Our imaginations have been running wild with creativity this week as the children have been creating terrific works of art, singing some of our favorite songs, going on adventures, joining the circus and more!
The first project of the week was using circle shapes to create Mike from "Monster's Inc." The children had to count the circles we used to layer on top of each other to create this cute character.
The next math activity involved re-creating a scene from the movie "Up" by having the children recognize a number given then add a house and the corresponding amount of balloons to go along with the number on the page. This allowed them to work on multiple math skills at the same time, (number recognition, rote counting and application). 
One of the favorite activities of the week was when we heard Peter Pan had come for a visit to Palatine High School and left us a special surprise! In true tricky Peter Pan form, he wanted to turn this surprise into a game so off we went around the school searching classrooms for clues that Peter Pan had been there.
The third time was a charm as we entered the last room and heard Peter Pan had hidden something for each child in a drawer of the classroom. Everyone received a bag filled with Pixie Dust to bring back to our room.
Once we unlocked the door to our classroom we found a white piece of paper at the circle rug. As the preschoolers took turns sprinkling their Pixie Dust over it, we saw something magical happen-the Pixie Dust was spelling out a word!
All together, the teachers and children sounded out this word and found the special message from this creative character: MAGIC! It truly was a magical experience!
The magic of this day wasn't over yet, the children were then given note cards and helped teachers use hole punchers to make holes all over the cards.
Then, using the flashlight apps on our phones, the children and teachers looked for that magical 'third star from the right,' to find Neverland!
This activity is always one of my favorites and can be done at home too. If you have a hole puncher and some paper and a flashlight, you are set for some fun! Older children can create designs with their holes while young ones just enjoy the process of putting holes in paper.
No matter what age, everyone enjoys using the flashlight to see what they created on the ceiling!
I definitely recommend this for your next rainy day!
After all our fun with Peter Pan we read the story using a fun and interactive storytelling app. There are many stories you can find from this same company and as the story is read to you, or you read the story, you can press images on the screen to have them move as the story progresses.
As stated in previous blogs, this month we have been enjoying using our imaginations and much like our time with Peter Pan, we have been enjoying the circus as well. The children were able to decorate clown hats to wear at home as we rein-act circus clown moves.
Just like many activities, this one is more about the skill set than the product, however, when we use items already constructed it allows any design to look 'cool' in the end. The goal of decorating clown hats wasn't just about acting silly in a funny hat, we are practicing the use of glue and learning how much glue is too much. 
Many families don't keep Elmer's glue at home because they expect it to be something kids only use at school. However, when most kindergarten classrooms have over 25 children and only one teacher, it can be hard for him/her to help teach the concept of 'too much glue' to everyone at once. 
So, at Pirate Pete Preschool we have the manpower to get teach this lesson and help the children learn how to squeeze the glue out of the bottle and use just the right amount. If you have glue at home, pull out anything (pasta, pom poms, cotton balls, rice, corn kernels, etc.) and let your child practice gluing. It will help them in the future as well as your child's kindergarten teacher! 
Small motor skills were practiced this week when the children were asked to give clown faces some crazy hair for the circus. They had the choice of a variety of sizes and colors to use and could add as many or few as they wanted. This was a process art project, not a product.
More fun circus themed activities helped with fine motor skills and science this week as the preschoolers were given a tub filled with popcorn kernels and popped popcorn. 
The children were able to compare the popped popcorn to the un-popped kernels and played with and talked about the textures of the two as well as the size and shape. We even listened to the sound of the kernels verses the popped corn! 
Since every visit to the circus needs some popcorn to take home, the children were given an empty water bottle to place their popcorn inside allowing them to look and listen to the two types of popcorn in the same bottle.
These are fun 'noise makers' without all the noise and more importantly the children had to work their fingers to get the small and large pieces inside their own bottles. Some filled it up to the top while others stopped half way up. Children love to fill things and a water bottle or jar can be just what they need to store their treasures!
Speaking of treasure, we are Pirate Pete Preschool and can't have a month of imagination go by without doing more pirate activities! Each preschooler was given a 'treasure chest' with a number written inside.
They were asked to place that amount of 'treasure' (sequins) in the treasure chest. To be honest, most preschoolers did this activity correctly, however, if you saw your child's treasure chest at home it may have had more pieces if 'treasure' than the number.
This is because once the children counted the correct number of treasure, they asked if they could add more and who could blame them! So, we let them fill up those treasure chests with as much as they could fit to bring home.
