Today in Preschool!

Today in preschool we:

• celebrated Liam's birthday!
• worked on our number book (hopeful we will finish before the break).
• enjoyed a new center- "Santa's Workshop!" The children loved playing 'Santa and his elves' as they worked to make toys and put them in the toy shoot to send them on their way (I just provided a workbench and the children provided ALL the imagination).
• learned about changing of the months and what happens in December at CircleTime.
• Read a book, "The Legend of the Candy Cane"  then talked about how candy canes are a pattern.
• created our own patterns on our felt boards
• painted our Candy Cane patterns with our thumbs!
• enjoyed Liam's birthday treat!

What a day!  We are adjusting well to the changes and have some more exciting days ahead.
See you tomorrow!!!

Looking ahead:

1. School tomorrow and Thursday (show-n-tell).
2. Field Trip to the library next Tuesday.
3. Next Thursday is our PJ party (and last day before the break).

We Love Our Families!

To in preschool we discussed families.  We had great conversations about Moms, Dads, Grandparents, and even dogs (because they are family, too).
We also:

• worked on our cutting skills
• enjoyed centers (the children loved the new center where they we able to string alphabet beads)
• worked on sitting, listening, counting, and singing skills during Circle Time
• read, "Alice the Fairy" by David Shannon
• discussed families
• introduced the children to my 'stick figure' family
• enjoyed making our own stick figure families - they titled them "Family Creations" 
• enjoyed the weather outside (are we going to have another one of those no snow/water years?)
• focused on letter Ee

We also welcomed a guest, Oxtin, who joined us for part of the day.  He may be coming to the preschool.

It was a great day.
jen

Fall

We are continuing our theme of Fall and working hard to understand more about the seasons of our Earth.  Today we:

• practiced our names
• sorted fall leaves with UPPER and lower-case letters on them
• enjoyed centers where we worked with blocks, legos, alphabet matching, and, of course, pretend play.  
• sang, counted, listed days of the week, recited poems and such during Circle Time
• read Fall Leaves Fall by Zoe Hall
• gathered our clipboards and crayons and ventured outside to 'find' our class tree, then closely looked at the tree then drew what OUR tree looks like in the Fall
• practiced writing skills as we wrote out the word Fall
• enjoyed snack and outside time
• had an EVENTFUL show-n-tell
• ended the day with our Scholastic magazine 1,2,3 Autumn and watched a Scholastic video on how a pumpkin grows.

Another enjoyable day here.  It is so wonderful to see the  bonds forming between friends and watching new friendships blooming.

Thank you for the good times with your children!
Jen

FALL::

Fall is the time when the leaves fall down.
Orange, and yellow
and golden brown.
Fall is the time when the leaves fall down.

That is the poem/song we learned today about the Season we are discussing in Preschool.

Today, we also:

• -worked with our names (we are getting them!!).
• - did leaf rubbings and also took time to really LOOK at leaves.
• -enjoyed centers and individual work time with the teacher (on letters & sounds).
• - discussed the turning of the months.
• -read The Four Seasons
• Enjoyed one of my favorite activities: Fall Rock Painting.  

Fall Rock Painting:
Each child marks their paper with their name.  Then each child gets to choose the Fall colors they want to dob on their paper.  (It is important to let them experiment with squeezing the containers so they understand what "a little" and "a lot" really is.) Then came the only part I helped them with - rolling up the long paper and putting it into an oatmeal container.  They picked two rocks and tossed them in the container and closed the lid.  Then the fun began!  They shook it as long as they wanted to - some decided to go hard, some decided to roll it on the table.  After they thought they were done, they opened the lid and pulled out their unique masterpiece!
*I didn't use brown because I thought I would take over all the other colors, but next time, I for sure will - it will look more Fallish!

We then:

• enjoyed playing outside -for maybe the last time for a while :(
• ate our snack.
• worked hard on letter Cc.
• and ended the day with show n tell.

It was a wonderful Fall day!

Looking forward:
- Letter Cc homework is in folders.
- Next week we will continue with the theme of Fall.

About Today...

