A Great First Day!

What fun we had today!

Playing in our sand themed sensory tub.

Using stencils for the very first time.

Sender helps wash the apples.

Mendel and Sender help bring the fruit to the classroom.

Ella and Marnie help cut the apples.

  

Levi helps tidy up and puts away food in the pantry.

Thank you Sender and Levi for bringing fruit this week for snack!

All ready for swimming!

Which proved to be so much fun!!

End of Year Celebration

Today we celebrated the last day of preschool!

The children are very proud of their portfolio's...

...and all their work...

Thank you for such a wonderful year together!

Cutting Skills

Today we focused on cutting skills:

Proficient scissor use requires foundational components such as postural stability, hand strength and dexterity, hand-eye coordination, bilateral integration, sensory integration, sequencing, rhythm, and attention. These are skills that are also needed for success in play and learning.

Sender saw Ella playing at the table with the sequencing cards.  He wanted to play too, he strategically asks Ella "Can I help you?" 

Ella is happy to have Sender's advice in arranging the pictures.

They discuss where each picture belongs.  "We did it!"  Ella says when they are done.

Hannah gets her hand painted purple...

...Kayle creates a handprint for her portfolio cover.

Just a regular breakfast at preschool.

"Look at my food", says Kayle.

At circle time we notch up the matching game by turning the flowers upside down.
The children loved finding the matches and often did so on the first try!

Beading Benefits

Today we focused on a beading activity.  

Here is a summary of the beading benefits:

Beading encourages children to use their pincer grasp, thus strengthening the small muscles of their hands.  Picking a bead up from the beading tray, and then manipulating it in one's hand until it is pinched between  thumb and finger, involves translation, shift and rotation movements of the bead within the hand.  Threading beads onto a string involves bilateral coordination of the child's hands, and requires their eyes and hands to work together. 

Overall Developmental Benefits of Beading: 

* Improved fine motor, visual perceptual, visual motor and cognitive skills

* Improved dressing skills (especially clothing fasteners, like buttons and zippers)

* Improved pencil grasp and pencil control during colouring and writing activities

* And last but not least, Beading can provide a sense of accomplishment in completing a project that offers freedom of self-expression and improved self-esteem. 

The children felt very pleased with their hard work and focus!

Peek into our Day

Today the children drew with pastels.

Daniella enjoys the rich color and the easy glide of the pastel.

 

Hannah is intentional about the color she chooses.

Sender  uses two colors at once.

Kayle and Ella set out a table cloth, bring baskets of food and have a picnic.

Daniella chose the letter D, she knows it is the first letter of her name!

Sender found 2 S's!  He knows S is his letter.

Today we taped a square to the floor to help develop the children's sweeping skills. 

Kayle was able to sweet a pile of rice into the square!

Mendel made a big circle.

Sender is working on connecting the pieces to create a big circle.