This Week in Pre-K

This week in Pre-K, we started introducing the letters. We will do one letter each week until they know them all. I'm following the Neuhaus suggested order of introduction, so we started with the letter I/i. I LOVE the ABC mouse songs for the letters, so we started with that.

The kids loved it so much that they asked me to watch it over and over again! We practiced writing the letter Ii, we colored in the letter Ii, and we made this cute letter "I is for igloo" craft:

I precut all of the letter I's, the small white squares, and the "doors" for the igloos, and the kids developed their fine motor skills by gluing everything down. Aren't they cute?

This week we also focused on the theme of Friendship. We read my FAVORITE book for children, "How Full is your Bucket?" 

I love how this book makes it easy for children to understand what it means to be a good friend (aka: a "bucket filler.") I especially love how the book explains that when you fill others' buckets, you fill your own at the same time (because being kind to others makes you feel good!) I really can't say enough good things about this book. After we read the it, the children all decorated their own paper buckets, which I taped to plastic cups and attached to the wall. Now, when I catch a student being a bucket filler they get a "warm fuzzy" (a pom-pom) to put in their "bucket." I forgot to take a picture of our bucket filler wall, but I will definitely add one later! It's such an effective way to teach kindness and friendship, and they LOVE getting warm fuzzies.

This week I also introduced the number 1 and the square shape. We sang the song, 

"A square is like a box, 

A square is like a box,

It has four sides,

They're all the same,

A square is like a box" (to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell)

While we sang, we drew squares in the air.  They loved it!

We had so much fun together this week, and I can't wait to do it all over again next week! Next week we will be focusing on the letter Tt, the number 2, and Triangles. Thanks for reading!