This week we welcomed March and the color green! We have certain areas of the classroom that change every month: the playdough and tools are green, the books are new, the Tub Table has green digging and sculpting tools, and all the Tiny Things are green.
Our new Alphabet Friend is Sylvester the Snake and we have a little song about him singing in the shower! We have our swing up in the classroom and an S walking path. There are bars of slippery sensitive skin soap and squishy pom poms to squeeze in the Water Tables.
Grandma Bonnie brought her spinning wheel and umbrella swift yarn winder! What a special thing for children to get to help with.
Our Coping Skill is Squeeze. Intentionally squeezing certain muscle groups and then relaxing them is known to help reduce tension and stress. At preschool we already work on strengthening their hands for writing and drawing with squeezing hand activities like play dough, scissors, grasping crayons, markers and paint brushes, etc. We’ll be squeezing paper this week for our journals. This is a fun activity that strengthens little hands and regulates nervous systems that you can try at home!
Our Clean Up song is The Sharing Song by Raffi…a sweet tune that is full of concepts that our preschoolers know all about.
Some children found our magnet wands stuck to the metal pole and worked for a long time to to move screws and pipe cleaners in the magnet tubes. Way to go, kids!
Our Letter of the Week is S and we have two Golden Letter friends, Sophie and Scarlet, who both came to school today! Today we focused on the SH sound as we started our shamrocks and played a SHHHH game. Important to know: most children won’t start making the /ssss/ sound until they are 3-4 years of age and the /shhhhh/ sound until they are at least 4 years of age. Read on to learn more about our shamrock SH day.
Conversation Starter: Snack Time
Morning class: Theo announced he brought us a lot of sticks to eat and he was right! Thank you for the pretzel sticks, the string cheese sticks, the salami meat sticks and the strawberry pocky sticks!
Afternoon class: Eleanor said we would eat spiders today and she was right! Thank you for the silly spider cookies and the sweet sliced strawberries (with cards to go along).
Conversation Starter: Story Time
Why did the two children in our book say they were sorry?
They shouted (sh word) at each other. In the book, I’m Sorry by Sara McBratney, we learn about a play problem for two friends. We processed “I’m Sorry Talk” and how it’s okay to take the time you need to calm down, feel your feelings or understand what is happening. By the end of the book, these two friends were back to playing together again.
Conversation Starter: Project Time
What color did you use for your shamrock?
Green! We recognize this as a symbol for March and St Patrick’s Day. This was also our chance to practice the /shhhh/ sound that happens when S is followed by H. Fun fact: a shamrock will always have 3 leaves while a clover can have three or four (lucky if you find those!).
Conversation Starter: Circle Time
What did we balance on the S path?
Our Show (sh word!) and Tell things! Some things balanced easily, some had to be adjusted and everyone got their items to stay on! If someone didn’t bring an item from home, they picked something from the classroom to balance on the S path.
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