Our PreSchool Blog

Our toddler classroom is filled with opportunities to explore, problem solve, create, and learn through play.  Our curriculum theme of the month is winter.  We have used this as a guide to introduce and practice new vocabulary, incorporate our focus of shape (rectangle) and color (white) of the month, practice fine and large motor skills, and build on natural curiosity through using our senses to learn and grow.

Gross Motor Fun inside!  An indoor snowball fight and balancing on a rectangular beam.

Individual discovery tubs are filled with items to discover by touching, pouring, sorting, and scooping.

Polar bear shape sort and a rectangular polar bear craft have been a fun way to learn about arctic animals, shapes, and fine motor skills.

Free choice center opportunities provide toddlers with materials to explore and create igloos and “homes” for arctic animals.

Using our five senses to discover hot cocoa / cold whipped cream and enhance a Maurice Sendak classic Chicken Soup with Rice!

Lacing provides problem solving skills, patience, and practice.

The toddler class is making the most of our time indoors on these cold days.  We have enjoyed some extra center time, baked, painted, crafted, crawled through an arctic cave and bounced “snowballs” on the parachute!

Sensory play supports language and cognitive growth, fine motor skills, and problem solving skills.  It aids in enhancing memory functioning and  is great for calming.  The sensory tub and discovery bins are popular in our room.  This is truly hands-on learning!

We provide an environment that is safe and interactive.  Learning centers allow children to understand the social world, develop communication skills, and build relationships.  Our classroom is designed as an invitation to play and explore.

Our dramatic play center was converted into a veterinarian office.  The toddlers enjoy pretending to take care of the puppies.  They use new vocabulary, take turns, and get a little puppy snuggle.

Creating is important for the toddlers.  They improve their fine motor skills, experimenting with materials is the foundation for science, and it provides a sense of pride which boosts self confidence.  We often do crafts in small groups which allows for instruction and discussion of shapes, colors, letters, counting, and theme vocabulary.

Cooking with children provides practical experience with many skills such as following directions and measuring.  It helps toddlers develop fine motor skills, eye hand coordination and even early concepts of math and science.  We make chocolate chip muffins when talking about the letter M then oatmeal cookies when focusing on the letter O.  The toddlers also tasted chicken soup with rice after reading the book by Maurice Sendak.  Fun process – yummy product!

Large motor skills helps children gain strength and confidence in his/her body.  It also helps them to get exercise and physical activity, which is important for a healthy lifestyle.  The toddlers love to play outside but the parachute and tunnel are a special treat!

Our pretend veterinary office has provided fun interaction and vocabulary.  The children love to pretend to take care of and feed the animals.

We create centers for sorting, exploring and sharing.  The month of January has been packed full of fun center exploration.

Along with our winter themed activities, we are learning about “responsibility”. To help teach this, the students each have a classroom job they are responsible for weekly! They have really taken ownership of these responsibilities. We are promoting independence and autonomy in the classroom!

Cutting icicles (we brought a real one in from outside to observe and touch)!

With all of the snow and cold weather we received this week, we could not go outside for recess…this meant we had to bring some snow inside! We painted snow, and made “Mr. Potato Head” snow people!

We had to get some wiggles out with some parachute fun!

The afternoon Preschool class is having a blast getting involved in our holiday themed activities this month!

Acting out the 5 Little Snowmen poem!

Letter Formation on Santa’s Sleigh!

Snowman Number recognition!

Holiday Prewriting!

Magnetic Sensory Bins! 

Letter J is for Jingle bell craft (The J also happens to look like a candy cane, which we were able to recreate in the craft!).

Decorating the tree as we hunt for our numbers!

Roll, Cover, Write!

Open ended gumdrop creations!

We have stayed busy in the PM Preschool room this winter! From acting out winter literature, to learning about arctic animals… the kids are having a blast and of course, learning a lot!

Arctic animal bingo!

We focused in on the penguin for our science day! The kids learned that penguins have a layer of blubber to keep them warm. To help them understand this concept, we did an experiment to show the kids what blubber feels like for the penguins! We had two ice cold bowls of water. One bowl had a bag of coconut oil in it, to act as the blubber. They put one hand in each bowl and decided that the bowl with pretend blubber kept them warmer!

We then put a block between our legs so we could waddle like penguins!

We counted goldfish into the penguins belly’s!

5 Little Snowmen Readers Theatre!

Building shapes and open ended creations with toothpicks and marshmallows.

Letter building with “O” shaped cereal

Getting ready to count and build our towers

Getting our bodies involved on a cold winter day, with a gross motor shape hunt!

Melted snowman art!

Counting out “snowballs” with tongs for a fine motor addition!

Hand Strength and cutting practice

It may not feel like winter outside, but we are bringing winter into the classroom! The Preschool Prep class has been learning a lot and having a blast with these winter themed activities!

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What a busy week for the Preschool Prep class! One of the many lessons they were able to do this week was called “Mitten Math”. By engaging in this activity, the students were able to work on their counting skills as well as their one to one correspondence.

In another activity, students were able to work on their prewriting skills.  They did this by drawing letters and shapes into salt trays. They all had fun being creative and practicing what they have learned through this sensory experience!

Another activity that everyone really enjoyed was the winter letter hunt! The kids had to dig through white winter sensory materials to find a letter.  They had to then identify the name and sound of that letter.

Snow is falling and the temperature is dropping…What a perfect time to make hot chocolate! The Preschool Prep Students took turns stirring and adding ingredients into our mix. They were able to enjoy their hot chocolate at snack time!