Trinity Preschool Activities for Monday, October 27, 2014

Maple Room- MWF class

We read "Franklin's Halloween" by Paulette Bourgeois

We made pumpkin lanterns.  The children got some cutting practice in while they created these fun fall decorations.

We had paint and brushes at the easel.

We did letter A activities

We did our first skype talk today with someone in California.

Oak Room: Pre- K class

We read "Don't laugh, Joe" by Keiko Kasza ( a story about a opossum)

We made paper jack 0- lanterns.  The children drew on lines on the paper, and added a face.  We staple it into a circle shape and added a handle.

We had painting at the easel.

We did Miss Mary Mack ( using a BIG BOOK), Late Last Night, and a 3 little possums rhyme.

We put our pumpkins on a table with markers and a wet rag.  The children could draw on the pumpkin with the markers and then erase it.

Willow Room: MWF class

We read "Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf" by Lois Elhert

We made wreaths using real leaves and paper leaves.

We painted as "a team " at the easel sharing the space and the paint.

We did "Over in the meadow", "Come and join in the game" and "As I was walking" for music today.

We cut open our pumpkin today.  We looked inside and smelled it and played with the seeds and the stringy parts that were insice.

We also read the book "Press Here"

We have our pretend hen in the room- she is almost ready to hatch the eggs.

Stay and Play:

we used paint and brushes at the table.

It was beautiful outside so we had our snack outdoors and played outside extra time.

We did Brown Bear and on the count of 5 for music time.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Friday, October 24, 2014

Oak Room: Pre-  class

We read "One smart sknuk" by Harriet Ziefert

We cut out circle shapes for a tree top, then we cut out a tree trunk shape. We glued them to paper and glued on leaves that were cut punched using a hand held leaf puncher.  We made the leave various fall colors.  We used markers and crayons to add other elements to our fall pictures.

We did a 5 little coyotes (rhyme using props and music)
and we used the clackers to do "alligator stomp"

We practiced writing the letter G on dry erase boards.  We made a lst of words that begin with the letter G.

Willow Room- MWF class

We read "No sleep for sheep" by Karen Beaumont

We asked the children today "What is your favorite animal sound?"

We painted with corn cobs by rolling them in boxes with yellow and white paint.

We painted with regular brushes at the easel.

We did a rhyme of various colored wagons,

We did "Over the deep blue sea", "Tommy Thumb", and "Everybody has a face" for music today.

Maple Room- MWF class

We read "There was an old lady who swallowed some leaves" by Lucille Colandro
We used a large puppet for this rhyme and we had her eat the items in the book.  The we had her sneeze and the props all came out onto the magnetic board.

We used pumpkin and leaf cookie cutters to make prints on orange paper with glitter paint

We painted leaf shapes at the easel.

We did The October song, Scarecrow, scarecrow, and Pumpkin in the straw for music today.

Activities to do at home to develop fine motor skills in preschool children

Fine Motor Skills:

Children going into kindergarten are expected to be able to do so much more now than in the past that requires good fine motor skills.  They are expected to be able to hold a pencil, write their name, first and last, have good scissor skills, etc.  

While we work on those skills here at Trinity, some children have weaker fine motor muscles, or possibly, just have not had additional experience with the materials needed to develop those muscles.

Make a game of the ideas below, don’t make it be work or seem like punishment:

Here are a few ideas for helping your child build their fine motor hand muscles.

1. Scissors:  Children should use blunt tip, kids’ scissors to cut little snips of paper or cut out simple shapes.  Remember, thumbs point up to the ceiling.  Small paper is better as it is hard for children to manage moving a large piece of paper when learning scissor use.
2. Tearing: Have your child rip up pieces of scrap paper, junk mail, etc.  They could then use glue to attach the pieces to paper.
3. Pencils- For young children the jumbo pencils are good or put a pencil grip on a pencil to make it easier to manage.  At first you can have them just scribble, encourage them to press down some too.  Many children with weak fine motor muscles make barely legible pencil marks.
4. Markers, Crayons, etc.  All good for developing those muscles.  Crayons, break them into pieces no longer than 2 inches so they need to pinch them to hold them.  Longer crayons rest on the hand and don’t require as much muscle work.
5. Modeling clay:  This is similar to playdough, but more firm.  You can get it at Walmart, Hobby Lobby, Kmart, Meijers, etc. This works the hand muscles, and they can make fun creations.
6. Playdough, This works too, it just is softer, so does not work hand muscles as well. We have a good recipe for home made playdough.
7. Slant board  or easel: When the paper is flat on the table, the child does not have to work as hard to write or draw, if you are able to make the paper vertical or at least slanted, they need to hold the pencil, crayon, etc. more firmly to use it.
8. Tweezers: Picking up small objects using tweezers or just picking up small objects with fingers is great for fine motor too.  We pick the corn off feed corn cobs as a way of doing this type of activity.
9. Small water color size paint brushes.  You can use any kid of paint, water colors, or even water.  The idea is that the child holds the paint brush with a finger grip, not a whole hand hold.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Willow Room: MWF class

We read "Pigsty" by Mark Teague

We asked the children "Do you like to play in the mud?

