Syllables! Homework for the weekend.

In circle the children learned the concept of Syllables.  We clapped the syllables of their names.   Then we played a game where we picked cards with pictures of sea animals on them and clapped the name.  There were three bags, one with one syllable, one with 2, and one with 3.  The children placed the pictures in the bag according to how many syllables it had.  We are going to be working on this for the next few weeks.  If you could please work with your children on recognizing syllables over the weekend that would be great!  Have them clap out different words and identify how many syllables there are in the word.  It's a tricky concept but an important step in pre-reading.  Thanks! We watched a short video that can be found HERE.  You can use it to help reinforce the concept.
Also, please continue to have your child trace and dry erase their name every day.

8/27/2015 - Beach and Ocean Them

We ended another great week of preschool.  Sure wish the weather would cool off but we are doing fine.  The kids don't seem to mind at all.  :)  It's their old teacher who is uncomfortable.  In spite of the heat we are having a blast and the kids are really starting to get the schedule.  We have had a couple of moments of frustration when someone didn't want to put their center away or tried to take someone else's center but all in all, it's going great!

 We added a new sensory box today.  They loved it!  It is filled with clear water beads and glass beads.  The texture is really interesting and the kids loved digging their fingers down into the beads.  It's funny, you can't even see them in the picture but the box is filled with water beads.

 Branson was pretty happy with the sensory boxes today.  lol!

 Our centers include many items to challenge their little hands.  We string beads.

 We stack unifix cubes.

 This is our dramatic play area.  It is wonderful for the children to use their imagination to play out stories.  I have been made many delicious meals today.

 They explored real sea stars up close.

 More dramatic play.

 Snack time is a big favorite!  Thank-you so much for bringing them for us to share!

 We made several crafts today.  Here we decorated stars to give to our Moms.

 We also colored and made sand S's.  They painted the S with glue and then sprinkled the sand over it.

Thanks so much for sharing your little ones with me!  See you next week.  

8/25/2015 - Beach theme

We had a great time at preschool today.  Our letter of the week is an S, our shape is a Star, and our color is Blue.  During circle time we read a story about pirates going to school, we sang and danced, played a penguin game, and then explored sea stars.  

 The children are continuing to love centers.  We are learning not to take a center from another person without their permission.

 We had a fun art project today.  We painted sea horses.  The kids love to paint!

 These are drying and will go in their binders that come home on Thursdays.

Just a reminder - I only send the binders home on Thursdays for you to review their work and do homework with them over the weekend.  Please make sure that your child brings back their binder on Tuesdays.  Thanks!

Homework....yup, even for these little ones. :)

I know the word homework does not conjure up happy feelings but it's so important that they practice a few things at home.  There just isn't enough time for practice during class so each Thursday I will be sending home a little something for them to do each day until I see them again on Tuesday.  If you look in their binders you will find a name tracing activity and on the back there is a prewriting practice sheet.

For the name practice sheet they need to do three things: 
1- Point to each letter of their name and repeat after you the name of the letter.
2- Trace the letters with their finger.
3- Trace over the letters with a dry-erase marker.  (Then erase)

For the Prewriting Practice page they need to do two things:
1-Trace with their finger from the green star to the red dot, following the dotted line.
2- Trace over the dotted line with a dry-erase marker from green star to red dot. (Then erase)






*Also I have a video for you to watch if you have a few minutes on teaching your child to hold a pencil correctly.  You will find it HERE .

8/20/2015 Ocean-Beach Unit

 We had a wonderful day at preschool!  The kids are really grasping the routine.  Again, no tears just joy today.  I am going to implement more water based activities this month so make sure your little ones are aware that they might get a little bit wet.  Please don't send them in clothing that can't get a little wet/messy.

 These are our resident teeter-totter girls, they love it!

 We pulled out some utensils and bowls and played with water.  This is wonderful in so many ways. They were making all sorts of delicious treats for me.

 It is very important that at the beginning of our year, each child learns to at least identify their own name.  A lot of our activities this month and next will be based around this idea.  Ideally, each child will be willing to try writing their name by the end of September.

 This was a fun activity using our color of the week - orange.  The children matched the letter on the seashell to the letter of their name and glued it down.  It's okay if they didn't get every letter right, they did a great job.  :)

 This not only teaches letter recognition to their name but also matching.  This was a three step process that they accomplished all by themselves - getting out the shells, making matches, and gluing them down.

 I'm so proud of them.  Some of them have long names so this was quite a task!

 Sweet kiddos!

 After our activity, we headed upstairs for centers.

 They are starting to explore the books in the library which makes me so happy.  I am not prompting them which center to take.  I am letter their own natural curiosity guide them.  It's really interesting to see which child naturally gravitates to which activity.  I am certainly seeing some preferences.

After centers we made a craft of children at the beach.  We played a picnic game and headed home.  Fun day!

August 18th - Beginning our Beach/Ocean Unit

 We had a wonderful day at preschool today.  No tears, all fun.  :)  I was so pleased to see the children starting to anticipate the schedule.  I only managed to get pictures of our center time but I think it's plain to see the children were enjoying the new activities.

 Our sensory buckets included a water station filled with plastic creatures you would find in the ocean.

 We also had a sensory bucket to dig for shells, another to scrub shells and discover how they change color when exposed to water.

 This center is part of practical living and works primarily with fine motor skills - she is scooping "ice cream" into dishes.  This is an easy center you could create at home.

 The sensory buckets are absolutely the most popular stations in the classroom.

 This center is again, practical living and fine motor - the children try to hang the doll clothes on the line with clothes pins.  It's more challenging for their little fingers that one would suspect but great practice.

 We were much better at using the centers properly and then putting them away when we were done. I am so proud of them.  I tried to recognize each student publicly when they put their center away.

 Matching is very important at the age, we will begin working on patterning and this is the first step.

 Again, patterning work - she builds "sandwiches" according to the picture chart.  The other center is beach themed boxes with different manipulatives inside.

 I love this one - children place pegs in the board according to color.  It's simple but teaches a variety of skills - color recognition, fine motor skill, and patterning.

 This is one of our math centers - these are counters, I have different counters for each unit.  This one is purely for exploration but soon I will add cards with patterns that they need to re-create with the counters.

All in all, it was a lovely day.  Our letter of the day was "F", the color was Orange, and the shape was a Circle.  If you could review these with your children it would be wonderful.  Also, I will be sending home some homework on Thursday - they will need to practice matching the letters of their name.  Thanks so much!  We had a fabulous day!