Welcome to our BlogSpot for the 2013-2014 school year!
I am pleased to announce that the first two weeks of school went great (despite the humidity and slipper floors)! I was so impressed at how efficient and comforting parents were during drop-off. Toward the end of the week I started to see some "third week" behavior as I like to call it. The first week of school was so exciting for your preschooler that you may have thought drop off went better than expected. However, I sometimes see some separation issues begin to develop around week three. Your preschooler knows the routine and expectations and sometimes, this is when they become anxious about leaving mom, dad, or grandparents behind to start the day. I will refer you again to the drop-off tips I sent home over the summer. If you need another copy, I'm happy to round one up for you. Keep reassuring, loving, and separating in the same way you all did during the first week. In a couple of weeks, you will notice that your child is excited, once again to attend school. Keep up the great work, parents!
As for our first couple of weeks... Preschoolers have been busy learning lots of things about our classroom, routines, and procedures. During circle time we have learned songs like:
Hello Neighbor:
Hello Neighbor, what do you say?
We're going to have a wonderful day!
Clap your hands, and boogie on down
stretch up high, and turn around!
_______is Here Today:
________ is here today
________ is here today Turn around and then sit down
________ is here today!
Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee:
Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee
Won't you say your name for me?
Preschoolers also worked on learning how to be safe in Block Area, how to put things away in Dress-Up, how to wash hands before snack time, how to use the tools in Art Center and to put them in the right place when finished, and how to play with puzzles in the Puzzle Area. To help strengthen our little fingers and hands, we worked with playdough during table top choice time at check in and during choice time.
Our kiddos also learned how to safely transport and use scissors, something we will be reviewing many times in the coming months. We made beautiful mosaics by cutting long strips of paper into tiny squares and using liquid glue to glue them onto a black sheet of paper. We introduced math manipulatives during choice time like, counting bears, unifix cubes, and pattern blocks. We introduced drawing with markers and glue sticks as well.
Students learned about water colors on Thursday. We had to learn how to tickle the water with our paint brush, then tickle one color of paint, then tickle the water again and start all over! It's hard work learning something new! We worked to fill up our whole paper with watercolor paint to uncover a secret message. I will hang these up in the classroom soon! As you can see, we've been extremely busy learning about our classroom and all of the fun tools we have to help us learn.
We might not have much "work" to put on display yet, but learning about the room, tools, and how to learn and play together in preschool are all really important skills. When we take the time to deliberately teach these things in the beginning of the year, the rest of our school year progresses with wonderful learning and exploration!
In the coming week, we will aim to learn about our Writing Center and Painting Easel. We will also be introducing a new check in activity for preschoolers to do as soon as they enter the classroom. More to come on that! I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know our new students and working with our returning students as well. I feel energetic and excited for our upcoming lessons!
Important dates to remember:
Wednesday, September 18th from 6:30pm - 8pm: PTO MEETING (Door Prize!)
Thursday, September 26th from 6pm - 7pm: OPEN HOUSE
Monday, October 7th: PICTURE DAY
Enjoy your weekend. I look forward to seeing you all on Monday!
Mrs. Reid
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