P is for Pool Party!

What better way to say sayonara to school, and kick-off summer, than to have a

POOL PARTY!

We played in the water, ate some Randy's Pizza (yum!)

 and enjoyed being together in the sunshine.

We may have our backs to the schoolyear ...

... but I think these three will always remember the fun year they spent together at "school."

The Five Senses!

Wow! I can't believe it!  Our last day of preschool has come and gone, 

and we had a lot of fun learning all about our FIVE SENSES!

We started the morning by doing a worksheet!  The kids practiced writing the numeral 5 and doing some counting activities.

They got a lot of practice by counting beads into groups of five and placing each group in a separate compartment of an ice cube tray! 

During calendar we looked at a picture of the First Vision and discussed how we have bodies just like Heavenly Father and Jesus.  

We also read this timely poem that the kids loved.  I had to (happily) read it twice:

School is Over

by Kate Greenaway

School is over,

Oh, what fun!

Lessons finished, 

Play begun.

Who'll run fastest, 

You or I?

Who'll laugh loudest?

Let us try.

For show and tell, the kids each brough in five of something.  Joseph brough five army men.  Delainey brought five pink paper clips.  And Max brough five puzzle pieces from his favorite Star Wars puzzle.

During music and movement, we moved our bodies alot!  We sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"(lots of times), "Hinges," "The Hokey Pokey," and the following song about our five senses, sung to the tune of "Frere Jacques"...

Five senses, five senses.

We have them. We have them.

Seeing, Hearing, Touching,

Tasting and Smelling.

There are five.  There are five.

We also sang this cute song, sung to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell."

I use my eyes to see.  I use my eyes to see.  

And when I want to see a star, I use my eyes to see.

I use my bnose to smell.  I use my nose to smell.

And when I want to smell a flower, I use my nose to smell.

I use my tongue to taste.  I use my tongue to taste.  

And when I want to taste a peach, I use my tongue to taste.

I use my ears to hear.  I use my ears to hear.

And when I want to hear a bird, I use my ears to hear.

I use my hands to touch.  I use my hands to touch.

And when I want to touch a cat, I use my hands to touch.

The kids had fun miming each acitivity!

Lastly, to finish up our movement we did the Dorothy the Dinosaur dance from The Wiggles video Hot Poppin' Popcorn that we happened to check out from the library.  

The boys loved the video, but Delainey was a little unsure.  :)

After we were nice and sweaty from movin' and groovin' so much, we settled down and read My five Senses by Aliki.  It was a really cute book and perfect for their age.  It discussed what each sense is, and how sometimes we use only one, but sometimes we use all five at once!  That was a perfect segway into our amazing, all-five-senses snack....POPCORN! 

While we made and ate our snack we used all five of our senses!

Hearing: We heard the kernels popping in the microwave.

Smelling: We could smell the popcorn cooking.

Seeing: We watched the bag get larger as more kernels popped.

Touching: We held the popcorn in our hands as we put it into our mouths.

Tasting: We ate it the popcorn.  Yum!

After our popcorn and lemonade, we headed back to the carpet squares to learn a little bit more about each of our five senses!

1. HEARING

We read a poem about many different sounds we've heard...a bell ringing, the wind blowing, a clock ticking, and a train whistle.  Then we used the good ol' Kindle Fire to play a sound game that the kids LOVED!  They had to listen carefully and guess what sounds they were hearing.  There were animal sounds, vehicle sounds, and even sounds from around the house.  All three got an A+ for their attentive listening skills!

2. SMELLING

The kids had 10 different covered cups filled with something smelly that they had to sniff and identify! There were: onions, vanilla, vinegar, cinnamon, rubbing alcohol, perfume, sun butter, lemon extract, peppermint extract, and a chunk of banana.  

3. SEEING

We were going to read a cute little I Spy book, but I guess Ms. Emily was too excited to make binoculars, becuase I totally forgot about the book! I showed the kids a (small toy pirate) telescope, my glasses, a magnifying glass, and some (small toy) binoculars.  We talked about how sometimes we need to use a tool to help us see better.  Then we made our own binoculars...

TASTING

We talked about our taste buds and the four different "tastes" they recognize.  The kids each got their own plate of food to sample...

