Families

We had such a fun day today learning about families.  We were reviewing the letters M T and A today in our morning class.  I used a company called Create Jigsaw Puzzles to have each child's family picture made into a professional puzzle.  They turned out so fantastic!  Each child has their puzzle as homework.  Keep them at home and do them over and over again.  The minimum goal by the end of the 3 year old preschool year is to be able to do a 12 piece puzzle.

 We had fun with our reading lesson today practicing being a blender (like the video from last week).  We are practicing words like: at, am, mat, tam.  We talked about 'tam' being a nonsense word that isn't real but fun to read.  In math we started talking about ordinal numbers.  We talked about first, second and third.  At home point out different situations like: Mom will be served fish for dinner first, Daddy second and EMan third.  It was fun to watch the 3 year olds explore drawing people.  Some have been drawing people for a while and others are brand new to the idea.  We talked about the different shapes that make up bodies and how to draw them.

Our afternoon 4 year old class got much bigger puzzles.  Unfortunately the options available are pretty much 12 pieces or 100 pieces so we jumped to the big size. This is a REALLY big challenge that kids sometimes don't master until they are 5, 6 or even 7 years old.  Practice with them at home to make your fun family photo puzzle.

We had a great reading lesson with the letter S this afternoon.  We are continuing the strategies from the video posted last week.  Sound out each word slowly, reread the word quickly, move to the next word.  At the end of the sentence go back and reread the whole sentence quickly.  This strategy may seem very repetitive right now, but the books get much harder in the next few weeks and we'll benifit from practicing this way.  Some of our afternoon kids are working on the Moffatt Girls Ready2Read level 1 and are just about done with unit 1.  We're excited to move into the next word families!  We're still working on mastering counting one-to-one in preschool.  Today we played with the pattern blocks while counting.  We also built towers, forests, dragons and other cool things with the shapes.

We had a great day of learning!  I look forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday!

Manners

What a fantastic day of learning!  We continued working with the letter M today and had a fantastic group reading lesson with the M book on the SmartBoard.  We each took turns reading the pages of the book and demonstrating the skills that good readers do.

 1. Good Readers Look at the Letters

2. Good Readers Point to the Letters

 3. Good Readers Say the Letter Sounds

4. Good Readers Listen to the Sounds They Made

 Keep practicing using all of those skills when you read your beginning reader M book from the Amazing Action Alphabet.  We also had a fantastic conversation with a few books and posters guiding our discussion about manners.  We talked about how different actions make us feel (hitting=sad, sharing=happy, etc.).  The kids LOVED their Popsicle stick happy and sad faces and used them to show me how characters in books were feeling and how they would feel if a particular thing happened to them.  We had our first handwriting lesson today about how to hold a pencil.  We practiced the chant from the back of their name writing page to pinch the pencil and put it into place.  PLEASE help your child hold their writing tools in the correct tripod grip.  If you need me to show it to you please ask!  We had so much fun with our math lesson today.  It involved M&M's and captured their interest quickly.  We talked about what "the same" is.  I had one plate and I gave one to EMan.  Do we have the same number?  Etc. After we all had plates we got mini M&M's (3 each) and talked about how we had the same amount.  Color is hard to separate at this age for this concept.  I could see their little brains thinking, "I have green, she had brown, we do not have the same."  We worked through it a bit and understand that it's just an introduction that we'll revisit for understanding later.  One activity we did was hold up 2 (or 1 or 3) fingers on each hand and touched them to each other.  If they all had one to touch they were the same.  If any fingers were left wiggling they weren't the same.

 Preschool B also worked on handwriting today for the first time.  It took unexpectedly much longer than I had anticipated.  We discussed the proper way to hold a pencil and the different lines of the writing grid.  Remember that to aid kids in writing their writing paper has a top line (sky line), a bottom line (grass line), and a middle dotted line (branch line).  This helps us learn to size the different parts of the letters correctly.  Today we only practiced writing letter M.  We did both capital M and lowercase m.  If you work on handwriting at home (on a whiteboard or on paper) please encourage writing the letter m for the next week.

We also worked on the skills that good readers do.  We talked about how we make the sounds of the letters and if we blend the letter sounds together our ears can hear the word we're reading.  We'll be going at a slower pace with learning the alphabet and reading than I had originally intended.  Please look for an email soon with the new calendar and an explanation of details.  We need to make sure we have these basics down solid before we move on!  We had such a blast with math today.  Similar to the morning class we had mini chocolate chips (white/dairy free chocolate of course) and talked about "More" and "Less".  Zero is an interesting part of our conversation as it seemed difficult to understand more and less in the terms of has something and has nothing.  Use the vocabulary "More", "Less", and "Equal" for the next couple weeks around the house to help kids fully grasp this concept.

Have a great Labor Day Monday!  I look forward to seeing everyone again next Wednesday!

I Am Special

First off, THANK YOU to all the wonderful families of Little Adventures Preschool.  Yesterday was a busy day learning about the program that CJ gets to attend on Monday's and I appreciate the willingness to allow the one time change to school being on Tuesday.

