Preschoolers are known for asking many questions in a day and the preschool teaching team at St. Mary Preschool ask just as many questions! Why? We want to encourage higher level thinking skills. We want children to become problem-solvers and we want children to think beyond the obvious. This "mental exercise" will prepare children to to do well across all learning domains (our curriculum has 33 skills that span 7 learning domains). Today's preschoolers are the future workforce and although we do not know what type of jobs will be in demand, we know that workers will need to be innovative, which requires "out-of-the-box" thinking. During our "Down on the Farm" theme, children had the opportunity to make baby chicks during an Invitation to Create experience at the art table where Mrs. Plamondon was there to provide a little background information, determine what the children may already know about chicks and ask open-ended questions. At another table, they could then build a nest for their chick. I was close by to ask "biq" questions such as, "What will you use for the base of your nest?" "What materials will you line your nest with?" "Will your chick live alone or with other chicks?" I absolutely love how our preschool curriculum provides sample questions to ask as well as guidance we can provide while children are exploring the materials prior to the real "lesson." Certainly I am capable of coming up with own questions and quite often I do. However, there are days where I really welcome the suggestions! During our Mud Pie activity, children explored dry soil, then added water and explored the new texture. Mrs. Plamondon asked many questions throughout the process. Once the mud was made, children chose natural materials to decorate their pie with. Some children enjoyed the sensory experience, while others were curious but not so sure they liked the feeling of wet mud in their hands. Experience Preschool with Mother Goose Time provides weekly lesson plans that play off the larger monthly theme. Teachers can use the daily lessons as a starting point however and expand it based on the interest of the children. The tractor activity was extended over the course of a few days as it was widely popular. I was thrilled as it involved not only engineering wheels but ramps, too! (science geek here). Children made several wheels and "raced" their friends. They experimented with different ramps and it was exciting to hear their reasoning behind why they made the ramp a certain way or even in how they positioned the wheel on the ramp. One of our children decided to put a "plow" on the front of our toy tractor. The plow was actually a small construction cone. How very clever! I hope you were able to get a few ideas for your own preschool weekly lesson plans. If you like to save time and have most of the materials packaged into daily bags, please consider checking out Experience Preschool (formerly Mother Goose Time). Thank you for following along with our learning journey.
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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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