Our theme this month at the Chestermere Community Playschool is Pete The Cat! We love reading Pete books because they are repetitive, invite participation, and usually have a catchy song to sing while we read! The books can easily be paired easily with lesson topics such as colours, counting, friendship, and feelings. Our crafts this week went along with the story ‘Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons.’ For our first craft, we worked on our cutting and colouring skills. Everyone started with their Pete head and button page (click here for the free printable).
 |  |
Most preschool-aged children have not established a clear hand preference and it is still very common at this stage for children to swap hands. When starting a cutting activity we place the scissors on the table in the midline position (in line with the middle of their body in front of them) they can then reach with their preferred hand to pick up the scissors. We encourage our students to finish a project with the same hand they begin with, instead of switching back and forth during the craft. With their helping hand holding their paper they cut along the line up towards the button and then stopped. It's best to make it clear at the beginning that the plan is to stop cutting at the buttons, but if the kids cut the strips all the way through, that's ok! We just taped the pieces back together. The last step is to colour Pete and his groovy buttons.
 |  |
Using the same Pete the Cat story, we also coloured, cut, and glued buttons onto Pete’s yellow shirt. First, they cut around Pete’s head, if the shape is too tricky; you can draw a circle around as a guide. Then the kids coloured Pete’s face and chose four buttons to glue onto Pete’s shirt. Next, we used the glue sticks to glue his head near the top of the yellow paper, then one at a time, glued the buttons in a line under his head. Using prepositions (top, bottom, over, under, etc) help expand vocabulary, and describes where or when something is in relation to something else.
 |  |
Another low-prep, quick activity that can be replicated for almost any story is sequencing cards. For this activity we first read "Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes". Then we put out pictures of Pete’s shoes (white, red, blue, and white/wet), strawberries, blueberries, mud, and water. We found images on google and printed and then laminated them for this activity. You could also draw pictures or use photos to create the cards. The kids then retold the story and put the pictures in sequential order. Through sequencing, children are working on recognizing patterns, making predictions, understanding transitional words like first/next/last, know the elements of a story like beginning/middle/end, and following directions.
Registrations for the 2022/23 school year are still being accepted. The Chestermere Community Playschool is excited to participate in the new Affordability Grant and subsidy program, making quality, play-based preschool more accessible to all the families in Chestermere.
You may always find more information about their program, teachers, subsidies, and registration on their website.
 | website: www.chestermereplayschool.com email: info@chestermereplayschool.com facebook: @chestermerecommunityplayschool instagram: @chestermereplayschool |
 | ||
Macaroni KID Chestermere is a free local calendar, weekly e-newsletter and website focused on fun family events and information in the Chestermere, Langdon, Indus and surrounding rural areas. We gather all kinds of local family events and activities each week and add useful information about classes, family-focused local businesses, deals, product reviews, recipes, crafts, school and camp guides and more. Are we missing something? Please use our Submit an Event form to send us all the details! If you have original recipes, crafts, or family fall fun ideas that you would like to share with our Macaroni KID community, please email kimmcrae@macaronikid.com. Be sure to include a poster or image if you've got one! | ||
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
