Utopia Preschool

This week the children had the opportunity to work with a variety of seeds. They learned the name of different seeds and that they differ in shape, size and, color. At the same time they practiced  counting and sorting seeds by color. They had so much fun working together as a group.

Today was Teacher Nicole's last day and we all wanted to show our love and appreciation for her. The children were giving her lots of love and could't wait to share special snacks with her. Before snack we sang Nicole's favorite song, the "Itsy Bitsy Spider". We took lots of pictures for her to keep as memories. The children made a sign and also signed a picture for her as a gift. Although we are very sad to see Teacher Nicole leave, we wish her the best of luck on her new adventure!! Utopia will miss you!

This afternoon, the children were excited to plant a variety of seeds. Jillian and Aria were eager to help gather the seeds, soil, container and shovels! They worked collaboratively, scooping soil into the container and patiently waited to place the seeds inside. We then took turns spraying the seeds and soil 10 times each.

This afternoon, Teacher Denia helped the children set up a new game in the gym using the colored floor spots! Calleen, Jillian, Sloka, Julianna, and Amir had lots fun pretending to be frogs and jumped from lilypad (colored spot) to lilypad. Some children chose to hop like a frog by keeping two feet together, whereas others decided to leap around by alternating feet! This will definitely be an exciting new game for children to continue to play and build on over time!

This morning Mairead, Jackson, and Mathias decided to work on their boats they started to build last week. Mairead and Jackson explored with mixing glue and glitter as a decorative addition to their boats. Mathias joined them by repairing his boat with tape! The children were so excited to share their ideas and make additions to the boats!

This morning, our students joined the kindergartners and worked on a spring activity! Mrs. Tyaglo, the kindergarten teacher explained they would be coloring a chick and cutting it out. The preschoolers did an amazing job sitting and listening to the instructions. They then joined the kindergartners at the tables to begin working on their craft. Gia took the initiative to introduce herself and her classmates to the group of kindergartners she sat with. The children worked collaboratively, sharing scissors and markers, as well as helping one another when challenges arose. This activity provided our preschoolers many learning opportunities, such as attention maintenance, fine motor development, social emotional skills and a chance to learn from the kindergartners!

The children are learning about gardens. Today they practiced cutting, drawing, writing  and created a collage. In addition, they were using the sense of touch by manipulating soil and seeds and later planting.

While outside the children have been playing with the yellow tunnel. Julianna and Cassidy started playing in the tunnel. They pretended to be bees buzzing around their beehive. Isabella and Amir soon joined in pretending to be bees. Soon Amir and Isabella wanted to seprate the tunnel into two. This brought over a few more interested friends. Everyone took turns crawling through the tunnel!

Today the children were busy painting with shaving cream, creating structures at the art table, and building in the block area. When it was time to clean, the children decided to team up and work together as they wiped down the table covered in shaving cream and swept the floor! While they cleaned, they chanted "Teamwork! Teamwork!" It was exciting to see the children so enthusiastic about helping each other out....especially during clean up time!