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Even when the winter winds blow, we find a way to fit moving and grooving into each day. Ice, snow, no matter.....from Karate to Yoga, we've got it covered! The winter months can present such a challenge for large muscle play in Pre-K. On days when the temperatures dip too low for outside play, we make a way for little bodies to stay healthy, fit, and active. There is no sadder child than the one stuck at a table doing worksheets all day; nothing that will induce, "I'm boooooored!" faster than a five year old tracing letters and numbers on end. Heaven knows we can't have that!!  This awesome child's yoga poster came from Mother Goose Time as a part of their Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day "Peace Party" pack. It is now a permenant part of our classroom and posted on the wall above our "Safe Place" or cool down area. This is the little bench were children relax and regroup if they are out of sorts. We have our calm down jars, our Peaceful Poses poster and game spinner, some books and soft dolls and the children seem to respond to this very well. The children in my mixed age setting are 16 months - 5 years. The littlest ones simply move in and out of the group, sticking little bums up in the air during Downward Dog and joyously hopping around during Warrior Poses. It is an incredible experience for them to have such a child focused teacher. She makes it even more fun with "Snowman Pose," "Sled Pose," and making "Snowflake Soup." I can't think of a better was to incorporate music and movement into some indoor large motor play. Kuddos to our AMAZING yoga instructor Ms. Melissa!! Then there is Mr. Ninja! (the children named him!)Mr. Denton Henrichs, aka Mr. Ninja, gives these kiddos a great outlet for punching, kicking, chopping, and using those big powerful muscles, especially when we can't make it to the slides and swings. Look at that focus! These children are aged 3-5! Mr. Ninja also teaches at The Squatting Monkey. We freeze dance, bunny hop, work out the wiggles with silly songs and chants, take "bear hunts" and don coats, hats, and gloves for even a few minutes of outdoor play as much as possible. There are so many fun ways to engage little bodies and get them away from table time. It is essential for growing brains and actually aids attention for children to PLAY!
We are so fortunate to have a community that loves it's children and are willing to provide lessons that are preschool appropriate with love. As always, I wish you well and I hope you get to play today! -L
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 This time of year the natives are RESTLESS! It's cold. It's icy. It's icky, rainy, stuck-inside, too-cold-to-breathe kind of days of winter. The children get grumpy. They get cabin fever. I get cabin fever. We are a "play in the muck with flip flops and trucks" kind of crew. But we can't.... This is the time of year that tests the most creative teacher. If the "dog days of summer" are long and hard, these should be called the "wicked days of winter." It's charge is to keep the rebels at bay with arts and crafts, songs a plenty, and enough play dough to drown a Weebles bus! Fun studies like our Animals of the Savannah by Mother Goose Time help keep little minds learning and busy bodies moving! Just like their sweet little feet, no two giraffes are alike!! We just giggled at how adorable these turned out!! We made these long necked cuties by tracing each child's foot for the head (see how the heal is the giraffe's chin?). We then cut out a long neck and ears with the same color of yellow paper. Add some nubs at the top with a marker, sticky eyes, some brown crayon spots and yarn mane and you have an ADORABLE animal friend!! Sponsor shout out time!!! :) THANK YOU www.mothergoosetime.com for this cute craft...we LOVED it!  Ohhhh.....Emmmm....Geeee..... Too much cute to bottle up in one little pic!! These kiddos just keep up hoppin'! They LOVED making some toilet paper roll binoculars! As you can see it didn't take them long to use them... This was such a simple little project from MGT. It just took two toilet paper sized rolls, a strip of paper long enough to wrap around them, a long piece of yarn and glue. LOTS OF GLUE! As a HUGE believer in letting littles DIY, each child is provided their own bottle of glue to squeeze, squish, and puddle when the project calls for it. This one was a huge hit due to the "glue factor" of a solid 10! It took a LOT of glue to get the paper to adhere to the rolls well enough for the binoculars to take shape. We then poked a couple of holes, tied off the yarn and BINGO was his NAME-O, we have some Savannah worthy binoculars! Add some zebras and lions to the mix and we have ourselves a regular ZOO!No study of the Savannah would be complete without some fierce lions! Here we are busily making our lions masks and practicing our lion ROARS! This easy peasy project from www.mothergoosetime.com was the perfect mix of arts and crafts, fine motor skills, and science. We discussed the lions mane and that the lioness does not have a mane. We observed the colors and sounds of lions. We used the provided yellow construction paper and cut them into many strips of differing sizes. After instructing the children to glue the strips "around" the paper plate circle we just put it all in the middle of the table and watched them pretend, play, and create!! Zebra has many stripes!!We listened to the sounds that a zebra makes and the children were all chatty and giggly trying out their ability to make a zebra sound! This is the Youtube video we used in class to practice being a zebra. This led to ALL sorts of questions about zebras. What do they eat? Where do they live? Can we ride them? We learned that zebras stay together for "camouflage" (new science vocabulary word) and that no two zebra's stripes are the same. They are each unique just like us. We learned that zebras eat grass mostly, but also like leaves and in the zoo will eat fruit as well. We visited this site that has a TON of great animal facts for children http://kids.sandiegozoo.org/animals/mammals/zebra The San Diego Zoo has a YouTube channel that is VERY child friendly with all sorts of wonderful animal videos like this sweet one below!!In addition to all the fun animal studies we did over the past two weeks. We also practiced the letters "Z: for Zebra, "S" for snake, and the numbers "9" and "10." We made new play dough and observed our animal tracks in the dough along with truck and train tracks. All in all we have had a busy two weeks of PLAY!
As always....I wish you well and I hope you get to play today! -L  During the holidays children are exposed to so many new sounds that are unique to this time of year. Children that may never otherwise hear violins, pianos, harps, an orchestra or live band have the opportunity to explore new sounds, make observations, and investigate experiences that they will have to wait another year to again be acquainted with. We don't mean to deny the sounds of live music...it just isn't as present as it used to be in our culture anymore with the invent of the internet. Concerts, songs, and instruments that they may not hear during the remainder of the year can be an immersion lesson that can spark a new found interest in music and instruments. I even strive to include these experiences in their circle times during December, but I never have made the sounds a primary focus. I was thrilled with this sweet little study called, "The Sounds of Winter," by Mother Goose Time, and my children were as well. LOOK AT THAT! This little cutie pie is only 3 and learned that a violin has a bow, a neck, a body, and strings! She had the opportunity to "play" her violin, make it glittery (we are all about the glitter!), and hear music played on a violin. I no longer owned my childhood violin (frowny face here), but we pulled up some stringed arrangments on YouTube and allowed the children some time to experience the difference of the music they were hearing as they watched the orchestra play. Our Christmas "show" is coming up as well, and the "Sounds of Winter," has given us lots of opportunities to bang on our pots and pans, listen to guitars, drums, violins, cello's and trumpets. a The "Sounds of Winter" has been a perfect fit for the very first week of December. During our week of the "Sounds of Winter," we made a kazoo, a tambourine, a drum, a bell and a violin! We listed to instrumental arrangements of these as well and even brought out the pots, pans, and spoon band to practice for our upcoming Christmas show as we discussed and practiced rhythm. During this week we have also introduced the letters "V" for violin and "M" is for Music by practicing letter recognition of both upper and lower case letters, writing them in our journals, and pointing them out during our daily reading times! We even sneaked a little Bob Seger in the mix! HA!!!We have been diligently rehearsing our drumming (on my very pretty and multi-functional pots and pans to this little tune. Our "version" is heavy on the drumming....but pretty light on the actual singing!!  Our newest book, Mississippi Musicians was the perfect compliment to this study and the children LOVE the plot twist at the end!  Leslie Falconer hit another home run with this fun book, "Mississippi Musicians!" It has great illustrations and is LONG....but the story line goes along so well that my little preschooler's ask for it again and again. It gives them lots of opportunity to ask questions as we read like, "Why did the farmer say the donkey was useless?" The story is a book about some misplaced animals that no longer served their purpose to their owners, so they set out to follow their dreams of becoming a blues band. Along their journey they run into a band of thieves and have to pull together their courage and imagination to defeat their fears and realize their goals. Its a filled with adventure, animal sounds, silly moments, and sweet success of helping one another at the end! We even added a bit of science into our music themed week! I had to snap a quick pic of this one PRIOR to the play! This is such a fun and simple way to add a bit of science into the learning week! In this little lesson we discussed how different levels of water is called "volume" (great vocabulary builder!!) and we observed that with different volume's come different sounds. This eventually did end up ALL over the table, but it was very fun while it lasted and well worth the clean up! So as to not disappoint...It is my usual fashion to explain the research behind every activity we choose to spend our time on here at preschool. With a mix age group ranging from 1-5 years, we have lots of opportunities for experiencing education through play in a variety of ways.
