Snakes

The theme for Experience Preschool in March was pond life.  We spent a day learning about snakes.  

Every monthly box from Experience Preschool has a new theme poster.  Using the look and find glasses has always been a favorite activity.  Ronan used the magnifying glasses to find the objects pictured, which is a good way for him to learn new vocabulary and descriptive words.  

One of my favorite parts about preschool curriculum are the books.  I love children's books, so getting 2 new books every month is a huge plus.  This months book was The Turtle, the Beaver, and the Pond.  

Ronan really likes looking at books and being read to.  

After I read him the book and he looked at it for awhile, I gave him the magnetic story telling set to use.  Every box from Experience Preschool comes with a heavy duty magnetic set that goes to the book of the month.  These are great for retelling the story and also creating new stories.  

Elli showed Ronan how to put beads onto a pipe cleaner.  He used beads and a cut up straw to make his own snake.  This is great fine motor practice.  Preschoolers love arts and crafts, and these are an essential part of all good preschool curriculum.

You can't learn about snakes and not make play dough snakes.  Ronan rolled the play dough and I helped him form it into some of the letters we're working on this month.  

Veterinarians

We are still finishing up January's baby animal theme with Experience Preschool.  This week we started off by learning about veterinarians.  This was always a favorite topic with my girls, and Ronan also really enjoyed it.

Ronan practiced bandaging big foots arm.  We were also supposed to work on bandaging the letter R, but Ronan is just starting to learn the alphabet and he isn't ready to work on letter recognition yet.  I still show him the letters and talk about them, but if he doesn't show an interest we move on.  A good preschool curriculum is adaptable for kids of varying ages, like Experience Preschool.  

Ronan used a stencil to paint paw prints.  I gave him a brush and sponge, he tried both, but preferred the brush.  

Ronan's favorite activity of the day from Experience Preschool was taking care of the rubber animals that came in the monthly box.  Also included was a syringe, and Ronan loved filling it up with water and squirting it out on the animals.  He loved this so much that when he was done (not by his choice, it was time to eat) I moved it all in to the bathtub so that he can use them in there now when he gets baths.  

Animal Babies

Children learn best through play, which is one of the reasons I love the Experience Preschool curriculum.  They make learning fun with engaging games and hands on activities.  I have been fortunate enough to use it with all 3 of my kids, and all 3 of them love "school time."  My girls are older now, but they still like to do the crafts and help their brother out with the activities that are too hard for him right now.  

Ronan doesn't know English well enough to be able to answer which animal he would like to hug the most; but we were still able to use the conversation cards to name the animals and talk about them.  He is picking up new words all the time, so these are good activities to increase his vocabulary.  Both the girls wanted to hug the kitten.  

We read the monthly book that is included in Experience Preschool, The Lion and the Beetle.  

Every monthly box also comes with a durable puzzle related to the book of the month.  These puzzles are too hard for Ronan right now, but luckily he has big sisters who can step in and help when needed.  

We looked at a picture of gorillas and Ronan got to use a comb to paint ovals to look like their fur.  He loves to paint, but did not like using the comb.  He wanted to switch to a paint brush and use more colors, so that's what we did.  The art projects are child directed, which leads to more creativity.  Art projects have always been one of my kids favorite parts of preschool curriculum, and Experience Preschool has a new craft project every day.  

Every month with Experience Preschool focuses on 3 different letters.  This month they are C, S and R.  Ronan is just learning the alphabet and doesn't recognize letters yet so we simplify things quite a bit.  He started by covering letters with the manipulatives from this months box.  Then he rolled the pocket cube and we talked about the different objects, and I had him repeat the names to me.  We're still finishing up January's monthly box because Ronan was really sick for a while and is just getting his energy back.  

Waiting For Babies

This month with Experience Preschool (formerly Mother Goose Time) we're learning about baby animals, which is always a fun topic.  Week one focused on waiting for babies.

As always we started the new theme with a name tag.  Learning to recognize and write their name is a skill all preschoolers should learn.  

Ronan worked on counting by rolling a dice and then rolling the same number of "piglets" out of play-dough and putting them on the mama pig mat.  He loves using play-dough, and working with it helps build muscles for fine motor skills.  The preschool curriculum from Experience Early Learning includes math games that make counting and other math skills fun.  

Experience Preschool includes the materials needed for the daily crafts.  Ronan made a cat mask, but refused to wear it.  Elli liked it so much that she used his as a pattern and made her own.  

We also spent a day learning about animals that hatch from eggs.  Ronan used a white crayon to decorate an egg shape, and then painted over it with water colors.  When you paint over the crayon the white lines show through.  

