Pre k & Letters of the week - December 2015

Hello Blue Room Family and Friends,

A very special shout out to Rachel Bata who has been binding our PreK books. It does take a lot of time to collect, organize and then finally bind the books. I know our kids love to take a look at their projects and reminisce about their hard work. It is a great way to recall our work and develop our long term memory and abstract thinking.

Thank you, Rachel!





For the D week, we are doing dot paint on our work sheet. Dot art was really fascinating to watch. The children's personalities definitely showed through dot art! Some were very focused and precise, some used their whole bodies to enthusiastically move the dot marker, and some made patterns or stamped in unconventional ways. Some used all the colors, while others preferred monotone letters. We love to see their creativity in even the simplest of tasks!














Journal time...












Some of us decided to work on our journal cover.

Tape for letter T.





G is using long strips of tape on her T.





Cutting tape is very tricky because it is sticky on one side and sometimes moves with static electricity.





All the children have many different techniques. B cutting small pieces of tape.





A lining up the tape precisely to fit inside the letter T.

Coloring a turkey for letter T.






We were also learning the number 6 in Pre K. The children in Pre K work very hard to concentrate on skills that they will need in Kindergarten. Holding their pencil, coloring in the lines, sitting in their chair, using their words, following directions, writing their name at the top of their paper, sharing and passing the markers, cutting and being safe with scissors, starting and completing a worksheet and taking pride in their work. Having fun and being excited about learning is the most important skill!





Visual examples are always best!





We are coloring gum drops and Teacher Aimee is always so helpful in Blue Room.





Concentrating






"Please pass the colored pencils."





Working hard.

These pictures are from the last couple of weeks, working on letter D, T and our number 6. We have a big group of children in Pre K and every week we see the children maturing in different ways. It is very exciting to see and be part of your children's development at Creative Minds.

Hugs,

Teacher Kristina

Yo Ho, Yo Ho.... A Preschool's Life for Me!

Hi Blue Room Family and Friends,

Thank you so much for welcoming me back to school with open arms! It was a real gift to be home to spend time with my daughter for her first few months. She is now back at CM with us and enjoying Green Room. She loves to come visit our class and see all of your children's smiley faces! They are so great and gentle with her. I think she remembers their voices from inside my belly, because she smiles and laughs with them every time.

Blue Room started to get interested in pirates several weeks ago, so we decided to dive into learning about them. Teacher Thaovy shared some facts about pirates and gave the children information about how they live. (Of course we skipped over the darker side -- the pillaging and plundering -- and focused more on life at sea and traveling the world.) It all started one day during music and movement, when the children wanted to dance like pirates and wanted to wrap bandanas around their heads and bodies just like pirates do. It was amazing to see their creativity and pirate imaginations come to life!


Arrrrr!!


The children wanted to make a pirate ship - so we did. The ship is great for the children's dramatic play and social learning too.
http://stayathomeeducator.com/the-benefits-of-dramatic-play-in-early-childhood-education/


D and K adding detail to our pirate ship.


Purple Room friends came to help decorate our pirate ship.


Our little ship wasn't big enough for all of us so we decided we needed to make a bigger ship. When we are all standing we can almost fit the entire class inside this one. One of the big social skills facilitated by this pirate ship has been how to coordinate with each other in a small space. Unfortunately the waters got a little rough today and we capsized! Good thing everyone in our class knew how to swim on that blue carpet and we all got to safety. :)

We plan to continue to add more to the ship, and now that the children are into flags so we brainstormed what we should draw on our pirate flag. There were many things that came up to add: hearts, icebergs, snowflakes, treasure chests, pirates, crowns, swords, bananas, Christmas, roses, and peanuts. I love our preschoolers' imaginations! Please feel free to stop in and take a look at the children's pirate flag. It is now attached to the pirate ship.


G, K, and G adding to the pirate flag


A - pointing to her swords


S - making her banana


M - drawing himself holding a treasure chest
G - drawing a huge iceberg

More to come from our Preschool Pirates in Blue Room!

Hugs,
Teacher Kristina & Teacher Thaovy

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