She happened to be molting during bird week, providing an excellent explanation of how feathers emerge.
Category: school
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Winter concert
Today the whole school went to the local Senior Center and sang for them. They love seeing all the little faces, singing their hearts out.
As this is the first year of the preschool, we were first-time participants. We’d been practicing our songs for weeks, and I’m so proud of them.
Neko and Shep did a great job singing with the older kids, which makes me smile, as I remember the year when Neko was a kindergartener, hiding under a chair so she didn’t have to sing.
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The Underground
Social studies with preschoolers is tough. Their concept of a world beyond their view is limited at best. You can tell them about other cultures, but they really learn best through experiencing. Short of whisking them off to foreign lands, it’s been a whole lot of thinking outside the box to plan this particular part of the curriculum.
This week we’re talking about the United Kingdom. Which, seriously, does anyone truly understand the United Kingdom? (This snippet Susie found seems to shed some light on it.) Anyway, I thought we’d zoom in on London and talk about the Underground and all the places it can take you.
I retro-fitted my Playmobil train and station to resemble the Underground. I created a map of destinations, all of which we had discussed in class, and told the children to think about where their passengers were headed that day. The loading and unloading the passengers had the additional aspect of refining fine-motor skills.
They loved this work, and it was in use most of the week. I smiled each time I heard a small voice call out, “Mind the gap!”
Really—I have no idea how anyone becomes a preschool teacher without training as a designer.
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Entomophobia
Between parenthood and being a preschool teacher, I think I’ve pretty well kicked my fear of insects in the head.
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Apples
This handy peeler and corer creates squeals of joy and delight from every preschooler who lays hands on it.
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Monarchs
We’ve been raising monarchs at school. Just today the first butterfly emerged, leaving us with three chrysalises.
If you look carefully at the chrysalis in the foreground, you can see the monarch wings below the slightly translucent surface.
Science is neat-o!
