Letter E

What an EXCELLENT & EXCITING week at Preschool!

Arts & Crafts:
We had fun making Elephant puppets & used our fingers as the "trunk"

We gave our elephants names and told stories using our puppets

Exercise:

Everyone got to be the Exercise Leader and we had to follow them. We talked about healthy habits and making sure we find time to exercise every day!

Mini "Field Trip":

We went to my next door neighbors backyard to check out their chicken coop.

Everyone got to look in the coop and find their very own Egg!

We talked about how they were different from the eggs we buy at the grocery store. The kids discovered that they were smaller, brownish colored and had speckles/spots!

Cooking:

We took our eggs back to the kitchen and hard boiled our eggs, so we could take them home without a mess! :)

It was fun to crack a raw egg and show them what was inside and then to break open a hard boiled egg to discover what was inside. Everyone got to sample the eggs and take home their very own to eat for lunch!

Birthday Fun:

We had TWO birthdays in our class this week!!! 

They brought in treats to share with their friends, so we enjoyed CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES & RICE CRISPY TREATS outside on a picnic blanket!

If your kids came home hyper on Thursday, now you know why;) BUT they LOVED it! We love to celebrate birthdays together!

Rhyme & Activity:

Walked along a string, placed on the ground and "balanced" as we sang...

One little elephant went out to play, 

on a tightrope string one day.

He had such enormous fun, 

He called for another elephant to come.

(Keep increasing in numbers...until the tightrope breaks and they all come tumbling down)

Music:
Eency Weency Spider

One Elephant

Letter D

Table Time:

Our gathering activities at table time today were SHAPE DESIGNS, PEG BOARDS & RUBBER BAND BOARDS

Outdoor Activity:

We dug for DINOSAUR BONES in the baby pool outside. They loved carefully digging, so they wouldn't break any bones:) and were very excited to take home their dinosaur skeletons!

Circle Time:
Calendar is an important part of circle time. We are learning the names of the months and days of the week. 

I read aloud Danny & the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff

Language and Literature:

We enjoyed personal reading time today on the rug. We looked for words that started with the letter D. Looking at pictures in books helps children familiarize themselves with the beginning, middle and end of a story. You can look at the pictures in a book and try to figure out the storyline. 

***Try asking your children what they think is happening in a story by just looking at the pictures and have them TELL YOU the bedtime story, instead of you reading it to them:)

Sensory Activity:

Breaking our dinosaur fossils out of blocks of ice! They LOVED this activity:) Everyone got a turn smashing the ice with a hammer and chiseling away at the ice with a screwdriver. They were so excited when they broke their dinosaur free!

Arts and Crafts:

We made DALMATION DOGS with the letter D! We colored spots on our dogs and glued their ears, nose and collars where they belonged.

Letter C

Show & Tell:

 All sorts of fun things that started with C! I am loving the creativity of you and your children & what you are coming up with to bring and share! We had a cookie, cars, cats, clay, a canteen, a Cinderella doll and more! Thank you for helping give us an opportunity to talk about the letter sounds.

Table Time: 

For our gathering activity this week we did puzzles and enjoyed figuring out where the pieces went. Puzzles are always a great way to learn!

Music Time:

We used our music die this week and everyone had a turn being the leader of the song they rolled!

We also enjoyed Clapping to the rhythm of our songs this week.

Language & Literature:

We read the VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR & talked about all of the things that caterpillar ate when he was hungry. 

Arts & Crafts:

We painted our very own HUNGRY CATERPILLARS, by dipping the ends of balloons into paint and then pressing them onto the paper to make circles! This is a fun way to make circles and then the kids got to paint their own feet, antennae and smiles & then glued on googly eyes:) They all turned out so cute!

Snack Time:

They earned a Picnic Snack this week, but it was TOO HOT to eat outside!  So, we watched Cat in the Hat, while eating our snack today! They were excited about earning this special treat:)

Game & Activity:

We played Musical Chairs and boy did they have fun! This is always a fun game to play.

Circle Time:

We talked about COLORS a lot this week! I would draw out a color card and anyone wearing that color, stood up! We also learned a fun new song about colors!

We talked about hair color and eye color and how we are all different, but all special! We graphed the results of eye color and hair color for our class on the board.

Letter B

Show & Tell:

Everyone got into show & tell this week and came up with SO MANY things that started with B! They were confident as they stood and shared with the class and gave us a great opportunity to introduce the sound of the week!

Arts & Crafts:

We made BUTTERFLIES

using coffee filters, clothespins, googly eyes, pipecleaners and markers! They were all so creative with their designs and made beautiful Butterflies!

Handwriting & Coloring:
We played Pictionary on the whiteboard with things that started with the letter B!

Bears & Balloons & Babies and more! We have quite a little group of artists:)

They also did a great job on their handwriting and coloring worksheets! We will be focusing on coloring inside the lines for the first while and as their finger muscles strengthen, their handwriting will follow! You should see improvement in their handwriting within a couple of months!

Game:

Balloon Bouncing!

We bounced the balloon around in circle time from one friend to the next & each person had to come up with a word that started with the letter B! We came up with quite a few!

Outdoor Activity:

BUBBLES!

Our outdoor Bubble Fun was interrupted by some nasty ants biting our ankles:( So we quickly moved our Bubble Fun indoors! We continued our fun and the ants should be taken care of before they come back to preschool again-SORRY!!

Assessments:

I was able to finish a pre assessment on every child, just to see where they are at with letters and number recognition, letter sounds, colors & shapes! Their tests are in their green binders, if you are interested in their results...but it was more for me to see where each child is at & where I can help push and challenge them this year! 

Our first focus for EVERY child, will be writing their NAME ! Please work on this at home as well and if they are interested in writing with a pencil, try a crayon or a marker or let them paint their name! Any practice will help:)

The Letter A

Circle Time:

We learned about the Pledge of Allegiance, which we will stand and say at the start of every preschool day! 

We talked about shapes, letters & numbers and started testing to see what level everyone is at. 

All About Me:

 We talked about all of our unique differences and what we like and do not like. Then we colored a "frame" for our 1st day of school picture and stood up and told 3 things about ourselves:)

Music:

Alphabet Song

The Ants Go Marching

Dice Game- Roll the dice to find out what song we will sing! 

 Physical Fitness:

Aerobic Exercises

Act Like Animals - "waddle like a duck", "gallop like a horse", "swim like a fish", walk like an elephant", run like a bear", "hop like a rabbit"

Art Project:

Apple Stamping! Hopefully they don't always want to paint with apples now;) We cut open an apple in circle time and talked about what we found inside & then we made our own Apple Stamp, by sticking a fork in the apple and painting with it! The kids enjoyed this and then glued on some leaves:)

Handwriting/Coloring:

We worked on our letter A worksheet & also did handwriting practice on the whiteboard in circle time. 

Show & Tell:

A Paper Airplane! Great creativity!

First Day of School!

I am SO excited for this year, we have a WONDERFUL group of kids and look forward to getting to know each of them individually! 

Just a reminder that we have Show and Tell at the start of Circle Time each day and your child is welcome to bring an item in their backpack IF it starts with the letter we are focusing on that week! This gives us a great opportunity to talk about different words and sounds that go along with the letters and allows the children to get excited about coming to preschool to show their friends what they have brought! This can be a great learning activity, but please remind your children that after show & tell is over, the item will need to stay put away in their backpack. This is completely optional, so please feel no pressure, but can be a fun activity to do with your child, as you help them look around your house for something that begins with a particular letter:)