Music in the early years play a special role in brain development. It has been proven to increase listening skills which is imperative for young children learning self-regulation. Researchers have found that, "songs and chants that enhance rhythm and rhyme; opportunities for aural discrimination — listening skills — that strengthen neural pathways for language learning; tonal-pattern and rhythm-pattern dialogue for improvised musical conversations; movement emphasizing flow, weight, space and time; playing and exploring simple instruments; and use of props, such as scarves and bean bags, to nurture rhythmic and expressive awareness.” - See more at: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2014/07/041.html#sthash.1WDnCLDE.dpuf That's powerful! Music grabs the attention of the listener and creates the pathways for increased listening and learning skills. We have experienced this again and again at Woolsey Academy as the children are easily excited, soothed, or transitioned with the help of songs, chants, and music. We will be continuing our "Sounds of Winter" far past Christmas, but for now, it has been an energetic and fun filled week that has easily engaged all ages! As always, I wish you well and I hope you get to play today! - L  Unplanned teachable moments happen ALL the time in our little world. But one little lesson that I believe holds a significant amount of value is "repairing the broken." It's so easy to want things to be black and white. It's tempting to want to apply a "one size fit's all" rule for everything. If it's broken get rid of it. I have been guilty of this. With 10 children in my mixed age, licensed childcare and preschool, it's EASY for things to become a bit less than perfect. With good intentions I often will put the broken aside on a "to be fixed" shelf, awaiting it's turn for repair, new batteries, a little tape, and sometimes the hopes of my graceful father to give me much needed advice on those things beyond my ability to understand and repair on my own. And so they sit.....waiting..... Then, after months of being on the "someday I will," I throw the broken...along with all my good intentions to the curb. Then the questions begin, "Ms. Donna, why do you frow (throw) dat (that) out?" "Ms. Donna, where is 'such and such' toy?" "Mr. Donna, I wiked (liked) dat!!!" (no the Mr. isn't a typo!) Those broken things had special meaning to the ones that loved them. Meaning that I didn't understand, but they did. They held memories, attachments, and yet to be uncovered potential that I had not realized. Those responses do not trouble me as much, however, as the ones I begin to see in my older children. A toy breaks and they respond with, "It's broke!" "Throw it away!!" Instead of even asking or trying to fix the item, they assume that a tear, a misplaced doll arm, or slight blemish means the item is now worthless. THIS is the outcome of my rash actions that is concerning. The attitude that imperfections, problems, loss of original purpose = trash. Further, that everything is dispensable if it is no longer perfect. It concerns me that my lack of follow through or quick decision making when a toy is broken to the point of being unsafe is so easy to throw away. I don't like seeing the resulting "unplanned teachable moment" of instilling life lessons into little hearts that could spell big trouble when real life problems arise and the determination of "worth fixing" is taken so lightly. After all, play is simply children practicing for adulthood in a way that they can comprehend, right?! How do we change this???Instead of seeing what's broken, we determine to see opportunity. It's a bit hard to tell what's happening in the above pictures. We received this sweet little book from Mother Goose Time. It was about a duck that needed help to get some creme for his hurt webbed feet and all the ways he tried to catch a ride. The children LOVED it. The problem....the third time we read the book, the binding fell apart and pages scattered on the floor. They are a great company and offered to replace it. "No....I like it just the way it is." I said.
The children squealed, "It's BROKEN!" "I don't want that book anymore! I HATE it!" (preschoolers have a way of wearing their tiny hearts on their sleeves when they feel scared or disappointed) "Frow it away!" "What if we fix it?" I said. Ahhhhh....is that opportunity I hear knocking? Yes, yes, it is. I used this an an opportunity to teach the children that no matter how bad it looks, we can make it better by our choices. (Big lesson for little hearts.) Out came the fix and out came the helpers. Tape rules in Pre-K world! Each child insisted on taking turns helping once they saw what the tape could do. Once they understood HOW we were going to fix our problem AND that it really was working, they ALL wanted to take part. All they needed was to see it working...they needed a little understanding to WANT to make the effort. PERFECTION in the imperfections....that's a wonderful feeling. They had such a sense of pride in their accomplishments as an itty bitty team. They did a great job. Sure the book wasn't the same, pages were a bit out of order, nothing lined up quite like it had before, and it was certainly far from perfection, but they were beaming! We saved our book and it took it's proud place among our other beloved treasures....imperfections and all. We can take the broken and make it better. We can handle imperfections. Life, and all it's challenges, doesn't have to be perfect to be worth it. Isn't that what we want to teach them....even through our play? As always, I wish you well and I hope you get to play today. - L  We all like to play... Isn't it easier to learn things, even as an adult, when we are encouraged, having fun, and relaxing with friends? Our little preschoolers feel the same. That's why we strive to provide skill building exercises that are fun, educational......and FUN! (I said that already, didn't I?) Our "Here We Go" theme from Mother Goose Time has been full of games that promote Language Arts, Social/Emotional, Creative Arts, and STEM games. These are simple, easy to understand and fun to play. Plus, I just LOVE to watch them have a great day at school! This game was included in our "Airplane" day circle time activities. Each child received his/her own "runway" for their airplane that we made using blue construction paper. Once the airplane was created, each child decorated their plane using shape stickers so no two would be alike. These were VERY small stickers and required a bit of patience as they worked their little fine motor skills over and over peeling and then sticking stars, ovals, rectangles, circles, and squares in patterns on their planes. We finished it all up with glitter glue (of course!). I cut up one runway and used the numbered pieces as a number recognition activity/game. Each child had their own plane and would land their plane on the runway on the appropriate number as each number was called. This little game was a game of number recognition, shapes matching, and following directions. Since we each had our own playing pieces (runway and plane), we didn't need to take turns. We simply practiced calling out each number as quickly as we could and find the matching number on the runway. Turn based games Games are irresistible to children.. Just ask, "Do you want to play a game?" I've yet to have a child refuse.. It will draw them in and give them a fun based experience for learning concepts and building social/emotional skills like waiting for and taking turns, being a graceful winner, and trying again!.. This game from Mother Goose Time focused on letter recognition and beginning word sounds recognition. Our letter focus for this month are the letters "C," "W," and "T." This sweet game came after making our Creative Arts project during our "truck" day where we were discussing and learning about all the different things a truck can haul. We discussed delivery people, farmers, and floats! We also made a truck and practiced hauling all types of things in it. We observed that when a load was too heavy for the truck, the truck bed would collapse and we would have to tape it all up again. This was a great way for the children to understand capacity (science). After a bit of truck play we put this sweet game on the table. The houses with the letters on them were the point of delivery, the destination location for the "packages" we were going to later deliver. First, we discussed the letters and the sounds they made. Next, we placed pictures of several items beginning with those letters and the letters printed on the back all around our classroom. We then called each child, one by one, and instructed them to find and deliver a package to the right house. We made certain that they understood that the "right" house was the house that had the same letter on it that the word started with. Then the game began! They excitedly searched for the packages and carefully took time to sound out the word thinking about the beginning sound. We would discuss the sound as they were on their journey to the letter house to deliver each package. Then they would dump the package out of the bed of their truck and look to me with expectant eyes to await the verdict. HIGH FIVES!!! The package was delivered to the right "address!!!" They LOVED this game and spent quit a lot of time delivering packages and resetting the "parcels" to again play the game. But that's not all we did this week!!! We made elephant masks like the one pictured here during our discussion about, "How We Go With Our Animal Friends!" They even came complete with blower noses!!! Everyone gets to join in the play! It does not matter how young...we make a way for play and experience. This craft was full of sensory as we squished and squeezed our glue bottles into puddles on our masks and then added several colors of tissue paper squares for colors, patterns, and decor. Once each child was satisfied with their little creation, we had to let them dry out before adding the noses. This took the entire day as we allowed the children to use as much glue as they decided to use. The results were pride filled projects that they are still requesting to play and pretend with.
