Mexico

Fun Friday Halloween

It’s always nice to have a day when we just play! And even though it’s fun, they’re still learning as they go. 

They gained memory skills as we played a matching game. Had fun trying to gain their equilibrium as we played Pin the Nose on the Jack ‘O Lantern. 

They practiced searching for details with Bingo, sang fun Halloweeny songs, read our favorite Halloween books and.....

...of course frosted a fun cookie! We had a blast! Happy Halloween!

Chocolate

We couldn’t talk about Mexico without talking about CHOCOLATE! Today was all about science. We melted some chocolate and put it into molds. The kids learned where chocolate comes from and how it’s made. 

They saw that chocolate could turn into a liquid by heat it up. I asked what else could melt when it was heated and these amazing preschoolers came up with answers like “ice cream, popsicles and ice”.  
We discussed how other things could melt if you got them really hot like, rocks, metal and plastic, then placed in molds like our chocolate and shaped. We headed over to the toy bin and each student found something they thought had been melted and shaped, and guess what, they were right!!!

Science can be really fun if you can think like a child!

Craft Time

Why oh why do we do so many crafts?  Especially when I know you may just throw them away?  Well, here’s the deal...

Crafts are actually a great way for your kids to work on some very important skills:

1. Small Motor Skills

2.  Confidence 

3. Exposure to different textures, smells and tools 

4. Practice following directions 

These things may be simple to you, but all of them are very important to life. If you don’t have great small motor skills, writing is going to be very difficult for you.  If your not confident, life is going to be difficult for you! If you haven’t been exposed to different textures or tools, you may not want to try new things later. If you don’t have practice following directions...we’ll, you get the gist. Sometimes the simple things in life make a big difference. 

Africa Poem

Calendar Time

Calendar Time is one of the first parts of our day. We gather together and sing songs, count numbers, talk about the days of the week, months of the year, the weather and seasons. We learn poetry, sign language and sight words. And if that’s not impressive, did you know that your preschooler knows what a hexagon is?!  We work hard and play hard here at Little Sprouts Preschool and these kids make it look easy. 

Time to Rotate

What are “rotations? I’m glad you asked!  Rotations are a type of independent work the kids do. 

The rotations we work on not only build dexterity and small muscle skills, but they also build these kid’s “gray matter” by using their problem solving skills. 

There are certain rotations built as a brain break, but just because they are having fun does not mean they aren’t learning. For example, this “build your own snowman” game actually does help these kids make independent decisions. 

Why are independent choices important? I think we all know that we don’t want our children to grow up to be drones, but independent individuals who are capable of making independent choices without having a meltdown. 

Many skills we learn are also very practical, like writing our names. 

Kids get three minutes at each station, then they are asked to move to the left. This also helps them get used to systems, sharing, and a variety of different small motor skills. 

They can also practice these rotations at home. One of my favorite Sunday activities is to get out coloring books, stickers, play dough, small games and puzzles and let the kids have a great afternoon. It is simple to set up just by using what you have and what your kids like. But don’t forget to put at least one thing out that is a challenge for them. So, go have a great time and Rotate!

Monkey Grip

What is “monkey grip” you ask? Well, it may be a crude expression, but it is a way to describe the type of hold that would make it very difficult to do any writing with dexterity. 




It is very common for most preschoolers to have this monkey grip. Why? Because the small motor muscles are the last to develop. They take time and patience, which most preschoolers are in short supply of. 

It is a defense mechanism of all humanity to find the easiest way to do something, and there are so many ways to do it wrong!   

A proper grip while writing or coloring is something we work very hard to develop here at Little Sprouts Preschool. It may amaze you that most of these kids will have it down by November!

What can you do to help? Give your kid a pencil, crayon, marker or a boogie board and help them to develop those muscles!  Will it surprise you to know that development of the small muscles is all about muscle tone and muscle memory?  I didn’t think so. Well, you know what they say, “Practice Makes Perfect”!

Welcome Back

Welcome back to school! It has been so wonderful getting to know your kids this year. They all have such wonderful gifts and strengths. We have learned 6 letters of the week, and all about the countries of Kenya, Egypt and Mexico. Your kids know how to read the words:

Can

I

Go

Good

No

Is

He

  They have learned 12 sign language words and over 15 songs!  These kids are so fun!  We have talked about emotions and learned about each other. We have done so many crafts and had a few scrapes. We have played, sung, read and discovered. I can’t wait to share the rest of the year with them!

Time To Register

End of the Year Video

You Dug Up What?

 Learning about Dinosaurs and being a Paleontologist was one of my favorite days.  These kids learned the answers to question like "Why don't we see dinosaurs anymore?" and "How big are dinosaurs?"  But I think their favorite part was Digging for Dinosaurs!  They had a fun time learning how to find bones in the ground and what a fossil is!  They even had a chance to make their own fossils.  Pretty sure a dinosaur could convince any kid to be a scientist!

Little People Can Learn Big Things

 Why teach "Spring Cleaning"? Why not?  At Little Sprouts Preschool I believe life is all about exposure and skills.  Cleaning is a skill and learning about how to organize things and why it's important to keep things nice is a skill these little people will need to know their entire lives.  I'm not going to stop will "how to tie your shoes" or "how to buckle your seat belt".  Being a teacher is about more than just teaching the basics or even scholastics, it is about helping people, little people in my case, become better citizens. And teaching about taking care of the things that are yours is one way to help these little people to see that our efforts make a difference each day. So, give your kids a rag and teach them to care.

