Firetruck Fun

A big highlight of October is the annual visit with firefighters and their firetruck and ambulance.

There was much talk about hoses and water and ladders and axes and smoke. Yay!  Each year without fail, the children are AMAZED to learn that firefighters wear seatbelts!!

The children were also very interested in the "rolling bed" in the ambulance.  They all knew that an ambulance takes a sick person to the doctor very quickly.

It is always exciting to encounter our community helpers in person.  Preschoolers are a bit too young to understand the value of 911, but they are old enough to learn what to do in an emergency.  If a firefighter ever comes to them, it is important that they don't hide.  They need to jump right out and let the firefighter see them.  It's a good lesson to reinforce at home.

Puzzles and Games

One of the skills we measure at School for Little Children is whether or not your child solves puzzles. 
What does that mean exactly?
When we think of solving puzzles, most of us narrowly think of working jigsaw puzzles.  Jigsaw puzzles ARE a kind of puzzle, but there are so many, many more!
At school, we take the w i d e view of solving puzzles.  To us, any toy or manipulative with pieces that need assembly or ordering or nesting is a puzzle.  Just look in the photo above. One Bunny is matching egg halves to each other.  Another Bunny is ordering pegs by size, shape and color.  Also on the table are beads for stringing, and pattern blocks to create pictures on mats.  ALL of these are puzzles!!  And they all need solving.  It is important to give the children a variety of puzzles to solve so they can exercise different cognitive skills with each attempt.  Lucky for these kiddos our closets are stocked with fun activities for them to try each week!

Creation

Our curriculum for the fall semester involves learning about creation.  Each week or two we will take time to learn about a feature of God's plan for our world.  One of the very best ways to teach children about creation is to allow children to be creators.

The Bunnies rolled marbles covered in gold and white paint over black paper to represent light and dark.

On a different day, they painted bubble wrap with white and gold paint, then pressed a large piece of blue paper on top and rubbed to print the "stars" on the paper.
There will be many more opportunities to be creators and the weeks go by...stay tuned!

Stacking and Stacking and Stacking

One day we had these builders.  They aren't particularly special or unique, but they do fit together nicely and they are easy for little hands to manipulate.  We had one Bunny in particular who spent most of her day around these builders.  At one point she asked Mrs. Magee for help to hold the tower steady while she made it as tall as she possibly could.

Once we see a child really excited about a particular toy or skill, it's our job to help the child fully explore his or her interest.  So, the next day we hauled in Unifix cubes which can be assembled in a similar way.  We cleared off an entire shelf and turned her loose. 

LOOK what happened!!!

With incredible determination, she diligently stacked the cubes and laid them out to cover the ENTIRE length of the shelf.  Amazing!!

The Sensory Table

One of the most favorite places in our Bunny Rabbit room is the sensory table.  It's a big tub and each week there is something different there.  Beans, birdseed, rice, pasta, pompom balls, pine cones, beads (and many others) are all items we will have in our sensory table.

Already we have two little girls who ADORE the sensory table.

It feels great to run your hands through cut up Mardi Gras beads!  By the way, if you have extras at your house that you want to get rid of, send them our way!

The Beginning

At the beginning of the year, we primarily see children playing alone.

This is very normal!  The children don't know each other yet.  Plus, the room is filled with toys and activities they have never seen before.  The Bunnies are so very eager to try it all out that they prefer to go it alone.

Before long, they will be enjoying each other's company in duos and trios. 

First Day Fun

Simple is best on the first day. 

Basic office supplies...

Fresh squishy playdough...

Happy faces!!  It's going to be a great year!

Welcome!

Welcome to a new year in Bunny Rabbits class!  Check this blog often to see what the kids are doing and feel free to share the blog address with grandparents who might want to peek in on their grandkids.

Mrs. O'Connor and Mrs. Magee are looking forward to a fantastic year!

Spin Art

Do you have an old record player hanging around collecting dust?

Just put a cheap paper plate on the turn table, set the arm aside and turn the record player on.  Give your child some markers to hold on the plate while it spins.
That's how we do spin art SLC style!!

Pet Vet

Pet Vet is an activity that never grows old.  The Bunnies love it!

 We transformed our kitchen area into a vet's office.  We had an exam table and all the necessary examination tools such as thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, tweezers, bandages, shots, and grooming supplies.  We had shelves of dog and cat food, treats, and feeding bowls.  We even had child size medical clothing.

In addition to our own stuffed animal puppy and bunny rabbit (of course!) we encouraged the children to bring a lovey from home.  The children had a blast taking care of their animals and role playing as the doctor and as the "parent" of the animals.

We set up a rest and recovery area for our animals.  The animals had an opportunity to get some rest while their "parents" had other plans such as eating a snack, painting and playing outside.
It was so exciting to hear the the children's conversations with each other about their animals.

YeeHaw!

