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Moms stay and play at United Methodist preschool
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Canfield United Methodist Church Preschool’s four-year-old class surprised their moms by singing a special song during the school’s annual Mommy’s Play Day March 10.
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Rory Tower, a student in the Canfield United Methodist Church Preschool’s four-year-old class, played with her mom, Maggie, during the school’s annual Mommy Play Day March 10.
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Canfield United Methodist Church Preschool’s 4-year-old class students Maddie Accordino, left, and Maya VanDussen, right, invited their moms, Nikki and Ellen, to play during the school’s annual Mommy’s Play Day March 10.
By ABBY SLANKER
Mothers of students at Canfield United Methodist Church preschool began March 10 similar to how they start some week days. They took their child to preschool, but on this very special occasion, they were invited to stay and play. The school held its annual Mommy’s Play Day, during which moms get an inside look at their preschooler’s time in school.
The school has three classes: a 3-year-old class with lead teacher Monica Egolf, a 4-year-old class with lead teacher Ellen Bennett and a 5-year-old class with lead teacher Mary Lee Bush. Each class has a scheduled time of an hour to play and have fun with their moms at the school.
The students prepared for their mom’s visit the week before Mommy’s Play Day. Along with a handmade invitation to Mommy’s Play Day, the students made name tags for their moms and helped prepare a snack.
According to Egolf, the 3-year-old class made name tags that were made from five puzzle pieces.
“As part of a math lesson, the children chose five puzzle pieces and then put them in a container, added gold paint and shook it up. The result was beautifully covered golden puzzle pieces, which I then hot-glued together and added a pin so the moms could wear them on this very special day,” Egolf said.
The 3-year-old also made mini blueberry muffins for their moms as a snack during Mommy Play Day.
The 4-year-old class made name tag necklaces for their mothers, with a drawing of their mom on it and, for special effect, glued on small pieces of paper to make their mom’s hair.
According to Bennett, the class made School Fuel for their moms as a treat during snack time.
“The children used a two-step process to make the School Fuel. First, they mixed three shapes of cereal — squares, circles and lines — and then they made a syrup to coat the mixture to give it a bit of sweetness,” Bennett said.
The 5-year-old class created their name tags out of doilies, a gold bow and a paper heart.
“The children are learning to tie, so we incorporated that into our name tag with the gold bow and they chose the shape of a heart to write their mom’s names because that was the shape the children most associated with their moms,” said Bush.
The 5-year-olds made their moms sugar cookies with sprinkles for their snack.
“The measuring of the ingredients helped the children learn math skills and putting the cookies on the cookie sheet helped with their fine motor skills,” Bush said.
Stations were set up throughout the classroom where the four-year-old class and their moms could choose to draw on easels together, play at the doctor’s office, read, color or play with blocks.
When play time was up, and everyone had helped clean up the stations, as a special surprise, Bennett asked all the moms to join the children on the carpet for the “Alphabet Workout.”
Moms and children alike danced and rocked out to the song, which taught the children how to draw the letters of the alphabet in the air, incorporating movement and exercise.
The moms then joined the children in singing “Gob Bless America” and recited the Pledge of Allegiance, just as the preschoolers do every day.
As a treat for their moms, the children then lined up and sang a special song for just for them, finishing with holding up signs they had made that read ‘Mom.’
At the end of the hour, and to close the play day, both moms and students formed a circle to sing the “Goodbye Song” and “Buckle Up Song” together.