Our PreSchool Blog

We continued working on learning about the difference between 2D and 3D shapes during out math study this week.  The children have also been brushing up on their 2D shape recognition as well as working on recognizing the 3D shapes: sphere, cube, cone, pyramid, rectangular prism, triangular prism, and cylinder.  We’ve been singing a shape name game song during group time each day to help us remember all of these new shapes.  CLICK on the first picture below to link to the video we’ve been using.  It’s a FUN way to continue the practice at home.

We have been working hard to continue to build our fine motor muscles to help us on our way to becoming strong writers!  Simple wrist exercises for kids can improve your child’s fine motor skills and have a positive effect on handwriting. Wrist strengthening activities are easy to do at home with children from preschool through early elementary.

Click on the picture below for website with a variety of simple activities to do at home.  No special supplies needed!

The exercises and activities are to improve your child’s wrist extension and wrist stability.

Wrist extension means that the wrist is bent slightly upwards, which leads to better control of the finger muscles.

We put those little muscles to work in another small group this morning! We have been learning all about the animals in the Sonoran Desert. The preschoolers practiced using control and slow movements while painting hummingbirds. Art is so much fun AND get for that fine motor muscle development.

Now that we are in the second half of the school year we will be working with our names at least once a week. Recognizing and writing names is an important skill for moving on to Pre-K. Expose your preschooler to their name as much as possible. Have fun tracing the letters in their name in flour, sand, sugar, dirt, whatever you can find! Point out signs that have letters in their name. Talk about letters in the beginning, middle, and end. Sound out each letter of their name. Count the letters. Build their name in the bathtub with foam letter blocks. Write letters on masking tape on legos and build a name tower. The possibilities are endless! Have some fun with it!

On Monday the preschoolers practiced their scissor skills. We talked about the correct way to hold scissors (two fingers in the bottom hole, one in the top, thumb always facing up), we strengthened our fine motor muscles by snipping straws. Cutting materials other than paper is a  great way to develop those tiny muscles. Straws, pipe cleaners, brown bags, pasta, playdough, and other household items are great to use. This morning we used these straw bits to thread pipe cleaners. The tiny pieces are awesome for working on the pincer grip. These activities are perfect for handwriting basics. Have fun exploring ways to develop fine motor muscles at home!

We began talking about the difference between 2D and 3D shapes in math group today.  Seven 3D shapes were introduced along with reviewing six 2D shapes.  Then, we had the opportunity to sort them on our smartboard game.  Click the first picture below to follow the link to the game we played.  It’s a great game for the computer at home!

The preschoolers practiced tracing lowercase sandpaper letters this morning. We used the numbers and followed the arrows to practice correctly tracing the letter. This builds a strong foundation for handwriting processes and writing next year in pre-K.

While learning about the Sonoran Desert in Mexico this month we had fun exploring with sand in finger paint!

Rainbow.

Roller coaster.

Railroad Track.

Robot.

Rose.

Rain.

Rectangles.