Today we had a blast learning the letter M.  We talked, sang, danced, and traced letter M.  We learned all about M the Moose and how he just loves his Meatballs!  Be sure to grab the flip chart and review letter M at home with your preschooler.  Also, take out the alphabet cards (they were in the binder, PLEASE take them out) and display letter M somewhere.  I added magnets to the back and stuck them on a whiteboard.  Do what works for you!

 We also made fun phonics headbands from the Moffatt Girls.  The kids loved wearing the headband/crown all day.  For art we traced over our names with a paintbrush and glue and added glitter to them.  It was a fun and sparkly activity!  We spent lots of time talking about our "Star Student" posters.  We talked about how everyone is unique and special.  We had fun finding out favorite colors and how many people are in each family.  We hung the posters up in our classroom and will return them in a few weeks.

 We practiced the sign language for letter M and had an introduction to hand bells lesson.  Boy were those loved!  Check out our facebook page for a fun video.

This afternoon we got closer to being settled in to a groove.  I'm still sorting out the details of what each child needs, but we're really close!  We had a fantastic time listening as each child shared about themselves on their posters.  They talked about the photos and the pictures they drew and it was fun to compare favorite colors.  We read our new book "The Day the Sheep Came" and worked on highlighting letters and words we could recognize in the book.  It's a fun story about how the sheep is a different animal, but they are all barnyard animals and like to play together.  It tied in nicely with our conversation about how each of us is special.  We worked in our reading teams today for small group lessons.  Please check your child's binder for the homework.  There aren't any worksheets, but there are reading books.  You should be reading each book 3 times a night.  Please focus on the letters we've already talked about in class (M, T, A, and possibly S, B).  Help your child remember their names and sounds by reading the flip chart story and supplementing with anything else you have at home. PLEASE take the flip charts out of the binders and keep them at home.  We don't need them here and they are in the way in the binder.

We had an AWESOME lesson in math today.  It simply didn't get photographed :(.  We talked about the word "SAME" in relation to quantities.  It took a theatrical teacher, but I think they finally got to the point that we all agreed that 1 is the same as 1, 2 is the same as 2, 3 is the same as 3, and so forth.  Then our new vocabulary word "EQUAL" came into play.  We patted our legs as we chanted, "Equal means the same" over and over.  Ideally, tomorrow we can build off that concept and talk about more and less.  It's a fun lesson to do with the kids, they always love it.
We also got to do glitter for art today.  I wrote the kids names on word strips and they traced the letters with glue and added glitter.  Music was quite interesting today as they were allowed to play with all the musical toys we have and they formed their own band.  It was fun to watch as they organized themselves to "play" and "be quite" at the same time.  What smart kids!

Families - A Preschool Review of MTA

We had oodles of fun in school today.  It's a letter review week and our theme was Families.  Each child started the day with puzzles of their own families that they had to put together.  They loved it and many of them kept hold up puzzles pieces and saying "This is my Mommy."  It was so cute! 

We talked about all the shapes that make up bodies and had a little art lesson about using the shapes to draw something.  We drew ovals for heads, rounded rectangles for bodies and arms/legs.  It was fun to go around the room and write down some details about what they were drawing. 

We worked on sounding out letters in words today since we're reviewing all the letters we've learned.  One strategy is to drive a car under the letters and while the car is under a letter we say the sound of the letter.  The car can drive on the street over and over while the word gets faster and faster. 

 We also had an introduction to numerical order today.  We started talking about first, second and third.  This isn't something that many preschoolers will master, but introducing the vocabulary is great at this stage. 

Feelings 9-5-13

We had a great day talking all about feelings and emotions.  We watched a few short clips from Sesame Street about the different feelings and emotions we can have. 

 We played with mirrors and tried to make our faces match the faces of the main character in "Funny Face" a great book all about emotions.

 We are working on our understanding of sound and listening to sound.  Today we played a game where the iPod was playing a quiet song and while the kids closed their eyes I hid it somewhere in the room.  They each got a turn to try and find the iPod simply by listening to the sound.  It is a surprisingly difficult game for 3 year olds to play, yet it's super fun for them and they feel so proud of themselves when they accomplish the goal.  Try playing it at home with your little one!

 Our art activity today was the same activity as yesterday with the toddlers.  Due to a request for what songs we listened too, I took video segments today of their art so you can see how it progressed.

 In math we're working on the quantity of 4.  We played with monster finger puppets (up to 4 each) and practiced counting them as they received them one at a time.  We also made our puppets talk about what feelings and emotions they have.

 At the end of the day kids were also able to play with the emotion bean bags and the hand puppets to talk all about emotions.  It was fun to focus on colors all day and how different colors can represent different emotions.

Feelings - Tot School 9-4-13

We had oodles of fun exploring feelings today in school.  We talked about all of the different emotions we could feel.  We had little stress balls (balloons filled with corn starch) that the kids love squishing and exploring. 

 I also love my Discovery Toys Emotions Bean bag set with bowls.  We played with them on a Lazy Susan and it had the kids playing and exploring all day long!

