Halloween Dramatic Play Area

Our dramatic play area for October is a Witches Brew/ Potions shop. The kids just love it! 

Families

Design a house. We colored the outside and used house furniture and family stamps for the inside 

Building houses with blocks

Halloween songs

I love Halloween in Preschool! Here are some of the songs we will be singing in class this month. They are perfect for preschoolers! 

Here are the songs.  Click on the title to be linked to the video. 

The Skeleton Dance

Go Away Scary Monster Go Away

5 Creepy Spiders

5 Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate

Spooky Spooky

Pumpkin Pumpkin

Pumpkins Witches and Ghosts

10 Little Monsters

This is not a song but I like to use it for shape recognition.  Preschoolers love anything with trains and pumpkins!

Learn Shapes with Shaun the Train

Friendship week

Friendship painting

Students start with a color on their paper and paint while music plays (We did the ABC's).  When the music stops the student takes their paint and brush and moves over to their friends paper and paints while the music plays.  This continues until all members of the group have painted on each other's paper.  The kids absolutely LOVED this. 

Miss Spider Art:

Concepts: 
Cutting, Cutting, Cutting
Following directions
Answering WH questions about being a good friend.

Self Portrait

Concepts:
Fine motor practice/tripod grasp
Drawing a face
Color recognition

All About Me

We worked on these all about me pictures all week long.  The students loved making them! (idea adapted from www.kinderbykim.com)

We focused a lot on name recognition and name writing this week.  For this activity students had to select their name out of a group of names (name recognition) glue the strips on the cloud (glue stick skills) and then state the letters in their name and write their name (with help as needed).  The rainbow names added such a fun touch hanging from the ceiling. 

Texture names.  We talked about how some letters are made of straight lines and some are made of curves.  Students put sticks on all the straight lines and then selected glitter or pipe cleaners (also used for some straight lines if requested)  for the curved part of the letters in their name.  They love looking up at these names and trying to find their name and their friends name. 

First Week of Preschool Ideas

During the first week of preschool I like to do simple activities during center time that will make the kids feel successful and help them understand the routine.

We made:

-hand print fish
-crayon crowns
-puff paint crayons

We worked on:

-save vs. different
-color sorting
-letter identification
-understanding that letters make words
-color words

Hand Print Fish- "O "fish"ally a Preschooler! 
-this was tricky for some kids with sensory issues.  It was something easy and fun to do the first day and gave us an idea of kiddos who may need more or less sensory input.

Crayon Crowns-crayons were pre-cut so students just worked on glue stick skills and glued the crayons on however they wanted.  We worked on patterning and color identification. 

Puffy Paint ice cream cones- We mixed equal parts plain shaving cream and white school glue and whisked it together with neon tempera paint (liquid watercolor works great too) added some sprinkles and it was done.  Students worked on following directions (3 basic steps) and color identification.

Color Word/Color Sorting- We started with letters for each color word created in the corresponding color ( letters R E D made out of red paper, letters B L U E made out of blue paper etc.).

First we sorted by color

After we had each color pile we talked about how letters can create words

Students watched as the teacher spelled out some color words.  Students helped by identifying the beginning sound. 

Finally, a chance to make words of their own.  Some kids could sound it out, some kids needed a prompt like ( P first, U next etc.) 

Our theme dramatic play area this month is a Shoe Store.  The students loved putting shoes in boxes, bagging them up and playing with the cash register. 

Birthday Bulletin Board

My two classroom technicians came in today to help get the classroom ready.  Look at the cute bulletin board that we did together! I love it. 

September Books

My students arrive in one week!  Let the fun of lesson prep begin!

Here are the books we are reading in September:

Colors: 




The Day the Crayons Quit


All About Me: 


                           
I Like Me                                        Flora and the Flamingo

Friends: 



     My Friends                            Miss Spider's Tea Party                                                       



Families: 

       
Just Me and My Family              The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Community Helpers:
                           


All Through My Town


Predictive Text Books we read every week:

               
Silly Sally                                                      The Napping House