This week we are celebrating the letter T and St Patrick’s Day with Tom Tom the Leprechaun as our theme. This pretend character loves rainbows, the color green, gold and being outside in the trees. How fun that we still have a lot of green around since it is March’s Color of the Month:  the playdough and tools are green, the Tub Table has green digging and sculpting tools, and all the Tiny Things. Our new Alphabet Friend is Terry who will be covered in tape this week!  We have a pretend tornado that we can color and paint while it spins from a hook on the ceiling and a two tunnels to crawl through. 

  

Our Coping Skill is Tree time. Spending time outside with trees is known to reduce feelings of stress. By looking at trees we are also using our previous Coping Skills of Exploratory orienting and Far off gaze.

During Clean Up we are listening to Irish jigs…continuing to practice stopping and freezing when the music stops.

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On Wednesday we continued making our leprechaun houses and added little trees to them. We also added leaves to trees in our Journals.

Gary the Grassy G Alphabet Friend showed up when kids started drawing grass under their trees. We pretended he loved it!

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Conversation Starter: Party Snack Time

All week we are having a Tom Tom the Leprechaun Party during Snack Time.

Today we got to choose our gold treats from a pot at the end of the rainbow!

Morning class: We had green grapes, green cucumbers and rainbow Rice Krispie treats from Everett. Heath brought gold animals for everyone to choose. What a party! Thank you, Everett and Heath!

Afternoon class: We had green Gatorade, green puppy chow and green grapes from Avery and Axel. We had rainbow Trix cereal from Zander. Annie brought gold chocolate coins. Another great party! Thank you, Avery, Axel, Zander and Annie!

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Conversation Starter: Story Time 

What animal climbed a tree? 

The cat! It was trying to get away from a dog! We looked at a lot of people and animals in A Tree is Nice and remembered Tom Tom’s love of the forest. On the same page we also noticed a child with a stick…we’re extra thankful for trees because they give us sticks!

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Conversation Starter: Project Time

What is your tree trunk made out of?    

A cardboard tube!  Today we added leaves to the tubes and Ms Kristin used hot glue to make sure they wouldn’t fall out. Adding trees to our leprechaun houses means Tom Tom would really like to live there!  

These leprechaun houses are looking very magical as table decorations…children take them home on the last day of the week.  

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Conversation Starter: Circle Time

Did your Show and Tell thing go in or under the tree?

We went outside again for our Show and Tell and gathered around one of our smallest trees that has a couple of low limbs. Remembering Story Time and things that went in trees, children could decide if they went under the tree or in the tree!

This week we are celebrating the letter T and St Patrick’s Day with Tom Tom the Leprechaun as our theme. This pretend character loves rainbows, the color green, gold and being outside in the trees. How fun that we still have a lot of green around since it is March’s Color of the Month:  the playdough and tools are green, the Tub Table has green digging and sculpting tools, and all the Tiny Things. Our new Alphabet Friend is Terry who will be covered in tape this week!  We have two tunnels to crawl through.   

There is a pretend tornado that we can color and paint while it spins from a hook on the ceiling. To reach to the top, we moved the tables together so YES, children stood on the table today!

Our Coping Skill is Tree time. Spending time outside with trees is known to reduce feelings of stress. By looking at trees we are also using our previous Coping Skills of Exploratory orienting and Far off gaze.

During Clean Up we are listening to Irish jigs…continuing to practice stopping and freezing when the music stops.

On Tuesday we welcomed our Golden Letter friend, Theo, and started making leprechaun houses and a forest scene for some more pretend leprechauns. Read on to learn more about our day.

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Conversation Starter: Party Snack Time

All week we are having a Tom Tom the Leprechaun Party during Snack Time. We are sorting and categorizing things that Tom Tom likes. Thank you, families for helping us learn via one of our favorite times of day! 

Morning class: We had party napkins from Sophie, a lot of green and golden food and drink from Arthur and Julian and rainbow cupcakes from Millie! Thank you, friends!

Afternoon class: We had party napkins from Cade, green applesauce pouches from Rex, rainbow fruit loop treats from Cade, and gold covered chocolate coins from Annie. Thank you friends!

P.S. We added extra napkins and gold coin wrappers to our leprechaun houses…they will go home on each child’s last day!

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Conversation Starter: Story Time 

Is Tom Tom real? 

No. He is a pretend leprechaun fairy who lives in the forest and loves rainbows, gold and the color green.

