Our PreSchool Blog

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  • Colorful Pasta!

    pastasorting

    sensory table colored pasta

    This week our sensory table is full of colorful noodles! The kids have been digging their hands in this colorful pasta and scooping and dumping it!  They have been using spoons to scoop the noodles into the bowls and pretend they are making soup!  Since all of the noodles are different colors this has been a great way to practice our color recognition as well!

  • Fine Motor Skills

    "Nn" is for necklace

    N is for necklace

    This afternoon at group time we learned the letter “N”.  For our art project today we made necklaces for the letter “N”.  Here you can see Rutva, Caroline and Connor working so hard at stringing the beads onto their necklaces.  They did a wonderful job working with those fine motor skills to make beautiful necklaces!

  • Perfect Patterns

    children created and extended their own patterns

    children created and extended their own patterns

    Our focus in math during the month of November is patterning.  The children were introduced to patterning last year during their preschool classes and this year the children are creating their own patterns and extending them independently.  The children used different types of manipulatives today to create various patterns.  Some children were still most comfortable doing a simple AB pattern based on color while some children created more complicated patterns based on size or type of animal (using the pet manipulatives set).  Using everyday objects in the kitchen are a great way to reinforce patterning at home.

  • Counting Pegs

    counting pegs

    counting pegs

    The children have been practicing their counting with these wonderful counting peg boards.  This activity is great for practicing number recognition and one to one correspondence.  We also talked about the color of each peg.  The kids were using their fine motor skills all morning long as they practiced their counting!

  • Counting Cookies

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    how many cookies in the cookie jar?

    Today at our manipulative table, we set out cookie jars with the numbers 1-5 on them.  The kids had fun putting the corresponding number of cookies in each jar.  Here is Eve putting five cookies into her cookie jar and counting each one as she put them in!  The cookies also had a certain number of chocolate chips on them which was good practice for counting.

  • Blow out the Candles!

    Today the kids have loved playing with the birthday cakes and candles!  Putting the candles into the cake is a wonderful way for the children to practice their fine motor skills.  Each cake has a different number on the front of it which is great for counting how many candles go on each cake.  We had a lot of birthday candles blown out today! cake and candles 027 cake and candles 026

    cake and candles 005

  • What is Your Favorite Farm Animal?

    Letter B 038

    name recognition using our farm theme this week

    This afternoon during group time we created a graph about farm animals.  After reading a story about the farm and talking about the different sounds farm animals make, it was time to talk about our favorite animals!  Each child had a turn to come up to the board and put their name under their favorite animal.  What a joy it was for them to put their special person up on the board!  After the graph was finished, we counted how many children liked each animal.  Using their name recognition people is a wonderful way for them to start recognizing their names as well!

  • Spooky Spiders in the Sensory Table

    This week we have some creepy, crawly, colorful spiders in our sensory table. There are over 100 spiders hiding in the table and the children love searching for the small creatures. Once they’ve found a colorful spider they place it in the corresponding color bucket with the tongs. This spooky spider activity is great for a our fine motor skills! IMG_2105 IMG_2109
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  • Sensory Table Fun!

    treasure hunting at the sensory table

    treasure hunting at the sensory table

    This week we have added rice and colorful jewels to our sensory table!  The kids have loved feeling the texture of the rice and sorting through it to find the shiny and colorful jewels!  We had quite a crowd at the sensory table today scooping and dumping the rice over and over again!  The rice was used for many different things today.  Some kids were “building houses” while others were “cooking different foods.”  The jewels were also a big hit for finding “treasure” and talking about the different colors.

  • Creative Tots Chefs!

    Cooking with children is a wonderful way to teach them the benefits of measuring, numbers and working as a group.

    Cooking with children is a wonderful way to teach them the benefits of measuring, numbers and working as a group.

    Today we worked together to make apple crisp!  We sat around the table and talked about how we use measuring cups to help us make different kinds of foods.  For our apple crisp recipe we measured flour, sugar, and baking powder and stirred it all together.  We sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on top of our crisp apples and put it in the oven to bake!  The kids loved the smell of our wonderful creation as we all sat and ate it for snack!