Today we started our morning by playing outside! When we get some energy out in the early morning the day seems to flow a little better because we can concentrate on our other activities. The Acorn's have really been enjoying the balancing log, now that they can actually move without their snow pants, boots and big winter jacket on they can climb on everything.

One of our classroom activities was a fun dice game. The children flipped the dice to see which spring themed picture came up. Then they put a mark on the chart of that came up. When one row had reached number 5 that became the winner and the child could clean up their work and move onto something else. Most of the children understood this game and enjoyed it, and even the Acorns that didn't quite understand what they were supposed to be doing had a fun time rolling the dice and marking off pictures on the chart. When the Oak Tree's were finished with this game I talked to them individually about which row was "the winner" which row had the most marks in it, which had the least.
This morning we also had a painting center going on upstairs for children to work on two at a time. The children used watercolor paints to paint spring eggs.
Of course we had some free play time too! The wooden dinosaurs and blocks were so much fun and the little wool house with the people in it is a big hit with everyone. I'll have to take some pictures of our new things and post the artists information, they are wonderful toys! Homemade toys are so much fun.
We practiced sorting colored puffs onto different colored eggs. It's interesting to see, most of the children love this activity and can get all of pom pom's on their matching paper egg really quickly!
We did a color sorting activity using candy eggs. This was really fun. The children practiced moving the eggs from the bowl to the different sections of the muffin tin using a spoon. We ended up with 4 rows of different colored eggs, each little spot holding two eggs. As always when the children were finished they put the eggs and spoon back into the white bowl so that the activity was all ready for the next child to come and work on it

We don't always have this many activities going on in our classroom, sometimes we only have one and sometimes we have a few. Today the children were really into their work, and really had a wonderful time doing activities quietly. Most of our classroom activities actually come from real kindergarten curriculum's (mostly Montessori) some activities even come from Waldorf preschool- first grade activities. For this reason we don't worry if the Acorn's don't seem to be understanding the material or aren't interested in learning it. They have plenty of time to work on activities and the last thing we would want for them is to become over-worked or pushed too hard academically to the point where it becomes boring. We have the option of reading books or quietly playing with the toys as well as working on the activities. Miel, Kennedy, and Ronan are very interested in doing ALL of the activities and keep up really well with all of it! I'm incredibly surprised with those three. Milan, Jackie, Elia and AJ are hit and miss. Sometimes they'll become very interested in an activity and will work on it for a long time and other times they just have no interest. AJ and Milan have been sorting the wooden eggs and lining them up at free play time. I think they're working on some early math skills! Beginning counting, organizing and sorting.
Since many of the Oak Tree's will be going to kindergarten in just a few months I've been taking note of what they should work in terms of academic work as well as social or behavioral work. They really are all wonderful in all area's and I feel that each one of them will get along wonderfully in their new kindergarten class this fall. We will miss them terribly though!
If you have something specific you want me to work on individually with your child please let me know and I'll do the same if I see an area that needs some more individual attention at home. I have actually found it hard to assess each child academically because each child is WAY beyond the"preschool academic assessments" I have found. Like I said we have basically been working with a kindergarten curriculum with the Oak Tree's and they whip through the activities with ease no matter what subject we are studying.


Our lunch menu was scrambled eggs, carrot sticks, crackers, banana and milk. The children each got to eat a small candy egg if they had finished their healthy food first.
For snack we are having cinnamon toast and milk.