Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Check out our Tuesday in preschool!

A few reminders first...many dates to remember for the end of the year!

Preschool Night at the Park…Monday, May 22 we will have a Preschool Night at the Park from 5:30 - 7:00 at Legacy Park in Cottleville. If you would like to bring a picnic dinner, we have reserved the picnic pavilion. Please note that we will not be providing any dinner foods, BUT new this year…we will have an ice cream/popsicle truck. Please also note that you will need to stay with your child(ren) for the time that they are in attendance. It will be a fun night!

Preschool Closing Chapel(s)…this year preschool will have 2 closing chapels!  You are invited to join us on Tuesday, 5/23 and/or Wednesday, 5/24 at 8:10 am (both days) as we worship together to close out the 2016/2017 school year!

On Friday, 5/19 Zion will be providing...cheese pizza (from Dominos), goldfish crackers, and fruit to preschool for lunch (our treat). If your child does not want pizza or is unable to eat this lunch due to allergies, please have your child bring a cold lunch on Friday, May 19th.

The last week of school (5/22 - 5/24) there is NO HOT LUNCH program.  Your child MUST bring a cold lunch with a drink these last 3 days of school!

The last day of school for preschool is Wednesday, May 24. (Thursday, 5/25 from 8:00 - 10:00 is for grades 1 - 8 ONLY)

Here we go...

We are still loving the kinetic sand! Those that wanted a chance to work in the sensory table patiently waited his/her turn. Kinetic sand is designed to improve fine motor development, sensory development, and cognitive development.  It forms just like wet sand, but give it a little tap and it "melts" right in front of your eyes!  Feel free to try it out the next time you drop off your child(ren)!

 Some friends expressed creativity while painting on something a bit different than usual...big coffee filters!

 We really improved our hand-eye coordination as we built with tiny legos! 

 We were so excited to see that the puppet theater had returned for the rest of the school year!  Play through puppets is a fun way to practice language and social skills with friends!

 Mrs. Dose (and Mrs. Haun) took over for me for a bit this morning while I watched Riley participate in the 2nd - 4th grade spelling bee!  So...wiggle worm visited the classroom for the last time this school year!  Today wiggle worm brought colored shapes with numbers on them.  If a friend grabbed a shape, he/she gave the color, the name of the shape, and the number on the shape!

 If he/she grabbed a wiggle worm...

 Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle and FREEZE!!! It's hard to use that self regulation to stop when we are having so much fun wiggling!

 We headed to a very special chapel service today.

We celebrated new life through baptism as Arian in Mrs. Hoehner's preschool class was baptized.  It was an awesome blessing to be included in this special event!

For a little science we focused on our sense of hearing to figure out what I had hidden in a bag!  Without seeing the objects first, we decided it was pretty tricky to figure out by sound alone (friends from yesterday had an even trickier challenge...they had to keep it a secret until the 4 not here yesterday took a guess)!  However, once we had seen each object, we could close our eyes and figure out what each one was by just hearing the sound!

Paper crumpling, ruler hitting my hand, scissors cutting, staple remover "chomping", a bag of jingle bells, a lid opening and closing, and a book slamming shut!

We started off small groups (centers) listening to audio of the book, "Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons" while following along in the paperback book!  If you're not familiar with this book, check it out!  It's a super fun way to practice literacy skills along with math skills and singing!

Each friend then had the chance to give Pete any number of buttons he/she chose (up to 20)!  First he/she wrote a number next to Pete (improving writing skills and number recognition), then had to draw that same number of buttons on Pete's shirt (connecting numerals to their quantities).  Finally, each friend could color the rest of Pete however he/she desired!

With Mrs. Dose, Pete was visiting their center with a number (from 0 - 10).  As each friend was given a number, he/she had to tell Mrs. Dose the number received.  Then, they got to place that number of real buttons on Pete's shirt!

It's been awhile since we had a chance to "read to self".  So, we did a little relaxing on this sunny day and practiced "reading" on our own.  No, they didn't actually read the words, but practiced using a book correctly (holding correctly, turning pages from left to right, starting at the beginning of the book, and using pictures as clues to tell the story).

We finally headed outside to enjoy some well deserved wiggle time, getting our bodies moving!