Spring has arrived!

Spring is finally here and the beautiful weather is showing its face to us once again and we are super excited in preschool to see the sunshine!  This week we talked about spring and all we are starting to see in the world around us, like flowers, raindrops, eggs and more. 

We started out the week looking for items we will start to see out in our neighborhoods this spring, like flowers, caterpillars, leaves, etc.  We used magnify glasses to see these items up close and personal before heading off to made our own caterpillars using popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners to work our finger muscles.  If you are looking for a simple and fun activity for your kiddos this summer buy some pipe cleaners and let them get creative.  Manipulating these items does wonders to improve writing and cutting skills by developing the small muscles needed for all these things.

We also worked on finding hidden messages in paper by using water colored paint to brush over the secret messages that were on the paper.  As the children brushed the paint over the paper the words related to spring that were written on them appeared.  The children then identified as many of the letters as possible and if they were able, they would read any as well.

We 'planted' our own gardens this week with our plastic flowers and then attached bees to them to show they understand the job bees do to pollenate them and help our gardens grow.  This was the vocabulary word of the day to learn this scientific process that happens every spring and summer.

After talking about egg hunts from the weekend before we hunted for eggs to match upper and lower case letters.  As the children found parts of eggs they had to also find the correct match to complete the egg and glue it down.  The children did a phenomenal job!

After hunting for eggs on paper to match letters we went outside for some exercise and hunted for eggs all over our yard!  The children are excellent egg hunters!

When we came back in we worked on math with flowers by reading numbers on flowers and gluing the appropriate amount of leaves to the stem.  This not only worked their small muscles working with but also math.

We worked with lady bugs this week by reading numbers on their wings then adding the correct dots.  This activity reviewed the flower activity from earlier to help support success and confidence in the children by doing a different activity that practices the same skills.

After reading, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle and rein-acting it with flannel board story pieces as a class we created our own caterpillars with a variety of items for some process art projects.

After making caterpillars we decided to do a little dramatic play in small groups by pretending to be seeds.  The children took turns as the seed as we covered them up with dirt (a blanket) to plant them then added water (we waved our hands over them to be the rain) and then watched the preschooler 'sprout'.  As the preschooler seed began to grow taller and taller the other preschoolers worked as the sun and rain to help them grow into wonderful flowers!  The children played this game with the teachers over and over again!

Once we finished planting and growing little preschool flowers we made some raindrops on umbrellas to learn this vocabulary word too.  We not only attached rain drops to umbrellas but then we made our own umbrellas and then tested them with one another by holding them over our heads as teachers used spray bottles to make it 'rain' above them and mix the colors of any markers that were used on the coffee filters.

At the end of a very busy week we decorated our own flowers to hang in our classroom as a preschool garden. After we worked on adding color in a variety of ways to these little flowers we started one final spelling project.

Some of the children were able to finish turning letters of their name into sunshines while others took the pieces home for homework and some left it at school to do with us next week.  Turning the letters of your child's name into a project that allows them to sort the letters into the correct order is helpful for spelling and pre-reading skills without the pressure of having to write the letters as well. 

What's Coming Up?

This coming week we will be learning about places and people from around the world.  We are very excited about this week as it is often a favorite.  If you are a preschool parent who has not yet completed the google chart that was texted out, please try the most recent link so we can represent your child/family in our classroom on our bulletin board this week.

Preschool graduation invitations have gone out so please let us know if you need a parking pass or if you have any questions for us.  We are very excited about this special day coming up and will be working on our songs for graduation every day beginning Monday.  Look for text messages with the links to the videos so your child can practice at home as well.