First Week 2013

This is our third year, but it's the first year where I have two assistants and we expanded to 12 students in each class.  It's been a lot of fun and we're fine tuning our routines to make every transition go smoothly.

For each class, we learned what our routine and schedule is like.  The Tu/Th class is the class where most students are new, so most of the students in the M/W/F class knew exactly what to do.  However, we did change how some things are done, which means they have to relearn a routine.

In both classes, we practiced what to do in case a fire broke out.  We practiced escaping out the front door and out the side gate from the backyard.  In the preschool class, we also practiced ducking and cover for an earthquake.

In the K-Prep class, we listened to the book- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Rainbow Fish, and an interactive telling of Rainbow Fish and There Was an Old Lady.  For phonics, we went over our letters and sounds, talked about what we can read like our names or McDonald's because of the arches (clue).  We watched a puppet split compound words and we had to put them together and we put together other words that had it's first sound separated from the rest of the word.  For writing, we are tracing dotted lines that follow the appropriate development of preschool/pre-k hands.  For the arts - we acted out "Going on a Bear Hunt", sang some songs, and make a tissue paper rainbow fish on contact paper.

In the Preschool class, we played with trains, tracks, blocks, towns, and wooden people and learned how to build and play together.  We also learned how to play with gears, connectors, and magnetos in small groups.  For story time, we read nursery rhymes.  For art, the children fingerpainted with the color yellow.  **For this class, the children will be learning how to use their fingers, art tools, paints, markers, glue, tissue paper, and other fun materials.  The outcome of the art might not be something you can put on your refrigerator.  If a student paints so hard that they put a hole in the paper - that is a GOOD thing :).  They are learning what happens if...  In fact one student did that I didn't stop him.  I let him keep going.  He was thoroughly enjoying himself.  He could end up being a great artist who understands how to manipulate paint, paper, and pressure and creates a masterpiece all from what he learned in preschool :)!!!  During music time, we sang some preschool favorites.

Here are some photos from this week:

In the week coming up, we are going to continue learning our routine and rules. We'll be getting ready for learning our letters, numbers, shapes, colors, phonics, rhymes, and how to fit letters together to read.