Lemon Wedge: Sour

Pez Candy: Sweet

(Unsweetened) Cocoa Poweder: Bitter

Goldfish Crackers: Salty

TOUCHING:

The kids each made their own "texture collage" using little scraps of this and that from around the house.  There was tinfoil, sandpaper, cotton balls, flannel, grosgrain ribbon, a silky fabric, etc. 

As always, each child approached the project a different way... Joseph was slow and very methodical, gluing his scraps into lines.  Max was lightening fast and a little sloppy (that's my boy!) And Little Lainey was a happy balance between the the two boys!

After our texture collages were done, we returned to the carpet squares and did a quick five senses review together.  The kids aced it!  We had a lot of fun learning about our bodies and all of the amazing things it can do!

“N” is for Nutrition!

Joseph

Delainey

Max

Our classroom assistant, Sallie

the fruits of their labors : )

 

We had a great time at preschool on Tuesday! We talked about the good kinds of food that help our bodies grow and function. We also talked about exercise a little, and about how exercise keeps us healthy. In the spirit of saving time, here is my outline of what we did on Tuesday:

9:00 Sign-In “N” handwriting practice

9:05 “Set the Plate” For this activity, hand out paper plates, and have the children color their plates and draw their favorite foods. But don’t show the other kids!

9:15 Circle Time- dining room

Hello Song

Opening Prayer- Joseph

Review Rules

Scripture Spotlight- Max- Daniel refusing to eat king’s meat, and instead eat plants. Pg. 23 *We’d already done this scripture story, but I had Max retell it, and he did a great job! I was proud of them all for remembering.

Calendar

Today is Tuesday May 8th, 2012.

Let’s count the days! 1…2…3…7…8!

Now in Spanish.

Now in french.

What season is it? The season is…SPRING!

Days of the Week song

Weather- Delainey

What is the weather like today?

Rhyme Time –Now it’s rhyme time! Repeat after me:

An apple a day keeps the doctor away

      What does this rhyme mean? (Joseph said, “it means that doctors don’t eat apples!” haha. Then Max said, “it means if you eat healthy apples you don’t go to the doctor.”)

Show & Tell—Instead of traditional show and tell today, they took turns sharing their plates of favorite foods that they drew.  We discussed which of their favorite foods are healthy. Which are not. What does “Nutrition” mean?

9:30 Singing Time- living room

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

My Hands

My hands upon my head I'll place,

Upon my shoulders, on my face,

At my waist and by my side,

Then behind me they will hide.

Then I'll raise them way up high,

And let my fingers fly, fly, fly,

Then clap, clap, clap them--

One - Two - Three!

Just see how quiet they can be.

Hinges
I'm all made of hinges, 'cause everything bends
From the top of my neck way down to my ends.
I'm hinges in front and I'm hinges in back;
But I have to be hinges or else I would crack!

If You're Happy
If you're happy and you know it clap you hands
If you're happy and you know it clap your hands
If you're happy and you know it then your face will surely show it
If you're happy and you know it clap your hands
If you're happy and you know it stomp your feet...
...tap your head
...jump up and down.

9:45 Snack Time- (fruit salad & wheat thins)

9:55 Story Time- Berenstein Bears and Too Much Junk food

10:05 Math Activitiy: Sorting junk food and healthy food

Using flyers from local grocery store, Let the children sort, cut out and glue the junk food in one group and the healthy food in the other group. Good for fine motor activity and pre-math activity.

10:15 ABC of Foods – Make Food Book out of letters of their name. Write letter and draw picture of food. We used Eating the Alphabet to help when we got stuck on a letter…like we did with “x”. : ) We didn’t have time to finish so they took their books home to finish.

10:30 Outside Time: Exercise! We’re going to exercise outside, doing races, etc.

1. Start with stretching

2. Skipping

3. Jumping jacks

4. Running

5. Walking backwards

10:50 Clean Up & Goodbye Song (goodbye, goodbye see you again! See you my friend!)

 

…It was a great day! So hard to believe it was my last day teaching in our little co-op!

Cinco de Mayo

At the beginning of May we celebrated Cinco de Mayo in preschool.  

All the children came dressed in red, white, and green, to represent the Mexican flag.

We sang La Cucaracha, danced the Mexican Hat Dance, ate chips and salsa, made sombrero cookies, made maracas, and learned why this is a special day in history for Mexico.

We had a blast!