Good-Bye, Good-Bye, See You Again!

After 9 months, 

27 lessons,

8 fields trips, 

1 holiday program, 

and 3 happy kids...

...we're done!

Thanks, Sarah and Kathryn, for giving Max room to bloom!

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!  

April Field Trip

Today we enjoyed our monthly field trip—this time to the strawberry patch! The weather has taken an unexpected chilly turn and today was a bit windy and cold.  Nevertheless, the sun was shining so we met up at 11 am at Page Farms and started picking.  After strawberries we headed to the picnic tables for lunch and playtime. I had made a little work packet with handwriting and math, having to do with strawberries, but it was so windy we weren’t able to do that. Still, the children had fun, we were able to experience strawberry plants up-close, and as Max exclaimed at the end, “This field trip was much better than I thought it would be!” : )

B is for Bugs!

We got our bug-tastic day started with a worksheet...

...and were happy to segway into calendar time, where we learned about John the Baptist, who ate wild honey (made by bees...which are insects) and locusts (which are insects!)  The kids were pretty shocked by this! We also read a poem called "The Grasshopper and the Elephant."

Way down south where bananas grow,

A grasshopper stepped on an elephant's toe.

The elephant said, with tears in his eyes,

"Pick on somebody your own size."

For music and movement, we sang a few buggy songs, and did a fun buzzing bee acitivity.  The kids took turns choosing a bee from the hive, and each bee had an action written on it that all 3 kids would have to do.  Max was so busy being a bee that he couldn't even hold still for a picture!

We then read I Love Bugs by Philemon Sturges (what a name!)  and discussed different bugs and interesting facts about each one!

• The fastest insect is the dragonfly, flying about 35 mph!
• The longest bug is a type of walking stick, about 12 inches long!

WOW!

For snacks we made ants on a log by adding sun butter and raisins to a long pretzel rod.

While the kids ate, I read Bugs Galore by Peter Stein and Bob Staake. This book has some good one-liners that drew some big laughs from the peanut gallery.

After our snack, we used plastic bugs to do a sorting/ counting acitivity.  First, the kids counted bugs from one to twelve by putting the correct amount in numbered "jars."  Next, we sorted by color, and lastly, by type of insect.

Sneaky Owen, who wore his insect pajamas for continuity.  Though he looks sweet, he sure made our sorting acitivity a challenge.  I think he was challenging his inner stink bug during this particular lesson!

For our craft we made insect masks, complete with pipe cleaner attenae!  

Here are our little bugs...so cute!

Plant Day!

(they were being so silly that morning!)

On Tuesday in preschool we learned all about plants! This was a good follow-up to the lesson on Spring the children had two weeks ago.  After signing in, they practiced their handwriting and the letter P, and then worked on cutting.  Max finished cutting all of his pieces out first so he jumped in and helped Joseph and Delainey catch up so we could stick to our schedule. After these activities we transitioned into circle time. For our scripture spotlight, Joseph helped us learn about the story in the Bible where Daniel refuses to eat the king’s meat and wine, and instead consumed plants and water. In the end he and his friends were much healthier and stronger than the king’s men. We then talked about how good plants and grains are for our bodies, etc.

This discussion led to show & tell where Max showed a pine cone, Joseph a carrot, and Delainey a flower. After talking about what they had, how it felt, what color it was, what it’s purpose was, etc. I told them that each of these things were plants. We talked about what it meant to be a plant, and what plants do for us. Their responses (After some hints) were, we eat them, we wear them, and we build stuff with them.  Plants sure are important!  We also talked about what plants need to grow.

For singing time we sang the following songs:

 Little Seed (Tune: I'm A Little Teapot)
I'm a little seed
In the dark, dark ground.
Out comes the warm sun,
Yellow and round.
Down comes the rain,
Wet and slow.
Up comes the little seed,
Grow, grow, grow!

PRETTY FLOWERS (Tune: "Jingle Bells")

Pretty flowers, pretty flowers,

Growing everywhere.

Here are some pretty flowers

For your coat or hair.

Pretty flowers, pretty flowers,

Gold and pink and blue.

Red and yellow, orange and purple,

I picked them just for you!

Farmer Plants the Seeds (Sung to: "The Farmer In The Dell" )

The farmer plants the seeds
The farmer plants the seeds
Hi, Ho and Cherry O
The farmer plants the seeds
Other verses:
The rain begins to fall....
The sun begins to shine....
The plants begin to grow....
The buds all open up....
The flowers smile at me.... 

