Little Smiles Preschool

Big building construction from my kiddos today. I love how their brains work. 💜💜

Last spring, my class planted sunflower seeds. One of my families just messaged me. Their child has been caring for their plant since we planted them at preschool this past spring. Their flower is beautiful! 🌻

When you make a large meal and no one wants to do the dishes… sometimes it just makes me smile after an area is done being used by the children. Their thought process is very similar to adults especially when it comes to dishes.

“Teacher! We made a water tower!” It is always so interesting the way children’s minds work.

I decided to attach my other dollhouse I refinished last summer to another bin system. I always have children working at the dollhouse in the front classroom and so I thought a second dollhouse set up in the back classroom would be really nice to have so we have one in each classroom. My students do like having the standing option with the dollhouse which is why I bolted the dollhouse to the top of a piece of furniture. I decided to put pets, people, trees, dollhouse furniture, loose parts for open-ended play, and shells for science exploration in the bins. My brain kind of thought about maybe the kids would think maybe about a trip to the beach they have taken with their families. More labels to come when my printer ink arrives.

We still have space this summer in our daycare. If you are interested in a slot, please reach out to me.

A year ago, our outdoor space could be difficult because outdoor materials were expensive for the preschool so I have slowly picked up materials over time. I got the opportunity today to pick up some free outdoor equipment from a daycare closing in Wilsonville. My family jumped in to help. We ended up with mostly outdoor equipment which included more construction blocks, an outdoor table and bench set, several outdoor crates, and an outdoor bench. We spent the afternoon pressure washing, staining, and organizing. I can honestly say my outdoor space is complete with the exception of one more item I ordered for the school for our mud kitchen area. Many thanks to my family for taking their time on a Saturday and the organization giving away their materials. I have before and after pictures.

My eyes are always watching for classroom materials. I found a large bin of wooden blocks while second hand shopping for $10 over the weekend. I believe they are made by Childcraft which their sets are super pricey. I always have a large selection of building materials but I absolutely love going back to basics with wooden building blocks for preschoolers because it promotes so many skills- social, emotional, language, physical, science, math, and cognitive skills. I almost left them behind thinking maybe another school would need them more than us because I had enough for one classroom but I am glad I decided not to because we can definitely use them in both of our classrooms. My daycare kids are already intensely building with them.

My daycare kids this summer have been into bird watching. We have put up some bird feeders and they get so excited when the birds fly in.

When I come up with crazy ideas, my partner is always like, “Let’s do it”. All I can say it big thank you to him. Tonight we pressure washed and restained our new to us mud kitchen. It is so beautiful and looks like new again. I placed it next to our sensory table for side by side play.