West Richmond Preschool

Exploring Fall ~MWF 4 hour class With the season changing, this gave us the opportunity to explore fall in our classroom. When we asked the children what fall is, most of them said leaves are falling. Chelsea said, “We get to pick pumpkins”. For our fall exploration we put leaves and pumpkins at the center of it.   Joven and Ramsey enjoyed playing with the pumpkins and dinosaurs. Joven said “Dinosaurs are very hungry. They’ll eat all of the pumpkins”. Both boys used their imagination as they got engaged in their play.   At the sensory table, we had flax seed, small yellow caps and plastic leaves with some bowls, spoons and tongs. Gavin enjoyed hearing the sound of the flax seed inside the tray when he mixed it. Nicole made pumpkin chocolate soup as she transferred the flax seed and yellow caps into the bowl. To enhance the children’s fine motor skills, we had a table where they got to string leaves on a pipe cleaner. The children punched a hole on the le

Power of Play ~ Fine Art and Sciences M/W/F Class “Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.” - Mr. Rogers   Hello families, the children are working hard at school! Translation, they have been playing hard which in reality is their way of learning and interacting in their world. They are learning through play. There are so many key factors that play is important to a child’s development, it is the foundation of their early learning stages. Play develops many skills in young children such as problem solving, working with others, language, creativity and socials skills to name some. Here is Cecily developing many skills like recognizing different animals and sorting like ones together. This is helping her learn math and science. She has also built little homes for her farm which is using her problem-solving skills, creativity, imagination and her fine motor skills. Ronin, Daya, Laura and Ayden are using their social skills and language

Westham Island Farm Pumpkin Patch Field Trip ~ Fine Art and Sciences M/W/F Class   Hello families, we have been transitioning into our class and it has been a very exciting month.   Already we have begun our “All about me” books, celebrated Thanksgiving and baked cranberry muffins.   Not to mention all the other activities the children have participated in such as making their lanterns for our upcoming lantern festival on October 19 th , celebrating friend’s birthdays, and exploring the many signs of the fall season.   To further extend our learning and curiosity of autumn, we find it fitting to tie in a visit to the pumpkin patch .         Our first field trip of the school year was a success.   Woohoo! We had beautiful sunny weather and our families to join us on this memorable day at the pumpkin farm.   The field trip began with a tour of the farm and it was led by Marcelle, our tour guide.   He took us to the barn, where the owls usually come to sleep duri

SLOWLY SETTLING… We are just completing the first two weeks of our preschool program and completing the “gradual entry” that some children participated in. As educators, it has been amazing to see how effectively the children are embracing the routines and components of our classroom. It is also incredible to see you they are already forging friendships as they enter into the educational play experiences provided here!       We have already seen many creative collaborations as the students have entered into opportunities to paint, build, imagine, dig, read, sing, draw and discover new things both indoors and outside. Hopefully you can already see that our emphasis is to provide as many meaningful multi-sensory play opportunities as possible each day that we are together.       Since the Fall weather has been quite wonderful, we have enjoyed collecting some nature items (leaves, sticks, dandelions, etc.) that we can bring inside and continue to explore