I have some 'splainin to do! Do you know those days that go nothing like planned? That was this day - in such a good way. Today was the day the conversations happened. Centers took a bit longer today (explained below) but snack time was extraordinarily long due to yummy food and funny chats. So I am sorry there was no project today - nothing to show for our hard work- but please know that a lot DID happen today. Today we:

• worked hard on our names
• enjoyed stamping at the Writing Center (we chose stamps then had the option to write their name)
• Listened to a CD on tape of 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom'
• Watched THE BEST ALPHABET video - it's from the Waterford Institute.  The children loved are very involved in this video.
• Enjoyed Isaac's fave snack - "ChipsnQueso" (one word) where the children talked and ate and talked and ate.  For literally 20 minutes!  That's where it all changed.
• Ran and played outside (I think if I told them no outside time they'd of strung me up by my toes - they love it).

had show n tell.  Thank you, Porter, for scaring the wits out of us with your LIVE cat-eye spider      

All in all it was a wonderful day. 

What Happened Today...

Today was tricky - it was our make up field trip to the orchard, but no orchard could be found- all the apples are gone. So we went another way: we had a pumpkin mystery! At the park we spread out pumpkins with a letter of the alphabet written on each one. We had a scavenger hunt (sans clues) to find the pumpkins then had to put them in alphabetical order. For a prize they earned a bag of candy pumpkins (sorry about the candy - not often - but just had to). Also, today we: - worked with bendy sticks - enjoyed centers (lots of reading in the tree/play house today) - listened to a Halloween song choice - the children are going to choose the song we sing to you on Halloween - read "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" - made shape apple trees -enjoyed snack time -played outside -ended the day at the park Thank you for a fun day with these children. See you tomorrow!

one more way to keep in touch...

A blog is a great way to keep you informed of changes, upcoming events, and especially what we do here each preschool day. This way you can ask your child more detailed questions about their day. So we will start it up again! Today we: - drew pictures of what we would give Isaac for his birthday. (Some funny ones: a pillow pet, fire, and a ME- from Daisy.) - we played in centers. Today is our last day with the Apple Seeds but we will replace it with some Halloween fun on Thursday. - Read "A Day at an Apple Orchard" and cut open Red, Yellow, and Green apple. We got to taste-test each apple to decide our personal favorite and colored in our favorite so everyone would know. We discussed and shared how we all have different likes and it's important to respect them (We wouldn't want to make fun). - We loved playing outside. - We especially enjoyed getting to know Isaac better and celebrating his special day with some rainbow cupcakes (thanks, Brea)! It was a great day! Looking Forward: - Tomorrow (Wednesday) is our makeup Field Trip. Because all the apples are now gone we will be making our own apples to pick. You will still pick your child up at the park (at the end of 910 West) at the regular time. -Thursday we will be "cheering" Isaac's name and he will be sharing his favorite snack. Reminder that tuition is normally due before the new month begins, but because of the rescheduling it may have gotten confusing. No problem - just a reminder that it is now due. Thanks!

Spring is in the Air!

Yesterday in preschool, we:
- enjoyed using our imaginations with random items: sorting bowls, clothes pins, foam core, popsicle sticks, and pon poms. They LOVE doing this!!! Usually they are finished with small motor about 10 - 15 minutes in, but when we do this they stay and play for FOREVER! They made burritos, 32 flavors of ice cream cones, robots, see-saws, and such. Wonderful to watch!
- worked hard at centers.
- counted, patterned, and discussed our calendar.
- read When the Weather Changes and discussed signs of spring.
- took a looking tour around our neighborhood/yard (from the safety and dryness of our front porch)watching for budding trees and changes from winter.
- had a painting lesson. Spring Trees were on our minds as we laid out our primary paint colors. We then mixed red, yellow and blue to make brown and painted a Y for the tree trunk. We then painted V's on top of the Y and discussed the term 'cropping'. We mixed yellow and blue to make green for the leaves and grass. We went on to mix red and white for some pink blossoms. And to top it off we glued popcorn and sang the famous 'Popcorn Popping' song as we did so. We then discussed negative space (the unpainted white space around the tree) and if they so chose, they could fill this space.
- let the beautiful paintings dry while we ate a popcorn snack.
- discussed EARTHQUAKES as a part of the Great Shake Out here in Utah. We read the book EARTHQUAKES and looked at the pictures. We talked about what to do in case of an earthquake. I wanted to make sure it was not a scary discussion but more of a 'we will know what to do so we DON'T have to worry' kind of thing. We talked about where we go when we are at preschool and asked them to talk to mom's and dad's about more ideas of what to do if they are at home. I wanted them to know that while they are here I would work very hard to keep them safe.
- came back to our small motor activity from the beginning of the day (by popular demand).

