We had a great Thursday in preschool!
We were SO surprised and excited to see a fish bowl in the classroom! But...wait...where is the fish???
The fish was here, just not quite ready to be in the fish bowl. We talked about how the water had been treated and was getting ready for our fish.
After the initial excitement about our class pet, we dove into other fun activities during free choice...
Check out this complexity...there are individual rooms in this creation!
Mrs. Mudd had 7 items. We took a minute to talk about each one and "lock" them in our brains! We enjoyed deciding if each animal we were using could be a pet or not! Then while hidden under a towel, Mrs. Mudd took away 2 items! Our friends' job was to recall what was missing ! We did AWESOME today, didn't miss even once. Recognizing and recalling is an early cognitive skill.
Chapel today was led by Mrs. Helmkamp! We noticed a bunch of butterflies and alleluia papers hanging on the wall. These reminded us that Easter is on it's way! But, before Easter we celebrate the season of Lent, where we take the time to remember and reflect that Jesus died on the cross to take away our sins!
Once returning from chapel our friends had many questions about our fish. What is it's name? (we decided to vote on that next week) Is it a boy or a girl? (boy) What kind of fish is it? (beta)
Do we have food for the fish? Yes, we have a special food for our fish. He won't eat a lot, just a few pellets every other day!
Wait...fish don't have hands, how do they eat? They use only their mouth!
Here we are showing our very best fish lips ;o)
A familiar friend, Elmo, visited on our smartboard. He taught us everything he and his friends know about pets. How to care for them, what they eat, and they need exercise! We even learned what animals make good pets and what animals are better left living in the wild!
Time for small groups (centers)!
We painted with a different kind of art tool today...DOG BISCUITS! Each friend was free to create however he/she chose! As each friend was painting, I took dictation as he/she told me all about his/her painting!
We improved our early literacy skills as we took turns "reading" to a friend!
We improved our sorting skills as each group decided how they were going to sort all of the pets we have in our pet store...by type, by size, by color...there were so many choices!
Earlier this week each friend was given a heart with his/her name and 3 lines drawn on it. Each friend cut his/her heart on the lines, making 4 "puzzle" pieces. Today, with Mrs. Dose, each friend put his/her heart puzzle back together, gluing it on a piece of paper. This activity not only worked our motor development and spatial awareness, it also showed persistence, and the ability to listen to and understand directions.
A little ice and snow sent us to the gym to improve our large motor movements!
Have a nice night and I hope you'll join us again tomorrow!
