Vroom Vroom!

Last week we put away space and switched over to the wonderful world of transportation!  The students loved this little song we sang every day.  I encourage you to sing it at home as well:

Take a Trip

(sung to the tune "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star")

Take a bus or take a train, 

Take a boat or take a plane, 

Take a taxi, take a car, 

Maybe near or maybe far, 

Take a spaceship to the moon, 

But be sure to come back soon!

Painting With Cars

We strengthened our fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination through this fun sensory activity last week!  We are using our masterpieces to create new placemats.

Mat Man

We brought our friend Mat Man back again last week.  This time, we created him on the tables using shave cream.  Mat man is a body awareness program that helps to establish those oh-so important pre-printing skills.

Games, Games, Games

We had fun playing games on Wednesday and Thursday.  Games are a fantastic way to develop social skills such as turn taking, waiting, and learning to be a good sport. 

Apple Cars

 

Apple cars were a major hit during snack time for our students!  Before the students could build their car they had to taste test and choose between three different wheel options - bananas, grapes, or Cheerios.  

More Transportation Fun

Building a car wash

Click here to see the rest of the pictures from our week.

Coming Up!

Next week we will continue our transportation journey.  Important upcoming dates:

• February 6 - Early Dismissal
• February 7-8 - No School, Teachers' Convention
• February 14 - Valentine's Day party - all students welcome
• February 18 - No School, Family Day

Space Week

We had another fun filled week of space.  Our week was jam packed with all sorts of out of this world activities.  Each activity we do in Pre-Kindergarten works on developing specific skills. Gross and fine motor, pre-reading and pre-printing, as well as pre-science and math are some of the skills we are learning through our play, arts and crafts, and fun activities.

5 Little Astronauts

Number recognition while participating in the action song: 5 Little Astronauts

Repetition of rhyming poems helps to develop pre-reading skills. The Pre-K students did great helping with the rhyme and recognizing their number when it was their turn.

Blowing Rockets

Students blasted off these air-powered mini rockets using a straw launcher. It was a lesson in cause and effect as well as developing important fine-motor and pre-printing skills. Pre-K students coloured their rockets before adding the straw launcher. It was so exciting to see them zoom into the air!

3-2-1 Blow!

Galaxy Jars

Glitter jars are an awesome calming tool. Pre-K students enjoyed adding stars and choosing a glitter colour for these sparkly galactic bottles. We practiced using them as a calming activity. Students loved shaking the jars and watching the glitter slowly settle on the bottom. 

Edible Constellations

Making a special snack was a hit this week! We looked at pictures of stars and saw how stars can make pictures in the sky called constellations. We made our own with pretzels and mini-marshmallows by matching diagrams of real constellations. It was so fun to build and eat this tasty treat!



See more pics of our Space adventures here. 

Up Coming!

Next Week: Buckle Up, it's Transportation Week! 

January 22  Pre-K and Kindergarten Open House 5-7 pm
January 23  Registration opens for Pre-K and Kindergarten
February 6  Early Dismissal
February 7-8  No School, Teachers' Convention
February 14  Valentine's Day party-all students welcome
February 18  No School, Family Day

Zoom Zoom Zoom!

This week Pre-K was out-of-this-world! We started the new year off with a blast off into space! Check out our Rocketship!

We had fun painting our space ship and making it just perfect.

Sorry about the paint covered clothes, skin, and hair - sometimes there is a small price to pay for having so much fun!!

Name Rocketships

We worked on sequencing the letters of our name this week while building name rocket ships.  The students loved this simple craft that also strengthens fine motor skills.

Painting Suns

We used plastic wrap to create our own mini suns this week!

Snowsuit lesson

Dressing independently can be a tricky thing for little people.  This week we worked with our students on the correct sequence for putting on your outdoor clothes.  Since we are trying to teach our students to do their own zippers and put on their own boots, we are encouraging them to put their mittens in their pockets so that they can put them on last thing after they have finished all of their other jobs.  It can be tricky to get your boots on or do your zipper up if you put your mittens on first!

Scissor skills

We worked on our scissor skills this week. We began the week with cutting straws and licorice, and ended by cutting out paper circles to make our suns.  We used this fun little poem to help remind the students about the correct cutting technique:

Fingers in the bottom,

thumb on top.

Open the mouth,

and go chop, chop, chop!

This picture demonstrates the placement of fingers that we are encouraging our students to use.

More Space Sensory Fun!

From digging space stars out of hair gel to playing in the black bean night sky,
our space sensory experiences have been out of this world!

Click here to see the rest of the pictures from our week.

Coming Up!

Space continued. We are collecting empty plastic water bottle with lids for our Galaxy Glitter bottle activity. If you have any at home please send them in Monday or Tuesday, thanks!

• February 6 - Early Dismissal
• February 7-8 - Teachers' Convention
• February 14 - Valentines party - all students are welcome to attend!
• February 18 - Family Day, no school