As we turned the calendar to February, this week held a big jump in our Pre-K learning journey! Before children start writing, there are important developmental concepts that need to be mastered first to make writing easier for them to learn. These readiness skills include size recognition, placement, and sequencing. One way to teach these early concepts is with “Mat Man” and the Handwriting Without Tears program. At story time this week, we started learning the Mat Man song. We moved our chairs into a circle and children first watched as I built Mat Man on the floor using the wood pieces along to the music. As the week went on, I shared the wooden pieces and the children helped build Mat Man. Be sure to check back on our blog to see how we start drawing our own people!
New play dough colors accidentally turned out to look like Elephant and Piggie colors. If you haven’t discovered these characters from Mo Willems’ books, they are a delight with young children! This week we read Can I Play Too? and I Love My New Toy! that focused on friendship, kindness, and saying sorry when we make mistakes.
During play time, we practiced our scissor skills by snipping strips of paper and gluing them onto a heart to make a valentine for someone we love! We are looking forward to creating more notes and cards next week as we celebrate Valentine’s Day together.
Our gentle start to the morning also included inviting children to play a love letter game, lace animal cards and make lines and shapes with elastics. Each of these different activities, provides a unique way develop language and vocabulary while also growing a child’s fine motor skills like coordinating both sides of the body, developing hand dominance, and gaining hand and finger strength. Look at their focus!
It looks like the cold weather of February is soon to land on Central Alberta! Take good care and stay warm this weekend.
Love: Miss Kristin
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