Joyful Learning in Early Preschool!

Happy Birthday Aldora

Dear Parents,

We’ve had a fun and busy week in Early Preschool, full of learning and excitement! The children enjoyed exploring new activities, singing songs, reading stories, and practicing their movement skills. Each activity helped them grow, learn, and build confidence while having lots of fun together!

Large Group

Our large group sessions have been filled with meaningful interactions. We started by greeting each other warmly, then moved into a discussion about the weather, the food the children ate in the morning, and the colors of their clothes. This daily routine helps the children build confidence, practice speaking, and connect with one another. After sharing time, we sang our “Good Morning” song, which brought joy and excitement to the group. We then took attendance together, giving each child the opportunity to say their name and feel included.

Following attendance, we read the book “Little Lion Shares,” and the children listened attentively, showing interest in the story and its characters. After the story, we continued our group engagement with a counting activity using the ball, where each child took a turn counting as they passed or bounced it. We extended this by counting the water bottles in the box, encouraging everyone to participate and practice one-to-one correspondence.

Math Activity: Tracing Number 1 with Playdough

 In our most recent math session, the children explored the number 1 through a hands-on, sensory activity using playdough. We introduced the number by showing its shape and talking about where we see the number 1 in our daily lives. After that, each child received a laminated number 1, along with a small portion of playdough.

The children were encouraged to roll the playdough and carefully place them on top of the number outline. This activity helped them strengthen their fine motor skills while also building early number recognition. As they traced the number with playdough, many children repeated “one,” showing excitement and growing confidence.

This playful approach supports early math learning by combining tactile exploration with visual recognition. It was wonderful to see how much the children enjoyed the freedom to shape, press, and adjust their playdough as they traced the number again and again.

Gymnastics

Our gymnastics session was active and exciting! We set up a mat, arranged six chairs for the children to crawl through, and added balls for them to score into the basket. The children were eager to participate, and most of them did a wonderful job completing each part of the activity. As they crawled inside and under the chairs, many of them showed great interest in pushing the ball while crawling, which added an extra challenge and fun to the movement. After crawling, they picked up the ball and tried their best to score it into the basket. The whole session was filled with enthusiasm, laughter, and confident participation.

This session is important for several areas of development. Crawling helps strengthen core muscles, improves coordination, balance, and full-body control. Pushing the ball while crawling requires concentration, bilateral coordination, and problem-solving as they figure out how to move both their body and the ball at the same time. Scoring the ball in the basket supports hand–eye coordination, motor planning, and accuracy. Together, these activities help the children practice following directions, build physical strength, increase confidence, and enjoy healthy movement.

Literacy

During our literacy activities, the children practiced listening carefully and identifying different sounds. We used a variety of sounds such as keys, a motorcycle, an ambulance, and a waterfall. Most of the children were able to identify the sounds by name, demonstrating strong listening skills and knowledge of familiar sounds. Others, who were not yet able to name the sound, successfully picked the picture that matched the sound, showing their ability to connect what they heard with a visual representation. This activity helped strengthen their auditory discrimination, concentration, and vocabulary, as well as their ability to recognize and respond to different everyday and environmental sounds.

Science

Our most recent science session was an informative delight! We introduced the children to different body parts through an engaging activity. We began by singing body-part songs, helping the children connect the names of each part with simple actions. After singing, we continued the exploration by asking each child to point to specific body parts one by one. To make the activity more visual and hands-on, we provided picture cards of body parts and invited the children to come forward and stick the correct picture on the board. The children were excited and confident as they identified their eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands, and legs. Through music, visuals, and guided questions, they enjoyed learning while building their body awareness and vocabulary.

Library

During library time, our students explored a variety of books and enjoyed looking through the pictures and stories at their own pace. They were encouraged to choose a book they were interested in, and many happily shared their selections with their friends and teachers. At the end, each child chose one book to take home, supporting their early literacy development and helping them build a positive connection with reading. The children showed independence and excitement as they made their own choices!

Art

During our art session, the children explored creativity through stamping shapes using orange paint. They were excited to choose different shapes and press them onto paper, noticing the patterns and colors that appeared. This activity encouraged fine motor development as they carefully held the stamps, applied paint, and pressed them down with control. Many of the children showed curiosity and enjoyment as they experimented with overlapping shapes, creating patterns, and combining colors.

The children were also able to identify the shapes they were stamping, such as circles, triangles, and squares, connecting their artwork to prior learning in mathematics. They discussed their creations with peers and teachers, sharing what they made and pointing out interesting patterns or color combinations. The session encouraged creativity, concentration, and self-expression while helping the children develop hand–eye coordination and artistic awareness.

This stamping shapes activity was engaging and educational. The children explored materials, experimented with colors and shapes, and expressed themselves through art, building both their artistic skills and confidence in creative expression.

Next Week’s Schedule:

     Small Group

Monday Gymnastics

Tuesday Literacy

Wednesday Music

Thursday Math

Friday Science

     Work Time

Tuesday -Art

Thursday -Library

Friday- Ethiopian Center once in two week

Reminders:

• Every Wednesday is art day, so please send your child with art appropriate clothing.

• Every Monday is library day,  so we will be sending a book that your child picked from our library, which will be returned after a week on library day.

Have a nice weekend!