Welcome to the 2014-2015 Windell Afternoon Preschool blog!
I'm so glad you're here, and hope you enjoy this peek into the classroom
through my camera lens!
Our first two weeks were spent getting acclimated to the class routine.
One of our daily activities is rotating through four centers with 1 or 2 friends in each group.
While in play centers, students work on pretend play skills, how to interact with others appropriately, and how to use the toys for their intended purpose.
Here's Parker in the toy center. It usually includes cars, Fisher Price type playsets, dollhouse, etc.
Hunter was showing us how his Batman car transforms!
Mitchell fed a baby in the housekeeping center.
Kitchen furniture and dolls/doll furniture are always in "housekeeping",
but we also rotate various dramatic play theme materials in it, too.
Currently there are doctor/nurse pretend items:
dress up doctor coats, stethoscope, thermometer, etc.
Next week there will be a wash tub and farm animals to go along with
the farm theme book Mrs. Wishy Washy.
At circle time the students sit in chairs facing the Smartboard for our circle time presentation.
hunter, Parker, and Nolan gave a sweet pose for the camera.
In the background you can see our color coded picture schedules for center rotations.
During circle time the first day, we went on a scavenger hunt to find
school items in our classroom. Students each looked for an item
and photographed it with the iPad camera.
Mrs. Headden was helping Nolan find the computers.
Parker found our calendar.
Hunter found the housekeeping center.
Mitchell found the cardboard bricks.
During the painting center, we painted school buses.
We had talked about first painting a yellow rectangle, then adding
black circles for the wheels.
Nolan and Mitchell did a great job!
Another morning, our table time/morning work consisted of coloring a school bus.
We support each child where he/she is with regards to fine motor skills and work behaviors.
Skills targeted during this activity include correct grasp, visually attending to the work, remaining seated or standing at your work space, waiting and listening for directions, coloring just one specified part of the picture at a time, and sharing work materials.
So when a simple coloring page comes home,
know that there are many purposes for such an activity.
Kaleb working on coloring his wheels.
Mitchell coloring with a yellow crayon.
Parker carefully coloring his wheels.
Hunter, too!
Now Parker has moved on to the windows.
We work on using two hands: one to hold the crayon and one to hold the paper still.
Great concentration, Nolan!
We did an in-class motor group the first week, and made an obstacle course in the room.
Nolan walked across the "rocks", careful not to fall into the "alligator river"!
Parker went over the bar.
Then he crossed the river!
Kaleb is demonstrating jumping over the "logs".
We work on using a two-footed take off and landing in a jump.
Kaleb going over.
And Hunter going under!
Hunter crossing the river.
Mitchell crossing the river.
In our second week, we learned about parts of the body through the use of Mat Man.
We built him with wooden parts, naming and counting the body parts.
Scarlett is adding his legs.
Hunter is adding his feet.
We also used an online game to build Mat Man.
Hunter is sliding over two arms.
Parker is giving Mat Man two hands.
Kaleb is adding two legs.
Nolan is adding the two feet.
One of our centers is a painting center.
Sometimes there is a specific painting activity,
but other times the students are allowed to do free painting.
I invited them to paint Mat Man, but they had their own ideas!
Later in the week, we drew Mat Man as a class.
Nolan drew his smile.
Kaleb gave him ears.
Mitchell drew a rectangular body.
Parker added the arms.
Hunter added the feet.
We celebrated Hunter's birthday last week, too. Happy birthday, Hunter!
Later we drew individual Mat Mans.
It was definitely challenging for the students, as well as the teachers.
We tried to have them do as much as they could independently, with minimal assistance.
Sometimes we had to give a physical prompt (using our hands to assist).
Sometimes we do a hand over hand prompt,
continuous assistance with my hand on the child's hand.
Other times we give visual cues, using my hand to cover the paper and
only allow a small space on the paper to be seen and drawn on.
On Thursday, one of our centers is usually a table game.
In this case it was a "floor" game because there were lots of rolling marbles.
Parker and Scarlett enjoyed playing
Scatterpiller Scramble.
Mitchell used the tongs to get his ball, while the caterpillar wiggled.
Hunter and Kaleb waited patiently for their turns.
Nolan got to play with Mrs. Headden…fun!
I'm so glad you're here, and hope you enjoy this peek into the classroom
through my camera lens!
Our first two weeks were spent getting acclimated to the class routine.
One of our daily activities is rotating through four centers with 1 or 2 friends in each group.
While in play centers, students work on pretend play skills, how to interact with others appropriately, and how to use the toys for their intended purpose.
Here's Parker in the toy center. It usually includes cars, Fisher Price type playsets, dollhouse, etc.
Kitchen furniture and dolls/doll furniture are always in "housekeeping",
but we also rotate various dramatic play theme materials in it, too.
Currently there are doctor/nurse pretend items:
dress up doctor coats, stethoscope, thermometer, etc.
Next week there will be a wash tub and farm animals to go along with
the farm theme book Mrs. Wishy Washy.
hunter, Parker, and Nolan gave a sweet pose for the camera.
In the background you can see our color coded picture schedules for center rotations.
school items in our classroom. Students each looked for an item
and photographed it with the iPad camera.
Mrs. Headden was helping Nolan find the computers.
We had talked about first painting a yellow rectangle, then adding
Nolan and Mitchell did a great job!
We support each child where he/she is with regards to fine motor skills and work behaviors.
Skills targeted during this activity include correct grasp, visually attending to the work, remaining seated or standing at your work space, waiting and listening for directions, coloring just one specified part of the picture at a time, and sharing work materials.
So when a simple coloring page comes home,
know that there are many purposes for such an activity.
Great concentration, Nolan!
We work on using a two-footed take off and landing in a jump.
We built him with wooden parts, naming and counting the body parts.
Scarlett is adding his legs.
Hunter is sliding over two arms.
Sometimes there is a specific painting activity,
but other times the students are allowed to do free painting.
I invited them to paint Mat Man, but they had their own ideas!
Nolan drew his smile.
It was definitely challenging for the students, as well as the teachers.
We tried to have them do as much as they could independently, with minimal assistance.
Sometimes we had to give a physical prompt (using our hands to assist).
Sometimes we do a hand over hand prompt,
continuous assistance with my hand on the child's hand.
Other times we give visual cues, using my hand to cover the paper and
only allow a small space on the paper to be seen and drawn on.
In this case it was a "floor" game because there were lots of rolling marbles.
Parker and Scarlett enjoyed playing
Scatterpiller Scramble.
Hunter and Kaleb waited patiently for their turns.
I hope you've enjoyed seeing our pictures from the start of school…
we'll see you again soon!
