The Apple Orchard

The apple orchard has encouraged many fun conversations over the past few weeks.  However, it has also given the preschoolers many opportunities to practice a variety of math skills.  They have been picking apples and sorting them into groups by color, shape, size, real/pretend apples & even by stem/no stem.  The preschoolers have also been counting apples, graphing apples and making ABAB patterns with real and pretend apples.  Lastly, the preschoolers have enjoyed using a balancing scale  weigh the apples & compare them as well as to sell the apples to their friends. 

Last week, we had an apple/apple products tasting party.  We tasted over 14 different apple products as well as a variety of fresh apple slices!  Their favorite apple items were the apple slices, the applesauce and the apple juice. Yum!  Overall, it's been a delicious learning experience for all.

    

  

  

  

  

Howdy folks...here are some pics from the farm

   

 

        

There is something special about the uniqueness of a child's artwork

Each week in preschool, we work on various areas of development.  One area that is extremely important for the preschoolers to practice is that of fine motor control.  Fine motor control is imperative for accomplishing self care skills independently.  (Some examples of self care skills are:  opening a lunch box, zipping/unzipping a coats, buttoning buttons, tying shoe laces, holding eating utensils or writing utensils independently, etc.) 

While we work on these skills in a variety of ways around the classroom, we always work on these skills when completing our weekly, visual arts projects.  In preschool, we choose our art projects based on the students' language targets.  We model and use appropriate language structures during our visual arts lessons.  However, we are also working on important, functional communication skills and social skills during this time.  Additionally, the visual arts lessons give us the opportunity to expose the preschoolers to variety of art materials, textures and smells that they might come across in their environment. 

After the art projects are completed, we encourage the preschoolers to give their friends positive feedback or compliments.  We try to focus on the efforts of each child, not necessarily on the finished product.  However, this is a learning process that takes time to master.  Lastly, we hang their artwork around the classroom to show that we appreciate their efforts, their uniqueness and to give them another reason to talk to one another.  Don't worry, at the end of the month, you will receive your child's original works of art to display at home.  :)

In the end, I truly love looking at the artwork of young children.  A child's artwork can highlight their uniqueness, their strengths, their emotions and it can also tell you a lot about their overall development.  While the preschoolers may not paint like Monet at this point in their lives, we can encourage them to do their best & to work on their fine motor control in the process.
 

 

 

Language Experience

  

  

In life, it's easier to talk about something that you are familiar with or about something that you have done, than to talk about something that you have never experienced.  This is exactly what we aim to accomplish in the oral preschool class.  During an activity that we call language experience, we aim to give our students, real-life experiences that they can talk about at home or anywhere else.

Each experience provides the preschoolers with an activity that will encourage them to communicate effectively with their peers & other adults using spoken language.  During the activity, the preschoolers are exposed to the language of many different smells and tastes as well as other sensory input.  We also model our language in a way that encourages our students to communicate with others effectively.  In the end, because our students have actively participated in this activity, they should be able to talk about the experience with others.

While the activity is the same for each child, the instructional goals are individualized so that the entire experience is purposeful and challenging for each student based on his or her current language level.  The speech pathologists and I carry out these language experiences in a small group on Wednesdays & Fridays.  The lessons are planned to compliment our class's monthly themes so that the preschoolers have extra exposure to our targeted vocabulary words.  While we don't always have a tangible product at the end of the experience, we take pictures of the process to include in a book that will go home with each child.  Please read this book with your child and see how much he/she can tell you about the experience. 

Here are a few examples of some of our preschoolers' finished products.  Remember, it's all about the process and the learning experience itself, not the final product.  :)

  

  

  

Let's Visit the Pet Shop

During the month of September, the preschoolers had the opportunity to learn more about language by playing in the pet shop-themed learning center.  We worked on many goals each day including vocabulary, literacy, math, personal/social skills and even science.  Over the course of the month, it was exciting to see the preschoolers' play skills develop to a new level.  Instead of only acting out the various jobs that one might accomplish at a pet store, the preschoolers began to interact with one another using the language that was appropriate for this setting!  While they did learn about caring for pets and about purchasing a new pet, the preschoolers really learned some important lessons for life and about communicating with others.

