The children were very excited to write a thank-you note to Firefighter Joe after our visit to the fire station.  This activity helped them remember what they had seen and identify something they liked about the visit.  Next we spent lots of time counting!  Children love to count and we counted items in brown bags (buttons, small blocks, craft sticks, markers, etc.), as well as anything else the children could find in the room.  Counting is fun!During our small group time, the children used pencils to make vertical and horizontal lines and circles.  Their ability to do this indicates whether they are beginning to perceive the structure of letters and are capable of beginning to reproduce them on paper.  We also tried to print the letters in our names, and the children are always excited by their “writing.”  During our next small group we will be taking turns, measuring and mixing as we prepare something special for our Thanksgiving feast!

Last week, we explored the concept of rhyming words, and read lots of nursery rhymes from our Mother Goose books.  Rhyming is an important pre-reading and language skill, and it takes lots of practice.  Many of the primary children have not yet grasped this concept, but it will come!  They have lots of fun as they try to think of words that sound like other words and it’s always fun to play with language.  This week we will talk about families, and the children love to tell us all about family members and the things they can do together.  Families are such a central part of their lives and they never tire of telling us family stories!  We will talk about God’s many blessings, and the many things for which we are thankful during the week of Thanksgiving.

The primary children also have “show and tell” each week, where one child brings in something special to show and tell us about.  This gives all the children an important opportunity to practice social skills as they

either speak in front of a group and express their ideas, or listen to others and ask questions appropriately. 

During the last two weeks of October, the children were learning about air power.  They had fun experimenting with all the different ways to make items move by using condiment bottles, and even using their own lung power.  They had  “sailboat” races with boats made out of styrofoam and had their own start and finish places to see who would get there first while using the different sources to make them move.  This was a great cognitive and fine motor activity. 

During the last two weeks, the children engaged in “I Spy” with binoculars, magnifying glasses and reading glasses available for the children to use with some of our “I Spy” books.  They also enjoyed finding the four turkeys that were “hidden” on the walls in the activity room.  This is a great activity for cognitive and social development.  This week the children will begin to explore different ways to set up cardboard tubes and have balls roll through them.
 

WRITING AND LANGUAGE CENTER

The writing center recently had a memory game.  The children enjoyed taking turns by turning the cards over to check to see if they had the same picture on it to make a match.  The picture might be a horse, doll, house, cow, etc.  This game promotes cognitive development as well as social development.  Currently we have several  “magnadoodles” on the table with letter books and word cards.  This promotes fine motor skills while the children are drawing or writing letters and words and promotes social development as the children converse with each other.