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.

Welcome to School!

We had a great first weeks back with this brand new group of kids! We are spending a lot of time learning the routines of school, and they're catching on quickly. Here are some of the things we did these past 2 weeks.

Dramatic Play

School




They really enjoyed being the teachers and having me be a student. I'd often have 3-4 kids teaching me at the same time, since they all ran over when one started playing teacher. It took a little more encouragement to get them to take turns being the teacher and student, and teaching each other, because I couldn't always be playing in this center. They had a lot of fun.

Blocks

The wood blocks are new this year, and are always on the shelf and available for building and playing. There were some other puzzles and blocks on the rotating shelf too. Then each day, I put one thing out as an invitation to play.





Wood blocks


Cars and road 2 days

Floor puzzle


Art

This week was like an introduction to fun things we do at art, and to learn how to do them and take care of our supplies. They learned about wearing smocks, where to put pictures to dry (and also the trust that they get them the next time they come to school-this is hard for some kids who want to take it home immediately), and how to properly use our supplies. So art was pretty basic this week.

Painting with primary colors

Gluing


Play doh with rollers and ABC stamps


Water Colors

Small Manipulatives

ABC lacing beads


Bristle Blocks

Number Pegs


Lacing Cards


The magnet board has ABC magnets they can place in ABC order


Writing Table

This area always has paper, markers, pencils, crayons, scissors and glue sticks. It will also have extra items in the side containers by the paper later, like stencils or stickers. Then, each day, I add something extra for them to use. This group of kids loves cutting and are often over here cutting and cutting! They're learning to clean up after themselves, how to hold scissors, and how to use glue sticks (they like coloring with the glue, so we've been working on coloring with the coloring supplies, and gluing things together with the glue). Also, we repeat that scissors only cut paper. And we'll keep repeating that until they know it!

School-themed paper

Colored pens

School stickers

Twistable crayons

Alphabet Center is on the wall for them to explore. Right now, it just has letters for them to put in the matching letter pocket.



Reading Center

Our reading center got a little face lift with these great new pillows from Oriental Trading! They have made it such a cozy corner to look through our theme books!



Outside

Our sensory table had water with balls and scoops.

Large Group

Our new song we sang each day was Hello Neighbor. It's a fun one to get up and moving and meet new kids.

Our word of the week is Learn, and each day we learned a new name by doing a name cheer. As this friend stands in the front, we give a cheer for each letter in their name, and then their whole name. It's written on a card, then we also spell it as we cheer and add each letter. We'll do this over the next month until we've done each name.

Day 1, we read Backpack Bear Learns the Rules and talked about those rules and our rules as we read the book. Then we went to the hall to measure and mark how tall they each are now.

Day 2, we read Froggy Goes to School, then hopped like a frog all around the room and learned a few rules in each area. (example, paint stays on the art table, it's ok to spill on the art rug, scissors only cut paper, clean up after you leave, don't knock over someone else's block tower, don't throw blocks, etc.)
Their attention span is limited, so it was 1-2 rules per area, then hopping to the next one. Many rules will be learned as we go.

Day 3, we read David Goes to School and practiced our inside and outside voices.

Day 4, we read How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? and played I Spy to name the different areas of the classroom.

Small Group

This year, I'm having half of the class work with me in small group, while the other half does a simple activity on their own. These first 2 weeks, we swapped the same day, the next weeks, we'll do one half on one day, then switch the second day.

Day 1, they drew their self-portraits while I took a 1st day of school picture of each child.
Day 2, we skipped to have extra show and tell time.
Day 3, my group colored while I wrote about their favorite part of preschool so far in their journals. The other group played with my bear math manipulatives.
Day 4, my group made handprint leaves for our summer tree, while the other group played with my small people math manipulatives.

(side note, having them play with the math manipulatives is purposeful, because the kids always want to play with them. That makes things tricky when I'm trying to teach them to count, sort, or make patterns, because they just want to play with this new thing. So, they get to play with them several times before I start using them for math, so the new-ness wears off a bit).


Singing Time

I tried something different this year. Usually, I just taught 1-2 songs at a time, and those are what we rotate through and choose from. This year, we started with several song cards on the wall, and I started choosing names to choose a song from the first day, so they're helping choose what songs they want to learn, besides the themed songs I add throughout this year. We were introduced to lots of songs already including 5 Little Monkeys, Tootie Ta, Apples and Bananas, Tiny Tim, There was an Old Lady, 5 Little Ducks, 5 Green and Speckled Frogs, Miss Mary Mack. They're learning about taking turns, as I pull out names on popsicle sticks to choose songs, or help with a song, and they learn to be ok while someone else gets a turn. That's a hard thing at 3 years old, but they're doing it!