Our PreSchool Blog

To kick off our science study on the Pond Habitat, we started learning about the duck this week!  We also built it into our alphabet study as we learned about the letter D.

For our science study, we learned that ducks have a special oil gland in their skin that keeps their feathers dry!  We got to explore this by putting a little oil on our ducks and spraying them with water.  We saw the water bead up as the oil prevented the duck being soaked by water.

We practiced counting by counting 5 ducks and sang the 5 Little Ducks song!

We explored some sensory play in our pond buckets which was a definite class favorite!

And to work our fine motor skills we had a duck race!

Learning about the letters of the alphabet is so much fun when you use a story to go along with it.  The book, “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom”, is a toddler classroom favorite, and our toddlers had so much fun learning about all of the letters, and wondering if there will be enough room for all of them at the top of the coconut tree!

They all got to take a turn picking a letter from the mystery can, saying which letter it is, and putting it on the coconut tree!

Next we did a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom art project, where we used fine motor skills to peel alphabet stickers off, and then place them on their own coconut tree! We are working on the thumb and finger pincer grasp this month, and stickers are an excellent tool to practice this grasp, as well as improve hand strength.

“Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” was such a fun unit, and we are so excited to get into our October themes for the month!

This week was all about reviewing the first 3 letters we have learned!  We got to review in some really fun ways!

As our “All About Me” unit has come to an end, here is a look at a couple of activities that we did to teach them about their own uniqueness, and to talk about how each of our friends are different and special in their own ways.

One day they painted their names, using watercolor paints. The trick was that they had to find their name at the table! Some of them recognized it, and some needed guidance. Name recognition is a skill we will gradually work on throughout the year.

Another activity, which was sent home, was when each of our toddler friends took turns being measured by Ms. Kristen, using a ribbon! Each ribbon represented the height of the child at this time in their lives. We hope they will look back one day and realize how much they have grown!

What a fun week in preschool prep! The students were able to explore their sense of touch this week.  We talked about different textures and incorporated sensory experiences into our small groups!

Fine motor, letter & number recognition and more!

We were all about apples this week in preschool prep! We did an apple experiment, apple art and even made our own applesauce!

We celebrated our first Book Party in Preschool!  This was such a fun day and our students had such a blast with this!  All day, our activities were revolved around the book.  We read the story, discussed the days of the week, practiced tracing lines by helping the caterpillar get to his food, and colored a picture.  We made a very hungry caterpillar by sponge painting and we retold the story by feeding the caterpillar all of his foods while counting them as we fed him!  And our favorite activity was during snack time.  We used “caterpillars” and put holes in our food just like the caterpillar did to eat them!

Week two of our sight word study is in full swing.  We are exploring the word…IS!  Some of our students are focusing on the letters i and s in the word along with the sounds they make, while others are using their new sight word while reading simple text, building simple sentences and using it in their writings.

We’re having fun chanting, cheering, dancing and singing our way to a strong sight word base that will grow strong early readers!

In the toddler classroom each month, our toddlers have learning objectives, which you can find in our newsletter that was sent out earlier this month. Every month, they will learn about one letter a week and during the fourth week of the month, we will review the letters we’ve learned. We talk about what each letter looks like, and the sound that the letter makes.

Because children learn while doing, if they want to, during our art time they can make an alphabet  page. So far we have made “‘A’ is for ‘Ant'”, “‘B’ is for ‘Button'”, and “‘C is for ‘Cat'”.

We read the story Perfect Square, a story about a square that got ripped and torn and turned into something new and beautiful.  And then… we made our own creation with our own perfect squares!

It started out as a perfect square until I tore it and then it became an…

ELEPHANT!

and a FENCE!