Preschool started a little shaky, as most first day classes do, and as the children came, one by one, they explored to see just what things were available for them to play with and learn about.
One of the first things that needed to be done was to color and mark these little "monsters" to see what things we could do to help us stay on track and not get ourselves into trouble. The rules for the new year are basically the ones the children know that they need to observe to keep each other and "teacher" happy.
We talked about our happy hands, which are the things they will be doing to help me through each day. Each child has been given a color which will help them to know who does what and we went through this several times so that they understand a little about what will be their job each day. They are excited to be able to help by giving the prayer when we have snacks, leading the pledge; being the line leader; telling about the weather for the day; singing our days of the week song, and putting a new number of the day of the month; and of course, everyone loves to hand out the snacks. We also pointed out the map of the United States and located our state "Arizona" and talked about some of the other states that we know.
It was really fun to see how they all worked together with the blocks to create their own little village with various sizes of buildings and how they spread them out to make a little village. A plus--working together!!
This is one of the little puzzles that they all had to have a turn with. There is a little net, with a magnet on it that picks up each of the pieces, which has a little nail on it, and the insects are added to the net.
The children made self portraits which I will put on the walls in the class room. While they colored, I finished measuring and weighing each of them so I can add their "flowers" onto the vine on the wall. I always marvel at how much they grow in the 9 months that I have them in class
Once they found out that there would be snacks, you can guess how often they wanted to know when they would get snacks. And of course, the next question was, when do they get to go downstairs to play. We discussed "time" with them and where the hands on the clock would need to be when each of these activities would happen. It is amazing how quickly they pick up on telling time, when there is a reward.
Question, "What are these pictures on the wall?' Answer, "Don't you remember that these are pictures of us?" "Oh!, Yeah!
Quickly the girls separated from the boys and the girls set up the houses, divided the "girl" dolls, and started their little play time.
The boys discovered the race tracks, cars, and tools
And of course, babies!! I always love to watch how tender the little girls are with the baby dolls
The little carpenter, mechanics assess the tools, safety glasses, and tool boxes.
Cars are always a favorite
It seemed like every time I looked, another doll house was added
Or another way to race the cars was located
The boys wanted a highway to run their cars on so I took tape and placed the roads in the directions that they wanted them to go.
The highway started at the bottom of the stairs and went here and there all over the basement floor, but it was really fun to watch them move those cars around I was proud of them when they picked up the toys that they were playing with, even though I told them that they could let them out until we were finished with them on Thursday.
Then back up to the classroom where we talked about colors, matched the spelling with little letter tiles, and then topped off the day with reading "The kissing hand" and matching the number of little paws on the cards with clothes pins that had the corresponding numbers.
A great bunch of little kids, and that is why I love teaching this age! It is going to be a good year!!
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