Anything STEM is a hot commodity in education and our lessons from Mother Goose Time on Planes, Trains, and Automobiles are providing plenty of opportunities for engineering, constructing, critical thinking, and LOTS of math!! Children love anything that says, "VROOOM!" Don't they? This theme from Mother Goose Time has hit a home run with all my little preschool babes! Here, we were just getting organized and studying how we could use the sticks and starch beads to make bridges. Glue always helps! So, in our usual fashion, we used A LOT of glue. We squished and smooshed and stacked and bent our way to the bridges we wanted to build. Some fell down, but that just gave us an opportunity to rethink, redesign and rebuild. I love this one! Creative Arts combined with engineering, sensory, critical thinking, fine motor skills.....I could die happy RIGHT NOW! But why? Why is building, constructing and critical thinking so important to focus on in the early years?? "...construction toys might not be as flashy as battery-powered robots or video games.But as developmental psychologist Rachel Keen notes, parents and teachers "need to design environments that encourage and enhance problem solving from a young age" (Keen 2011). Construction toys seem ideally suited to do that, and they may also help children develop
- See more at: http://www.parentingscience.com/toy-blocks.html#sthash.PruvcjKi.dpuf Lessons that promote block, building, and critical thinking help develop areas of the brain that are linked to "advanced math skills later in life." Even though the end result may look a bit more like "When Toddlers Attack!", this is really a vital learning process that is a foundation builder for later learning. Traffic Signs and Lines! This sweet project from Mother Goose Time emphasized placement of vehicles "ON" the road, creating lines "in the middle" of the road, placing and recognizing traffic signs, numbers, cutting (fine motor skills building), using differing writing instruments like chalk and markers, and gluing the road on the paper! When we look at the finished product we see fun, but to the little learner this is a challenging step by step process. Even more, it teaches the beginnings of traffic safety and ties what we do when we are out of school to what we are learning IN school. Being able to make those connections brings the learning to life!! We also began learning about directions and lines in the city as displayed in the above map provided by Mother Goose Time. We tied all this together with this sweet sound sensory book, "Clang! Clang! Beep! Beep! Listen To The City" by Burt Burleigh  Part of teaching children to "stay in the lines" is encouraging them to even NOTICE the lines! When we include this type of outcome based play into our daily routine, we can observe when a child is understanding that the lines exist; then we can move into "staying inside the lines." I prefer play-based ANYTHING over paper lessons, so this is my version of "staying in the lines." It is so much more than learning to draw. It is actually a developmental skill necessary for understanding math concepts as simple as geometric designs, because how can you truly understand the difference between a circle and a triangle unless you understand the basic concept of a line! This little (and so so simple) lesson also promotes concrete counting to 5. as each little enthusiastically parked their car inside the parking space. This gives the child a sense of a one to one ratio when counting that helps them understand that the number 1 means 1 object, the number 2 means 2 objects, etc. It is so easy to become excited when we hear our tiny tots ramble off a memorized sequence of numbers correctly. It is an accomplishment of memory though, not of math. And though it is important and a skill marker, it isn't the same thing as counting 10 objects correctly. These types of math lessons where children are learning through play teach this concept in a fun and stress free manner. Experiences, Observations, and Movement!We practiced "Spoooooky Yoga!" with Ms. Melissa as we bent, folded, and breathed our way to some Halloween beats and fun fitness! With Mr. Ninja (the nickname the children have given him) we worked on breaking boards which is my little learners ALL TIME FAVORITE activity! It makes them feel so capable, proud and strong. I love watching their faces as they break each board and ask to do MORE! These enhancement classes cost a bit more, but the experiences they give the children are WELL WORTH it! <<<<WARNING>>> SOAPBOX AHEAD!!! I recently read this little tidbit, "Today’s children are 4 times less active in their day-to-day lives than their grandparents..." (from https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/preschool/nutrition-fitness/Pages/Increasing-Physical-Activity-in-Preschool-Years.aspx) I see the results first hand. In our program we focus on allowing children to have LOTS of outdoor, free play time and indoor scheduled activities to allow them to experience fitness in a fun and safe environment to help promote a love of movement and pride of accomplishment. Children are natural movers and shakers. Just add time and space and watch their happiness and health increase. It is vital to their brain chemistry to have long periods of physical play, which is why I believe we are seeing such an increase of issues with young children. Too many preschool programs have little ones going from the crib to the cot to the table and back. This set them up for physical, mental and social issues as their little bodies were not made for sitting still. Their brains are wired for PLAY! But that is a soap box for another time..... Songs, Dancing Beats and Busting a MOVE!!! Even our music has a Traffic theme! My young learners have asked to sing this particular song over and over during our circle time activities! We put out our hands in a "STOP" motion when we say, "Stop," and run in place, then jump and freeze! This one is a keeper! We are thoroughly enjoying fall!!!We rake the leaves over and over during our outside play! This gives us teachers a little bit of exercise too! The scent, texture, and cooler temperatures mixed with the bright sunshine makes for some beautiful sensory play outside. It puts everyone is SUCH a good mood and we have had some amazing nap times too! BONUS!!! This was just the first week of November!We have so much more in store for this month with our STEM lessons as Thanksgiving approaches! Keep in touch and let us know you enjoyed this blog by commenting and / or liking us below! As always...I wish you well and I hope you get to play today! - L   We have lots of party days. We love to play, sing, dance, dig, swing, take walks, read, and play some more. I try to remain intentional about the skills we are learning in the course of our play by providing skill building activities disguised as play. During all of our pumpkin days we had planned an actual Pumpkin Party, but we wanted to allow the children to continue the "party play" for days after the initial introduction. I have to say I personally LOVED each activity, but one of my favorites was provided by Mother Goose Time, Counting Seeds. In this activity, they sent some counting cards with the numbers printed on one side of the 8x10 thick cardstock pieces and the appropriate amount of seed spaces on the other side. They also provided the seeds, the plastic blue tweezers, the instructions and the learning aspects of this activity. Side note!! This is something I love about Mother Goose Time (shameless plug, not really...I'm not telling YOU to buy it...I just love it for MY preschoolers) Mother Goose Time provides this..... It is a skills checklist of what my children will be learning each day so I can make certain that it is age appropriate and state aligned. Major bonus!
This is a great example of how to fit math into the everyday play routine for your preschoolers or toddlers. When I look at this picture, there are several aspects of skills and learning that are taking place at once. First, they are having to work together and take turns. This builds social/emotional skills of self-awareness and impulse control. Second, they are using tweezers to pick up the seeds. This is building fine motor skills, hand/eye coordination, and balance as they shift their little arms from right to left very carefully. Third, they are placing one seed into one seed space. this is one to one ordering. You will notice when a child is making a developmental leap when they grow from just looking at a pile of cars and counting to 10 as fast as they can, proclaiming, "Ten!" even though there are only 8 cars to actually pointing at each car and counting each object with the next sequential number, "1, 2, 3, 4!" "There are four cars!" Activities that give them a designated space in the shape of the object they are coutning with gives them a concrete sense of how and what to count. The reinforcement of having the number on the back allows them to put the actual shape of the number to the counted objects. It really is a complex learning sequence that we take for granted, however, by providing the right tools, we can help encourage a "math brain" for our little ones and give them the confidence they need to accomplish these skills "all by myself!" "Look Ms. Donna! I did it all by myself!!!" There is a great sense of pride and accomplishment when a child can complete a task without assistance. Giving our children these opportunities through play allows the children to build the blocks of learning naturally and keeps them engaged. It allows us as teachers to step back and allow the play to do what it is supposed to....teach the brain in a relaxed state that promotes long-term foundational skills to be built upon, self-confidence, and a love of learning.
I wish you well and I hope you get to play today! - L  Oh, those sweet little faces so excited about the festivities they are about to engage in! They melt my heart!!! Nothing scary about this Pumpkin Party, except maybe a tantrum or two!! But, hey, it IS toddler'ville so let's get this party started!!! Pumpkin Bowling was a huge HIT! We painted our toilet paper to look like ghosts and Jack-O-Lanterns. We then stacked, re-stacked, patterned right side up and upside down and placed them in towers and rows. Balancing was the name of the game as we balanced our pyramids and towers as well discovering how to roll the pumpkin on its side and aim it correctly to hit its target!! The pumpkins weebled and wobbled and knocked them all down to the delight of our bowling babes. Stacking toilet paper rolls seems easy, but it's really quite challenging even for our parent players. Seed Hunt!Our fine motor skill and math builder activity "Seed Hunt" was provided by our curriculum provider, Mother Goose Time. This took patience, and impulse control as the children instinctively wanted to grab the seeds and soil with their fingers. After instructed that they couldn't "win" the game unless they used the tweezers, they silently sifted, and pinched the dirt until they unearthed the prized seeds inside. They then used the counting cards to properly place the appropriate number of seeds on each card. I can always tell when an activity is a major skill builder by the noise level. Most of the time when the children are engaging several senses, they are calm and quiet. The activity is soothing and causes the child completely focus. Pumpkin Pounding They will poke, hammer, saw, and twist and turn until these pumpkins are in pieces. I LOVE the pumpkin pounding project just as much as the children. It gives them an opportunity to utilize their tools toward a rewarded goal of seeing the inside of the pumpkin. I had to capture a before shot, because once the party got started this area was covered in kid! Our supplies and signs were provided by Mother Goose Time in our Pumpkin Party planning kit. What a fun way to plan the activities for our party!!! Make a Mummy! This is one of my party favorites because it takes teamwork! The players must find a friend, then work together with patience and problem-solving skills to carefully wrap one another up with a roll of toilet paper to make a mummy! The paper tears as they take turns wrapping, draping and dumping paper on top of their "mummy" friend. When one child decides they are done, it's easy to remove the wrap and start again!!
Friends, Food, Families, and Fun!When we have a party everyone is invited! It is our hope that the mommies and daddies will be able to party with us and join in the fun. This is actually the most important reason why we have celebrations. To involve the whole family. When children see their families engaging with caregivers, teachers, childcare environments and schools in a positive and encouraging manner, it bolsters confidence in the child in their own safety and bonds with that environment.
