Applie Pie!

Today we began our new unit, Fall Harvest. We learned about how the seasons change, and that there is a purpose for each one. In fall, the apples, and many other crops are ready for harvest. We talked about how apples grow, the importance of the farmer, and our thankfulness to God for giving us the rain and sun to help the apples grow. We read some really great books about Apples, learned a poem, and best of all, baked delicious apple pies! By the end of the day, it smelled so good at SDS!

How To Make Apple Pies at Preschool...

First, you really have to "smash" the biscuits flat.

Make sure you use all of those little muscles in your hands!

Next, spoon chopped apples on to the bottom biscuit.

Remember, working together is always more fun than working alone!

Now, sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon, add a little pat of butter, and cover with the other flattened biscuit. Then, put them in the oven.

Mrs. Georgia read Ten Apples Up on Top, while the pies cooked. About halfway through the story, we could smell a delicious smell and we knew they were almost done.

Finally, let the pies cool, and enjoy!

Tomorrow we will learn more Johnny Appleseed, stay tuned for more Apple Harvest fun and learning.

A is for Apple!

Today, in three year old preschool, we learned out first letter, A. We discovered what was in the Alphabet Can (ambulance, apple, and alligator), we connected the sound with a movement (alligator chomp with our arms), and we practiced building As with our Handwriting Without Tears wooden pieces. NOW, in the world of 3YO preschool, that is ALOT!

Look at those As! I am so impressed!

In addition to our circle time activities, we stamped the letter A with apples. The boys and girls did a wonderful job with this very messy project! Each week we will be making a letter like these; next week we will use do bubble wrap painting for B. My hope is that families will post these in their home in a prominent location, and use them a learning tool to reemphasize the letters and sounds that we are learning at preschool. If you do not have room to post the whole alphabet, you can place them in a binder and use it like an ABC book. My guess is that the children will love telling their own story! These hands-on projects are very memorable and special to the children. Almost every child said to me, "I can't wait for my mommy to see this"!

I Pledge Allegiance...

One of the main things we work on during the first days of preschool is establishing a routine. We start each day the same way, with our Pledges of Allegiance and prayer time. As you can see, even our "littlest" of learners are becoming familiar with the procedures! Typically, the helper of the day gets to hold the flag. We use this time to teach about why we say our pledges and what they mean.

More Grandparent's Day Fun!

From Over the Hills and Through the Woods...

Today we celebrated Grandparent's Day at Sunshine Day School. Both the Rainbow and Sunshine 4s welcomed their grandparents and special friends for a fun filled morning, complete with breakfast and center time! It was so nice to meet these special family members, who love our little ones so very much.

We have only been in school for a week but we managed to prepare a special gift for each family member, Love Soup! Thank you Mrs. Brooks for helping us assemble these projects, as well as all of the families who donated beans.

Working hard, a labor of love...

The Finished Products

We all assembled in the multi-purpose room, where Mrs. Georgia welcomed everyone, and Mrs. Renee asked a wonderfully sweet blessing.

We all had such a great morning! More pictures will follow, but I couldn't wait to show you how much fun we had!

The First Day of Preschool!

We had "Rainy Day Recess", with lots of silly singing and dancing!

Morning Work with friends.

Today was a wonderfully, terrific, awesome day at Sunshine Day School! It was the first day for 1/2 of our 2s and all of the Sunshine 4s. I was a happy teacher when those sweet little children started filing in the door this morning. There were lots of bear hugs and big smiles, which made my day.

One of my favorite parts of the day happened in the math center. There I have displayed a copy of the book Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I have also placed the bear counters there with some sorting bowls. It is an open invitation for sorting by color or size. In an ideal world, the teacher would read the book to a small group of children, then lead them in a lesson on sorting. Well, guess what! We did it.

Everyone was doing such a good job working in centers- getting along, sharing, cleaning up after themselves, cooperating, playing, learning... that I was able to sit with a small group of children and read the story. Of course, there were the usual interruptions, but all in all is was a great time, snuggled up with a good book.

