Size and Shape.

Halloween Countdown: Two more days!!

In school today we talked about sizes and shape. We learned the differences by putting together a pumpkin book.With each page we talked about what made that pumpkin special based off of the way it was formed. Another activity we worked on today was sizing our rectangles. Every child was given a handful of rectangles in all different sizes. They took those pieces and found where they fit on there paper, they then worked on gluing each one down where they belonged. You can easily work on learning sizes from home. Here is a great web sight with a ton of fun actives to show how to practice leaning about sizes.  Check it out at: http://www.ideasforpreschoolers.com/size.

Practice, Practice, Practice! 

Have a great day! 

-Megan

5 Little Pumpkins

One week until Halloween!!

Today in preschool we continued on with our pumpkin lesson from yesterday. The kids had a great time making their very own book on the growth of pumpkins. In there books each page resembled a new stage in a pumpkins life. Our first page showed how a pumpkin started out as a tiny little seed and  then eventually grew over time just like they do. 

After our lesson on the growth stages of a pumpkin we moved onto making pumpkin patches based off of the book "The Five Little Pumpkins". I found it pretty funny how most of the kids knew what was happening in the book before I would even read it...clearly "The Five Little Pumpkins" was proven to be a Halloween favorite!

Baby News: 

Shying away from preschool a tab today I sat all of the one year old's down in a circle and we had our own session of "school".

As I read aloud Elmo's version of "Eyes, Nose, Fingers, and Toes" I had the little ones mimic my movement and point to the body part I read aloud. This as you can imagine was pretty funny. At one point I even had a little girl go around the circle and point out everyone else's eyes and nose after she had just found her own. Doing this together also gave them practice on how to say the words. We worked a lot on breaking down the word so they could get used to the feeling it made on there lips. 

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

-Megan

Pumpkins!

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN: TEN DAYS REMAINING!! 

Oh, Oh, Oh, Its a jolly old day for a pumpkin! WOOOOOO! 
Hello, I hope all of you have had a great day. Hopefully you and the kids aren't too tired from our first day back after having such a long weekend with MEA. Today in preschool we had a pretty fun topic to hold everyone's attention; Pumpkins! 
We did pumpkin everything  We started out the day by talking about our pumpkins that we have at home. This discussion included going around the table and saying if your pumpkin was big, small, fat, or thin. Then we went onto learning a brand new pumpkin song,making our very own jack o lanterns, and talking about what letter pumpkin started with. Which then led to focusing on our letter P for the day. We chose the colors pink and purple to color our letter P's and then really got creative by adding polka dots! (I bet you can make the connection) As an extra special treat the kids even got to indulge themselves with a perfect mid-morning snack of popcorn. YUM! 
After our treat we went back to talking of pumpkins and worked on listing everything that a pumpkin can be made into. While we brainstormed the kids listened to a story on the circle of life for a pumpkin. I even found this interesting and wanted to learn more myself. Did you know you can grow a  natural blue pumpkin! Look at this web sight if you want to learn more. I found it pretty interesting. http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-for-your-home-garden/outdoor-living/the-many-colors-of-pumpkins.html 

Homework for the week: If you don't already have a pumpkin at home make a trip to the store and carve or decorate your pumpkin. If you want to take the craft one step further find a fun recipe that would use your pumpkin ( the kids should be able to tell you plenty!)
If purchasing a pumpkin isn't for you don't worry you still have other options. Here is a fun web sight with a list of Halloween crafts you can make from everyday household items. Get creative!! http://www.craftelf.com/halloween-crafts-3.html 

Thank for reading! Have a great day!
Ten more days until Halloween!! Yay!

Fire!

Stop! Drop! and Roll!

Get Low! and GO! 

These were the chants Mary and I worked on embedding into your preschoolers minds yesterday. If you don't already know, this month is fire safety month and fire safety is exactly what we have been focusing in on this week.  For our craft we made our very own fire trucks, along with play cell phones where we practiced dialing our emergency number (9-1-1).  I did my very best to emphasize that 9-1-1 can only be called in a real emergency, so please do not blame me if there is an incident with dialing the number themselves. 

