Routine!

Establishing routine is the key to setting up any classroom.  This is especially true when teaching preschoolers.  Our little learners rely on routine to help them feel secure and confident as they transition from home to school.  

Our routine begins when the children enter the building.  

They unpack their bags and file their notebooks.

They wash their hands and sign their names. 

 We have already seen amazing growth in their name writing in 4 short days!

The helper feeds the fish, then it is off to table choices while the rest of our friends arrive. 

Table choices give us a change to acclimate to the classroom and practice skills we have been working on. 

Circle time begins with a morning meeting, planning session for the day, the pledge, a devotion and prayer. 

Next up, literacy block!

After whole group instruction we break up into small groups for literacy centers.  

Finally, free choice center time!

After all of this work, we are hungry! Snack time!

Math begins with a book and whole group lesson.

I ends with small group and individual practice. 

We end our day on the playground.

We are learning to put on our own helmets! LOL

We end our day with a closing meeting.  We review our day, discuss highs and lows and plan for tomorrow, when we do it all over again.  I love the rhythm of our days and look forward to the routine myself!

Ring the Bell!

Our 4s got off to a great start this school year during their staggered enrollment days.

This time together in small groups allows our students to learn their new routines in detail.  

We learn  how to unpack and sign-in.  We even have to teach the grown-ups what to do!

Once we sign in and wash our hands its time for table choices!

This week we worked with play-doh and the Creature Builders.

Next we got to know our circle time routine!

We say the pledge, read our Bible story, and pray.  

  

Today we spent some time getting to know each other.  We rolled the "My Favorite Thing" dice to see what each person's favorite thing was: color, food, book, game, and animal were all possible choices.  As we took turns rolling the dice the children began to make connections with one another, "I like pink too", "The elephant is MY favorite animal!". 

Next is was time for centers.  We worked in small groups to complete collage self-portraits.  

 

This was a great time for an informal assessment on each child's scissor skills and ability to hold a writing instrument.  

We took some time to learn how to use the learning resources in each center. 

Then we tried them out.

All this learning made us hungry!  We paused for a quick snack and got right back to work.

I think all good math lessons begin with a book!  Today we read From Anne to Zach!

  We discovered that we all have special names with special letters.  

We counted the letters in our names.

Nex we built towers to represent the number of characters in our names. 

Once our towers were built, we personalized them for use in the classroom.

 Finally, we put our names in order from the smallest to the tallest. 

This math lesson incorporated one-to-one correspondence, building number sense, and comparing and ordering numbers.  

The last order of business was RECESS!  

We finally got outside to stretch our legs and explore God's World! 

What an absolutely perfect week at preschool!

Everyone Loves a Parade

Nestled somewhere between our community and transportation units is this fun little Parade week!  It really is the perfect culmination of a month spent learning about our community, making connections to the places we live, work, and play, and discovering our place in the world.  Though our social studies we found that celebration is a common thing among communities.  We may not all celebrate the same things, but we all celebrate!  One way communities celebrate is with a parade!  Perhaps it is the winning football team coming home from the State Championship, or a Christmas parade, none the less, there is cause to celebrate!

We started our week with Donald Crews' Parade. The children loved to making connections between the event depicted in the story and ones they have been a part of themselves.  After one reading the children already knew what they wanted to do, have their own parade!

On Tuesday we brainstormed.  They took what they already knew about parades and added that to what we learned when we read Balloons Over Broadway, the true story of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  

We had a good list of what a parade needs and plenty of ideas about the roles we each would play.

On Wednesday we worked!

N's favorite part of the parade is the fast race cars, so he built one!

Some see us playing.  I see us using numbers in a real world application, honing in on fine motor skills, cutting strqaight lines in a purposeful way...

helping a friend, problem solving, creating, engineering, growing, learning.

Next, the beauty queens got to work making sashes and crowns.

Every queen needs her title, so this little one crowned her self Blueberry Queen and sounded out those words with ease.

The marching band needed a leader with "a stick".  We made the most of this teachable moment and helped our drum major design a baton and of course a feathered hat. 

This member of the band designed her own functioning guitar! 

Every band needs a leader and ours was led by the Color Guard and a flag.

On Thursday the queens finished decorating their cars.

Our drummer made his drum.

And it was show time!

The queens waved,

The race car raced.

The horses pranced,

 The Police Chief kept us safe,

And the Street Vendors kept us full!

We had a memorable day in preschool, and a terrific day in and out of the classroom.