Letter Ii

This week was a great week to talk about the letter Ii!! Monday I didn't get any pictures to catch the fun that we had, but trust me, it is never a dull moment with these kids:) We learned about our great state IDAHO!! We learned that the state bird is the mountain blue bird, the state horse is an apaloosa etc.... I also got out the map and I showed them where Chubbuck was located in Idaho and also where Idaho was located in the United States. I probably really got them confused with where the heck they are!! We did potato art with a real Idaho grown potato as the stamp. French fries were a hit as our snack!

Wednesday we learned about INDIANS! We talked about Squanto and his relationship with the pilgrims and all that he taught them. We made a Squanto story bag. Then we got wild and crazy with our indian headbands and did some indian dancing! We ended our day with drawing letters and pictures in shaving cream!

One littlle two, little three little Indians!
We had a picnic snack time!

They couldn't get enough of the shaving cream!!

The letter P

We had a great time at preschool today. We did miss Linzie and Caleb---Get well! We had a Pajama Party! We gathered by reading a few books. We clapped at all the P words, and read a couple silly Halloween books.

We learned about Popcorn! We saw that it really is dried corn. We made 2 kinds of popcorn: 1- microwave, and 2- on the stove. They thought it was awesome to hear it pop on the stove, but in the end they preferred the buttery microwave popcorn! hehe

We traced out Ps. The kids have great penmanship!

We next learned about pumpkins. We saw how they start with a small seed, dirt, water, and sunlight. Most kids have not grown pumpkins, but have grown zucchini, or have family who have grown them. We carved a pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern, and saved the seeds to bake for next time.

Next we got to go down to the movie theater. We watched the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. The kids loved it! Thier favorite character was...........LUCY! What? I guess because she makes them laugh.

We also had Punch and Peanut butter treats! Then to recess. It was a short recess, but they loved getting outside.

They love silly stories, and they love telling their own stories. They are such sweet kids, and I hope they are just having a blast.

Letter L

We had lots of fun with the letter L. The first day we talked about ladybugs and made a paper ladybug. Our snack was an apple made into a ladybug. We practiced writing our letter L's and the kids all did great. We sang some fun ladybug songs and read 10 little ladybugs. The kids all had fun helping me count. On Wednesday we talked about leaves. We sang lots of fun leaf songs and read "I Love You Stinky Face" and "Five Little Monkey's Jumping on the Bed". We made a leaf picture by melting crayon shavings. The best part of preschool is the funny things these sweet little kids do and say. I just love what comes out of their mouths! (Parents, don't be embarrassed, just laugh along with me--they made my day!) So I sent the kids all in to wash their hands before snack. All of a sudden I hear Riley yell "Oh, that's disgusting", then Claire yelled "Caleb is going pee in front of us all while we are in here!" Then Ave yells "he didn't even wipe his butt!" Linzie then proceeds to tell Ava that boys don't need to wipe when they go pee. It was hilarious and I was busting by the end. We missed Riley on Monday and Emily and Wednesday and hope everybody is feeling better! Until next time!

Next week for preschool....

Hey Ladies--
I just wanted to give you the heads up of my plans for this week:

Monday we are going to have a pajama party! Please send your child to preschool in thier PJs. Also, Please send 2 empty cans of the same size (We are making puddle jumpers on Wednesday, and I want to predrill the holes.)

Wednesday we are going to have a birthday party for Caleb! We are going to learn about Pirates and make our own pizzas!

Hopefully everyone will be healthy this week, and be able to come Party At Preschool this week!

BTW is any child allergic to peanut butter?

Letter F

We had a fun time talking about the letter F this week! On Monday, we learned about Frogs, made Frog crafts, and made Froggy snacks. The little "chefs" had fun making them, but many wouldn't eat the english muffins with cream cheese. Good thing we had Fish crackers!

We also made Frog gloves, and sang the "speckled frog" song.

On Wednesday, we discussed all things F. We went through things I had gathered to determine if they started with F or not, then clapped out the syllables for that word. We made motion oceans and talked about how water and oil aren't "Friends". We then put Floating animals inside!

