On Tuesday we started our owl projects (read more below) and found O shapes all over. Our Alphabet Friend Omar is turning orange with paint, marker and paper…the other Alphabet Friends are all waiting nearby. With our kinetic sand and journal work we are exploring the difference between ovals and circles and noticing similarities between zeros and the letter O. We have an O shaped balance beam in our Big Body corner and rainbow puzzles that can turn into O shapes. We have a Golden Letter friend, Owen who comes every afternoon! Our cardboard house moved to the doorway of Ms Kristin’s office which means that when you are in the house you are in her office! Oh what fun!
In this week’s Coping Skill, just like the owl babies in our book this week, we are closing our eyes and covering our ears to see how it feels. Sensory isolation and deprivation can help us experience our environment in new ways, often bringing a sense of calm.
Our Clean Up Song this week is Over the in the Meadow. In addition to over, we’re exploring other prepositions (describing spatial relationships, indicating the position of something relative to another object) during our play this week too like under, through, next to, between, etc.
Conversation Starter: Snack Time
Morning class: What special drink did you have today? Orange juice from Ruthie! Ruthie also brought black olives and oatmeal cookies that she helped make. Thank you, Ruthie!
After looking at photos of owl’s legs, we also pretended to eat owl legs, what were they really? Pretzels!
Afternoon class: What did you put over your eyes to be pretend owl eyes? Oreos from Scarlet! Scarlet also brought honeycomb cereal and oranges. Thank you, Scarlet!
Conversation Starter: Story Time
What did they baby owls wish for?
That their mother would come back. And she did!
Owl Babies is a sweet book and is a great launching point to conversations about family plans and caregivers: the owl babies are left home alone and I am sure to remind children that human babies and young children will always have someone take care of them (it’s the law!)….owls are not human so their family plan is that it was appropriate to stay home alone.
Questions to ask your child to nurture their sense of safety and being care for: who takes care of you when mom/dad/etc is gone? Who comes pick you up from preschool? Who takes care of you when you are at preschool?
Conversation Starter: Project Time
What did you poke in the pinecone?
Bits of white cotton! First we pull the cotton balls apart and then we poke them in using pencils to get them stuck in deeply.
We are working to make our pinecones look like the baby owls in the book, Owl Babies. Our big mama owl got moved above the project table to watch us work!
Conversation Starter: Circle Time
Where did Ms Kristin hide for the game?
On the steps! Today we played a game based on our book, Owl Babies. On one page of the book the owl babies heard things in the dark woods: “…for things moved all around them…” (the children learned to repeat this line and might do it for you at home!). Ms Kristin had things she made noise with and the children guessed what they were.
Ms Kristin had a couple of items that were too tricky to guess (she said she “stumped” the kids) but they guessed most of them just from listening! Way to go!
Remember: no preschool next week
newcreationpreschool.com 
Wish my children had an amazing teacher like you, Kristin, when they were young. You are truly amazing and an inspiration!
Carla