Welcome to Little Blue Preschool

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  By Administrator | May 11, 2012 - 8:59 am | Uncategorized
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Little Blue Preschool is a cozy neighborhood childcare center with a family like feel.  We offer a relaxed atmosphere that is inviting to children and adults alike combined with caring and experienced staff that are committed to helping each child develop a solid social, emotional, and intellectual foundation for life.

If you are looking for a childcare setting for your child please click through the tabs at the top of the page for basic info such as rates, policies and philosophy.  But to get a unique inside view of what we are really all about  please read our blog entries bellow.  These photos and stories are snapshots of everyday life at LBP that highlight how children are accomplishing important developmental milestones through an active learning environment.

Set- Go Fish Style

  By Lorna | May 14, 2012 - 9:28 am | Math
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My group had extensive Go Fish experience.  Go Fish is essentially a matching games where you are collecting sets of two identical cards.  I found another card game and decided to mix it up a bit.

This game is called Set, and it is packaged with a set of rules that we didn’t use.  Set is a fine example of a finite attribute set.  That is, there is a defined set of attributes or characteristics the items can have, that can only be sorted in so many ways.  In this case each card has one of three shapes, in a set of one to three, in one of three colors and one of three fill styles.

In our game we dealt the cards for Go Fish and instead of asking for a specific card, such as a nine, the children asked for a card with attributes, such as green diamonds.

Children made up their own rules for the sets they were collecting.

This child’s set is more of a sequence or chain reaction.  Each card is related to the card next to it but not necessarily  to the one after that.

So take a look at your game shelf.  Is there a game there that needs new rules?

 

People Cut Outs

  By Lorna | May 14, 2012 - 8:41 am | Art, Language and Literacy
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I recently cut out a great number of people shapes in three sizes and four skin colors.  In this activity I suggested that children choose a “family”, glue them on then draw around them.  This child chose just one person and called it a fairy.

This child represented her family, plus a few more.

This person is in a house.

And this person is all about the artist.  This is one of my favorite 4 year old styles.  Children go through a predictable sequence of stages of drawing.  First people are just heads with arms and legs sticking out.  Then basic body parts appear in more realistic placement and proportions.  Then the details are added, and which details become a matter of personal taste.  For this child fingers and toes are very important.  I am also guessing she is wearing a skirt and a crown.

I didn’t mind that the children didn’t follow my family suggestion for the most part.  The idea was to get them drawing and making representations of what is important to them.  I think drawing is the most important pre-writing activity we do.  I helps children develop the fine motor control needed to form letters.  It also gives them practice with the process of thinking an idea and then putting the idea on paper.  Studies have shown that the details a young child’s drawing include, the more complex their writing style will be in later childhood.

Combining Materials

  By Lorna | May 14, 2012 - 8:21 am | Art
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This is a little magnetic paper doll set we have.  One day I put it near the magnetic white board, not thinking about the possibilities.  There is only one doll but many outfits.  Why not create another doll?

This is why we don’t like to tell kids how they are supposed to use toys.  We want them to think out of the box and create new ways to do use things.

Lizard Line

  By Lorna | May 13, 2012 - 11:24 am | Dramatic Play, Math
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Where are these lizards going?  Why are they all in a line?  I don’t know.  I do know these children are exploring several of HighScope’s Key Developmental Indicators:

Approaches to Learning
♦  Making and expressing choices, plans, and decisions

Social and Emotional Development
♦  Creating and experiencing collaborative play

Number
♦  Arranging two sets of objects in one-to-one correspondence

Space
♦  Experiencing and describing positions, directions, and distances in the play space, building, and neighborhood

Visual Art
♦  Making models out of clay, blocks, and other materials

 

Under the Rocks

  By Lorna | May 13, 2012 - 9:53 am | Science and Nature
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As soon as we go to the playground each day the children start asking, “Will you open the rocks?”  For years there has been a huge ant colony living under these rocks.  And at least 5 days a week the rocks are rolled back and we watch the ants scurry and see some of the tunnels they have built.  I am surprised that the ants don’t just move to some other yard where children aren’t always disturbing their homes.  But dependably they are always there.  The children also like to collect the more docile creatures that also live under the rocks such as pill bugs and earth worms.  There are some rules.  You can’t wreck the ants home.  And you can’t kill any of the creatures.  The second rule takes some trial and error before it is fully realized.  One big problem is children want to save the little creature in a tightly closed fist.  I explain that it is easy for our strong hands to squish them, so why not hold them in a sand bucket or on a shovel?  Also children want to keep them and take them home.  I don’t say they can’t take them home, but that they can’t take them in the school.  When we go inside the children must leave the creatures in “a nice home”.  And “if” the creature is still there when their parents come to pick them up, and “if” their parent says its OK, then they can take it home.  I don’t know of any parent who has consented to this.  Most of them are quick enough to point out that there are the same creatures living outside their house.

Moving Supplies

  By Lorna | May 13, 2012 - 9:24 am | Dramatic Play, Music and Movement
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I just finished moving into a new house, so naturally I had lots of packing material to deal with.  So I brought some boxes to school.

I knew that children would want to get inside the boxes, they are just the right size.  Previously many children have used similar boxes as trains or cars.  But then someone discovered they could do this.

And soon this happened:

It was like a prairie dog town.

Folks just randomly popping up.  Even some usually active children spent extended periods of time just sitting quietly in their boxes.  Some children called the boxes houses.  But what were they imagining?  What was the appeal of being in such a small space, by yourself?  These are the questions that fascinate teachers.

We brought the boxes into the toddler room and similar things happened.

These children did talk about going places.  Ann Arbor children are travelers and even these young ones can remember going on long trips.  They talked about going to Chicago, Minnesota, and Korea!

The other moving supply I had a lot of was bubble wrap.  This is not something I would normally buy for myself, but a friend had given me a roll of bubble wrap left over from her move.  It was on a huge roll and perforated like paper towel.  I brought a box of it to school and at music and movement time handed each child one sheet.  We then played one of our favorite songs, Popcorn, by Greg and Steve.  

Everyone had a great time jumping up and down on the bubble wrap, even children who don’t normally dance.  I’ll only post one picture because all of them are so blurry.  Jumping does not photograph well!