H is for Halloween!

Halloween Week was a blast here at preschool! We talked about all things spooky and ANYTHING that we could think of that began with our letter of the week, Hh! Of all the things that start with Hh though, Halloween might just be everyone's favorite. Here is a collage of all things Letter Hh. Let your child HELP you learn more about it!

Here is another FAVORITE thing at preschool that starts with Hh...

Speaking of Halle, she was one of our Halloween Puppet Theater Greats (a.k.a. one of the few who REALLY got into the performance)! We set up the puppet show outside on Tuesday. Some of those kids could have kept up the performing ALL day! Mostly the stick puppets were found hitting each other and giggling hysterically. We might need to work on that a bit!

We had a great Halloween "party" on Thursday! I put "party" in quotes because I have simplified it so much over the years, that really, it's just a regular preschool day with a few spooky touches! Believe it or not, this is JUST the way the kids prefer it. We keep the same routine and it is all extra special because we are in our costumes and our centers and activities are all Halloween based. Just simple and special. Low on bells and whistles but HIGH on fun and excitement!

For this age group, my main goal of the day is to help the kids overcome their "Halloween" fears and anxieties. Some kids are terrified of masks (even if they can see the person who is underneath) and some kids are afraid of speaking up when it is time to trick-or-treat! It makes sense to talk about these issues at school and try to help these preschoolers become more confident on the this spooky day.

One of our centers is to practice trick-or-treating. Each child takes a turn to go behind a door (and pretend it is their house) with the bag of candy they brought to school. All the other kids line up and take turns knocking on the door and saying, "Trick-or Treat!" It is amazing how hard it is for some kids to be able to do this. After all, we have taught our children to never speak to strangers, let alone ask them for candy! It helps a great deal to practice these skills before heading out on the big night.

We practice saying "Thank You" as well as each child receives their piece of candy. I think it is important for preschoolers to learn good trick-or-treating manners. Included in this discussion, we also talked about how important it is to never tell a person that we don't like a particular candy, we should just simply be happy for whatever our neighbors put into our bags. I talked to them about how they need to go home and go through the candy with their mom and dad. If they see a kind of candy they don't particularly like, they should give it to someone in their family who does like it. Most everyone agreed that this was a good idea!

Hopefully our discussion at school will help everyone have a happy and safe trick-or-treating experience! That is the goal anyway! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pumpkins and a WHOLE Lotta ORANGE!

Okay! If your child doesn't know what the color ORANGE looks like after today, then I don't know WHAT we will do!?! We were SWIMMING in ORANGE today and could not have had MORE FUN! Take a look for yourself!

And since we're on the subject of orange, today was a great day to celebrate our favorite ORANGE, "must-have" Halloween item, the PUMPKIN!

What is the difference between a pumpkin and a jack-o-lantern? Your preschooler knows!

The difference . . .

is in the FACE!

First we picked our pumpkins from the patch and then played a pumpkin game. The game goes like this: We put all the pumpkins in a bunch and made a circle around them. Then we sang this song as we held hands and skipped around them.

Pumpkin, pumpkin in the patch.
Pumpkin, pumpkin on the vine.
There are (seven) round and orange,
I'll take one and it is mine!

As we skipped and sang, I tapped a child on the head to pick their pumpkin (they had to try to remember which one they got from the vine) and they took it out of the center of our circle. We kept singing the song and taking away pumpkins until they were all out. We sang the song SEVEN times until everyone had their turn and they did not get tired of it!

After the game, we did the dramatic transformation of turning pumpkins into happy jack-o-lanterns! I am amazed every year by how this one, simple activity can bring soooo many smiles!

During recess we played another game called, "Pass the Pumpkin"! Oh if only EVERY school day could be this easy and FUN! I just love FALL!

October 20th

The one and only LOWLY picture of the day! We were QUITE busy and I neglected to pick up my camera today. I remembered in time to get this one shot of the kids with their shape bats, which kind of defeats the purpose of taking pictures at school since they brought these bats home to show you anyway! On days like today, when we don't bring too much home, I would like for you to know that we STILL had a full and busy day. We played a lot of REVIEW games (involving all five of the letters and sounds we have learned so far) as well as remembering some of the concepts we have learned recently. Since I didn't get pictures of our actually DOING these activities, I thought I'd take pictures of the activities themselves and post them here for you to talk about with your child. Have him/her sit on your lap and look at the next few photos together and see if he/she will tell you about our fun REVIEW type day!

(To make the image big enough to read, don't forget to double click on it.)

I actually really enjoy these types of review days. We played a lot of games and sang lots of songs. I think the kids are really coming along on these first five letters too! Make sure you talk about M and W and how they can look a lot alike when you turn them upside down. I have been encouraging them to remember their sign language positions for that letter and to remember that the "points" stick up with W and they go down with M. Also remember to point out environmental print that they know; McDonalds for M and Walmart for W!

A Wonderful Week!

We learned all about our world this week AND the letter Ww, of course! Each week it amazes me all the things around the room, or topics that come up in conversation, that relate to our letter of the week. It is so beneficial for your child to hear the reminders from you (and other family members) about letters and sounds. Don't be afraid to POINT out the discoveries as you recognize them. Like today, for instance; Mrs Webb (Audrey's mom) was our Mom helper. How great that her last name began with our letter of the week! We made a big deal about that. As well as anything else we noticed that began with Ww.

Right now, I am trying to teach your child to recognize the sounds at the beginning of words. Take time to REALLY focus on YOUR child's first letter and sound. Make a big deal of things that share the same sound with your child. If we can get your child to master his/her own first letter sound, he/she will naturally have the desire to move on to beginning sounds of other people that are important to him/her. Gradually, he/she will have more and more letters and sounds under his/her belt. Also, have your child look at the pictures on this blog with you to get him/her thinking about the letters we learn each week.

When you make learning the letters meaningful to your child, that is when the magic happens! Always keep letters and sounds in mind when you are interacting with your preschooler. It makes a BIG, BIG difference!

Here's a glimpse at our WEEK with Ww!

Take a look at what ELSE we did this week:

And last, but not least. . .WALL WRITING!!!!

It might look like grafitti, but no worries, it will wash right off with a good spray of the hose! I love letting the kids draw AWAY on that ugly block wall. Nothing cuter than kid writing in pretty colored chalk! I told the kids if they could write their name, I'd take their picture next to it. Here are a few snapshots. I took a few more than these, but the bright sun ruined some of the images. I'll have to try again another day. Hopefully this will motivate some of our less enthusiastic writers to practice writing their names:)

Fire Station Field Trip

Our First Field Trip!

We had a GREAT time at the fire station (and riding the SUN TRAN bus to get there) and learned so much!

Make sure you ask your preschooler to tell you all about fire safety, they are EXPERTS now!

Super Ss Week

This week in preschool we are focusing on quite an important letter, Ss! Sooooo many things begin with this letter. We had such a blast thinking about Ss words and looking for things around the room with that sound. We noticed so many things! Take a moment to look around your own Surroundings! Play I Spy and Simon Says! Don't stop thinking about letters and especially Ss this week!

We are also focusing on SAFETY and SHAPES! Make sure to have discussions about items your child brings home in his/her backpack. Sometimes the time just goes by TOO fast at school. Make the most of what you can do at home! Have fun with learning and sharing everyday.