A Wocket In My Pocket

This is an example of a fun lesson we had the other day. We read one of our favorite books, There is a Wocket in my Pocket by Dr. Suess. This book uses rhyming and encourages kids to replace the first letter of a word to make a new silly word. The biggest indicator of future reading success, after reading to your children, is phonemic awareness (the awareness that words are made up of sounds). One major exersize that develops phonemic awareness is replacing a sound in a word. So after we read the book we made our own "wockets" and placed them in different places around the room creating new creatures. We had a gair on the chair, and a mouch on the couch, a loor on the floor. The students eventually joined in creating their own silly words, not even noticing that they were developing this new skill. We were just playing a fun game. This is the way children learn at Discovery Learning Home Preschool.

Take a Tour of The School!

Welcome to Discovery Learning Home Preschool. I hope you enjoy this virtual tour.

Every day starts with Circle Time. This is a time to read books together and learn many new things. Each student has a personal spot to sit on. This will help students develop the ability to sit still in a group. They will also learn how to have a classroom type discussion using the hand raising technique before talking.

In the center room the Book Area is designed to encourage personal book use. All interaction with print contributes to a child's literacy. Children can sit comfortably and enjoy some alone time, share a book with a friend or Mrs. Robin is always available to reread an old favorite.

The Learning Game Wall has games that students can use on their own. Julia is matching the card with two dots to the number two. The independence of this activity makes it more fun. ( *side note* We do have an extensive dress up wardrobe. As you can see Julia is dressed as Princess Jasmine in this picture.)


The Block Area is perfect for early math and problem solving skills. There are many types of blocks and graduated stackers. We have many discussions about numbers, addition, subtraction, more or less, bigger and smaller, and many other early math concepts in the block center.

Dramatic play is a language activity. Children use language in new ways to communicate with their peers when they play house. This is a wonderful place to allow children to develop many important social skills.

The Art Center not only promotes creativity but it is also an important early writing center. Students often pretend to write letters to each other or imitate other ways we use writing in the real world. Fine motor skills are also practiced as the students use pencils, crayons and markers.

This is our Word Wall. Any words or letter we have worked on or talked about will be here so that the students can look at them and read them for review. It is also a place where I can sit down with the children individually and assess their progress toward kindergarten.

Sand/Water table- We have used this table for many things. It has been full of water, bubbles, shaving cream, and blocks. We use this area to get some fresh air and do anything that is too messy for the house.

This is an alternate Pretend Play area. This might be a place to play early in the morning or when some children are still sleeping. There are many little characters to spark a child's imagination.

During music time students learn a lot about rhythm and sounds. They can work together to make a new song, sing all of the classics, or just dance along.

There are many areas around the school that provide wonderful outdoor adventures. There are so many scientific discoveries to make. Children learn about shadows, animals, plants, seeds and they get the exercises that growing children need.

Finally this table in the kitchen can be used for cooking, or any messy crafts like play dough, glitter, or paint.

I hope you have enjoyed this virtual tour. I'm sure you can see that we use every inch of space to it's maximum learning potential. If you would like a real tour call anytime. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

One Mom's Real Story About Searching For a Preschool

When my oldest was 3, I toured about six preschools in the area, including the "exclusive" Newport Coast Child Development preschool (which turned out to be the worst). I was willing to drive anywhere to find a good preschool, and spent two months calling and observing different preschools. I spent a week at a time in each school, just sitting and observing the children and teachers. I didn't come away with a good feeling about most of the preschools that I saw. The teachers are often overwhelmed and don't have time to really nurture/teach/spend quality time with the children. Some of the teachers are downright mean! They are sweet as pie to the parents when they're dropping off the kids, then become completely different when they've got the kids to themselves. These are little children who don't know how to communicate and are very vulnerable to their environments! Some of the stuff that I saw during my months of observation just broke my heart, not to mention that the "education" or "play time" that the children are supposed to receive is often overstated by these schools. It's mostly just childcare, no matter what these schools say.

