Where else but preschool are you allowed to explore toilet paper?  We put out left over rolls of toilet paper for the children to help us shred.  They really seemed to enjoy themselves.  Some wrapped themselves up with it.  Some covered themselves up with it.  Some threw it up in the air.  We are going to add shavings of ivory soap bars and water to shredded toilet paper and put it in our sensory table next week.  It’s a fun activity that smells and felts nice. 

Extended Day Fun!  During the Extended Day, the three year old Papa ‘Ulu combine with the four year old Papa Ohe.  There are twenty children total.  This combination can be considered a mixed age grouping.  Research shows that multi-age groupings benefit both younger and older students in the classroom. According to Dr. Lilian Katz, an international leader in early childhood education, “Mixed-age grouping resembles family and neighborhood groupings, which throughout history have informally provided much of children’s socialization and education (from The Case for Mixed-Age Groupings in Early Education, 1990).”   This is especially prevalent in the local culture here in Hawai’i.

Today, we played our drum with drumsticks made from wooden dowels. The drums were all colorful and well decorated.  The children really took pride in their finished work.  Thank you families for helping your child with this PACT (Parent and Child Together) activity.  We had a drum parade around the playground.  We marched around the play structure.  Then we sat and played our drums.  It was fun and loud.  Many children discovered that one side of the drum has a louder sound.  We will keep the drum in school for a couple weeks for more marching and percussion fun.

Each child painted a toilet paper roll.  We taped a picture of each child to it.  The children are using them as “people” in the block corner.  The children are excited to find the roll with their own picture on it.  When children build with blocks, it often involves cooperative, collaborative learning.  Block play also enhances physical growth and development.

We welcomed back the children today after a four day holiday break.  Most of the children went right to sleep at naptime.  Three year olds usually need 1-3 hours of daytime nap daily.  Naptime at school can be difficult for some children.  Some children may be overtired and some not tired enough.  Some children have trouble relaxing.  Some need visual privacy (they can’t see other children).  Some need auditory privacy (can’t hear them).  Some need both.  In some families, three year olds never sleep alone, so they find naptime in the preschool setting difficult.  To help the children, we establish a transition into naptime, read a story, turn the lights down, and play soft music.

Today as a culminating activity for our big book of the week entitled, “A Monster Sandwich,” the children came in this morning and made their own sandwiches.  We had the all of the ingredients that were in the story available.  The children had bread, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and meat (turkey slices) to choose from.  Many of them used all of the ingredients for their sandwich.  At snack time though, when it was time to eat it, many of them only wanted the bread and meat.  This is evidence that children usually enjoy the “process” rather than the “product.”

Today, the children used their turkey headbands to practice counting.  We changed the “Ten Little Indians” song into the “Ten Little Turkeys.”  Preschoolers have lots to learn; numbers, letters, even the day’s weather. Long boring teaching sessions don’t work well with children who have the attention spans of…well, young children. Songs can make these basic skills easier to learn and remember for young developing minds.  Above all else, everything a preschooler does should have some element of fun to it. 

Today was our field trip to Waikalua I’a Fishpond.  When we first arrived, we were greeted with a 10 minute squall. The children had to all crowd into a large metal storage container to get away from the rain.  Then, the children worked together to create a model of an ahupua’a on the beach using natural materials found around them like plants, rock, coconuts, and sticks.  Then, they searched through invasive limu for crabs, shrimp, and fish.  It was a hands-on field trip.

Today, several children gathered around one child who found and put a millipede into a bug container.  They seem to have had a meaningful discussion while they watched a millipede crawl around. When is the last time that you just sat and observed an insect, a worm, or even a spider?  Children can spend countless minutes watching bugs move.   A preschooler’s introduction to bug science should include simple facts that help him distinguish bugs and insects from other creatures, such as lizards or worms. You also can teach students that while all bugs are insects, not all insects are bugs. We expose preschoolers to the science of bugs through fun activities using real bugs, books, videos and art supplies. But the most meaningful learning takes place naturally and through hands-on experiences.

Today was vegetable sharing day.  We identified, counted, and sorted the vegetables.  We talked about the concepts of most and least. The vegetable that we had the most of was carrots.  The vegetable that we had the least of was onions.  For snack today, we ate soybeans and carrots.  For snack tomorrow, we will eat vegetable soup.  At center time, some of the children helped cut up celery, broccoli, and carrots for the soup.  To make it easier for children to cut these vegetables, we had to par boil the vegetables to make it soft.  The rest of the vegetables will be used for printing.  Mahalo for your vegetable contribution.