Friday, January 20, 2012

Preschool Apps


Technology is amazing.  One of the new things we have added this year to our classroom is an IPAD.  It is still amazing to me how quickly the children are drawn to the activities and how quickly they learn to use the interface.  As you can see, it is a very popular center -- it's sooooo hard for them to wait for their turn.  But, ironically, they have almost as much fun watching each other as they do working on it themselves.  We have many favorite preschool apps, but if you are interested, a couple of our favorites are "I Write Words" by gdiplus and "Letter of the Day" by Lakeshore.

iPhone Screenshot 4 "I Write Words" is a great app for developing handwriting skills. I personally think it is one of the best choices for preschool writing that I have tried. It is fun and appealing to 4 year olds. It really teaches and helps the kids develop eye/hand coordination while learning correct letter formation. The settings also allow you to make it more challenging as the child's abilities progress. You can practice individual letters and numbers, or practice writing simple words. The children especially love tilting the ipad to get the letter blocks to go into the "vortex" when they have successfully completed each letter or word. There is also a free "lite" version to try it out first.
iPhone Screenshot 1We use the "Letter of the Day" in circle time to briefly reinforce the alphabet letters we are learning. It is a simple and straightforward reinforcement. It has increased their enthusiasm and added another dimension to our learning.

December

Quick glimpse into our December days.  Busy little Christmas elves.

Christmas chains



Decorating gingerbread men




Friday, November 4, 2011

Color Book Preview

We've been working so hard on our color books.  Here's a sneak preview of some of the pages.

RED is an apple, juicy, big and round

YELLOW is an autumn leaf falling to the ground

ORANGE is a pumpkin carved for Halloween
BLACK is a spider, the creepiest you have seen
 
WHITE is a ghost that scares you with a BOOOO!

October Fun

First, here are the kids in their cute Halloween costumes:

M/W class
T/F class
We made witches brew (it turned out to be rootbeer since the kids decided to improvise on the ingredients)
1 cup crushed bones (sugar)
1 wooden spoonful of vampire blood (rootbeer flavoring)
1 quart of mummy tears (water)
1 block of magic (dry ice)





We played pin the wart on the witch and did a Halloween bean bag toss.




Tuesday, October 4, 2011

September Fun

Our first month has been great.  Here's a review of our activities:

M Week - "Me" unit, Marching to Music, Marble Maze,  Musical chairs, macaroni M's, Mail game -  sorting letters, and more.






B Week - Bead Stringing, ink blot Butterflies, Binoculars that we used on a bug hunt, playdough Bugs, Bean Bag dancing, and Blue Bubble Painting.







Here are a few of the bugs we found:

Thursday, September 8, 2011

First Day - Hooray!



We are off to a GREAT start.  Here are our first class pictures.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Graduation

Thanks for a fantastic year. Good luck in kindergarten!