Transparent and Opaque

Yes, we do have the smartest and best problem solving preschool students EVER! We finally figured out why some shadows are colorful and some are black. We even learned the vocabulary to talk about these like VERY smart children. "The light can shine through some of them!" I about(maybe I did) did the happy dance when one little lady shouted this out! YES, we figured it out! After handing each student an object, they had to decide if it was transparent or opaque and then test it out on the overhead projector. It was such a fun journey watching them learn about shadows and light and we are not finished yet! Shadows have taken us into rainbows and color mixing and now learning new vocabulary to talk about them. Enjoy some fun pictures from the beginning of our week.

We have also had A LOT of birthdays this week! It is so much fun watching all these little miracles grow and learn.

March Snack Schedule

1- Natalie BIRTHDAY

4- Mason BIRTHDAY

5- Margaret

7- Max

11- Nathan

12- Rylee

14- Shania

15- Ava

25- Braxton

26- Curtis

28-Evelyn

29- Giselle

Shadows and Color Mixing!

Yes, we are still learning so many new things about shadows and still enjoying them!  The students still have yet to figure out why some shadows are colorful, which has taken us on a new adventure of color mixing, as many students stack translucent objects on the overhead and make new colors of shadows.  We are going to kick off the week with shadow tracing outdoors and mixing colors to make rainbow paintings.  I am so excited to see the unique paintings that each student will come up with.

Reminder!  NO preschool on March 8th due to a professional development day.

Spring Break- March 18-22

March snack schedule will be sent home on Monday.

The Importance of Play

I LOVE just watching my students play during what many call "Free Choice Time". At Ms. Hollie's Preschool, we call it "Grow Your Brain Time". I love it when a student says, "What do we do now?" and I get to answer with, "Go and grow your brain!"

Yesterday I was able to observe a group of my kiddos build a small town out of blocks and I was amazed by the creativity. They had a garden, which was built using a pattern of colors, a beautiful skateboard park with a child on a skateboard and some very tall buildings and houses.

These students worked together for over 30 minutes problem solving together, developing language skills, math skills, social studies, fine motor, and most importantly, feeling good about what they were doing and having FUN! What if I had stopped these students from playing after 20 minutes? Preschool students need at least a full hour of solid play while at preschool and our students often get more, because we feel that students learn the most through play. I pray that as teachers, we never forget the importance of play and being creative. I fear that we are not allowing our children enough time to be children and to marvel at how creative and intelligent they truly are if we just let them show us. Anyone can match up numbers or write a letter on a worksheet, but can anyone build a skateboard park out of blocks? I know that I could not have built one as cool as the one that my students built yesterday. Let them be little, let them feel loved and confident...you will be amazed at how much these little minds can come up with.

Spring Break

Spring Break will be March 18-22! :) I will be praying for warm temperatures and sunshine!

Shadows Shadows Everywhere!

A new week, with some exciting lessons to come! We have really enjoyed making shadows and seeing shadows EVERYWHERE!

This week we will be learning how to form the letter R and trying to make rainbow shadows. We have already discovered that not all shadows are black.

We are working on our numbers 1-10 this week as well and matching the number to the quantity.

In science, we will be exploring rainbows and shadows.

If you have not handed in your Kindergarten registration to me yet, please bring that to preschool as soon as you can. :) Thanks!

There will be NO SCHOOL on Friday, March 8th, due to professional development. :(

We are seeing a lot of illness in our class the past couple weeks. We all know that no matter what we do to prevent them from spreading, those silly germs find a way. Please help keep our classroom a healthy place to learn by keeping your child home if they are ill. Children need to be fever free, diarrhea free and free from vomiting for at least 24 hours before returning to class.

Thanks for everything!

More Shadow and Valentine's Day Party info.!

We are really enjoying learning about shadows. Someone noticed today that if she put a transparent blue ruler on top of a transparent red ruler, the shadow on the wall from the overhead was purple! LOVE the self-teaching that is taking place! While we were outside, we saw lots of shadows, "Ms. Hollie, the slide has a shadow!" "Oh, look Ms. Hollie, when I climb up the rocks, my shadow is "crookedy"! By the way, I love the new word, "crookedy"! :) While we lined up to go inside, I decided to count shadows instead of kiddos, which really made some of us giggle.

Enjoy the pictures from the past couple days.

Valentine's Day party is on Thursday and each student is asked to bring a decorated box with a valentine for each of their classmates. We will have a dance, games, crafts and snacks! So fun!

We have also been doing some patterning with hearts and other fun math activities in our new small groups. Ask your child about their new small group and what we have been working on.

Shadows!

Why do some shadows have color and some do not? So much fun watching their little brains spin! I LOVE watching them learn on their own. Lots of investigation in our classroom today when the kiddos put a transparent blue ruler down on the overhead and the shadow was blue. All of the students worked together to gather other blue items around the room to see if the shadow would be blue. They tried dark blue, light blue and many other colors, but the shadows were just black. Hmmmmm...

We also had a Pizza Party to celebrate the letter P and did some "Ice Skating" inside because it was too wet to go out today.

I LOVE my job!

Shadows!

We have only had a couple days of our shadow study and the students are blowing my mind with their learning! We started by finding out what they already know and we got things such as, shadows happen at night, I make shadow animals on the wall...by Tuesday afternoon, I recorded them telling me that shadows can move, you need light to make a shadow, a shadow is made from the sun, if the clouds are out, we can't see our shadow, and so much more! WOW! On Tuesday morning we took the students outside and traced their shadows with chalk and then returned 2.5 hours later, stood in the same spot and realized that our shadows were in a different spot. Now, to find out why...I simply LOVE the curiosity!


Enjoy some pictures from the beginning of our study and keep stopping by to see what we are learning! We will be measuring shadows tomorrow and writing in our journal about our shadow outside. :)

Fun Times at Ms. Hollie's!

Let the heart making begin! So much glitter and fun to come this month! We are having a blast learning with our friends. No time for worksheets at this preschool! :)