Spring has arrived!

Spring is finally here and the beautiful weather is showing its face to us once again and we are super excited in preschool to see the sunshine!  This week we talked about spring and all we are starting to see in the world around us, like flowers, raindrops, eggs and more. 

We started out the week looking for items we will start to see out in our neighborhoods this spring, like flowers, caterpillars, leaves, etc.  We used magnify glasses to see these items up close and personal before heading off to made our own caterpillars using popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners to work our finger muscles.  If you are looking for a simple and fun activity for your kiddos this summer buy some pipe cleaners and let them get creative.  Manipulating these items does wonders to improve writing and cutting skills by developing the small muscles needed for all these things.

We also worked on finding hidden messages in paper by using water colored paint to brush over the secret messages that were on the paper.  As the children brushed the paint over the paper the words related to spring that were written on them appeared.  The children then identified as many of the letters as possible and if they were able, they would read any as well.

We 'planted' our own gardens this week with our plastic flowers and then attached bees to them to show they understand the job bees do to pollenate them and help our gardens grow.  This was the vocabulary word of the day to learn this scientific process that happens every spring and summer.

After talking about egg hunts from the weekend before we hunted for eggs to match upper and lower case letters.  As the children found parts of eggs they had to also find the correct match to complete the egg and glue it down.  The children did a phenomenal job!

After hunting for eggs on paper to match letters we went outside for some exercise and hunted for eggs all over our yard!  The children are excellent egg hunters!

When we came back in we worked on math with flowers by reading numbers on flowers and gluing the appropriate amount of leaves to the stem.  This not only worked their small muscles working with but also math.

We worked with lady bugs this week by reading numbers on their wings then adding the correct dots.  This activity reviewed the flower activity from earlier to help support success and confidence in the children by doing a different activity that practices the same skills.

After reading, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle and rein-acting it with flannel board story pieces as a class we created our own caterpillars with a variety of items for some process art projects.

After making caterpillars we decided to do a little dramatic play in small groups by pretending to be seeds.  The children took turns as the seed as we covered them up with dirt (a blanket) to plant them then added water (we waved our hands over them to be the rain) and then watched the preschooler 'sprout'.  As the preschooler seed began to grow taller and taller the other preschoolers worked as the sun and rain to help them grow into wonderful flowers!  The children played this game with the teachers over and over again!

Once we finished planting and growing little preschool flowers we made some raindrops on umbrellas to learn this vocabulary word too.  We not only attached rain drops to umbrellas but then we made our own umbrellas and then tested them with one another by holding them over our heads as teachers used spray bottles to make it 'rain' above them and mix the colors of any markers that were used on the coffee filters.

At the end of a very busy week we decorated our own flowers to hang in our classroom as a preschool garden. After we worked on adding color in a variety of ways to these little flowers we started one final spelling project.

Some of the children were able to finish turning letters of their name into sunshines while others took the pieces home for homework and some left it at school to do with us next week.  Turning the letters of your child's name into a project that allows them to sort the letters into the correct order is helpful for spelling and pre-reading skills without the pressure of having to write the letters as well. 

What's Coming Up?

This coming week we will be learning about places and people from around the world.  We are very excited about this week as it is often a favorite.  If you are a preschool parent who has not yet completed the google chart that was texted out, please try the most recent link so we can represent your child/family in our classroom on our bulletin board this week.

Preschool graduation invitations have gone out so please let us know if you need a parking pass or if you have any questions for us.  We are very excited about this special day coming up and will be working on our songs for graduation every day beginning Monday.  Look for text messages with the links to the videos so your child can practice at home as well.

Fire and Police Safety Week

This week was made up of two days so we made the most of those days by talking about fire and police safety.  We started out with the colors of fire and we mixed them to use our finger tips to write out the alphabet.  Our preschoolers did an amazing job writing their letters.

 We put out the fire in the cup tower by throwing bean bag 'water' at them.  The children helped build and rebuild them once they were knocked down.  

After that we got a special visitor from the fire station to help show us the proper way to stop, drop and roll by covering up our faces and rolling on the ground until all the fire is completely gone from our clothes.

 The fire fighter put on his uniform and talked with the children about why he wears all he does and about a family safety exit plan of where the family should go should there be a fire.  Please be sure to talk with your children and plan out where you want them to meet you should a fire happen at home; a neighbor's house, the mailbox, etc.  

We talked about crawling through the house and feeling the back of the door to see if it is hot and that it is ok to throw things at the window to break it open if their bedroom us upstairs so the fire fighters know they need to come and save them.  

While the conversations we have at school are terrific, allowing the children to practice this plan at home with you is key.  The next time you burn toast and the smoke alarm goes off, take a few minutes and have everyone practice what to do in a real emergency situation.

Once the fire fighter left for the day we created an emergency situation game where the children had to practice dialing 911, telling the responder the emergency and then heading into the kitchen to use the 'fire extinguisher' on the small kitchen fire, then stay low and go through the hula hoop 'smoke' then use the fire hose and put out the flames on the cabinet building.  

 Our first responder preschoolers did a great job matching up the correct band aids to the shape spaced wounds on the paper person images.  The children worked on fine motor skills opening up band aids and placing them down along with the math part of this activity by shape matching.

After helping out the paper people with their band aids, the children worked on driving to the hospital by following the roads made of masking tape on the floor.  This gross motor activity encourages them to crawl throughout the room.  If you have toy cars at home and need something to do on a rainy day then grab some tape and put it on your rug and let your child have a great time!

We worked on our letter recognition this week too when we talked about capitol and lower case letters at the front of the class on our white board and then we sent the kids to the tables to match up police officer partners who had the same letter, just one with a lower case and one with an upper case.

 We learned that we all have something called fingerprints on our fingers and in order to see them better we used ink pads to make finger prints on paper and looked at them in detail using our magnify glasses.  One tip we recommend to you is that you hold on to this paper for safety reasons in case you ever need to access your child's prints for the police.  This is a great thing to hold on to in order to be prepared should you need those details.

 Our police officer visit was terrific after our finger printing activity as she talked with us about how to identify her as an officer and how to find safe people when we might get lost in a store.  We talked about how moms and dads are other safe people to talk to in a store if you get lost and can't find an officer and the ways to find a mom or dad is because they will have children with them.  If your child knows these tips it can keep them safe if they ever find themselves lost in a large store or area.

We talked about gun safety with the police officer and how no child should ever pick up a gun but should get an adult to move it to a safe place.  We had a similar conversation about lighters and matches with our fire fighter as well.  Please review these safety tips with your child as well, it could save his/her life.

 By the end of the week we had the children play a math game reading the numbers on dice to match and color in fire with the same numeral written on the paper.  After math, we made badges to wear and steering wheels to use to drive around the room with a song about being police officers who are on a mission to chase and catch a robber.   

We had a fabulous couple of days learning all about how to be safe children and community members.  We reviewed what to do when we have fire drills but didn't head outside since we practiced this as a school last semester.  Then we practiced a lock down as a class and the children were amazingly quiet in the room while we waiting for the 'officer' to come in and tell us they were not able to hear a peep from us in the hall outside our room.

 What's Coming Up?

• This coming week we will be talking about Spring as we are coming off of egg hunts and hopefully will be starting to see more flowers and lots of baby animals soon too.
  
• There will be no preschool on Friday, April 26th due to a change in the high school schedule.