Another Wonderful Week in Pre K!

Dear Parents,

We hope that this blog finds you well. It was yet another great week in Pre-K, and

we’re very excited to share the highlights from it! This week, the Pre-K class got

active in music and movement, polished up some fantastic habitat stories, started a

new topic in math and so much more.

Large Group

Large group was smooth and successful as usual this week! The class got a chance

to read some new fun stories, share about their mornings during circle time, and

more. Additionally, our class helper system is continuing to bring out so many great

attributes in the kids such as responsibility, timekeeping, teamwork and others!

Music and Movement

This week, the kids got their groove on once again in music and movement! We

started off with a warm up with no music, doing various stretches and some light

cardio to get everyone’s bodies and minds ready for the action. Then, we did the

“Hello from your Head to your Toes” song, which is quickly becoming a class

favorite! Then, the kids got a chance to enjoy some familiar movement songs like

“The Move Song”, “The Floor is Lava”, the classic “Hokey Pokey”, and more! We love

that the kids make sure that all their friends in the class know the moves and can

keep up, and are so willing to help demonstrate for anyone who might be confused

or forget some of the choreography. Once everyone was in the groove of things, we put on the “Macarena”, which we spent time on some weeks ago. To our amazement, most of the kids knew the whole thing from start to finish and even memorized the timing of when we do the movements and when it’s time for free dance. Finally, we did a few sitting down songs to cool down. It was so much fun, and the kids were focused and engaged throughout the whole session!

Literacy

Literacy this week was varied, productive and of course entertaining! In the first

literacy session, the kids got to work on their journals, which have become an

amazing showcase of their journeys as students and people throughout this year!

For the topic prompt, we drew a small illustration of a habitat, a football, several

patterns, and a family to represent some of the fun activities we’ve been doing and

topics we have discussed in large group. We explained that the kids could pick any

of the categories, or a combination of several for their journal topic. They made

some absolutely stunning, creative, and detailed entries!

In the following literacy session, the kids got a chance to further develop and

conclude their habitat stories! They got into groups to make their final story.

Then, they received a habitat card for their chosen environment and several

images of animals with descriptions about what those animals like to do, eat, and

sounds that they make. They had some lively, spirited discussion in groups and

worked on their stories for the majority of the session. Then in the end, they

shared their incredible narratives with the class! We wrote them down, and in our

next session we will be making mini storybooks of these stories with illustrations

that the kids will make. We can’t wait to see the final result, and are so proud of

our class full of authors!

Maths

This week in math, the kids got a chance to begin a new topic, which they were all

so enthused about doing. To introduce this, we drew a subtraction sign on the

board with the caption “What sign is this?”, in the past we had done this with the

equals and addition sign so the kids knew to be looking out for it. Once that was up,

the chatter and curiosity about what we would be starting began! To start off the

topic, we asked if any of the kids could remind us what addition was, since we

covered it on a previous topic. The kids had such a great recollection and grasp of

this concept, which is essentially putting two things together. We then explained,

while simultaneously showing a demonstration with the plastic flower materials that subtraction is the opposite of addition- it means taking things away. We put 10 flowers on the floor, and took 2 away and asked what they would get. The class

counted and fired back “8!”. We did this for a while all together, then divided the

class into small groups and gave them materials to continue their exploration on

subtraction. It seems like they’re getting a hang of the concept very quickly, and

we’re blown away by how self-focused and engaged they were during this session!

Art

This week, the kids had a blast trying out a brand-new art method- yarn painting!

The process is straightforward, to begin with we gave each kid their own white A4

paper, along with a string of yarn and a variety of paints to choose from. We

instructed them to dip the yarn in their chosen shade, and use the yarn as a

paintbrush to make different shapes and lines on the page. They did an absolutely

incredible job! Their choice of color, composition and proportion are so impressive,

and we can’t wait to see this develop into a big group piece.