Utopia Preschool

When the team works together to overcome a challenge everyone in the group wins and all the children have a positive experience. In the gym, Elliott’s dad visited and played basketball with a small group of children while others built LEGO structures and cheered each other during Limbo during small group time.

Teacher Linette, Alanna and Daryn were busy building a volcano in the sandbox. Then they began to dig in the corner in the sandbox. Alanna and Teacher Linette noticed roots trying to grow in the sandbox. This led to a group of kids digging to the bottom of the sandbox pulling up the roots. Once a few more kids came out, they noticed the really big hole and decided to try and dig a tunnel! The sandbox encourages children to use fine motor skills, practice sharing the materials and working on their conversation skills with each other. 

The past two weeks we have been observing different plants and drawing them at the writing table using various materials. This week the children are using charcoal pencils for the first time to draw what they see at the table.

Hudson’s mom, Ruth, came to visit us today! She read a book at Group Time about the Chinese Zodiac signs for Lunar New Year. The story is about the animals participating in a race. There’s only room for 12 winners. Mouse/rat is the winner, the first of the zodiac signs. Poor cat is last and the 13th, so cat doesn’t get to be a zodiac sign and that’s why cat chases mouse, because mouse tricked cat and won. Then the children made zodiac wheels to take home. The children also learned about what year they were born in and what animal it was. Thank you Ruth for a fun activity and story time!

The children were engaged in so many activities inside and outside the classroom. At the art table the children used water, colored square shaped tissues and watched the dye transfer onto their paper. In the science area, they noticed we added new books, started drawing pictures of volcanoes and shared stories about them. Outside, Teacher Linette brought out a cantaloupe and with the help of Emily and Irene sliced the fruit and fed the worms in our worm farm.

Although the children can’t go outside on rainy days, they always look forward to having some extra time in the gym! Today the children had lots of fun playing basketball, soccer, drawing, building with legos and completing puzzles.

During small group, Teacher Linette played a sound guessing game. The children had to listen to the sounds and the guess what that sound was. The children practiced being very quiet and raised a quiet hand when they wanted a turn to guess. Some sounds were tricky! When they heard the sound of a plate breaking, they guessed it was glass breaking. Or the sound of a hair dryer kind of sounded like a vacuum. Very close guesses!

Now that we are halfway through the year, the children are able to work together to play familiar games and activities all on their own. Today Kazu and Elliott asked to take out the Little Mouse, Little Mouse Game. They attracted a group of children to join them and were able to take turns and play the game all without a teacher to facilitate.

The children have shown interest in gardening! Outside they have filled jars and bins with soil, sand, flowers, rocks and grass! This week our sensory bin is filled with pinto beans, artificial flowers, tin pails and gardening tools to further extend the children’s exploration. This sensory bin also encourages pretend play!  Aiden: I need water to help my grass grow  Hudson: I need to cover my plant with soil and water it to make a big flower!

This week we introduced a new mixture of cornstarch and baby oil! As the children mixed the two together, they started to recognize how the new texture felt. Some children described it as “squishy”, “soft” and “smooth”.

The children were filled with lots of excitement working, building, and playing with friends. In the morning, a small group made pasta necklaces. A large group of children collaborated and built an elaborate ramp for golf balls in the Block area and at the Science area, Alanna and Emily used the flashlights to create dinosaur dancing parade.

We are back at school after Winter Break! We spent our Circle Time creating a group drawing together. Each child took a turn adding something to the paper then passed the markers to another friend. This supported turn taking, fine motor development, and visual art! Every child added something new on their turn.