Utopia Preschool

Today we explored with clay! The children built on their fine motor skills squeezing, molding and stretching the clay. Their hands were covered! When asked how it felt Isabella said, "so so muddy!" Regan described it as "gooey!". Calleen said, "So gooey and sticky!" They had lots of fun becoming familiar with ways to manipulate their clay and talking about how it felt.

This afternoon a group of children decided to play the memory game "Little Mouse, Little Mouse" when it was too rainy to go outside. They had lots of fun role-playing as the "teacher" and hiding the mouse, while other children covered their eyes and waited for a turn to find the mouse!

The weather was very wet today so Teacher Nicole suggested the children look for worms. The children looked under the planter pots, but did not have any luck finding worms. Instead the children found a big spider. They were so excited and did not want to get too close. Some children started saying it was the great big spider!

This morning the children were excited to show off their Christmas spirit as they performed and sang"Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "Jingle Bells" for the Alma Via community! The friends at Alma Via were so excited to see and hear the preschoolers that they unexpectedly sang a few Christmas songs for us as well! The children then passed out ornaments they made and decorated the room with red and green paper chains! It's safe to say that both Utopia and Alma Via spread holiday cheer this morning!

Today Russell and Sergio created a fun game called "Toss and Throw" during outside time. The two boys each took turns throwing beanbags into basket from a distance. As they played their game together they alternated turns, created rules and counted their "scores" when they made a beanbag in the basket!

Today at the Art Table, a bottle of silver glitter spilled all over the floor and chairs! Mathias was quick to grab a broom and dustpan and clean it up, even though he didnt make the mess!  We love highlighting simple moments like this because it shows just how kind and helpful the children are with each other, without any reminders from teachers.

The children were invited to decorate foam frames today! They were able to sprinkle glitter on them, glue foam shapes on them or draw on them using markers. There was lots of sharing going on and friends waited patiently for their turn.

Today, the dramatic play area transformed into a sewing station! Fabrics were carefully selected, trimmed and 'sewn' using tape. Three beautiful dresses were designed for the babies.

The children went right to work making handmade presents for their families! They used glue, glitter, tape and markers to design their special gifts! We encourage them to get creative and share their ideas with each other. They are so proud of their work and eager to gift them to their families!

Today, we created candy canes with the kindergarten class, using pipe cleaners and beads! Each child made their own candy cane, creating a pattern of alternating red and white beads. They counted to make sure they had a total of 20 beads before finishing and worked together when in need of help. We had a great time with kindergarten and look forward to more activities together!