Tissue Paper Painting
We’ve had such an exciting two weeks exploring the world through our five senses. We engaged in hands-on experiences that helped bring the learning to life. We popped popcorn, which engaged all five senses. We explored our sense of taste, by trying foods with different flavors - sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and savory. In addition to smelling the healthy foods we tried in class, and in our snack packs, our sensory oat table this week was scented with cinnamon, and some of our paints smelled like grapes and oranges. We used our sense of hearing while chewing/biting our foods, by finding the sound matches to our shaker eggs, and by listening to songs of varying tempos. Through art and sensory play, we touched a variety of textures - smooth, rough, hard, soft, bumpy, prickly, creamy and sticky. Each activity was filled with discovery, curiosity, and lots of fun!
Cinnamon Oats Sensory Play
We had so much fun exploring our senses and creativity through two wonderful books: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle, and Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear helped us to practice using our sense of sight, as we followed a colorful journey through animals and patterns. The repetitive text also supported language development and prediction skills, which the children really enjoyed. We used stick puppets to show our understanding as we were reading, played book picture matching, and a memory game. We also played Brown Bear, Simon Says outside on the balance beam, which utilized our gross motor skills. We made brown bears out of paper bags, and got adventurous with a process art activity - making collage art just like Eric Carle! Our fine motor skills were on fire!
Beautiful Oops! taught us that mistakes are okay, and can turn into something creative. It helps us to feel brave by trying new things, even if we mess up. We learned to use our imagination, keep going, and not worry about it being perfect. It showed us that every “oops” can be something beautiful!
We’ve also been focusing on our names. Most of the Ladybugs recognize their written names, but learning to spell it, and identifying the individual letters, is the next level skill we will be learning. When we came back from recess earlier in the week, we all had to find our names, and that’s where we sat for snack. We also had to identify our names when our process art was set up for the next step. It was very exciting to all — to both see and find our names.
Name finding SUCCESS!!
We were lucky to have such beautiful weather this week, and we all made the most of it! We had a blast exploring all of the new outdoor activities - walking across the balance beam (learning that our arms can help us to balance), launching rockets into the sky, playing in the sandbox, “making food” in the play kitchen, raking leaves, zooming down the slides, and going on imaginative adventures aboard the “pirate ship.” It was a joyful week full of movement, creativity, and sunshine!
We can balance!
We all had a wonderful time at Chapel this week with Pastor Lee. We talked about the rules within our classrooms, and then were introduced to God’s rules: Do good, Don’t hurt, and Stay in love with God. We all caught the light of Jesus, and put it in our hearts to share with the world!
Jesus is in our hearts!
In music and movement with Miss Vicki this week, we sang songs, listened to different tempos of music while using rhythm sticks, and moved our bodies. We are definitely settling into our new Wednesday and Thursday routines. These days are such fun-filled - and busy - days!
Getting ready for Music and Movement with Miss Vicki!
Next week we will start exploring all things Fall!
Sign-ups for conferences are listed below.
MWF Ladybugs- https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0A4EAAA928A4FB6-59016565-copy
T/Th Ladybugs- https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0A4EAAA928A4FB6-59016547-copy
Here are some additional events coming up in October:
October 2 & 3 - Fall Break - Preschool closed
October 6 & 7 - Announced fire drill
October 14 & 15 - Parent/Teacher Conferences
October 17 - Professional Development for Teachers - Preschool CLOSED for students!
October 21 & 22 - Fall photos
October 29 and 30 - Ladybugs & Frogs Halloween Parade- stay to watch our quick parade around Ascension Hall at 9:15. Parents will need to help with costumes. Ladybugs will celebrate with a party in our classroom after the parade.
Have a fun-filled weekend with your sweet Ladybugs!
Miss Lisa, Miss Phoenix, and Miss Jenn