Our PreSchool Blog

We continued with our second book, Making Bubbles  by Bruce Larkin in reading groups this week. The children have been working hard to track each word in the repetitive text that introduces a new sight word each week. The sight word we worked on this week is the word, the. Sight words are words that are used most frequently in text. The reason that they are called “sight” words is because the goal is for your child to begin to recognize these words instantly, at first sight. These are very important to master because they account for up to 75% of the words used in beginning children’s books. These words, typically, are not words that can be “sounded out,” therefore need to be learned by sight.

Many of the students were asking to take the books home to be able to share them with you. If you would like your child to read the text for you. You can find a digital book here. Just click on “Making Bubbles” under Kindergarten Books to access the book.

Last week we learned all about the letter D and got to have fun with a lot of dinosaur activities.  I am pretty sure if you are a child at the age of 3 or 4 you just love dinosaurs… no matter what!  Our students LOVED everything we did this week and had a ton of fun!  Part of our focus this year is to keep our curriculum very concrete and playful.  We did just that and had a blast learning about the letter D while doing so!

Learning positional words like over/under, on/off, and in/out is an important preschool skill. Not only do children develop spatial awareness by practicing these skills but they are also learning the fundamentals of early math.  Using positional words in connection with concrete objects and situations helps children develop vocabulary.  We had lots of fun this week learning the positional words IN and OUT as we took turns going IN the tunnel and coming OUT.

Our early reading adventure began in K Prep this week. The focus this week 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 making reading a more satisfying experience.  They did a wonderful job!

Does your child use scissors at home?  We have been learning all about scissor safety and how to use and hold scissors in preschool.

1st… Safety!

• We never use scissors on anything except for paper or another material that is provided by a teacher.
• When walking with scissors, we hold the metal part in our hands so that if we were to fall, we are safe.
• we never point scissors at anyone

Tips for Holding and Using Scissors

• Out thumb goes in the little hole and our other fingers go in the bigger hole.
• Our thumb stays up, we don’t want to flip our hands over when cutting.
• We try and keep our elbow down and by our side, while focusing on turning the paper, now our arm!

We are working hard on this skill and our goal is to have this skill mastered by mid-winter!!

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!

On March 9, 2018, we will host the annual Creative Tots Art Show.  This is a fun evening for children to show their families selected art pieces that they have worked on during the year.  The art projects involve fine motor skills and different art techniques.  The students have already started working on pieces for the art show but we don’t send them home.  We keep all these at school for the big reveal in March.  Here is a sneak peek at part of our first piece.

A phrase that is used frequently in preschool is Fine Motor.  This is an extremely important skill for 3 and 4 year olds to practice and practice and practice some more!  Fine Motor skills are those that work the small muscles in their hands.  They are used for things that we grownups take for granted each day, for example; using eating utensils, buttoning our shirt, sipping our coat, and writing our name.

We do lots of activities each week that help our students build these skills so that we can prepare them for independent activities such as the ones listed above!

This activity is a fun one as we work our small finger muscles to pick up tiny pom poms with small tongs and transfer them without using our other hand at all!  Our students loved it!

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.

We are using the dinosaur theme to incorporate fine motor skills, sorting, matching, position words, and more. We have read several dinosaur books including Dini the Dinosaur, we have learned dinosaurn fingerplays, and danced to Laurie Berkner’s We are the Dinosaurs. Toddlers are learning through play!