Friendship and Valentines

Dramatic Play

We had a Post Office for sending valentines and letters to our friends. The kids loved this dramatic play center! I had to explain a lot about what a Post Office is, since many haven't been or don't remember it, and they caught on quickly. They loved working there and could use the phone, computer, or cash register, plus they got to stamp the letters coming through. They also had to collect the mail from the big mailbox and deliver it to mailboxes around the room.
They loved stuffing envelopes and adding stamps and sending them in the mail. They really enjoyed this center!

I added Valentines to the shelf on week 2:






  



Blocks

Puppet theater




Dinosaurs with the book, Mine-o-saur

Valentine beanbag toss game


Art

Paint with colored sweetened condensed milk



Foamie ABCs and glue


Valentines boxes

Rolling and stamping out sugar cookies for snack, then playing with pink play dough.

Small Manipulatives

Bears and pattern cards


People floor puzzle and lacing beads


Valentines flat marble pages


Small 12-piece puzzles

Magnet board:

Pattern block puzzles


Valentine 1-10 puzzle


Reading


Writing

Colored pencils

Valentine stickers

Valentines

Large Group

We learned the word cooperate this week. They caught on quickly and used it constantly throughout the day to point out whenever they were or weren't cooperating.
We learned a song from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, "Before you take something away, stop and ask if it's ok." We watched a clip the first day, then listened to and sang the song the other 3 days. We also sang Daniel Tiger's song about taking turns "you can take a turn, and then I'll get it back."

Here are some great topical friendship episodes or clips. The one we watched isn't on YouTube yet, but we watched it off the PBS Kids app.

This was a snowy week so we had to get fully dressed in snow clothes to head outside. They were totally bummed about only watching short clips of Daniel Tiger, so I actually used it to help us get ready to go. I turned it on, then would help 2 kids at a time get their snow clothes on while the others watched. We were able to get all 8 dressed and ready to go without chaos, in a 13 minute video clip! I rarely have any screen time at school, but was relieved to find episodes about friendship that tied into the theme, and helped us to get ready to go outside with less chaos than usual.

Day 1, we watched a Sesame Street clip to learn about cooperation. Then we read I Can Cooperate. We made patterns with little people. Then I put them with partners, and they had to cooperate to make a pattern together.

Day 2, We read the Mine-o-saur, which is about a dinosaur who takes all the toys, and then has no one left to play with. We role-played sharing. We practiced asking for something we want instead of just taking it away, as well as answering "yes, I'm done" or "I'm not done yet. I'll give it to you when I'm done." We also role played taking turns.

Day 3, we read a book about friendship by Mr. Rogers and they had so many comments and questions about it! Then we played Valentines Bingo.

Day 4, we split into 2 groups. My group sorted and graphed Sweethearts candies. I had a mom volunteer and she helped her group gather valentines that the kids mailed to you. After playing post office all week, they were pretty excited to add a real stamp and have it go to their houses. They all wanted to see what kind of stamp the post office would put on it.


Small Group

Week 1, my group worked on a beginning sounds puzzle, and we practiced taking turns getting pieces to match.
The other group worked on lacing cards.

Week 2, my group extended and made patterns with conversation hearts.
The other group drew their friends in their journals.


Happy Valentines Day! Love, Miss Lisa!

Merry Christmas!

I'm really hating that I tried to cram all this Christmas fun into 2 days instead of 4, but it was still so fun and magical, and that leaves me lots of activities with no repeats for next year!

Dramatic Play

Christmas tree! I only decorated out of reach, so they could finish the bottom half. I want them to know they can touch something they might be told at home that they can't (and I get that, but at preschool, it's theirs, so I want them to feel some ownership).  They could hang up some of my shatter proof ornaments, or had 2 options to make their own.





I also have Christmas masks and hats, plus presents they can open and shut and add things too, and bags and stockings. Their turn to play Santa! It's fun to watch them fill and deliver the gifts to each other.




Their finished tree and ornaments:









Blocks

Christmas Duplos. Aren't they the cutest? I found them last year when my then 3-year-old threw me for a loop and asked for a reindeer toy. He treasures these so I was excited he offered to let the preschoolers play with them.




Magnatiles and jingle bells. It's so fun to play with magnets and metal!


Art

We made waffles for snack, then had these beaded Christmas trees to decorate. It's a great fine motor skill!


Christmas stamps


Small Manipulatives

Christmas puzzles


Beanbag toss. It's obviously more of a large motor skill than the fine-motor skills I usually keep in this area, but an important skill either way!


