Utopia Preschool

Today Officer Dennis from the San Francisco Police Department visited our preschool! We were so excited to have him come visit our classroom. The children had many questions for Officer Dennis. Russell asked "how heavy are handcuffs?" Officer Dennis explained the different handcuffs he carries. One was a lot lighter than the other. They passed them around so they each could feel the difference. Amaris said, "They feel heavy." Perry said, "Handcuffs are cold." Then Sergio pointed to the walkie talkie and asked, "Why do police need walkie talkies?" Officer Dennis said they use them to communicate with each other. The children even got to hear what is sounds like when someone is on the walkie talkie. Some of the children have been interested in driving and tickets. They got to see what a ticket looks like. Officer Dennis also brought a helmet for all of them to try on. Everyone received sticker badges and tattoos! The children learned about the diff...

During small group time today, Dawson suggested we sing one of his favorite songs- the "Sleeping" song! The children are always so excited to sing this song at group time because it is an interactive activity. One group of children gets go to "sleep", while the other sings the "sleeping" song. When in song is over,  they get to tickle one another to "wake" up. First the girls had a turn to go to sleep, then the boys, and last the teachers even had a chance to take a quick nap! This song is great for peer interactions, taking turns, and impulse control... It's harder than you think to wait until just the right time to wake someone up with a tickle!!!

Today was an exciting day! Norilene, Naomi's mom, came to help us all day! She read a book called "Too Many Mangoes: A Story About Sharing" by Tammy Paikai at group time, a book that their family often reads at home. We were so happy to hear this special book from Naomi's family. Thank you Norilene for being a part of our classroom today.   We also took a walking field trip to the footbridge across Brotherhood Way this morning. The children have been working on roads, streets, freeways and cars in the Block Area, so we took the opportunity to visit the bridge just down the street from us to look down at the cars. The children noticed so many different kinds of vehicles: school buses, dump trucks, bright pink cars, and mail trucks! One garbage truck honked at us as we waved from the bridge above.

During free choice time the children had the opportunity to work with literacy activities.  At the water table they played with letters and were able to spell words and their names. As they spelled words they were encouraged to recognize letters and keep spelling even more words.  

The children have been loving the new wagon given to us by Russell's family. They have been taking turns pulling each other around our yard pretending to go places. Today the children were pretending to fix the wagon. Amir had the idea to use the tools from the tool box in the shed. He said, "The wheel popped off so I'm fixing it." Gianna said, "I need to turn this screw right here then it's fixed." The children used various tools to make sure their wagon was perfectly safe for their adventures.

This morning Mr. C introduced a new activity during P.E. First he split the class up into four groups, then he gave each group one parachute. The children practiced shaking the parachute slow, medium, and fast! At first, some of the groups were having difficulty keeping the parachute spread out since children were moving in different directions, but after some practice they were able to figure out how keep it in a circle. Next, Mr. C put a yarn ball in the middle of each parachute and challenged the groups to try to keep the ball on as they shook it slow, medium, or fast. The children had so much fun working together to keep the yarn ball from falling off!!!

This week the children had the opportunity to work with a variety of seeds. They learned the name of different seeds and that they differ in shape, size and, color. At the same time they practiced  counting and sorting seeds by color. They had so much fun working together as a group.

Today was Teacher Nicole's last day and we all wanted to show our love and appreciation for her. The children were giving her lots of love and could't wait to share special snacks with her. Before snack we sang Nicole's favorite song, the "Itsy Bitsy Spider". We took lots of pictures for her to keep as memories. The children made a sign and also signed a picture for her as a gift. Although we are very sad to see Teacher Nicole leave, we wish her the best of luck on her new adventure!! Utopia will miss you!

This afternoon, the children were excited to plant a variety of seeds. Jillian and Aria were eager to help gather the seeds, soil, container and shovels! They worked collaboratively, scooping soil into the container and patiently waited to place the seeds inside. We then took turns spraying the seeds and soil 10 times each.

This afternoon, Teacher Denia helped the children set up a new game in the gym using the colored floor spots! Calleen, Jillian, Sloka, Julianna, and Amir had lots fun pretending to be frogs and jumped from lilypad (colored spot) to lilypad. Some children chose to hop like a frog by keeping two feet together, whereas others decided to leap around by alternating feet! This will definitely be an exciting new game for children to continue to play and build on over time!