Utopia Preschool

Today we celebrated Father's Day! Dads and kids went into the Kindergarten room, had breakfast, made crowns, and took photos at our photobooth. The kids made a sign and paper chains for decoration! Teacher Linette brought in her fujifilm camera with instant fim to take home for souveniers. Thank you to all the fathers and father figures who help our children grow.   Thomas' big brother Lucca read a story at Group Time! The children were so attentive and excited to see a new friend sharing with us at school! Awesome reading Lucca!

The children love listening to music and dancing during outside time. We call it a dance party! Today, Russell and Thomas were showing Aoife and Calleen their best dance moves. Aoife suggested we play freeze dance and if you move after the music stops you're out! The children loved hearing familiar songs from some of their favorite movies. They listened to the beat of the music and put their whole body into it! Dancing is a great way to get our bodies moving and a fun way to work on our gross motor skills.

As the end of the year approaches, the children are  busy working on GRADUATION activities. Today they decorated name tags with drawings, words and stickers! Mairead and Sergio shared a little about their drawings and gave one another suggestions about what to draw next. Other children worked on making paper chains to decorate the gym for our graduation. Creating paper chains requires a lot of persistence, hand eye coordination, and strong fine motor skills. We can't wait to celebrate the end of our 2016-2017 school year with everyone!!

Ever wondered what teachers do with an empty classroom on a Friday? Keep busy of course! We started off with a short breakfast celebrating the upcoming arrival of Rachelle's new baby. Then we spent the rest of the day cleaning and organizing the classroom, and preparing for graduation. Today was also the first day for our new teacher, Jamie! She helped us prepare the graduates' portfolios and learned the ropes of our classroom from our amazing teaching team. We are all so excited for graduation, but can't believe the end of the school year has come so soon!

In our morning group, Sean Matthew's mom Michelle read a book about animals & yoga poses. The children were excited when they got a chance to do poses along with the story.

The children love to make paper chains when we need them for decorations. It's a great way to get them involved in our decorations for events. They also like to work on their patterns while making them. With the Father's Day breakfast coming up, we needed more paper chains! Julianna and Cassidy saw Amaris working on the paper chains. They both sat down with Amaris to help her make them. Cassidy helped cut the tape, while Julianna began to make the paper chain. She held up her chain and said, "Look Teacher! I made a pattern!"

Our soon to be STM kindergartners were invited to spend some time with teacher Tyaglo and kindergarten mentor, Angelina! Our students were given an opportunity to ask Angelina some questions about what it is like to be in kindergarten. One of the most popular questions was, "What do you do there?" Angelina shared that they get to read stories, watch movies, draw and color and play at the big playground! Once in the kindergarten classroom, our students sat and listened to teacher, Tyaglo read, Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman and answered a few questions about the story. They then listened to instructions for a small activity, where they got to trace the alphabet! Opportunities like these help our students better prepare for their transition to kindergarten. 

Today we had a special visit from a family who previously attended Utopia! The children were so excited to visit with their old friends and work on a project with them as well! First they read the book " Larry Gets Lost In San Francisco". Then they created their own buildings and landmarks at the writing table by using magazine clippings, paper, scissors, and glue! Some children made zoo's, libraries, and even their own homes!

Today, Mathias and another child worked on a huge track in the Block Area! Mathias added a ramp to the side of track to jump over the cars passing by. The track was so big that other children in our group wanted to join too! Mathias reminded the other children who joined in about rules of the track: keep the cars in your hand and no crashing.