Bakery Play and Learning Opportunities

Miss Sweet's Preschool Bakery...

When you walk into Miss Sweet's classroom you will find children taking on the adult work of being Bakers.

There is Gingerbread scented playdough, baking tools and pans for children to use and create treats with.  They put their treats in colorful packaging.  The bakers need to count the number of treats they are putting in boxes.  How many is a dozen?  Is that box heavy?  

There are fine motor, literacy and math learning opportunities as children make signs, price tags and fulfill customer orders.  Customers pay for their bakery treats.  All of these learning opportunities happen through playful interactions and conversations facilitated by adults who know the language and curriculum that children should be exposed to in preschool.  

Teaching Self-Regulation

It is important to take a break and relax during the school day.

     Children in Miss Sweet's class take 3 minutes each school day to lay down, relax their muscles and practice breathing in through their noses and out through their mouths.  It sounds simple but it requires practice!  Many children try to pant or do quick breaths, those are not relaxing breaths.  

These children are doing the Drain Breath.

Ask your children about the different breaths that they have learned and let them teach you.  You may need to use them some day to calm down and relax.  

Playing with Math and Literacy in Preschool

If you visit our preschool classrooms you will find so many learning opportunities for children.  These children were playing bakery and wanted to take my order.

     Children are given many different writing tools and mediums to explore writing and drawing.  When children experiment with writing tools, they develop symbolic thinking skills and fine motor skills.  Marks take on meaning.  

This boy was saying letter names as he made marks on his paper.

These children were playing restaurant and taking orders.

Two of the preschool classrooms have "Shape Shops" up and running in dramatic play.  The shape shops are places where you can buy shapes.  You should hear the math language being used as children buy and sell shapes.  They can use the shapes to create a piece of art!

There are shapes to cut in the sensory table...

There are shapes to play with on the tables!

Math and literacy opportunities pop up in the most unexpected places.  What opportunities do your children have at home?  If you start looking and noticing, I bet you will be surprised at how many opportunities there are in your conversations, routines and play.

Thursday in Mr. Anthony's Classroom

Mr Anthony read the Pumpkin Circle book today.  It is a book that describes the life cycle of a pumpkin.

Mr. Anthony sang a Pumpkin Song with his students that they learned in Music Class this week...

Children had the opportunity to cut out pumpkin sequence cards, and sequence the steps of a pumpkin's growth.  It was a great opportunity to learn to cut on a line with scissors.

It was also a good opportunity to practice name writing and develop coloring skills.  The children were motivated by the activity to practice and develop fine motor skills.

Look at the gross (which means large muscle) motor learning activities available today...

In gym class we played with bean bags and hula hoops!

Another fun and engaging activity was to balance on a spider web made out of tape and pick up bugs!

There was a lot of spider talk today! 

Look at all of the new visuals that support children's understanding of classroom expectations.  The children are excited to "read" the visuals and demonstrate that they know what they mean.

You can show your children pictures from my blog and have great conversations about what is happening in their classroom.

Wednesday in Mrs. Howrigan's Classes

The preschoolers were very excited that it was snowing out this morning!

A lot of time was spent watching it through the window!

Miss Amy started a conversation about whether the children liked the snow.

All of the sudden someone said, "Oh no! This will ruin Halloween!  We won't be able to wear our costumes!"

Two boys started drawing a plan to get the snow off the playground!

This is a detailed picture of our playground drawn by one of Mrs. Howrigan's students.

Another boy drew a picture of his father. 

The boys made a plan to ask their Dads if they would bring their snow blowers to school to blow away the snow on the playground!  What a great plan!

There were other fun activities happening in the classroom.  These children were counting and sorting Fall themed math manipulatives.

Children worked on their monster art, they added eyes to their monsters.

The children held their own circle time, imitating Mrs. Howrigan.

Children read to one another!

Ms. Johnson read, 

and we sang a new Monster Song, I'm Playing with a Monster!  A rhyming song.

Ask your child to sing it to you!

I'm playing with a monster,

my monster comes from Bonster.

Right where I have legs, my monster has his megs!

Keep singing same verse and put the /m/ sound on different body parts!

Monday in Preschool

In Mr. Anthony's class, children learned about scales and math language.  Some children were so excited about it that they held another circle to talk about it some more!  The scale was left out so that children could explore on their own.  A future teacher in the making!

The children also worked with Mrs. Hill to make Pumpkin Puppets.  You will hear the Five Little Pumpkins Song soon!

In Mrs. Howrigan's class, children made Monster Paintings by using eye droppers and air power.

In Miss Sweet's class, children practiced making letters in their names with Miss Sweet.  Miss Sweet used language like "big line, little line, big curve, little curve" to verbally prompt children through the letter making process.

Children also practiced getting into "self spaces" to prepare for our upcoming safety drills.