We Made It!

The first day of school is officially under our belts.  Today the children learned a lot about our classroom procedures and school rules.  We learned that at circle time we site criss-cross applesauce on the carpet.  We talked about earning orange slips in the hall if we are making good choices.  We also learned that on the playground we need to keep the stones on the ground, as well as go down the slide on our bottoms, and swing on our bottoms.

The children did have fun today.  They liked meeting new friends, playing in the house and block center, and making a school bus project.  To make the bus we did do some cutting.  This can be a hard concept to grasp at first, but just like anything else in life practice helps.  Using scissors develops your child’s hand strength, coordination, motor planning and eye/hand coordination. These are all skills that carry over to other activities, like writing, doing math problems and even playing sports.  We use this rhyme to teaching cutting in our class.  Feel free to try it at home:

Open, shut, Open, shut.
That's the way we cut, cut, cut.
Fingers on the bottom, thumb on 
top.
That's the way we cut, cut, cut.

The children also listened to the story Mouse's First Day of School by Lauren Thompson.