The shape of the month for Experience Preschool is the oval.  Ronan traced around rubber bands to make oval shapes.  Each month the preschool curriculum focuses on a different shape and color.  

Ronan collected eggs and then opened them to find hidden shapes, which are one of this months manipulatives.  

Fireplaces in Winter

We finally finished up our winter in the woods theme with Experience Preschool.  We went away for a week at Christmas so have been playing catch up since we got back.  One of the days this week we learned about fireplaces.

Ronan got to look at a picture of a fireplace for inspiration and then paint his own using a sponge.  He loves to paint and even got new paints for Christmas.  Experience Preschool provides all the things you need for the days lessons like paper, sponges, manipulatives, etc.  It does not include some main items that get used every month like paint, playdough, crayons, glue, etc.  These are items that are usually used in most preschool curriculum, so they are pretty standard to have at home if you have little ones.  

Next we played a game where Ronan would roll the pocket cube, that is included in the first box from Experience Early Learning, and used every month.  Today there were cards with different numbers of sticks to go in each side of the cube.  Ronan would count out the same number of wood pieces (all our sticks are buried under snow) and work to build a fire with them.  He really liked playing with the wood and stacking it, and together we worked on counting the pieces out loud.  Lately he has been skipping the number 3 so this game was great to work on counting.   

Ronan helped me build a real fire in our fireplace using the wood pieces when we were done with the game.  

Every monthly box from Experience Preschool comes with an I can read book.  Ronan is not close to being able to find sight words, but these books are good for him to learn and repeat new words.  They are a great addition to the preschool curriculum.  The text is simple which makes it easy for him to learn new words.  He was excited to point to the bed when I said the word, since that is one he knows.  

Ronan loves looking at books, and they are suck a great way to learn language.  The preschool curriculum has recommended books for every day of the month.  Bear Snores On was the recommended book of the day.  We also read Stella, Queen of the Snow.  Next month we start a new theme, baby animals.

Winter in the Woods

This months theme with our preschool curriculum, Experience Early Learning, is winter in the woods.  We've been spending the month exploring things like animals, snow, ice, pine trees, etc.  We spent today taking a closer look at sleds.  

Ronan painted his own sled, and then we attached string to it once it was dry so he could pull it around.  Art is such an important part of early childhood development, and should be included in every preschool curriculum.  I love that Experience Preschool has a different art project for every day.  Some of them end with the children creating something they can play with, like a sled or musical instrument.  Other projects are based on using materials however they want, and really tapping into their creative side.  Art helps with things like fine motor skills, decision making, language building and creativity.  

Ronan rolled play dough into snow balls.  He would roll the pocket cube and put the same number of balls into the sled.  We've been working a lot on counting and this is a way to make it fun.  Experience Preschool always has great ideas that build on math skills in a fun way.  

Every monthly box from Experience Preschool comes with a book that ties in with the months theme.  We read The Shoemaker at the beginning of the month, and have been reading it more throughout the month.  Ronan loves looking at books and being read to and I think that it one of the reasons he's picking up new words in English every day.  

There is also always a puzzle that goes to the monthly book included in the preschool curriculum.  Ronan needed a lot of help with the puzzle.  He is just starting to learn how to manipulate the pieces to make them fit.  These puzzles are too hard for him right now, but with help he was able to get it finished, and then wanted to do it all over again.  Puzzles are great for teaching preschoolers about spatial awareness.  We only have one week left with this months theme before we move into baby animals in January.  

Snowman

This month with Experience Early Learning is all about winter.  We spent a day learning about snowmen, which just happen to be one of Ronan's favorite things.  He even dressed as
Olaf for Halloween.  

Seeing as we live in Maine we have plenty of snow to build a snowman, but so far Ronan hasn't enjoyed being outside in the cold.  Since he didn't want to go out in the snow we looked at the sequencing cards provided by Experience Preschool and talked about building snowmen.  I had Ronan find and repeat different parts of the snowman, like eyes, nose, etc.  These are all things he's picking up, and having a ready to go preschool curriculum helps review words with him using different pictures and books.  

Ronan rolled play dough into small balls and then I helped him count out the pieces to match the numbers on cube cards.  Games that help with skills like 1-1 counting correspondence are always included in Experience Preschool.  Every month there are numerous engaging games in the preschool curriculum.  We stacked the balls into tiny snowmen, which he crushed.

Every day with Experience Preschool includes a craft.  I showed Ronan the included photo of trees in winter for inspiration.  He used bubble wrap to paint snow and worked on cutting paper before giving up and ripping it with his hands.  I like that the preschool curriculum has a craft for every day.  These are good ways to build the muscles needed for fine motor work.