Studies have shown that children whose families are involved in the school environment are more successful in their academic careers. "Significant research over at least 25 years has demonstrated that "family involvement is critical to the educational success of children" (Kniepkamp, 2005, p. 16). To elaborate on that finding is an additional conclusion from the research: "When schools acknowledge the relevance of children's homes and cultures and promote family involvement, they can develop a supportive environment for learning through meaningful activities that engage and empower families" (Ramey & Ramey, 1999; Rhodes, Enz, & LaCount, 2006). " ( http://www.education.com/reference/article/research-family-involvement-early/) "The report, a synthesis of research on parent involvement over the past decade, also found that, regardless of family income or background, students with involved parents are more likely to:
This is why we party, have celebrations, meetings, Open Houses and reach out to families to let them know they are important and welcome. It literally makes them smarter, more connected, and enthusiastic about their education. I can't think of a better reason..... I wish you well and I hope you get to play today. - L  I LOVE fall! The change of the season here in the Midwest is full of color and wonder through the eyes of a little one. Experiencing seasons with a preschool child is like seeing it all for the first time. I love watching their eyes glimmer with awe while holding a fallen leaf that is changing from green to red and then to gold. It is the perfect time to teach colors, textures, and shapes. It is the perfect time to teach about seasons, months, and holidays with so many of the heavy hitters right around the bend. It is the perfect time to again experience the beauty of the hillsides, farms, and valleys that we ran around barefoot in just a month prior. Fall in the Ozarks is miraculous....so, of course, we will learn about every aspect in Pre-K! Twigs, seeds, leaves, and little ones!'I love fun! Looks at those busy hands and happy kiddos! SWOON!!! Our "Into The Orchard," theme from Mother Goose Time has been packed full of science, math, literacy, sensory, music, movement, and social/emotional skills builders We are learning a new seasons song, "All The Leaves Are Falling Down!" (sang to London Bridges) All the leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down! Orange, red leaves all around, it is Autumn! It's simple and easy to learn. We also cut out orange and red leaves and practiced these colors while singing our little tune, practicing our yoga tree pose and "falling" our leaves again and again! We then JUST picked up the orange leaves, and then the red leaves to make certain even our bittiest babes were getting hands on experience with our color study. During Creative Arts we again used the color red while painting with our fingers and brushes, our little red apples. Counting the seeds we placed in the middle allowed us to sneak a bit of concrete counting practice into our Creative Arts time. (We count everything!) We observed that when we mixed our blue and yellow paint, we made shades of green (see how I was able to sneak a bit of science in there!)! We then used our newly created color to make the leaves for our apple and OUT CAME THE GLUE! Glue is a toddler obsession! We give them a bottle and let them SQUEEZE! It puddles, squirts, and drips, but it is a vital part of the learning process. "As children draw, paint, and make collages, they are learning about the world (color, shape and size of objects). When they use paints, glue, and markers, children are planning, experimenting, and problem solving. As children mix paint, they learn to understand cause and effect. Art gives children chances to make decisions, and to learn from the experience of making choices about their art work."  All hands ON!We studied Johnny Appleseed with apple seeds, pots, plants, creative arts, and a sweet new book, "Johnny Appleseed!"  GEOGRAPHY! This cute little book not only served as an opener for our creative arts project that allowed us to give Johnny a face, put a pot hat on his head, give him clothing placement, but it also had math and GEOGRAPHY! This book listed three states!!! During the reading of this book we also noticed that it introduced skip counting by 5's! SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!!! I am in LOVE!!! Seriously, each of the apple trees had five apples. As we came closer to the ending, it had six trees with five apples each.....do the math! We were able to count to 30 together, then skip count by 5's and reach 30, all in a book about Johnny Appleseed!!! This led to an oranges and cherries patterning activity and even I left feeling a bit smarter! HA!!! We are observing seeds, roots, trees, fruits, completing patterns, making art, painting, growing our awareness of people, history, places, and events; coloring, recognizing letters, numbers, while learning new chants and songs!!
It's all in a day of play! I wish you well and I hope you get to play today. - L  It seems so simple. It can't possibly hold the paramount task of training the brain for math concepts. Does it? Making faces...with shapes? Looks like he's "just playing." I KNOW!!! PERFECT!!! This is one of my favorite things about math in the preschool environment. It's so simple. It masks itself in the ordinary, but it's really a GIANT of learning. These colorful shapes are called "pattern blocks", or "Tangrams." They come in all shapes and sizes and are made to fit together so the child can see different patterns or relationships between them. In the above picture, the relationships are "two triangles make a square." This little fella' observed that a square was not the desired shape he was after. So he tried again. These seemingly simple toys actually are the foundations for adding (two triangles equal one square), subtracting (what happens when we subtract one triangle), fractions (6 triangles equal a circle), and later geometry (how they fit together to make three dimensional shapes). These little two dimensional gems are loaded with learning  Each month Mother Goose Time sends us these fabulous pattern matching cards that demonstrate to the children how different shapes go together to make patterns, people, and objects. This is S.T.E.M. in play! What do all these images have in common? MATH!Mother Goose Time does a fantastic job of incorporating math into it's daily routines. This spans from the turn based games we play like the upper left image, to our circle/calendar times which give us turns in counting the days of the week, months of the year, the numbers of focus for the week/month (1,2 for September), to the books we read,("A Big Problem!" had logical problem solving included in the plot), to their curriculum enhancement books as age appropriate. The month of September was Friends and Feelings, therefore everything we did circled around that theme. We played the turn based game featuring our site words that helped us with not only recognizing our site words, but being able to place letters in proper sequence. Sequencing whether numbers or letters, patterns, or thoughts is logic. This is a real world math foundation being built that will serve a grander purpose in coming academic years. We build this in preschool with these types of turn based games, books, patterning, and activities that capture our children's interest disguised as play! "By carefully planning classroom experiences, one can help children develop logic and reasoning skills that they can use to make sense of their world." - http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/ages-stages-helping-children-develop-logic-reasoning-skills Why developing math skills is so much more than writing numbers...Developing a "math brain" is more than a child learning to count 1-20. It's more than being able to trace numbers 1-10 before the Kindergarten entrance exam. It involves a process of thinking that shapes (no pun intended...o.k....maybe a little intended!) the way we look at a problem, and ultimately are able to reach a workable solution. It's critical thinking and it happens, for the most part, off the worksheet.
Critical thinking happens on the playground and in the playroom while playing games with a friend and reaching a problem, then coming up with a solution. We facilitate this thinking by providing tools, social/emotional development, books, games, and materials that will allow them to recognize, hypothesis, and create solutions to problems as they arise. Critical thinking skills that begin as making a pie with six triangles become Algebra II. They become the man that builds your house. With all these considerations for the children of differing stages of development how do we make certain each child is being properly served? Through play.... Here are some more great articles on the power of play and developing critical thinking skills necessary for mathematical development. http://www.brighthorizons.com/family-resources/e-family-news/2014-developing-critical-thinking-skills-in-children/ http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/the-state-of-critical-thinking-today/523_ As always...I wish you well and I hope you get to play today! - L  What a sweet time we had at our Open House! We spent time together eating snacks, making "I Love You" hands, playing a game, reading stories, and relaxing with mommies and daddies at school! The children always want their families to come in and stay a while, but in the day to day business of life it's just not possible. But for this night, we had a bit of preschool fun WITH our family while we played, talked, and got to know each other a bit! Hosting an Open House is so much fun for the children and their families and is an important part of a child's preschool experience. It actually benefits them academically, social/emotionally, and far into the future. We don't JUST do this because we want to get together to know one another more (which we do!), but we do it because research shows it is a highly beneficial part of a child's educational process. Studies show that programs that involve families for festivals, celebrations, Open House, holidays, and other events, "is associated with: - higher student grades and test scores - better attendance - higher rates of homework completion - more positive student attitudes and behavior - higher graduation rates - greater enrollment rates in post-secondary education The same researchers also noted that when parents are involved, children achieve more regardless of their socioeconomic level, ethnic/racial background, or the parents' educational level (Henderson & Berla, 1994)." - https://www.cceionline.edu/newsletters/September_09.html Everything we do is for the benefit of the children... Isn't the above research incredible! THIS is why we host celebrations, holiday parties, Open House, and INVOLVE families as much as possible. It's a lot of work to make sure everything is ship-shape and "showcase" ready, but it is vital to the continued positive educational experience of the little ones we love!!
Our Open House was a huge success and I am so appreciative of all the families that made it! I wish you well and I hope you get to play today! - L  I can't think of a better expression than the one on this sweet fella's face! He was hiding his "sharing" boxes. He was only supposed to have one. That one was to be filled and given to a friend in an extension and practice of "The Keys Of Friendship - Sharing" lesson. He is 3. Sharing doesn't come naturally at this age, so we practice. We learn. We fail. We try again. Each conflict is a welcome opportunity for another lesson in kindness. This past week we have been learning about kindness and the letter "K!" Picture Perfect... The weather here in the Ozarks has been amazing. We have taken our learning outdoors as much as possible. Today, our yoga instructor brought her mats and our yoga class was held in the fresh air, cool breeze, and mid 80's. It may not have anything to do with the letter "k," but haaAAaave mercy...it was divine! We even had full participation from all our littles stretching, bending, and reaching for Sun Salutations, Downward Dog, and Warrior poses. They were amazing! (and yes, you can do yoga in cowboy boots :)) Sharing experiences while having fun! One of our little one's LOVES to bring treats to share! This went perfectly with our "Keys of Friendship - Sharing" lesson. We brought the preschool outside as much as possible to soak in the beautiful fall days this week. Our preschool curriculum, Mother Goose Time makes it easy to take our games, emergent readers books, and preschool experiences on the go. We learned that the Keys of Friendship are choices we make. We can choose kindness, generosity, forgiveness, patience, helpfulness, and respect. When this little one brought her sherbert treats, she learned she was practicing generosity and kindness!  This little guy was SO proud of himself sounding out the "S", "M", and "G" to determine the words in his Emergent Reader book from Mother Goose Time. What a GREAT accomplishment!! Emergent Readers are such an important part of a quality program and need to supported to continue to build on these foundations. The below referenced article further explains the differing stages of Emergent or "Aspiring" Readers and what to look for in providing them with materials to aid in their development. Mother Goose Time does a fantastic job in providing these age appropriate materials to support young readers. "Aspiring readers are just beginning to grasp the basic concepts of book and print. They are acquiring a command of the alphabet with the ability to recognize and name upper- and lowercase letters. They are also developing many phonological awareness skills, such as recognizing phonemes, syllables, and rhyme." https://www.readinga-z.com/learninga-z-levels/stages-of-development/ Lana the Iguana Ms. Angie from the Greene County Health Department brought us another lesson in being healthy with Lana the Iguana and the children LOVED feeding her fruits and vegetables and discussing what grows in gardens. She always has something new and fun for us to observe! What else have we done this week?Literacy, math, puzzles, patterning, games, taking turns, sharing, friendship, feelings, yoga, and lots of play - OUTSIDE! What a perfect way to learn and play!!
