3-Day: Settling In...
Our first full week of preschool was really terrific!!! We cannot believe how quickly your children are settling into the routine. Transitioning and saying goodbye to moms, dads, grandparents and sitters is happening more easily. Those of us that are struggling a little bit with the goodbyes have already come so far. Your children are starting to see our classroom as their space and they are becoming comfortable and more confident in their space.
We have been working on learning each other’s names. During morning meeting we have started to count who is present. Our “special” number is 16. When one of our friends is missing or running a few minutes late, we hold up their mat and announce his or her name. We have learned a new morning name song. You might hear your child singing, “Good morning _________, we’re glad you came to school!” At snack time we are encouraging children to use their table manners by using our friend’s name with a polite request, “Sam, please pass the crackers” or “Cecilia, may I have some more strawberries?” Our goal is to encourage children to socialize during snack time and play times. Caroline and I sometimes prompt the children to ask each other questions which initiates communication.
On Monday we celebrated Eli’s favorite story called Llama, Llama Red Pajama. 3-Day made a beautiful quilt with watercolor paints. Please make sure you take a peek at it outside our classroom. We stamped with red playdoh and sorted through hundreds and hundreds of buttons in the discovery table using bulldozers and tractors!
On Wednesday we shared Ariyan’s favorite story called Should I Share My Ice Cream? with our beloved friends Elephant and Piggy. After we giggled our way through the story, we made puffy paint ice cream cones with sprinkles, of course!
Friday we read Charlotte’s favorite story Little Owl Lost and introduced your children to our Bowen Forest Friends and their animal habitats in the discovery table. Children stamped with animal stampers and pressed animal footprints into our yellow playdoh.
Typically we have three activities set up throughout the room each day.
Table 1 is our art table. We set up a variety of process art activities or those that focus on specific concepts related to our unit of study. We encourage each of your children to complete the activity.
Table 2 is our sensory table where children explore with a wide variety of materials; playdoh, clay, shaving cream, Gak, kinetic sand and whatever other creative creation we can come up with.
Table 3 typically focuses on building and strengthening little hands and fostering early learning skills. Stringing beads, fine motor pop-ins or pegs, scissor cutting, counting, and etc. are things you might find at this table.
The magic of 3-Day is that children are grasping and mastering these skills and learning to interact with one another through their play.
A few housekeeping items:
Please make sure to label your child’s jackets and sweaters. As the weather gets cooler and we have to dress for outside, it makes it much easier for us to help them be independent.
Also, if your child is wearing rain boots to school you may want to leave an extra pair of shoes or slippers for classroom wear. Just remember that on Fridays we have creative movement and sneakers are best for all that running!
Also, I am looking for 2 pairs of baby shoes (preferably sneakers with treads) so that we can do some shoe stamp painting next week. Please text me at 617-224-8660 or email at sksolari@verizon.net if you have an any old ones you are willing to part with.
We hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Looking forward to Monday!
Karen and Caroline