Not only did we imagine going to the circus and playing with Peter Pan, we also took a trip to space this week! The children started by practicing their letter recognition as they matched astronauts to the space shuttle with the same letter. Some needed to match the capitol and lower case letter and others just needed to match letters. This is one more example of differentiation for children learning their letters and those who already know them can have an added challenge.
After matching letters we practiced writing them, in particular the letters in our names as we added them to our boarding passes (we also traced the words boarding and pass). The children were asked to add a picture on their boarding pass then bring it to the circle where we assembled a 'rocket ship' we would all be riding to fly into space.
As we flew to space we talked about the things we saw during our flight. The children talked about planets, suns, stars, and more before we got ready to head back to Earth. Once again, we counted down and arrived with the lights back on in our classroom.
We will visit space again as the year goes on but this was a fun activity to use our imaginations as a preview to future lessons.
Music is always a part of our day in preschool and we are learning some of our preschool favorites this year. Our returning preschoolers are enjoying teaching these songs to our new friends and I'm sure they would all be happy to practice them at home too. Both songs are by Dr. Jean (a terrific children's music creator).
The first would be 'Tooty Ta' a song of silliness where following directions is key. The second song is 'The Cool Bear Hunt' which is loosely related to the book, We're Going on a Bear Hunt but visits a few fun places as opposed to those in the book. We sing many songs as the year goes on, but these are the two usually requested by the children.
More pre-reading activities allowed the children to make letters with their bodies this week as they first called out the letters they saw then tried to make those letters with their bodies. All you need is a little masking tape to make letters on the ground to do this activity, you can also just pull the old YMCA and make letters with your arms in the air.
If you aren't too sure about the masking tape on your living room floor, maybe you can try tracing letters in sand, or flour, or salt or sugar. This activity just needs a container filled with one of these objects and some pictures of the letters you are trying to help your child create. Shapes are other good options for this activity. The more you expose your child to letters and talk about them in your world each day, the better readers they will be because of the excitement you share with them about the alphabet.
Our last day this week allowed us to talk about what we are starting to see outside, the changing of the leaves. We talked about imagining them all falling down around us and what colors they would be, then we put on our smocks and painted the leaves. How did we make sure we saw leaves instead of a mashing and smudging of color, we gave each child a unique tool, Q-tips. 
Most three-year-olds enjoy mixing all their colors with their hands and paint brushes resulting in a brown blob on the page, however, with this fun utensil, they ended up making marks the way we hoped, small like leaves. Some children imagined the leaves still in the trees while others had them falling and some just put 'leaves' in piles at the base of their tree. Our goal was to get a product of fall leaves with trees and while each child's work of art was different, they all still ended up with fall leaves with trees!
Aside from glue, scissors are the other item not typically used with preschoolers at home. For this reason we worked with the children to practice this skill this week by imagining a wheel and asking the children to place stickers all around the wheel. Once they added their stickers, we watched them try to cut through the stickers and by doing so, they were practicing cutting a circle (very hard to do).
If you have stickers lying around at home and would rather them serve a purpose other than to decorate your car window, give this a try. Draw a shape or line on a paper and ask them to put the stickers on the line. Then, cut through the stickers. This just might keep them busy a while and limit the amount of window cleaner you need too.
Lastly, we are definitely in the world of technology and while the children enjoy hearing and seeing stories on the big screen with our iPads, they always love listening to good old fashioned books! Please read to your child and in turn, ask your child to read to you.
Preschool reading isn't about getting the words on the page correct, it's about the concept of reading a book left to right, understanding words like 'title' and 'author' and building vocabulary from the language in the book as well as that which grows from conversations about predicting what will happen next and why a character might take certain actions or how another character might be feeling. From the time a child is born, books should play a major role; they encourage a love of learning, communication and compassion.
What's Coming Up?
Next week will be our last week holding focus on Imagination. Once we get going into October we will be talking about seasons and weather as we look to fall and all that comes with the changes going on outside.
Our Halloween Celebration will be Friday, October 31st from 9:30 - 10:45 and we will be going Trick or Treating around the school then heading back to our classroom for treats. More details will be sent home next week.
If you haven't signed up for text alerts about days off and other information, feel free to sign up by texting the message: @preparent to the number (267)867-0288. You can also follow me on Twitter @kris_stary or read our webpage: www.kstary.wix.com/piratepetepreschool
