Looking Ahead:
- April 29-May 3 WEEK OF THE YOUNG CHILD
- Monday: Sports Shirt Day-wear a sports shirt of your favorite team
- Tuesday: Favorite Color Day
- Wednesday: Spirit Day- Wear red or white or Zion wear
- Thursday: Stripes Day
- Friday: Mismatched Day
- Wednesday, May 22nd -LAST DAY OF PRESCHOOL
- Thursday, May 23rd -Preschool Popsicles and Playground event, 9-11 a.m. at Laurel Park. (We will not have Preschool that day.)
- Friday, May 24th- NO SCHOOL-SUMMER BREAK BEGINS
Check out some of the highlights from our day!
As we were playing in the Doctor Office today, I asked the children how the nurses can tall each baby's name. The children thought for a second. I asked them if there was a way that we could make sure that each Doctor and Nurse knew each baby's name. One of the friends came up with an idea.
"When my baby sister was born, she had a bracelet on her wrist and foot that had her name on it!"
Another child replied, "We should do that for our babies here so that we all know their names!"
The children worked hard to write name bracelets for the babies. Through this one activity, led by the children's play, the children practiced problem solving skills, writing skills, and letter and sound matching.
Engaging in children's play and providing an opportunity for children to scaffold new information through play is a great way to help children learn and develop.
Of course we read a Pete the Cat book! The children love Pete the Cat! If you would like to download Pete the Cat songs for free, click the link HERE. Clink the link on the right side under "DOWNLOAD PETE THE CAT SONGS"
We reviewed the story of Thomas who doubted that Jesus was alive. We whispered to each other that Jesus is alive, and then we shouted that Jesus is alive! We discussed that we could tell others that Jesus is alive. We sang the song, "God is Not Dead" to help us remember that Jesus is alive!
The children worked together to sequence the Pete the Cat button pictures. They ordered the pictures starting with ten buttons and ending with Pete's belly button! This activity allows the children to again practice counting and one to one correspondence.
We continued to explore numbers and quantities as we did a fun roll and color Pete the Cat activity. The children rolled a di and counted the number of dots. Then, the children identified the corresponding number on the paper and colored that part of the picture. Matching numbers and their quantities is a foundational math skill that will benefit the children as they learn addition, subtraction, and other valuable math skills!
We used picture cards from the story Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes to re-tell the story to each other. "Studies on story recall have found that extended use of the technique of story retelling leads to large improvements in story comprehension, making inferences, and understanding of story structure." (http://www.factsinaction.org)
We each dictated why we love Pete the Cat. We will send these dictations to Pete the Cat to share how much we love his books and music! Hopefully, the author will write us back. The children each signed the letter and prepared it to send to Pete.
The children had a discussion if Pete the Cat was real or not since we were writing him a letter. Some of the children believe that he is real because we are sending him letters, but other children believe that he is just a story character. Here is a snip of the conversation:
Student 1: "Is Pete the Cat real?"
Mrs. Douglas: "Hmm... that's a good question. What do you think?"
Student 1: "Well he must be since we are writing him letters."
Student 2: "Well, we could be sending letters to Pete the Cat, but the writer of the book could be the one who reads them."
Student 1: "Well maybe Pete is real, but we just haven't seen a real picture of him."
Student 2: "Yeah because the pictures in the book are just drawings."
Allowing the children to think through such ideas and thoughts provides an opportunity for critical thinking skills to develop. They are also practicing listening to other's opinions while working on verbalizing their own opinion!
We made our own Pete the Cat buttons today! The children worked hard to cut out the very small buttons. They are developing their fine motor skills!
We also practiced counting and number recognition with a Pete the Cat dot to dot.
No comments:
Post a Comment