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!

Fall

My favorite season for preschool because there's just so much fun stuff to do! Here's what we did:

Dramatic Play

Apple Orchard/Leaf Raking







Fellow teachers: I've tried many different ways to "hang" the apples each year. Each way has its pros and cons. This year I just did balls of masking tape and it worked great for a day, but each day after pulling and placing the balls so many times, I had to replace it, which wasn't a big deal. If you've tried this in your dramatic play areas at school, let me know how you did it! This idea is one of my most pinned, so I'd love to see how it's working for you.

Then added the Pumpkin Patch after 2 days. Also, foud the cutest banners and apple bags at Target that I had to have!! Perfect for this center. I love fall!





Blocks 

Wood train sets


They loved it, so it was an option all week, along with the 4 seasons puzzle and usual blocks.

Art

Tissue paper squares and liquid starch painting


Spin art, love how these turned out! It's a popular and busy center.

We used the art table to make our homemade applesauce for snack, then got out dot paints.

Small Manipulatives

Pumpkin shape-matching mats (perfect review of last week) from Totschooling


Fall Pattern Cards


Lacing pumpkins and Flat marbles and pumpkin and apple dot pages from Totschooling


Magnet Board was Ten Little Apples Up on Top. I LOVE that this board made them curious about the book, because I got called here over and over to read this, and it either was followed by asking me to read something else, or them recreating the book on the magnet board.


Reading


Writing

Fall stickers


Fall/Halloween stencils

Texture rubbing plates


Snack

Day 1, we tasted red, yellow, and green apples, colored our favorite to hang in the tree, and graphed our results. (picture below in large group section)

Day 2, we had grape juice and grape jelly made from our own backyard grapes, and learned how they're juiced.

Day 3, we made and ate our own applesauce.

Outside

The sensory table was an "apple pie" mix with oatmeal,  cinnamon sticks, and toy apples/pom poms, plus cups and scoops. It was fun to watch them make muffins and cookies.


After 2 days, I changed it to this sensory fall mix (thanks Dollar Tree), that we also used the next week, so they had 3 days with this one. They loved sifting through for "treasures" (anything plastic and/or shiny).

Large Group

We learned the songs, Round and Round the Seasons Go, Leaves are Falling (they love this one because they get to throw leaves), and 5 Little Pumpkins.

Our word was deciduous, which is my favorite word to teach all year, and the one they often remember the best because it's so fun to say. Each day we watched a different Sesame Street video to help us learn the word.

The deciduous rap

Deciduous word on the street

Day 1, we played a leaf rhyming game and matched rhyming words. Raking Rhymes from Kelly's Kindergarten.

Day 2, we read about pumpkins, counted pumpkins, and decorated little pumpkins.

Day 3, we took a fall walk to find deciduous trees and signs of fall.

Small Group

My group made karo syrup leaves for our tree, and the others made leaves with the leaf rubbing plates.


My group counted apples with my apple counting mats (we're going to be practicing this A LOT), the other group colored an apple life cycle page. Counting mats are from Kelly's Kindergarten.

I can't tell you the guilt I feel when I send home what looks like a worksheet, but there's always a reason for anything I do. I honestly didn't care if they learned the apple life cycle by coloring it, because I doubt they did (worksheets don't work), but this group is still learning to work together without the teacher, and other tasks I've tried have required my interventions, leaving my group waiting. I value the small group learning time to help teach hard concepts on an individualized level, so I need the other group to be able to work alone. And the coloring went great!

Colors

I think I say every theme is a favorite theme, but I really do love teaching about colors! My main objective is to teach them the 3 primary colors, and then which ones to mix to make secondary colors. We mix colors over and over, then talk about it all year, so I hope it sticks!

