Developmentally Appropriate Preschool

In Adventure Preschool, we strive to provide children with developmentally appropriate activities that help to teach core knowledge. There has been a lot of publicity about how we are pushing children too hard to learn too much too early. 

What we cover in Adventure Preschool is not new. It is the same skill set that was taught 20 years ago to a 3-year-old. We work on social skills; getting along with friends, sharing, saying our name, using our manners. We work on Small Muscle coordination; cutting, coloring, and pre-writing. Academics in a three-year-old room look very different from what most people think of as true academics. 

We cover Math, Science, Language, Literacy, and Large and Small Muscle development.

Math - block play, counting, patterning, shapes

Science - sensory play, exploration, practice with "tools" such as magnifying glasses, tweezers and magnets, learning about colors

Language - vocabulary, speaking, having a conversation

Literacy - Letters in their name, rhyming, alliteration

Muscle Development - coloring, cutting, using stickers, stacking, running, playing outside or in the gym, obstacle courses. 

Most of all, we have a lot of fun! We play and the children learn! We color and the children learn! We explore and the children learn! If you have any questions regarding the skills that your child is learning, please feel free to contact me! 

Hand Preference

Children can begin choosing a hand preference as early as 1-2 years old. Around the age of 4-5 this choice has been made. Handedness is NOT a choice. It is predetermined in the brain. We should never force a child to use one hand over the other. This could lead to further issues in the future! 
Some tips for children who haven't yet "chosen" a hand:
Put the scissors, crayon, pencil directly in front of the child. Whichever hand they pick up the utensil with, this is the hand that they should use for the entire time. If they choose the crayon with their right hand to color, they should use that hand until they are done with that color. If they pick up the scissors with the left hand, they need to finish the cutting with that hand. Typically, a child will pick up a crayon, marker, scissors etc. placed in front of them with their dominant hand.  A child will switch hands mid-task due to hand fatigue. Their hand gets tired so they switch to the other hand. It is important for children to build up their hand strength.
Encourage your child no matter what hand they have "chosen" for their dominant hand. 

Build up strength in hands:
1. Play with play-dough. Encourage children to squeeze it, squish it and roll it in their hands. Have your child mix colors to make new colors. By mixing the colors completely, your child will need to use a lot of hand strength!
2. Give your child scissors! (Always supervise your child with scissors.) Allow them to cut.
3. Give your child crayons and coloring books or blank paper. This is an important skill to have. It not only works on hand strength but also concentration and color recognition as well. Encourage the use of LOTS of colors, not just one and work on not scribbling. Use little hand motions to fill in a spot completely. Outline different areas with a brightly colored marker so your child can see the lines and have a clear stopping point.
4. Do finger plays.
5. Hang paper on the wall and let your child color, paint and glue things to this paper. A vertical surface helps to build arm muscles and proper crayon grips. 
6. Stickers are great for fine motor practice! Let them peel and stick them to paper.

Library Books and Kiwi Packs

Kiwi packs and Library books:

We check out library books on Wednesday/Thursday every week! Those books will be sent home in your child's kiwi pack. The book and pack should be returned on Wednesday or Thursday of the following week. You may return it earlier but, they will not go back home until Library Day. 

A little added note about the journals:

You only need to do one page of the journal each week...of course you are always welcome to do more but, it is only required that you do one page! We have been impressed with the number of journals that not only came back, but came back completely finished!

Tooty-Ta!

How Do You Know It Is Fall?

While cleaning up around our yard today, we found that the squirrels were "hiding" butternuts for winter! They found the best location possible...IN the butternut tree! :)

Every little nook and cranny in the tree had at least one butternut tucked away for winter! Those clever squirrels! 

Crossing the Midline - worth revisiting

Crossing the midline is a very important skill for kids to master. Your midline divides your body in half down the middle left to right, across your middle separating top and bottom and along your side separating front and back. By crossing the midline, your brain is learning to communicate between the hemispheres.  When children are unable to cross the midline, they don't develop a dominant hand and will have troubles reading, writing and cooridination.  

With the introduction of iPads and tablets into our society, we are noticing a HUGE decline in the small muscle control in young children. They are able to make a swiping motion but are unable to hold a pencil or crayon, use scissors, use spoon or fork effectively, etc. We have also found that kids are having a really tough time sitting without support. At circle time, kids are expected to sit criss cross applesauce or legs straight out without supporting their body with their hands behind them. Many children are experiencing a great difficulty in sitting this way for more than a minute or two. 
This come from sitting in chairs or on the couch for extended periods of time. Please encourage your child to sit independently on the floor...read a book, play a game or color!