Thanks!
Jen

Tues & Thurs

On Tuesday we:
- played with easter eggs
- enjoyed centers (while in centers, I worked with the children on the sight word "is")
- reviewed our alphabet sound song (the children are GREAT at it)!
- worked on the calendar and a new pattern (AABB)
- Read Five Little Bunnies Hopping on a Hill
- water-colored easter eggs (these can be easily turned in to a garland for decoration)
- worked on patterns during snack time with a game called Bunny Mellows
- played outside
- enjoyed an egg mystery! (it's actually a counting and memory game)

On Thursday we:
- made easter bunny baskets (they turned out soooo cute!)
- enjoyed centers (Each child read a book that worked on the power word: is)
- worked on calendar
- read The Easter Bunny is Missing by Steve Metzger
- dyed easter eggs (they only were able to dye one egg but the process was sooo fun)
- we TRIED to enjoy a healthy snack of flax seed crackers - to be honest - it was a total fail!
- walked to the park for our annual easter egg hunt!
** A special thank you to all the moms that donated materials (eggs and such) and also treats for the easter egg hunt... weren't the crocheted bunnies cute - thanks kye's mom!

Looking forward:
No school next week - we'll resume on Apr 17th.
Enjoy!
-

Success!

Our Field Trip to the Ice Creamery went off without a hitch! The schedule was followed perfectly (I give credit to awesome preschoolers who were so well-behaved and great moms who accompanied me).
We started off the day by talking about our town. We then turned our attention to our houses. We accomplished an art activity that will help each child learn their address... a necessary safety skill.
We ventured through our town to the Ice Cream store where we learned a bit about ice cream, how to scoop it, and how to make waffle cones. The "favorite thing", of course, was picking their flavor of ice cream and topping. We then headed to our town's park where we ran off the sugar!

Thanks for a great day!

Things that make you go. Hmmm!

Today we:
discussed motion!
We also:
worked on our names.
celebrated Kye's BIG DAY!
worked at centers.
reviewed the Pledge.
worked on our March calendar.
read Go Dog, Go! by PD Eastman.
painted with cars (the wheels made such fun tracks).
played outside!
reviewed the letter Ss.
played one version of the March Game - blending sounds to make words.
**Thanks Kye's mom for the yummy cupcakes!

AN OPTION: If in your travels (I'm talking grocery/dollar store travels, not France/Italy travels) you can pick up anything green or gold colored and would like to donate it/them to our St. Patrick's Day Celebration, please feel free to do so. Just send it discretely so your little one does not see it. Thanks a million!

Dr. Seuss Day!

"A person's a person, no matter how small," Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, would say.

"Children want the same things we want. To laugh, to be challenged, to be entertained and delighted."

Today, we surely were delighted!!
Here is what happened, we:
~worked on the letter Rr
~enjoyed centers, including our newest one: BURIED TREASURE ( Our "sand" table is actually a black bean table with all sorts of coins buried. As we find them we sort them into quarter, penny, etc.)
~enjoyed circletime where we worked on calendar, and the pledge.
~talked about how Dr Seuss LOVES to rhyme. Then we picked out silly Dr. Seuss hats to wear while playing a rhyming game; we had dog hats, fish hats, cowboy hats, leprechaun hats, etc to choose from. It was a fun way to review rhyming - the children do so well with it!
~we then read our first Dr. Seuss book of the day: Green Eggs and Ham. We came to the craft table and constructed EGG carton Dr. Seuss Creatures (green EGGS = egg carton creature - get it? maybe a little bit of a stretch but the kids LOVED it!!).
~ enjoyed GREEN EGGS & HAM as our snack of course. ** A note on that below.
~ finished our snack then went to the rug with our books and pillows to have a mini read a thon.
~ read HOP ON POP by Dr. Seuss. In the book it has the line "We like to hop. We like to hop on top of pop." So to celebrate this we got out some giant bubble wrap and bounced, and popped, and bounced, and popped!!! We sang "If you're happy and you know it..." all the while.
~ enjoyed show n tell
~ ended the day with a video of Cat and the Hat.

