Our PreSchool Blog

Color recognition is a skill that uses the cognitive function, which is what our brains use to think, reason, and remember. Through cognitive reasoning, children link visual clues, such as colors, to the word it corresponds to, which is recalled from the use of their cognitive function.

The toddlers have been learning all about the color green this month! We incorporated the color green into lots of activities this week, for them to have the continual to exposure to one color, in which they can link to the word, “green”. They went on a hunt for the color green, used green markers, crayons, chalk, and paint, to create different artwork, and used green circles and triangles to sort shapes! Our friends sure made green week fun!

Knowledge of positions is essential as children communicate in the classroom and in the real world. Young children are in a period of rapid language growth and knowledge of positional words such as above, below, inside, outside, right, and left enhances their ability to follow and give directions and to use language precisely. We practiced these language skills today using our fun tunnel! We climbed in, crawled through and came out! Simple, playful, fun activities can be wonderful learning opportunities!

They told us when they were in the tunnel and told us when they came out…Learning is so fun!

Open-ended center exploration time is an important part of early childhood education.  Children are allowed to make their own decisions.  It might seem pretty basic to us, as adults, but it’s incredibly important to young children.  It gives them more ownership over their learning experiences.

Open-ended play also allows children to express themselves in play freely and creatively, not bound by preset limitations. Playing with open-ended materials with multiple uses and limitless possibilities, such as molding clay, wet sand, paint, blocks and other loose parts, allow for imaginative play. There are no rules to follow, no expectations, no specific problems to solve, and no pressure to produce a finished product when engaging freely in open-ended play.

We had our first rainy day of the school year this week. You know what that means… indoor recess! Our friends had fun with parachute games and songs. We also had Ms. Joanie come in Tuesday for music. Combine that, with a lot of dancing during music and movement, it was a rainy day well-spent!

We learned all about apples in preschool!  We discovered the parts of an apple, how each different color tasted and conducted our own sink or float science experiment.  We even explored the seasons of the apple tree.  This is a great time to pick apples!

Cutting with scissors requires the skill of hand separation, which is the ability to use the thumb, index, and middle fingers separately from the pinkie and ring fingers. Providing children with frequent opportunities to develop their scissor skills allows them to practice using the tripod fingers (thumb, forefinger and middle finger). The tripod fingers are what work together in controlling a pencil. Developing the proper pencil grasp attributes to good handwriting. Strong scissor skills also leads to strong hand muscles and improved fine motor skills.