Cutting with Scissors

It has been such a pleasure watching the kids in the class form new friendships. I think by now most kids know everyone's name. I keep hearing phrases like, "He's my friend," and "We can be friends."  It makes a preschool teacher proud. 

We did a project together last week that both helps us recognize the seasons, and share a bit of ourselves. At small groups, the kids traced their hands on two different fall-colored sheets of paper. Then, they cut out their hand shape and we tacked them up on our class tree. Right now, they are all on the tree, but as fall moves on, some of our classroom leaves will also "fall" to the ground. As the seasons change, so will the hand print leaves on the tree. 

This activity really focused on the fine motor skills of tracing and cutting. Many kids were able to cut their hands with just a little help from a teacher. Some kids chose child-sized Fiskar scissors, and others chose "squissors," scissors that bounce back open after you close them. Cutting around fingers is not easy, considering all of the paper turning that is required. We showed kids how to cut with their thumb up and how to hold the paper with one hand and turn as they opened and closed the scissors with the other. 

We will have many more opportunities to use and practice with scissors. This will help develop the kids' hand-eye coordination and fine motor muscles in their hands.

Preschool Musical

This clip may just get me ready to plan "Opera Day!" It is a lot of fun.

Opening Week

We had a great first week of preschool. The kids have been learning each others names and the names of the teachers. Everyone is getting to know the classroom rules and routines. We are getting a chance to explore with all the classroom materials and areas.
We missed Grandma Freda this week. She wasn't feeling well. We hope she will be back this week and we have to thank Rita Winegar for coming in to help. 
Here area few photos to give you some idea of how the kids have been getting used to their new preschool.

A bunch of kids discovered new sand and toys in the sandbox on the playground. They were taking turns, sharing and having a lot of fun.

The kids are taking responsibility for helping dry off the slides and bars so we can use all of the outside equipment to work on our gross motor skills of balance, running, jumping, and swinging.

The doll house is a small pretend play area in the room in which kids can work on social skills. They can plan the design of the house, make up scenarios for the dolls, and practice taking on different roles. 

These kids are putting together puzzles of different children from around the world. This helps them get to see kids of all kinds and recognize things that are the same about all kids and things that are different.


 

In the block area, kids are working on visual spatial skills when they are planning and putting together structures. They also work on persistence, matching, and math skills such as recognizing shapes and counting.

Playing in the sand allows kids to work on their scooping, pouring, and dumping coordination. They get to work with many different materials in the sensory table. As the year goes on, the materials in the sensory tables will change to provide more challenges.








The paint easel is an area in which the kids can show their creative expression. As the year goes on, their paintings will change and grow in detail, representation and use of color and more materials.