Friday, June 15, 2012

Our Daily Schedule


Our daily schedule gives children the comfort of knowing what activity will be coming up next. On any given day,  there is always the chance that something will spark their curiosity and we'll end up down a different path, but for most days, our schedule looks like this:

8:30 - 9:00 - Free Choice Play
Children arrive and put their belongings away. They engage in social time with one another, and discover an ever rotating assortment of age appropriate learning materials.
 
9:00 - 9:10 -  Circle Time
During circle time we cover many topics. From weather to colors, from sight words to calendar time, it's all very hands on and fun. We also sing our Zoo-Phonics song and review the letter animals.

9:10 - 9:30 - Group Activity 1
Our group activity sessions can be anything from a science experiment to cooking class. We make lots of art and enjoy messy sensory activities.

9:30 -  9:45 - Center Rotation
We have several centers that change each week. The children enjoy activities in music, writing, math, dramatic play, and science. We also have a sensory box, light table, and dry erase table with center activities.

9:45 - 10:00 - Snack Time
Yum! Children enjoy organic fruits, vegetables, and proteins. Our snacks are served a variety of fun and creative ways, in bento boxes, muffin tins, ice cube trays, and mason jars, just to name a few!

10:00 - 10:15 - Group Activity 2
A second group activity time. We may be creating journal books, creating an art masterpiece, or writing a play.

10:15 - 11:00 - Outside Play
Out outside play are is filled with awesome things to experience. A clear painting easel, a music wall, a hand water pump, and plenty of toys and room to run. If the weather prevents us from going outside, we will unitize our indoor space to engage in other gross motor activities like parachute play, or dance time with the disco ball.

11:00 - 11:15 -  Group Activity 3
A third group activity time. We may be having yoga class, working on handwriting skills, or learning some new words in Spanish or sign language.

11:15 - 11:30 - Story Time
We have some really great books that link in with our monthly themes. Children can listen to me read, and read to each other, and themselves. Right before pick up time, we review what we worked on and sing our goodbye song.

11:30 - 12:00 Lunch 
On days when lunch is offered, we prepare for lunch and enjoy a fun meal together before reviewing our day and singing our goodbye song.


Saturday, June 9, 2012

Our Water Pump

 Promotes cooperation, cause and effect,

turn taking, gross motor work,

sensory integration, and fun, fun, fun!
(Just to name a few!)



Sunday, June 3, 2012

3. . . 2. . . 1. . .

Blastoff! I'm so excited about our space camp! Here's a sneak peek of what's going on in our centers this week! Missing is our math center, where we will be counting and weighing 'space fuel,' and our dramatic play area, which is a moon landing camping site!

Also, our water pump is here! I plan to write a whole post about it later this week!

Our ceiling is full of planets and stars.


On the magnetic board, we have our space poster and the planets to match up and order.


In our writing center, we'll be working on Zoo-Phonics dry erase cards.


In our science center we'll be working with magnets and doing some fun experiments.


In the sensory table, we have cosmic fluff and space lacing beads.




On our dry erase table we have all the planets ready for some decorations!


And we struck gold! Okay, maybe just water, but for a preschooler,
that's as good as gold!

Saturday, June 2, 2012

They're here. . .

We have some friends visiting us for our space camp unit. They landed last night, and after a good nap, are so anxious to tell your little ones about their home planets! We have one ambassador from each planet, except our own, of course. We'll be doing some research and telling our new friends all about Earth!

Each of our friends is a different color and has different properties. Some are bubbly, some are thick, some are chunky, some are spotty, but they're all full of eyes and can't wait to see the fun that's in store for them!