“T” is for Turkey! (and Thanksgiving)

Preschool was a real Treat This Tuesday!  We focused on turkeys and being thankful, both of which start with the letter “T”!  We started off the morning playing with some homemade flubber just for fun…and then we transitioned into the living room for circle time!  Max said the opening prayer, Joseph held the scripture spotlight, and Lainey checked our weather.  We sang the days of the week song, did show and tell about with things we are thankful for, and then practiced the rhyme, “I’m a little teapot”.  Next we talked about what thanksgiving means, who gives us our blessings, etc.

After getting our wiggles out to some fun songs with instruments, we did the following at singing time:

I am Thankful
(sung to "Where is Thumbkin?")
I am Thankful, I am Thankful
Yes I am, Yes I am
I’m Thankful for my friends
I’m thankful for my kin
Yes I am, Yes I am
(Explain that kin is another word for family! )

 

Turkey Dinner

(Tune: Are You Sleeping?)

Turkey dinner, turkey dinner,

Gather round, gather round,

Who will get the drumstick?

Yummy, yummy drumstick!

 

Turkey Pokey
It was like the Hokey Pokey, only we did our right and left wings, our beaks, and our tailfeathers.  The kids all got a kick out of this…and I did too!  After singing up an appetite, we ventured to the kitchen to make our “turkey muffins.”  Really, this didn’t turn out as cute as I had hoped (I forgot the beak!) but…you can kind of see where we were going with this. A banana-cinnamon (egg-less) muffin, with a grape head, mini chocolate chip eyes, and apple slices for the tail. Joseph was really the only one who wanted to make the turkey…Max and Delainey were too hungry! : )

After snack time we read The Berenstein Bear’s Giant Pumpkin…it’s all about the real meaning of Thanksgiving. It’s a cute book from my childhood, and the kids were attentive during story time.  Then we went and made our craft…thankful turkey headbands!  Everyone did a great job gluing on the eyes, taping on the feathers, and thinking of things they were thankful for.

Then it was time to practice writing…we practiced writing T’s, and then we did another cutting and coloring activity. 

Then it was time to PLAY! We all ran outside since the weather was beautiful, and enjoyed some fresh air!  When we came inside, we sat in a circle and played “hot potato” thankful game…it went like this:

Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving,
What am I thankful for,
It's your turn to share with us,
1, 2, 3, 4!

Whoever had the ball at the end said something they were thankful for. 

Next we sang the goodbye song, and played until the moms came.

It was a wonderful day of preschool…I am so THANKFUL for Delainey, Joseph and Max! : )

“P” is for Pilgrim

This month we are focusing on Thanksgiving.  I kicked the theme off by learning about the Pilgrims. 

During circle time we talked about the pioneers who traveled a long way for religious freedom, just like the Pilgrims.  For show and tell the children brought items that they would take with them on a long trip on a boat.  Delainey said she would bring an oar (smart girl), Max brought his special blanket, and Joseph shared his snuggly lamb.

After some fun songs about Thanksgiving, and a yummy snack (goldfish, because the pilgrims at fish), we talked more about the story of the Pilgrims and Indians.  We used a felt board and felt board figures to tell the story, and found their location on a globe. 

One of the interesting things we learned about Pilgrims is that they lived in one room log cabins.  Using pretzels and glue, the children made their own log cabins.  They turned out pretty cute.  Then after a little handwriting practice the children were excited to play.  We built a log cabin with Lincoln Logs and played inside of a log cabin (tent). 

It was another fun day of preschool!      

Harvest Field Trip

 

Tuesday was our second field trip of the year!  This month we had learned about leaves, the harvest and jack-o-lanterns, so we knew a farm and pumpkin patch would be a perfect field trip!

Here are our little scholars on a big John Deer tractor!

On our way to the hayride, we walked through their cow barn. We saw many cows of different sizes and colors. All the cows seemed to have a lot to say…they were mooing like crazy! Kathryn said it well—they put on quite a show for us! 

Here was my best attempt at Max, Delainey and Joseph…maybe Kathryn or Emily got a better one? : )

I LOVE this pic of Joseph! he looks so happy on the hay ride!

After the hayride, we got to see Mr. Page feed one of the baby calves (one month old) from a bottle. His mother didn’t produce enough milk. That was pretty cute to watch “Billy Bob” guzzle it down.

All of the kids had a great time playing on the pipe/hay slide! Even Sallie, Owen and Henry went down.

After playing on the slides, we went to a mini hay maze they set up.  The swings they had were also a hit. Max & Joseph took turns pushing each other.

After lunch and lots of swinging, we made our way to the pumpkin patch to choose a pumpkin! All of the kids got to choose a pumpkin, and so did the teachers (or Sallie, Owen and Henry!)

