Pre Kindergarden

Have I told you about Xalen's fantastic Pre Kindergarten?  We were impressed from the first day, with the computing station and the class room pets.  But as he comes home each day, week and month we appreciate it even more.  They do plenty with letters, shapes and numbers but they also focus on other stuff too.  They are learning about money, time, respect and responsibility.  They have a cubby that they are responsible for it hold his journal, pencil, markers, glue and piggy bank.  They get red tickets for unfavorable behaviors and pennies for preferred behaviors, once a month they have shopping days where they have to pay for the tickets and then can spend the difference. 
In September the theme was all about health, in the class room they converted the kitchen into a hospital set up, and Xalen came home telling us about the 4 types of blood, how the blood works with the lungs and how to differentiated good tasting foods from healthy foods they visited Berry Patch Farms and went to the health Expo at the Science Museum. The school had a preschool focused carnival where the kids got to go up in a hot air balloon. 

In October the hospital change into a costume shop, they wrote and illustrated creative stories took a trip to the pumpkin patch, and helped prepare for the open house. They did a unit learning about the mail, they visited the post office, dropped off the invitations for the open house. The school set up it very own post office for a week; Xalen's class was responsible for collecting, sorting and delivering.  We had a great time at the open house,  they had a scavenger hunt that got us acquainted with all the activities they do class each day.   Xalen had the honor of bring home the class room stuffed animal, Kerby,  for the weekend.

Now that it is Nov they are learning all about Thanksgiving, the Native Americans and Pioneers, the costume shop has transformed into a tepee, they have made shuttlecocks (Native American toys) and dream catchers.  They will be visiting 4 mile historic park in Denver tomorrow.

In the last couple months his interest in writing, tracing and spelling his letters and numbers had increased drastically, he is very proud that he can color in the lines and loves make believe play and board games.  Reading is still one of his favorite times of the day, and we just finished our first chapter book with him, Where the Red Fern Grows.