Colorful Fun

The Preschool Class has been busy exploring colors and color mixing. We have also been reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? By Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle (my favorite author). We have retold the story by acting it out. The animals from the story are even hidden around our room!



We matched color shades with this activity using paint samples and clothespins. It was free to make and encouraged fine motor skills needed for writing and cutting with scissors.



The children were thrilled to graph m&ms, which happen to be the same colors as the Brown Bear animals. You can find the graph at http://www.makinglearningfun.com/.



On Tuesday we watched a Blue's Clues video about color mixing. Blue used his paws to mix colors on a little white palette. The children thought it was very cool and had no idea that I also had white palettes to mix colors on! Each child started out with just red, blue, and yellow paint, and ended up with lots of different colors and a while lot of brown. They used q-tips and their fingers to mix the paint, then made some beautiful masterpieces!

Toddlers and Sensory Play

Sensory play with toddlers can mean getting messy at times. Just ask Mrs. Cathy, who changed clothes for all six toddlers after they washed dishes this morning. Why do we do it? Because when we offer opportunities for sensory play, we are also offering ways for your child to learn and develop important skills.

What are they learning?
-concepts of volume and measurement
-an understanding of cause and effect
-sensory awareness
-eye-hand coordination
-fine motor skills
-problem solving skills
-sharing and cooperative skills

Here are some easy activities that you can do at home with your toddler:
-add cups and bowls to your child's bath
-play with playdough
-fingerpaint with pudding on the high chair tray
-give your child a tub of dishes to wash
-let your child wash his hands at the sink

Here is a link to a great article on the importance of sensory exploration.  Be sure to check out her awesome blog at http://www.notjustcute.com/.

The Great Outdoors

Today was a beautiful day with lots of clouds and a cool breeze. We brought our paper and paint out so that we could paint along the fence. It was a big hit!

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Song Sheets

Our toddler class is going to start using some song sheets.  Each song has a photo to represent it, and the children can point to a photo to choose what to sing.  Recognizing that symbols can mean something is an important pre-reading skill.  The photos will also help the children to communicate and make choices.  Here is our first song sheet. 

Click here to try it out at home!

And here is song sheet #2!

If The Dinosaurs Came Back

During group time, we read If The Dinosaurs Came Back by Bernard Most.  Everyone was full of ideas of things that they would like to do with dinosaurs.  Some of us thought that a dinosaur would be a good pet and some of us thought a pet dinosaur was a bad idea.  G pointed out that dinosaurs are "stinct", so we didn't have to worry about it. 

After nap, the preschoolers got to work on writing a book.  We included our own illustrations of what we wanted to happen if dinosaurs came back...

"If the dinosaurs came back, they would play with children and maybe play some soccer." -A, age 5

"If the dinosaurs came back, they would hide behind the fence." -G, age 4

"If the dinosaurs came back, they would let me ride them."  -J, age 4

"If the dinosaurs came back, I would play with them." -M, age 3

"If the dinosaurs came back, they would read books and they'd also do weights." -R, age 4

"If the dinosaurs came back, they would hide behind the bathroom." Z, age 4

Fossils

The Bears had a blast making salt dough fossils! We made the dough with 4 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt; and 1 1/2 cups of water. Then everyone got to pick a dinosaur to press into a ball of dough. We cooked the dough for abduction hour and ended up with some great fossils to take home. Stay tuned because this afternoon we will be writing our own book!

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Chalk Paint

Last week we drew on our wooden house with chalk. we waited for splash day to see the house get clean and were excited when the chalk drawings disappeared. Today we made chalk paint to decorate our house! We are covered with drops of chalk paint and the house is all different shades of blue, green, and purple.

Here is the recipe in case you would like to try this paint at home: 1 part cornstarch to 1 1/2 parts water plus some food coloring . Easy breezy!

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Volcanoes!

Today was the much anticipated volcano day! The preschool class got to use our sand playdough to build a mountain around a cup. We added some dinosaurs, baking soda, and vinegar with red food coloring. Voilà! Erupting volcanoes. The children were fascinated with the bubbles and flowing "lava". Some of them went to the writing center afterwards and drew their dinosaurs and volcanoes. Z said that she wanted to have a picture to show her mom what she did today. It was a great opportunity for the children to use their drawings and words to communicate... An important step in learning to write.

Little Paleontologists

As we are learning about dinosaurs, we have been talking about the scientists who discover and study dinosaur bones...Paleontologists. Today the preschoolers had the opportunity to rescue dinosaurs that were frozen in ice! They used plastic knives and spoons to chip away at the ice until the dinosaur was free.

Dinosaurs!

Today the preschool class began our unit on dinosaurs.  We have been very excited about all of the dinosaur books, puzzles, and activities in the room.  During group time, we discussed what dinosaurs eat and how all dinosaurs hatch from eggs.  We looked at drawings of a brachiosaurus and learned that his neck is so long that he can eat leaves from the very tops of trees. 

I love our daily journal time because I get to see what these guys are thinking and how they are processing what we are learning.  Here are two examples that make me smile:

J, age 4

Z, age 4

5 A Day Books

The Toddler Class is beginning something new..."5 A Day Books".  The idea is that you choose 5 titles from among your usual books  and read them every single day for at least a week. We will choose short picture books which feature strong rhythm and/ or repeated refrain so that the children can quickly memorize the words and join in with the story-telling. This empowers them to be able to "read" and re-tell stories from a young age, and also makes them very fluent in a range of text types and literature styles. 

We will share the books that we are reading each week with the parents so that the books can be read at home also.  I am looking forward to seeing how the children's vocabulary and interest in reading will grow over the next few weeks.

Here are our first five books (all by Eric Carle, our fave):

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

The Very Quiet Cricket

The Very Busy Spider

I think it is safe to say that we will be "very busy" reading this week!

Summer Fun Part 2

Our school has been full of red, white, and blue as we prepare to celebrate our nation's birthday. The preschoolers made bracelets with beads and pipe cleaners.




We have also painted red and blue with paintbrushes, straws, and sponges (and of course we added a good amount of glitter).




Plus there are some new sandboxes on our playground that have been home to lots of sand castles, bare feet, and secret treasures!