First Day of Classes!

Our first day of classes were filled with laughter, fun and exploration. We were excited to meet all of our new friends yesterday and are so pleased to have such an enthusiastic group of kids! We learned each other's names, sang songs, read books and much more! The children were able to enjoy some free play time to help get to know their new friends before we all joined together for circle time. Our theme this week is: Back to School. We have discussed classroom rules and routine, introduced our calendar and started to learn our morning, clean-up and good-bye songs. Having a routine in the classroom helps children feel secure. We plan structured and unstructured activities into our day to allow children to learn in different ways.

Our first craft that we planned for our year was called, "My House". It was certainly a highlight of our day! The children used paint brushes to apply glue to the lines that we had drawn for them. They applied coloured popsicle sticks to create the house shape, yellow construction paper for the sun and green yarn for the grass! We had a very busy and exciting day before we had a chance to break for snack time! We served fresh fruit, whole grain crackers and water for snack.

We were lucky enough to spend the last half hour of our day outside in the sunshine. We concentrated on gross motor skills using small balance beams, tunnels and hoops. We played a colour matching game that got the children moving around the green space, matching bean bags to the correct hoop colour.

We ended our day by gathering around on blankets that we brought with us and Ms. Patty read us a story called, "The Night Before Preschool". We are looking forward to tomorrow when we get to have another day of fun with our students.