Over the course of the month, the preschoolers had their favorite pets.  Interestingly enough, that changed from day to day due to our literature selections.  For instance, if the main character of the story was a bird, the preschoolers all wanted to play with the birds in the pet shop.  And, if the main character of the story was a rabbit, they all wanted to purchase & care for a rabbit.  To me, this was very exciting because it showed that the preschoolers were not only listening to the stories, but they were later, synthesizing this information through their play.  While playing looks fun to adults, it provides powerful learning opportunities for young children to investigate and explore the world around them. 

  

All About Me

During the first few weeks of school, we have been learning all about people.  While we have talked about family members and people who work at our school, the preschoolers have primarily learned about themselves.  In doing so, they have learned that all people have many things in common, but that there are also some characteristics that make us unique.  Throughout the unit, the preschoolers had the chance to learn about each other by playing games & reading stories about why they were so special.

To highlight their unique characteristics, the preschoolers created some art projects and enjoyed working on their fine motor skills in the process.  They giggled with delight as they traced each others' shapes for their life-sized portraits & practiced the skills of cutting, painting and gluing, independently.  Lastly, the preschoolers were able to use vegetables, objects from nature & scented markers to enhance their overall sensory experience during art time.

When the preschoolers are finished with their artwork, we hang it proudly around our classroom as well as in the hallway for everyone else to see!  Then, we encourage our students to give each other positive feedback for all of that hard work.  In the end, we also practiced poems, rhymes & songs about ourselves because...it's all about us this month!  

 

 

Riding the School Bus

 

The preschoolers in our class love to ride the bus to school!  Each morning, we are able to greet the preschoolers as they get off the bus at Ocean Lakes Elementary.  Our goal is to make our students feel welcome from the start!  We are very lucky to have such kind and patient bus drivers at our school.  Each bus driver does a great job of keeping our students feel safe on the drive to/from school.  

We also use the "real life" opportunities of arrival & dismissal to teach our students about bus safety and about the importance of communicating with others.  To do so, we model the language of "Goodbye" & "Thank you for the ride."  This type of language not only encourages the preschoolers to interact kindly with their bus drivers, but to do so with others that they interact with during the day.  We encourage the preschoolers to call their bus drivers by name.  In doing so, the preschoolers are learning how to communicate effectively with others and showing the bus drivers that they appreciate the service that they are providing each day.

Welcome OLES Students & Families!

If you are new to Ocean Lakes Elementary, I want to welcome you to our learning community.  My name is Julie Sill.  I am an early childhood specialist & a teacher of the deaf/hard of hearing.  I am a passionate educator who truly enjoys working with young children and their families.  In fact, I have spent my entire career working with students who are in their early childhood years, ages birth to age 8.  My goal is to provide an inclusive learning community for all children so that each child feels safe, welcome and respected.  If they feel this way, they will be able to learn something new each day.  To make this possible, our staff at OLES focuses on getting to know your child better, so that we can help him/her reach his/her full potential for learning.

Our classroom is an Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) preschool classroom that has been specially designed for deaf and hard of hearing students who are learning to talk.  In our multi-age classroom, we have deaf & hard of hearing children ages 2-5 years old who utilize assistive technology such as hearing aids and cochlear implants to help them access sound.  We call our room, the oral preschool because the students in our class and their families have chosen to pursue a goal of spoken language.  We also have children in our class who are developing language typically.  Our goal is to provide a quiet, language rich environment that focuses on listening, learning through play and purposeful talking & communicating.

My two, fabulous teaching assistants, Ms. Wendy & Ms. Mattee, will join me in welcoming your child to OLES each day.  Together, the three of us will provide a unique learning experience that will focus on the individual needs of each child, so that we can help them to be more successful thinkers, speakers and communicators.  Please use this classroom blog as a window into our classroom.  Our goal is that you can observe what we are doing in class & continue this learning at home with your child.  Don't forget that you were your child's first teacher & will continue to be the most important influence on his or her life.  Please join us on this journey and help us to make listening and talking, a way of life.

Here's to another year of learning, listening and talking!

Sincerely,
Julie Sill