Enrichment Activity-

I wanted to do a field trip this month but was unable to get it pulled together with enough time to give you notice. We will for sure do a field trip next month for Halloween and I will let you know way in advance.  Anyway, I wanted to let you know of a place I think would be really great for your child to experience right now as we study transportation.  It is the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park.  It is a wonderful place for children.  There is a mini train for them to ride, a beautiful carousel, lovely playgrounds, and an amazing electric train museum/display.  If you can by any chance take your little one there I think it would be wonderful.  You can learn more about it here:  McCormick Train Park.

9/15 - Transportation Unit

Today was another wonderful day at Preschool.  Our letter of the week is C, our color is Yellow, and our shape is an Oval.  To follow along with our transportation unit, we talked about Cars today.  C is for Cars!

 Today is circle time we read books about cars.  We discussed the differences that cars can have (teaching differentiation) and then sorted cars into different categories.

 After circle time we went upstairs for centers.

 After centers we went to snack time.  Thank-you Kaisley!

 After snack we had a quick play outside to get our wiggles out and then went back upstairs for an art project.  The children got to decorate their very own car.  They loved it!  I must admit most of their fingers got covered in marker but I figured you wouldn't mind.  ;)

 Then we had an epic car show on the rug.  Each child got to come up to show off and talk about their car design.

 We did a few more fun things like a do-a-dot letter C, and a coloring page but I didn't get pictures of that.  Then we went outside to meet our mommies.  It was an awesome day!  Thanks for sharing your littles with me each week.

9/10/2015 - Transportation Unit

Today was a wonderful day at preschool.  I am really coming to love my job and look forward to seeing your little ones each time they come.  Today I threw in some new things and it will take some adjusting but the kids are really grasping it well.

 After circle time we did a word strip of our names.  I will be doing this with the children at the beginning of each unit.  We did one with seashells for our ocean theme.  Today we used cars to match and spell our names.  They did great!

 Please keep practicing writing their names each day and learning to recognize the letter sequence.
I'm sorry I didn't get those name strips sent home.  I will make sure they go home on Tuesday.  

 I am really happy about how the individual learning sessions are going.  I pull out two or three children at a time and work with them on certain skills while the others are playing with centers.  I think the kids really enjoy it and it's giving me the opportunity to teach things that are too involved for the entire group.

 We worked on ABABAB patterns again today.  They were much faster and I could see the little light going on.  What fun! We also worked on sorting.  They would look at vehicle pictures and sort them into ones that have wheels and ones that do not.

Behavior Chart!

Now that the children have really grasped the schedule and they are comfortable with the classroom and each other, I felt like it was time to implement a behavior chart.  The children begin each day on the color green.  If they behave well, clean up their stations, and are kind to the other classmates, they get moved up to Blue.  If we have any misbehavior such as hitting, whining, or rudeness - then they move their picture down to yellow or even red.  If they reach red then I will send a note home to you.  My goal is for this never to happen because I feel that if the children are properly motivated and busy, then it should never get that far but it's there just in case.  If they reach blue by the end of class, then they get to pick something from the treasure box.  

 Centers are great way for the children to relax and learn through play.

 Snack time  :)

 After snack time we went upstairs for a craft.  We made stoplights - and yes, this idea does correspond with the idea of the behavior chart.  Red means stop the behavior, yellow means slow down and think about what you are doing, and green means it's good - go ahead.   ;)

 I was so impressed with their work.  Great job!

9/8/2015 - Welcome to transportation!!!!

T is for Transportation!!!!!

I am so excited for our new theme!  This month we will be focusing our attention on vehicles.

Our letter of the week is "T," our color is "Red," and our shape is a "Rectangle."  Today in circle time we categorized vehicles into ones that are appropriate for land, sea, and air.  Then we graphed which category had more vehicles.  We sang songs.  Read the book, The Little Blue Truck, and to top it all off learned about traffic lights.  We sang a song about traffic lights and identified what the colors mean.  You are welcome to sing this little song with your children to help them remember.

(To the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, little Star)

Twinkle, twinkle, traffic light
On the corner, shining bright
Red means stop
Green means go
Yellow means slow, slow
Twinkle, twinkle, traffic light
On the corner, shining bright

After circle time we had some fun making this craft - edible traffic lights!

 The children spread the frosting on the rectangle (graham cracker) with their fingers.

Then the used red, green, and yellow M&M's to make the traffic lights.

 Great fun and they were delicious too!

 After our craft/treat, we headed upstairs to the classroom for centers.  We have all new centers out now and I am so excited and happy to announce that the long awaited light board is working.  The children loved it!  With everything being new, we did have to re-learn some of our rules but all in all, it was a success.

 The light board is a wonderful resource.  It is great fine motor practice and visual stimulation.  We also had the opportunity to practice turn taking with this new addition to the classroom.  ;)

 Along with our transportation theme came some exciting changes to our room including this huge street rug.

 The new centers are all transportation based.  These are about counting cars.

 Now that we are a month in and the children really have the routine down, I am moving my focus away from teaching them how to properly utilize the room to individualized instruction.  During center time I am pulling a few children at a time over to another table to practice and teach certain skills one on one.  I am really excited to be able to do this now.  It is very important to me that each child get my undivided attention for at least a few minutes each time they are here.

 Today I focused my instruction time on sequencing.  These are simple ABABAB patterns.  The children "read" the pattern and tried to anticipate what would come next.  The homework I will send home on Wednesday will focus on practicing this skill.

 I also put up a fun new giant poster.  It identifies what animals can be found around the world.  It is a fun brain break for the kids to go find an animal of their choice.

 Again, the children are free to roam the room during center time to learn and explore whatever interests them most.  There is the library, dress-ups, toys, literacy, math, sensory, and practical living activities.

 After centers we met at the long table for a sensory experience.  It is just shaving cream that I encouraged the children to explore.  We used our fingers to make shapes.  This activity is fun for some, and not for others.  I never insist that a child do anything that makes them uncomfortable, but ask them to just stay with us so that no one feels excluded.

 It was good messy fun!

 Last but certainly not least we did an art/literacy project.  We did a do-a-dot page of the letter "T."  T is for Truck.

As always I am so impressed by your children and I can already see the progress that they are making.  Today flew by.  We had so many fun things planned.  It's going to be a great month!