Fall Fun

We have a board game in our room we like to play in the mornings.  The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel is an adorable game that encourages counting, color recognition and fine motor skills. The squirrel, a giant pair of tweezers, steals colored acorns from the tree. Inspired by the game, a few weeks ago we went outside to collect acorns. Of course we had to use tweezers. We then used the acorns for a craft. Dipped in red, orange, and brown paint we rolled the acorns around a box lid to create designs. It was interesting listening to the students discuss why the acorns did or did not roll well. The papers are now cut into leaf shapes and they adorn our Pete bulletin board in the hallway.

We also had fun talking about the difference between insects and spiders. We practiced counting to 8 while we made some adorable spider hats. If only real spiders were this cute!

Hiding on the tree behind the cutest spiders ever you might see a fluffy owl. We had feathers everywhere after this craft.

Our first class party is this week. I'm sure we will be back with lots more pictures.

Until then, enjoy the last few hours of your Fall Break!

And Just Like That We Are Ready to Read

Throughout the elementary grades at St. Monica we use a literacy program called Daily 5. There are five parts to Daily 5, clever name I know :) In PreK 4 we are slowly introducing our kiddos to the parts of this program. One part we have implemented successfully is the "Read to Self" portion. Every day after snack the children take out their "Read to Self" tubs and head to their spot. They are able to spend about ten minutes looking through their self selected books kept in their tub. They also keep the self created books we have made in class. The books we create in class have a predictable pattern and one common sight word that appears on each page. Using predictable texts allows the children to be somewhat independent in their reading. It also reinforces the idea that we are all authors. This week we will also begin delving into our journals. We will try to write in our journals weekly. Eventually we will write daily, but it is only October.

Another part of Daily 5 is "Reading to a teacher". This is new for  us, but we are slowly making progress. Although the words may not always be correct, we are working on turning pages left to right, following text, and understanding that words have meaning. These are all great pre reading skills.

Look how cute we are!

https://vimeo.com/141414701

Our class is participating in a study, piloting a new Math App called Math Shelf. At the end of the study we should have access to the App commercially as well as the written curriculum to go along with the App. It is loosely based on Montessori approaches to math. We are focusing much attention on number sense. The children are using dice fairly regularly in our hands on math activities. It is amazing how quickly they have learned to recognize the standard configurations of numbers. Without even counting dots on the dice many children are able to roll and cover the correct number simply by looking at the spacing of the dots. We are also working on recognizing the numbers in a ten frame. 

An Unexpected Field Trip

Last week did not go exactly as planned. We started the week by creating our 'Read to Self' tubs for our cubbies. Students were able to choose a few books from our class library to keep in their tubs. They are also collecting their self made books to read aloud. The books we are creating are predictable texts with picture prompts to help determine the sentences. Allowing children books to read independently promotes self confidence and established great pre-reading skills. Of course we had a bit of fun too!

We love taking orders with the clipboards at the Pizza Place

As we move forward there will be a few changes to our drop off procedures. We will continue to use our rolling drop off on the playground side of the building for our early morning arrivers (7:30 - 7:45). If you would like to walk your child to class, or arrive for drop off after 7:45 you must park on the south side of the building and enter via door #16, the door near the flagpole. We will run our rolling drop off again for our students arriving for the start of the preschool day (8:45 - 9:00). Again, if you do not arrive between that time frame, or would like to walk your child to class you must park on the south side of the building and enter via door #16. Gabby Gonzalez will be there to let you in.

Dismissal should run as it did before.

A special thank you to Ava and Jordyn for sharing their parents with us on our trip to the Children's Museum Friday. We never attempt taking preschool on a field trip this early in the school year, but the children were amazing. The great news is that we were able to purchase a school membership to the museum, allowing our school students to visit The Children's Museum again throughout the school year for additional study trips. I think we might wait a few months to go back, but now all our students will be able to go, free of charge.

We spent some of our day with our 7th Grade Faith Filled Friday Friends. They were delightful. Below are a few pictures of our time at the museum.

Math the Preschool Way

Each morning we have time set aside in our day that we call 'Learning Stations'. The children rotate in small groups through four activities. Two are teacher led, two are 'on your own'. We are working on developing routines with the children and modeling how to handle small amounts of time on their own. Each station lasts a short seven minutes right now, until we develop a greater work stamina. The 'on your own' stations serve two purposes: teaching the children to work independently and to build confidence.

