Affiliate disclosure: My classroom receives Experience Preschool Curriculum in exchange for sharing our honest and unique experiences with it on my blog. How do you think Lions find their food? What do you call a family or group of lions? Would you rather meet a happy lion or an angry lion? Why? These are just a few of today's big questions. My goal as an early childhood educator is to have children leave our program with the skills necessary to enter kindergarten, and even more importantly, a zest for learning that will be a constant in their life. The preschool curriculum we use allows me to do just that. Through play, children learn important concepts. The "topic of the day" hooks them in, and we build from there. The art center is open daily during free choice time and has either a Make and Play activity or an Invitation to Create. A teacher is always seated at the table, ready to guide children through the process. Children learn to wait for instructions, make observations about the inspiration piece, and answer open-ended questions. While children choose which materials to use, we get to know the children as they share experiences from their home life. "I saw a lion at the zoo in Florida." "I love Simba from the Lion King." "I have lion toys at home." Other activities (not pictured)
Be Patient (Small group math) Children lined up opposite each other in two lines. One group had lion number cards the other had zebra number cards. The teacher would ask a lion what number was on their card. Once answered, the child ran across to the zebra with the matching number and tapped them on the shoulder. Skills: MR 1 Number Sense and PD 1 Gross Motor What's Hiding (Small group literacy) The teacher placed an animal card under the "What's Hiding" sign while the children closed their eyes. Matching animal cards were placed on the table for reference. One child at a time was called on. The child was encouraged to answer in a complete sentence, such as "Is the lion hiding under the sign?" Play continued. Skills: LLD 2 Communication, SED 4 Social Relationships MR 7 Logic and Reasoning I hope you enjoyed following along on our lion adventures!
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The children were excited to see today's topic poster on our concept wall as they arrived. Next stop: Art Table. Shrieks. Chatter. Cookies! Today's Invitation to Create: Cookies. Children were able to choose cookie shapes and decorate to their liking. Some drew frosting details, others colored, many opted to add sprinkles. Everything is better with sprinkles! Mrs. P. is our naturally gifted preschool aide. She loves our students and takes a personal interest in them, so conversations at the art table flow easily. Children are eager to work with her and share their experiences from home that relate to the project. Yes, I could easily list a variety of visual, math, fine motor, and language skills. (Click here to learn more.) What warms my heart the most is that we have developed healthy, nurturing relationships with our families. Children feel safe, loved, and supported at home and school. These relationships open the door to a foundation that will set them on a life-long love of learning. Experience Preschool provides us with not only four teacher guides and many of the materials needed to carry out the lessons, but they also add a music CD that helps children learn concepts through music and movement. We have learned so many concepts through music, which you about here, here or even this one. "Counting Cookies" is a song the children have enjoyed. I have heard them sing it while they play also. Our teacher guide for this week suggested a number line placed on the floor for children to hop to while they sing the song. So much fun! We also had children hop to a specific number and a number that comes before or after a given number. This activity helped us engage those active kids who have difficulty sitting during learning time. They don't realize they are "doing" math, although we know they are learning number sense, gross motor, and self-regulation skills. During skill time with my group, we sorted cookies by the letter on each one. Our transitions to a new activity are always the same: come to the table (or area) with hands in our lap, waiting for directions. Children learn to wait their turn. After a few rounds, a child suggested we sort cookies by color, so we did that, too. Letter sounds were practiced as well! "The B says /b/, the B says /b/, every letter makes a sound, the B says /b/."
Not pictured: the cookie patterns we worked on during our afternoon skill time session. Patterns have now advanced to an AABB pattern. What a busy, learning-filled day! |
AuthorSheila Anderson has over 25 years experience in the Early Childhood Field and still loves going to "school" everyday. Archives
January 2022
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