Art can be a part of everything!

This week in the Pirate Pete Preschool we talked about the different forms of art!  This included music, painting, drawing,  literature and dancing.  We colored pictures of drums, guitars, violins, and saxophones and discussed how some them work. 

Then we sat in a circle with instruments and made a beat together, speeding up and slowing down for a fun challenge! This allowed us a chance to name various instruments in the classroom and learn how to play them correctly too.

The beginning of the fall season brings us new activities and subjects to talk about!  Whenever we talk about fall in the preschool, the children love to talk about the leaves on the tress changing colors and falling to the ground; nature's canvas.  In this activity, they got to make their own fall trees and create some nature art of their own.  Each leaf had one letter of their name on it which they then glued to their bare tree to spell their name.  Some then chose to add tissue paper leaves or flowers of various colors as well while others liked the look of a winter tree.  

Pumpkins also remind us of the fall season!  After painting our mini-pumpkins with glue, we added glitter to the create a beautiful fall decoration!  The children were able to choose what colors they wanted and then we let them dry before sending them home on Friday.  

Later we talked about music notes and counted them on paper and practiced writing numbers next to the amount of music notes.  If you have checked your child's homework you will see there might be some incorrect answers, these are there to show you what your child said as they counted so you can work at home more on counting and writing numbers too.

Speaking of writing, we practiced writing our names by going one letter at a time practicing the order the letters go in as they are read.  For example, the a name Paul would be listed as such: _aul, _ _ ul, _ _ _ l, _ _ _ _

Since we will miss a lot of Homecoming week next week we decided to create Pirate Pete art by coloring and mounting pictures of a pirate onto red paper.  We can't wait to hang the artwork around the room next week.  You will see it featured again to show the progression of art among age levels.  As the children turned their pictures in, the teachers loved seeing the progression of skill level by age.

To end the week of the arts, we played musical chairs and enjoyed listening to a variety of songs we as paraded around the circle rug until we found one lonely chair.  This is always a favorite game of the children as well as the teachers and as children were eliminated they sat with the teachers and cheered on their remaining friends.

We created virtual art of sorts using an app called SpinArt.  The children created many terrific designs by choosing colors and methods of 'spraying' the colors onto the circles as it spun around.  

Lastly, we read the book, Giraffes Can't Dance, by Giles Andreae.  The students picked up on how mean the other animals were as they teased the giraffe because he didn't know how to dance and talked about how that made him feel.  Then, they discussed how the giraffe felt after dancing any way he wanted. 

What's Coming Up?

• There will be no preschool on Monday, October 5th and no preschool on Friday, October 9th.
• We WILL still hold preschool on Wednesday, October 7th and talk about sports as it is Homecoming Week for Palatine High School.
• Columbus Day is Monday, October 12th so there will be no school either.

Disney Fun!

Disney week did not disappoint us this week and neither did our first Star of the Week presentation of the year.  Each child will have the opportunity to be the Star of the Week; the Star of the Week gets to fill out and decorate a poster and present it to their classmates and teachers.  The poster is displayed for the entire week on a bulletin board inside the classroom!  

Here the kids are tracing different shapes and lines that go along with the Alice in Wonderland movie.  This activity really tested their dexterity and tracing skills!  Remember that writing is all about the movements we make with pen to paper or crayon to paper so even if your child is not writing letters clearly yet, these types of activities are great to help them work on these fine motor skills without them feeling like they are 'working' on letters.

 For this math activity, each child received a piece of paper with a number on it. Then, they counted out and glued that number of balloons above a picture of a house to mimic the house from the movie, Up.  

The kids got to make their own Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc. by glueing one eye, two ears, and three teeth onto a green paper plate. During this project, we practiced simple maths skills and discussed the proper amount of glue to put on each piece of Mike! 

After the Mike Wazowski art project, we talked about how different our bodies are from Mike's body.  This led into singing and dancing along to "A Tooty Ta", a popular song in the preschool that asks us to move various parts of our bodies!  This is a hit song every year among not only the kids, but the teachers and all our preschooler families. 

The preschoolers took turns writing letters of the alphabet in a tray of salt.  This helped to strengthen pre-writing skills as well as our ability to share and patiently wait for our turn during an activity.  If you have salt at home, flour or sugar, pour some onto a plate and enjoy drawing in it! 

Later, the children had so much fun bowling and knocking over Olaf pins!  The goal of this game was to knock down as many pins as possible during each turn. Everyone loved the little break from the intense learning of the day and enjoyed moving around during the gross motor bowling game!  

Here the kids are playing an iPad game called VinyImation where they get to design a Mickey or Minnie person. They were given the option to paint the characters with their fingertips, or select a pre-made design. They were also allowed to add accessories such as a hat, bow, or glasses to their characters.  Learning how to use technology is a part of our curriculum now and we range in activities with technology from storytelling using iPads to playing games to learn how to use touch pad tech features.

On Wednesday this week each preschooler played a small motor game.  Small motor skills involve pinching or using the fingers in a way to increase their small muscle control.  By playing these games the children will improve their writing, cutting and painting skills without doing any of those actions!  The children found it challenging to pick up and throw all of the different sized Pom-Pom balls into the small Dixie cups.  

While half of the children were playing the small motor game, the other half were making Mickey Mouse sun-catchers.  They glued pink, blue, yellow, and orange pieces of tissue paper to the outline of Mickey's head. Then one of the teachers read a story about Minnie Mouse and a rainbow which tested the children on color identification.  

We also practiced our pre-reading skills this week by spelling out different Disney characters' names!  These word puzzles exercised the children's minds as they tried all different letter combinations as they matched the letters to the order in the word above.

As we prepared our final science activity the children were given all the colors that represent the emotions in one of Disney's latest films; Inside Out.  The children had to identify each color then mixed them all together as they talked about how important it is to feel every emotion represented in the film and activity.

The science activity for Friday was exciting as we melted ice cubes with vinegar in tin trays to find treasure!  The children pushed the ice cubes around the trays with spoons in order to discover what was in their treasure chest.  Everyone was very excited to take home the penny that came out of the ice cube!

Using some construction paper and noise makers, we got to make our own Pascal chameleons from Disney's Tangled!  We talked about how chameleons change color and catch flies with their long tongues.  The children absolutely loved pretending to be chameleons!  

We also pretended to be Mickey Mouse today after we made red hats with black ears as we role played these traditional Disney characters. 

To practice our math skills, we sorted paper clips that matched the colors on our Mickey Mouse head sheets of paper and figured out which color had the most, the least, etc.

For fine motor skill time on Friday the children were given Play-Doh in the shape of Mickey Mouse and were allowed to decorate it however they choose practicing the pincher grasp as they used google eyes, sequins and other small decorations.

What's Coming Up?  

• Remember we will not have school this Monday, September 28th as the school will be having a change of schedule that day.
• When we arrive back at school on Wednesday, September 30th, we will be talking about the arts through music, stories, writing, and art in all its varieties!
• 
  
• *Thanks as always to our wonderful High School Interns (Emily, Rachel & Shannon) for working on this blog post!