In the spring we love to explore and celebrate our western heritage.  Most city kids don't have experience with western life even though just an hour outside of our city are miles and miles of ranch and farm land.  In our class, we had a saddle, some farm puzzles, rope art and cowboy and cowgirl clothes.  Year after year one of the Bunnies' favorite activities is udder painting.  Mrs. Magee is the pro.  She filled a couple of rubber gloves with paint, and the kids got to pull on the fingers to squirt the paint out!

Story Time

Every few years or so, we have a Bunny Rabbit who can read fluently.  We do not ever pressure children to read even when we know they can.  We allow that child (and every child!) the opportunity to read in very natural situations.  Inevitably late in the year other children figure it out and suddenly we have impromptu story time.  There is something very captivating about being read to by another child.

Sorting by Attributes

Here is a March lesson that should have been an October lesson.  Sometimes it's just hard to fit in everything we need to do!
Our block cabinets were disaster zones.  At the end of each day, the kids just chucked the blocks on the shelves and closed the cabinet.  They were totally unorganized in every way, and sometimes we even had little avalanches.  
We had a whole day of block sorting.  We put three orange tape squares on the rug and one blue tape square.  Each orange square was for a specific size block and the blue square was for any blocks that didn't match the ones in the other squares.  It was a classic what-doesn't-belong set up. 
The Bunnies sorted and sorted and sorted.  They did a fantastic job!

Did you know each block has a certain name?  At the top left is the basic size called "units".  The top right shows "half units" and the bottom left shows "doubles".  On the bottom right are all the misfits that need to be matched with blocks in other cabinets.
Admire their hard work!

Can you believe three year olds did that!!
The real challenge: keeping it that way.

Girls and Blocks

Most of the photos of block structures featured on this blog have been built by boys.  Girls are just as capable of building amazing structures as boys!  These girls worked as a team to build this house and they knew specifically what each room was and who lived there.  Way to go, girls!

Sizes

There are many, many ways to teach the concept of size.  Being able to accurately compare and order items by size is a typical preschool skill.  This is a skill that most children learn easily by simply playing.  Many of them naturally line up toys by size even before they know the words "small", "medium", and "large".  At SLC we provide opportunities that reinforce the skill in FUN ways.  One day we painted with small, medium and large balloons.  The children dipped them in paint and pressed them onto paper.  Math through art is a powerful learning experience.

Feeling the Love

We celebrated Valentine's Day in several ways.  The Bunnies made lots of interesting things with hearts.  The most popular item to make was heart garland.  They figured out how to use tape to connect hearts together in long strings.  There were some hearts in the window with the letters L O V E and some of the children copied the letters on to their garlands.  Yay!

  The Bunnies exchanged Valentine cards with each other.  This was so fun!  They just couldn't wait to see what was inside their own Valentine bag.  Don't you remember the anticipation from your days at school?  I do!

The children also made a HUGE heart mural.  It took several days and this photo shows one of the middle stages.  They had opportunities to contribute to the mural with paint and rollers, with tissue paper, with glitter, and with foam shapes.

Busy, Busy

Two seconds before Mrs. O'Connor snapped this photo each child was busy.  Head-down, focused-on-the-task, BUSY!
On the red tray is an alphabet pop-up toy.  On the blue tray is a fine motor activity in which you use small tongs to pick up little dog bones and puppy paws and place them in a tiny tray.  On the yellow tray is another fine motor game in which you use tongs to feed bananas to a monkey.  On the green tray are Oreo shape puzzles in which you must match two shapes and fit the top and bottom together to make a cookie.

In our class, we refer to these as "puzzles and games".  They don't fit the narrow definition of a puzzle (such as a jigsaw puzzle), but they fit the broader definition as a task that is puzzling and needs solving.  These types of activities rotate each week so there is plenty of opportunity to try new and challenging tasks. 

Something Different

This week in Bunny Rabbit class, there were some neat Fisher Price toys.  They are little buildings, people and furniture for various facets of city life.  They are called Sweet Streets, but I don't think F-P makes them any more.  Anyway, the scene on our rug this week looked much different than usual.  GIRLS!! 
What a welcome change!

Sign Up!

Parents, we have two exciting things for you! 

First, you may sign up for a week to take home Benjamin Bunny.  Our stuffed bunny will come to your house for a week and experience life in your family.  Parents should snap a couple of photos and include them in Benjamin's journal with a brief description of what occurred.  Simple and fun!  This children LOVE reading about Benjamin's adventures.

Second, sign up for a Parent/Teacher conference.  The dates are Friday, February 25 and Monday, February 28.  Conferences are brief (20 minutes) and are an opportunity to visit about your child.  Please make plans to attend without your child.

Look for a pink sign up sheet for Benjamin Bunny and a green sign up sheet for conferences!

Teamwork

This is the time of year when we really begin to see children collaborating together.  These two Bunnies worked as a team to solve this darling puzzle of Little Bear characters.  They were so proud of themselves when it was all done!