NEWSLETTER
November 27-30
Books we read this week:
Holiday Centers and Games
As we finish up the first part of our preschool year and move into the new year, we will begin to incorporate more games and manipulative learning centers into our classroom. The children have been exploring the materials we use for these games and experiences in this first part of the year so that they have experience with them. We watch what they do and ask questions as they play to both understand their thinking and to see if they can work with them in specific ways. We are now gradually creating more guided experiences with the materials that require the children to listen to directions or steps and then manipulate the materials for a specific purpose. Literacy and math are they key components of these game and activity experiences. We are continually emphasizing letter and number recognition, with special emphasis on the letters in their names and their friends names, and counting items to match with the numbers they see and identify. Fine motor work is a key incorporation as well - lots of picking up materials and placing them in specific places.
Our games and centers use manipulatives that we create and are themed to connect to the time of year that we are in. So for the next few weeks it is all holiday games and activities! These themed materials make the experiences even more fun and tend to ignite lots of conversation about the children's experiences during this particular time of year. So in our game and manipulative work we get natural oral language experiences as well as expressive and receptive language practice.
This week we played Letter Bingo by adding "lights" to our tree. We called out a letter and showed it on a card, and if the children had it on their tree they placed a colored gem on top. The gems look like lights and they require the children to pick each one up individually (pincer grasp - thumb and pointer finger) and place it in the correct spot (hand-eye coordination; visual-spatial awareness). It was very exciting to "light up" each of their trees as they recognized each letter!
Letters in our Name
We continually emphasize recognizing their names and then the letters in their name. This activity began with the children matching their name on a card to the large sheet with their name and the first letter of their name. We identified and discussed what letters are in their names (similarities and differences) and then had each child identify the BIG first letter of their name. Once each one was identified, we decorated those large letters to make them much more interesting to look at! This manipulative art experience followed specific steps in order to observe fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. The children:
Traced their large letter with their finger
Applied glue on the letter (they were encouraged to apply the glue in the same format as they traced and to keep the glue only on the letter; new glue bottles were used for each child in order to make it easier for the glue to come out)
Apply beads one at a time on the glue lines
Apply pom poms one at at time on the glue lines
Once the letter was decorated, they could decorate the rest of the sheet in any way that they wanted to. We always like to give a creative/open-ended opportunity in art experiences when we use the materials in specific/focused ways.
The beads and the pom poms were two different manipulatives in terms of size and texture. They had to use their pincer grasp to pick them up, but the "pick up" action was different. The beads were small and hard, while the pom poms were larger and soft/squishy. They had to work their two fingers very differently to pick up each material. The placement on the glue line was also different - beads are small and need a more careful placement, while the pom poms are larger and lighter, so they needed a bit more room for their placement. Both required a focused eye and careful manipulation. In the end we have colorful and creative letter art to decorate our classroom!