I wish you well and I hope you get to play today!  Favorite photo of the week goes to this crew right here! "Surprise" day has been my absolute favorite of all the emotions we have studied, and by the looks on these little faces, it's theirs too! The Emotions Game!Sounds like a sitcom...I know! But this cute little game was PERFECT fit for our Emotions, Feelings, and Friends Study. It is a simple little turn based game from Mother Goose Time that we quickly learned to play. Each side of the cube had a cute little face displaying an emotion; from bored, to surprised, to happy, to sad...they were covered. My little preschoolers took turns rolling the cube and acting out the emotion. They rolled and rolled, excited to try the next feeling on for size! My favorite part about this game was that it was easy for all my children to play it. Even my little 18 month old got into the play! (unfortunately I didn't get a pic of him!)      When it looks like all we do is play.... "Play offers more than cherished memories of growing up, it allows children to develop creativity and imagination while developing physical, cognitive, and emotional strengths. A previous manuscript described the benefits of play in fuller detail.7 Play enhances physical health by building active, healthy bodies. Physical activity beginning in early childhood prevents obesity.13 In fact, play may be an exceptional way to increase physical activity levels in children and, therefore, may be included as an important strategy in addressing the obesity epidemic.14,15 Play contributes to healthy brain development.16–18 Children engage and interact with the world around them through play from a very early age. Even in the academic environment, play helps children adjust to the school setting, thereby fostering school engagement, and enhances children’s learning readiness, learning behaviors, and problem-solving skills.19–31 In addition, play and recess may increase children’s capacity to store new information, as their cognitive capacity is enhanced when they are offered a drastic change in activity.19,20 Play is essential to developing social and emotional ties. First, play helps to build bonds within the family. Children’s healthy development is mediated by appropriate nurturing relationships with consistent caregivers.16 Play allows for a different quality of interaction between parent* and child, one that allows parents to “listen” in a very different, but productive, way. When parents observe their children playing or join them in child-driven play, they can view the world through their child’s eyes and, therefore, may learn to communicate or offer guidance more effectively. Less-verbal children may be able to express themselves, including their frustrations, through play, allowing their parents an opportunity to better understand their needs. Above all, the intensive engagement and relaxed interactions that occur while playing tell children that their parents are fully paying attention to them and, thereby, contribute to a strong connection.17,32,33 Play also helps forge connections between children. It allows them to learn how to share, to negotiate and resolve conflicts, and to learn self-advocacy skills when necessary.34,35 It teaches them leadership as well as group skills that may be useful in adult life. " Guess who wrote the above.....(hint...not a preschool teacher) It was a group of physicians writing for "Pediatrics" The Official Journal For The American Association For Pediatrics.Play is a powerful force in the lives of young children
So, as always, I wish you well and I hope you get to play today. -L When You're 3 Everyday Is A Monday... The Challenge Of Self-Concept In An Ever Expanding World.9/10/2015 It ain't easy being little. It's the force of teen-age emotion vacuum -packed into a pint-sized package and baby sometimes she's just gotta' BLOW! This is normal. This is toddler-hood. This is WHY we take an entire month at the beginning of our school year to focus on feelings and friendship. It gives us the skills, the vocabulary, and the beginnings of habits in acting and reacting to stressors, situations, circumstances, and schedules that may be out of our control. This is true for both the child and the teacher. We practice these skills as the adults. We Stop, Take a deep breath and Relax (S.T.A.R. - www.consciousdiscipline.com) when the poo hits the fan (you think I'm joking about the poo? Okay...maybe a little joking!!) We sing a song and sit down for a story break when everyone is beginning to climb the walls. (Diversion, singing causes deep breathing, re-framing our focus) We speak with kindness to the littles in our care and to one another as teachers regardless of the busyness or stresses of the day (lead by example...little eyes are always watching!). You see...when your 3, everyday is Monday. It's "Monday" because it's fresh and new filled with endless curiosity, wonder, and experiences.. It's "Monday" because all the tenacity, turmoil, and energy is takes to be 3, keeps the teacher reachin' for her cup o' joe! Monday, Monday..... We make learning about feelings fun with arts and crafts like our "Bee Respectful" hats from Mother Goose time! So.....how do we support, teach, and train young children to have the coping skills necessary for life? Why is a focus on feeling and friends so important? In preschool "Self Concept" is created as a child becomes "Self Aware." "Although forming one's self-concept is a lifelong process, how the child feels about himself in the early years (positive or negative) can set a pattern for the rest of his life."http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/ages-stages-how-children-develop-self-concept Habits...patterns...this is they why we focus so heavily on building the positive self-talk, vocabulary, and behavioral patterns for our children. It's because these patterns will carry them through childhood, adolescents, and adulthood. This requires intentional teachers. This means anticipating the needs of the child. The need to practice conflict. The need to tantrum. The need to be held and snuggled and reminded, "You are safe. You can handle this." These are the necessary tools to help the child understand his/her emotions and how to express them safely to himself and those around him. This is the stuff a resilient child is made of. The kind of stuff that produces resilient adults.  We use Mother Goose Time and Conscious Discipline as we PLAY!
 We read stories about conflict, problems, and how to solve them. We read and practice as real conflicts occur. We give them choices as a means to explore new skills. "Was that helpful or hurtful?" is often heard in our classroom. "What is his face telling you?" and referring to our "Emotions" chart from Mother Goose Time is another helpful way to engage children in determining if, in fact, their action toward a friend was "helpful or hurtful." We play turn based games that go along with the books we read like the one below from Mother Goose Time that help children to understand that taking turns is fun, their turn is coming, and to practice patience.  We consider ourselves a "school family" that loves, cares for, and sees the best in one another.Through our circle times we provide "uniting activities that are designed for everyone to do together and help develop a sense of belonging." Through singing, reading and telling stories, and allowing children a "safe place" to unwind after conflict we "disengage stress to teach children how to calm themselves when they are upset." Through games, centers time, inside and outside play we engage in "connecting activities that provide opportunities for children to interact with each other, which builds healthy friendships, increases attention span, and fosters cooperation." Through consistency in boundaries, conscious and loving discipline we show "commitments, the final component to the school routine, to teach children to make and follow through on pledges to keep their classroom safe and take responsibility for their actions." (http://www.sealyisd.com/common/pages/DisplayFile.aspx?itemId=3773729) All of this in a day of play at Woolsey Academy!I wish you well and I hope you get to play today!!
-L
"F" is for Friends, Feelings, and Family! What an adorable week for the letter "F!" We practiced writing, recognizing, and the sound of the letter "f," for both lower and uppercase. We made these CUTE and sweet "family and friends" puppets for dramatic and pretend play with "f"eathers, lots of glue, and googly eyes! Some of my littles got VERY creative and made monster friends too! We discussed our feelings of happy, sad, angry, excited, joyful, scared, and surprised while making our little puppet friends. As they dried (and it took a LONG while for that as my babes are generous with glue and since Creative Arts and the process are the real goals, I just let them squeeze, and smush till their little hearts are content) we made our "F" is for Faces site word and Emergent Reader take home book. **Families, please read these with your littles this weekend and point out the sounds and letter "f" to help bring the learning home!**  One can NEVER have enough googly eyes! We used our left-overs from our Friends and Family puppets to make our Emergent Reader books EXTRA fun!!!  We LOVE googly eyes!!! HA!!! We had a "f"un week of learning and play making our "f"oxes, our "f"riends and "f"amily puppets, "F"aces Emergent Readers, and our "I'm a Special Person" "f"eelings trees. We introduced a new book this week in addition to our weekly favorites. The children LOVED it! A Big Problem! by Carter Oosterhouse
As a teacher, I LOVED how the children came together at the end to solve the problem and how the book ended with the picture above of "Solving a Problem!" This goes RIGHT with our Feelings and Friends theme and incorporates the logical/critical thinking skills to help TEACH us HOW to recognize, approach, and ultimately solve a problem! This will come in handy as a new approach to our social/emotional skill building as we work together to solve problems with our friends! Needless to say, "A Big Problem," was a BIG hit with our preschool family! www.experienceearlylearning.com "F" is for our "F"UN Enrichment Classes This Week! Not a week goes by that we don't host guests in our classroom. This week we made a new friend from Zoo Encounters! Ms. Emily brought us some "f"urry, and "f"eathered pals to meet, discuss, and touch with our Zoo Encounter class! Pictured here is Cashew the Chinchilla! He was SO SOFT! All our children did an amazing job of following directions! We also got to meet and experience Orville the Pigeon! Ms. Emily asked us to use only two fingers to gently pet the animals, wait our turn, and be very quiet as to not scare the animals. I have the BEST children! They all did super!! Even our bittiest babes followed directions. Look at this pic, those two fingers are ready and waiting!!! SOOOOO FUN!!! Ms. Emily wasn't the only new friend we made this week. We also hosted Ms. Angela from the Greene County Health Department for a hand washing class! We sang songs while we washed, received stickers of accomplishment, and had some squishy, soapy fun learning the proper methods for hand washing! Thank you Ms. Emily and Ms. Angela!! But that's not all! We had some math "f"un too! How are letter puzzles math related you ask??? Well, let me explain!!! Puzzles play helps develop several areas of the brain for young children by giving them the ability to place object in order, spatial relations, recognize geometrical boundaries, and something being a part of a whole. These are VERY IMPORTANT skills to possess for building on the blocks of math learning through play. But don't take my word for it!! "The ability to mentally transform shapes is an important predictor of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) course-taking, degrees and careers in older children. Activities such as early puzzle play may lay the groundwork for the development of this ability, the study found." This is why you will always see puzzles as a place of prominence at Woolsey Academy for Young Learners. It may look like play, but it is vital to a child's early development and a great way for us to observe their level of skill and readiness for furthering education. 