If you have had a similar experience a home preschool could be the perfect solution. Mrs. Skeen is very well educated in child development, brain development and the best teaching practices. Also, with a small group of no more than 5 children each child will receive careful attention. Discovery Learning Home Preschool is the perfect solution for parents searching for quality early childhood education for their children.

My Teaching Style Is Inspired By Reggio Emilia

Reggio Emilia is a town in Italy that values early childhood education. People in this city have developed a revolutionary approach to schooling young children.
For more information about this approach click on this link.
http://www.brainy-child.com/article/reggioemilia.html

As a teacher I have spent years studying this wonderful program. Now that I am working with preschool children I finally have the opportunity to practice it with a small group of children.

The Reggio approach is a child lead project approach to early childhood education. Students discover the world around them because of their natural inner curiosity. The teacher is there as a resource for the children as they search for knowledge.
Here is an example of a project that might develop in our school.

Trees
*The students are out walking one day and they become extremely interested in a very large tree.
*They begin to discuss the tree with each other.
*As the teacher participates in the conversation, students use more and more words to describe the tree such as rough, tall, wide, brown, green, bumpy and so on.
*Students discuss various ways to measure the tree and begin comparing it to other trees.
*Back at the school students are given the art supplies to draw or build the tree.
*Students go back to visit the tree each day and talk about how it changes over time. *They keep a journal of the tree for pictures, measurements, and even words about the tree.
*The teacher provides many books about trees both fiction and non-fiction to read to the class and allow children to look through on their own.
*When students are finished with the project and ready to move on to something else there is a tree celebration as the parents are invited a to a picnic near the tree.
**While true participants of Reggio Emilia wouldn’t directly teach reading and writing we have different school requirements here in the U.S. so I would be teaching students to recognize the word tree, talk about other words with same beginning sound or that have the long e sound, and play other games with words and sounds. I am always very considering what American teachers expect students to know when they come to Kindergarten.

This type of education allows teacher to provide much more information than they normally would because they have captured the child's interest. Once a child is interested and involved in a project they will be able to store information in their long term memory more effectively.

Potty Training

At Discovery Learning Home Preschool we understand the challenges of teaching your little one how to use the potty. There is no need to worry about having your child potty trained before school starts. We will gladly join your efforts to train your child.

Your Child's Day

Here is what your child will be doing each day at Discovery Learning Home Preschool.

8:00-8:20 Welcome

Students will arrive and spend some time looking at books and working with puzzles. This quiet morning will help students make the transition to school as they greet me and each other.

8:20-8:40 Morning Circle Time

We will sing songs, go over the days of the week, review what we did the last time we were together, go over colors, numbers and letters of the day and read a specially selected picture book.

8:40-9:30 Dramatic Play

Dramatic play or pretend cooperative play is very important for preschool children to develop language skills along with social skills. The best way to learn how to communicate with peers is to practice. I will be playing right along with them to encourage cooperation and learning.

9:30-9:40 Circle Time/Phonemic Awareness

This circle time is to encourage another level of language development by allowing children to talk about the play that they just experienced. This is also when we will spend some time developing essential phonemic awareness skills. Along with letter recognition and time spent reading, the awareness that words are made up of small sounds is an essential prereading skill.

9:40-10:20 Art/Writing

Preschool age children need to develop early writing and fine motor skills with a variety of different tools. These tools include play dough, markers, sidewalk chalk, paint, crayons, scissors and glue. This art time also helps encourage a child's natural creativity. This is also a time to work on letter identification and practice forming those letters.

10:20-10:30 Clean up/Wash hands for snack

10:30-11:00 Snack/Math

The math lesson will be taught during snack time. It has been my experience that children this age learn the best when they are eating. We will be counting, dividing, measuring, and grouping. After snack students will reinforce the skill they just learned by playing math games.

