Utopia Preschool

The children have been experimenting with all kinds of painting with new materials, lately with squeegees and squeeze bottles! This activity encourages the children to follow step by step instructions, strengthen fine motor skills, and experiment with paint and color! 1. Choose your paint colors 2. Dot, dot, not a lot 3. Scrape your paint with a squeegee 4. Watch the colors mix  5. Try it again! 

This week we had the pleasure of a visit from Teddy's parents! Morgan and Steve read us the book  How to Catch a Leprachaun by Adam Wallace. After the story, Teddy and his mom taught us how to Irish Dance! The children learned to hop, step up, and 1234! They followed along so intently and even got to dance to music. The children also got to decorate a shamrock and try some soda bread, baked by Teddy's dad Steve. Thank you for planning such a wonderful visit to our classroom!  After that, we had another unexpected visitor! A tricky leprechaun came to our yard, leaving behind green footprints and glitter tracks everywhere! The children decided to make improvements to the trap, using green clovers and leaves as bait. Maybe we'll catch him next year. 

As adults, it can be difficult to embrace mess - sticky slime, drippy water, and dusty chalk are just some of the "messy" play opportunities we have at school. But one of the best parts of working with young children is seeing how carefree and curious they are about their world, and messy play gives children an opportunity to develop some essential skills for life. We are intentional about ways we use mess in the classroom to support the children's learning and development. Letting them get their hands wet with paint allows them to engage their senses as they mix colors and learn about textures. Working with chalk strengthens fine motor skills and builds language. It's also really fun to laugh with one another about how silly we look, and notice how soft and and smooth our hands are. The sandbox is an excellent place to developing confidence in making mistakes, work through problems with friends, and independent skills like how to get sand out of their shoes. A spill ...

The children have been working on sculpting clay at the Sensory Table. This multi-step project encourages the children to start with an idea, think about what it looks like, create the shapes by forming clay in their hands, and wait for it to dry then paint! Because the clay is fragile and sensitive to moisture, they are learning essential cognitive development skills cause and effect, problem solving, shape recognition, mixing colors, and patience - all while developing strength in their fingers and hands, necessary for holding a pencil and marker. Working with clay supports the children’s creativity while encouraging the children to work on an idea from start to finish. They are able to see it transform from a slab to a completed project! In our busy, fast paced world, using clay supports the children’s development and encourages us to slow down. We are inspired by clay artist, Augusta Savage , who made magnificent sculptures, and opened the door for other Black sculptures and artist...