Once the story was over, we talked about the daddy bears, the mama bears, and the baby bears. We talked about their size, and how we could put them in groups that were the same. We also discussed that this is called sorting! That is a big concept for preschoolers, and they caught on very quickly.

Reading the book was great, sorting was fun, but the best part was the conversation that we shared over the bears. There were children talking to children, and children talking with adults. And the very best part was the cooperation. Not even one disagreement. Only helping, sharing, and developing friendships.

All in all, one terrific day at preschool!

Sensory Tub!

Sensory tubs have long been a curiosity of mine. I know that they are frequently used in the Early Childhood Classroom, I just didn't have enough information on the subject. I didn't know what the purpose was, I just knew that lots of people use them. I came across a FAQ on one of the "Teacher Blogs" that I follow, and decided to check it out. One of the first FAQs was "What is the purpose?"

http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/2010/11/your-sensory-tub-questions-answered.html

I was super excited to be close to the answer to this question :)

Here is what I learned: there does not always have to be a purpose. Clear as mud, right? Well, once I did a little more reading, I began to understand. Sensory tubs provide children with open-ended opportunities to explore with their senses, engage in meaningful converstaions with adults and other children, develop motor and cognitive skills, and so much more! I also learned that I already have one, just on a more basic level. A sand table is a sensory tub in itself. I have been varying the materials in the sand table at preschool, using beans, rice, and Easter grass, now I just need to kick it up a notch!

I saw a picture of a "Back to School" sensory tub and decided to jump right it! As often is the case, Windsor is my test student. I spent a week or so collecting back-t0-school things that I thought might work well in the tub. I sent Nate to the office to shred notebook paper enough times that he says he is not interested in becoming "Parent Volunteer of the Year"!

The only thing left to do is sit down and discover! I am pretty sure that this is one of those that you have to "do" to understand. So , here we go...

As soon as I brought her into the kitchen, she sat down, looked up at me, and said, "Mommy, do you want to play with me?". The very next thing out of her mouth was, "What do we do?" It seems that she had the same question I did... It did not take us long to figure it out.

She picked up the scissors first and asked if she could cut. I said go for it. Her little eyes lit up and she went to cutting. Cutting with a 2 YO takes both hands, so I don't have a picture of this activity. Here she is loving the shredded notebook paper. We talked about how it was "crinkled" and "crunchy"-2 great new words!

The pencil sharpener discovery was the highlight of our time together. She asked me what is was, and I almost took if from her to show her, but then I remembered to give her a chance to figure it our on her own. And that is exactly what she did. At first, she put the eraser in the sharpener, but it didn't work so she turned it around. After about a minute she had figured it out all by herself. She was very proud. We talked about how it could be dangerous if she put her finger in, and I would not let her do this without close supervision.

Here she is "writing" her name on one of the mini notebooks in the tub.

This experience exceeded my expectations. A sensory tub is almost like a choose-your-own adventure. The same child could have sat down with me and had an entirely different experience, which is the beauty of it! I can't wait to share this with the rest of my preschoolers over the next few weeks!

We worked together for about 10 minutes, which is great for a little one! Most surprising to me, was the amount of content that we packed into the short amount of time. I can't imagine a lesson that would teach this broad of a range of subjects. I am listing below the things I can remember that we did..

.

-we TALKED! (language development)

-cut (fine motor development)

-used our senses, the post-its were sticky (vocabulary development)

-opposites, off/on with the calculator (cognitive development)

-used a new tool, ruler (math, vocabulary development)

-orally spelled her name (early literacy development)

-zipped the pencil pouch (fine motor development)

-counted the pencils (building number sense)

-sharpened pencils

We didn't do these things this time, but we could next time...

-identify colors

-sort by color, shape, and type of object

-identify letters and numbers

-measure objects

-manipulate paperclips

-place erasers on pencils