High school students from Mrs. Olsen's Child Development class have been visiting our room the past few weeks. They come on Monday and Friday mornings. It is nice to have extra hands in the room, and the children are enjoying getting to know the high school girls.
The Newell-Fonda School and Early Smiles have joined efforts to improve dental health for the preschoolers. The children were given the opportunity to receive free dental screenings, fluoride varnishes and sealants. The children also received a bag with a tooth brush, toothpaste, floss, etc. We really appreciate this service to improve the dental health of our preschoolers.
Each year, the Newell Library chooses a theme for their Christmas tree display. This year, the theme is "An Old Fashioned Christmas". The preschool and transitional kindergarten children decorated a tree for the display. The TK students made paper chains, and we all made cookie ornaments out of salt dough. The librarians gave us a tour of the library and read us some Christmas stories. Come check out our tree if you get a chance.
On Monday, the preschoolers walked to the library for "Story Time". We heard some Thanksgiving stories and made a turkey craft. We thank Angie and Sherrie for inviting us to the library. The kids really enjoyed it.
While learning about the color orange, we did some pumpkin activities. We drew pictures of our small pumpkins, estimated how many seeds were inside and then counted the seeds. There were a lot more seeds in those little pumpkins than anyone thought. We cleaned and carved our big pumpkins.
We have been learning about bats in preschool. We have been singing songs, doing bat activities on the computer and reading books about bats. We ended our unit with Katie, the B.V. County Naturalist, coming to talk to us about bats. She brought some stuffed bats for us to see and one of them we could even touch. It was very soft and furry. We thank Katie for sharing her bats with us.
iPod Touches are one way the preschoolers are using technology in the classroom. The iTouches have applications downloaded on them for the children to use. We use them during our small group time to practice skills such as alphabet knowledge and math skills. Some apps read a story to us or help us form letters and numbers correctly. This week we used them to review colors and to work on counting. The children really enjoy using them.
The highlight of our fire safety unit was getting to ride in the fire department's Rescue Unit.
Firefighter Brian put on his full gear to show the children what he looks and sounds like when he is fighting a fire. This is an important lesson for small children, so they will not be afraid if there is ever a fire in their home and a firefighter needs to rescue them. We talked a lot about going to the firefighter and never hiding from them.
Every Friday during football season, a Mustang football player comes to our class and reads us story. The preschoolers enjoy the stories and seeing the boys in their jerseys. We thank Coach Wilken and the Mustang football team for sharing their time with us each week.
A.M. Class
P.M. Class