They especially loved the first one, “I’m a Little Seed”. They were so cute doing the motions!

For snack time we ate bananas, cuties & kiwis—all plants!

For story time we read an adorable book I borrowed from my neighbor called Grow, flower grow! It is a funny story about a girl who tryes to get her plant to grow by feeding it pizza, hamburgers, etc. Frustrated that it won’t grow, she throws it outside. Outside it gets sunlight and rain and begins to grow. It was perfect for reinforcing the things a plant needs to thrive, and Delainey, Joseph and Max were cracking up the whole time.

 

Following story time we discussed the parts of a flower, and I gave them a puzzle for them to figure out. This also helped them to recognize the words of the pictures, and they figured out which word said what, by looking at the first letter and sounding them out.

Max finished his puzzle quickly so I told him to try and do it one more time after mixing up the pieces and this was the look I got. : )

Next we moved to the table to do some more cutting practice and some sorting for math. Joseph is pretty good with scissors so I gave him the hardest page of cutting lines. Delainey has been working at home on cutting for the last week, and I was so excited to see her hold the scissors correctly and really stay close to the lines! After cutting they worked on sorting pictures of vegetables, and then gluing them into a designated place on a picture of a garden.

After that, we ventured outside, each with a bag in hand, to identify and collect five different types of plants. (Joseph had to leave early because he was going to the beach! Lucky!) But Max and Delainey (and Sallie) did great on the plant walk.

Finally we played outside a bit, sang the goodbye song, and hands were stamped. It was a great day of learning about plants!

"E" is for Easter

With Easter just a few days away we thought it appropriate to have a preschool day dedicated to this special holiday.  

Today's Poem:

Christ the Lord is risen today!

Angels rolled the stone away

From the tomb wherein He lay!

Little children, come and sing,

"Glory, glory to the King,

Christ the Lord of everything!"

Today's Story:

Today's craft:

Jesus and the Tomb

Today's Snack:

Resurrection Rolls

Today's Activity:

"Easter Walk"

Find things that remind you of the Easter Story

Rock – Stone in front of the tomb

Sharp – Crown of Thorns

Flower- Garden of Gethsemane

Wood – Cross

Leaf – Palm Leaves

The children and I had so much fun learning about and doing activities centered around Easter.  Love these kiddos!

S is for Seasons and Spring!

Today we talked about all four seasons, but especially SPRING! 

We started with some math, sorting flowers and making some pretty posy patterns.

The kids also practicted their handwriting by tracing the name of each season on a worksheet (more with that later!)

During calendar we read a poem called "The Months," by Sara Coleridge.

January brings the snow,

Makes our feet and fingers glow.

February brings the rain,

Thaws the frozen lake again.

March brings breezes loud and shrill,

Stirs the dancing dafodil.

April brings the primrose sweet,

Scatters daisies at our feet.

May brings flocks of pretty lambs,

Skipping by their fleecy dams.

June brings tulips, lilies, roses,

Fills the children's hands with posies.

Hot July brings cooling showers,

Apricots and gillyflowers.

August brings the sheaves of corn;

Then the harvest home is born.

Warm September brings the fruit;

Sportsmen then begin to shoot.

Fresh October brings the pheasant;

Then to gather nuts is pleasant.

Dull November brings the blast,

When the leaves are whirling fast.

Chill December brings the sleet,

Blazing fires and Christmas treat.

For storytime, we read Owen's most beloved books, a present from his first Christmas.  The quartet are by Gerda Muller, and are sold on Amazon as one book called The Circle of Seasons.  They don't have any words, but each depict scenes from a child's life during each season.  Really cute!

We then played a matching game (from ayearoffhe.blogspot.com) to see if the kids could match some seasonal items with the appropriate time of the year!

After snack time, these Spring-time sleuths headed outdoors to search for signs of Spring!  We wore rainboots (very Spring-ish), saw lots of little green buds on the trees (also Spring-ish), and splashed in lots of puddles (totally Spring-ish!)

After our outdoor adventure, we came inside to finish the worksheet we started earlier.  We started with four bare trees and had to add items to each tree to make it seasonally appropriate...

SPRING: Pink tissue-paper blossoms

SUMMER: Green finger-print leaves

AUTUMN: Orange, yellow, red, and brown construction paper leaves

WINTER: Cotton balls

Lastly, we planted some flower seeds to celebrate Spring.  

All in all, we had a lovely Spring morning, learning about (you guessed it) Spring!