We fingerpainted using chocolate pudding on pig shape paper.

At the easel we separated apple shapes according to size.

We played with "muddy pigs", corn starch and water mixed with a little brown paint to make mud, and plastic pigs for some great sensory fun.

We did a 5 clean and dirty pigs rhyme

We worked on our fine motor skills by peeling stickers off a paper and adding them to a barn shape.

Oak room: Pre- K class

We read "The bravest of the brave" ( a skunk story) by Shutta Crumb
 and Night Creatures by  Wade Cooper

We also read the letter G book.

We worked in our journal notebooks on letter G words and pictures.

We had pumpkin shape sponges at the easel and orange paint.  We also had green paint with small brushes so the children could add embellishments to their pumpkins.

We did a Nocturnal animal rhyme and "Gt ready get set, lets dance " for music time/

We had a new construction building toy out today and we have corn kernels in our sensory table.

Maple Room: MWF class

We read "The little old lady who wasn't afraid of anything" by Linda Williams

We did acorn painting.  We dipped acorns and little bumpy balls in paint and rolled them back and forth in a box on top of our paper.

We did Down around the corner at the pumpkin patch for music.

We did letter S activities, we reviewed the letter and Sound motion .  We read the letter S book and asked do you have the letter S in your name?

Stay and Play:

We read "Pete the cat books- "His 4 groovy buttons and also In my school shoes: by Eric Litwin

We did a group painting project with trucks and airplanes with a large box and rolled them down an incline to make the tracks from the wheels.

We did Leaves on the trees and on the count of 5 for music today.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Thursday, October 23, 2014

Willow Room- T/TH class

We read "Pigsty" by Mark Teague

We asked the children "Do you like to play in the mud?

We fingerpainted using chocolate pudding on pig shape paper.

We sorted apples by size on the magnetic board.

We did scarecrow, scarecrow, what do you see?, Jump up turn around, and I like my hat for music time today.

We had muddy pigs in the room!  We mixed corn starch and water with a little brown paint and put plastic pigs in the mixture for the children to explore.

We did a 5 clean and dirty pigs rhyme

We read "The farmer in the Dell", using a BIG Book.

Oak Room:  Pre- K class

We read "I'm not sleepy! by Jane Chapman
and Incredible Owls by J. Martin (which is a fact book about owls)

We made "eyes in the night".  The children used two corks taped together to dip in glue and press onto black paper.  Then they sprinkled colored glitter onto the glue to look like eyes glowing in the night.

We did Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and acted out using props, and "Can you leap like a frog?"
 for music time today.

We did our name and letter graph for the letter G "Does your name have the letter G in it?

Trinity Preschool Activities for Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Oak Room:

We read "Bat's Big Game" by Margaret Read McDOnald and "While the world is sleeping" by Pamela Duncan Edwards

We made bat prints by using glitter paint on dark blue paper.  We later cut the paper into bat shapes and hung them around our room.

We did "Pumpkin in the brown straw", "Dance with me", and "Nocturnal Animal rhymes" for music time today.

We looked for bats that were hidden around the room. We traced the bat shapes onto a large piece of paper and as the children found the bats, they placed them onto the outline.  This helped with some counting and figuring out how many more bats we needed to fine.  After we found them all, we hid them again.

Willow Room- T/TH class

We read "Peek a boo Puppy"  "The Apple pie tree " by Zoe Hall

We painted using prickle ball rings and fall colors of tempra paint.  We held the prickle balls with a clothes pin as a handle.  We put leaf and acorn shape frames around our art.

We did The freeze dance, couch potato pokey, and 5 little ducks for music time.

We played with rakes on the playground today.

We introduced our pretend Mother Hen to the children today.  She is sitting on a tray with play eggs in it.  She will be in our room until the eggs "Hatch".

We made apple pies with the applesauce we made last week.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Monday, October 20, 2014

Maple Room- MWF class

We read "The biggest pumpkin ever" by Elizabeth Bennett

We used oil pastel crayons and made leaf rubbings.  The children used black construction paper to place over leaves taped down to cardboard.  They used the side of the oil pastel crayons to rub across the paper and make a print of the leaf.

We had leaf shape stencils at the easel.

We did 5 little leaves, 4 little leaves, ( a rhyming song) and Fall leave ( tune of wheels on the bus)

We are starting the letter of the week in our class, however, we are using a phonics program and are not doing the letters in order. We start with the letter S.

Stay and Play:

We are painting with balls as paintbrushes, and fingerpainting.

We did a shape game.

We did Little fish, and who stole the pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. for music today.

Oak Room: Pre- K class

We read "Stellaluna" by Janel Cannon

We had a discussion about "What animals are nocturnal?"  What is "nocturnal?"

We made bats out of toilet paper tubes.  We painted the rolls black and cut out wings to add. They will hang from the ceiling in our room.

We dud "5 little bats"; "Sticky Bubble Gum" and "A little faster on 3" for music today/