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!