It was really a perfect day—beautiful weather, happy kids, and a lovely little farm to visit. Yay for preschool in the fall!

J is for Jack-o-Lantern!

We started our pumpkin party by assembling our very own paper jack-o-lanterns! I asked who could create the "spookiest, happiest" pumpkin and they were all up to the challenge and kept talking about their spooky, happy jack-o-lanterns!

During circle time we talked about John the Baptist and learned the nursery rhyme "Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater." For show-and-tell, the kids were excited to share their something with a face. Max shared his Whinnie the Pooh doll; Delainey brought her beloved baby; and Joseph brought his pilot.

After reading Pumpkin Circle by George Levenson and Pumpkin Heads By Wendell Minor, we headed back to the table to glue pumpkin seeds into the shape of the letter J.

We also did a fun (but unexpectedly difficult) craft where we made pumpkins using yarn and pipe cleaners. The kids were supposed to wrap orange yarn around their little piece of cardboard 80-100 times. Each one had their own approach...

...Joseph was very slow and careful...

...while Max was a little faster, a little sloppier...

...and Delainey's pumpkin was more free-form. Very creative.

Here are the finished products. (Max's wasn't really that good. He ran upstairs right after he finished and put his on his bulletin board...so the one in the picture is mine.)

During playtime, the kids decided to play soccer! Joseph kicked...

...while his classmates awaited the ball. So cute!

And that wraps up our J Day!

“H” is for Harvest!

Today preschool was at our house and we had a great time learning all about…the HARVEST! We started off the morning with vegetable stamping!  While Max & Delainey stamped (Joseph was on his way) we talked about where these fruits and vegetables came from, and how they are good for our bodies. (And for painting!) Max at one point exclaimed, “this carrot is my paintbrush!”

After painting it was circle time! Delainey gave us the opening prayer (where she said, and I quote, “and please bless mommy to know that I am hungry….Amen!”) It was a rough morning for our resident night-owl and she didn’t actually get out of bed until 5-10 min. before preschool started…hence, the lack of breakfast. Anyways, Max held the scripture spotlight today which was about the Handcart Pioneers. I asked them if they had any family members who lived far away, and then we imagined what it would be like to walk all the way to their house, pushing a heavy handcart. Max intelligently pointed out that the pioneers in the picture were walking to Utah, and that it was very far away. Following the scripture spotlight it was time for the weather (rainy & cold) and then we learned a nursery rhyme, “Mary Mary, quite contrary…” since it was about gardening and we’re talking about harvesting. (a bit of a stretch, maybe?)

Show & tell came next…they each had to bring something that came from the earth. Delainey and Joseph both brought apples and Max brought an acorn. Max was upset that Delainey and Joseph both brought apples, but they didn’t seem to mind. Joseph’s apple was especially interesting because it still had the stem and leaves on it…a perfect transition to talk about apples growing on trees, how we pick them, what harvest means, etc. We also discussed that some animals, like squirrels, also harvest their food…like acorns.  Next we started naming as many kinds of foods as we could think of that a farmer could harvest. They had a lot of answers!

Next it was singing time! (I’m so glad Joseph was here by this point because he is such an enthusiastic singer! Max just kind of looks at me, Delainey ever-so-quietly mouths the words, but Joseph—he SINGS. They are each so funny in their own way…I love them!) After getting our wiggles out to the Spooky Loo song, we learned three new songs today. (Well, we may have sung the first one at Music Makers…it seemed kind of familiar)

I’m A Little Pumpkin (tune: I'm a little teapot)

I'm a little pumpkin

Orange and round.

Here is my stem,

There is the ground.

When I get all cut up,

Don't you shout!

Just open me up

And scoop me out!

 

Two little apples (tune: This old man)

Way up high, in a tree,

Two red apples smiled at me.

So I shook that tree as har-r-rd as i could.

Down came the apples. YUmmmmm, were they good!

 

Harvest Time (tune: twinkle, twinkle)

Harvest time is here again

In the garden we must dig

Carrots, radishes, onions too

All so fresh and yummy too.

Harvest time is here again

In the garden we must dig.

We changed the words(Carrots, radishes, onions…) in “Harvest Time” and when I pointed to them, they had to name a food that you could harvest.  They were quick thinkers on the spot!  But “Two Little Apples” was the crowd favorite today I think. They loved to shake (when we sang about shaking the tree) and really got into the last phrase, “Yuuuuum, were they GOOD!” It was adorable, I tell you.