Dramatic Play

Paint Store










This was their first time with the cash register and they loved it, so of course there were tears and sharing issues too. One rule I have with sharing is that "part of sharing is waiting." The kids often accuse a child of not sharing, really meaning that the other child won't hand over what they want when they want it, which isn't a realistic expectation. So I remind them that part of sharing is waiting for our friend to finish, and I help them ask their friend, "can I use that when you're done?" After they've asked, I encourage them to find something else to do while they wait, and I also remind the friend with the sought-after toy, that someone is waiting for a turn and to let them know when they're done. I also reminded them it would be out for 4 days, so there'd be plenty of times for turns. Sure enough, by day 3, there was no more fighting over it because it wasn't new anymore.

The kids loved being the store employees and the customers. The customers, especially, had a fun time "painting" every surface of the preschool with their paint cans and brushes. There was a lot of great social play, conversation, and problem solving. They also learned to clean up after themselves.


Blocks

Mega Blocks


Waffle Blocks


Duplo Legos for 2 days

Art

Easel painting with primary colors


Dot markers


White slime and markers (I make my slime thick enough that they can color it-and we use my dried up markers bin, since they won't color on paper, but will color on slime, and they can't ruin dried up markers) They can also choose to play with the slime if they don't want to color, or as they color it.
     




Glue and jello shakers. It's a messy art and requires me nearby to help dump the used powder back into jars, but it's a preschool favorite, and makes the room smell so good!


Small Manipulatives

Color folder games




Paint chip clothespin matching, clothespin horse color matching






Colored links


Pom poms and tweezers with rainbow cards, and pom poms with tubes to drop them through
     
Writing Table

Colored pens

Color word stickers


Rainbow scratch paper


ABC Stickers

Snack

We had rainbow goldfish crackers, and sorted the by color before we ate them. I forget how little they are, but after being shown what to do, they could do it!

We made painted toast. We used colored milk, and brush a little onto white bread with a pastry brush to color it (too much will be soggy). We used primary colors so they could see the results of mixing them.


We made smoothies with every color of the rainbow. I had the frozen fruit divided in bowls by color, and they each got to add a piece of each one, then we blended it to see what color it made in the end. We used strawberries, a banana, green grapes, peaches, blueberries, and purple grapes. I was surprised how few kids would even taste it. I ask them to at least try everything, then only eat it if they like it. Most at least tried it, but some wouldn't even do that.

Outside

The sensory table had white containers, then bottles of water in primary colors. They could mix the colors in the white bowls and see what colors they made, then dump them out and try again. I refilled them each day, so they got plenty of turns to mix the colored water.
     

We did sheet spraying, with spray bottles of colored water. It's a great small motor skill because it uses their little muscles to spray, plus they're mixing colors again.


Large Group

Our new songs this week are Scat the Cat, Mitch the Fish, Colors in a Pot, and Sing a Rainbow

Our word of the week is Primary Colors

Day 1, we watched this great Primary Color video from Sesame Street.

We read White Rabbit's Color Book. Then we set up our experiment. We placed color water in 6 clear jars, 2 for each primary color. Then we paired them together with a paper towel leading out of each one, into another jar. They were paired to mix the primary colors to mix. So, red and blue, red and yellow, and yellow and blue.
We also put the primary color cards on the wall.


Day 2, we checked our paper towels and found that the colored water spread up the paper towels and dripped into the empty jars, mixing the primary colors to make the secondary colors.
We read Mouse Paint. We added the secondary color cards to the wall like a color wheel. We used a color dice to play a color sorting game.


Day 3, we read Freight Train and worked on sorting by sorting buttons and bugs by the colors of the train cars.


Day 4, we read Elmer the Elephant, then made an Elmer picture. They had an elephant picture, and painted on tissue paper colored squares by using liquid starch. They turned out so great!

Small Group

Week 1, my group worked with me making a play doh color wheel. We mixed the primary colors together. It's hard work at this age, and I had kids telling me they couldn't do it, but I remind them they can if they try, and we worked those colors together until they mixed.
The other group played with color puzzles.


Week 2, my group mixed primary paint colors to make secondary colors.
The other group colored in their journals about their favorite colors, I added their words as they finished coloring.