i love finding “proof of learning” in the classroom or hearing about it from families.
i found this on the table one day…completed by a young three year old during work time. ahhhh.
i is for igloo
with rolls of thrifted white fabric, we turned one of our cozy corners into an igloo.
the roof didn’t last terribly long, but that way there was more fabric to be used as “snow blankets.”
we also did a 2 part project one day.
when children arrived, they come to the project table to help snip white strips of paper. we made the strips wide enough so that it would require more than one snip to cut off a piece. if we saw children struggling with this, we cut the strip the long way so all they had to do was make one snip and ta-da! an ice block!
then later in the day, we glued the ice blocks into an igloo shape.
some igloos were just the outline and others were filled in completely.
v is for vowel
we took advantage of i week to talk about the concept of vowels. we sang this song (to the tune of “bingo”):
then i had each vowel written on a piece of paper and when i took one (or more) away, we clapped in its place.
these preschoolers got pretty good by the end of the week! and they liked knowing that they were talking about something that big kids still talk about. : )
i is for instrument
thank you families for bringing cardboard tubes for show and tell. again, much counting (one day we were able to count in 5 languages…english, spanish, indonesian and then my dad who was visiting added german and french).
we used duct tape, more foam strips, masking tape, old rice, stickers to make shakers and blowers. we had a checklist for preschoolers to notate when they finished each of their instruments.
it was fun watching preschoolers design blowers with more than one end for the sound to come out of.
and how fun it was to discover that a many-times-folded paper touching the tube will vibrate when we hum in the open end. i think we may have been a little much for some of the tired grandparent friends on our instrument parade (which is really like yelling through a tube).
we also made a few rainsticks with the wrapping paper rolls…holes cut for craft sticks to be pushed through, then tape up one end, pour in rice, tape up the other end. it sounded surprisngly rainstick-ish.
i is for indonesia
what a treat to have someone from across the ocean to give us new perspective.
ms. vilia is from indonesia so we looked at our maps again, drew some land shapes, then practiced writing.
some of the preschoolers were satisfied making their i shapes while others went on to add 8 more letters! when preschoolers are in their pre-k year, we help them complete these kind of tasks…for the others it is optional. it is clear when writing is interesting to a child. we’ve had preschoolers who looked pained everytime they held a crayon or pencil who are now impressive writers!
again, we plant the seeds and provide opportunity and encouragement.
newcreationpreschool.com 