After singing time we went to the kitchen to have a snack—butterscotch haystacks and apple slices. As they munched away, I read them the story Stone Soup. That led to a discussion about the best part of harvesting crops…sharing them! I then told them there were 3 stones hidden somewhere in my sofas…one for each of them. I told them to go find their stones, and that WE were going to make stone soup! They ran into the living room, found 3 stones, we washed them in the bathrooms, and then they went into the kitchen, and one by one dropped their stones into a big pot of water. Then I had previously chopped up the other half of the vegetables we had painted with earlier, and they each put their vegetable (I had them guess what the cut-up pieces were, and whoever guessed got to throw them in the pot!) into the pot.

While the soup was “cooking”, we went into the living room for story time. We read one of my childhood books about Grover helping out on a farm, because it culminates with a picture and description of a fall harvest. Perfect!  Then the children went to the table to count out colored popcorn, and glue them onto some paper bag corn shapes.  There wasn’t much counting taking place or pattern making—they all said they wanted their corn to be mixed up—but there WAS a lot of sharing! Joseph and Max began speaking incredibly kindly to each other, doing the other’s glue and sharing popcorn. Delainey soon followed suit, and the three of them were perhaps at that moment, the most polite three year olds in the world. Max and Joseph would yell out to me, “Miss Sarah! We are sharing!  Did you hear that? Delainey is sharing too!”  It was so cute. (I was in the kitchen while they glued, having already made a batch of chicken&vegetable soup, I switched out the pots.) “The stone soup is ready!” I told them, and they finished up their corn craft and returned to the kitchen to eat the soups of their labors : ) Max and Delainey loved the soup, but Joseph didn’t want to try it so he ate more apples and haystacks. While eating they also worked on a handwriting worksheet to write the letter “H”. 

For play time we played a “hot potato” game, only we were passing around an apple to music, and when the music stopped, whoever had it got to try and toss the apple into a basket.  Delainey was the only one to actually get it in the basket—the boys both threw it a little too hard haha. They loved this game though….Until they realized this was “playtime”…I was told we should not play games during playtime haha.  After that it was time for the Goodbye Song and a stamp.  All three kids were SO well-behaved today…it made the day so easy and so much fun!  I love each of their personalities and how well they get along together. Hooray for Harvest Day! 

(Sorry about my lack of picture-taking ladies. I’ll do better next time.)

L is for Leaf

We decided to mix things up a bit in preschool, and base our curriculum a bit more on our monthly themes.  We felt that the learning experiences of the children would be more enriching and meaningful if we associated them with the current season or holiday.  This means we will not go in alphabetical order. 

With the fall season upon us, I kicked things off with "L" is for leaves.  This was the basis of most of our activities for the day.  As part of our circle time routine the children learned a poem about the fall season.  It went like this 

Red and yellow, green and brown.
(count off colors on fingers)

Leaves are falling to the ground.
(simulate falling leaves with hands)

We pile them up OH SO HIGH:
('pile' leaves with hands)

Then we JUMP in!
(pretend to jump in) 

My friend and I!

Our friends brought show & tell items that begin with the letter "L".  Max brought a stuffed animal lion, Delainey brought a tarheel foot lollipop, and Joseph shared his Lightning McQueen toy race car.  

Next we got our wiggles out by dancing to music, playing instruments, and singing a few songs about the fall season.  Then after snack I read a book called Four Seasons for Little People, where we read about what happens to leaves in the fall.  This lead us to our "field study" outside, looking for and gathering leaves.  Max was really into this.  He started gathering as soon as we stepped out the front door.

The goal was to find leaves of different colors, shapes, and sizes.  When our bags were full, we took them back home to sort and count.

Then we used our green leaves to make leaf rubbings.  This lead to a discussion about the veins of leaves and how they bring water to them. 

After our art project the kids transitioned right into playtime, where they played with Legos and Lincoln Logs.  Joseph and Max played with the Lego vehicles, and Delainey made a "Goodberries" store.  It was a fun packed day at preschool. 

Fire Station Field Trip

 On Tuesday, September 27th, we went on our first field trip as a preschool group.  Since we had a transportation theme for September, I organized a visit to the Parkwood Volunteer Fire Station in our neighborhood. 

We were first greeted by Fireman Nick.  He let all the kiddos climb inside the firetruck and explore a bit, trying on his helmet and sitting in the seats. The boys thoroughly enjoyed this, but Delainey was a little reluctant to climb inside. 

We were then given a tour around the outside of the truck, where we were able to see the many compartments and tools that firemen use.  Joseph was full of questions.

At the end of the presentation, Fireman Nick showed us how the fire fighters have to put their entire suit on in 90 seconds.  He did not disappoint.

All the children were given stickers, helmets, and coloring books.  We took a picture on the front of the fire truck, and then headed to a nearby park for a picnic and playtime. 

Our first field trip as a preschool group was a success!



Sarah & Sallie Gilreath, Emily Owen & Max Steffen, Joseph & Kathryn Palmer
(not pictured: Delainey Gilreath and Henry Stewart)