PRE-SCHOOL UPDATE WEEK 7

This week was full of learning FUN new songs about pumpkins:
"Five little Pumpkins Sitting on the Gate", "Mr. Pumpkin", "First you Take a Pumpkin", and making jack'o lantern plates and acting it out as well as doing it on the flannel board.
We also talked about the pumpkin life cycle and the kids helped me tell the story on flannel board.

J is for Jack'o-lantern- We used pumpkin stickers to decorate the J's. The kids attempt to trace and make the letter with their crayons.

Small successes this week:
4 year olds:

• They can verbally spell their names to me and most can write or put all of the letters of their name in order.
• They know how each of their friends names looks and can pick them out by the first letter. They are also noticing how their names look alike. Jonny said, "Corteney has a Y like my name." Henry said, "and like me too!" Owen said, "Corteney has a T like Tyler". So, that was a fun game that we played during our gathering circle time songs.
• Zac wrote this "A" on the chalkboard and was so excited to show me: "Look, I made an A!"

3 year olds:

• They are screaming and crying less and using their words instead. (YEAH!) I heard Rick say, "I don't like that. Please stop." Donovan said, "After you, can I have it?"
• Instead of saying "NO" all the time, they are starting to say "Yes" and "Okay".
• They are sitting still longer and can verbalize better in circle time about the topic we are talking about.
• They know the first letter of each other's names and can find their name.
• They are sharing more often and saying "I'm sorry" more often.
• They are better at cleaning up and following simple 1-2 step directions.

We also learned a song about a witch that the kids LOVED!!! "Let's do the witch song" they all screamed! Whoever wanted a turn, got a turn. Those old cassette tapes I inherited from my Mom's Joy school that are about 20 years old are coming in handy!

We also learned "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly" song and read "The Very Busy Spider". We listened to the story, "Skeleton Hiccups" and read the "J book". We marched around on numbers (like a cake walk) and learned and practiced recognizing the numbers. When I called them out, they were able to pick a prize (a witch's fingernail, a rat, skeleton arms, etc.)
It was a short week since it was Fall Break on Monday & Tuesday!
More Halloween Pictures next week!