Utopia Preschool

To celebrate the spooky season of Halloween and to focus on the letter B this week, we have been learning about Bones and Skeletons. On Monday we observed real x-rays of a human skeleton. The children were able to put the x-rays back together from the skull all the way down to the feet bones. The rest of the week we drew pictures of bones using white crayons on black paper. The children were encouraged to look at  small skeleton figures that were donated by some of our parents (thank you!). After drawing their skeletons, they used cotton swabs to glue on the bones. This activity supports step by step instructions, spacial awareness, fine motor skills, and writing. 

Nohea's mom, Geraldine, came to visit this morning! She read us a silly story called Where is My Nose?  by Lucas Zonatto. This book tells the story of a dog whose nose is suddenly missing! He tries out different types of objects as noses as he looks for it. Stories like this are not only funny and visually engaging, but encourages literacy and builds language as they hear a similar phrase that repeats throughout the story. The children are encouraged to ask the question out loud as they listen to the story, "Is this my nose?" They are also encouraged to respond the question as the book is read.  Afterwards, the children had to figure out what to do with their own missing nose! We gave the children a photo of themselves, but one thing is missing! Their nose! We asked the children to draw using markers and crayons. This supports fine motor development, drawing skills, and spacial awareness. They were also encouraged to give the dog from the story a new nose as well!  Thank ...

We had a special visit from Sarah, Edith's mom, this morning! Sarah read us the story I Love You Unconditionally by Kelly M. Condon. Sarah helped prep some feathers and other art materials for the children to make their own cranes, just like in the story! Activities with glue and paper require the children to follow step by step directions and think about real life images when they apply it to their paper. How many legs does a crane have? Where does the head go? The beak? It also allows them to think about the themes in the story in a different way Thank you Sarah for spending some time with us this morning and thinking of such a thoughtful activity for our class! 

Today is the day we visited Lemos Farm for our first field trip of the year. To prepare for our trip, we read a story called School Bus by Donald Crews. We talked about how when ride the bus, we will all take it together! Our school bus had seatbelts, bouncy seats, windows that slid up and down, and it was yellow, just like the story. Our bus also had a nice driver who reminded us about being safe on our ride to Lemos Farm.  We then talked about what would happen at our field trip. Each of us would be in a group of friends, teachers, and some parents. We talked about always staying with our group, using the potty when it was time, and how we would have snack time when we got there. There might be long lines to wait our turn for the different rides and games there.  We all put on our big blue Utopia shirts, and were on our way! We had so much fun at our field trip, but couldn't do it without all the chaperones who came with us to assist the children have a memorable and safe t...