Pre-3 Families:
We are so glad to be back at the CDFC for the fall semester! We have been getting acquainted with one another and our routine in the classroom. We are becoming familiar with the expectations of the classroom and have been building relationships within our Pre-3 family. We have established our group time routine and implemented the calendar as part of our day, we came up with some basic classroom rules, and have adapted well to all the new changes this semester involving COVID-19 which includes proper mask wearing, hand washing, sensory play, and social distancing. We have some awesome students workers in our classroom this semester. Mary, Megan, and Kristin are all returning students and Christine is new to our class, and has fit in so well! We all have been working hard to provide a positive/safe and welcoming environment.
Author of the Month has been implemented in our classroom. Each month a new author is introduced and books from that particular author are at arms reach for the children to explore and enjoy. This month Victoria Kann was the author and she writes and illustrates the Pinkalicious series. The children reached for these books often and talked about the characters and storyline. For October, we introduced the author Mo Willems! He writes the Elephant & Piggie, the Pigeon series and Knuffle Bunny series. The children seemed excited when they saw those books in the basket.
Fine motor has been on the forefront this month, as we have done several activities and offered play experiences that can help strengthen and improve fine motor skills in the children. Practicing these skills will help with writing, drawing, buttoning, and eating. These are just a few tasks that improve with fine motor exercises. Some of the activities we have done to support these skills include putting coins into a bank slot, stringing beads, using the write board and dry eraser markers, stencil art, using a pipette in science experiments, sticker play, exploration with Play-Doh, exploring with nuts & bolts and lacing cards. We will continue to offer fine motor activities for months to come.
During nap time we have started reading the chapter books; The Magic Tree House. When we first introduced these books to the children at group time we had them vote on what story they wanted to read first. The book that got the most votes was Dolphins at Daybreak. The children have really showed a great deal of interest in these stories. We are amazed with their comprehension skills. We have read the following books: Sunset of the Sabe
rtooth, Dinosuars Before Dark, and are currently reading Afternoon on the Amazon. We also added a new Magic Tree House area to our classroom. We have incorporated pictues and props that represent things we have read about in each of the stories. For example we have plastic animals, multicultural people to represent the characters Jack and Annie bones, notebooks and trees. The children have been very imaginative and creative in their play. It’s great to see them acting out different scenarios as they have heard in the stories.
In the next few weeks we will be introducing a new program called Second Step into our morning group times. This program helps children with social emotional development and empathy skills. We will be using posters that have pictures of children and different scenarios that help children problem solve and talk about different feelings they may be experiencing. We also will be introducing impulsive puppy and slow down snail. They are puppets that we will be using to role play different scenarios that have been occuring in the classroom. For example: How to join in on play with our peers, how we can use our kind words to ask for something we want from a peer, etc. Diane has implemented this program for many years and have found it helpful.
If you have any questions about anything please feel free to talk with us. You can also reach us by email:
dmathison@niu.edu
bbrandon1@niu.edu
Thank you for sharing your child with us everyday!!!!
Happy Fall!
Diane and Bri
