Then we found things to do with all those leaves!
A great way to welcome fall is by doing a nature walk. Luckily the ravine is close to my home....so off we went. Fall is all about beautiful colors. So we set out to find objects that matched the color swatches. Then we found things to do with all those leaves! With string tied to a tree we "sewed" leaves. Great fine motor and made a pretty decoration for back in our classroom! I had styrofoam trees and we added leaves to it with colored sticks. I'm sad to say I don't have a picture of this when it was completed, which is too bad, because it was so lovely!! It was a wonderful decoration for fall. And of course, it's so much fun to shake the trees and watch leaves rain down! Here's a few pictures from our day....
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Once we picked all those crab apples, of course, we had to try and taste them. They were very sour and liked by only a few! I drew a large tree onto the driveway and placed crab apples on it. We then took turns balancing on the "branches" trying to pick up the apples. We walked with little steps, large steps, sideways... There were apples in our water table. They are great to scoop and pour and we used tongs to pick them up. We played counting games. We balanced apples. We painted with apples. We rolled apples in paint to make a unique apple. Apple prints. These were done with large apples. We read Apple Trouble (many times I might add!!) about a hedgehog that gets an apple stuck on his quills. We made hedgehogs out of apples and toothpicks and then had added all of the things that got stuck to him. It was a lot of fun to reenact the story. And what would an apple theme be without an outing picking apples! Many thanks to my neighbour who lets us visit her backyard every year to pick apples. And.....these cuties are why I LOVE preschool!! Adorable! I love the apple theme! There are so many fun things to do. Here are just a few that we did... The 4 year olds, cut out apples with the letters of their name. Match the letters on the apple to the letters on the tree. Apple puzzle. This was a game we played together during circle time. Each child rolled the dice and we found the corresponding puzzle piece then found it's correct spot. I used this tree for a game/song that we played. 5 red apples hanging on the tree. Everyone had a turn shaking the tree to make an apple fall down. The 3 year olds ripped paper to put make their tree. This is a skill that is much harder than it seems and is a great exercise for little finger muscles. A song that teaches letters and it's fun to sing! Especially when we "eat" the letters as we sing and make a great, big CRUNCH sound! Drawing sheets. I love these! I put them in a plastic page protector and then we can use dry erase markers on them. This one the children had to draw petals on the flowers and apples on the tree.
During the first month of school I always like to do an activity/craft that uses the pictures of everyone in the class so that each child can take it home and show their family their new friends. I also think its a great activity to reinforce everyone's name. This year I decided to use the rhyme, Who Stole the Cookie From The Cookie Jar. I started out by introducing it with stuffed animals....dog stole the cookie, cat stole the cookie, lamb stole the cookie. Then I used the children's name tags to do the song. Everyone thought this was very funny! I then introduced a book I made up with the rhyme using everyone's picture. From there we made one for everyone to take home. With all the pictures I was able to play a few games as well. Everyone had a large container with all the head shots of the class, I asked such questions as can you find a friend that has brown hair, blue eyes, starts with A and makes this sound...and of course I asked if they could find each specific friend as I named them out. Then we glued each picture into the book, matching it to the corresponding name. It was a fun activity and I was able to incorporate all kinds of preschool skills; cutting, painting, letter sounds, name recognition... and we now have a new book for our class library and it is one that everyone can read!!
Another thing I like to do at the beginning of the year is reinforce all the things that preschoolers can do. I start by introducing the " I can" can. We pick a word from the can and act out all the things we can do. "Miss Dawn can jump. Can you jump too?" Then we discuss all the things each of us can do. And of course we have fun with cans...we paint with them, put elastics over them, and use magnets on them.
In the past, I've always started a drawing book with the 4 year old class after Christmas. I decided that this year I would start it right away and do it with the 3 year olds as well. I also thought that it would be a good place to keep some of the crafts that we do in class and that at the end of the year everyone would have a nice keepsake. Because we have spent so much time learning each others name and recognizing our own, the first activity in their books was to "find" their name. I wrote the name with a clear wax candle and when you paint over it the name magically appears! For our "I can" activity I traced everyone's hand and foot and they told me what they can do. I had the words hand and feet on the table for the 4 year olds to try and copy. I like these books because I think it is important to put "pencil to paper" (or crayons or markers!!) Ahead of time I drew circles in the books and let each child draw what they wanted. This year I made a conscious effort to slow things down for the first few weeks. I wanted to establish rules and expectations to ensure a smooth year ahead. I spent time during circle time presenting the tools that we use in preschool on a regular basis; where to find them and how to use them. This treasure chest is a great way to get everyone eager to come to circle time. Everyone is always very curious about what's inside! It may seem like common sense to put the cap back on the glue and markers but it can easily be forgotten. We talked about what we can use and when. I then planned activities that had us use the preschool "tools". I planned painting activities and talked about what we do when we paint and how to put on paint shirts AND what to do when Miss Dawn is helping someone else. I teach the children to ask for help from a friend. " Hey, friend can you help me get my paint shirt on." And when we are finished the paint shirt goes back on the chair. We did cutting activities. We talked about how to use the scissors, where to put them when we are finished and what to do with all the things we cut up. We explored the water table. We discussed all the things we could put in the water and where we could find the towel to dry our hands and how we clean up when we are finished.
It's sometimes the little things that make life just a little easier! Here we are back at school again! For me, this is now my 7th year teaching preschool in my home! I am excited to see new and old faces again! As excited as lots of children are about starting or returning to school, there is still always a little hesitation and nervousness. This year I have a lot of new students and I wanted to make sure we set the year off to a good start. I wanted an activity that would interest everyone and have us all sit together. I chose an activity that I have done before, it's great for fine motor and uses lots of creativity. The activity did not disappoint and had everyone engaged. On the table I put out a colander, skewers, balls with holes, foam pieces with holes, pasta and pipe cleaners. Unless the child had been in my class before, I was pretty sure that most children had not seen this before. I sat at the table and asked someone if they wanted to play with me, before long the whole class was involved. Everyone was curious to see how this worked and what we could make together. We made spiders and candy canes.
There was lots of involvement and conversation. It was an opportunity for me to sit with everyone and chat and introduce everyone to each other in a calm and entertaining manner. We generally just had a lot of fun and enjoyed each others company. Just as a first day should be. I often use nursery rhymes during circle time but they are fun to use as a theme as well. We read stories about Jack and Jill and then had fun with the "j" sound. During circle time I substituted the first letter of each child's name for the letter j and we had fun with the rhyming words. I had the Jack and Jill rhyme written out on the chart board. We then would subtitute Jack and Jill with the names of people in the class, sometimes I would even put up Mom or Dad! This made for lots of laughs!! We moved onto Jack Be Nimble. We discussed what the word nimble meant and why Jack would have to be "nimble" if he was jumping over his candle stick. We made our own candlesticks. Then we tried jumping over them...being very nimble, of course! This Little Piggy. I loved how cute this craft turned out and how everyone made their piggies so unique. And of course we all had to do This Little Piggy with our own little piggies! Little ones have the cutest little piggies, don't they?!
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Miss DawnI teach preschool in my home to 3 and 4 year olds. It's a wonderful adventure filled with lots of laughter and learning. Archives
January 2017
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