Homework: Fire safety is extremely important. Having a plan of what to do in case of an emergency in your home  is crucial to keeping your family safe! Together sit down and draw out a plan of what to do and where to go in case of an emergency. Make a set "safe zone" to go if there is ever a fire in your house. Also, evaluate how well your child knows important information like there address, phone number, and emergency contacts in case they were ever lost and you weren't around.  I know this may sound like a lot but it really is important, and you will be so grateful you took the time to go over it all if something ever were to happen. 

Have a great weekend, and stay safe!

Community Helpers

Happy Monday Everyone!

This week at preschool we have been spending our time talking of the wonderful community helpers we see around town. Towards the end of the week last week we covered the duties of dentists, librarians, doctors, nurses, teachers, and firemen. Today we continued our community helper lesson by talking about police officers. Our lesson included making our very own police man hats and discussing the duties of the job. At one point in the day the realization dawned on the kids of how everybody at the table had a parent who acted as a helper to the community, and oh boy were they excited! They were just giddy at the idea that their very own mom's and dad's were the same kind of helpers we have been discussing all week! 
Aside from our community helper lesson we also learned  about letter H.  Thankfully this was one of the easier letters to write, so the kids took pride in the fact that they were able to make them all by themselves.
Notice: Starting this week each child will be given a weekly job that they will be responsible for. I'm hoping this will bring forth a sense of accomplishment as well as show the importance of being a good helper to others. 
Homework: Talk with your child what things they can do for you around the house. By adding in responsibilities now your not only setting your child up to be a good person but it will also lessen your work load. 
Have a great rest of the day! 

-Megan

Review Day

Review Day! Yay!

Today as we bring in the new month of October, your preschoolers and I took a few steps back and reviewed everything that they learned within the past month. It was quite interesting to watch the little faces each child made as they tried to recall everything that they learned a month ago.  Here is just a refresher on some of the things we really focused on.

Review of September:

·    Letters: A, F, M

·    Numbers: one and two

·    Colors: Red and Yellow

·    Pattern: A, B

Tonight’s Homework:

Each child was sent home with a parent letter instructing different ideas on how to continue their child’s learning from home. The more you review with them the better they will be able to understand each lesson.  

Helpful Tip: Store your review sheet somewhere safe and come back to it periodically as the year progresses. It will be fun to watch the progress each child makes along the way.

If you have any questions about how your child may be changing or certain behaviors you’re unsure about, take a look at this developmental website. I found it pretty useful; I hope you have the same luck.
http://www.howkidsdevelop.com/behaviorPrek.html

Happy Monday!

Two, A, Apple.

Hello,

I hope you are having a great week! I apologize it has been so long sense my last post. It has been crazy these past few days!  Here is just a small recap of everything that we accomplished here at preschool this week.

Monday: Letter A! We practiced making our big and little A’s. Along with gluing alphabet noodles onto our big A’s as a fun craft for the day. Another notable lesson we learned today was fallowing directions to make a picture. I started by giving simple directions like to circle the left balloon and then color one red and one yellow. You can continue doing this from home by giving step by step directions to complete a special task. I guarantee your preschooler will be delighted when the task is finished and there able to say that they did it all by themselves.

Wednesday: Number Two! Today we focused on number two. We started out the day by coloring our cardboard two’s and then taking pipe cleaners and bending them into the shape of a two. While we worked on our craft we came up with everything that we have two of. After that was done we moved away from the number two and made our red and yellow pattern sticks. This turned out to be a fun task to watch everyone concentrate so hard on alternating between red and yellow.  

Thursday: Today we talked about Johnny Appleseed! We opened up the day by discussing what our favorite color apples were and then we took a look at the inside of an apple. After some pretty intense investigating we decided that the shape reminded us of a star. We then moved onto making our own paper apples along with reading “The Dappled Apple” and “The Apple Book”.  My favorite part of the day was talking about the story of Johnny Appleseed and his memorable choice of hat. The kids thought it was pretty silly that someone would wear a pot on top of his head. Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed!

Here is a little poem we learned today in school!

-A little red apple 
Hung high in a tree. 
I looked up at it, 
And it looked down at me. 
"Come down, please," I called. 
And what do you suppose? 
That little red apple 
Dropped right on my nose!

Have a great weekend! See you all on Monday!