February, Friends and Fun!!

Since Valentine's Day is in February, we spent the month talking about being a friend and showing love to others.

We read so many cute books like "Huggaotamus" about a little hippo that learned to hug carefully so he wouldn't hurt his friends, "I Love you Stinky Face" about a little boy asking his mom if she would still love him under less than lovable circumstances, "My heart is a magic house" in which a mom explains that a new baby expands the ability to love, "No kisses please", "The Day it rained hearts", "Corduroy", "Will you be my valenswine?", "Happy Valentines, Mouse", and "I can be a friend".

We also learned about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln since we celebrated President' day. We made 3 cornered hats in art like one George Washington wore during the Revolutionary War and a stove pipe black hat like Lincoln's.

The most exciting thing to happen in February (besides the Valentine's party) was that we began having centers every Wednesday. The children divide into teams of 2 or 3 students and rotate through four stations in about 40 minutes. They love being independent (I explain all the stations before we begin and then just float to help where needed) and are learning a valuable skill for kindergarten. The first week in February our stations were 1. Math games (several to choose from that help with counting objects and patterns) 2. Make a word by finding the letter tiles in the rice bucket (practice with letter identification and sounds) 3. Bead a friendship bracelet (increases small motor skills) 4. Alphabet soup art project (cutting, gluing, painting). Since then we've had centers every Wednesday and the kids always ask as they come in the door, "Is it centers today?" The centers also reinforced the idea that friends can aid us in learning new things.

At Miss Cindy's preschool we learn through auditory, visual and kinesthetic modalities!