Oh, the fun we had!
Thanks for letting them come today!

**A note: Dr. Seuss' birthday is actually tomorrow Mar 2nd.
As I was making scrambled eggs, and of course, using organic, cage free eggs, my head was spinning at the thought of SOILING the eggs with that nasty green food coloring. It literally about made me faint - but once a year, what the hay, right?
Well, my family won't be passing this holiday by un-celebrated so, a search for healthy green eggs ensued. Fainting before breakfast is not an acceptable way to start a day. If you google healthy green eggs and ham recipes like a million come up so... happy hunting. I am sure my 'foody' moms can chime in with some ideas, but i thought about maybe creating a spinach paste that might make the eggs green. Think about it and get back to me if possible.

National Symbols!

Today we:
~started out with Money Play... where we just played with money (we could sort it by size or color, we could trace around the coins, we could put the coin under our paper and do a 'rubbing', or we could do our own thing - some chose to just put their fingers in it and feel it, some drew money mazes, and some counted coins).
~we enjoyed centers.
~we practiced the Pledge during circle time.
~we also worked on our calendar and read a book about the Pledge.
~we then watched a great video (on YouTube - don't freak out - it was really good :) on National symbols. It was really important to me that they see real photos, not animated drawings, of the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument.
~we made Washington Hats and glued national symbols on them in a pattern (well, can I really say that? Some went to town on the patterns, some made it their own - meaning no pattern but very much 'theirs'.
~ we then enjoyed a rousing game of Penny, Penny, Who's Got The Penny! (Super fun!)

It was a great day!
See you tomorrow!

The day after LOVE...

Today was still LOVE week. We focused on liking/loving ourselves. We read, we played, we experimented, and we had a great time doing it!
Today we:
~worked on forming the letter Pp
~played at centers
~worked on memorizing the Pledge of Allegiance
~discussed our calendar
~read a sweet book, "I Like Myself!" by
~came to the table for an experiment of glue, water, food coloring, and tissue paper... some opted out of wax paper and chose regular white paper. We painted, and 'tissued' and painted and 'tissued'! It was enjoyable. The children truly experimented to find what would work for them and what they liked to do. It was really about the process (not so much the sticky, sticky outcome).
**They are taking a dang long time to dry - should we all transplant to San Diego for the winter? I'm considering!)
~we also enjoyed a rousing round of show n tell (often the children's favorite)

Oh, the excitement!

PS... thank you for being so patient with me! This pneumonia had me doubled over for a while but I'm back now! I really appreciate how patient you've been with me (and this blog... and when I just couldn't get to something). You guys are the best!

Blog?? What Blog?

Seriously! I can't believe myself sometimes. What makes me so mad is that I feel like you may have missed out on some fun discussions with your children about space, or winter, or something that they thought was funny. Dang! I am sorry.
So here is what we did today:
~small motor: sorting fruit loops/cheerios into 7 groups by color
~centers: they played with shape bean bags for much of centers (until Peyton, Chloe, and Taryn ventured over to the tool table and constructed some toys)
~we are learning The Pledge of Allegiance during circle time
~we discussed what it means to be a good friend
~we read "My Friend Bear" by Jez Alborough (one of my favorites!)
~we made friendship necklaces where we each took a color of fruit loop and passed it out to each student therefore having all sorts of "colors" or friends to enjoy
~we played outside: after free play we enjoyed a game called "What Time is it My Dear Friend". Ask your child for directions - let's see their memory recall ** This might have been a favorite moment of the day for all**
~we learned about the letter Pp
~we played Beginning Sound Bean Bag Toss to finish off the day.

