This week we are practicing exploratory orienting (just like a curious cat looking for her bowl of milk). In keeping with this theme, we have cat, cloud and car activities…all of these are easy jump off points for exploratory orienting. Read more in the Coping Skill section below.
Our Story Time book for the week is Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes. We have our own preschool copy but it is also available at our local library…in English and Spanish..La Primera Luna Llena de Gatita.
On Wednesday we honored our fourth Golden Letter friend with clapping and cheering in recognition of their given name. We worked in our journals and did a lot of puzzle work (cat puzzles, cactus building puzzle, cake balancing puzzle, lego creations, and color wheel puzzles). Once we finished our alphabet project for the week, we did something with the cotton balls. Watch our videos and read on to find out more about Wednesday.
Here are 3 questions to learn more about our day:
What did you draw in your journal?
A moon! After reading our Story Time book and checking for the moon on multiple pages, we had Journal Time.
But wait, in every drawing of a moon, these children made the C shape as well. At our preschool I am not looking for mastery of letter writing at this stage, I am looking for ways that their play and exploration will naturally develop those skills. Scribbling in round formations and making circles are the same motions needed to write the letter C. It may not look like a C, but the C is in there!
We also made a huge chalk moon outside (and moved chalk to the rain tables as well).
What did you eat for snack today?
Note: I am adjusting our routine in hopes of having a less hurried experience with Snack Time. As soon as all children arrive we will gather to eat right away! So if children say we ate early today, I agree and I think it’s working great!
In the morning we had c shaped donuts, clementine Cutie oranges and goldfish!
In the afternoon we had snack Golden Graham cereal from Zander and carrots from Ms Kristin.
How did you throw a cloud?
Cotton balls! Once everyone finished their alphabet project, we threw the extra cotton balls as high as we could…we were throwing clouds! One of my favorite ways to connect with children is through playfulness. Telling those clouds to “get back in the sky” was definitely playful and had the children gazing up and around.
We are still keeping track of the number of clouds we see during Outside Time as well. This is a prime example of encouraging exploratory orienting-a relaxed gazing at the sky.
Exploratory orienting: This week’s Coping Skill
This week we are practicing exploratory orienting (just like a curious cat looking for her bowl of milk and finding the moon, little bugs, trees and her own porch). In keeping with this theme, we have cat, cloud and car activities…all of these are easy jump off points for exploratory orienting. Read more in the Coping Skill section below. This is described as relaxed alertness to both internal and external environment, curiosity and gathering information about the environment with a low level of activation.
Practice together at home:
Sit together inside and notice things on the walls around you.
When riding in a car, rest your head and notice other cars, trees, grass, buildings passing by.
In bed at night, look from one corner of the wall and ceiling to the other, to the next and the next.
When walking outside switch between looking in front of you, behind you, next to you on both sides, over you. Is there a sidewalk? Trees? Houses? Sun beams? Shadows?
newcreationpreschool.com 