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)



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!