Looking Forward:
*Thursday - bring a food item to share in our Friendship Trail Mix
*Tuesday - Valentine's Day Party - bring valentines to share
**Happy Valentines Birthday to Tyler!

Day 2 (this week)!

I love having preschool two days in a row! I feel like the children need little to no "re-adjustment" time with the procedures and schedule of preschool. Hmmm, something to consider for next year, eh?

Today we:
-practice our names
-worked on forming the letter Kk
-worked hard in centers (worked in pairs with Mrs. Jen today)
-enjoyed calendar time
-read Mouse Count
-had a great time with a beginning addition activity (that's what the plate is for - some kids just HAD to take it home!)
-played outside (crazy, I know, but they live for it!)
-practiced our Sound Charts (they are getting better each time we do it... thank you for all your efforts!)
-read The Biggest Snowball Ever
-painted a Snow Scene
-enjoyed everyone's favorite.. show n tell!

What a great day!

Learning about Winter...

Today we:
- practiced writing our first (and last) names.
- picked up 'snowballs' (pom poms) with tweezers for small motor (we also sorted, counted and made applesauce with them).
- worked hard at centers - during centers I focused on rhyming in my one-on-one time with each student.
- discussed months, days of the week, patterning, and counting in our Calendar Time.
- read our Sound Chart and sang our Sounds Song
**DON'T FORGET TO PRACTICE THE SOUND CHART WITH YOUR CHILD EVERYDAY**
- read Little Snowflake's BIG Adventure by Steve Metzger.
-made our own snowflakes out of cereal boxes.
*during their creating time, some started singing our preschool theme song quietly to themselves (the words are: It's a great day, it's a beautiful day. It's the kind of day that makes ya wanna say: I'm glad I'm alive, I'm happy to be me. And that's the way to be... Ya!)after a couple quiet times through almost all were just BELTING it out for all the world to hear (I mean, really going for it)! It was one of those moments were I sent silent thoughts to each of them to "please, please, please remember these words. Remember them when you are a teenager, remember them when you are old, remember them when the hard days come, because they will pass but you were, and are, always meant to be YOU and that is a GREAT thing." I thought of how I watched my 6th grade students, when I taught middle school in Ogden, sometimes get lost and forget who they were, and go down sad paths. I thought of how much I want to TEACH them while they are here that they are so valuable to this world. Anyway - that's what I thought at approximately 10:45 this morning.
Back to what we did :)
- played outside if we wanted or colored inside if that suited us better.
- introduced the number 0 by playing a game "What's in the box"
- then, worked on understanding that number, and writing it.

It was certainly a great day... a beautiful day (and I remembered it is GREAT to be me)!
Thank you!!!

HAPPY 2012!

Welcome Back!

Today we:
- colored our new name plates.
- worked with 'bendy sticks' for small motor development.
- worked hard at centers!
** Santa Claus was so good to our little preschool - we had many new toys to play with including A LEGO TABLE (which all the children started out at- but Kye and Liam never left, a new set of MAGNET DOLLS, a new floor rug for cars, a new TRAIN SET, and a PUPPET THEATER!!! Yippee!!! (I think all my gift-givers know just how much i love teaching preschool and they are helping me be 'in it for the long haul'.)

- we talked about the month of January and what we (usually) do in winter.
- worked on our calendar.
- a highlight was talking about New Year's Eve and the count-down to 2012. We practiced counting down by using our NEW felt boards. Each student got numeral flashcards and a felt board and we each worked to find the numbers 10 down to 1. (We are working hard to recognize each number.) We then were able to glue the numbers on our paper
** a note: I did not tell the students how to glue them, they just got to choose.
After they were done gluing they got to come 'hand print' the front - while the paint was drying we ate snacks and talked about New Year's Resolutions.
- played outside!!!
- worked with the letter Ii (different from their homework - letter Jj)
- learned some new songs (days of the week, letter sounds, number rap).
- and ended the day making flowers, ladders, and such with bendy sticks!

It was a wonderful start to a new year!
Thanks!
Jen