We practiced counting, recognizing, writing, and adding the numbers 1 and 2 in our More Math Enrichment Books from Mother Goose Time! We also, as we do daily participated in counting our days of the week and recognizing the sequence of numbers and days on the calendar. We discussed the proper order for the numbers and days as we sang our Days of the Week and Months of the Year songs each day. We also played a fun new game that helped us get to know ourselves and our friends even better. This game, provided by Mother Goose Time, is a turn based game that included moving our pieces up a color coded playing surface to the finish. With each turn of the spinner we stated one thing we liked about ourselves and one thing we liked about our friend before it became the turn of another child. Our babes LOVED this game! I am laminating it and adding to our centers as a great addition to our daily social/emotional plus math play! WOW! What a week of learning and fun!!!What an amazing week! We learned, we played, we had SO MUCH "F"UN!!! I can't wait to see what's in store for next week!!! I can give you a hint....we will be placing a great importance on our grandparents and families with upcoming Grandparents Day! We will be making something extra special to send home with our littles for the special grandparents in their lives! That's a wrap!!! Our preschool days are back in full swing again. Since my kiddos are aged 1-5, in a mixed age setting; what makes us feel happy, sad ,mad, hurt, angry, excited, frustrated, and scared are hot topics for us DAILY. We have said, "Goodbye," to those entering Kindergarten and, "Hello," to new friends. This makes it the PERFECT time to engage the children in a Friends and Feelings study while encouraging social/emotional and environmental choices. Let the play begin!  Discovering our Feelings and Friends Thematic Unit Display for September. (courtesy of Mother Goose Time) Allowing the classroom display to be on their level and always available encourages the children to ask questions. They may not yet know what the letters are, or the colors, or the shapes; but giving them the time and freedom by encouraging them to touch, hold, and interact with each other and the teachers gives them the opportunity to ask, "What is it?" Conversations like these provide us the open door to teaching and learning. We teach by answering their questions again and again, we learn by listening to their questions, observing when those questions begin to develop into more complex ideas and "follow-up" observations. We can, with that information, determine what they are ready to learn next and what their interests are. I love a mixed age group. I love watching them make choices of who to engage, the verbal and body language they use with their friends of differing ages as they create an invitation to play, and stepping in to provide them with the skills to help them further their conversation and understanding of their friends. So What Are We Learning Today? We began our preschool day with discovering all the new aspects of our Friends and Feelings display wall from Mother Goose Time Preschool. We are discussing the numbers 1 & 2, the letter and words that start with "F," the circle, and color blue. We went around the room with our "blue brush" tapping on objects that were the color blue. We then got out our "Global Friends" from Poland, France, and Korea as we learned the words they use to say, "Hello!" These are challenging and we are working on them!!! We then went to our free play time encouraging the children to move to Dramatic Play, Manipulatives, Blocks, Library, and provided our More Math curriculum enhancements books to those that wanted to further discuss and practice writing the numbers 1 & 2 and give representative drawings of the numbers.  We believe choice is essential to the willingness these children have toward learning. We do this by providing several elements of play in all areas of appropriate development for all our age groups. Our block area will have blocks that range in size, texture, and color. We have MANY options so children can choose to work together or independently. In our Dramatic play, we have puppets and dolls with the differing emotions of happy, sad, excited, mad, and scared that allow our children to extend their conversations to include scenarios of emotion. "Making choices is part of problem solving. When given choices, children stretch their minds and create new and unique combinations of ideas and materials." - Morrison, 1997 http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=607 With providing a classroom full of options that are always available to each child, we are giving them the option to also display a wide range of feeling in themselves and others as they conflict and converse with each other. We are then able to help them understand their feelings and how they affect themselves and others. Often we ask the question, "Was that helpful or hurtful?" when child is in conflict or kind to another. We allow them to answer. From their answer we can determine their understanding and development. Why Do Feelings Matter So Much Anyway? " Studies show that the most important skills to learn in the beginning of the year are social: cooperation, self-control, confidence, independence, curiosity, empathy, and communication." - Why Social Skills Are The Key To Learning;http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/social-emotional-skills/why-social-skills-are-key-to-learning Why? Because a child is a whole and complete person already. They are not a recording device (though trust me....they will spout out the most accurate description of your potty mouth at the most inopportune moments, wont they??!!). Our aim is to help the child develop skills as the whole person they already are. What? Play-Dough Again??!! Shapes, colors, fine and gross motor skills, social/emotional skills building, observations, and new experiences are all happening in this moment of "playing Play-Dough." As they participate in group play, they have to ask one another to share tools, colors, and shapes. This can sometimes end in sharing and other times in conflict. However, conflict is NOT failure, it is VALUABLE opportunity for learning. In conflict we can practice using alternatives and choices. We will often prompt a child to ask questions like, "May I have that when you are done?" or offer trades. This helps both children to understand that both needs are important....the need to keep and the need to share. Discovering Feelings, Celebrating Friendships, and Encouraging Choices.....Powered By Play!        We have celebrated a birthday, painted with our fingers, brushes and even noses, and have made FRIENDS.
When we allow the environment to revolve around the needs of the child, education develops optimally....naturally. I wish you well and I hope you get to play today. -L  After breakfast and a bit o' morning circle time our sleepy crew needed some fresh air and fun! We decided to get a new perspective on our sprinkler play and hang it from the tree upside down, after all, our theme this week is WATER! We are singing about water, reading about water, playing in the water, washing with water, sorting measuring and counting...all with WATER!!! Our heat index is about 105 for the week, so water play is THE choice around here for summertime fun! I L.O.V.E. that my Mother Goose Time curriculum works math, science, literature, music, and dramatic play into our days. YAY!!! Look at those little faces...make me melt (no hot weather pun intended...o.k....maybe a little intended ;)). We built a car wash, and a shower station, we danced and sang in the rain, we measured, filled, poured, and refilled. Our baby shampoo came in handy to make certain it wouldn't hurt little eyes as they practiced and roll played "shower time" and "Workin' At The Carwash, YA'!" (your singing now too :))  AWWWW!!! This makes me miss our pooch, Sheppie. This children used to LOVE washing Sheppie in the summertime. It may be time for a new little family member!!! When I showed the children this image during circle time they got giddy! They KNEW we were going to be washing, scrubbing, and soaping down EVERYTHING. We also LOVED our sweet little Emergent Reader book, "I Wash," by I Can Read - Mother Goose Time. Think "water play" is just play? We've got it ALL covered!!!My 4's and 5's are ALL about learning to read and they LOVE it when they get new Emergent Reader books to take home and share with their families! I LOVE being able to provide them with full color literature to take HOME!!! I am a firm believer in developing a little one's love for reading from the day they are born. When a child can be "hands on" in every aspect of their daily "play" it becomes real and personal. They are submerged in the story when they get to touch it, turn pages, feel the paper in their little hands. They take ownership of the learning when they are empowered with the control to be able to follow along as they decide. This is HOW important being able to give them each a book is to me. Here is what the ITLC has to say about what little one's learn prior to being able to read themselves from programs with LOTS of literacy. "Starting from birth children learn about books by listening to stories being read to them. As they grow and are able to handle books, they learn that there is a front and back cover and pages. Children as young as 24 months develop a sense about literacy as they explore books and engage in storybook reading activities. Children learn many skills as they are given opportunities to participate in literacy activities during their preschool years. Emergent Literacy ConceptsChildren develop concepts about print as they explore books by themselves or with others. These concepts include the understanding that:
Once it was time to dry out, we enjoyed nature another way...We took our sweet little "Close To Nature" journals by Mother Goose Time outside and first read, "Get Close To Nature - A Guessing Book" by Experience Early Learning. We looked closely at the grass, the Morning Glories, Dandelions, leaves, worms, beetles, anything we could find really. We observed and then drew pictures to record what we saw outside before coming in. After all this "quiet play" we did sneak in some "bug" races! We ran like a butterfly, a beetle, a caterpillar, and a fly! No day is complete without a song!!!And now to a new favorite book of ours! |
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A typical FunShine Express day was FULL of engaging and interactive activities.
Most of the above pictures were from Tuesday, May 19th, utilizing the "All Grown Up!" theme from the May 2015 Curriculum Guide. We began our day with the "I Am Special" song (included) and our calendar and weather observation conversations.
We then dumped out ALL our crayons in search of the purple ones...it turned into this extension project!
Most of the above pictures were from Tuesday, May 19th, utilizing the "All Grown Up!" theme from the May 2015 Curriculum Guide. We began our day with the "I Am Special" song (included) and our calendar and weather observation conversations.
We then dumped out ALL our crayons in search of the purple ones...it turned into this extension project!
