Working hard!

This week was all about careers and the vast options our preschoolers have to choose from when they grow up. Of course if you ask most preschool aged children what their parents do for a living their answer is "work" but we thought we would try to talk about jobs they have heard of and others they may not to give them some ideas for what some people might do in their communities. 

The children are often telling us they want to be police officers or fire fighters so of course we talked more about those jobs this week as the children sorted items they thought to be hot or cold onto posters we hung up in the room when we talked about fire fighters. Then they put out their own fires on houses covered in shaving cream and fire colored paint. If you have any toys in need of a good cleaning this summer put some shaving cream on them and squirt them with water bottles and you will be clean toys and fun at the same time. 

Sometimes fire fighters need to be extra brave heading into fires that might be on dangerous ground. To emulate this we created a "fire pit" out of a kiddie pool, laundry baskets and a piece of wood we borrowed from our applied technology department. The teachers put red and orange streamers in the pool to look like fire and the children took turns showing their bravery as they walked across. 

After our brush with danger we moved on to the career of a musician and made our own mariachi band maracas!  We then used them to play songs at the circle rug and work on our beats and patterns. 

We took a few minutes to draw ourselves and what we might look like when we grow up then made a few surprise documents about growing up and our futures to hang in the room for graduation. Parents will see these the day of graduation and be able to take them home then. Our theme for graduation is,"Oh the places you'll go" and we plan to showcase the many places our little ones hope to someday go to work. 

We worked as police detectives this week as we took our fingerprints with ink pads and looked at the detail of them through magnify glasses. Understanding we all have different fingerprints is a tough concept to grasp but looking closely at them helped. Projects like this are great to save in case some day finger prints are needed in an emergency so parents, we hope you have hung on to them. 

Our police role play wouldn't have been complete without making police badges and hats. Our afternoon children worked on their cutting skills by cutting out their badges before the teachers taped them onto their shirts. 

The afternoon heard a terrific book about the jobs of a crayon and what they are used for in art. This was a silly yet fun way to look at careers this week. After the story we learned about hair stylists and who is supposed to cut hair. We then reviewed the rules of scissors in preschool then set the children loose on toilet paper rolls we had turned into 'clients' in need of hair cuts. Most of the children cut all the 'hair' off of their heads but a few left the hair just a little shorter. 

We learned a lot about the cool jobs scientists have this week as we performed many experiments mixing ingredients to see what relations would come. We worked on these all together at one table and then went to try it in smaller groups. 

We took on the job of construction worker this week as we moved rocks into small piles to clear the 'construction zones' for building. Each child was given a tent to fill with a certain number of rocks. 

Then on to the baking world we went as we made chef hats to help us be seen better in our kitchen. The children decorated their hat bands and chose a color to place on top. Many of them wore their hats throughout that school day. 

We learned about the various locations people with different jobs work and then challenged the children to show us what they learned by placing images of people in the various locations around the room based on their job. We learned that fire fighters report to the fire house, police officers to the station and babysitters to homes and bankers to banks, etc. 

This week we started practicing our graduation songs for parents to hear on graduation day. We will be singing 3 songs during our ceremony to show off some of e fun we have had in preschool this year. Some of these songs are by Dr. Jean who is a terrific children's music performer. Among the favorites this year are the Monkeys and Alligator song, the Cool Bear Hunt and My Mother is a Baker for the morning and Baby Fish for the afternoon. 

We heard a story about a baby bear who had lots of owe ices and needed to go to the doctor. Each time he got hurt the children took turns coming up to place band aids on him. We were excellent doctors and nurses this week!

To make sure we were able to hear the little bear's heart beat we made stethoscopes in the afternoon and were able to pretend to hear each other's heartbeats too. 

Then the afternoon used the rhythm sticks to act out the pace of our heart beats offer we run and when we slow down to rest. 

The morning preschoolers showed off their medical technician skills in the forms of X-rays. Many remembered this from earlier this year in our health unit and really did a much better job placing their bones where they needed to go on their hands. Some used colored Q-tips to create patterns of bones to add some math concepts into their projects. 

We learned about the volcanology career this week too as we created glow in the dark volcanoes!  These were able to be seen under black light and the children and teachers alike were amazed at how cool the volcanoes looked once we turned the lights out!

By Friday it was time to review what we learned about careers and the children in the morning and afternoon were given sheets to use to match the materials people need in various careers. We were very proud of them all as they were able to share with us what person needed what type of equipment in their job. 

We were builders, interior designers and mathematicians this week as well in the afternoon while the children rotated in stations to try their hand at each of these jobs. The engineers built things with Legos, the interior designers decorated and arranged the furniture in our doll house and our mathematicians made patters and solved math equations with our math puzzles. Then we switched to each child could try out each job. 

Before heading home on Friday we played dress up with various career themed costumes. The children dressed up and took turns telling the class what they were and what they did for their job. Then we all put on smocks and took some tools (real and toy based) and painted with them before cleaning up to do one last science experiment for the week. 

Once science was over we tested out a few different building materials to see which ones were the strongest in terms of staying together. We found the magnetic blocks held up better then the foam blocks which also fell over sooner than the large cardboard blocks. Building materials can be so fun!

What's coming up?

This coming week we will be celebrating family with a focus on grandparents, fathers and mothers. Each day we will make crafts and play games related to one of these subjects with an emphasis on grandparent type people, father figures and motherly figures. Just in time for Mother's Day. 

Preschool graduation will be the following week on Wednesday, May 17th with our last day of the regular preschool schedule being Monday the 15th where we will focus on all the places we can go-this summer, next year or some time in the future.