The first step to reading readiness is being able to understanding that there is a relationship between letters and sounds through written language. Children who cannot hear and work with the phonemes of spoken words will have a difficult time learning how to relate these phonemes to letters when they see them in written words. Before reading groups begin, our K Prep students are working hard (and playing hard) to connect each letter with the sound it makes as well as identifying the first sound in a spoken word. How do we learn this important skill in K Prep? Playful learning!
We continued our letter Ss study while building our hand strength in small groups! Continuing to develop large and small muscle strength in the hands and forearms is extremely important during the preschool years. When the large and small muscles of the forearm and hand are slow to develop, weakness and incoordination may result. The large muscles of the forearm may overcompensate for weak inner hand muscles. As a result, the child will find ways to hold, pinch and grip small objects in awkward ways. By now your little ones should have transitioned from their fist grip on their writing utensils into a more developed grip. Find the age appropriate pencil grip development chart here. If you notice that your child shows signs of awkward grips, never hesitate to contact their teacher. Click on the picture below for easy activities to build fine motor strength and hand strength at home.
We worked our fine motor muscles during our phonics study last week. Our focus letter was the letter Ss! After singing out letter s song during group time, we came up with words that started with the letter s as we used clips to pinch the poms and build our letter s. There are many ways to build small motor muscles. They are critical to becoming a great writer. Keep working those fingers!
We practiced the confusing curves of the letter s today in small groups. First, we traced each S with our finger. Then, we wrote the letter S with our magic maker. Last, we used mini magic eraser to work our fine motor muscles and traced over the S’s to magically make the line disappear!
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We turned our eyes to the night sky on Friday and learned about constellations. Many of the students were already familiar with the big and little dipper…we were impressed! We used our newly learned knowledge of constellations to create our own in the shape of our focus letter: Oo. Using our small motor muscles in our hands, we punched holes in black paper with a toothpick, then held it up to the light to reveal our constellations! Be sure to check out the night sky this week to see if you can spot the big dipper! Send us some pics of your little one star gazing…we’d love to add it to our blog post!
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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