Blast Off To A New School Year!

It has been a joy to welcome this new group to St. James! When children begin a new school year it is common for a few tears to be shed. This group started school ready to go! Everyone told their parents good-bye and the room was full of smiling faces. Our topics for the first couple of weeks were , “What names do we need to know at school?,” and “What do we do if we get sad or scared at school?” Our Beginning of School unit used nursery rhymes to help children learn names and express their feelings.

Humpty Dumpty was a hit with the whole class! As the class pretended to be Humpty Dumpty they recited the rhyme and their self-esteem soared! The children felt a sense of accomplishment as they memorized the rhyme and preformed in front of their peers. Nursery rhymes promote a variety of literacy skills including oral language development, phonics, comprehension and vocabulary.

Emotions are strong for early three year olds and one friend named Miss Muffet helped us cope with fear. Children can be afraid of any number of things and we could all relate to Miss Muffet. Everyone was a little hesitant at first , but soon all were asking to be the spider. It was a blast to watch the class take turns and cooperate with each other to preform this rhyme.

Mrs. Nicole was another name we learned at school. Each child learned to listen for an instruction and participate in class. Our gross motor skills were taking off as we learned to pull our bodies forward and backward on blue scooters. It looks like we are off to a great start at St. James Day School!