Your preschooler might recall the answers to these questions based on our story song cards today:

• What does Tom Tom like to play in? The dirt…there is a lot of it on the forest floor! 
• What does Tom Tom love to fix? Shoes!
• What does Tom Tom like to build? Forts!    
• What animal is he smaller than? A cat! 
• What does Tom Tom put on first? His underwear of course! We used this verse to continue the conversation about body safety…underwear covers our “bathroom parts” and at preschool no one should touch those parts…for instance, even if a child wants Ms Kristin to help wipe in the bathroom, only the toilet paper is  touching the child’s body. 

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Conversation Starter: Project Time

What did you make with a strawberry basket today?    

A leprechaun house! Children have access to ribbon, pipe cleaners, paper, tape and other odds and ends.  We will work on them every day this week!  

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Conversation Starter: Circle Time

Did Ms Kristin throw toys?

Yes, though it was more like a toss. We went outside today for Show and Tell where children had the opportunity to decide if their Show and Tell items were “throwable” or not. If so, Ms Kristin tossed it gently to them. If not, Ms Kristin carefully passed or rolled it to them. No items were damaged today!

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 got his eyes, name tag and smile today! We have our swing up in the classroom and an S walking path.

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.

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Today was the last day for S Week and we spent it with our Golden Letter friend Scarlet.! Today we focused on snakes and things people (and a little mouse!) are scared about. Read on to learn more! 

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Conversation Starter: Snack Time

Morning class: We celebrated Charlie turning five with Simply Cheetos, Sunrays grapes and “the best cookies we made at home.” Thank you, Charlie!

Afternoon class: We celebrated Carter turning five with sweet cupcakes and edible spiders from Annie. We also ate extra spider legs (pretzels). Thank you, Carter and Annie!

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Conversation Starter: Story Time

Who was the mouse most scared of? 

The cat! He was a little scared of the dog and the farmers too, but especially the cat. This is a very exciting book full of hunger, thirst, being cold, fears and a trapped paw that results in a pair of new best friends.

This was a great launching point to think of things we know people can be scared of.

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Conversation Starter: Project Time

Why did you squeeze paper today?    

To make a baby snake. We pretended that Sylvester loves babies and that he was very excited about our project. This project is an example of naturally incorporating our Coping Skill. By adding googly eyes, our snakes have a rattly sound…somewhat like a rattle snake!

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Conversation Starter: Circle Time

Who ate the Show and Tell things today?

Our big shark! This is another thing some people are scared about. 

We have a crocheted shark sleeping bag type blanket that people or things can go inside. If the children wanted, their Show and Tell items could go inside the shark! If someone didn’t bring an item from home, they could pick something from the classroom for the shark to “eat.” 

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 is based off 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 was back with her spinning wheel and umbrella swift yarn winder. The children love watching and helping…some are very curious about the mechanics of it all!

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.

Our Letter of the Week is S and our two Golden Letter friends, Sophie and Scarlet, were both back at school today! Today we focused on squeezing things, including people! We squeezed paper to put in our journals as well (and practiced lining up to wait for a turn with Ms Kristin to put them in our journals). Read on to learn more about that. 

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Conversation Starter: Snack Time

Morning class: Thank you, Millie for a wonderful S snack: Sun Chips, strawberries and sea salt seaweed!

Afternoon class: Thank you, Scarlet for the chocolate rocks that we called “stones” today to go with our sweet animal crackers and apple sauce.

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Conversation Starter: Story Time

Why did the little girl put her hand up? 

She wanted someone to stop doing something. Some people call hugs “squeezes.” We used Story Time as a time to talk about body safety and a child’s right to say no to a hug or any other touch.  I’m guessing they can show you the stop hand and voice we practiced today, including the serious face and strong voice, “I said STOP.”

Let’s all help keep these children safe and to know their bodies are their own.   

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Conversation Starter: Project Time

How did you get the paint on your paper?    

By squeezing it! We had paint in tiny tubes that had to be squeezed very hard to get the paint out before rolling it smooth with our brayer rollers. Children could also add strings (we called them snakes) before making a print. What great muscle work resulting in beautiful prints.

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Conversation Starter: Circle Time

What did people do to their Show and Tell things?

Squeezed them…we were curious what would happen. Some things were soft enough that they’d be changed when squeezed and some things were too hard to be moved or manipulated at all. A few items had parts that were both squishy and hard. We also talked about being careful when squeezing things (or people) because even a preschooler is strong enough to break things! If someone didn’t bring an item from home, they picked something from the classroom to show us what happens when it got squeezed!

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.

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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).

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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.   

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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!).

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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.