We’ll spend our last days of preschool finishing up our journals, using all the leftover collage bits for a group project, playing our favorite games, reading favorite books, getting out our favorite puzzles, taking pictures on the black couch and ending the day with water and mud play! Today we celebrated two summer birthdays both inside and outside.
Enjoy pictures from today (click on them to see full size):
Here are some questions you can ask your preschooler about our day:
What did Zach the Zebra set free in one of our books?
What was your made up animal name?
What was hiding behind your zipper on your zipper board?
What was “Black Couch Time” today?
SURPRISE WORK: With Mother’s Day coming, there is a surprise table that children will be working at this week…no photos or stories about this! Some of these will be in backpacks and some will be presented to you at graduation on Sunday.
NOTE ON SECRETS AND SURPRISES: I will never ask your child to keep a secret from you. In fact, I didn’t even ask them to keep this a surprise from you. They can tell you all they want about this project and you will still be surprised when you get it. I encourage you to remind your children regularly that no one should ask them to keep a secret from their parents and if they do, they can tell you that too!
ANIMAL NAMES: Just like the characters in Miss Bindergarten books, we gave our name to an animal! The first sound of our name has to match the first sound in the animal name, just like the book. We went in alphabetical order backwards so our Golden Letter friend, Zander, got to get his paper first….and he matched Zach Zebra in our book!
STORY TIME: We followed some characters through four Miss Bindergarten books all by Joseph Slate: where she gets ready for Kindergarten, where they have a wild day in Kindergarten, where she stays home sick from Kindergarten and the last day of Kindergarten. The Z friend, Zach the Zebra was the one who got to let the butterflies free!
ZIPPER BOARDS: We all had a zipper board to take home after adding more black tape and finding our names hidden behind the zippers! The zipper boards are actually clip boards, so there was some writing and drawing going on too!
Remember: the simple act of zippering a coat requires bilateral coordination, finger isolation, open thumb web space, separation of the two sides of the hand (on BOTH hands), motor planning, pinch strength, eye-hand coordination, pincer grasp, and tripod grasp (most often of the non-dominant hand). No wonder it takes a while!
COPING SKILL OF THE WEEK: Zip it up. We bring in a little movement and stillness with this week’s Coping Skill: we start by wiggling our bodies then pretend to zip it up from our toes to our neck…just like a onesie or footie pajamas!
HERE ARE MORE PICTURES OF OUR DAY:
THE LAST DAY OF THE 2024-2025 SCHOOL YEAR IS MAY 21
Next Thursday is our last Thursday of the school year! So today we took a class picture on the black couch (calling it “Black Couch Time” on the Schedule Board). Children will get their own copy next week. Here’s a sneak peek at the sessions:
Here are some questions you can ask your preschooler about our day:
What did the friend in our book zip and unzip all by himself?
What zipper did you find on our Zipper Hunt?
Did you make a surprise for someone today?
SURPRISE WORK: With Mother’s Day coming, there is a surprise table that children worked at …no photos or stories about this but it kept us very busy today. Some of these will be in backpacks and some will be presented to you at graduation on Sunday.
NOTE ON SECRETS AND SURPRISES: I will never ask your child to keep a secret from you. In fact, I didn’t even ask them to keep this a surprise from you. They can tell you all they want about this project and you will still be surprised when you get it. I encourage you to remind your children regularly that no one should ask them to keep a secret from their parents and if they do, they can tell you that too!
ZIG ZAG THINGS: For our project this week we’ll work on cutting along zig zag lines and using new zig zag scissors…this is a very tricky task! We also have a journal prompt inviting us to draw zig zag lines.
ZIPPER WORK: At Circle Time we went on a Zipper Hunt! Some friends didn’t have to even leave their dot spot because they were wearing a zipper! Other friends found something in the classroom.
Remember: the simple act of zippering a coat requires bilateral coordination, finger isolation, open thumb web space, separation of the two sides of the hand (on BOTH hands), motor planning, pinch strength, eye-hand coordination, pincer grasp, and tripod grasp (most often of the non-dominant hand). No wonder it takes a while!
STORY TIME: We read All By Myself by Aliki today. This story shows a young child getting himself ready for the day, going to school and getting ready for bed. This was the perfect book to connect our own zipper work.
COPING SKILL OF THE WEEK: Zip it up. We bring in a little movement and stillness with this week’s Coping Skill: we start by wiggling our bodies then pretend to zip it up from our toes to our neck…just like a onesie or footie pajamas!
