Welcome to Mrs. Douglas Full Day Preschool Class at Zion Lutheran School!

Magnetic tiles are a popular choice in our class.  What you might not know is that the magnetic tiles are a great way for children to experiment with spatial relationships and reasoning.  An article by the University of Chicago cited spatial relationships as one of the two most important aspect of early math.  (The other cited is numbers and operations.) 

You can increase your child's spatial awareness and reasoning at home too! When doing puzzles at home, or even creating with LEGOs use shape terms (e.g., square, circle), dimensional adjectives (e.g., tall, short, wide, narrow), and spatial features (e.g., curved, straight, corner, edge) with your child. 

Hunter tested which bean was heavier.  This is an experiment that we will might have to continue next week! 

What a beautiful day outside! 

During small group time, we invited Ms. Buerges' fifth grade class into our classroom!  This activity is not only fun, but it allows us to create relationships within our Zion community. 

The fifth grade helped us with our small groups!  We created together in the magnetic tiles.  The fifth grade showed the children how to make new creations, and how to use the magnetic tiles in a different way.  We took pictures of the various creations, and we will post them in classroom for inspiration for the friends. 

The fifth graders also read books with us! 

The children worked with their buddy/buddies to roll a dice, identify the number they rolled (quantify), and then count out that many bears into the cup.  The children worked collaboratively to fill the cup.  This activity strengthens children's counting, one to one correspondence, and quantifying skills.  

During second free choice time, the children put their new knowledge of magnetic tiles and how to use them differently to practice!  Look how much more elaborate our creations are! 

During Jesus time, we reviewed the story of the 12 men spying on Canaan.  We learned a song that helps us remember the story too!  We remembered God is with us wherever we go! 

We went back outside to enjoy a beautiful day!