Ella goes to preschool

Ella has officially started preschool! She goes to St. Ambrose Early Childhood Education Center (or ECEC) and is in the Caterpillar room. She goes 2 afternoons a week for about 2 hours. Generally speaking, Ella separates well most of the time. If she is very tired or not feeling well we may see her protest. However, she would really rather be with me, most of the time. I wasn't sure what to expect when it came to drop off time. But things went smoothly.

After lunch, we dressed for school. Ella picked out her outfit and successfully put it on all by her "big girl" self. We filled her backpack with the needed supplies (change of clothes) and set off for a photo shoot by the Maple tree.

She happily posed. Though, it is harder to get pictures of her because she doesn't like to look straight into the camera. I asked her a few questions:

Ella, are you excited about preschool? Yes.

Do you think you will like your teachers? Yes.

What are their names? Ms. Shannon and Ms. Deb.

Are you nervous about anything? No.

(Previously, she mentioned being nervous about meeting new friends.)

Okay, are you ready to go? Yes, yes, yes!

Stopping by the front door. Notice the reflection in the glass.

Once we got into the building, she knew which way to go. This is also where McKenna went to preschool; Ella is familiar with both the building and the teachers. She first went to the "goodbye window" and peeked into her class. Once the doors were open she went in and found her name tag and started playing immediately. She gave a me a quick hug and wasn't even interested in waving at me through the little window. It all went so quickly!

You'll notice her little animal friend. It is a black and white puppy that her grandparents got for her. She carried it into the cubby area but I told her it had to stay in the cubby and could not go into the classroom. She was fine with that but wanted to take a picture of it. So, I let her.

I tried to get her attention through the window, but she was already engrossed in toys. Good for her.

When I picked her up she was happy to see me and excited to tell me a little about her day. She enjoyed snack (cookies and milk) very much. She also mentioned playing with friend a lot. (This made me especially happy because that was her original concern.) She also said that they went out on the playground. They learned about how many friends are in the class (17) and how many teachers (2). She mentioned sand in the sensory table and stories about hungry caterpillars. I think she had a fantastic time and I hope she continues to enjoy it. Her school is about 7-10 minutes away. This is what she looked like when we pulled into the driveway.