11:00-11:30 Science/ Discovery Walk

Students will practice lining up and walking in a line as they discover the out doors. We will go for short walks on the sidewalk and discover things like spiders making webs, bees making honey, snails, plants, clouds, air plains, the moon, the sun. These discussions will develop into future themes that are focused on our little group's interests.

11:30-12:00 Final Circle Time

This final circle time is a wonderful time to discuss our day. Students will take turns talking about their favorite parts of the day and sharing what they learned.

12:00 Pick up time

Getting ready for Kindergaten

California kindergarten teachers use the following standards to write their curriculum and to assess student's success. While many of them are developmentally inappropriate for a three-year-old I will use these standards as a guide when I write my curriculum to lay the foundation for these skills. Children who have attended Discovery Learning Home Preschool will have an advantage the first day of kindergarten.

CALIFORNIA KINDERGARTEN CONTENT STANDARDS

Language Arts
Reading
1.0 Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
Students know about letters, words, and sounds. They apply this knowledge to read simple sentences.
Concepts About Print1.1 Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book. 1.2 Follow words from left to right and from top to bottom on the printed page.1.3 Understand that printed materials provide information. 1.4 Recognize that sentences in print are made up of separate words. 1.5 Distinguish letters from words. 1.6 Recognize and name all uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet.
Phonemic Awareness1.7 Track (move sequentially from sound to sound) and represent the number, sameness/difference, and order of two and three isolated phonemes (e.g., /f, s, th/, /j, d, j/ ). 1.8 Track (move sequentially from sound to sound) and represent changes in simple syllables and words with two and three sounds as one sound is added, substituted, omitted, shifted, or repeated (e.g., vowel-consonant, consonant-vowel, or consonant-vowel-consonant). 1.9 Blend vowel-consonant sounds orally to make words or syllables. 1.10 Identify and produce rhyming words in response to an oral prompt. 1.11 Distinguish orally stated one-syllable words and separate into beginning or ending sounds. 1.12 Track auditorily each word in a sentence and each syllable in a word.1.13 Count the number of sounds in syllables and syllables in words. Decoding and Word Recognition1.14 Match all consonant and short-vowel sounds to appropriate letters.1.15 Read simple one-syllable and high-frequency words (i.e., sight words). 1.16 Understand that as letters of words change, so do the sounds (i.e., the alphabetic principle).
Vocabulary and Concept Development1.17 Identify and sort common words in basic categories (e.g., colors, shapes, foods). 1.18 Describe common objects and events in both general and specific language.
2.0 Reading Comprehension
Students identify the basic facts and ideas in what they have read, heard, or viewed. They use comprehension strategies (e.g., generating and responding to questions, comparing new information to what is already known). The selections in Recommended Literature, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve (California Department of Education, 2002) illustrate the quality and complexity of the materials to be read by students.
Structural Features of Informational Materials2.1 Locate the title, table of contents, name of author, and name of illustrator.
Comprehension and Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text2.2 Use pictures and context to make predictions about story content. 2.3 Connect to life experiences the information and events in texts. 2.4 Retell familiar stories. 2.5 Ask and answer questions about essential elements of a text.
3.0 Literary Response and Analysis
Students listen and respond to stories based on well-known characters, themes, plots, and settings. The selections in Recommended Literature, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve illustrate the quality and complexity of the materials to be read by students.
Narrative Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text3.1 Distinguish fantasy from realistic text.3.2 Identify types of everyday print materials (e.g., storybooks, poems, newspapers, signs, labels).3.3 Identify characters, settings, and important events.
Writing
1.0 Writing Strategies
Students write words and brief sentences that are legible.
Organization and Focus1.1 Use letters and phonetically spelled words to write about experiences, stories, people, objects, or events. 1.2 Write consonant-vowel-consonant words (i.e., demonstrate the alphabetic principle). 1.3 Write by moving from left to right and from top to bottom.