We also copied our Footprints and made them into a big F.

We had Fruit salad that they got to make on their own, again with many of them not eating it. I am learning many of you ladies are dealing with picky eaters! Again, Fish crackers saved the day.

We ended the day dancing and Freezing when the music stopped. This was a good (but noisy!) experience; all your kids are such fun and so smart!

Letter Gg

We had a great week learning the letter Gg!! On Monday we talked about GROWING. We did a puzzle and talked about ways to keep our body healthy so it can grow. The kids were weighed and measured and timed and never got competitive with each other until I measured how tall they were. They all stood very straight to give me an accurate measurement;) We had GRAPES and played Duck Duck GOOSE and Stop and GO outside while we had a few minutes before it was time to go home. Here are the kids from shortest to tallest. They all looked up to Emily to see how tall they would be some day:)
On Wednesday we had a great day celebrating Riley's birthday! We read a lot of Gg stories all week which ended up being my favorite time to talk to them and have fun. We focused on writing the letter Gg and also our first and last names. I was so impressed that they all did very well and all tried to do their best work. We had a Gg scavenger hunt and found a bag of GOODIES for our snack. Then the balloons came out and they had a fun time tossing them around. This is when I lost all control so I let them have a 15 minute recess:) After recess I got them hyper with their candy and we got to work playing hide and seek. Then we tried the sock hop. All of the kids had to get on their hands and knees and try and pull each other's socks off. The last one to have theirs pulled off wins. They LOVED this except Caleb was very sad when his got pulled off. He just wanted to do all of the dirty work! What a great group of kids! I am having so much fun getting to know Caleb and Emily and Linzie.

The balloon chaos!!

This is where Claire and Ava were found. In the top of Riley's closet. I promise I am supervising your kids!! Just didn't think to look on the top shelves!!

For Wednesday

In case some of you didn't get my handout today. I am doing something different for Riley's pres-school birthday. We are talking about the letter Gg this week and I thought it would be fun to send with your child a white elephant GIFT. Just send something from your home or a dollar store item. Please make sure it is a unisex gift and it is wrapped. We had a fun time today and are excited to celebrate a birthday on Wednesday!
Thanks!!
Shalean

The letter D

Monday: D is for Daisy. The kids had fun making daisy's and coloring D books. There were lots of pages to color, but they managed to get it done. We had a little B-day party for Claire and played pin the tail on the donkey. It was a tight contest, but Riley came in closest. We had donuts for snacks.

Wednesday: Of course I forgot to get my camera out, so no pictures. We had fun making play dough and shaping the letter D with it. Then we rolled it out and cut out D word shapes and baked them. Hopefully no one ate them as "cookies". We sang the song "Do as I'm Doing" and got to watch all of the kids be silly. They are good at that. We finished our D books and got to put them together. I'm impressed how well the kids stayed in their seats and worked hard on their projects. What a good group of kids!

Bees and Bears

What an exciting bunch! We had two fun days talking about the letter B. On Monday our theme was Bumblebees. The kids all made a bee and I traced their feet (and tickled them) to make wings for their bees. We practiced writing our b's and read "The Berenstain Bear's B Book" We sang "I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee" and they all got a kick out of that. Especially the Oooh, yucky part! They had fun at recess and then we came in and they were so creative with their snacks. We had bananas and pretzels and they made banana art! We had fun with a bean bag toss. They wanted to go out and play at the end but the clouds came out and the thunder and lightning made us decide to go downstairs and build with blocks instead! We missed Claire on Monday, but were glad she had fun at her Grandma's! I thought I did an awesome job, because there were no tears! Then...came Wednesday. We had a little more drama on Wednesday, but it's a good thing it was a Beautiful day outside, because we spent a lot of time out there! Our theme was Bears. After practicing our B's and a listening activity we sang "The Bear Went Over the Mountain". We had recess and also ate snack outside. We had some Bear cookies, raisins and Otter Pops. Then we played basketball, bounced balls, blew bubbles and read an ABC farm book. A lot more tears and a few more issues, but we made it through.

