Tuesday, September 17, 2013

First Week of September 2013

I took a break.... a long break!!!  My group has changed drastically this year... I've taken infants into my program which is something I haven't done in years.  When the little people arrived my life went topsy-turvy and I just couldn't document what we were doing any longer.  The blog, the pictures, the time... I just didn't have time for it as I was running all day attending to everything and trying to figure out how to make it all work for everyone.  The blog just wasn't on that priority list.

I'm glad to say things are settling down some... but I still have some smaller people than what I've had in the past.  So documenting becomes a little more difficult because I have basically three different levels of children in my group.  The two little tots, the one tot who is a little more advanced, and the three preschoolers.  My lessons are a juggling act most days and flashing the camera doesn't always happen... if you know what I mean.  So... with that all said... no promises here but I will do my best to get it done as (and I'm being selfish here) I love personally going back to see my former children and their lovely work.  So, you see, I do it for me but hopefully someone else can find the joy in watching these little ones grow (or for ideas).

So on with what we've done our "First Week in September"...

You can download my lesson plan for the week here.


The week prior to our actual preschool starting we made our "Know The School Rules" book.  Along with these books we learned the rules using hand motions and each day during our circle time routine we say the rules.  Below are pictures of the pages of our rule books.







And the video of my preschoolers saying the rules

Recognizing our names
A big beginning of the year activity is recognizing their names.  We spend a lot of time on this and also recognizing the letters in their name.  Here are some of the activities we did.
We used the dot markers to fill in our names

We used bottle cap letters to spell our names on a template.

We made fancy stars with our name in them.

We find and spell our name on a school bus picture daily.

School Bus
Years ago I ordered High Reach and got a school bus puppet with the order.  We use it all the time in September with this particular cycle of curriculum.

They love when I chant...
The school bus is coming, get on board.... beep, beep!
The school bus is coming, get on board.... beep, beep!
(the bus stops at a child's chair or spot and then I say)
Welcome to (child's name), Get on board!
(once we've collected everyone then the bus stops at school to let everyone off the bus.)

We made a school bus puppet to drive around.



I am Special
We talked about how special they each are and made a mirror to go along with the activity we did.


Birthdays
Our school bus puppet was having a birthday, so we talked about birthdays.  We did a maze to get the birthday card to the birthday house.

And we talked about balloon safety and colored the balloons in this picture.


That about concludes our week.  We took it easy our first week back.  Hope you enjoyed reading about our week.
Best,
Rose