 With toddlers I try to provide a number of different activities and as they are interested in something they can play with that and move at their own pace.  We love our peg boards!

 Outside we scooped, measured, poured and squished dry rice.  We had emotion puppets that we put into the rice (with Popsicle sticks) to continue with the theme.  Find all the tools for the Tot School Feelings day here.

We also explored the play dough again, though it didn't hold their attention as long today since I didn't pull out the scissors. 

 One of the last things we did was paint to music.  I'm having some iTunes issues so we didn't have all the feelings songs that I wanted to play, but we free explored the finger paint anyway.

 What's a day about feelings without playing with mirrors?  The toddlers love looking at themselves in the mirrors and seeing the reflection of different items around them.  It was so much fun!  Have a great week and remember to practice letter M at home.

Emotion Songs Playlist:

You can use any music you have on hand, but these are the songs I tend to use:

Aretha Franklin - This Bitter Earth - Sad/Blues

Count Basie - One O'Clock Jump - Happy/Joyful

Nora Jones - The Long Day is Over - Tired/Quiet

Stevie Wonder - Superstition - Playful

Abba - Mama Mia - Upbeat

Beatles - Yellow Submarine - Upbeat

Bach - Ave Maria

Beethoven's Symphony No. 9

Mozart - Pachabel Cannon in D

Mozart - The Magic Flute - Powerful

I don't listen to all of the songs, but do a little bit of a preview of them while the kids play.  I hope that helps!

M Preschool Review

We had a delightful review day in preschool.  We were able to take our time working on lessons that didn't get enough time in the first 2 weeks.  We're moving up to multiple piece puzzles already when we start our day, which is fantastic!

 We didn't get to do our M the Moose Art last week from the Amazing Action Alphabet, but we got to work on it today while I had each child read their M book to me individually.

 It is very important that preschoolers master the 4 skills a reader does:

1. Look at the letters
2. Point to the letters
3. Make your mouth say the sound of the letter
4. Listen to the sounds with your ears

Even though the very first reader books looks really simple it is crucial that your child masters all 4 of these skills right away.  (If you aren't doing the mini reader books from the Amazing Action Alphabet you are truly missing out.  They are the key to teaching littles to read so easily!)

There are also other things you should be aware of when your little one is reading books to you.  Hand them the book upside down and backwards.  Can they flip it right side up and forwards?  Are they pointing at the letters they are sounding out (not the adult)?  Are they turning the pages appropriately (ie: one at a time in the right direction)?  Are they reading the book from beginning to end without much prompting to refocus?  If they're having a difficult time focusing on reading perhaps they aren't quite ready yet. Are they having fun and enjoying the time with you?

 We also got to make "M Headbands" from the Moffatt Girls.   We had oodles of fun coloring, cutting and playing today!

 We practiced counting 4 items (monster stickers) and got to play maracas for music time as we talked about volume.  Keep up the great work at home!  This is such a fun age to work with!

Preschool Manners

We had such a fun day learning about manners and reviewing the letter M today.  One really fun activity that I do with the kids is give them magnifying glasses and search all over the room for the letter we are currently learning.  Then we use highlighter tape to mark the letters we find.  It's an important stage for preschoolers to start pointing out letters that they recognize in their environment and this encourages them to do it. 

 We followed the Preschool Manners lesson plans and read some stories with characters that acted with and without manners.  We learned how when people act with manners it helps everyone feel happy.  When we don't use manners it makes us feel sad.  As we read the stories kids held up their smiley face or sad face to match how the characters were making them feel.

 We enjoyed popcorn, hot dogs and peppers for lunch today.  We're working every day on serving ourselves and pouring the correct amount of water into our cups.  We're doing fairly well.

 After snack we acted out different situations for a photography book of manners that I'll be putting together tonight.  When you act different situations out and take a picture of it children relate and understand the concept a little more comprehensively.

 As we continue with our math curriculum we're starting to work on one-to-one correspondence as well as equality in sets.  Just matching one baseball with one glove, or one flower to one vase does the trick.

Enjoy the long weekend with your preschooler, and happy learning!

Toddler Manners

We had a fantastic day in tot school today.  We were talking all about manners and how we can be good friends.  We talked about sharing and how we can treat our friends. 

 The letter of the week is M.  We learned all about M the Moose in the Amazing Action Alphabet.  We traced the letter M and made M Watches from the Moffatt Girls.  Most kids loved sporting their watches all day long.  Encourage your little one to find the letter M throughout the house in children's books and on signs in the environment.

 I laminate the back of the watches and add Velcro as a closure.  To laminate just the back of a page I laminate two pages at a time, printed side facing each other, with a blank page in between the pages.  They are slightly more durable this way and yet they are still able to be colored.

 We enjoyed the shape stamps and stamp pads outside in the nice warm weather today.

 We played with a letter M stamp and practiced tracing it with our fingers.  We talked about the color of the ink pads as well as the shapes we were playing with.  There was also plenty of book reading, sandbox and play house fun as well as riding bikes.  It was a great day!