The children had a great first week. I was nervous, they were nervous, but we warmed up to each other and I know this is going to be a great year!
It's hot here, so I didn't let the children go outside. In every class, there was at least one child who asked if we were going to go outside and wanted to know why we weren't. I explained why and asked if Mommy or Daddy have been taking them outside and they said, "No." That helped them realize that it's going to be the same thing.
Day 1 (Mon. & Tues.): We finger painted with red and yellow to make orange, the children played with the kitchen and tree house for inside play time, and they put large pegs in the peg boards for center time. They also learned about our rules and routines, played musical instruments, danced, sang, and listened to two nursery rhymes that went with a moving picture board.
Day 2 (Wed. & Thurs.): We finger painted with yellow and blue to make green, the children played with the trains, tracks, town, and people for inside play time, and for centers they played with various blocks - giant cardboard, soft foam, natural, typical wooden preschool blocks, and Lincoln Logs. We reviewed our rules, continued to learn our routine, went over our alphabet, talked about knowing how to read our name and word/symbols like McDonald's, M&M's, Lego, and Stop, listened to three new nursery rhymes with the moving picture board, learned some new songs, and learned about our calendar.
Day 3 (Friday): On the third day, we will focus on special lessons like science and math. We are starting off with learning about our five senses. On Friday, the lesson was on the sense of smell and taste. I sprayed perfume on napkins so they can smell the different kinds as well as sun tan lotion. Then I cut up food, which we smelled, tasted, and ate. The food we worked with are: a lemon, apple, banana, orange, tomato, onion, celery, red bell pepper, peach, cilantro, and pineapple. I have a feeling that some children have refused to try certain foods in the past, but because they saw their friends daring to try the different foods, they did too. I wish my boys were here, because they are so picky. Maybe they too would have tried something new.
Enjoy this week's photos:
Day one - Mon. and Tues.:
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| Time to explore some of the toys. The children requested to play with all of the toys, but I bring out a few at a time, so that they all play together instead of by themselves. Since this is a small group, doing a few toys at a time is not overwhelming and allows them to learn how to work together. |
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| Snack time! We're missing one of our friends. |
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| Here are some of our rules. |
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| Here are some more rules that we work on through the year. |
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| Working together |
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| Directions: mix the red and yellow paint together and tell me what the new color is. |
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| It's neat to watch and listen to the children as they copy and get new ideas from each other! |
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| Show me your hands!! |
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| Time to sing some songs and then play with the different musical instruments. |
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| As they played the musical instruments they liked to be on their feet to move! |
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| This group got ready super fast at the end of the day, so I pulled out these peg boards. They stacked them up high and began trying to see how high they could make their towers. They elicited each others' help to hold. It's so awesome to see this kind of team work! |
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Day 2: Wed. and Thurs.:
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| yellow + blue = ....green!!! |
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| Instead of going outside - they played with trains, cars, people, and the town. |
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| Centers: blocks - large cardboard blocks, heavy wooden blocks, light foam blocks, Lincoln logs, and natural looking blocks. |
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| What an awesome band! I want to buy tickets for the next concert! |
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| Get ready, get set, paint! |
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| Pre-Kers forming a bond. |
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Day 3 Friday:
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| Library time while we are washing our hands. |
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| The table is set up for taste testing and food and perfume smelling. |
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| Smelling coffee beans to help remove other smells from the nose. |
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| Tasting celery. Some of the children were reluctant, but once they tried it, they liked it. It's so great to have children try things like this with other friends. They won't do it for us parents, but they'll do it if they see their friends doing it too. |
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| Smelling the lemon |
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| Tasting and eating a pinapple |
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| Smelling a red bell pepper |
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| A red bell pepper mustache |
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| Tasting the lemon |
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| Oh, my, that's sour! |
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| Sour lemon face! |
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| Sour lemon face! |
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| Miss Esther's sour lemon face! |
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| Sour lemon face! |
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| Another - Sour lemon face! |
