Utopia Preschool

Lunch time is a great moment for the children to socialize. Today, the children enjoyed comparing their lunches. Cayden and Enzo notice they both have Star wars thermos. Benoit, Water and Eloisa hold up their sandwiches, after noticing they have the same lunch. Emery holds out a cracker with cheese and tells her peer, "we have the same one!" Her friend responds, "you have two crackers but I only have one".

Snack time is always a great time to practice fine motor and self help skills! The children love to practice serving themselves food and pouring their own drinks. It's also a time for children to share their ideas with one another and to develop their expressive and receptive language skills!

During group time today, the children were able to use egg shakers while dancing. We practiced our best dance moves while shaking our egg shakers to the music. When the music stopped we had to freeze our whole body like a statue. The children were good about freezing and not shaking their eggs so it was completely silent when there was no music playing.

The children have been interested in creating and writing their own books! Today the children gave their books titles,  multiple pages, illustrations,  and even authors! They were also excited to share their stories with classmates at group time!

During small group time, we played the "What's Missing Game?" The children gathered together & made a circle. They were shown & told which toys were brought to group, that 1 of these toys would be taken away & they would have to guess which one it was. As she covered the items with a blanket, she asked them to close their eyes & tucked a toy away. Afterwards, she'd ask them to open their eyes to look & see what's missing.

The children have been having a great time greeting one another in their Halloween costumes! Although there were a lot of distractions and high energy, they practiced regulating their emotions in order to follow through with our routines and safety rules. As more friends arrived, the children began counting how many similar costumes there were and noting the differences in each. Happy Halloween!!

We introduced a new game to the children today, Halloween Bingo! Each child was given a bingo card and gems to mark off each picture as they were shown to the group! If they covered a whole line they shouted "Bingo!" and got to choose a sticker.  Once they covered the whole card (a blackout)  they shouted "Trick - or - Treat! ".

Walter's mom, Angelina paid our classroom a visit today! Because of the children's interests in going to the doctor, Angelina shared with us what it was like for pets and animals to go to a Veterinary Hospital too! She brought out a skeleton and organ model of a dog to help us visualize what the insides of animals' bodies look like, as well as photos of all the types of animals she takes care of at the hospital. Many of the children shared about the types of pets they have at home, as well the things they have in common when they go to the doctor themselves! Angelina also showed us types of tools she uses at the vet as well such as a stethoscope and a syringe with no needle. Many of the children noticed that these were tools we see at the human doctor too. Thank you so much Angelina for sharing your time and talents with us at Utopia! We learned so much.

For the past few days, the children have been using wooden mallets to hammer golf tees into some pumpkins. The first two pumpkins had very thick skin so it was difficult, but the second set of pumpkins are perfect. The children have been busy pounding tees into the pumpkin. The children predicted what might be inside the pumpkin. Amir said, "seeds" and Shirley said "lots of string!" Some children started to pound small cookie cutter shapes into the pumpkin. This allowed them to get a peek inside the pumkpin. Ryan said, "Look, I see rice!" Shirleys said, "It's string! I was really right!"

This morning, the children visited Alma Via! The children were eager to share Halloween decorations with the 'grandmas and grandpas'. They also prepared two special Halloween songs to sing. To say the least both our children and the folk at Alma Via enjoyed themselves!