Congrats 2016 Graduates!

 We had a great final week of preschool this year! We finished all of our stars of the week presentations and we made lots of fun Disney projects. From monsters to princesses to superheroes; we were quite busy. 

 We used the traditional Mickey Mouse symbol to spell the main characters from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show. The preschoolers were given a mat with words like Donald or Daisy on them and then had to find the matching letters to re-create the same word below. 

 Then we made it snow on their tables using salt and drew shapes and numbers and letters in the salt like we were Queen Elsa. 

 We made volcanoes one last time this week as well. They have always been the preschooler's favorite science experiment so we let them tell us how to do it one last time. 

 We also made the Baymax from the movie Big Hero Six using toothpicks and marshmallows. We were amazed at how many preschoolers for able to re-create him!

 We used the beauty of Mr. potato head in paper form this week as well from the movie Toy Story. The children were given all of the pieces and were allowed to assemble their Mr. Potato Head anyway they wished. 

 We played a Disney character matching game similar to the game Memory. The children loved telling us about the various characters they saw on the cards as we played the game. 

 

On Monday we wrote a letter to Disney and received one back magically by Wednesday from all of the characters. Children loved hearing the letter read to them aloud and came up to the front to see the different signatures of so many great characters. 

We practiced cutting in the morning on a shape that is very difficult; Mickey Mouse's head. The preschoolers have really improved their cutting over the course of the year and this assessment proved it. 

 Because the movie Frozen is still such a popular one among the preschoolers we made snowballs out of Borax soap and glue at the tables and then tried to stick Olaf's nose in the correct place on his head. 

The weather was so beautiful we went outside in the afternoon and played a bunch of Peter Pan games. The children fed the crocodile bean bags and walked the plank over the ocean on a balance beam. They also traced each other's shadows and then took turns with teachers tracing their bodies to re-create shadows on the ground with chalk. 

 When we came in side in the afternoon, we found some hands that were frozen in ice. The preschooler's job was to try and melt the hands using a variety of methods. 

 We put Nemo and friends into  paper plate fishtanks to bring home and hang up. Many of the children and teachers are excited for the new Finding Dory movie!

 Then came the big day! We are so proud of all of the preschoolers and how wonderfully they listened and participated at the graduation ceremony. 

We again want to thank all of the parents and families for their support in our program and hope they continue to share the love of learning with their children over the summer. To all preschoolers going on to kindergarten we wish you the best of luck; and to the preschoolers coming back next year we hope you have a great summer and will see you again in August! 

Please enjoy the pictures from the ceremony and after party. 

Have a terrific summer!

Disney Count Down!

As we near the end of the school season we have been enjoyed the last few Star of the Week presentations.  We have a few people left to present this week and they will take home their posters the day of graduation.

Speaking of graduation, a reminder text will be going out with details to morning and afternoon sessions on Monday.  Please remember to bring a dozen snacks to share with your child to school on Wednesday so we can have things set out on Friday.

Our theme for graduation this year is Disney so we have two weeks instead of one planned with fun activities from Disney movies and shows new and old.  Here you see the children and their teachers making Baymax from the movie Big Hero Six with white balloons and gas made from baking soda and vinegar.

We read many books featuring stories of Disney characters throughout this week.  Stories are an amazing part of this theme and we have been enjoying many as the week passes.

We have also enjoyed making shapes of the week and identifying them in the room as well as photos of the world around us.  Each day the children then practiced making the shape of the day and many even would re-draw other shapes we talked about this week on their pages as well for more practice.

The morning preschoolers made posters to decorate the walls in our classroom with fingerprinted balloons for the movie Up while they also worked on learning about emotions and the film Inside Out as we watched emotions bubble up and simmer down in colored jars.

We enjoyed tossing balloons around in the room trying to keep them, "Up." This large motor activity is one everyone enjoys and the teachers enjoyed this game as much as the preschoolers!

For some of our music lessons this week we practiced the art of listening and listed to songs from a variety of Disney movies new and old and then drew patterns and lines on paper at our tables to the beats and patterns in the music.  We drew long lines for slow songs and fast, short lines for upbeat songs.

For math this week we also matched colored paper clips to colored paper and chose to make monster hats to wear like the monsters in Monsters Inc. as well.

We also had a visit from Tinker Bell this week as we poured glow stick liquid into jars and added water, attached the lid and shook the to have Tinker Bell appear when the lights went out.

Our large motor activities this week also included the parachute for the morning preschool and we took another field trip to the gym for the afternoon preschoolers.  We played sharks and minnows with scooters like in Finding Nemo and had a blast, running and screaming!

We also took a musical break after our work out in the gym to sing and dance with Elsa as she sang the lead song from Frozen.  This week we not only sang a few fun Disney tunes, we have been practicing the graduation songs each day as well.  Please feel free to sing them with your students at home too.

Afternoon preschoolers not only enjoyed singing songs from Frozen, they made snow as well!

Then, the afternoon preschoolers made dinosaurs out of their hand prints for the Good Dinosaur movie.  We hope to hang these up in the room for preschool graduation as well.

This week we have been practicing writing many words about this theme as well and we have enjoyed talking about the monsters in Monsters Inc. and the dogs in the Lady and the Tramp as well.  In fact, we even made a plate of spaghetti to recreate the delicious meal shared in the film while improving fine motor skills handling the strings.

After our spaghetti meal we played some songs using our instruments in the morning.  The children did a terrific job keeping beats and starting and stopping upon the direction of the teacher and music.  It was a great activity before snack time.

After snack time we heard a story about Lilo and Stitch then made Hawaiian necklaces and surf boards then practiced surfing in the room on blocks.

This week has been a fun one and we are excited for the final two days of preschool before graduation.  Please let us know if you need parking passes and get ready for a terrific time on Friday!