Penmanship1.4 Write uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet independently, attending to the form and proper spacing of the letters.
Written and Oral English Language Conventions
The standards for written and oral English language conventions have been placed between those for writing and for listening and speaking because these conventions are essential to both sets of skills.
1.0 Written and Oral English Language Conventions
Students write and speak with a command of standard English conventions.
Sentence Structure1.1 Recognize and use complete, coherent sentences when speaking.
Spelling1.2 Spell independently by using pre-phonetic knowledge, sounds of the alphabet, and knowledge of letter names.
Listening and Speaking
1.0 Listening and Speaking Strategies
Students listen and respond to oral communication. They speak in clear and coherent sentences.
Comprehension1.1 Understand and follow one-and two-step oral directions. 1.2 Share information and ideas, speaking audibly in complete, coherent sentences.
2.0 Speaking Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)
Students deliver brief recitations and oral presentations about familiar experiences or interests, demonstrating command of the organization and delivery strategies outlined in Listening and Speaking Standard 1.0.
Using the listening and speaking strategies of kindergarten outlined in Listening and Speaking Standard 1.0, students:2.1 Describe people, places, things (e.g., size, color, shape), locations, and actions.2.2 Recite short poems, rhymes, and songs.2.3 Relate an experience or creative story in a logical sequence.
MATHEMATICS
Number Sense
1.0 Students understand the relationship between numbers and quantities (i.e., that a set of objects has the same number of objects in different situations regardless of its position or arrangement):
1.1 Compare two or more sets of objects (up to ten objects in each group) and identify which set is equal to, more than, or less than the other.1.2 Count, recognize, represent, name, and order a number of objects (up to 30).1.3 Know that the larger numbers describe sets with more objects in them than the smaller numbers have.
2.0 Students understand and describe simple additions and subtractions:
2.1 Use concrete objects to determine the answers to addition and subtraction problems (for two numbers that are each less than 10).
3.0 Students use estimation strategies in computation and problem solving that involve numbers that use the ones and tens places:
3.1 Recognize when an estimate is reasonable.
Algebra and Functions
1.0 Students sort and classify objects:
1.1 Identify, sort, and classify objects by attribute and identify objects that do not belong to a particular group (e.g., all these balls are green, those are red).
Measurement and Geometry
1.0 Students understand the concept of time and units to measure it; they understand that objects have properties, such as length, weight, and capacity, and that comparisons may be made by referring to those properties:
1.1 Compare the length, weight, and capacity of objects by making direct comparisons with reference objects (e.g., note which object is shorter, longer, taller, lighter, heavier, or holds more). 1.2 Demonstrate an understanding of concepts of time (e.g., morning, afternoon, evening, today, yesterday, tomorrow, week, year) and tools that measure time (e.g., clock, calendar). 1.3 Name the days of the week. 1.4 Identify the time (to the nearest hour) of everyday events (e.g., lunch time is 12 o'clock; bedtime is 8 o'clock at night).
2.0 Students identify common objects in their environment and describe the geometric features:
2.1 Identify and describe common geometric objects (e.g., circle, triangle, square, rectangle, cube, sphere, cone). 2.2 Compare familiar plane and solid objects by common attributes (e.g., position, shape, size, roundness, number of corners).
Statistics, Data Analysis, and Probability
1.0 Students collect information about objects and events in their environment:
1.1 Pose information questions; collect data; and record the results using objects, pictures, and picture graphs. 1.2 Identify, describe, and extend simple patterns (such as circles or triangles) by referring to their shapes, sizes, or colors.
Mathematical Reasoning
1.0 Students make decisions about how to set up a problem:
1.1 Determine the approach, materials, and strategies to be used. 1.2 Use tools and strategies, such as manipulatives or sketches, to model problems.
2.0 Students solve problems in reasonable ways and justify their reasoning:
2.1 Explain the reasoning used with concrete objects and/ or pictorial representations. 2.2 Make precise calculations and check the validity of the results in the context of the problem.
HISTORY-SOCIAL SCIENCE
Learning and Working Now and Long Ago
