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

That's a Wrap...

It's hard to believe that the 2016-2017 school year is over!  I am so proud of the preschoolers.  They have shown tremendous growth over the course of the year, in all areas of development.  I am especially proud of them for learning how to communicate with each other more effectively!

Now, it's time for you to enjoy spending more time with your child over the summer months.  Don't forget that you can always raise the bar for talking, even while you are having fun.  Enjoy your summer!  I'll see you next year.  :)

 

 

 

 

May we have your attention? We need a clean up in Aisle 2!

To end our year in preschool, we set up a Grocery Store themed center.  If I'm not mistaken, I think that this ended up being the preschoolers' favorite theme of the year!  Our grocery store had different sections in it to help the preschoolers learn category words such as fruit, vegetables, meat, etc.  When playing in the center, the preschoolers also had many opportunities to act out the roles of various store employees.  They used dramatic play to act out being a cashier, stocking the shelves, being a bagger and even cleaning up spills through out the store.  The preschoolers also had the opportunity to practice some math skills by counting the number of food items purchased, weighing various fruits and vegetables, counting money, exchanging/purchasing goods for money, writing checks, using credit cards responsibly and interacting with each other for a specific purpose during the entire time.  We also discussed needs and wants at the grocery store and talked about how all moms and dads have to make important choices for their families when they go to the grocery store.

Of course, the preschoolers loved pushing the shopping carts around and loading up their baskets with all sorts of food items.  This allowed us to talk about the words for the many different food items that were available for purchase.  Lastly, the preschoolers were able to add a literacy component to their dramatic play by writing a grocery list, reading the labels on the packages and reading the open/closed door sign.  In the end, a lot of fun was had by all of the preschoolers.  However, they learned some very valuable communication skills and enhanced their vocabulary in a very, purposeful way!

 

 

Camping Fun!

The preschoolers had a blast with our Camping Theme center.  They learned to use camping specific vocabulary as well as what to pack for a camping adventure.  We practiced using different camping tools and also some safety tips for camp fires.  Lastly, we talked about the fact that most camping took place outside in the woods or at the beach.  However, we also read some books that showed us how you could camp in your own backyard or inside of the house if you had inclement weather.  :)

The preschoolers particularly enjoyed their dramatic play sessions and practiced "sleeping" in a tent, going on nature hikes, fishing in a lake/pond and even grilling hot dogs and roasting marshmallows on the camp fire.  To finish the unit off right, we made real S'mores (in the toaster oven) to eat in class.  They were gooey, but delicious!

 

Exploring and Caring for the Garden

The preschoolers absolutely loved our Garden Themed Center.  Each week we focused on the language of different garden related topics.  During the first week, we discussed what kinds of things we would find in gardens, including the fact that there were different types of gardens.  (e.g. vegetable gardens, flower gardens, rock gardens, etc.)  Then we learned how to plant a new garden & care for it once it was alive and growing.  Thirdly, we talked about what kinds of animals and/or bugs a person could find in a garden.  The preschoolers even got to touch real worms & caterpillars in the sensory table, plant some real seeds and watch them grow (over a foot tall) and even plant some real flowers to take home.  Lastly, the preschoolers learned how to choose items from a garden so that they could pick them and enjoy them inside.

During this unit, we also cared for some caterpillars/silk worms.  We watched them eat, grow around 10 times their original size and then spin themselves into some amazing, yellow cocoons.  The preschoolers loved caring for these "class pets" and couldn't wait to see them each morning.  (We would like to say a special thank you to Ms. Kristi for sharing these special creatures with us.)  Ms. Kristi also came into our classroom afterwards and showed us how to spin the silk from their cocoons into real thread for making clothes!