Careers

This week in the preschool we are discussing all of the different careers that exist in our busy world!  Some of the activities the teachers planned gave the children a taste of what it would be like to work various jobs.  

We talked about garbage men and their important community job while the preschoolers used their math skills to match different shapes up to the parts of a garbage truck.  

Rotating through the chef, doctor, dentist, and teacher stations, the children created their own pizzas using a variety of toppings, made their very own x-rays using Q-Tips, cleaned yellow teeth with white crayons, and crafted paper plate apples.  

We visited our costume rack this week and dressed up as doctors, firemen, and policemen.  While playing dress up we talked about the costumes and what the various people who wear the various outfits might do in their job then acted out some of those motions.

We created popsicle stick puppets by coloring images of various careers and then attached them to the sticks for the children to put on puppet plays at home about some of the careers we covered this week.

To practice our handwriting, we first identified words by sounding them out and identifying pictures and then wrote down each profession pictured.  We are still practicing a letter of the day each day as well.  With this daily writing and reading activity we practice the sounds of and shapes of one letter each day of the alphabet.  The children draw one letter a day specifically and if your child was with us last semester you should see growth and improvement in some of these letters.

We read a variety of stories about many types of careers this week and learned about jobs in the areas of fire fighters, doctors, police officers, teachers and more!  Some stories were even shown on the big screen like the Dr. Seuss tale of Oh, the Places You'll Go!

More writing this week was paired with drawing images of what our preschoolers want to be when they grow up.  We saw pictures of Spider Man, ballerinas, princesses, doctors and police officers.  The kids were very excited to share their works of are with us!

We played detective and archeologist this week as we hunted down clues, looked at evidence and searched for dinosaur bones and more using tools like magnify glasses and brushes to safely find materials buried as well.

We created mail trucks by following a model provided by the teacher.  These visual instructions are a great way for our teachers to see how easily our preschoolers can follow directions.  The image of the mail truck was placed on our screen and the children were given all of the materials needed to replicate that image.  We watched to see if the children could replicate the image with or without assistance.

As a math activity we built log cabins placing the popsicle stick "logs" in order on our paper from one to ten then adding a triangle roof to the top of the cabin.  Check your child's work to see if they placed the numbers in the sequential order.

We made our dentist role a reality when we painted over yellow teeth with tooth brushes.  For any children not interested in painting then they used white crayons to color the teeth in.

We took on the role of fire fighters this week when we threw bean bags at the fire towers the teachers built on the tables.  The giggles were flying around the room about as much as the cups were!

We have been working on learning the, "My Mother is a Baker," song by Dr. Jean in both the morning and afternoon and both groups of preschoolers are doing wonderfully learning the motions for the baker, garbage man, engineer and more.  Feel free to watch this song on youtube and practice it at home with your children.

Something else you can do with the little ones at home is download this app for them to practice identifying what materials and uniforms go with which careers.  The children played this a few times this week either as a large group at the circle or at the tables and in small groups where they practiced taking turns.  

As with any apps for young children, this one is not just something to plop in front of the child, but you can play with them in order to have the dialog necessary to learn about the topic covered in the app.

As a whole, children are little scientists so this week we had a great time perfecting experiments in which we made volcanos out of two different recipes (one of baking soda and vinegar and the other of yeast and hydrogen peroxide.)  

One volcano erupts slowly while the other moves at a much faster pace.  If you aren't already on Pinterest and following our boards, this one is a good place to start to get the recipes!

If you have Ziploc bags at home and a little bit of paint, you can make these small motor bags to allow for children to finger paint without the mess.  These children are tracing numbers 1-20 by following the lines they see through the paint and creating the images located under their baggies.  We will do activities like this a lot this semester as we do every year to promote fine (small) motor skills.

Our last activity of the week was a picture sort to summarize all the careers we spoke of this week.  The children had to sort images like band aids, hoses, badges and pencils into posters separated by careers.  We have been talking a lot about the items people in various careers need in their jobs and this was our way to make sure we could see what the children remember.

Thanks to everyone who dressed up this week for any or all of our spirit days!  We had great sets of pajamas, wacky outfits and of course, great Pirate wear this week and it's always a lot of fun to be silly together.  Hopefully you have seen some of these great outfits in the images located in the blog this week!

What's Coming Up?

• This coming week will be all about sports and we will be covered a variety of sports from around the world.  We even hope to take a field trip to the big gym!
  
• We have one week left before fall preschool registration starts!  For all current preschool families the registration paperwork for next year will be going home in cubbies on Monday, March 7th to be filled out and returned for next year [it is also emailed out to ALL families that day who are on our mailing list].  
• Current preschool families only need to turn in the updated registration forms along with the tuition check for $150 and they will be marked as "in" for fall preschool.  
• All non-current preschool families will need to submit the registration forms, tuition checks, physicals and immunization records along with birth certificates to be signed up for our fall program.  
• Remember we fill up VERY QUICKLY for our fall sessions so please be ready!  We can only take the first 20 preschoolers and then start our waiting list.  View our website for any other details or information.