Another week gone!

Happy Friday, everyone! This week was technically my first FULL week with my new Pre-K friends, because we only had a four days week last week after Labor Day. It was also Open House yesterday. Needless to say, I am VERY relieved to see the weekend!

This week in Pre-K our theme was "Playing Nicely Together." We were able to practice this very thoroughly at our stations, and the station that is best for learning how to play nicely is the dramatic play station. I can't tell you how much it saddens me that the primary grades are starting to do away with dramatic play opportunities. Even in Kindergarten it is considered frivolous to include some dramatic play on a daily basis, despite the huge amount of research supporting how beneficial dramatic play is for young learners' social and emotional development.

Anyway (rant over)... because the students in my class work in pairs, we have 10 stations total in our class. We can usually fit in about 4 or 5 stations, which means that each student gets to go to the dramatic play center at least twice per week. Yay for dramatic play!

M and A playing nicely together in the dramatic play area.

We also learned about the letter T, number 2, and triangles. We did the ABC mouse song for the letter T, which the kids absolutely loved. My morning class always asked me to play it for them again! We did a letter craft again this week: T is for Tree :)

I think they turned out really cute! I also got half of my donors choose project, dot markers, which I promptly used with practice for the number two. I got this cute activity from Miss Kindergarten on TpT.

As promised, here is a shot of our Bucket Fillers wall.

It's the perfect height for my little friends to put their "warm fuzzies" into.

Next week, our theme is "Who Am I?" In our class, we will be focusing on things we like, what we look like, and self-esteem. We will also be learning about the letter P, the number 3, and rectangles.

Thanks for reading!
-Mrs. G

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!

David Goes to School

My goodness! What a week. With the help of some very generous people, I managed to get my classroom packed, moved, unpacked, and set up again in just two days. I met all 42 of my new little friends and we got started together on Wednesday. Let me just say that I am incredibly grateful that we have a three day weekend ahead!

This week my mission was the get the students to start to understand some of my expectations for them. I read David Goes to School by David Shannon every day that I taught. That's right, every day. Repeated shared readings are excellent for 4-year-olds, because as they become familiar with the story, they can "read" the words with me! This helps them develop some early concepts of print. Plus, it helps them remember the moral of the story. We also made these cute David Goes to School crafts, which let me get a glimpse into their fine motor skills, their ability to listen to and follow directions, and whether or not they were familiar with scissors. So many discoveries from this one project! 

K. using her scissor skills to cut the stripes for David's shirt.

T. showing off his fine motor skills by drawing a mouth on his David.

Final product:)

And now...this lady is off to bed.