Weather Science

 One way to get kids interested in science is to talk about things they can see, like the weather.  We had a such a great time learning about how rainbows are made and why you need rain and sunshine to make one.  We also had a great time exploring things like tornados and learning about the weather cycle.  We even made a mini water cycle for them to take home.  I know ours had rained several times already, has yours?

Doctor

 One thing every kid likes to play is doctor.  They like to take care of something because they see it modeled in their own lives constantly.  We had a fun day bringing our stuffed animals and helping them get better.  We learned many solutions to how we help things to heal and why it is important to be careful with our bodies.

Engineer

 During "What I Could Be" month we explored a lot of job options for these kids.  One really popular day was "engineer day".  This kids had a great time solving problems and learning how an engineer thinks of solutions.  These kids were pretty creative in building their own structures and did pretty well at balancing their compositions.

Raindrop, Raindrop

What is that Huge Truck?!

 We were so blessed to have Firemen come to our preschool and teach us a little about what they do.  We were just sad that so many of our kids were sick on this awesome day and missed out.
  They did a great job of answering questions and teaching the kids how to safely get out of a fire by ducking under the smoke.  Thank you for your service to our small group!

Spring is Here

Pinkies Up!

We had such fun at our Fun Friday Tea Party.  Even the boys liked to decorate their fancy hats and use proper English!

Just Dance

It has been fun to study different careers in preschool this month. At Fun Friday we ended the month by learning about being an athlete.  We practiced catching balls, throwing balls into little bowls for points - Congrats Jeter for winning with 30 points!  We also practiced dancing and it was fun to see the preschoolers move!

Singing Time

Here is a little simple of how music time goes around here. Enjoy!

A Leprechaun

What Will I Be?

This month is When I Grow up... month.  We will be talking about a variety of job options these kids get to dream about for years to come.  We have already explored being an author and artist.  We will be looking into other options like doctor, engineer and pilot.  I can't wait to see how these things spark their imaginations.

Rotations

Rotations is a time where each child is encouraged to work independently.  Independent work can be a difficult thing to ask a preschooler to do, it requires focus and creative thinking.  Here are some of the things these preschoolers have learned to do.

Counting:  This may seems simple, but the kids can practice number order and tracking by counting stickers and putting them on the correct standard form number.

Lower case letters:  This is another skill kids need to learn in order to read.  Knowing your letters is the beginning and crucial skill needed to decode words and learn sounds that correlate with them. This rotation has the added bonus of helping kids with their fine motor skills.

Writing you name:  Another skill every kid needs to know before they go to school.  Every preschooler practices this every day.  Making sure to get the correct letters capitalized and also practicing the direction we write (and read).

Sorting and letter recognition:  Sorting is a skill that helps to organize the brain.  It helps children see that there are orders, similarities and differences between things.  It may not look like it, but it helps a child begin to decode reading.
Play dough letters teaches kids to recognize not only the capital letter, but also the lowercase letters that can be tricky for some children to correlate, especially when they look so differently like Rr or Qq.

The cake stack:  This is just fun...or is it?  Each cake has a number on it, and while this rotation is excellent at developing engineering skills; kids also need to be able to put these cakes back with their original numbers and colors.





I hope you enjoyed a little look into what we do every day.  These kids have come a long way at being able to do these things on their own.  Way to go kids!

Friendship

One of the great perks of going to preschool is the FRIENDSHIPS you make.  There is no greater feeling than being loved, accepted, encouraged and just having a really great time.  Preschool can be a place where great friendships start and can last a lifetime.
Here at Little Sprouts, kid are encouraged to always speak kindly and encourage one another. Our differences make us stronger.  I love watching these kids play with one another, making compromises and being creative together helps build bonds and strengthen each kid as an individual. So 3 Cheers to friendship!

Roses are Red

Creativity

 We have been working on coloring this whole year?  Why?  It teaches a few concepts.
1. Small Motor Skills or fine motor skills -- Children have the distinct challenge to learn how to use their bodies correctly by the time they get to school.  Some, even most, kids come to preschool with something I like to call "monkey grip".  They will hold a crayon with their whole fist and try to color this way.  It makes for a sloppy mess.  I had to teach quite a few of my kiddos how to hold their crayon properly, over many, many, many days.  There is probably a daily reminder, for some, for almost 2 months.  We have now reached a place where I don't have to remind any of these kids about "monkey grip" at all!

2. Completion --  Children generally start out the year trying to get through this task as quickly, and sloppily as possible.  They are often told to slow down and do their best work.  It becomes a source of pride for them when they can look at their art and see that they did a "good job".  I don't try to emphasize competition, but doing the best we can do is sometimes a skill.

3. Creativity --  Some kids want to do an accurate version of an animal, some kids want to color crazy, wild colors.  It is all alright with me.  Color can be a form of expression and creativity.  It can also be cathartic to put your emotions in color.  I have often seen a preschooler put into color what they cannot put into words.

So, color on!