Through the years!

 After hearing another great Star of the Week presentation in the afternoon this shortened week, we decided to go back in time and learn about what things were like long ago. We tried out this new theme this semester in preschool and had a lot of fun showing the children what things were like when their parents and grandparents were children.

Through many activities throughout the week we talked to the children the peace symbol that is so often associated with time from the 1960's and 1970's and explained that saying, "peace," to someone meant kindness and friendship. The children learned how to recognize this symbol and to hold up two fingers as well through various activities this week. We painted peace symbols on paper plates a few times this week using masking tape and a variety of paint styles; some preschoolers painted solid colors on their peace symbol while others used our tie-dye shaving cream paint mix.

 Once the paint was dry we pulled the masking tape away and it creates the symbol of peace on the plate. By the end of the week most of our preschoolers for able to identify this symbol and tell us that it represents being kind to one another.

 We had a little bit of fun with wardrobe this week as well and talked about the fun sunglasses people war in the 70's. We made peace sunglasses and played pin the sunglasses on the hippie as a fun large motor game.

 We also looked at the fact that long ago girls were not allowed to wear pants at school at lots of pictures of wardrobe throughout the years dating all the way back to the nineteen twenties. The children were able to look at similarities and differences in the clothes and were amazed that girls are not allowed to wear pants at school.

We saw pictures of what television looked like throughout the years and the children laughed at the thought of being the family's remote control before remote control existence.

 We learned about poodle skirts and Bobby Sox and tie-dyed this week as well. We also learned about flapper headbands and crazy hair styles and even disco shoes! The children were then asked to explain to their teachers what clothes someone long-ago might wear versus the types of clothes they wear today.

 Then the children were given categories on a page with a variety of images. The teachers read off the categories and the children glued the images onto whatever box they felt most appropriate.

 As stated earlier we did learn about tie-dye this week too

and the children had a terrific time making their own tie-dye creations. Using coffee filters, children were given markers and allowed to color anywhere they wanted on the coffee filters. After a few sprays of water onto the coffee filters  the children crumpled the filter up, squeezed it, and when they opened it again it was tie-dyed! In the K-cup world we live in now coffee filters are even disappearing and some of our teachers didn't even know what they were using!

 In the afternoon we even went so far back in time to the land of the dinosaurs!  We talked about how dinosaurs are now extinct and looked at a variety of different types of dinosaurs.  Then the children were given piles of dinosaur toys to sort through. Some sorted by color, others sorted by type and once all of the dinosaurs were sorted we were given bowls of paint and the children made dinosaur tracks on paper by dipping the dinosaurs into the paint and marching them around their paper.

 Then while still in the land of the dinosaurs the afternoon preschoolers worked on making volcanoes together. As we make volcanoes throughout the year in both the morning and afternoon preschool this should be easier for the children to remember the main ingredients needed to create a volcano.

 Did you know that the game Twister was once given away for free by a shoe company? That is a fact; the game of Twister was invented a long time ago and was not even paid for by its players but to promote a shoe company! So between Twister, hula hoops, and hopscotch we played some oldies but goodies in preschool this week. The children were impressed to know their grandparents might have played all of these games when they were children too.

 We learned that friendship bracelets were a very popular thing to make and give to your friends or people you care about. Then many of the preschoolers made bracelets for their friends in class to trade or someone at home they cared about.

 To work on fine motor skills in the afternoon we placed buttons on the line to fill in a peace symbol on a piece of paper. If you have small items like this at home and want to draw something on a piece of paper have your child take those small items and placed them on the line.  There is no need to glue them down and the whole process can be cleaned up quickly; the important part is the act of the pincher grasp which promotes writing skills.

 Eric Carle is a famous children's author who was published in the 1960's with famous books like, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  Many of his books for read this week during story time with the comments that many parents and grandparents heard the same stories as children.

 This week we also learned what a record is and used records in a variety of ways to help us with math. The children had to write numbers one through 10 around a record and in the morning they placed records in order counting by tens.

We also learned about lava lamps this week and made our very own in both the morning and afternoon preschools.  All that is needed for this science experiment is water, vegetable oil, food coloring, and a few Alka-Seltzer tablets. Mix the liquid ingredients together and drop in a tablet and watch the lava lamp go!

 Before heading home on Friday, the morning preschoolers got to rock out with glow sticks during music time! They had a lot of fun singing and dancing to the music of the ages!

 The afternoon preschoolers worked on fine motor skills on Friday making their very own sticker books as they were all the craze in the 1980's.  These are super easy to make it home too; all you have to do is staple some papers together and hand your child some packages of stickers. (They could have done this for an hour if we let them.)

 We also learned about a jukebox and how it used to play music for people in restaurants called diners.  The children used various shapes given to them by the teachers to assemble their jukebox. Some added drawings and stickers while others created new style jukebox images with the shapes.

 Before heading home on Friday the afternoon preschoolers made poodle skirts and Bobby socks with jeans and then they looked for foods that started with different letter sounds in a photograph of a  diner.  As we looked for something that started with a B we found a burger and when we looked for something that started with the letter M we found a milkshake. Phonics is something you can be working on all the time at home to help prepare your child for reading and it is easy to do.

What's coming up?

• This coming week we will be talking about safety and transportation. We hope to get some visitors from the local police and fire departments in one way or another as well as practice a fire drill (if weather permits) and we will definitely be practicing our lockdown drill with the preschoolers. 

• Since we will also be talking about transportation be sure to know we will be covering planes trains and automobiles too. 

• Don't forget the week of March 26 will be spring break. We will not have preschool that week as the school will be closed.