Our first field trip to the Creswell Firestation

Last week we used dramatic play to help us understand literacy preposions such as over, under, in, out, and behind by pretending to be firefighters. We also learned how to stop, drop, and roll, and other basic fire safety skills.  Then our class took a field trip to our local fire station.  We had so much fun getting in all of the fire trucks, and ambulances.  My favorite part was watching all of their faces as the firefighters turned on the sirens.  They all covered their ears and couldn't believe how loud it was.  Cute little Elizabeth was convinced we were going to an actual fire and was scared to death.  In the end we all overcame a few fears and learned that firefighters are there to protect us and are our friends.  Thank you Creswell Firefighters!

Love this pic of my parent volunteers.  Thanks for all of your much needed help!

After we left the fire station we enjoyed a picnic in the park.  What a beautiful day. We had a blast!

Science

Everyday we try and incorporate science into our lesson plans.  It has been so fun watching my class realize that practically everything around them can be science. Here we are learning about refraction and bending light as we do the bending pencil trick in water. I love watching them explore the world around them through science.    

Since Halloween is right around the corner we used bats as a theme for one of our lesson plans.  We read Stellaluna and several other batty books, we learned the difference between birds and mammals, and we also learned all about how bats find food. For science we played a game where we selected one child to be the bat.  The bat was then blindfolded, the remaining students were to be insects and each given a rattle (we made our own and used math to count beans into baby food jars). The blindfolded bat would say “eeek” and the insects would respond with a short rattle.  The bat repeated the “eeek” and the insects repeated the rattle until found by the bat.  We all took turns being the bat and had so much fun.

Nursery

In addition to teaching preschool out of my home, I am also the nursery leader in my church.  I had to throw in a few pics of my cute nursery kids too.  You'll see a few familiar faces.

Sand and Water Table Fun

Sand and water play is an excellent way for kids to develop fine and gross motor skills.  It also helps children develop their imaginations and creativity as they play and have fun with their peers.  We usually split the class up into groups, but I couldn't help snapping a couple of shots while they all had their hands in the mix. So busy!

Here we made colored sand to practice writing our names. Then we wrote with glue and sprinkled the sand onto our pictures.  Each child chose their own unique color. 

Dramatic Play

I love taking my kids to the Portland Children's Museum. If you and your child have never been, then I highly recommend it.  Every room is set up as a different theme.  You can go grocery shopping with your child in a perfectly staged mini market, pretend to be a vet at their animal hospital, crank, funnel, pour, squirt, messure, and float in their water works room, or become a construction worker in their building bridgetown exibit.  Kai always has a blast learning and playing.  That is what kids do best...learn through play. 

Worksheets have been found to be meaningless and boring to preschool children and can stifle learning.  Dramatic play on the other hand can help teach pre-reading skills and encourage kids to have fun while learning.  The best learning takes place through hands-on experience that is full of meaning for a child.

In Lindsay's Little Owls, we try to build upon the dramatic play concept by adding a literacy component. By doing so, we are able enhance play as well as teach pre-reading skills.  We have a room set apart as our "Dramatic Play room".  As our theme changes each week so to will the decor of the entire room change to fit that theme.   

Two of my students, Isabelle and Vedder have one of the most amazing grandmas ever.  Sherrie West has been teaching preschool children and teachers for nearly 30 years.  She teaches at Head Start for the northern Utah area, and runs the South Weber Developmental School. Sherrie is the author of an excellent book called Literacy Play , which I use to help my class learn pre-reading skills through dramatic play.  I am so thankful to have two of her beautiful grandchildren in my class and am grateful for all of her guidance and advice (which often comes vicariously through Dez)

The following posts show a few examples of how we have incorporated dramatic play into our school. 


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Firefighter

For this dramatic play theme we focused on literacy by learning prepositions (above, behind, in, out, beside, around). As the children played firefighters they used these prepositions by going in and out of a burning building, and spraying water on top of the fire etc...We practiced writting our names on badges, and worked on pre-reading skills as we pretended to read maps. 

Birthday Party!

Our class had so much fun with this dramatic play theme.  They were so excited about creating birthday cards for each other and making invitations and posters that it was just fun to see.  It was the perfect activity to really motivate them to want to read and write.  We went around the room and recorded all of the nice things each child said about each other. Even though we were engrossed in literacy work you would have never known it.  Instead of feeling like school, it was a total party!