HERE ARE MORE PICTURES OF OUR DAY:
Here are some questions you can ask your preschooler about our day:
What new scissors did we have?
Who did you help get dressed at Circle Time? Who did you work with?
When did the baby stop crying in our book?
SURPRISE WORK: With Mother’s Day coming, there is a surprise table that children will be working at this week…no photos or stories about this! Some of these will be in backpacks and some will be presented to you at graduation on Sunday.
NOTE ON SECRETS AND SURPRISES: I will never ask your child to keep a secret from you. In fact, I didn’t even ask them to keep this a surprise from you. They can tell you all they want about this project and you will still be surprised when you get it. I encourage you to remind your children regularly that no one should ask them to keep a secret from their parents and if they do, they can tell you that too!
ZIG ZAG THINGS: For our project this week we’ll work on cutting along zig zag lines and using new zig zag scissors. We also have a journal prompt inviting us to draw zig zag lines.
ZIPPER WORK: At Circle Time Ms Kristin brought out 6 baby dolls who all have zippers on their pajamas. Children paired up with a classmate to get them all dressed. A lot of fine motor work and problem solving took place! It was a very sweet experience watching all the children work so carefully together. (Click on the photos to scroll through them full size)
Remember: the simple act of zippering a coat requires bilateral coordination, finger isolation, open thumb web space, separation of the two sides of the hand (on BOTH hands), motor planning, pinch strength, eye-hand coordination, pincer grasp, and tripod grasp (most often of the non-dominant hand). No wonder it takes a while!
STORY TIME: We read Hello Baby by Lizzy Rockwell. A family welcomes a new baby into their home and we watch an older brother navigate all the noises and changes the baby brings. We also found the letter Z in the baby’s name and two letter Zs in the author and illustrator’s name. Plus our afternoon class finally celebrated Zander’s Golden Letter Day! He waited all year!
COPING SKILL OF THE WEEK: Zip it up. We bring in a little movement and stillness with this week’s Coping Skill: we start by wiggling our bodies then pretend to zip it up from our toes to our neck…just like a onesie or footie pajamas!
HERE ARE MORE PICTURES OF OUR DAY:
We had a spontaneous lesson on cursive this morning and repeated it in the afternoon:
We worked on making a zoo by sorting animals into groups. Both our snacks today had zoo themes to them too!
Here are some questions you can ask your preschooler about our day:
Who acted like the teacher today?
What color did the play dough and Tiny Things turn today?
How did your flowers stay up on the Snack Table?
In our book, how did they plant a garden if they didn’t have a yard?
When she was a little girl, what did Ms Kristin look at as she fell asleep?
MAY DAY: In honor of May Day, we made straw flowers that all had a yellow center. Maybe you’ll be the recipient of a May Day surprise! Since it’s the first day of May, all of the purple things turned blue: the play dough, play dough tools and all the Tiny Things too! We used our old purple play dough as holders for our May Day flowers.
Y WHY JOKE: At Circle Time we played the Y/Why joke game with our Alphabet Friend Yolanda! She acted like the teacher (and even put on a teacher name tag holder) and showed the letter Y and asks what letter it was. When the children called out, “Y” Yolanda pretended they said, “Why” so she said something like, “Because I want to know. Will you please tell me what letter this is?” and then we repeated it many times.
STORY TIME: We read Flower Garden and connected May Day with the work of Garret Morgan, the man who invented the yellow traffic light!
In Flower Garden, a family plants a garden in a window box even though they live in an apartment in the middle of a city. We looked in our journals to find the picture of Mr Morgan AND a yellow traffic light, just like in our book!
During Story Time Ms Kristin remembered that when she was a little girl living on the south side of Chicago, she would watch a traffic light change from red to green to yellow to red to green to yellow as she fell asleep.
In the book it was the mother’s birthday. Our morning class had a connection because it was Ms Emily’s birthday! We celebrated with a balloon, a card, treats that her own mom made us, and we guessed how old she turned today. Happy Birthday, dear Ms Emily! Thank you for coming to preschool on your birthday!
COPING SKILL OF THE WEEK: Pause. Just like the yellow of a traffic light, we can slow down and pause. Even young children can sense a safety and connection to self by resting with a hand on their belly and a hand on their heart. We did it again today and it was quiet for quite a while, just resting together.
HERE ARE MORE PICTURES OF OUR DAY:
P.S. We have 16 friends graduating to Kindergarten so we’re spending time practicing opening a variety of bags and containers at Snack Time! Here you can see friends giving advice on different techniques.
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