09.26.07
Ellie Elephant Week (and more!)
Okay, I can’t believe it’s been so long since my last post. My goal is to post weekly with highlights of the week - like an online newsletter. Well, at least I have goals! In spite of my inability to post updates, we’ve been having a great time at school! The children are really grasping most of the skills being covered and are having fun doing it. I’ve even used healthy competition to keep it exciting…The preschoolers were working on alphabet grids last week (where you match animal/alphabet cards to a grid containing each animal/alphabet) and I paired them off, girls versus boys. I was actually surprised to see that the girls finished their grid together first which inspired the boys to ask for another round and play again!
Earlier this week I heard Kiley and Emmalisse singing and when I turned to see, I saw that they were standing in front of one of the alphabet posters singing and signaling the animal moves. Although we don’t expect to achieve perfect letter/sound matching at the toddler age, the recognition of animal signals with some sounds lays a strong foundation for later acquisition of letter-sound matching. Plus, it was just cute!
The children are even getting better at Show ‘n Tell and “public speaking” during their presentations. For the most part, they enjoy seeing what the other children brought, “reading” the repetitive sentences off the board (ex.: Mason brought an elephant. Katie brought Elmo.) The exception to this was today when Jenna Belle was showing her elephant that actually “trumpets”. Karsen took one look at that and took off for the back of the room! Once the elephant was put away, she agreed to return to our Morning Meeting which she usually enjoys.
We’re going to start a new routine of daily name writing practice. Each preschooler will receive a sheet with 5 lines of his/her name. Each day he/she will trace (or write, when ready) one line of the sheet to be completed and sent home on Friday. There will be other things that we will write and draw as opportunity arises but this is certainly a priority to get the students familiar with and able to write their names. If you wish to offer more practice, I have several fonts suggested here: http://www.mommynature.com/learning-fonts.html There are also several available tracing fonts that use a lined-paper look that I’ll add to that page, in case anyone is interested.
Lastly, I wanted to say that we had a successful cookout Saturday! Thanks to all who contributed and attended. The kids were adorable singing and acting out the animal signals to the “Come Meet Us At the Zoo” Zoo-phonics theme song. They also had a great time sharing some of the games and activities we’ve done recently with moms and dads. Of course, the food and outdoor activities were a hit as well!
Till next blog,
“Miss Gina”
