Sorting, Sorting, Sorting

A Spectacular Small Group Time: Sorting, Sorting, Sorting

Our little masterminds spent their small group time classifying small, colored manipulatives; cars and a variety of animal breeds. The children began sorting their manipulatives according to color, making piles of red, green, yellow and blue (sorting and matching objects). Some of the children lined up their manipulatives, telling Ms. Lauren they were “making patterns” (identifying patterns). Owen took initiative to sort the manipulatives based on their design, categorizing, “things that take you places (vehicles)”, “doggies” and “dinosaurs” (comparing properties).

Across the classroom, Ms. Jolene’s group used the same materials. One child lined up all of his toys. Two children grouped them according to color; Ms. Jolene asked them each to count their yellow pile (counting). One's yellow pile had 4 manipulatives and the other’s yellow pile had 7… “I wonder whose pile has the most?” Ms. Jolene asked and the first's hand shot up into the air, “I do. I have the most ‘cuz seven is more! (identifying materials and properties)” Ms. Jolene chose to put like manipulatives together. She left out a few of her manipulatives, and told the group that she needed help, “I have sorted out my toys but I do not know where to put these last few.” Ms. Jolene handed each child a manipulative and asked them to find the pile in which it belonged. Some children immediately assumed that they were going to be sorted by color and when they looked again they realized that they had to identify the way Ms. Jolene had grouped her toys in order to find out where to put the one they were holding (comparing attributes)(solving problems with materials). With lots of critical thinking and a little help from their friends all of the children added their toys to Ms. Jolene’s piles.

Caroling and Festivities

This month’s Family Activity is Christmas Caroling at a local Nursing Home. So, the children in the 3 year old Preschool Classroom, Magic Kingdom, did several activities to prepare for it.

First, the class made Christmas cards to give to the residents. They had fun drawing pictures of what is important to them this time of the year. They also decorated the cards with cute holiday stickers.

The class practiced singing Christmas songs all week so that they knew the songs that will be sung during the caroling. Their favorite song to sing was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The next favorite song to sing was Jingle Bells. The class decided that in order to perform the song the best that they could, they really needed to have their own jingle bell instruments.

So, during one of the large group times, each child made their own jingle bell bracelet out of pipe cleaners and jingle bells. When the bracelets were all done, the class went over to the music area so that they could sing their songs with their newly made instruments!

We Are A Thankful Bunch

This month we got to make handprint turkeys using various colors of stamp pads. The children got to choose what color they wanted each fingerprint to be and had fun exploring patterns in their fingerprints with a magnifying glass. Our friends really enjoyed this activity and it made for an adorable art project!

We also enjoyed reading Winnie the Pooh's Thanksgiving. After reading the story, we pretended to have our very own Thanksgiving Feast in the House Area. We cooked up quite a meal and had to take a long nap because our bellies were so full of delicious food! Sesame Street also drew pictures of what we are thankful for, Ms. Melissa shared what she was thankful for and showed the children pictures of her family and friends!

Here's a thoughtful quote of Thanksgiving! Enjoy!

"For each morning with its light
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything they goodness sends."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

All About Me

This is a time of transition for the children and teachers in Elmo's
Explorers. The children are getting used to their new room and materials.
To help us get to know each other better we are focusing on the theme,
"All About Me!" We have talked about how each of us is special and
unique--

a one of a kind masterpiece!

This week the children examined their finger prints by using the stamp pads
and paper. We also talked about our families; the children drew
pictures of their families, which are now hanging up in our classroom!

One special highlight this week, which ties in nicely with our discussion
of families, was having Quinn's dad, who is a policeman, come in and show
us his uniform and police car. The children had fun taking turns sitting
behind the wheel of the police car with their sticker badges on. This was
a great experience for the children, and I think Quinn's dad had just as
much fun as the children did.

A Sensational Sensory Day

A Sensational Sensory Day –

Getting Down and Dirty!

This week, the children in Magic Kingdom at Laurence Avenue enjoyed a day packed full of sensory activities. We started off the day by making sensory items that they could take to use at home. We made sensory water bottles with glitter and rice in them. The children were amazed to watch the water changing colors as they added different food coloring. We also made sensory gloves. To make the gloves, we took 1 plastic glove and filled it with either rice or flour. For an extra sparkle to the gloves, some of the children added glitter to their rice or flour.

With our take home projects done, we then moved on to the dirty work! The children had applesauce, yogurt, pudding, jello, chocolate syrup, and spaghetti that they used to spell their names, draw, and/or put their hands in. Some of the children wondered what would happen if they mixed the spaghetti with the chocolate syrup. They quickly realized that they had created a new type of spaghetti….. Chocolate Spaghetti!

The sensory table was filled with dirt, vehicles, and various containers. The children enjoyed driving the vehicles around in the dirt. They used the containers to build hills for their vehicles to drive over.

Our final area was a table with shaving cream. The children enjoyed drawing and writing in the cream. They also enjoyed pretending that the shaving cream was lotion and that they were relaxing at the beach. It was messy, but we all had a great time learning with our senses!