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PRESCHOOL 3 TITLE HEADER
5/1/26
 
Hello again families!
 
We've already reached May! How did that happen? This week we've leaned heavily into our study of Flowers. 
 
We read the book "The Tiny Seed" by Eric Carle to help us anchor our conversations. During Center Time each day we did some hands-on flower-related activities, including observing seeds, opening up seed pods to find what's inside and making observational drawings of flower bulbs. We filled up our sensory bin with soil and toy flowers, which has also been a hit.
 
Last week we started a project where we made flower art by pressing cups into paint, then printing the circles onto a separate sheet of paper. Once all our friends made a flower, we had them paint green lines to create stems, and added green handprints to add leaves to our flowers. We glued the flower paintings into the stems, and the result is a beautiful Preschool garden!
 
This week we started making our names out of beans. Did you know beans are seeds too? We've spent several days methodically lining up the beans to form letters. While this is tedious work it is great fine motor practice and it's exciting to see our friends start a project and continue to work on it over a period of several days. It's also been great practice using Elmer's glue. 

Separately, on Wednesday our school was visited by the Animal Welfare Association (AWA) located in Vorhees. They read a book to us about understanding a dog’s body language and we had a conversation about how animals can communicate with us even when they don’t speak our language, but we have to know what signs to look out for to understand what the animal is saying. After the book they let us meet “Momma Bunny” a sweet white and black rabbit that stayed amazingly calm while all 24 Preschoolers took a turn petting her. 
 
Finally, after a week of establishing a base level of knowledge about flowers including how they come from seeds and they need 3 things to help them grow, today we asked our class "What do you want to learn about seeds?" This was a great way to practice asking questions instead of sharing comments. Some of the questions were incredibly profound such as "why do flowers need soil?" and "How do seeds grow into purple flowers?"
COMMUNITY CONNECTION
Glue is an essential preschool material, and we've been practicing using various kinds of glue in the art projects we've been creating. Squeezing Elmer's glue bottles are very difficult for our Preschool hands, so instead we have been using paint brushes to apply glue where we need. This is very exciting, but can be a precarious process as our friends figure out how to make the glue work in the way they want. Practicing using glue at home would be a great skill to reinforce, whether they are trying to use the squeeze bottles, painting the glue on with brushes or using glue sticks. It's all great fine motor practice!
Important Dates:
  • April 28 to May 1: Book Fair after school in the Meetinghouse
  • Fri May 22nd: Half Day - School dismisses at 12 noon
  • Mon May 25th: School closed for Memorial Day
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Questions to ask:
  • "What do you want to learn about flowers?"
  • "What are the three things seeds need to grow?"
  • "What were the shapes of some of the seeds you used this week?"
  • "What color paint did you use to make your flower painting?"
  • "Where did the flower paintings get hung up in your classroom?"
  • What was the name of the bunny you met?
  • How can you describe what Momma Bunny felt like?