Utopia Preschool

Exploring the Mail February 3-February 20, 2015 With the interest in mail growing, we introduced a mailbox brought in by Michelle for the children to examine and actively use in the classroom to send mail to friends and family.  They passed the mailbox around and commented on what they noticed, as well as talked about what their own mailboxes look like.  The children were provided with envelopes to start learning how to address them, and learned about stamps.  They all know now where to write the name of who they are sending their mail to, where to write their own names, and where to place the stamp.  They became very confident in writing their names and started to learn to write names of family members and friends.  A lot of the children helped their friends to spell their names on their envelopes by spelling out each letter.  This was helpful in developing their social, and fine motor skills.  We are seeing great improvement in how the childr...

            Blueprints & More!            February 27, 2015 Now that the children have familiarized themselves with a variety of tools, materials, and their purposes, we have started to put the tools to use! Throughout the first stage of our tool project, children were encouraged to explore with a variety of tools and materials including hammers, screwdrivers, a power drill, screws, and nails. After reading the book “I Love TOOLS” by Philemon Sturges (which introduces tools and demonstrates a birdhouse being built) many children decided they too wanted to build a birdhouse. I wanted to support the growing interest of building a specific structure, such as a birdhouse, but also wanted to encourage the children to develop a plan before building, so I introduced blueprints! We first observed simple blueprints of birdhouses and stairs (this also seemed to be an interest to some children) and discussed what we noticed...