Wendesday of Week 2

Wednesday, Week 2 of PDO with Mrs. Horn

I was excited to see my Wednesday friends return this week.  We had a few more tears this week but that is to be expected and as the weeks progress that will get better.  Despite the tears we had today we still had a great day.     My friends did lots of playing and exploring today.    As the school year progress we will incorporate more into our day each week something new will be added to our routine.  For now just becoming familiar with the classroom, learning our boundaries, becoming familiar with our teachers and friends is a lot for us to take in and process. 

Jesus Time:  Today we talked about what we will be doing our Jesus time and looked at the Bible again.  We practiced singing the Read the Bible song that we start each Jesus Time with and we continued to work on singing Jesus Loves Me.  This year Zion’s School theme is Blessed to Serve, so today we talked about our new Early Childhood Director Mrs. Haun and what a blessing she is to Zion and the Early Childhood program.  So our first service project today was to make a Welcome To Zion sign for Mrs. Haun with our hand prints.  We closed our Jesus time with an echo prayer…today’s prayer was:

Dear God, Thank you for my friends, school and teachers.  Amen.   

Number:  We continued our study of the number one today.   During morning meeting we practiced holding up one finger, counting one, clapping our hands one time, stomping our feet one time, jumping up and down one time.  We had fun rubbing our tummies one time and turning around one time. 

Shape:  We continued to talk about the shape of the square.  Today we counted that a square has four equal sides.  We looked around our classroom today and searched for some squares and we found quite a few.  Ask your child if they saw any squares in their classroom today.   During our center time we used a square stamp to stamp some blue squares on a piece of paper. 

Letter:  Today we practiced singing our ABC's and when we were getting ready to line up for snack, lunch and outside time we had to listen for our name and what the first letter in our name was.  We also looked at all the different letters on the wall today for the ABC songs.  Some of our friends were able to remember the first letter of their name!  During our center time we colored a picture of the Alphabet with crayons. 

Color:  We are learning about the color blue this month.  During our morning meeting we identified different blue objects and when we had center time we painted a picture of a blue butterfly. 

Music and Movement:  We had a lot of fun during this time of the day.  We sang Shake your Body Down, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The Wheels on the Bus and Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes.

Outside Time:  We were able to get outside and enjoy the nice weather again today for about 30 minutes and then it started to sprinkle so we headed back inside! 

Enjoy looking at what your child did in the pictures below.  I pray that all your children had a great time today and that they are enjoying coming to school! 

Free Choice Time

This is in the morning when all of our students are arriving.  I usually have play dough and some sort of puzzles or other manipulative's out for the students to work on in the morning.  The rest of room is also open to the students and they are able to play with any of the toys in the classroom.  This gives the students a time to settle in for the day, become familiar with the classroom and learn how to play with friends.  This time is from 8:00-9:10.  

Play Dough Experiences 

We were excited to see some new play dough items to create with today.  Play dough is a great way to work on our sensory skills as well as to develop strong finger and hand muscles.  It also allows the children to use their imaginations and creativity.  I have some friends who love to sit at the play dough table for a good 30 minutes every day and that is perfectly fine.  

Toys! 

Every couple of weeks new toys will be introduced to the classroom.  I try and change out toys regularly so that my friends stay happy and engaged.  If I see a toy or toys that are not inviting or holding the students attention I will pull it off the shelves and replace it with another toy.  I also do this so that they do not become "bored"  with what is in the classroom, it is a good reference when I have friends just sitting or not engaged in the classroom that it is time to move on to a new toy.  It also allows for my friends to experience lots of different things! 

Puzzles

Puzzles are also usually out on a table in the morning for my friends to do.  Puzzles are a great way to work on our problem solving skills and spatial awareness.  I do encourage the students to do a puzzle at some point through out the morning.  As the years progress the puzzles will get a increase in difficulty.  It is OK my friends get a little frustrated when doing a puzzle if all the puzzles were super easy it would not allow them to work on those problem solving skills that are so important in the years to come.  

Sensory Table

During Free Choice time is usually when the sensory table will be open.  Currently, there is sand in the table from the end of the last school year.  The sensory table just like the toys is changed out a lot over the course of the school year.  It can be fun and yes it can get quite messy, but that is OK.  Your child is here to learn, experience and have fun.  When we are at the sensory table we are working on lots of different skills like touching, feeling, pouring, scooping, digging and rubbing.  This is always a "hot spot" in the classroom and my friends enjoy playing in it.  I do have some friends that always tend to shy away from it I will encourage them to try it once and if it is not their thing that that is OK, but I do want them to try it and see if it would be something they would like to play with.  

PICTURE DAY! 

Today I took a picture of each child in the classroom that will be used for our bulletin board outside our classroom as well as to make a classroom book. If you do not see your child's photo on the blog today I will catch them the next time they are at school 

ISAIAH attends on Tuesdays and Wednesdays 

Emma attends on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 

Reese attends on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 

Ella attends on Wednesday 

Kate attends on Wednesdays

Painting a Blue Butterfly

Pre-Writing and the Easel

The Art Easel is always open as well during free choice time and center time.  The children have the opportunity to use markers on the dry erase side and chalk on the chalk board side.  This is a great way for children to become familiar with holding a writing instrument and to also work on their fine motor skills.  We see as the year progress' some pretty creative drawings and how the children's "writing" changes and evolves.  There is no wrong or right way to do this activity we just work on keeping the chalk on the chalk side and that the chalk goes in the box when we are done and that the markers stay on the wipe off board and that when we are done we put the lids back on the markers and put them back in the purple basket. 

