Private Pre-K at Discovery Point Bethelview

Last week we learned all about Hanukkah! We learned to play the dreidel game and made menorahs!

We had a great time making gingerbread cookies that we can keep. These cookie shaped ornaments gave our class an opportunity to mix math, science, and fine motor skills into one fun activity!

Today we tasted gingerbread men!! We noted our first bite and compared it with our friends then created a class graph telling us who liked our snack and who didn’t.

Learning to create patterns as we make candy cane orniments for our class tree!!!

Our Christmas trees were made by lining up the pieces in size order and our wreath art was a great review for circles and squares, both were great fine motor exercise!!

Tho eel our unit topic has been shapes of the Season. We learned that pentagon have 5 sides and can sometimes look like a house. We added square windows, rectangle doors, and used our finger prints to make a pattern of Christmas lights!

Field trip to the art studio!!! Our ornaments should be ready to come home next week!

I am so proud of these kiddos!! They are doing such a great job writing!!

When you have days as beautiful as today you spend them outside!!!

Today we read about pumpkins, carved one, and explored what we found inside!!

Farm Fun today on our Field Trip!!!! The kids had the best time and Warbington Farms was amazing as usual!!! We got to feed the animals, take a hay ride, learn about the life cycle of a pumpkin, run through the corn, and jump and play in the play area. We ended our day with a class Picnic! It was an all around amazing day!!!

Leaf pile letters was a fun writing activity this week! The kids picked a letter leaf from the pile and then wrote it down.

Yoga enrichment today!

We love doing group reading activities in our small groups. Over the past couple days we have been reading about the life cycle of an oak tree. When we read together like this where everyone has a book to follow along it engages our students on so many levels! We are learning that we always read top to bottom and left to right, picking out words we might know, and looking for context clues in the pictures.

Making leaves during our Art Enrichment. This was a great activity to work on fin motor control and pincer grip while being creative and having fun!

We love hands on learning!! Today during our S.T.E.M. time we explored leaves, tree slices, acorns, and Pinecones. We used magnifiers and flashlights to enhance our study. We discussed size, color, texture, and so much more!!

Classroom camping to round out our camping unit!!

Our field trip to Caney Creek Preserve was awesome! The kids had a great time exploring the dinosaur themed play area, having outdoor story time, going on a nature scavenger hunt, hiking through the wooded area, and having a picnic!!!

We made a new friend on the playground today!!!

The kids had fun making tent art today for camping week!! First they cut out their tents and then added things like campfires and trees using crayons.

Ending our apple week by making apple individual pies!!!

Letter recognition and formation skills are the name of the game for our Independent group!

Working on our pattern skills in small group this week!

Working on letter formation using our Handwriting Without Tears “Line It Up Letters” today during Writer’s Workshop!!

Learning to write the word apple while creating some fun apple suncatchers today during large group!

We took journal time outside yesterday!!

These kids where in my small group today and we are so proud of them!! They are segmenting sentences into words, tracking from left to right, recognizing numerals, practicing color words and counting. But we are most proud of the fact that they slowed down and took the time to figure out the answers when they weren’t sure!!!

These kids had a great time on their very first field trip!!!! The Post Road Library did a great job of keeping us all entertained and teaching us along the way!! We read books, sang songs, learned a little poetry, and got to learn a little about how the library works!!! The bus ride was just as much fun with music and dancing all the way there and back!!

Today during our fine art enrichment class we learned all about Jackson Po***ck!! After reading about him and watching a short video clip of him creating a masterpiece we went out to our outdoor classroom and tried out his methods for ourselves!!!

Here are a few reactions to our taste test today as we continue to learn about our 5 senses!!

These are our ”I SPY” letter bottles. The kids have to shake them around to find the hidden letters inside. When they find o e they record it on their dry erase board!

We worked together to sort things by which senses we use when exploring each one! Then we worked on our own to make a chart that covers the same concept to take home with us!

We mixed jello powder in with our paints to make them sell nice and then we explored the way colors mix together!

Letter tracing on the magnet board, easel painting, scissor skills practice, and stamping fun!! All in a day’s learning here in Private Pre-k!

Our fist yoga enrichment class was today!!! We practiced our breathing and worked on our stretches!

Research tells us that the more senses you engage when learning something the more likely you are to remember it! Today we used our fingers to trace out letters in peppermint scented sand. We made sure to go over the sounds each letter makes as we traced it. Plus this activity is a little messy and that makes it a favorite!

During our S.T.E.M enrichment today we went over the science safety rules for our classroom. We used droppers to drop colored vinegar onto a tray of baking soda. We got to watch the reactions and the mixing colors.

Working on our self portraits today after learning about Frida Kahlo!

Today during small groups we measured our feet! First we traced our shoe then used 1 inch squares to measure approximately how big they are. The kids counted the squares, wrote down their measurements, and compared with their friends!!!

Today we read My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss!!! This is a great book that associates moods with colors. After we were finished reading we painted people cut outs to represent the different emotions that we feel everyday!!