Here are some activities that will help your child more fully develop crossing their midline.

Right Brain/Left Brain Teasers-

a. Pop bubbles with only one hand (they will have to reach across their body to pop the bubbles floating on the opposite side).

b. Reach for bean bags, balls, stuffed animals, or other objects across midline, then throwing at a target.

c. Draw large figure eights (the infinity sign or an 8 turned on its side) on paper, on the floor with a finger, in the air with a finger, or drive a matchbox car around a figure eight pattern.

d. Let the child play with sand, scooping sand from one side of the body and putting it into a bucket on the opposite side of the body without switching hands.

e. Let the child pretend to drive a car with a ball in his/her hands to use as a steering wheel and encourage the crossing of his/her arms as he/she turns the ‘steering wheel’ Or…In order to make this similar in style to most of the others—Pretend to drive a car with a ball in both hands to use as a steering wheel and cross both arms while turning the “steering wheel”.

f. Play flashlight tag. In a dimmed room, lie on your backs and have the child follow your flashlight beam projected on the wall with his own flashlight.

g. Touch the opposite elbow and knee.

h. Cross one foot over the other while walking sideways.

i. Do “grapevine” walks.

j. Knee Slap Walk- Walk around raising each knee while touching/slapping it with the opposite hand (or elbow). Change it to a skip while touching the opposite knee as it comes up.

k. Windmills-Stand with feet spread apart and arms extended out to the sides. Bend over at waist and tap right hand to left foot. Stand back up and then bend and tap left hand to right foot.

l. Point your left finger out and put your right thumb up. Switch them, and switch, and switch, and switch…

m. Hold your nose, then cross the other hand over and grab your opposite ear. Slap your thighs and switch your hands…switch, slap, switch, slap…

n. Write your name in the air while rotating your foot in a circle clockwise.

o. Wash the car and make sure the arms cross midline while scrubbing.

From North Shore Pediatric Therapy Site.

Recycling Man!

We had a fun visitor the other day! Recycling Man! aka: Roger the custodian

Recycling Man visited all of the classrooms to remind us of the importance of recycling! This is something that is made somewhat challenging in the Parkers area due to no curb-side pick-up. If we look at the bigger picture, and the future of our the earth for our children, it is totally worth it! PLEASE recycle!  Every little bit helps!

**It is not easy to get three year olds to all look at the camera and smile at the same time! :)**

*Also note that not all of our friends wanted to be in the picture :)*

Fire Truck visit!

We were lucky enough to join the Discovery Preschool when a fire truck visited the school! The kids were really excited to see it! Some of their words to describe the truck: big, red, loud, shiny, new, fun, neat! Such a great learning opportunity!

Fun at School!

Fun with friends! 

We LOVE Pete the Cat!

Yumm!!

Learning our colors!

Preschool Fun!

Science Fun! 

Mrs. Harstad brought in a HUGE mushroom! We drew pictures of it and looked at it using magnifying glasses! We learned that it was Heavy, Squishy, Smooth, and Smelly!

We LOVE books! Especially books about Pete the  Cat! 

* A special note to the Monday/Wednesday group: We missed our library time on Wednesday so you will not have a library book this week. We apologize! :)

ECFE Begins!

ECFE will begin on Monday September 8, 2014

Please come to the class that you registered for. We have several families registered and sessions are filling up quickly!

Monday Night 6:00-7:30

Wednesday Afternoon 1:30-3:00

Friday Morning 9:00-10:30

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Priority for filling spots will be given to families who have pre-registered.

Welcome to Adventure Preschool!!

Wow! I can't believe how fast the summer went! We have started another fun year at Adventure Preschool for 3's!  We have explored the classroom and played on the brand new playground equipment!! Here are a couple of pictures from our first day of preschool!

I can't wait until next week! 

Crossing the Midline

Crossing the midline is a very important skill for kids to master. Your midline divides your body in half down the middle left to right, across your middle separating top and bottom and along your side separating front and back. By crossing the midline, your brain is learning to communicate between the hemispheres.  When children are unable to cross the midline, they don't develop a dominant hand and will have troubles reading, writing and cooridination.  Here are some activities that will help your child more fully develop crossing their midline.

