Homework folders were sent home on Friday of last week. I hope that you have had a chance to read through the parent information and gotten started working on it right away! Lily’s mom was kind enough to send us a great photo of Lily on her first night of homework. Way to go Lily-Keep up the good work! These simple activities are very important to build the skills needed for school. Have fun!
Lily's First Night of Homework
Our Pre-K class had a special art class with Ms. Penny on Wednesday. She taught us that artists create all kinds of art, not just paintings. We learned about Edgar Degas, a famous artist, who was not only a painter but also a sculptor! His famous sculpture was Little Dancer. Then, we tried our hand at sculpting. Our sculptures will be displayed at the art show on November 13th.
sorting ourselves by hair length, shoes by color and frogs by pattern
We had a ball on Friday sorting on our giant math grid. We sorted our shoes by color and type of closure. We sorted frogs by the patterns on their backs and size. We also sorted geometric pattern blocks by color, shape and number of sides. And for the finale we sorted OURSELVES! We sorted ourselves by hair color, type of clothes we were wearing (pants vs. skirts), and hair length…Pre-K sorting activities are easy to incorporate into your child’s everyday play. You have so many opportunities to practice sorting with your child. Your child probably does some of it naturally- putting green blocks together, lining up matchbox cars, or putting farm animals in a play barn. Click the first picture for some other great sorting ideas to do at home.
When your child arrives don’t forget to have them find their name on our class name board by the sensory table and to answer the question of the day! Some of the answers we get are just a hoot! If you have a child in our PreK class, don’t forget to have them sign their name when they arrive in our Signature Book! We encourage you to have your child carry their own backpack, find their name on the cubbies, and hang it up along with their own coats etc. These are great experiences in independence, fine and gross motor development, name recognition and responsibility. They all doing a fantastic job with being responsible in the classroom, we are so proud of all of them!
Class Name board and question of the day
The first time I saw a light table was at a Reggio Emilia inspiried preschool in New York City. Every classroom had one and I began to wonder what they were all about. After researching the various ways these could benefit preschool age children in their learning process, we decided to get one for our own classroom.
Today as I walked by our light table I overheard a child saying, “Let’s count the squares! While the other child responded, “I’ll count the diamonds then we can count them together!” They were referring to various translucent geometric shapes that had been placed on the light table for the children to manipulate. We have been talking about classifying and sorting objects by different attributes (color, shape, size, number of sides, etc.) What I was witnessing was the children taking what they had learned in small groups and applying it to their other classroom experiences. Great work kids!
Our light table allows children to experience everyday objects in a whole new way. In the coming months we will be using the light table for a multitude of activities as well as free choice play with ever changing manipulatives. Here are some of the activities that may take place at our light table this year: building our names and sight words with special translucent letter tiles, exploring and creating colors with color paddles, using various stencils, using the light table to trace our letters and names, manipulating shapes to become more aware of spacial relationships through the use of translucent geometric pieces while discovering the basics of geometry, viewing x-rays of various types of animals and shells, and finger painting on parchment paper (just to name a few). These should be great experiences for your children and ones that they will not soon forget.
Ms. Lori taught the children how to create their own log cabins in the block center last week. Today the kids began making their own cabins in the “woods.” Wondering what your child is learning at the block center? The block center is ideal for large motor development and coordination skills as the children, lift, move, and stack the blocks. They are acquiring critical social skills as they work, share, and talk with other children while they create with blocks and block accessories. Children are also acquiring knowledge and skills which will provide an important foundation for later learning. The children solve problems and gain confidence while working with the blocks. Building with blocks helps children learn what numbers stand for, and it encourages children to practice scientific, trial-and-error thinking. Other learning opportunities in this center include critical-thinking and decision making skills, making comparisons (more/less, taller/shorter), recognizing shapes, classification of objects (by shape, size, color, etc), matching and sorting, experimenting with balance, seriation, equivalence and creativitiy. Never knew the children could learn so much from a collection of blocks!
What does your child learn in the block center?
Today we took a journey to our first country of the year, Canada! If you were with us last year, it may seem that we haven’t gone too far, but we thought we would stay close by and study something relatively similar to our own country. In our Pre-K class we talked about the different habitats that are found in Canada, including the Arctic habitat where we would found the Snowy Owl, the Mountains, and the Forests where we would find Bears, wolverines, bald eagles, etc. We also talked about the ocean as a habitat. We will focus on the Forest habitat during the month of October. In our Preschool class we talked only about the forest habitat and what animals we would find there. In both classes we located our own country on the map as well as Canada. This will be something that will be repeated throughout the year with each country we visit. The kid’s always love “traveling” and learning about new places and especially the animals that we find there!
Traveling to Canada
"These are words that tell what my pictures are about..."
"This is me walking the dog and my family is resting."
We have been graphing the weather over the past three weeks and the children have been drawing their own weather cards to help keep track of our crazy Cincinnati weather. Graphing activities for Pre-K (and Kindergarten) include collecting data and organizing it in a variety of ways. This is one way we will be practicing this skill throughout the year. We will be using these weather graphs to compare and contrast the differences in our weather throughout the different months of the year. We will also be using them when we talk about the terms, Greater, Fewer, and Equal. These graphs will be used to make predictions of future weather as well. When children are making guesses (predictions) about what might happen in different situations, they are learning about probability. The more experiences they have with concrete objects or situations the more accurate their guesses will be in the future.
Sunny Days
Cloudy Days
Iron’s Fruit Farm Field Trip
Don’t forget to get your permission forms and fees in by this Friday! We will be meeting at Iron’s Fruit Farm on Wednesday, October 7th at 12:45. Click the Link Below to check out Iron’s Fruit Farm Website.
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.
Click below to learn more about our program offerings: