C Festivities!

Today we had the pleasure of hosting school at our house, and what a colorful and creative day we had!

We started the morning off by putting our cutting and gluing skills to the test. The kids made collages by cutting strips of colored paper and gluing them to a sheet of cardstock. All were very excited to use their gluesticks for the first time!

Joseph was very focused on the task at hand. So focused on cutting that he actually only got one little green square glued onto his paper :) I think he was going for a less-is-more piece of artwork.

Delainey had a tricky time figuring out how to hold her scissors, but created her own mini-masterpeice nonetheless.

And Max gave up on the whole cutting thing entirely and opted to glue the whole strip of paper onto his collage.

The finished products!

Before we knew it, it was Circle Time!

First Max gave an opening prayer. (It was pretty cute...Max came up to the front and then knelt down to say his prayer...I'm talking bowing all the way over so that his face was touching the floor. Quick as a flash, Delainey and Joseph followed suit and the three of them spent the prayer curled up in reverent little balls on the floor.)

After the prayer, Joseph held up a picture of Moses and the Ten Commandments. We talked about how important the commandments were to the Children of Israel, just like our school rules are important to us!

After Delainey proclaimed the day officially sunny, we breezed through the calendar, recited "Hey Diddle Diddle" together (hello, cat...cow. It's the best I could come up with) and finally shared our C treasures for show and tell. Delainey brought her cat named Coda, Max brough one of his toy cars, and Joseph brought his very-appropriate caterpillar stuffed animal!

Then it was time to dance and sing before we began our lesson!

The kids had fun dancing and playing their instruments to Tom Chapin's "On My Way to School," as well as Frances England's "Where Do They Go?" (Thanks for the heads up on that cute song, Sarah!)

Delainey wasn't so sure about the tambourine.

I couldn't leave out this action shot form Joseph!

Hooray! It was finally time for our lesson! We began by thinking about things that start with the letter C. Once Joseph mentioned caterpillars, we launched right into one of our favorite books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

Of course, the kids thought that little caterpillar was pretty cool, so when I suggested they become little caterpillars too, they were all very excited. We read the story again, this time having the kids pretend to be the hungry little caterpillar. Each child used a muslin blanket as their food, cocoon, and finally as their butterfly wings!

Love this picture of our incubating little bugs!

Ta-da! Butterfly Delainey and Butterflo Joseph

(We've got to make it manly somehow, right?)

After our bit of drama, the kids colored a caterpillar and glued colorful pom poms in a big C around the little guy. Here they are hard at work!

In keeping with our The Very Hungry Caterpillar theme, the kids helped me make some yummy fruit salad, using an apple, pear, plum, strawberries, and an orange, just like the caterpillar did during his very filling week...

"...On Monday he ate through one apple. But he was still hungry."

The children also snacked on cheese and crackers, with a Caprisun, of course!

After snack time we practiced writing, first with a worksheet and then with some dry-erase markers and laminated tracing cards. The kids all had fun, and worked very hard tracing on the cards!

Oh, have I forgotten our class mascot?

We had this little guy (who began the day wearing clothes, I promise) with us for the whole two hours! Thank you, Owen, for being such a good boy!

(And thank you, kids, for putting up with a little baby at school!)

With school winding down, we squeezed in a little more fun by having some transportation playtime!

Delainey opted to play with the airplane...

...while the boys busied themselves with the cars.

After a quick clean-up and an enthusiastic singing of the good-bye song, we packed up our gear and got ready to go home. We had a lot of fun celebrating the letter C...and are already looking forward to next month when we can have fun with the letter F!

C you then!

Happy “B” Day!

Today was “B” day at preschool at our house, and I must admit—I have been so excited to host at our house and do activities with the children!  When they first arrived they signed in on the easel (well, Max and Joseph did…Delainey did not want to do it and is really sensitive about writing her letters so I didn’t push it.) and then we played with playdough and made things that started with “B”.  Max made 11 little balls which they had fun counting.

After playdough it was time for circle time!  Following the “Hello Song”, Delainey said an opening prayer. We reviewed our preschool rules.  Then Max held up the scripture spotlight—the story of Noah and the ark. (Ark, Boat, B-day…) After the calendar and days of the week song, Joseph took a look outside and told us it was sunny and hot.  Then he fixed the weather spinner to reflect that.  Next we talked about the letter B, learned a new nursery rhyme, “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and then it was time for Show and Tell!  Delainey showed everyone her ballerina, Max showed his Buzz Lightyear, and Joseph showed a ball.  They enjoyed each getting a turn to come up and share what they brought.

Then it was time for…SINGING TIME!  Taking Kathryn’s cue, I let them run around and dance like crazies with some instruments at first to “This Old Man” that I have on CD.  Then we did a few more wiggle songs, before singing the Wheels on the Bus and Row, Row, Row Your Boat.  We sang it slow, fast, loudly and soft. 

Next we learned a new song…well, at least it was new to me until I saw it online.  To the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, we sang:

Twinkle, twinkle traffic light

Round the corner shining bright.

Red means stop, green means go,

And yellow means go very slow.

Twinkle, twinkle traffic light

Round the corner shining bright.

I made up little hand motions…they loved going STOP with their hand, running in place for GO and then going really SLOW for yellow.  We sang this one about 3 times…the first time they repeated two lines back to me, but by the 3rd verse they sang it all the way through…I was impressed!

