Play-Doh Decorations

Today we decorated Christmas trees using Play-Doh! The kids rolled balls of Play-Doh and put them on the circles of the tree. 

Inside snowmen!

In our sensory bucket this week we are making snowmen! Well, sort of ;) The kids have cotton balls, shovels and snowman pieces (eyes, buttons, carrots and arms) to build their inside snowmen!

Silverware Sorting

We have been talking about the Thanksgiving Meal a ton over the past week. One important step in eating a big meal is the cleanup :( Definitely not my favorite part! But good news for you - the kids are GREAT at sorting silverware. They picked different pieces of (paper) silverware and hung them on the matching hook. Great practice for Thursday ;)

 

Turkey Letters

Today we put our turkey alphabet in order. The kids used tiny clothespins to put the turkeys in alphabetical order.

Environmental Print Puzzles

Isn't it funny how most children know what all the different kinds of cereal are even if they have never had it? That's their environmental print experience kicking in! Kids pick up that pictures and characters represent certain brands or places quickly. Especially with the exposure T.V. gives them, they know more about product branding than you probably do! Today we put together puzzles made of cereal boxes. They had a picture of the box to help them. This is something you could VERY easily do at home!

Color Matching

 

Today the kids used salad tongs to pick up colored balls and match them to their place in the muffin tin. I saw some VERY creative ways to make those tongs work ;)

Checker Race!

This morning we had a checker race! The kids used a checker board on the back of a shelf to race their smiley face checkers to the top. They rolled dice to see how many spaces they needed to move.

Spider Search!

Our fall-themed sensory bucket had leaves, shredded paper and spiders! The kids dug through the bucket to see if they could find all of the hiding spiders.

Alphabet Hooks

Today we matched letters by hanging the lowercase letter on the hook by the uppercase letter. We started with just 8 letters and will work our way up to all 26!

Crows and Scarecrows

The 3K kids matched colored scarecrows and crows. They choose a crow and used a clothes pin to attach it to the matching scarecrow!
Here is one they completed

Fall Number Match and Sponge Painting

The 4K kids matched number words, numerals and number pictures today. They picked acorns and matched them to the correct squirrel!

Since I haven't posted anything in awhile, I'll give you a bonus picture today! :) We sponge painted pumpkins. I set out sponges for the kids to use and they picked up the sponge using a clothespin. Adding a little fine motor (and challenge!) to our painting!

It is Fall in the Pre-K Room!

It is officially Fall in the Pre-K room! I decided to kick-off Fall with one of my favorite activities - pumpkin pounding! The kids used wooden blocks to pound golf tees into a pumpkin. Such a great way to build hand-eye coordination!

Phone Number Practice

During Fire Safety week the 3K/4K kids practiced their phone numbers. They found the numbers for their phone number, lined them up in the correct order and then practiced dialing on the phone at the bottom. I asked some of them if they had ever seen a phone like that before. (Assuming most houses have cordless phones or cell phones). Most had not, but one told me that that was the phone their family used when the power goes out because it doesn't need batteries! Too funny :)

Puffy Fire

Some of our friends made "puffy fire." We mixed shaving cream, glue and orange paint to make 3D fire. We used our hands which helped build our sensory input skills. Plus, who doesn't like to get a little messy! ;) If you haven't ever painted with shaving cream and glue, check it out in the hallway. It dries puffy and smooth. It is actually pretty cool!

Firefighter Patterns

It is officially Firefighter Safety Week! We are working on many things. Today we are using Fire Safety objects to complete patterns.

Dress the Firefighter

Today we dressed firefighter paper dolls. By putting them on a vertical surface, children build their arm and shoulder strength. Believe it or not, strengthening their shoulder muscles will help their fine motor skills!

What will put out the "fire" the fastest?

Our older friends used many different things to "try to put out the fire." They used the medicine syringe, different sized squirt bottles and a squeeze bottle. They decided that the spray bottles were the easiest to use and the squeeze bottle would put out the fire the fastest because more water came out quicker. Each bottle had a different grip strength and required a different level of pressure. This helps to build the hand strength which will help them to have a better grip for writing!

