Preschool Is a Ditto-free Zone

Dittos (copies made on a copier) are not to be used in preschool.
For this measurement activity, children made their own worksheets!
Starting with a blank piece of paper, each child either drew a picture or wrote the word for the item selected for measuring. Then he/she determined the length of each item using nonstandard units of measurement; for this activity they used unifix cubes. Finally, the length of each item was recorded on the page.



The result was that each child had his/her own unique worksheet! All without a ditto.
Just think - it all began with a blank piece of paper.

Morning Message Time Encourages Authentic Writing

My last post explained how our preschool teachers at Highland Elementary use the Morning Message, a component of the High/Scope curriculum. The curriculum also encourages providing authentic writing opportunities during the Morning Message - a time for our students to compose their own messages and share those messages with others. Teachers support all "writing" efforts (scribbling, pictures, random letters, invented spelling) as your child learns that oral language can be written; written language can be read.

For further information about your child's literacy development in reading and writing, please refer to English/Language Arts Standard 3: Demonstrates General Skills and Strategies of the Reading Process in your parent guide Building a Strong Foundation for School Success: The Kentucky Early Childhood Standards.

Can You Read This Message?

Greeting is a part of the daily routine at Glasgow Preschool. This time is an opportunity for your child's class to gather as a community and discover what is going to happen for the day. Our curriculum, High/Scope, promotes the use of the daily message (rather than calendar time or routine discussion of the weather) to support your child's literacy development as well as encourage purposeful discussion. The message board encourages your child to share thoughts with others (developing language skills), promotes shared reading experiences and teaches your child to function as part of a cohesive social learning group. Can you read this message?

Our daily messages use varied combinations of actual objects, signs, symbols and numbers. Glasgow preschool teachers recognize that interpreting signs and symbols is a process on the continuum of learning to read. Using numerals exposes your child to counting, ordinal numbers and number recognition. The message board provides information that is meaningful and relevant to your child and his/her classmates. Through this experience, your child has become more experienced in "figuring out" the meaning of daily messages, supporting reading comprehension skills. "Reading" these signs and symbols teaches your child that printed text conveys a message. This teaching strategy supports your child's emergent reading and promotes the beginning stages of understanding the alphabetic principle.

So... were you able to read the message above? If you need help, ask the expert - your child!!!

For further information about your child's literacy development in reading, please refer to English/Language Arts Standard 3: Demonstrates General Skills and Strategies of the Reading Process in your parent guide Building a Strong Foundation for School Success: The Kentucky Early Childhood Standards.

Project-based Learning

What is project-based learning?
Project-based learning is an in-depth teaching strategy implemented in our preschool classrooms.
Projects focus on a worthwhile topic and target key Preschool Standards & Benchmarks (aligning with Kentucky Common Core/Core Content).
Various grouping arrangements include the entire classroom, small groups or individuals.
Research of projects focuses on questions posed by children, the teacher, or collaboratively by both.

How will project-based learning benefit my child?
Projects motivate children to be responsible for their own learning. With a sense of purpose, student involvement increases. Also, projects are learning opportunities to master skills of literacy (reading; writing), math, scientific thinking, problem solving, and positive social relations.

Our first project: The project was selected based upon observations of and interest in the butterflies in the butterfly garden as the children walked to the playground.

Getting started:
1. Gathered information from observations, texts and digital media to decide what we KNOW about butterflies.

2. Posed questions about what we wanted to LEARN about butterflies.













Our Research:
Field study (visiting a site) is important for visual and kinesthetic learners. For this project, we went to Ms. Edie Bell's butterfly garden.



We were able to ask her our research questions - what we wanted to know about butterflies.

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Applying what we learned:
We used our experiences to document what we LEARNED about butterflies.

Ms. Bell gave us artifacts (seeds from her garden, caterpillars, etc.) to bring back to school for further observations and research.
Then, we will use this information to develop our own habitats

Information About Preschool Eligibility

Glasgow Preschool serves children, ages 3 and 4, residing in the Glasgow School District. Our program offers 2 sessions Monday through Thursday at two locations - Highland Elementary and South Green Elementary.
Children must be age 4 by October 1 of the year of enrollment with a family income that is at or below 150% poverty level.
If family income exceeds the 150% poverty level or if the child is age 4 after October 1, eligibility is based upon a disability or delay in one or more of the following areas: cognitive/academic, speech/language, social skills, self-help skills and/or motor skills.