Welcome to School 2016-2017

Welcome to School

We are all super excited to be back in the classrooms! Welcome back to our returning children and a big welcome to our new kiddos. We can't wait to get to know you all. Our theme for the month of September is "Welcome to School". The classrooms are fully stocked with  "Welcome to School" themed activities, games and toys and were going to have a lot of fun learning with them.

 

 

We have an oversized Mr. Potato Head felt board set up in one the classrooms.  The children can build Mr. Potato Head while learning a number of school readiness skills (e.g., identifying body parts, colors, shapes, numeracy, turn taking, etc.) 

 



 

We also set up giant building blocks!! The kiddos can work on building with their peers. With every activity there are numerous ways to target a variety of skills while playing (e.g., colors, numeracy, imitation, prepositions, communication, sharing, ending a preferred activity,  communication, etc.)

 



We made a cardboard school bus for the children to play in!! The children can take turns pretending to drive the bus as well as  pretend to be a passenger. We will be practicing the classic "Wheels on the Bus" song, with actions, along with many more fun songs.

 

 

We often utilize song visuals to encourage participation (e.g. choosing what to sing next).  

 

 

We set up a mini classroom, so the children can play school! They can take turns pretending to be a teacher as well as being a student and sitting for a circle time.

 



Each month we put extra emphasis on one color and this month that color is PURPLE!  The children's name tags are purple, we will do lots of purple crafts, and we have a purple rice tactile table and a purple paper tactile bin set up.

Purple Rice Tactile Bin

The children can find toys hidden in the rice and have fun filling and pouring the rice.

 

 Purple Paper Tactile Bin

 

The children can identify purple materials in the tactile bin and have fun ripping and squishing the paper.

 

Purple Play Dough Centre

 

We also focus on a particular shape each month and this month were focusing on the shape of a circle.  Today we had fun coloring and painting purple circles. We explored different coloring tools (e.g. markers, pencil crayons, crayons, and paint brushes) and experimented with different kinds of mark making (e.g. scribbles, lines, dots, etc.). We also learned how to mix red and blue paint to make purple paint.

 Purple Circle ART!!!