Utopia Preschool

Now that we are a few weeks into the school, the children are beginning to make connections with one another. One skill we are working on is taking turns and sharing with one another. The children are able to use social skills and build language when they ask to play and come up with a shared idea or goal that they must work on together. The feeling of accomplishment and pride when they finish building is such a great moment to capture! 

The children have inspired each other with creative ideas in the Building Area with structures such as castles, bridges, car garages, trains and homes.  Working together requires the children to cooperate & helps strengthens their skills in listening, communication, problem solving and self-esteem.

It is a brand new school year at Utopia Preschool! The teachers are hard at work preparing the classroom and learning spaces for the children to use. We also had our CPR and First Aid training to make sure that we are prepared to take care of one another! We're excited to welcome everyone back to school. 

 This week, the Sea Otter children turned the dramatic play area into a birthday party! The children have been talking about birthday parties and what a birthday is. We asked the children some questions about birthdays to see what they already knew. We also encouraged them to create their own decorations to hang in the dramatic play area. This supports their language skills, visual art skills and fine motor skills. 

Both classrooms have shown a sudden interest in pirates! We dedicated a whole day during Spirit Week to these roudy beings. The children wore their best pirate outfits, practiced their accents, and sailed on imaginary pirate ships with their crew! 

 Everyday during group time, we have been using these awesome daily affirmation cards and empowerment cards that Teacher Linette got for the sea otter classroom. They are positive statements and phrases for the children to say as well as different body movements. This helps build their self esteem and confidence, while supporting their language development. These are some of the cards we have done this week! The children truly enjoy doing these everyday! 

The children have been working on their Mother's Day gifts and talking about all the wonderful things they love about their mom, what makes mom happy, what she's good at & what they see or do with them everyday.  It's such a joy to see the children’s excitement when they share stories about their mom and recognize the important role you play in their lives. 

The children in the Sea Turtle Classroom have been learning about all things that FLY! This week, we have turned our attention towards airplanes, airports, and places. Teacher Andrea brought in a special guest expert, KJ, who is a flight attendant and currently studying to be a pilot! KJ so kindly showed us videos and photos of the airplane she works on, and answered all of the children's curious questions.  Thank you so much KJ for Zoom-calling our classroom today.  Questions for KJ: - Does the plane have an engine? (Hudson) - How many passengers fit on the plane? (Hudson) - What kind of doors does the airplane have? Not like house doors. (Jelani) - Do the pilots take turns flying the plane? Can they sleep there? (Hudson) - What if both the pilots need a break? (Kaidha) - Where do you fly? Do you just go to the airport? (Jelani) - Can you eat on the plane? What do the pilots eat? (Elias) - Do you fly to Disneyland? (Liana) - Do you hang out with passengers? (Hudson) - Do you ...

 The Children of the Sea Otter class have been working together to create a collaborative piece of art. The children used recycle materials, paint, pom poms and feathers to create their art. Teacher Linette’s group worked together to build “Disneyland” while Teacher Cassie’s group created a little tree house. By encouraging the children to work together, they learn to listen to each others’ ideas and build off one another. The children took this idea outside as well when they decorated the play house with streamers. They said it was a “spooky, haunted house!”  Tree house  Disneyland “Ta-da” haunted house is ready!  Disneyland Creating the haunted house  Tree house 

We have been working with clay for the past month! The children are learning to manipulate the clay using hands and fingers, which helps strengthen their fine motor development. Clay also allows them to work on a particular idea for many days at a time starting with touching, sculpting, letting it dry, then painting and naming their final piece!  Enjoy some of the children's finished Clay Creations! "O Cereal" By Liana "Rainbow" By Kaidha "Big Rock and Smoosh Rock" by Elias "Snowman Happy Face Pancake Train" By Hudson "Bowser's Head. He takes off his head and throws it!" By Jelani

This week we read “Another” by Christian Robinson. This is a wordless picture book about a little girl who enters another world and finds that, in this world the children all have someone that looks just like them. Since there are no words, we had the children take turns narrating each page. We wrote down everything they said and then read it back to them. This activity supports an interest in literacy and story telling.