Our PreSchool Blog

Getting back into the swing of things means reviewing old routines and practicing procedures.  For our small groups, the boys and girls learned new games and activities that are available to them in our centers.  Teaching them how the activities and games work ensures that the children are playing the game/activity the correctly, ultimately gaining the educational purpose it is designed for.  A new month means new centers, which means new ways to learn!

Welcome back!!  It was great to see everyone’s smiling face back in action today!  To start the new year off, we introduce new center activities, along with a new January country: Greenland.  With a cold climate and lots of white to see,  the children have lots of opportunity to explore activities with letters, numbers and shapes that represent snow and ice.  In Ms. Leslie’s small group, we played “Flurries or Snowstorm?”  The children chose a number, then put the corresponding “snowflakes” onto our winter scene.  In Ms. Lori’s small group, she showed the children several ways to build a snowman: rolling balls using playdoh, stacking different sized circles, and tracing a snowman.  In Ms. Courtney’s small group, the children used “snow” to trace out the letters V, W and X.  We had a snowtastic day!

Our weather was the topic of our discussion during group time on Tuesday afternoon.  It was a rainy, rainy, rain day.  It seemed to last forever.  We read the book The Rainy Day by Anna Milbourne which told us about how clouds are formed and what happens inside the clouds to make the rain fall.

The children shared their favorite things to do on a rainy day…playing games was the top on the list!  We played all sorts of Rainy Day learning games in small groups including Dominos, Colorama, and Seasonal Science Sorting Game.  Sometimes rainy days can be the best days.

We fine tuned our sorting skills today by identifying and sorting our buttons by their various attributes.  The children decided to sort them by color, size, shape, number of holes, and number of sides.  Sorting is a great activity to do at home.  You can sort most anything!

Sorting items is usually done by their obvious attributes: shape, and color.  Today, Ms. Courtney challenged the children by suggesting different ways to sort squares, and then letting the class decide which way was best.  The children came up with the first way: to sort them by color.  After that was complete, suggestions were made, and they decided to sort by how many holes were in each square (very clever!).

Sorting is a skill that is used in many facets of our day.  The children may not realize it, but they sort items at home and at school all the time!  Today we used triangles, squares and diamonds to discuss different ways to sort.  We first discussed how the shapes were different colors and sizes.  Using cooperative learning, the boys and girls decided how they were going to sort the shapes.  Once they were done, they decided on another way to sort.  The children had a great time discovering new ways to compare and sort our shapes!

Prewriting skills are critical for students to become successful writers in the future.  Here at Tots, we include a writing center within the classroom for the students to build the skills needed for future success.  Some of the things that children will be learning while they visit the writing center are:  letter formation skills, a sense of left-to-right, associations between letters and sounds, communication skills, self-expression, creativity, fine motor skills.

Children LOVE art, and while it is a fun and a memorable activity, children are learning many skills to help them prepare for future learning.  Some of the things that they are learning while they are taking part in an art experience are  pre-writing skills, planning skills, color and shape recognition, concepts of symmetry, sensory awareness, creativity and self-expression, a sense of accomplishment.  But most of all…it is FUN!