Pre-K: Rothko, Restaurant and Rocks!

Feb 8, 2019
2 min read

Pre-K did a great job with all things "Rr" this week!

Language and Literacy

Our Dramatic Play area was transformed into a restaurant, and, after watching the video of "Curious George Goes to a Restaurant", Pre-K came up with a menu for it! We determined the first sound of each item on the menu, noticed sounds and letters that we have already studied, and had so much fun talking about food we might want to serve and how much each item should cost. We also came up with a few potential names for our restaurant, and children voted on Rushing River.

This week we also started talking about sound effects in books. We read Red Sled, which is mostly pictures except for the sound effects the characters make throughout the book. For Writing About Reading, children drew a scene and added their very own sound effects.

Math and Science

During our visit with Melissa from Puddlestompers, we learned about animal homes, and, after reading the book If You Find a Rock, Martine led a fantastic rock hunt on one of the beautiful days earlier this week. Later in the week, we practiced recording numbers in 3 different ways - take a look at our bulletin board in the hall to see how far Pre-K has come this year! On Friday, we investigated rain and how it’s made. Here is a link to the experiment in case you want to try it at home: https://thestemlaboratory.com/rain-cloud-jar/

Art

We looked at images of Mark Rothko’s paintings in Mark Rothko: Subjects in Abstraction and at Rembrandt’s self-portraits in Rembrandt by Himself. To work like Rothko did, first, children taped rectangles to their paper; then, they used pastels to color them in. After using foam and paintbrushes to blend, they removed the tape to reveal their very own Rothko-inspired works, which are up on our Pre-K Bulletin Board. After looking at images of Rembrandt’s self portraits with hats, each child chose their own hat to wear, while doing their February self portraits. Take a look on our bulletin board in Pre-K to see the adorable results!

Gross and Fine Motor

We are starting to focus more consistently on fine motor strength with the children in preparation for more serious writing as we approach Kindergarten. Activities such as practicing with tweezers, using eye droppers, writing with wet q-tips, tracing shapes, numbers and letters with their fingers...anything that helps to strengthen those fine motor muscles is helpful. We are also having children trace letters in the air before they write them on paper, so that they get the movement before putting it on paper. Next week, we will have a new sign-in sheet: let us know what you think!

By now, an invitation to our Special Visitors Day next Friday the 15th should have arrived home and we hope that you can join us! We want to thank Jiyoo’s mom Nayoung for introducing us on Monday to Tuho! Children loved refining their aim and throwing skills while learning this fun new game.

We hope that you have a wonderful weekend!

Emily and Martine

Books this week included:

If You Find a Rock

Red Sled

Happy Birthday, Madame Chapeau

Quiet