There are many benefits of writing on a vertical surface in early childhood: shoulder/elbow stability, bilateral coordination, midline crossing, wrist extension/pencil grasp, visual attention, hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, core strength, and posture. Grab a dry erase marker and use all the windows, doors, and mirrors in your home for some vertical writing fun.
We enjoyed the process of using icy arctic colors to slip and slide across the shiny foil. Process Art is an art that is child-directed, choice-driven, and celebrates the experience of discovery. In process art, the final product is always unique and the focus lies in the creation of the work, not the outcome.
We have had a great January so far. Below are some of the activities we have been doing in our class this month!
We love making art that can tie into our letter of the week, building on our motor skills, and/or practicing using our different art materials such as a glue stick, holding a paint brush properly, or practicing safe scissor skills. Sometimes we do free art, and sometimes we do art in which our preschool prep learners are following step by step directions.
We also like to use items in our art to make for a different sensory experience. We painted with legos to reinforce our shape of the month, rectangle, to make an igloo. We also used white paint to reinforce our color, too! We used oranges to paint with the color orange, because orange begins with the letter “O”.
N is for Noodles + Numbers! We had a fun sensory bin using colored noodles and talked about the different characteristics of the noodles. Were they warm or cold? What colors were they? Did they feel slimy, sticky, dry? We also went on a number scavenger hunt in our classroom!
We worked on art projects that reflected our theme of winter + hit on our objectives. We talked about how the snowman has a top, middle, and bottom. We built a snowman on our felt board as a whole group and then we reinforced that concept by letting them make their own snowman craft with a top, middle, and bottom!
Small group activities help our students to learn our different focuses for the month, as well as taking turns and following directions.
We did a sensory study with hot and cold. We sorted hot and cold items on our magnet board. We then had hot chocolate with cold whipped cream (and marshmallows of course 🙂 ) We then made our own hot chocolate craft
Our toddler classroom is filled with opportunities to explore, problem solve, create, and learn through play. Our curriculum theme of the month is winter. We have used this as a guide to introduce and practice new vocabulary, incorporate our focus of shape (rectangle) and color (white) of the month, practice fine and large motor skills, and build on natural curiosity through using our senses to learn and grow.
Gross Motor Fun inside! An indoor snowball fight and balancing on a rectangular beam.
Individual discovery tubs are filled with items to discover by touching, pouring, sorting, and scooping.
Polar bear shape sort and a rectangular polar bear craft have been a fun way to learn about arctic animals, shapes, and fine motor skills.
Free choice center opportunities provide toddlers with materials to explore and create igloos and “homes” for arctic animals.
Using our five senses to discover hot cocoa / cold whipped cream and enhance a Maurice Sendak classic Chicken Soup with Rice!
Lacing provides problem solving skills, patience, and practice.
In Preschool we are excited to be back in the classroom and continuing learning about the letters of the alphabet. We had so much fun with both “Monster Painting” and “Marble Painting!!”
We read the story 10 Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss and listened to the song version by Jason Mraz. The toddlers had so much fun balancing apples, counting apples, picking apples, sorting apples, bobbing for apples, creating apple crafts, and peeling apples.
Pretend apple pie!
The toddlers utilized the farm theme to reinforce shape, color, counting, fine motor, and vocabulary skills. We sang Old McDonald and read The Big Red Barn. Our learning environment this month includes farm puzzles, toys, animals, and even a farmer’s market for pretend play.
A square scarecrow was our weekly craft.
We practiced using glue sticks for this craft!
Tractor painting while discussing different colors created a fun sensory experience!
Pigs covered in mud was another fun sensory experience. We watched a video of real pigs rolling in the mud.
Pin the tail on the piggy!
Milk the cow!
Roll the die to see how many wool rolls to put on the sheep.
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.
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