M Week

M is for Math!

Can you believe that preschoolers can make and read the data off of graphs? I used to teach this skill in third grade! Here she is arranging her M&Ms by color (sorting is another great math skill) to form a graph.

Here's a close up of her work in progress. It's so neat to see how they all use different strategies. She is sorting out each color before placing them on her graph. So cool!

Here's another kiddo getting started on her graph! She picked up an M&M and placed is where ever it belonged on the graph.

M is for mitten. We read two versions of The Mitten. Then we painted our mittens (we didn't want them to be lost in the snow). After they dried the children cut them out. Using scissors is tricky, and cutting curves is even trickier. It requires both hands to work independently, performing different skills.

M is for maracas. Painting maracas, so fun!

Ms. Tania's class painting (we had a few kiddos absent this day). They all look so serious!

More painting.
MS. TANIA

Christmas Celebration

Jump on board the Polar Express!

Everyone wore pajamas, so cute and so comfy. The kiddo on the left is playing with the train table (what a great brain builder). The center kiddo and the girl on the right are cooking up something wonderful.

Here is Ms. Heidi's class making reindeer food (they don't eat nearly as healthy as us). One little man asked if it needed two scoops.

I'm not sure that they danced on the polar Express, but if they didn't they should have! We love to dance. It's a great way to develop gross motor skills, improve coordination and memory, exercise, and of course have fun! We do free dances, choreographed dances, and dances that work on various skills (up and down, right and left, rhythms, rhymes, math...we have a song for just about everything!).

This is an art project. It takes a lot of self control (fabulous life skill) to decorate a cookie rather than eating it. Yes, there is a cookie under all that wonderful stuff!

No longer an art project...let's eat!
MS. TANIA

K is for Kwanza

K week!

K week was right before our Christmas break, so we learned about another holiday called Kwanzaa. We made beads out of a special dough. The next day we painted the beads with Kwanzaa colors; red, green, and black. Finally we strung the beads into necklaces and bracelets. It was amazing to see how the kids planned ahead to make patterns!
MS. TANIA

Friendship Feast

Celebrating Friendship!

Centers are always so much fun, and they are also a great way to practice and develop social skills.

Every child brought one food item. We combined the food to make a wonderful feast of veggie soup, bread, and fruit salad. It is so much fun to watch them eat and socialize, especially while wearing Pilgrim hats!
(We also had a mini-lesson on pomegranates, which many kids discovered that they like. I love when they find a new healthy snack!)
MS. TANIA

H is for hat

Check out our crazy hats and our math skills!

Building the shape of the week, triangles, on our geoboards.

Is that a turkey on your head? What shape is on your geoboard? How many sides does it have?

(You can make a geoboard at home with wood and nails!)
MS. TANIA

Halloween Party

We love to have parties! The costumes were so fun, both on the kids and the adults. Thank you to all of our great volunteers!

Decorating our treat bags. Stickers are such great fine motor skill builders!

No party is complete without dancing!

We had lots of games and fabulous volunteers. Here they are playing Spider Match.

Super Girl playing a witch hat ring toss.

What's inside the Feely Box? I bet it is creepy!

A bull rider bobbing for apples. If your teeth don't work you can always use your hands.
MS. TANIA

The Pumpkin Patch

On a field trip to the pumpkin patch

Here we are ready to go through the corn maize. Everyone made it out, except the kiddos in one group (the one Ms. Tania was in:). We had to come out the entrance.

Looking for the perfect pumpkin, which to most kids means the biggest one!
MS. TANIA