Bring your Parents to Preschool Day!

We've been continuing on our monthly theme of "the alphabet" and making more fun letters each day during art. The students are really doing amazing things. Eden can read so many words, Sam can hear a word and tell me what letter is starts with, and Ayaa is making swift progress everywhere from cutting to reciting sounds.

Ostrich O

Penguin P

Quail Q, Rabbit R

Snail S, Tractor T

We also had our first ever Bring your Parent to Preschool Day. It was a lot of fun! Our parents had to chance to see what we do during our morning preschool routine. We also frosted some yummy cookies, decorated foam frames, and gave a special performance to show off all of the songs we have learned in preschool!

Putting together puzzles

The Bri's Bees performance

Making our frames

Alphabet Fun

Because this month's theme is the alphabet we have been having a lot of fun with our letters! We focus on 2 or 3 new letters a day. After our morning routine, during the lesson I show them how to write the new letters on our large whiteboard and we practice the sounds over and over. Then students practice writing those letters on their own mini whiteboards.

Next we choose an activity to do with those letters. One of their favorite letter activities is drawing a picture out of a mason jar (with their eyes closed of course) showing the picture to the group, and telling us what letter that picture starts with.

During our creativity time we make an animal with the letters we learned that day. They have turned out SO CUTE so far! Take a look:

Alligator A, Bee B, Crab C

Dinosaur D, Elephant E, Fox F

Goat G, House H

Iguana I, Jaguar J

Kangaroo K, Lion L

We did this one today. I loved it! Mouse M

And Nest N. Didn't this one turn out great? Eden did a great job!

So they aren't ALL animals but close (it's easier to make a house with the letter H than a hippo for sure). The students all work hard and we have a good time together. They are pretty funny.

I love watching Ayaa cut things out. It takes up 120% of her focus. Cutting things out is serious stuff.

We drank green milk with our toast the Friday before St. Patricks Day. Mm

Busy bees!

Preschool Party and a Happy Birthday!

Our three lessons this week were:

Monday: Phone numbers- practiced memorizing and writing our phone numbers

Wednesday: Patterns- identified patterns in sequences of shapes and letters

......

And Friday: We had our first ever Preschool Party! Each day at preschool the students work to earn pom poms to put in our large jar. They earn them by sharing, working hard, following directions, and answering questions correctly during the lesson. Once they fill the jar we get to have a Preschool Party!

After going through our morning routine (calendar, weather, alphabet letter names and sounds, numbers, and shapes) we started our party off by singing Happy Birthday to Ayaa and having cupcakes and ice cream.

Next we started our activites:

First we played "Hot or Cold." I hid the first clue to our next activity in a small box and explained that if you were close to finding it we would tell you that you were "hot." If you moved far away from it you would get colder, etc. (You know how to play..)

Next we had a treasure hunt! After finding the box the students used the clue to find the rest of the hidden clues. Which of course led them to the treasure! (They loved this one!)

After the hunt we put our treasure in our back packs and went fishing for letters! I used a bobby pin for the worm, cut out card stock fish, wrote a letter on each of them, and stuck a small adhesive magnet to each. They really like this game too. Once they caught a fish they had to tell me the letter, the sound it made, and a word that started with that letter (if they could think of one!).

Then we played a bean bag toss. I made bean bags the day before by first, putting about of cup of pinto beans in a ziploc bag. I cut up one of my daughter's old receiving blankets (we have tons) and sewed two squares inside out, put the beans in the middle, then sewed the rest together. They turned out great. Then I just cut some shapes out of a piece of poster board and taped it to two chairs. The kids loved keeping track of their "points" on this one.

Lastly, our little Sam requested that we play a few minutes of Wii Sports at our first Preschool Party. He was pretty excited about it too!

Fun-filled February

Here's a look at a few things we've been up to at preschool:

We decorated sugar cookies to give to our parents, along with our home made valentines.

(This is my favorite smile for Ayaa, ever)

We made caterpillars, as seen on Pinterest.

We used cooked spaghetti noodles to make letters and shapes.

We worked lots on our names. The fine motor skills are coming along!

We finger painted! So much fun. I had several rules for finger painting: 1. You must wear a smock, 2. You must not scribble with your paint, 3. You must keep paint off the floor, etc. They were so excited to finger paint they would have done anything I asked!

We cut out and pasted shapes. This was a breakthrough day. Each student was able to cut their shapes out without teacher help! Great job class!

We learned about being safe and how we can help our families make safe choices, like always wear a helmet when riding a bike, and don't talk to strangers.

We make clocks out of paper plates. We learned how to tell time when the big hand is on the 12.

I love these three students! They have made great progress in the month we have been together.

Our Preschool Schedule

Now that we have finished two whole weeks of preschool we are getting better at our routine. Here is a look at what we do every day at school.

When the students first arrive they get to play together and do puzzles.

Then go through our morning procedures:

First we clean up the toys.

Next they pick a preschool job for the day and put their puppet in place.

Then they draw a yellow card with a number, shape, or letter on it. That card tells them what sitting square they get to sit on!

After they are sitting we recite our class rules quickly.

Then we go into our Learning Time. We learn about the calendar, sing the "months of the year" and "days of the week" song. We look at the weather for the day and review the seasons. Then we go through our ABC cards. The students say the letter, sound, and picture for each letter in the alphabet, when they see the card. We also do this with number cards. We have group and individual turns so I can see who is really getting it! After our flashcards we start our lesson of the day. Some of the lessons we have done have been on our name, shapes, being healthy, numbers, adding, and more. We have a large whiteboard we often use for Learning Time.

After this we switch to Table Time. First we have a snack!

Next we continue with our lesson by completing a related worksheet. For example the day we learned about where we live, they traced their name and address. When we learned about being healthy, the students circled pictures on their worksheets of healthy behaviors and traced the words below the pictures.

Then it is our Creativity Time. For this we have made popsicle puppets, Valentines, drawn our homes (using a triangle and a square), made bees costumes, and more.

After art it is Story Time. Students get to pick one or two books from the shelf and we read together. We make predictions, review the plot, and discuss the story together.

Next is Singing Time. We have a Preschool Songs jar full of popsicle sticks with song titles. They each take turns picking songs and we sing together. We are learning lots of fun songs!

The last activity we do is exercise. The kids really like to go outside and race down the sidewalk and back. Sometimes we sing while we exercise, and we always make sure to stretch when we're done.

It's a fun two hours!

Our First Week

We started preschool last week! We held school on Wednesday and Friday of last week and we had a great time! I am quickly learning about the abilities and needs of the students and I feel like I'm already seeing improvement. Here are just a FEW of the things we did:

We learned about class rules and procedures.

We learned, reviewed, and reviewed letters and sounds.

We worked on our fine motor skills.

They are using a push pin to poke dots along the lines of a bunny silhouette. It helps them learn how to hold their pencil. I got this idea from a friend of mine! (Notice their fingers..they are getting it!)

We practiced using scissors and made popsicle puppets of members in our family.

We practiced writing our names.

We had a great show and tell!

Very proud of his shell!

We put together puzzles and played!

He wanted to make his tower taller than him!

I am LOVING these kids. Last week we had two students because one was out of town. This week we will have three... looking forward it to!