Our PreSchool Blog

Join us Thursday and Friday of this week (January 7th & 8th) as well as Monday of next week (January 11th) for preschool open house.  It is an opportunity for those families with children in the Toddler and Early 3’s programs to visit the preschool throughout the school day.  Talk with the teachers and observe the classroom in action.  We want the families at Tots to have the first opportunity to continue their children through preschool with us.  The open house is designed to allow current Tots families to interact with the live preschool classroom.  Rather than an early year evening meet and greet, it is our opinion that observing and following the teachers as they are instructing is critical to gain a working knowledge of what your children have to gain from continuing through our preschool.  Our preschool is committed to providing the finest education in an environment that teaches confidence, builds connections and encourages growth.  This event has been a great success in the past and we hope you can join us!

A turkey is a funny bird

The children have been using bright and beautiful water colors to create turkey feathers.  This week we have been talking about the Thanksgiving holiday and they couldn’t wait to create their own turkeys! Here is a song we have been singing that you can try to sing at home!

(to the tune of “Pop Goes the Weasel”)

A Turkey is a funny bird

His head goes Wobble, Wobble

He only knows one word…

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!

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.

Thank you to everyone who came out on Friday for our first annual Harvest Festival!  We are so lucky to have such wonderful families here at Tots and we always look forward to the times we get to spend with everyone outside of the classroom.  There were some GREAT costumes!  Thanks everyone!

Feeding the Goats

AARG!

Apple Prints

Dinosaur Fun

Happy Halloween!

Feeding the Bunny

With a cherry on top....

Memories for a Lifetime!

We continued name practice today with our Pumpkin Seed Letters. The preschoolers Identified the first letter of their name and placed pumpkin seeds all around that letter. Our names provide so much exposure to those important letters of the alphabet and are such a great tool for teaching. We talk about the first letter of our name and how it is ALWAYS uppercase while the rest of the letters in our name are lowercase. These types of activities are not only great for letter recognition but they start our students down the road of becoming readers! Children are excited to be able to read their own names and feel very proud when doing so! What a great confidence builder, too!

The colorful clips and clothespins hanging around the preschool classroom might seem odd at first glance but the system and reasoning behind them has added a whole new sense of responsibility and indenpendence in the students. At each of our many Centers there is a Center Sign along with its matching, brightly colored clips. Each of these centers offers a wide variety of ever changing themed choices ranging from Dramatic Play and ABC Centers to Bookmaking and Block Centers. During our Free Choice time you can witness the students participating in any number of activities; whether they are playing a game individually or taking turns with a friend the centers are always a place for FUN as well as academic growth and development.

You may have heard a teacher asking the question, “Do you have a clip on your clothes?” once or twice. Placing a clip on our clothes is chosing to play at a center and while at that center it is the preschooler’s responsibility to play a game or work together on an activity with friends. When a child is finished visiting a center it is their job to make sure they have put their tools and toys away so that the next child to chose that center may come play. They put the clip back on the Center Sign and move onto their next center of choice.
The children have done a fantastic job picking up the new ways to enjoy and take care of our classroom. Great work, preschoolers!

A tremendous advantage to programs as specific as those that we strive to provide at Creative Tots is the ability to select a unique subgroup of students from our kids that seem to find themselves in the limbo of that birthday range which could go either direction.  Over the years the early 3’s program has grown out of our teachers concern for those students which by birthday criteria may find themselves on the precipice of transitioning to preschool, but not fulfilling the age requirement.

The Early 3's program sees tremendous success

This is not the only time parents will face such a decision, as these very children will soon be on the steps of their Kindergarten classes with the same birthday and the same situation.  It is our theory that many of these children should be advanced, or some encouraged to be further attended to if necessary as early as possible.  Intervention at this age makes the Kindergarten decision a much easier choice and allows kids to have a much more fulfilling time while finding themselves between toddler and preschool.  
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Once again, Congratulations to all the new graduates.  We were excited to see some of our long time students move ahead to Kindergaten this year.  The ceremony was particularly fun as the kids were able to help create a video montage of photos from the year to show their parents.  In addition to the photos, Mrs. Manda had the children decide during the year what they thought they might pursue as a career.  It will be fun to see how their minds may change as they progress through school.  Each child was given a box of business cards with their photo and what they decided they wanted to do in the future.  The children found it particularly fun to trade the cards with one another on graduation day.  The reports from the Kindergarten teachers around the city are as always, wonderful reflections of what the Tots students have proven to demonstrate in their respective schools as the move forward.  Well Done!