Monday, April 3, 2017

We had a fantastic Monday in preschool!

While others were enjoying free choice time, each friend began his/her day with a special check-in!  Each child completed his/her "April My Name" for his/her portfolio.  Each friend was given the choice to write only first name or first and last! While each friend wrote his/her name I took special note of :

pencil grip

right or left hand

copied name or wrote from memory

did he/she know the letters in own name

More silly rain, mud, and puddles to keep us inside this morning. So, we got our wiggles out in the commons with Mrs. Lohman's Preschool class!

We noticed that another month has come and gone...it is now April!!! Our March pie graph had been colored in! We compared March to all of the other months.  We noticed that each month was different, but that January and March had all of the same types of weather.  For March alone we agreed that sunny and cloudy were the same, and they also had the most.  While snowy had the least.  Being able to compare and understand more, less, and the same is an early math skill!

To wrap up morning meeting there were 6 Easter items, but some looked the same except for being a different color!  We studied them, reviewed the colors, and locked them in our brain.  Then, I covered them with a blanket and took 1 away...what was missing?  Taking one away couldn't fool them, so I took 2 away.  Two was a bit trickier!  Recognizing and recalling is an early cognitive skill.

Davis returned the favorite book bag today, bringing in "Good Buddies" to share with us!  We loved hearing from Davis about his favorite part of the book, and seeing his drawings.  We then enjoyed hearing the story as Mrs. Mudd read it to the class.

This activity is one way to encourage the love of reading.  Also, this activity allows the children (and teacher) to be introduced to new books!  Furthermore, it helps to continue to build home and school connections!

Time for a little science!

I blew up a balloon and tore up some paper.  Then asked what would happen when I rubbed the balloon on Jack's head and then held it over the paper?  We made our predictions, then tested them!

We saw that the papers "flew" up and stuck to the balloon.  

We did a similar experiment with a plastic spoon, a metal spoon, a piece of wool fabric, and salt and pepper.

Rub the fabric on each spoon and what will happen when I hold it over the salt and pepper?

Only the pepper stuck, but not the salt, to the plastic spoon!

 And...nothing stuck to the metal spoon!

 We learned that there were no magnets, glue, or gum making these things stick together.  It was static electricity!  Static Electricity is a special kind of electricity. It can be made by rubbing some things together.  And...did you know...lightning is a kind of static electricity in the clouds!

Time for small groups (centers)!

We had some decorated eggs that were all mixed up!  First we sequenced them from smallest to biggest.  Then biggest to smallest!  Then, we noticed that some of them were decorated the same, so we sorted the eggs by decoration!  Sequencing and sorting are both early math skills.

With Mrs. Dose, we had to help the plastic eggs be put back together again!  Each friend was given the bottom half of the egg with a lowercase letter.  His/her job was to say the letter and the sound it makes, then find the matching uppercase letter and snap the egg back together.  Not only did we practice recognizing/identifying letters and their sounds, putting the eggs together is great for improving small motor control!

Time for a little rhyme!  We love the tiny rhyming puzzles.  Find the 2 pictures that rhyme and they fit together to make a small 2 piece puzzle.  Rhyming is an early literacy skill!

We had a little extra time before our time in the gym...so we worked on setting up a...Doctor's office!

We are ready to see our first patients tomorrow morning!

 And...just when we thought we might sneak in a little time outside...it was raining again!  So, off to the gym we went...

During Jesus Time today we learned the story of Easter morning.  The earth shook and an angel appeared.  The angel rolled the stone away from the tomb! Two of Jesus' friends went to the tomb and were a bit surprised by the angel.  The angel told them, "Don't be afraid..."  The two women looked in and Jesus was not there!  He had risen, He was not dead anymore!  Jesus is more powerful than death. Because He rose from the dead, you will also live again!!!