Costume Party

Watch out! Batman, Thor, Spiderman, and a scientist are on the loose in the big room!












The costume parade in the big room. The kids had fun showing off their cool costumes and checking out all the other fun costumes.













One of the parents even joined in on the fun and surprised us by showing up as Dracula!

Exploring the Classroom Centers

There are several centers in the classroom.  Throughout the day the children are given opportunities to explore different centers and choose various activities to work on; either on their own, with a friend, or with Ms. Deb. In the pictures below you can can see the children practicing an assortment of skills in the writing center and working on fun activities that enhance their knowledge of letter recognition, letter sounds, shapes, and counting.

Using chalk to write lines, letters, and numbers. 

Practicing writing letters together to form a word!  

Matching upper and lower case letters to make the
beginning sound of the pictures shown on the cards.

She is finding the lower case letters that correspond to the upper case letters. 

Building with magnetic shapes.
He discovered that the circles fit inside the squares!

Counting beads from one through ten.

Counting the beads and matching the number to the written numeral in the cups.

Ohio Pre-Kindergarten Content Standards:

• Mathematics
• Counting and Cardinality
• Know number names and the count sequences.
• Count to 10 by ones. 
• Identify the symbol and name numerals 1-9. 
• Count to tell the number of objects.
• Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality. 
• Number, Number Sense and Operations
• Count to 10 in the context of daily activities and play. 
• Geometry
• Compose simple shapes to form larger shapes. 
• English Language Arts
• Reading Standards: Foundational Skills
• Phonics and Word Recognition: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word-analysis skills in decoding words:
• Demonstrate a beginning understanding of links between letters and sounds. 
• Language Standards
• Conventions of Standard English
• Scribble familiar words with mock letters and some actual letters. 

It's All About ME!

Ms. Deb is starting off the school year by getting to know all of the children and allowing them to share information about themselves with each other.

The children brought in family pictures to display throughout the classroom.  They love to talk about who is in their pictures and where the pictures were taken (Kings Island! A baseball game!).

Everyone helped to design their own special poster, complete with pictures and facts about them. By discussing information about themselves they can identify things they have in common and differences (example: "He is 4 years old like me!" or "Her favorite color is red but my favorite color is blue.")

Fun facts about these two friends...their favorite foods include waffles and meatballs!
They are busy gluing shapes to their posters.  

Adding stickers to his poster.
He says that he likes the color blue and lives in Ohio.  

Ohio Pre-Kindergarten Content Standards met from the above theme include:

• Social Studies (Theme: The Classroom Community)
• History Strand
• Heritage -- Personal family stories and traditions support the understanding of heritage.  
• Historical Thinking and Skills -- People develop an awareness of their personal histories. 
• Geography Strand
• Human Systems -- People belong to a number of groups and these groups have unique characteristics. Similarities among people are used to define groups. 
• English Language Arts
• Reading Standards for Informational Text
• Integration of Knowledge and Ideas -- With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic. 

Magnetic or Non-Magnetic?

These little scientists are experimenting with various objects and a magnet to answer the question, "Is it magnetic or non-magnetic?"  

Testing her first item.
Will the bottle cap make it into the magnetic column?  

The children tested each item with the magnet and decided which column the items belonged in. After sorting the items into one of the two categories they were able to see how many of their items were magnetic and how many were not magnetic.  

The cork, the cotton ball, and the eraser did not stick to the magnet.
How many non-magnetic items are there? How many magnetic items?

Ohio Pre-Kindergarten Content Standards met from the above activity include:

• Mathematics
• Classify objects and count the number of objects in each category. 
• Science
• Science Inquiry and Application
• Plan and conduct simple investigations
• Employ simple equipment and tools to gather data and extend the senses
• Communicate about observations, investigations and explanations
• Physical Science 
• Observations of objects and materials (exploring and describing properties of objects and materials that can be found in nature, classrooms and homes)

Eye Droppers and Food Coloring Craft

Watch us make designs with eye droppers and food coloring!

First we are placing droplets of food coloring all over a piece of wax paper.

He is grouping his colors.

He placed three yellow drops in a row and then placed three 

more below the first three.

He liked the color blue then added some yellow and red to his design. 

He is using two hands to squeeze the food coloring out of

the eye dropper.

He is randomly placing drops all over the wax paper.

When they were finished with the food coloring they placed 

a piece of paper on top of the wax paper and pressed down.

Moving their fingers all over the paper.

After pressing the paper on the wax paper they lifted up their project 

to discover how their creation turned out. 

And here they are!!!

Making a sunflower garden

In the spring the kids planted a sunflower garden.  They went outside to find sticks.  They used the sticks to dig holes for the seeds.  Everyone picked several spots and planted their sunflower seeds.  Then we waited...and waited, and waited.  The sunflowers have come up and are growing so fast now!  It shouldn't be much longer until we have some big yellow sunflowers in the garden. 

Finding the perfect stick...

Making holes for the seeds with the sticks.

Putting seeds in the holes.

Lightly covering the seeds with soil.

Wow!  Our growing garden.

A Pre-K Puppet Show

If you give the kids puppets, they will want to put on a puppet show...and they did!  

Some of the pre-k kids decided to put on a puppet show for the preschool class.  They decided who would use which animal puppets. Then they sat down together and discussed what the animal puppets would do during the puppet show. It was a great exercise in cooperation and they excelled. Great teamwork!

The kids invited their preschool friends to watch the puppet show, showed them where to sit, and then put on a very entertaining show for their pals. The animals roared and acted silly and the audience ate it up!  

 Everyone loves it when we get to use the stage lights and perform.  

Our puppeteers took a big bow at the end.  Bravo!

Shapes

The pre-kindergartners recently completed a unit about shapes.  To learn more about shapes Ms. Lu Ann introduced the class to the works of Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky, a Russian artist, is known for his abstract paintings which feature colors and shapes.  

Kandinsky's Bauhaus, Plakat

Kandinsky's Composition VIII

Ms. Lu Ann shared several of Kandinsky's paintings with the class and asked them to use colors and shapes to create their own masterpieces.  Taking inspiration from the paintings, the kids used crayons to draw shapes on their artwork.  They discussed the different shapes that they used...triangles, rectangles, squares, circles, spirals, etc.  Here are a few of their abstract creations:

Using scraps from the recycling bin, the children found various shapes and worked together to make a huge collage:

Some of the Ohio Pre-Kindergarten Content Standards met from the above activities include:

• Mathematics: 
• Geometry: Identify and describe shapes.
• Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind and next to.
• Geometry: Analyze, compare, create and compose shapes. 
• Analyze and compare two and three-dimensional shapes, in different sizes and orientations using informal language to describe their similarities, differences, parts and other attributes.
• Model shapes in the world by building shapes from components and drawing shapes.
• Compose simple shapes to form larger shapes.  

Mad Science: mad mixtures

Mad Science 

Mixing vinegar and baking soda together.

OH WOW!!! It fizzed up!!!

Observing how oil and water do not mix.

Now let's shake it and see it mix together.

Adding water to the color tablet.

It fizzed up just like the vinegar and baking soda did.

Adding water to the color tablet with a pipette.

Beginning to mix the color water to flour mix.

Stir, stir stir

Almost there. A little more water, a little more stirring.

PLAY-DOH