We are learning how preschool works!

We have had another great day at His Kids! It's AMAZING to watch the difference between the classes. It's hard (but encouraging) to believe that most of my class was just starting out in the two year old class this time last year! As one parent left this morning, with her child crying, she said, "I'm ready for that stage!! That's so much better than crying!" I hope it's a little encouragement that most of the ones she saw sitting at the table this morning working away were the same ones whose moms were leaving last year with them screaming. So, the morning was still a little different, since Casey took one more day to fully recover, and Ms. Devon had to run to the doctor this morning too. Thankfully, Wanda and I have worked together so long that I can stop midsentence, and she just picks up where I left off. We had a few that were upset this morning, so I went over to help out on that side for a while. Ms. Paige, Ms. Heidi and I got out the thing that almost always works to make kids forget they were sad - SHAVING CREAM! Sure enough - it worked!! Everybody was happy!! The little guys liked Bean Bag Boogie too!!
Over in the older kids' class, they were talking about these wacky olympics! How exciting. We are also working on the Pledge and God Bless America. We were so excited that Emma was able to tell us right off the bat, what day it was today. This gets to be a challenge sometimes with the kids. As we talk about months, days, years, seasons, etc, they seem to jumble them all up, so we start early talking about what day it is today, what day it was yesterday, and what day it will be tomorrow.
During small group time today, my older kids reviewed all of their letter sounds, and then we moved on to play a game, where the kids tried to match words with pictures. They got them all - donut, vacuum, key, zipper, mitten, box, and rope! I was so pleased! They were too! We are beginning to see how to use clues, along with the beginning letter to figure out words. Then we went onto the hundreds chart. After we remembered the counting by tens song from last year, we were able to count all the way to 100, with just a little help!!
When our younger kids had small groups, they impressed me too! First we sang our letter song, and used our Hooked On Phonics flash cards to review the letter names. We will definitely get there!! Then we went to the table to see how we would do with another M paper. They did fantastic!! All I did today was to show them what I wanted them to do, which was to find and circle all of the M's or m's. They all did it!! Some may have needed a little more help than others, but they were all able to do it. Yay!!
Time to go pick up kids!! Have a great afternoon!!