Let the Preschool Begin!

We started preschool today with our playgroup friends here at Little Adventures Preschool.  It was so much fun!  We started the day learning about how to come in and what to do first thing in the morning.  I always start our day with puzzles.  At the beginning of the year they are peg puzzles (like what's pictured below).  Toward the end of the year we get into more complicated 24 or 48 piece puzzles.

 We learned how to sit and listen to a story and also practiced looking through our own books.  It's important that preschoolers start handling books correctly.  Hand them the book upside down and backwards and see if they switch it around to open it up.  Then work on turning the pages one at a time and pointing out the words and pictures on each page.  As you read stories to your preschooler you should be pointing to the words you're reading to demonstrate the connection between print and language.

 We hardly had any spills in snack time today!  As the first day of learning how to pour their own water and serve their own food they did fantastic!  We work with the preschoolers to understand how much quantity to pour in their cup and to serve on their plate.  It takes time and practice, so we do this every day.

 After snack is a fantastic time to work on self help skills.  We clear the table by taking all our own items over to the sink.  We'll work on everyone washing their own spot at the table after we've had a few more days in preschool.

 I printed each child's name in bubble font and glued it inside their notebook for the school year.  Today we explored crayons, pencils and markers while decorating their name.  Many kids chose to trace the letters of their name as well as color the page around their name.  We talked a lot about pinching your writing tool with your thumb and first finger and letting the other three fingers rest underneath it.

 We jumped right into math time with learning about the quantity of 1 with The Napping House.  In my preschool pack for Welcome and Back to School there are oodles of printables to facilitate all of these lessons, including pieces to act out the Napping House on a felt or magnetic board. The kids love this story and we read it twice in class.

We talked about sound throughout the whole day.  Listening to the different sounds in our environment helps us start listening to language and the pieces in language.  The beginning stages of reading and understanding words and sentences are based in this listening to sound.  We certainly enjoyed the free play with all the instruments at the end of the day.

I'm so thrilled to be back in school and I think we had a fantastic first day!  There is so much that little ones can learn in the early years.  If you're interested in teaching your own little at home or need a supplement for your day care or preschool check out the Aug-Dec preschool pack bundle of all the lesson plans you'll need to get your littles off on the right foot.