Play School: All About Me!

I've been so excited for Tempe to be a preschooler so I could do Play School with her, and today was our first day! I wanted her first experience with preschool to be a good one and I don't think she is ready for a big group or going multiple times a week, so we are doing Play School with little B, our friend from up the street and big B, the boy that I babysit. We meet once a week for one hour, and I think that will be great to start with.

Today our topic was All About Me! I thought it would be a fun way to start the year off by letting the kids talk and learn about themselves and how special they are.

Concepts: I am special, my body, my feelings

Books: The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown; For Pete's Sake by Ellen Walsh;Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

Songs/nursery rhymes: The Hokey Pokey; Head Shoulders Knees and Toes; Hinges

Activity: "All About Me!" books. I printed out a few fill-in-the-blank sheets for the kids to color and help me fill out. Each page said things like "My name is _____________ and I am _____ years old. I like going to Joy School with my friends! I like to learn about _____________. I like to read books about ______________." I also included a page for them to color a picture of their families, a page for them to write their name (with help), and a page where I traced their hand and wrote "This is the hand you used to hold when I was only 3 years old". Tempe and Brigham loved coloring and decorating their books, and then I "bound" them with cardstock and ribbon.

Snack: Make-your-own snack mix. I set out bowls of mini marshmallows, peanuts, M&Ms, pretzels, and raisins and let the kids use spoons to scoop whatever they wanted into their own plastic snack bag. You can imagine that this was a great hit!