Hello Wonderful Preschool Parents,
I just wanted to address a couple of great questions that came up today. I thought it would be beneficial to all of us to touch on them just in case someone else has/had these same questions. Here they are:
Q#1. "Is my Polar Bear supposed to be counting to 100?"
No, not at all. The objective for the end of Pre-K Polar Bear year is for your child to count to 30. Some children have the desire or drive to want to try to count higher and that is completely fine. You will find that outside our door, we have little "shout out" counting strips to those children who have volunteered to count to 10, 20, 30 or even 100. We have "share time" most afternoons and some of the children have volunteered to share how far they can count to (whatever they are comfortable with). Some children are a bit more shy/reserved and chose not to share this in front of their peers and this, again, is perfectly fine. I will start doing more formal assessments starting in the first of October assessing how far they can all count as well as other objectives.
Q#2. "I notice my Pre-K Polar Bear child sometimes does the same craft as the younger classes (Penguins/Seals)...why are they doing all the same craft."
First, art/crafts are supposed to do a few things: 1.) should be fun while teaching a course objective ;) 2.) teach some type of fine motor skill and 3.) should teach or relate to a topic we are studying. All Creative Curriculum art is leveled according to the child's ability and level. For example, the Seals (3 yr olds) were not required to cut out any of the pieces of the fire truck however they practiced gluing and logically knowing where the parts of the fire truck went. (teaching up, down, front, back, etc) The older 2 classes had increasingly more difficult objectives they had meet for this craft. Even though the end result showed the same project, the objectives and goals of the lesson were very different. Everything that is planned has a state objective connected to it in same way. All the planned objectives must meet the State of Ohio Pre-K educational requirements.
***Don't Forget....Our Community helper comes to visit on Wednesday!
Thank you for these GREAT inquiries! You are a such a super group of parents. I know I have said it before but I will continue to say it....we are blessed to have you!
Mrs. Burd and Mrs. Bloom