Morning Meeting

Happy Wednesday!  

We always start our Morning Meeting with a hello song that we sing to name all of our friends in our classroom.  It is a great way for the children to learn each others name and who their teachers are.  

After our morning song we do the calendar.  We talk about what day of the week it is and what month it is and what the date is.  This is not something they are expected to know it is just to help them experience it and be familiar with it when they transition to preschool.  We do talk about the numbers on the date we are on and currently we have different Disney characters on our calendar so we identify the character on that date. 

Mr. Weather Frog is done after calendar and we talk about what it is like outside and what would be appropriate clothing for Mr. Weather Frog to wear.  My friends tell me what he needs to wear for the day we spend time looking out the window and discussing the type of clothing we have on for the day. This is how we incorporate our science and weather into our day.  Today we thought he might need his umbrella later in the day because it was sunny and cloudy and someone said it might rain.  

We then move on to talking about our number, shape and color of the month.  

I have a special board that we use to put objects on of the color we are learning about.  Each day I will pull out some objects and ask my friends to identify the object and if it makes a noise what is it and then  ask what color it is.  For example,  I pulled out a car today, I asked what is this?  after the response I ask what kind of noise does it make, some of my friends said beep beep and others said vroom vroom and then I asked what color was the car and they responded blue!  It is a great way to work on verbal skills, language, color recognition and identification. 

After our color board we will in the weeks to come talk about a letter from the alphabet.  Today we sang ABC song to help us become familiar with the different letters of the alphabet.  After that time we read a story, today we read Time For School Mouse.  I love books by Laura Numeroff and the mouse ones are my favorite.  It was a great tie into us coming to school and what mouse does that we do to get get ready for school.  

Transition Time 

Today when we got ready for snack we prayed first and then my friends had to listen to for their name. When they heard their name they chose a Mickey Mouse to stand on and wait for the rest of the class to find their Mickey Mouse and then we were able to proceed to the bathroom.  

We then marched to the bathroom to wash our hands and go potty. 

When we are waiting to wash hands we stand on this wall.  When we have washed our hands and gone potty then we come out of the bathroom and sit on this wall to wait for all of our friends to finish.  We then end with a finger exercise or song.  

SNACK TIME

We love snack time.  All my friends are expected to sit in their seat for the entire snack time.  We have snack for about 10-15 minutes. This is when we work on staying in our seat, with our bottoms in the chair and our feet in front of us.  We keep our bottoms in the chair until Mrs. Horn tells us it is time to put our drinks in the tub and throw our trash away.  

After snack time we return to the carpet for Jesus Time where we hear a Bible Story, sing some Bible songs and pray.  Sorry no pictures today I forgot to take some.  After Jesus time we get ready to head outside and play! 

Outside Play

We do go outside everyday weather permitting please remember to send your child in appropriate clothing and foot attire outside.  Sandals are cute and look great with an outfit, but are not always the best option for us to wear outside because we may have a hard time keeping them on our feet or we get rocks in them constantly and we spend more time getting the rocks out of our sandals than playing. 

Circle Time

After our outside time we come in and wash our hands come to the carpet and listen to a story and a flannel board story or finger play.  

We had fun identifying the animals in this book and making the noises that the animals make in this book.  

Center Time

This is the time of day where we work on the different areas that we are learning about through out the month.  

Service Poster

We got to pick our favorite color and put our hand print on a large piece of paper welcoming Mrs. Haun to Zion.  I took it to her after school today and she was so happy to see all the neat hand prints on the paper

Coloring ABC's Sheet

We worked on becoming familiar with the different letters of the alphabet as we colored the letters A-Z.  I was pleasantly surprised that some of my friends were able to identify the first letter in their name as well some of the other letters in their name.  As the year progress we will work on name and letter recognition and make an alphabet book that will come home at the end of the year. 

Independent Reading

There is always a wide assortment of books available for my friends to look at.  At this age we work on how to treat the books, the correct to hold the book and the correct way to turn the pages.  It is so important to read to your child every day for at least 20 minutes.  

Stamping Squares 

We had fun using the blue ink pad and stamping squares on a piece of paper till our hearts content!  Remember for many of our friends this is their first time to experience a lot of these different things so we have fun with it and are really enjoying how much they are learning! 

Easton thought he needed to smell the stamp before putting it on his paper he got it a little to close to his nose!  

Music and Movement

This is the time of day that we get all our sillies out and have a lot of fun singing, dancing and working on our gross motor skills.  I love this time of day with my friends the smiles, laughter and silliness just makes my day!  I usually take a lot of pictures during this time so sorry for the overload!  Also, do not worry if your child is not participating during this time some of my friends have to warm up to this part of the day as the school year progress that can not resist the urge to act silly with the rest of us.  

Our last book of the day after music and movement.  It helped us to talk about the new and old friends we have in our class and how much we love having friends to learn, play and grow together.  

I hope this has helped you to see what a day looks like in our classroom.  We pack a lot of fun into a short 5 1/2 hours and it is a joy to have each and everyone of your little ones in my class this year.  Blessings on a beautiful evening.   

Mrs. Horn