Jeff Pre-K November

Week 10 ( Nov. 5, 6, 7)

I have been asking the boys to "team up" to work together. Sometimes for a challenging task, sometimes just for playing. They are all friends, so it's easy for me to make any group. I like to watch their personalities mix.

Superheroes are right up their alley.  Each one of the preschoolers loves these toys. They have such elaborate imaginative play with these.

Color Clix again. Their creations are getting more and more difficult and challenging. I'm ever impressed with these toys and the skills that they help the kids to learn; concentration, imagination, fine motor skills, attention, and focus...

Our dress up corner is very fun, and has been more interesting to the kids right before and just after Halloween. They love playing dress-up.

We read The Napping House and the preschoolers created their own magnets to tell the story themselves.  First coloring, then cutting, then telling the story on our magnet board (cookie sheet).  These went home in the backpacks with a lot of other things on Friday.

We had a very rainy puddly day this week and had inside recess. I brought out a new space station play tent that took over the whole room. The kids LOVED it.  They instantly became astronauts and were running away from aliens and having countdowns and counting how many stars they could see.

Then we made rocket ship and space pictures at table time. After the pictures were done, we cut them into pieces to make a puzzle. They loved that idea.  We read a few books about space too, it might continue on next week too, we shall see what the interest is.

  And of course, leaves! You can't go to preschool in the fall without doing something with LEAVES! Since the weather in Houston is far too warm for most trees to change, I had these sent in from Wisconsin. Aren't they wonderful? The kids loved talking about the different colors and shapes and smells. They got to choose their favorite leaves to take home, and the rest we took outside and tossed in the air to watch them flutter down, while we waited for parents.

Week 11 (Nov. 12, 13, 14)

With Veteran's Day just a day before preschool, I decided it would be nice to do a little something for that. The kids dressed up in soldier helmets and dog tags and we talked about who soldiers are, what they do for us, and what we can do for them. We read a book about a soldier who is a also a dad, who has to leave his little boy to help protect us and keep us all safe. The kids seemed to really get into it. After reading, we made Christmas cards for some soldiers, which will be mailed tonight.  They came up with the things they wanted to write and draw and I helped spell. I think they will make some service men and women very happy.

We played with LOTS of play-doh this week. We got a few new canisters and new play-doh is hard to resist. They spent a loooong time building and creating.

The Imaginext toys were brought back out again this week. The preschoolers were especially excited to use the jungle mountain set with all the little guys. I love hearing the story lines that go along with their play.

I brought out the wooden trains and tracks too. The tracks they built filled the room. It was fun to see them figure out how they could make them all fit, like a puzzle, but ever changing.

Logan and Jeff were very excited to have the animal hospital back out again. They worked and played with this for a while so nicely together.

This small group activity was multifaceted. I made the chart with words only. They had to figure out which word was for which color. Looking at the first letter of the word and sounding a few things out, each group of two preschoolers was able to figure each one out correctly. Then they sorted their chips into the three groups, counted them up, found the corresponding colored crayon, wrote the number and drew out as many circles as they sorted. They did VERY well, considering the multiple steps and things I wanted them to do. They are SO smart.

 

Even with this nasty cold weather, the kids need time to play outside and be wild and have fun. Bringing bikes and scooters to school was SUCH a fun time. We will be doing this again for sure! Thanks to the parents for bringing all the gear!  They were all very good about turn taking and sharing. Ryan's low riding bike, and Jeff's scooter were hot commodities and they both loved letting their friends take turns.

Week 12 (Nov. 20, 21)

I pushed the preschoolers during small groups this week and I wasn't surprised when they completed a very challenging task. They are really excited about learning, and I love it. They did an activity called "Name the Scarecrows", very fall-ish, don't you think? Each scarecrow had a number of different identifying attributes, like a hat, or gloves, or a scarf, or a crow, and various colored shirts. I laid them on the table along with a chart full of information, except the scarecrows name. They had to read each answer in the row (we drew pictures to help with the words, although each boy was able to sound out and reason out a few words, even before the pictures were drawn), and figure out which was which. 

We did an experiment at snack time again, and made predictions about oranges vs. clementines. Which would be sweeter? Which would be juicier? Which would be our favorite? It was fun to hear their predictions and see if those matched the results.

Inside recess to day (Friday) due to the HUGE muddy puddles. They were plenty happy to get the tents out again. They went right back to playing the 3 little pigs, like last time. The pictures are rather blurry, but they couldn't slow down, it was too much fun.

We talked lots about the next holiday coming up, Thanksgiving! We read Bear Says Thanks and talked about what we were thankful for! The kids came up with LOTS of really good things, and some unique things that I never would have expected, like;
Red "The color red is just a really nice color."- Ryan
Airports "I like going to airports, and I like when people come to my house from the airport."- Jeff
Rainbows "Rainbows are really pretty in the sky when it's all yucky and gray."- Hawken
The whole world "I like the whole world because it makes me happy."- Lullaby

So, we made thankful necklaces. They wrote and drew what they were thankful for, picked out a few beads, and made a cute little reminder of a couple things they were grateful for.

Playdoh. We got some new playdoh a couple weeks ago, and they are just now starting to mix the colors and experiment with the different things they can create.

More trains. We love the trains!

Yoga time! These are baby cobras.

These are BIG cobras! We also learned the sun salutation for the first time. We went through it twice, and everyone was picking up on the little repetitive parts. I think a couple more times and they may have it memorized. They are very serious about exercise when there is a routine.

We also made TURKEYS. They were especially happy about glueing on the feathers. I love watching their little hands when they are working SO hard.

Logan is gone in Canada and although we are missing him, we have been sending videos back and forth and learning some fun things about Canada. I will post those videos after our next week of class. And, we made a thankful video. I loved hearing them talk about what they were thankful for, and I thought you would love to hear it too. Plus, a special little shout out for our friend Logan. Enjoy!