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Instead of just hunting for the purple...we mixed and matched and made "new" crayons in the shapes of circles and baby animals! What a SUPER FUN project!
We then discussed what types of foods make us grow? What are healthy choices? For snack we tried a veggie tray of edamame, pea pods, carrots, celery, and cucumbers with yogurt ranch dip! During snack we practiced the Spanish word for "grow," "crecer." We also discussed and practiced our yoga poses; tree, boat, snake, cat, and mountain. We had a lengthy conversation about all the different kinds of excercise. We tried somersaults, handstands, turtle crawling, frog hopping, chase, hide and seek and YES!!! We discovered that they are ALL exercise because when we put our hands on our hearts we could feel them "thump!","thump!", "thump!!!"
We learned a new song called "I Am Growing!" (FunShine Express Curriculum Guide May 2015)
Sung to "Are You Sleeping?"
I am growing, I am growing,
Yes, I am! Yes, I am!
I'm getting bigger everyday,
Bigger, bigger everyday,
Look how much I've grown!)
We then measured each child (as shown above) with the included yarn and made a "people pocket" in our own likeness. We practiced writing our names on the included name tag sticker, attached the yarn to it and placed it on our wall for everyone to see the differing heights of our friends!
We used the included "Growing Up Learning" picture cards of the chicken, egg, and chick and discussed which one comes first? We talked about how we are growing and how many things we can do now; potty on the toilet, dress ourselves, drink from a cup instead of a bottle, ride a bike! These are all "evidence" (vocabulary) that we are indeed growing up!!!
We then discussed what types of foods make us grow? What are healthy choices? For snack we tried a veggie tray of edamame, pea pods, carrots, celery, and cucumbers with yogurt ranch dip! During snack we practiced the Spanish word for "grow," "crecer." We also discussed and practiced our yoga poses; tree, boat, snake, cat, and mountain. We had a lengthy conversation about all the different kinds of excercise. We tried somersaults, handstands, turtle crawling, frog hopping, chase, hide and seek and YES!!! We discovered that they are ALL exercise because when we put our hands on our hearts we could feel them "thump!","thump!", "thump!!!"
We learned a new song called "I Am Growing!" (FunShine Express Curriculum Guide May 2015)
Sung to "Are You Sleeping?"
I am growing, I am growing,
Yes, I am! Yes, I am!
I'm getting bigger everyday,
Bigger, bigger everyday,
Look how much I've grown!)
We then measured each child (as shown above) with the included yarn and made a "people pocket" in our own likeness. We practiced writing our names on the included name tag sticker, attached the yarn to it and placed it on our wall for everyone to see the differing heights of our friends!
We used the included "Growing Up Learning" picture cards of the chicken, egg, and chick and discussed which one comes first? We talked about how we are growing and how many things we can do now; potty on the toilet, dress ourselves, drink from a cup instead of a bottle, ride a bike! These are all "evidence" (vocabulary) that we are indeed growing up!!!
The FunShine Express Curriculum Guide!
Funshine Express also has FunShine Online for those that want the convenience and help of a research based curriculum at a VERY affordable rate. The link is here. You still get all the incredible lessons plans, sans the supplies! These lessons are state aligned and an incredible value at only $19/month for their premium plan! I think this is FAB!!!!!!
It is possible to have a fantastic, prepared, state aligned, research based, interactive and engaging curriculum at your fingertips with lots of room for extension and active P.L.A.Y! I am THRILLED with FunShine Express and I know you will be too!
I wish you well and I hope you get to play today!
-L
It is possible to have a fantastic, prepared, state aligned, research based, interactive and engaging curriculum at your fingertips with lots of room for extension and active P.L.A.Y! I am THRILLED with FunShine Express and I know you will be too!
I wish you well and I hope you get to play today!
-L
Have you always wanted to work with children and have a job that changes lives for the better? Or maybe you have dreamed of opening your own daycare, but lacked the knowledge, training, or confidence?
As a Preschool Teacher/ Childcare Provider with Woolsey Academy For Young Learners (a home based childcare and preschool) in Willard, MO you will gain the training, knowledge, skills, and confidence to be able to step out on your own and open a childcare/preschool in your area, or remain and grow with us as we reach children in the North Greater Springfield/Willard/Bolivar area.
I am currently taking applications for part time to possibly full time assist in all aspects of childcare and preschool. This will include website development, blog writing, marketing, curriculum development, direct care and teaching of children, daily routines, meal prep, diaper changes, state and local document maintenance, grant writing, field trip (in house) scheduling, meal and budget planning, etc. You will be on the floor rolling cars and trains and jumping up to safely return a little one to their feet as they try to climb the train table, holding and playing with children ages 1-6 years. You will be singing finger plays and nursery rhymes, reading books, making dirt pies, pushing swings, inspecting bugs and digging for worms. You will get to know when a cry is angry, frustrated, tired or hungry and be able to respond quickly. Your days will be filled with hugs, sweet moments and milestones accomplished. You will also have days filled with challenges, tired little bodies, and transitions from baby to toddler, and toddler to preschooler. Each day is a rewarding one as we navigate the wonder of childhood at Woolsey Academy. www.woolseyacademy.com
Four hour + shifts available, flexible scheduling. You must be at least 18, CPR/First Aid certified, medical exam and tb test, and background screening (I can help the right candidate obtain these).
9$/hour to start.
For consideration please contact me to schedule a time to meet and discuss why you think you are the perfect fit to Woolsey Academy for Young Learners!
The children in my care are of the upmost importance, references will be checked.
Visit www.woolseyacademy.com for information about our philosophy and program.
As a Preschool Teacher/ Childcare Provider with Woolsey Academy For Young Learners (a home based childcare and preschool) in Willard, MO you will gain the training, knowledge, skills, and confidence to be able to step out on your own and open a childcare/preschool in your area, or remain and grow with us as we reach children in the North Greater Springfield/Willard/Bolivar area.
I am currently taking applications for part time to possibly full time assist in all aspects of childcare and preschool. This will include website development, blog writing, marketing, curriculum development, direct care and teaching of children, daily routines, meal prep, diaper changes, state and local document maintenance, grant writing, field trip (in house) scheduling, meal and budget planning, etc. You will be on the floor rolling cars and trains and jumping up to safely return a little one to their feet as they try to climb the train table, holding and playing with children ages 1-6 years. You will be singing finger plays and nursery rhymes, reading books, making dirt pies, pushing swings, inspecting bugs and digging for worms. You will get to know when a cry is angry, frustrated, tired or hungry and be able to respond quickly. Your days will be filled with hugs, sweet moments and milestones accomplished. You will also have days filled with challenges, tired little bodies, and transitions from baby to toddler, and toddler to preschooler. Each day is a rewarding one as we navigate the wonder of childhood at Woolsey Academy. www.woolseyacademy.com
Four hour + shifts available, flexible scheduling. You must be at least 18, CPR/First Aid certified, medical exam and tb test, and background screening (I can help the right candidate obtain these).
9$/hour to start.
For consideration please contact me to schedule a time to meet and discuss why you think you are the perfect fit to Woolsey Academy for Young Learners!
The children in my care are of the upmost importance, references will be checked.
Visit www.woolseyacademy.com for information about our philosophy and program.
Have you ever wanted to try several top rated curriculum, or wondered, "What will I really get?" or even, "Will it be worth the money I'm committing?"
Me too.
As the owner, caregiver, chef, preschool teacher, and all around daytime momma' to the 10 littles in my care, it is VITAL to me that my children are Kindergarten ready in every way. I work a minimum 14 hour day, just like many of you, and on a limited budget.
SOOOOOooooooo, when I decided to find ways to reduce my workload I became curious about purchasing an "out of the box" curriculum, but I wanted to make certain I was going to receive the very best fit.
I thought there was NO WAY I would be able to afford an prepared curriculum. Just looking at the prices made me feel queasy. I couldn't imagine adding an additional $100-150/month bill to my budget.
Then I challenged myself...
You should too.
I decided to add up my prep hours, those hours I spend at night and on the weekends shopping for, prepping for, researching for fun and educational activities. Mine equaled about 15 hours PER WEEK!
I then added up all my purchases for preschool activities, arts and crafts, printer supplies and ink, etc. Mine equaled $200/month on an EASY month!!!
And who couldn't use an extra DAY added back into their lives??!! I know I wanted my time back AND to save money...so the search began.
I contacted the top four curriculum I found in my searches:
Mother Goose Time
The Learning Box Preschool
Carol's Affordable Curriculum
FunShine Express
I wanted to contrast and compare the leading curriculum developers that claim fun, superior, core compliant "out of the box" curriculum, that cater to saving timing and money. I wanted to put those claims to the test.
My criteria were (and still are) as follows:
1. Price per child must not exceed what I am spending at my local dollar stores and discount chain stores for supplies.
2. Must not add any work to my already packed day. I needed to decrease my workload.
3. Fun, easy to use, truly be "out of the box," easy to understand for me or assistant teachers (a sub could just pick it up and easily use it). I think I said "easy" enough times for you to understand I need it E.A.S.Y!
The first kit to arrive was The Learning Box Preschool.
So...what does really come in a kit?
Me too.
As the owner, caregiver, chef, preschool teacher, and all around daytime momma' to the 10 littles in my care, it is VITAL to me that my children are Kindergarten ready in every way. I work a minimum 14 hour day, just like many of you, and on a limited budget.