They worked up an appetite singing so we went to the kitchen for snack time!  I made a sample plate of “Traffic Light” Graham Crackers (Graham crackers, whip cream and m&m’s) and a “Banana Airplane” (come on, you’ve got to have a little nutrition in there) with pretzel sticks as wings and propellers, and mini marshmallows as windows.  I then gave the children their own plates where I had earlier given them all the things to make the treats…they just had to make them themselves!  Lainey ate 2 of her m&m’s right off the bat, and Max ate all of his marshmallows in one bite haha…but then they slowed down and followed Joseph’s lead in making the treats. 

Max liked flying his “airplane” around in between bites!

Zoom zoom!

Joseph picking out the correct color of m&m’s.

After snacks we went to the dining room for story time. I was a little unsure if their attention spans would last through two books, so I paraphrased “Busy Boats” a good bit.  We’ll never know how they would have done if I hadn’t, but they were super attentive for all of story time. Whew!

Next we went to the dining room table to make little sail boats out of egg cartons. I gave them each a piece of paper with a triangle outlined in dotted lines so they could practice cutting their sails.  Then they decorated both sides with crayons. (We were going to paint the inside of the egg crate but were a little behind schedule, so we skipped that part.)  Next I helped them put their straws through three holes in the sail, we stuck the straw into a tiny hole in the styrofoam, and viola!  Boats for everyone!

After our craft, we returned to the kitchen to do 2 worksheets about the letter B (I set aside 10 minutes for this, but boy, they lost interest in this fast. Maybe 5 minutes next time.)

After they had finished their worksheets we put on shoes and went around back to our little inflatable pool (that apparently has a hole in it….sad.) to talk about how boats transport people…they float!  Then they put their boats in the water to see if they floated…they did!  Max figured out that blowing them away from the edge was a better way to make them go instead of pushing them.  (His had a little capsizing accident, but survived and still floated around afterwards.)

Finally it was PLAY TIME!  They chased each other around the playground and repeatedly ran up and down the hill.  Next we went inside to sing the “Goodbye Song”, they each received a stamp, and then it was time to be picked up. 

Week 2 of RTB Preschool was a success!

First Day of School

Today was our first day of preschool.  The mommies kissed their little ones at the door and said goodbye. The children took a minute to show off their back packs they were carrying with them today.  There was lots of excitement among the little ones.  The children were instructed to sign in on the white board as they arrived.  This is something they will do each week to have lots of practice writing their name.    

After signing in the children moved into the kitchen for directed play at the table.  They squished, squeezed and molded foam beads. 

They also practiced their scissor skills by cutting out pictures from a magazine. 

Next we moved on to "Circle Time".  The children were instructed to find their name on a carpet square.  This was their seat for the day.  Today we started Circle Time by learning our "Hello" song.

(Sung to: "Frere Jacques")

Hello, (child's Name) Hello, (child's name)
How are you? How are you?
We're so glad to have you,
We're so glad to have you.
Here at school, here at school.

Next we talked about our "Job Chart".  Each week the children are given a job.  This week Joseph said the prayer, Delainey was in charge of holding the Scripture Spotlight, and Max was in charge of checking the weather.  They will each have a clothes pin with their name on it, clipped on the chart next to their job.  After discussing the job chart we continued Circle Time with an opening prayer and a Scripture Spotlight, or story.   

After the Scripture Spotlight it was time to move into the calendar, where we sang about the days of the week, recited the date, counted the days, and talked about the season and weather.  Today was a rainy day.  We also took a minute to identify the letter of the day, "A". Typically next we would learn a nursery rhyme, but today the children helped me come up with three preschool rules.  They were:

#1 - Raise your hand if you want to say something.

#2 - Share

#3 - Keep your hand to yourself

We ended Circle Time today with "Show and Tell".  I instructed the children to bring something that begins with the letter "A".  Delainey brought a stuffed animal alligator, Max brought a super cool airplane, and Joseph shared his Atlanta Braves jersery.

After Circle time we moved to the carpet where the children got to choose an instrument.  I turned on some kids toons and they jumped, jiggled, and played their intruments loudly.  This gave them a chance to dance and move around.  After a little wiggle time we sang a couple songs relating to our monthly theme, transportation.

Next on the agenda was "Snack Time", where the kids ate animal crackers and apple slices.  I chose these snacks because they begin with the letter of the day, "A"!  The kiddos were thrilled to have snack time.

While the children finished up their snacks I read them a story called The Growing Up Tree.  This lead into a nice discussion about apples (which begins with "A").

Next the children made a letter "A" using Apple Jacks Cereal.  They glued the cereal, snacked on it, and Max made a pattern.   

Next our adventures took us to the "pond", where the children went fishing for things that begin with "A". They all had fun doing this.  After fishing we made our way back to the table to practice tracing ,writing, and identifying the letter "A". 

Next was "Free Play".  Today I set up transportation toys, to go along with the monthly theme.  Joseph and Max had fun driving on the race track, and Delainey enjoyed playing with the "Racing Ramps Garage".

After free play it was time to clean up, sing our goodbye song, and give all the kids their stamp. 

Goodbye, Goodbye, see you again.

Goodbye, Goodbye, see you my friends.

Goodbye, Goodbye, I had fun today.

I had fun today!

The first day of preschool was a success!