into five stages of reading development.  1) Emergent Readers 2) Early Readers 3) Transitional Readers 4) Self-Extending Readers 5) Advanced Readers. All children advance through these stages at different rates based on cognitive development, early and consistent exposure to print, the development of basic reading skills at home and at school. Our class is currently made up of Emergent Readers, Early Readers and Transitional Readers. Many of the readers are sent home throughout the year for the children to keep and continue to read at home independently. As we get closer to November, due to the varying stages of development in our K Prep classroom, you will find that your child may be reading different texts than their classmates. It is so exciting to watch young readers develop the ability to read and become fluent readers!

In the Preschool classroom we started learning about the letters in the alphabet – beginning with Aa and ending with Zz in the spring.

Toddlers are experimenting, thinking, solving problems and learning all the time. Through exploration and experimentation, children develop the ability to think, understand, communicate, imagine, and work out what might happen next. In September our cognitive development focus is on the five senses.

I filled our mystery can with big marshmallows.  We shook the can and listened to the marshmallows bounce around using our sense of hearing.  After taking the lid off – I gave the toddlers a peak of what was inside.  We described the marshmallows as white, round, and bigger than tiny marshmallows.

The toddlers used their noses to use their sense of smell.

Every child got to choose one to use their sense of touch to feel and squish.

The best of the five senses was getting to taste the marshmallow!

We took our cognitive development focus one step further and put a lemon in the mystery can.  We went through all five senses and compared the lemon to the marshmallow.  The tasting resulted in some fun pictures.

Because our color of the month is yellow  and our shape is circle – We used large lemons to do prints!

Our early reading adventure began in K Prep this week. The focus during reading groups was how to use their “Magic Reading Finger.” Why do we have children use their finger to track the words while they read? The reason for this practice is because our eyes naturally follow movement, placing a finger, on a page and strategically moving it down the text, a reader will naturally keep their place and be more focused. This helps readers concentrate and understand what they read.

The book we started off with was, I JUMP, by Bruce Larkin.  This book introduced us to the sight words “the” and “I.”  By the end of the week we were able to identify the sight words we knew as well as use the first reading strategy we learned (use the picture to give us a clue about an unknown word).  The students did a WONDERFUL job!

In our preschool prep class this school year, we will be doing many different art projects. Some of them will be processed-focused, letting them make art at their own pace and with their own creativity. Others will be product-focused, teaching our students to follow instructions to reach an end goal. These types of projects usually will focus on our color, letter, or shape of the month. Below you can see some of our product-focused art projects we did last week!

Yellow Lemon Prints

The Studio Toddler class has done such a wonderful job adjusting to their new routine and getting to know their friends and classroom. We have several different centers that our students can play in during their free choice time, as well as table activities that relate to our monthly objectives. See some of their exploring in the photos below!

Table Activity: Yellow Playdough

Sensory Station

Trains and Transportation

Home living/Dramatic Play

Playground Adventures

While our friends are still getting used to our classroom environment, we have been pulling students on an individual basis to do art projects. When we start learning our small group routine, these will be some of the types of projects we will complete in small groups, and some we will still work on individually with each student.

“A is for Alligator” letter craft

Yellow Lemon Print Craft

We have been focusing on the color yellow in the toddler room this month.  Our sensory tub is filled with fun items to “make lemonade”.  We are creating with yellow play dough and  yellow collage free art.

We created an alligator out of the letter A for our letter focus this week.  Add eyes and teeth….Chomp!

“A circle goes around and around”… is the song we sing as we make a circle collage.

Preschool had a great first week of school! We had fun learning about our classroom & making new friends!