Students in kindergarten are introduced to basic spatial, temporal, and causal relationships, emphasizing the geographic and historical connections between the world today and the world long ago. The stories of ordinary and extraordinary people help describe the range and continuity of human experience and introduce the concepts of courage, self-control, justice, heroism, leadership, deliberation, and individual responsibility. Historical empathy for how people lived and worked long ago reinforces the concept of civic behavior: how we interact respectfully with each other, following rules, and respecting the rights of others.
K.1 Students understand that being a good citizen involves acting in certain ways.
Follow rules, such as sharing and taking turns, and know the consequences of breaking them.
Learn examples of honesty, courage, determination, individual responsibility, and patriotism in American and world history from stories and folklore.
Know beliefs and related behaviors of characters in stories from times past and understand the consequences of the characters' actions.
K.2 Students recognize national and state symbols and icons such as the national and state flags, the bald eagle, and the Statue of Liberty.
K.3 Students match simple descriptions of work that people do and the names of related jobs at the school, in the local community, and from historical accounts.
K.4 Students compare and contrast the locations of people, places, and environments and describe their characteristics.
Determine the relative locations of objects using the terms near/far, left/right, and behind/in front.
Distinguish between land and water on maps and globes and locate general areas referenced in historical legends and stories.
Identify traffic symbols and map symbols (e.g., those for land, water, roads, cities).
Construct maps and models of neighborhoods, incorporating such structures as police and fire stations, airports, banks, hospitals, supermarkets, harbors, schools, homes, places of worship, and transportation lines.
Demonstrate familiarity with the school's layout, environs, and the jobs people do there.
K.5 Students put events in temporal order using a calendar, placing days, weeks, and months in proper order.
K.6 Students understand that history relates to events, people, and places of other times.
Identify the purposes of, and the people and events honored in, commemorative holidays, including the human struggles that were the basis for the events (e.g., Thanksgiving, Independence Day, Washington's and Lincoln's Birthdays, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day).
Know the triumphs in American legends and historical accounts through the stories of such people as Pocahontas, George Washington, Booker T. Washington, Daniel Boone, and Benjamin Franklin.
Understand how people lived in earlier times and how their lives would be different today (e.g., getting water from a well, growing food, making clothing, having fun, forming organizations, living by rules and laws).
SCIENCE
Physical Sciences
Properties of materials can be observed, measured, and predicted. As a basis for understanding this concept:
Students know objects can be described in terms of the materials they are made of (e.g., clay, cloth, paper) and their physical properties (e.g., color, size, shape, weight, texture, flexibility, attraction to magnets, floating, sinking).
Students know water can be a liquid or a solid and can be made to change back and forth from one form to the other.
Students know water left in an open container evaporates (goes into the air) but water in a closed container does not.
Life Sciences
Different types of plants and animals inhabit the earth. As a basis for understanding this concept:
Students know how to observe and describe similarities and differences in the appearance and behavior of plants and animals (e.g., seed-bearing plants, birds, fish, insects).
Students know stories sometimes give plants and animals attributes they do not really have.
Students know how to identify major structures of common plants and animals (e.g., stems, leaves, roots, arms, wings, legs).
Earth Sciences
Earth is composed of land, air, and water. As a basis for understanding this concept:
Students know characteristics of mountains, rivers, oceans, valleys, deserts, and local landforms.
Students know changes in weather occur from day to day and across seasons, affecting Earth and itsinhabitants.
Students know how to identify resources from Earth that are used in everyday life and understand that many resources can be conserved.
Investigation and Experimentation
Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:
Observe common objects by using the five senses.
Describe the properties of common objects.
Describe the relative position of objects by using one reference (e.g., above or below).
Compare and sort common objects by one physical attribute (e.g., color, shape, texture, size, weight).
Communicate observations orally and through drawings