One station is always on our class iPads. The children are given one app to work on by themselves. These apps are highly engaging and the children really enjoy managing this learning station on their own. The iPads are locked to one app to eliminate opening and closing several apps.

Sometimes it is hard to rotate away from the iPads, but this is a slow learning process. I know we will get there. We do offer the iPads during free play time, but the kiddos rarely choose them for play time. They really love to play with our toys. Even though this makes our room pretty noisy, I love this. Talking and playing alongside friends is why we are together!

The other 'on our own' activity takes place on our rug. The children have Daily 5 and Math tubs with familiar games and activities. All the activities in these tubs have been taught in small groups in the last few weeks. Because the activities are familiar to the children, and are 'games' they encourage the children to participate. We are still working on choosing partners and working the whole time. (We are just barely over 48 months old, so this will take time but with just under a month under our belts we are really doing some amazing things! )This week the children practiced counting and worked on fine motor skills at the same time. The children counted items on a card and used a clothespin to cover the correct number. The cards are also leveled so as the children show proficiency with one set of numbers they can be given higher numbers to master. The object remains the same, but the task more challenging.

     

Our teacher table tasks were quite impressive too. We told the children we were collecting data. They love when their work sounds important. We took turns rolling a Pete the Cat die and recording the number on a bar graph. We introduced the words more, less, and equal. Our basic goal was to correctly identify numbers 0 - 5 but these guys are brilliant. This will be a task we can move to our Math tubs in no time.

In serious thought

This picture captures a tool we use to help manage our time. It is just as much for me as it is for them. At the beginning of each rotation we start the timer. It is also projected on our Smart Board so the students can see it. At the end of our time an alarm sounds indicating to our Teacher's Assistant it is time to ring the chimes. Our assistant announces "It is time to switch" and the kiddos clean up and stand ready to move on. Even though we are still new at this, most of our kiddos are able to predict which station they will move to. Moving locations in a predictable manner helps the children be more successful and independent.

We also have our very own Handwriting Without Tears workbooks. We have completed a few introductory pages teaching the children appropriate pencil (crayon) grasp, correct pressure, and how to trace lines. Before proceeding with numbers and letters in our books we will spend a few weeks using chalkboards, clay, and stamp screens to become familiar with letter formation.

Handwriting Without Tears is a fabulous program, developed by Occupational Therapists. In addition to our hands on tools, this year we are using two digital tools. All our letters are taught and practiced on our class Smart Board. We also have the Wet Dry Try app on our iPads. While the Smart Board tool is only available for schools, the app is available at the App Store. Follow the link below for more details. 

Wet Dry Try App

Did Pete Cry, Goodness No

We have been hard at work in Preschool getting used to our daily routine. We are taking time each day to 'teach' how to use our craft supplies. Eighteen children with scissors and glue all at the same time is the stuff of teacher nightmares, BUT we are handling it like champions. And as it turns out our class LOVES to paint. We encourage the children to wear a smock when they craft, but the choice is left up to them. Some of you may have noticed spots of paint on your darling's clothing.

The children have the option to paint nearly every day in our class. When we have special events we will try to provide clean crafts, but for the most part we are messy. Also, accidents happen. If you have not already done so, please send in a full change of clothing for your child.

We have enjoyed reading books by Eric Litwin. Everybody loves Pete the Cat. You can find fun videos, downloads, and songs on the Harper Collins website.
http://www.harpercollins.com/childrens/feature/petethecat

The children love to read our Pete stories aloud to each other. This is a fabulous way to practice pre reading skills: retelling a story with cadence and rhyme, understanding that text has meaning, and reinforcing the parts of a story.

We are also slowly introducing phonemes. It is our goal to not only teach children to recognize letters of the alphabet, but to also know the sounds letters make. With each phoneme we say the name of the letter, produce the sound of the letter, and incorporate a motion to go along with the sound. We are currently practicing  C /c/ (cupping our hand to our ear), S /s/ (making a snake motion with our hand) F /f/ (fanning ourselves with our hand) and J /j/  (the motion is to jiggle). We would not normally introduce J so early in the year, but we have nearly 1/3 of our classmates with the letter J at the beginning of their name. It was the perfect motivation to learn a sound. We will continue sounds this week with T /t/ O /o/ and A /a/. Whenever possible the children help create the motion to go along with our sounds. As we practice these daily, the children become more comfortable with the sounds and will soon try using them to create their own written text. It is a long process, but this is where it starts.