We had fun in our vet clinic. The kiddos took great care of the animals. Make-believe play is a vital part of our program. Pretend play is very important for a young child's development in a number of ways. Children develop and practice many important social skill while they are playing in the vet clinic, kitchen, class store, restaurant, etc. When another child is involved, they are able to practice turn-taking, sharing responsibility (for the direction of play), and creative problem solving. Children also practice language skills within the context of pretend play. Make-believe play inspires the imagination and thinking skills.
The kiddos fed the doggies their alphabet kibble. What a great way to practice our letters.
In October, the kiddos explored rocks in our science center. They cleaned and polished the rocks and then sorted the rocks by similar attributes.
We read "Everybody Needs A Rock" by Byrd Baylor. All of the kiddos went on a rock hunt and chose their own rock. We named them and wrote stories about them.
We used tiny rocks to practice our letters.
After reading "The Little Red Hen" we used sensory props to retell the story. Story retelling is the
process by which a child listens to or reads a story and then summarize, or
"retells," the story in his or her own words. It is an effective way to expand story
related comprehension and expressive vocabulary.
Our pumpkin exploration included making geo-pumpkins. The kiddos pounded push pins into the pumpkins and then created geometric shapes with rubber bands.
We measured and weighed our pumpkins. We cut them open and explored what was inside. We then recorded all of our data and observations in our "Pumpkin Reports."
We read "Pumpkin Jack" by Will Hubbell. Our pumpkin sat outside for two weeks before we investigated. They all agreed it was gross and yucky!
In November, we used Monet's Waterlillies as inspiration for our own art.
We spent several days exploring turkeys. We read many books, sang songs, and danced to "Turkey in the Straw." The kiddos were provided many opportunities to play. Our turkey play provocation included using pattern blocks to design our own turkey feathers,
and play dough and feathers to create turkey sculptures.
We read our weekly reader about wild turkeys and wrote about them in our journals. Preschool journaling offers an open ended and rich experience that integrates prewriting skills into the development of alphabetic and print awareness, written language, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, oral language and listening comprehension.
Happy Thanksgiving! See you in December.
