The Magic of Preschool!

Disney Week is the most popular week in preschool among the preschoolers because there is just so much out there for them to do!  In fact, because this is a theme they all enjoy, we do it twice a year; once in the fall and then again in the spring.

This time, we started out Disney Week with some fun discussions about which Disney movies and shows are favored by the preschoolers.  We shared a Star of the Week poster and introduced the games and projects for the days ahead.
 
Winnie the Pooh is a timeless character children still enjoy today so we made puppets out of red paper bags and Winnie the Pooh faces for the children to enjoy at home.  If you are looking for another project to do at home, you can get orange paper bags (or color a brown or white one) and print out a picture of Tigger.  Then the dramatic play can go even further!

We are looking for more ways to incorporate technology with our youngsters and this week (thanks to Disney) we enjoyed story time with Disney Apps that read to us!  I'll be posting more information about Apps in the next blog but wanted to share these two with you now.

Toy Story Read Along with Disney Digital Books and Disney Storytime were the apps we were able to check out from the app store this week on our iPads.  Both of these apps have the option to allow an older child to read the story him/herself, but in the case of our preschoolers, we chose the Read to Me option to hear the story.  These books contain sound affects and highlight the words as they are read throughout the story.  If you remember the Read Along Books from the days when I was a child, you could say this is the "new version" of an "old trick."  While we choose free apps to work with in school, if your child enjoys these you may look into paying for more stories like this to read to them in the car on those long holiday trips coming up.

As stated earlier, Disney has terrific age appropriate games for boys and girls and we took technology time to have gaming stations this week with the kids.  Each teacher took out his/her iPad and played various Disney Games with the children.  All of these games were approved by our class on a non-preschool day first and the children are monitored the entire time they play.  These are two pieces of advice with technology and small children I share with you today.  Please be sure to try games yourself first and then supervise their play until you are comfortable letting the child explore on his or her own.  Technology is a wonderful and powerful tool, but it is our responsibility to teach children how to use it appropriately.

 The Apps we chose to use this week were: Toontastic Jr. Stories (Shrek), Disney Creativity Studio and Disney Princess Palace Pets.  More details will follow in the next blog about other apps we have used with the children or recommend for home.

As terrific as technology is, there is extreme power in reading actual BOOKS to your child as well.  We not only read a Bambi story in small groups this week, we also had many children requesting stories to be read to them during free play time as well.  The wonderful connection a person makes to children as a book is read together is something that has been passed down for generations, the love of learning and reading is encouraged the old fashioned way each day in Pirate Pete Preschool during instruction and free times through books and playing puppet shows, dramatic play and more.

We made magical necklaces this week to work on our patterns and fine motor skills like the ones in various books and movies from Disney.  The children were able to wear them or take them home for someone to share the magic from school. It's important they all have the opportunity to do projects like this, it's not just a "girl thing," it's a math and pre-writing activity.  As children learn about the world around them, it's nice to remind them anyone can make objects like these magic necklaces and support them as they enjoy the process.

Last week, I talked about process verses product and this week after we read our Monsters Inc. story we passed out any creative supplies we had and the children had the freedom to create any monster they would like.  These are the types of projects the kids enjoy most, just take out some glue, sparkles, feathers, paper, googly eyes, toilet paper rolls and they will really impress you!  I leave you with the many monsters we enjoyed on Friday!

 

 

What's Coming Up?

Dinosaur Week will be coming up Monday followed by Thanksgiving Week the last week of November.  We have preschool Monday and Wednesday the week of Thanksgiving with only taking Friday the 29th of November off for the holiday.