Thursday, December 5, 2019

 What a fun Thursday in Preschool!!!

While others were enjoying free choice time, each friend not here yesterday began his/her day with a special check-in!  Each child completed his/her "December My Name" for his/her portfolio.  Each friend could choose whether or not he/she wanted to use his/her name tag for guidance (with some of our older friends, I suggested trying it without his/her name tag, but it was not required)!  While each friend wrote his/her name I took special note of :

pencil grip

right or left hand

copied name or wrote from memory

 We then finished up morning meeting with Wiggle Worm...he is back!!!  Today he brought with him uppercase letters on snowflakes.  If wiggle worm was picked from the bag...everybody WIGGLE, then stop!  Having to stop is tough, but it helps us learn self regulation!

If a letter is picked, that friend told everyone the letter name and the letter sound!

What a perfect morning for large motor time outside!!!

 Time for a little science!!!

We were excited to see that Scientist Mudd had left us an experiment with candy canes!  There were 3 glasses of water and 3 candy canes.  One glass had hot water, one had warm water, and one had cold (ice) water. We observed that all 3 candy canes were the same.  

Each friend then predicted which cup of water would dissolve (or melt) the candy cane the fastest...

 "Cold" had the most with 10 votes, while "warm" had the least with 2 votes!

Time to test our predictions!  

Scientist Mudd put one candy cane in each of the glasses.  We noticed right away that the hot water was fizzing and turning red, while the cold water had barely changed.  Before we had a chance to leave the commons the candy cane in the hot water was almost completely dissolved!

We checked again when we returned to the classroom.  We decided that the warm water candy cane was all white, while the cold water one still had a couple red stripes on it!  We predicted that the warm water candy would dissolve next!

Our prediction was correct!

Once center time was over, we gathered around the sensory table to see what had happened while we were hard at work! All 3 candy canes had dissolved!  We learned that any type of water (hot, warm, or cold) can dissolve things, but the hot water will dissolve the fastest and the cold with dissolve the slowest!

 Time for small groups (centers)!

With Mrs. Mudd we created our own self portrait, "This is ME...in a SNOWGLOBE!"  We used pictures of ourselves to help us remember what we looked like!  While each friend loved looking at themselves and drawing his/her portrait he/she also improved symbolic development, early writing/drawing, fine motor control, and knowledge of self!

Each friend created with different art tools (paper, paint, toilet tube, and fingers).  While creating he/she recognized shapes in his/her artwork and followed multi-step directions.  He/she used the circle at the end of a toilet tube to make a big circle (wreath).  Then, each friend used his/her fingers to make circle or oval "lights" on his/her wreath!

Our Christmas tree numbers were all messed up and we needed them put back in order. (Identifying/recognizing numbers and sequencing are early math skills).  Success for some was being about to put 1 - 10 in order, while success for others was putting 1 - 20 in order!

We have been talking a lot about Christmas and baby Jesus being born on this day in a stable!  Today we planned and worked together to build a stable for baby Jesus.  We had to use our problem solving skills to get the blocks to stay just where we wanted them to be!

We had our first Advent practice in the church with the 3 other preschool classes that will be celebrating with us on December 15. We sound GREAT (and we still have a week to practice)!!!

After being such hard workers and awesome listeners all morning, we got our wiggles out on the preschool playground!

 

During Jesus Time today we thought about what it would be like to have a birthday, but everyone else got the presents.  Most friends said they would be sad, a couple would be angry. This is exactly what happens at Christmas.  It is Jesus' birthday, but we get all the presents!  This reminded us how much Jesus loves us.  At his birthday, He gives us the best present of all...His love and forgiveness.

Have a great night!