We went out with an ocean of fun this year for preschool graduation! The two days leading up to graduation were filled with learning about the beach, the ocean and all the fun stuff we love to do in the summer! 
We made waves with the parachute and saw the last of our terrific Star of the Week presentations. This is often one of our favorite parts of the day! 
The morning classes worked hard on their beach graphs as they had to cut out images and paste them onto a graph according to similarity. This can be a fun project to do at home on your wall, refrigerator or even their bedroom door or the floor in the living room. Take any images or items from outside or around the house and graph them (so the kids are putting the images or items into rows) and then talk about what you have the most of, the least of and compare the images and items themselves.
Once that was done, we had to break out the sand for beach week. We played with dry sand and wet sand and compared the two in order to see what one will do as opposed to the other. 
This type of activity is great for building vocabulary, comparing and contrasting concepts and ideas on any topic. If you head to the beach this summer, ask the kids to explain the difference between wet and dry sand and have them show you how they are different.
We heard lots of good stories about the beach, animals who live in water or near water and vacations. Take advantage of your library's summer reading programs, most offer summer classes where your child can be read to and make a craft to go with the book. Usually these classes are free and a great way to spend an hour or so a week escaping from the heat.
Our afternoon preschoolers were able to make hand print fish out of stamps and googley eyes. This same image can work with paint, tracing their hand with crayons or coloring their entire hand with markers then while the ink is still wet, you can press their hand onto the paper. (We don't recommend this last one, ha!)
We talked about the beaches near Hawaii and volcanoes then performed some nontraditional volcano experiments. The way most classroom volcanoes are done is with vinegar and baking soda to get the big overflow, but tried something new this time and the kids and teachers loved getting to see the results! 
We added vegetable oil to water then placed a few drops of food coloring on the top of the oil in the vase. The magic step is adding salt into the vase and watching the food coloring 'burst' and almost bounce from the bottom of the vase to the top. 
One of our language arts activities this week was playing catch with a beach ball that had letters written all over it. When a child would catch the ball, they would identify the letter their thumb was touching then we would think of a word that started with that letter.
For arts and crafts time, we combined math with a starfish project and the preschoolers had to take turns rolling dice and counting the dots. The children were only allowed to put the number of decorations on their starfish they had rolled. So some kept rolling the dice trying to get more dots to appear. This was a great activity for our future kindergartners as dice will be used for math units with them next year in school.
We made 'magic sand' using flour and baby oil. The kids took turns mixing them together in a bowl and talking about how it was similar to and different from sand from the beach.
Our sand castles were made this week out of glue and sand. Some of the preschoolers asked teachers to help them with the glue while others went 'all in' and drew their entire castle on their own. The teachers had a lot of fun with those who asked for their help and everyone's castles turned out great!
We enjoyed one of the few sunny days in May and learned the affect water has on sidewalk chalk. The preschoolers (and teachers) had a great time drawing pictures and writing their names then 'painting' over them with water to see if the chalk grew or disappeared. Want to know what happens? Try it at home this summer to find out!
The morning preschoolers were able to catch some rays in our side yard with a pre-summer obstacle course. They did the hula hoop, crawled through tunnels and took aim with bean bags.
If you are looking for some fun places to hang out this summer, check your local forest preserve or that of some neighboring areas. Many host free events and have other sports classes, day camps and family fun events (for a fee) all summer long and into the fall so grab some sun screen and play outside!
Surfing is just one of the many fun things you can do at the beach. So we had our own surfing fun with the preschoolers as we practiced balancing through the waves on blocks! The afternoon even decorated their surf boards before trying them out. If your child is older, a 2x4 block of wood standing on the 'thin side' is a great way to practice your 'surf moves' while the younger kids can balance on the wider side.
Our last math activity of the year was matching fish to the appropriate fish tank. The children had a good time mixing up the fish and trying to see who could make the most matches the fastest. What a great way to end the year!
We dug in the sand for treasure, we played 'volley ball' on the beach, we heard stories at 'sunset' and enjoyed the last two days of preschool before graduation. 
The Pirate Pete Preschool teachers would like to say thank you to the beautiful children we have worked with this year and to the supportive families who have graced us with wonderful students. We appreciate the time you have granted us with these kids and have treasured the opportunities to watch them grow and learn before our eyes.
I think this is what makes our Case Study project so meaningful for the teachers in our program. The teachers work hard all year/semester long to help each child develop to the best of their ability and the wonderful work done to create the scrapbooks for the children and their families is outstanding.
Thanks for being a part of our program and joining us as we make the 37th year of Pirate Pete Preschool one of the best yet! 
Have a great summer little Pirates, we look forward to seeing some of you again next year and to those moving on, don't forget: Once a Pirate- ALWAYS a Pirate! 