Fun Christmas magnets


Reading Center

2 stuffed animals dropped by for reading time!



Writing Center

Christmas cards. I could NOT believe how popular this one got! They all attacked it at the same time and were so dang excited about envelopes. And the fact I said they could take them home, but mostly because there was a little mailbox by the tree they could put them in. They used every card I had. I had to refill the center a few times.


Snack

Day 1, we had Christmas tree waffles with blueberry ornaments. A huge hit, inspired by Pinterest!

Day 2, we had hot chocolate and graham crackers.

Large Group

We learned about the word celebrate and sang Jingle Bells with real bells.

Day 1, we read Llama Llama Holiday Drama. Then we played this fun movement game where they got to move their bodies around the room like these Christmas objects or characters. It's from this blog.

Day 2, we read Polar Express and did our small group centers with mom helpers.

Small Group

Day 1, I helped the kids make "name trees" to review the letters in their names.

A mom helper did ornament counting with the other group.

Day 2, my group made candy canes with red and white beads to learn an AB pattern, and practice the letters in their name with letter beads.

Another group with a mom helped practiced their letter names on a Polar Express coloring page. She helped them add puffs of smoke with the letters of their name in the right order.

The other mom helped the kids make bead patterns on bell necklaces.


Also, I hope you enjoy your ornament gift! I was inspired by these on Pinterest, and found supplies at Dollar Tree to make them work. Their pictures were adorable. I just used clear plastic cups, foam snow, and added a character eraser, and a little sequin ribbon to jazz it up. They were so excited to take their pictures when I showed them what it was for. Hope you liked them as much as the kids did! I let them help put them together (besides the hot glue), but they got to watch that part.

Happy Halloween!

Dramatic Play

We kept out the pumpkin patch from last week, but added pumpkin buckets and dress ups! The dress ups were a huge hit and I spent the whole hour helping kids change in and out of every costume. Then they'd "trick or treat" around the room for toys and things.

On Halloween, they came in their own costumes, so it was just the pumpkin patch without costumes.

Blocks

Alien counting puzzle


Sensory Table

We had record low temperatures this week, and since we don't go outside when it's below 20 degrees, I bought the table in! It was our fall mix from last week, with some added Halloween surprises!


Art

Beads and pipe cleaners


Halloween collages


Small Manipulatives

Spider lacing cards


Bug counting puzzles


Witch magnets




Writing

Halloween stamps


Halloween stickers

Snack

Mummy dogs (hot dogs they wrapped with strips of crescent dough)

Pumpkin oranges and banana ghosts for a healthy Halloween snack


Large Group

We sang 5 Little Pumpkins and learned the word "spooky." We talked about spooky things at Halloween just being pretend things, so they could remember something they're afraid of is not real.

Day 1, we read There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat, and retold the story using character headbands.

Day 2, we read The Spookiest Halloween Ever, then did our Halloween centers
(thanks to my parent volunteers for running the centers!)

Center 1: My group read Spiders Spiders Everywhere, which is an awesome math book that covers counting to 10, and position words. Then we made our own counting spider books up to 5, and had to count as we stamped spiders in their books.

Center 2: The kids at the block center used all the blocks to build a gate for the 5 pumpkin buckets. Our dad helper also encouraged them to build the tallest towers that could hold a pumpkin on top-awesome large motor and problem solving skills!

Center 3: My husband played "potion master" and used test tubes to help the kids make baking soda and vinegar potions. They only had primary colors available and had to remember how to mix them to make secondary colors if they wanted them.

Center 4: Our parent helper read 5 Spooky Ghosts and had the kids count the ghosts on each page. Then they did a ghost shape worksheet, where they colored the shapes she told them to find, to help review shape names.

Small Group

We only did this on day 1, since on Halloween we had several small group rotations!

My group played a pumpkin counting game and did a pumpkin dot to dot to practice counting to 10.

The other group made pictures with Halloween stickers.



***Counting! Do you see a common theme of counting here, and during fall week? It's because it's an important skill we're working on now. Rote counting, which is just repeating the numbers in order, and mostly, one-to-one correspondence, which is counting objects or pictures. We are practicing using our fingers and touching each thing that we count, or using our fingers to move the objects we are counting, to keep track of what's already been counted. We are working on numbers 1-10. We are also working on matching those to their corresponding numbers, or the concept of numeracy. This is a lot for 3 year olds! But they can do it, and we'll be practicing lots and lots in many different ways, in every theme, so they are on their way to becoming amazing mathematicians!
Here's an excellent article on the subject: https://www.education.com/magazine/article/preschool-number-recognition-counting-easy/