Putting Out the Fire!

We started Fire Safety Week a little bit early in the Pre-K room. (It is really October 6-10) Today, the kids used an unused medicine syringe to squirt water at the "flame." They were using their fine motor skills to suck up the water, aim at the flame and squeeze out the water! I bet you have an old syringe in the medicine cabinet - you could easily do this at home!

 

Apple Sorting

Today we sorted red and green apples. The preschoolers picked apples from the pile and decided which tree they belonged on. We counted along the way to see which tree had more or less.

Apple Week Continues

We are celebrating Johnny Appleseed this week. We have lots of great activities but one that I thought I'd share is pictured below. We are using spoons to scoop apples out of the container and dump them on the tree. The kids use hand-eye coordination and hand skills to get the apples on the tree.

If you don't already have your child serve themselves at dinner, consider having them at least scoop their vegetable. Scooping and dumping builds key fine motor skills needed to become great writers!

It is Apple Week :)

This week is the start of apple week! Check out this week's sensory bin. It is oats, cinnamon and cinnamon sticks, plastic apples and cooking utensils. Everything you need to make a delicious (non-edible) apple pie!

 

I will be doing sensory bins often. While exploring the sensory bin, students are using their hand-eye coordination, hand skills, sensory input skills and using their imagination. Typically, they will be things that are easy for you to recreate at home - I LOVE the Dollar Tree ;)

Fun with Shaving Cream

Last week (and this week) my friends and I had a little bit of shaving cream fun!

We used our fine motor skills to trace letters and shapes in shaving cream.

Bonus: shaving cream is excellent at cleaning table tops! :)

Colander Picture!

I just wanted to post a picture of the colander activity. As you can see, it is super easy.
All you need is a colander (with holes, not slits), pipe cleaners and beads :)

What a great first week!

Whew! That first week went by so fast!
I am even more excited now, there are some pretty fantastic kids. :)

I will send out more information on Monday/Tuesday but picture retake day is scheduled for October 22 at 8:30am. The Tuesday/Thursday kids will have their pictures taken then.

You will notice, as the year progresses, that I incorporate Fine Motor Skills building activities frequently. I have spent quite a bit of time researching and developing activities that will strengthen the my students fine motor skills so that when it is time to be a writer, they have been given the tools and practice they need to be successful. This is really important to me since the expectations of Kindergarten writers is so high. Much higher than when we were in school!

Today, my 4Ks made a "spaceship" using pipe cleaners, beads and a colander. They took pipe cleaners, threaded on beads, and then stuck the pipe cleaners into the holes of the overturned colander. The pipe cleaners "ballooned" over the colander. The put close to 50 pipe cleaners all over this colander. It was pretty awesome! This activity strengthened their hand-eye coordination and improved their finger and hand control. I wanted to post a picture before today's blog but I wasn't able to pull it together quick enough. From now on, our super fun activities, I will post pictures. (I won't post anything that you can tell who the students are, they will typically just be the project) Part of what I have developed with these fine motor activities is that they are all done with materials that are cheap and easy to find. So you could easily reproduce them at home if you wanted.

This was such a great week. I want to leave you with my favorite quote of the week.

We are sitting down for group time. We are learning the different parts of group time. I introduce the weather chart. I ask the students, "How can we tell what the weather is doing right now?" I expected to hear look out the window or when we were outside it was sunny. Instead, one friend says, "We could ask Siri. That is how my sister finds out the weather." HAHA!! Made my day ;)

Have a great weekend!
Abby

Welcome!

Welcome to Mrs. Linwood's 3 & 4 K blog! I am so excited to start the new year. :)

On this blog you will find lots of important information. I'll post exciting activities from the week, funny quotes that need to be shared (don't worry, I won't post your deepest secrets ;) ) or helpful tips to tie into our daily activities. Please check-in often.