I am so proud of Spencer and all he's learning in his preschool – Little Readers Preschool – and I love how excited he is every time he learns something new. AND he's much more open about what he'll show me he knows. He's usually too shy but it's helped him out a lot. Steve and Spencer love doing letter games and it's really been fun watching them do it together.
Spencer wrote the word "HAT" on my dry erase board. I told him he can make it a new word by changing the first letter. After HAT came FAT and then CAT. I'm impressed by how much he remembers AND how great his penmanship is.
Spencer also wanted to write his Christmas list to Santa by himself. He asked me how to spell certain toys and I'd tell him one letter at a time. I think he did SO good.
Spencer I am so proud of you!
Spencer is SO darn cute! I love his preschool! He is learning so much and his teacher is just amazing! Miss Jamie's sister, Miss Jocie, is a photographer and took the kids pictures on "Picture Day" (can you believe I have a kid who has PICTURE DAY?!) Click on the picture if you want to see the other kids and the class photo.
We start out the day with free time in which the children can choose to play with toys, puzzles, magnets, etc… or they can choose to draw pictures or play with play dough. Then we all work together to clean up and meet on the red rug for Circle Time!
During Circle Time, we review the month, day, and year and sing our "Months of The Year" song (which is basically "January, February, March, etc…" set to the "Macarena" complete with actions). We introduce or review the letter/sound of the week, choose a color, shape, and rhyming words for the day. One child is then chosen to be the "weatherperson". The weatherperson looks out the window and changes the weather dial on our wall to fit the weather of the day. We finish up the Circle Time calendar by counting out our gumballs in the jar together.
Next, the children find their "Name-o-saurus" on the wall and look to see if the "special heart" has been placed next to their name! Each day, the special heart is placed next to a different child's name designating them the Flag Leader for the day. We then have the Flag Leader come to the front and lead us in The Pledge of Allegiance. After this, Miss Jamie plays "My Country Tis of Thee" on the piano and the children march around the rug singing as they follow the Flag Leader.
After we got back, we fingerpainted with PUDDING our LETTER OF THE DAY, which is A – the children learned to make a lowercase "a" by first making the letter "c" then adding the line!
On TUESDAY (the first day of school) we read the story "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn. Each of the children found a handprint made by their parent(s) and placed a "kiss" on it. We talked about our worries of leaving Moms and Dads while we are at school and we talked about the fun we will be having each day at school. In art we made handprints to take home for our parents to have. The rest of the time was spent getting to know each other and the preschool surroundings better.
On WEDNESDAY we read "How Do Dinosaurs Go to School" by Jane Yolen and introduced each child to their "Name-0-saurus". Each child's name was placed next to a different dinosaur on the wall. We then had each child stand up one at a time and take a turn finding their "Name-o-saurus" on the wall as we chanted "Dinosaur, Dinosaur, ONE, TWO, THREE… who's that dinosaur standing next to me"?. This helped each child recognize their written name. In art we made dinosaur hand puppets to take home (with our names on them of course)!
Spencer was so excited to go to Pre-School today that I didn't even need to walk him to the door. He and another boy walked up to the door, knocked and went right in without even looking back. They were talking dinosaurs today.
I found out later that they sang B-I-N-G-O…and then later he told me it wasn't today it was tomorrow (he means yesterday).
He also said something about popcorn. Who knows 🙂 ha ha ha!
And this is the one where Spencer is holding Kit-Kat and started telling her about pre-school!
We can't forget to brush our teeth!
Spencer wasn't sure how to pose with his backpack. He looks like he's in pain!
This one's a little better. Shows a little more how he really feels about preschool.
We got to preschool about 10 minutes early and sat in the van. I asked Spencer if he was nervous about anything. "Well, I just don't know what we're doing there." I assured him that Miss Jamie would help him and the other boys (did I mention that only boys ended up signing up for the AM class? Funny, huh?) and that they'd all learn together. I also double checked to make sure he knew where the bathroom was, what his teacher's name was, his birthday, mommy and daddy's real names, and how to spell his name. He did pretty good, even when he spelled his name out loud… "S – P – E – R" How cute! Before I walked him to the door, he asked "can we go to a restaurant today?" I said we could go to McDonalds to celebrate his first day and let him play on the play place. I walked him to the door, said good bye and went back to the car.
No, I didn't cry. I must be a horrible mommy.
When the time came to pick Spencer up, I was the last one there. Luckily on the nice days we pick the kids up in the backyard where they play and wait for us. Spencer didn't seem to mind much that I was later than the other moms.
Spencer was so excited to show us his artwork and tell us about his day (Aunt Netty and Lukie came with me and Evie to pick him up). Aunt Netty asked Spencer what his favorite part was. "Hanging up my backpack." LOL He told me that they painted and that they had to wash their hands. He also told me that the radio told a story and they used their finger to go up to down over and over again. (I'm assuming they're learning to follow along with the words when they read a story).
Spencer loved his first day of preschool. Tomorrow: Dinoasaurs.