Our PreSchool Blog

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.

We practiced our Five Little Pumpkins finger play throughout the month.  The toddlers reinforced this through group time action and crafts.  We also used fine motor skills to take washi tape on and off little pumpkins, salt trays, dot paints, and coloring.  Pumpkin shape matching too!

Focused on the letter G, the toddlers got to experience putting a penny into the gum ball machine.  We all guessed what color would come out!  We then created our own gum ball machine craft using colored circle stickers as gum balls.

F is for Fall and H is for Haunted House!  Lots of fine motor skills used to create letter crafts this month!

Whoo Whoo knows about owls and triangles?  Oliver the owl puppet came out to say Whoo Whoo!  Five Little Owls, a triangle owl craft, building triangles, matching triangles, sorting by color, games, and more helped the toddlers learn about owls and triangles!

Each month the toddlers focus on one shape.  We immerse ourselves in the shape using all of our senses to reinforce learning.  In September we used our circle shape to create crafts, play large motor games, practiced our fine motor skills, and sang circle songs!

We combined our theme and shape to create a circle “I am special” mirror.

A little sneak peak of our culminating art projects for the end of the year.

The toddlers do one project a month – we will send them home in May!

We also combined our favorite foods theme with a circle craft after reading

the favorite story If You Give a Pig Pancake by Laura Numeroff.

The Distance Learning Packet this week included lots of fun surprises and activities!

Watercolor paints and stickers were provided to create special Easter cards.

Washi Tape and circle stickers provided some good fine motor practice while decorating oval eggs.

Matching bunny tails was a big hit too!

The jelly bean match up was a quick practice in color matching with a fun treat at the end.  Counting bunny crackers too!

The mystery can was full of veggies and the match up sheet was fun practice naming different vegetables and fruits, sorting by color and type!

A baggie of eggs that were filled with different movement activities provided some fun outside or inside!

Our Zoom toddler music class was so much fun with Ms. Joanie!

We have had so much fun with fall and farm activities in the toddler room this month.  Lots of sensory experiences have been planned to help explore and learn. An apple peeler provided us with fine motor practice, yummy snack, and cute photo opportunity. Watercolor, glue, and other art mediums were provided to create fall foxes, scarecrows, and leaves.  Old McDonald has been a favorite classic to sing and play with instruments.  We discussed things that we were thankful for and talked about foods that families eat on Thanksgiving Day.   We are so thankful for our toddlers and their families!

The fun month of October has been filled with lots of orange, pumpkins, and Halloween celebrations.

The toddlers enjoyed several sensory experiences.

We also practiced several fine motor activities.

Five Little Pumpkins has been a favorite song this month.  We sang it several times using different props and media.

We finished October out with fun Halloween games, activities, and snacks.

“My Mistletoes” Art Project!

Fine motor and letter formation with our “pokey pin” activity

Christmas Cutting Center!

L is for Lights