Our PreSchool Blog

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!

The K prep students have been working hard on TWO books this past week and during our short week this week. Our sight word focus has been on the words am & at. This is a precursor to our introduction to word families which begins when we return from Thanksgiving Break. We interacted with the sight words in a variety of ways and have been enjoying our time buddy reading the books we have mastered.

The farm theme has provided some fun center options and activities in the toddler room.

The toddler sensory bin filled with corn kernels and farm animals.

A horse barn has provided a fun place for imaginary play.

We used our sense of hearing to listen to the farm animal sounds!

We have practiced fine motor skills while lacing farm animals!

Fun farm animal magnets were mixed with letters to provide discussion.

Another sensory activity included washing big and little farm animals.

We sorted farm animals by size (big and little) and by color.

Then we acted out our book of the month, I Spy On the Farm,  with face puppets.

We have begun our study of The First Thanksgiving in preschool this past week.  We have learned a little about how the pilgrim children were different from us, that the big boat they traveled on was not called Jimmy (haha), but actually the Mayflower and that the Indians taught them how to plant seeds and hunt for food.  We love this time of year in preschool!

We wrapped up our unit on oviparous animals (animals that lay eggs) with a visit from the Cincinnati Museum Center.

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!