Mm is for Moon

Wednesday, September 9th we learned about the letter "Mm." As the children came in we had a large assortment of books about the Moon, Space, Meteors, and all things space related. If I remember correctly, Claire informed me that she doesn't like to learn about space! I told her I thought she would have fun anyway.

After looking over our books we gathered around for Circle Time. Here we read one of the moon books and learned about austronauts and the differences between the moon and the earth. We also practiced drawing both a Big or Capital "M" as well as the little or lower case "m." I was super excited to show them a fun demonstration. Carter and I used a light and two balls to represent the sun, earth, and moon. We showed the kids how the sun makes it daytime on one side of the earth while it is night time on the other side. The moon, meanwhile, reflects the sun's light just above the earth. They all really GOT it. We then prepared to make our craft and write our m's. Everyone had a lot of fun making their sun and putting them together so the earth could travel around the sun and the moon around the earth. You should know that I was impressed that they all understood very well how to use brads. I had to help a couple of them adjust their brad because the moon wouldn't go all the way around the earth!

We had a recess break and played in the sand box. I learned that I need more shovels and buckets. We improvised with plastic cups even though they quickly broke. Then it was time for Moon Pies and Milk for snack. I know the moon pies look like oatmeal cookies...I couldn't find the moon pies and wondered if all the kids would like them, so we settled on these yummy treats instead. I promise to serve something more nutritional next time.

After cleaning up from snack, we came inside for a few fun books about the moon. We read "Goodnight Moon 1,2,3" and counted lots of things. We read" Happy Birthday Moon" and learned about echos. We were also going to read "Moon Game" where little bear plays hide and seek with the moon, but we didn't. Lastly we read "Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom" where the alphabet letters all climb up the coconut tree and then fall down.

We tried several times to take a group picture of all of us. We were almost successful. One picture was missing Emily and then, Caleb had Emily's head!

Lastly, we learned a fun nursery rhyme...Hey Diddle, Diddle. Afterwards, we played hide and seek just like they did in the book we didn't read. LOL! I learned that I should have carried my camera around my neck...I kept forgetting to take pictures until after things had taken place. Lots of fun...a few random tears...Plenty of learning for all.

Cupcake Artists!

Today was Emily's 5th birthday! We decided to celebrate!!!

We did 2 A worksheets: an apple coloring sheet,and one with an acorn and tracing the letter A.

Each child helped make cupcakes. They each had an ingredient to add, and got to fill the muffin tin.

We then read a couple funny books.

Afterward, each child got to teach. We wore our aprons, and had surprises in our pockets. As we pulled our surprises out, we told our friends what we had like an angel, apple, alligator, etc.
We had singing and fingerplays that all included the letter A.

Have them show you the following because they loved it!

Alligator Noise
(softly, making alligator mouth with fingers): Say: Alligator, looking for food in the morning.
(louder, making mouth with hands):
Alligator looking for food in the morning.
Very loud, making dig mouth with arms!):
Alligator looking for food in the morning!

So simple, yet they loved it a lot!

Then we were Artists! We went into the kitchen and decorated our cups and plates with stickers. We chose what color of frosting we wanted, and we learned that yellow and blue make green. The other color was yellow--not everything must be a lesson, right? haha

The best part of being an artist today was decorating the cupcakes. They had several toppings to choose from, and I was amazed at how many goodies those cupcakes could hold!

We played some birthday games, and let Emily open her gifts. I would recommend in the future perhaps a drawing of whose gift to open first, because everyone her to open theirs first an the game I chose to play was only fun the first three times, and the last two kids felt sad.

Surprisingly, time was up! Since the first day, I used 2nd day materials, I over planned today, so we didn't get a chance to play all the games. I plan on tucking them away for later, I am sure I will need them.

I hope the kids had a great week! I enjoyed having them at my house. I think with only teaching a couple times, you can gear yourself up and have a lot of fun with it! I do now have a greater appreciation for teachers : )