Welcome Back to School!

And just like that, another school year is underway! If you'll check out the above tabs, I updated them over the summer with new pictures that show off the new (from a year ago) paint job in the preschools, plus the newly done backyard! The play house soffit and fascia were completed Labor Day weekend, so I still need to add that update. I also added a post that's been a work in progress over the last year, that gives details of our centers and how and why I teach the way I do.

As for the school year, we kicked it off 2 weeks ago and here's all the fun stuff we did:

Dramatic Play: School!
This is the first time I've done this DP, and they really liked it. They loved using the pointers and having me be a student. Their teaching style consisted of pointing to things and asking "what's that?" and praising me when I got it right. Great start!
 
We mixed it up week 2 with the white board side and markers.


Blocks:

Mega Blocks




Magna-tiles
I forgot a pic, but they could play with these all day, every day, and never complain.

Floor puzzle

Car rug




Art

Water colors. No pic here.

Collages








Play Dough















Cardboard Easels
I've always hated that I don't have room for painting at an easel daily, but this was a great alternative and they really liked it. They loved having their own paint trays and space to paint, and it's just more fun when it's on an easel! I added water for brush cleaning and regret that, some paint got very runny! And they love mixing colors, so who needs to rinse brushes anyway?



Small Manipulatives

Lacing cards


















ABC lacing beads


Puzzles


Bristle Blocks (forgot a pic)

Also: pattern blocks on the magnet board and ABC matching cards in the pocket charts



Writing Table
I always have paper, markers, crayons, pencils, scissors, and glue. These are the things I added each day:

Colored pens

Color change markers (they loved these! They work great, and bonus, are from the dollar store)

School chalkboard paper

School white boards with dry erase pencils (PS, love these. They don't stain like markers)


Outside

Sensory table had wheat and scooping materials


We added letter tiles the second week. They loved finding their letters and spelling their names.




We also had out balls, and just enjoyed the new grass in the backyard! The swing set and sandbox are always busy, with the grape vines ("grape forest" as they call it) a close second. And they love the play house too. Plus, they've discovered our raspberry patch and love snacking on those and the grapes while we're outside.

Snack
We had some typical crackers and juice days. Our favorite day that's already being requested again, was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They sing this song all the time now!

Large Group

We focused these 2 weeks on learning and reviewing rules, and learning new songs. All of our books were school-related. The songs weren't, but are just for fun. We learned a new one each day, so now we have more songs to add to our rotation from last year. We learned Down by the Bay, Peanut Butter and Jelly, The Music Cantor, and a new weather song. We also kept last year's songs, 5 Little Monkeys,  Hello Neighbor Song, and Tootie Ta in the rotation for singing time the last 15 minutes each day. The youtube links are not what we use in class, most of these are from my Raffi and Dr Jean collections, but they let you hear and know the song :)

Small Group

We drew self-portraits, and wrote in our journals about our favorite thing to do at school.

We also made leaf prints for our summer tree, and practiced tracing our names.