Right Brain/Left Brain Teasers-

a. Pop bubbles with only one hand (they will have to reach across their body to pop the bubbles floating on the opposite side).

b. Reach for bean bags, balls, stuffed animals, or other objects across midline, then throwing at a target.

c. Draw large figure eights (the infinity sign or an 8 turned on its side) on paper, on the floor with a finger, in the air with a finger, or drive a matchbox car around a figure eight pattern.

d. Let the child play with sand, scooping sand from one side of the body and putting it into a bucket on the opposite side of the body without switching hands.

e. Let the child pretend to drive a car with a ball in his/her hands to use as a steering wheel and encourage the crossing of his/her arms as he/she turns the ‘steering wheel’ Or…In order to make this similar in style to most of the others—Pretend to drive a car with a ball in both hands to use as a steering wheel and cross both arms while turning the “steering wheel”.

f. Play flashlight tag. In a dimmed room, lie on your backs and have the child follow your flashlight beam projected on the wall with his own flashlight.

g. Touch the opposite elbow and knee.

h. Cross one foot over the other while walking sideways.

i. Do “grapevine” walks.

j. Knee Slap Walk- Walk around raising each knee while touching/slapping it with the opposite hand (or elbow). Change it to a skip while touching the opposite knee as it comes up.

k. Windmills-Stand with feet spread apart and arms extended out to the sides. Bend over at waist and tap right hand to left foot. Stand back up and then bend and tap left hand to right foot.

l. Point your left finger out and put your right thumb up. Switch them, and switch, and switch, and switch…

m. Hold your nose, then cross the other hand over and grab your opposite ear. Slap your thighs and switch your hands…switch, slap, switch, slap…

n. Write your name in the air while rotating your foot in a circle clockwise.

o. Wash the car and make sure the arms cross midline while scrubbing.

From North Shore Pediatric Therapy Site.

ECFE schedule for April 2014

We have ECFE class on the following days:
April 7, 9, 11
April 14, 16
April 22 is Big Wheels 5:00-7:00
The last day of class is the  Ice Cream Social!!  Bring your favorite topping to share!!

ECFE survey

If you attended ECFE this year, please take a moment to fill out this survey! Thank you!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9G7959C

Conferences

Conferences April 3 and 10

11:20-5:00

Please email or call me if you are unable to attend!

I am looking forward to meeting with all of you!

Classdojo

Those of you who were lucky enough to have class this week have already received a notice regarding classdojo!  This is a new behavior tracking app that I am using to track behaviors in the classroom.  You will receive a sheet that has a code on it. You can then go to classdojo.com and enter that code and see how your child did that day.  This will be done instead of me trying to write in 16 folders at the end of each day!  I can just track behavior throughout the day and then it is all there for you to see!  You will only have access to your own child's information. If you have any questions, please let me know. This will take some extra time on behalf of parents but, it will allow me to get you better information.  There may be days that I don't have my ipad or the app may not be working, if there are any extreme behaviors, I will let you know in a note home!  Thank you!!

Crazy mixed up schedule!

This week we are experiencing a really crazy schedule!  Thanks to our two our late start on Tuesday, we only have one day of class this week! There is NO school on Wednesday April 2 or Thursday April 3! There are conferences on Thursday from 11:00-5:20 for Adventure Preschool.  If you have any questions regarding our crazy schedule, please email me! 

Baking cupcakes with Nicole!!

We had so much fun baking GREEN cupcakes with Nicole! We counted eggs, stirred and made them green! Then we brought them to the kitchen to bake! 

How many eggs?

Cracking the eggs!

Adding the water!

Stirring!

Ready to bake!!

YUMM!!

Why do we play so much?

Play is so important in child development that it's been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child.

Click the picture below to read an awesome article about playing with your child! It discusses the importance of play for your child and also the importance of play for you as a parent. Let me know what you think about it?

ECFE Re-mix!

We are going to mix it up a bit for ECFE! 

We are going to start with circle time at the beginning of class! We will sing some songs, read stories etc. Then I will introduce the activities that we have for that week! You will then choose an activity to do with your child. There will be 45 minutes of Parent/Child time where you will do one or more of the projects with your child. There may be art, science, books, playdough or other activities set up. After Parent/Child play time, we will go right to snack and parents will go to parent talk time. 
There are a few reasons why we are mixing it up this week. First, I just want to shake it up and try something new. Next, the kids are very reluctant to participate in circle time. The hope is that if they aren't pulled from play time, they will be more apt to sing the songs or sit and listen to a story. Finally, we really want to encourage the parents to try out the projects that are set out. A lot of time and thought are put into these projects and often times they sit untouched. We want to try and spark some excitement and also make directions clear while we are all together. Between mixing this up and some fun activities, we are hoping to bring the spark back to ECFE.

Our schedule will look like this:

5:30-5:45 circle time

5:45-6:30 parent/child time

6:30-7:00 parent talk/snack

1:30-1:45 circle time

1:45-2:30 parent/child time

2:30-3:00 parent talk/snack

9:00-9:15 circle time

9:15-10:00 parent/child time

10:00-1:30 parent talk/snack