SOOOOOooooooo, when I decided to find ways to reduce my workload I became curious about purchasing an "out of the box" curriculum, but I wanted to make certain I was going to receive the very best fit.
I thought there was NO WAY I would be able to afford an prepared curriculum. Just looking at the prices made me feel queasy. I couldn't imagine adding an additional $100-150/month bill to my budget.
Then I challenged myself...
You should too.
I decided to add up my prep hours, those hours I spend at night and on the weekends shopping for, prepping for, researching for fun and educational activities. Mine equaled about 15 hours PER WEEK!
I then added up all my purchases for preschool activities, arts and crafts, printer supplies and ink, etc. Mine equaled $200/month on an EASY month!!!
And who couldn't use an extra DAY added back into their lives??!! I know I wanted my time back AND to save money...so the search began.
I contacted the top four curriculum I found in my searches:
Mother Goose Time
The Learning Box Preschool
Carol's Affordable Curriculum
FunShine Express
I wanted to contrast and compare the leading curriculum developers that claim fun, superior, core compliant "out of the box" curriculum, that cater to saving timing and money. I wanted to put those claims to the test.
My criteria were (and still are) as follows:
1. Price per child must not exceed what I am spending at my local dollar stores and discount chain stores for supplies.
2. Must not add any work to my already packed day. I needed to decrease my workload.
3. Fun, easy to use, truly be "out of the box," easy to understand for me or assistant teachers (a sub could just pick it up and easily use it). I think I said "easy" enough times for you to understand I need it E.A.S.Y!
The first kit to arrive was The Learning Box Preschool.
So...what does really come in a kit?
This baby came packed with EVERYTHING!!! I was AMAZED at how well it was organized and easy it was to just pick up 1 Teacher Pack, match it up to the 1 Student Pack, cross reference that to the marked day in the Teacher's Guide and BAM! We had a prepped day!!
Soo let me show you what one day looked like withThe Learning Box Preschool
This may look like ALOT at a glance...but it is broken down for you in the Curriculum guide step by step. This was Day 16 of the curriculum guide. Did you notice that there are even the books that go with the themed kit included INSIDE the kit?! They didn't just say, "Hey, here is your reading list...go buy it."
THEY INCLUDED IT INSIDE!
Not only that, it is printed on nice paper, full color. One could use, oh I don't know, say their own YouTube account and provide a reading for the children to enjoy at home with mom and dad if they wanted to :).
See mine here! The Red Lady Bug book by The Learning Box Preschool is INCLUDED as well as three other books to go along with the monthly theme.
Soo let me show you what one day looked like withThe Learning Box Preschool
This may look like ALOT at a glance...but it is broken down for you in the Curriculum guide step by step. This was Day 16 of the curriculum guide. Did you notice that there are even the books that go with the themed kit included INSIDE the kit?! They didn't just say, "Hey, here is your reading list...go buy it."
THEY INCLUDED IT INSIDE!
Not only that, it is printed on nice paper, full color. One could use, oh I don't know, say their own YouTube account and provide a reading for the children to enjoy at home with mom and dad if they wanted to :).
See mine here! The Red Lady Bug book by The Learning Box Preschool is INCLUDED as well as three other books to go along with the monthly theme.
A day in the life of The Learning Box Preschool...
1. Begins with circle time "Opening Routine and Question of the Day" is found at the top of each "daily" page of the Teachers Guide (included).
2. The opening routine includes the day's song, Pledge of Allegiance, Question of the Day "What is blue? How many things can you think of (that are blue)?, Calendar, Counting the Bunny Line, and the Weather.
3. Next comes the letter review for letters V and Z. These are PRE-CUT! Yes...yes...that is a happy teacher tear...
4. They realize that little bodies need to MOVE so the review includes using our bodies to make the letters and having each child pick out a letter out of the included paper sack and tell what the letter is and then match the upper and lower case of the PRE-CUT letter. I am STOKED about pre-cut anything and just about everything included in this curriculum is pre-cut!!!
5. The Cookie Shop game is next with ALL PRE-CUT colored circles.
6. They have also included Music, Science, Creative Expression, Food Fun, Field Trip ideas, and math into a day that allows for 5-10 minute lessons with lots of up and down, turn taking, body use, and limited "worksheets." Though, I am NOT anti-worksheet in that it is a great connector piece for parents and children to discuss at home.
1. Begins with circle time "Opening Routine and Question of the Day" is found at the top of each "daily" page of the Teachers Guide (included).
2. The opening routine includes the day's song, Pledge of Allegiance, Question of the Day "What is blue? How many things can you think of (that are blue)?, Calendar, Counting the Bunny Line, and the Weather.
3. Next comes the letter review for letters V and Z. These are PRE-CUT! Yes...yes...that is a happy teacher tear...
4. They realize that little bodies need to MOVE so the review includes using our bodies to make the letters and having each child pick out a letter out of the included paper sack and tell what the letter is and then match the upper and lower case of the PRE-CUT letter. I am STOKED about pre-cut anything and just about everything included in this curriculum is pre-cut!!!
5. The Cookie Shop game is next with ALL PRE-CUT colored circles.
6. They have also included Music, Science, Creative Expression, Food Fun, Field Trip ideas, and math into a day that allows for 5-10 minute lessons with lots of up and down, turn taking, body use, and limited "worksheets." Though, I am NOT anti-worksheet in that it is a great connector piece for parents and children to discuss at home.
So what do some of the finished Creative Arts materials look like?? Let me show off my littles work!!!
They include puzzles, color mixing take home books, color recognition, letter and number matching, science take home observe and record books, holiday crafts, patterning activities and I would guess that 90% of everything is pre-cut. This to me is a MAJOR saving bonus. Instead of tossing those skeletons the letters, shapes and numbers came from , I laminated those babies and the children are now using those as tracing guides on the chalkboards and paint easels inside and out.
Now...down to the numbers. How much does it cost?
Go here The Learning Box Preschool Store. You will then choose your program type. Mine is a 5 day / week program so I click the Five Day Preschool Program. I then choose how many children I have enrolled. Mine is 12 enrolled, and one month, then choose the month to start and it will calculate your cost. This is what mine looks like.
Large Box Options# of Kids (Large Box) Select
Number of Months Auto Delivery Club 1 Month
Starting Month August 2014
12 kids at $119.49 base kit price with 0% discount
+ 1 months shipping at 14.99 per month
beginning August 2014= $134.48
This would be my most expensive option. The Learning Box Preschool has discounts available up to 15% for volume purchases. This would save an additional $20/month!
This is an incredible value. Let's break it down per child...shall we???
$134.48 / 20 days of materials = $6.72 per day or $33.60/week for everyone!
$6.72 per day / by 12 children = $0.56 per day per child!!!
I am FLOORED at how INEXPENSIVE it is to regain my evenings and weekends AND save money BOOYAH!!! Still think you can't afford a professional curriculum? Just raise your rates by $2.50/child/week to cover the cost and have a top-rated, prepared, out of the box, Kindergarten readiness program for the children in your care. I don't know a parent around that wouldn't jump for joy over that! They can't buy burger for THAT!
Personally, I give The Learning Box Preschool a 5-Star rating. I would absolutely purchase this curriculum for daily use in Woolsey Academy for Young Learners!
Now...down to the numbers. How much does it cost?
Go here The Learning Box Preschool Store. You will then choose your program type. Mine is a 5 day / week program so I click the Five Day Preschool Program. I then choose how many children I have enrolled. Mine is 12 enrolled, and one month, then choose the month to start and it will calculate your cost. This is what mine looks like.
Large Box Options# of Kids (Large Box) Select
Number of Months Auto Delivery Club 1 Month
Starting Month August 2014
12 kids at $119.49 base kit price with 0% discount
+ 1 months shipping at 14.99 per month
beginning August 2014= $134.48
This would be my most expensive option. The Learning Box Preschool has discounts available up to 15% for volume purchases. This would save an additional $20/month!
This is an incredible value. Let's break it down per child...shall we???
$134.48 / 20 days of materials = $6.72 per day or $33.60/week for everyone!
$6.72 per day / by 12 children = $0.56 per day per child!!!
I am FLOORED at how INEXPENSIVE it is to regain my evenings and weekends AND save money BOOYAH!!! Still think you can't afford a professional curriculum? Just raise your rates by $2.50/child/week to cover the cost and have a top-rated, prepared, out of the box, Kindergarten readiness program for the children in your care. I don't know a parent around that wouldn't jump for joy over that! They can't buy burger for THAT!
Personally, I give The Learning Box Preschool a 5-Star rating. I would absolutely purchase this curriculum for daily use in Woolsey Academy for Young Learners!
Life is made of moments...
"There isn't anything more full of hope, joy and peace than a child's smile... It captures the mundane and makes it extraordinary." - LaDonna Woolsey
I am a www.prekwithme.com blogger. I decided to become one after trying their products because I they are comprehensive and serve my mixed age group well. I do receive products to review from www.prekwithme.com and do so with my own honest and thorough opinions. For more information, please contact me at [email protected]
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A Little Bit Of This And That!
A View You Can Use!
A-Z Alphabet Theme
C Is For Cookie!
Continents And Countries
Curiosity
Curriculum
Dandelions And Darlings...
Happy Halloween!
Help For Tired Mommas...
Holidays
Letter M Monkey
Letter N Newts
Letter O Olympics
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Letter Q Is For Queen
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