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!

“W” is for Water! (Water Cycle Day!)

Preschool today was so much fun!  Following Miss Kathryn’s lesson on clouds, today we talked about the water cycle!  I was a little nervous about whether or not they would be able to grasp it (with the big words and all) but they really surprised me!  First we worked on handwriting as we practiced the letter “w”.

Then it was circle time in the “dining room”. After opening with a prayer and reviewing the rules, our scripture spotlight was about Jesus walking on water.  Next up was our calendar, and then Joseph reported on the weather.  For rhyme time we learned,

It's raining, it's pouring,
The old man is snoring.
He went to bed and he
Bumped his head
And he couldn't get up in the morning.

Then, rather than go right into show and tell, I showed them a cup of water and I asked them how old they thought the water was. There were some funny answers. I explained that this water has been around since Adam and Eve…since the earth was formed! I told them that the earth uses the same water over and over again, which is called the “water cycle”.  We practiced saying 3 big words: Evaporation, Condensation and Precipitation, as I tried to tell them what they were.  Then we read Drop Goes Plop, which is a cute story about the water cycle. After that, with Max in his yellow shirt, Delainey changed into a white shirt and Joseph into a blue shirt, (to represent the sun, clouds, and rain) they acted out the cycle.  They had a lot of fun with this and I really think the roll playing helped them to remember what takes place. 

(Joseph was making a snort/snoring sound, and they were all cracking up! we all took turns doing it…silly!)

After our dramatization, we went into the living room for singing time. We sang “Rain, rain go away!” and inserted each child’s name into the line, “Come again another day! Little (Joseph/Max/Delainey) wants to play! We also sang “If all the raindrops…” from music makers.  Finally, we learned “The Water Cycle Song” to the tune of “the itsy bitsy spider”:

You know the water cycle

Makes water move around!

Evaporation lifts water off the ground,

Condensation forms drops into a cloud,

And precipitation makes them fall back down!

This was a tough song so we made up hand motions, and sang it many times in different ways—slowly, quietly, loudly, quickly.

Following singing time we went into the kitchen for our science experiment. They lined up 3 stools in the middle of the kitchen facing the stove. I gave each of them a cotton ball to inspect. They all agreed it was dry, and not in the least bit wet. Then, using tongs, I held the cotton ball (our cloud) over a pot of boiling water (and we pretended the surface light overhead was the sun) and watched as the steam rose into the “cloud”.  As we were waiting I asked them what was happening and they were right on point! Finally I let them feel the cotton ball (it was a little hot, but not burn-hot) to see that it was wet. Delainey and Joseph both agreed that it was wet from all the steam that got cold again, it turned back into water…but Max didn’t think it was wet. So I held it up and squeezed it out (ok, that was a little hot! use gloves next time!) and a bunch of water fell onto the floor. Max laughed and conceded that the cotton ball cloud had indeed collected the steam and then “rained” the water….just like a real cloud! This was a fun activity.  I loved looking at their eager little eyes as we talked about the cycle and watched the cotton ball absorb the steam.

Finally it was SNACK TIME!  We had clementines (the sun), blue jello (rain) and white popcorn (clouds).

(Max decided to make his “sun” into orange juice…haha.)

After snacks we  gathered for story time #2 and read The Magic School Bus visits the Waterworks…I was a little nervous about this book because I loved these books—in elementary school. But they were all very attentive and enjoyed seeing the kids shrink down to the size of water droplets. At some point someone said, “but…only water goes down the drains. Not people…right?” : ) After that we worked on a Water Cycle Puzzle that I had made for them, and then we made rain sticks!  They each decorated a piece of paper with their own artistic rendering of the water cycle, and then we taped that around their paper towel rolls, added the aluminum foil and lentil beans, and taped up the sides…wa la! After this it was playtime, the goodbye song, and stamps all around.

(Rain, Cloud, Sun)

What a fun day at preschool!  I mentally compared them today with our first day that I taught preschool, and WOW. They have really grown up,  in so many ways! They did such a great job today…yay for the water cycle!

C is for Cloud

During the month of March we are learning all about weather, beginning with clouds.  This was a really fun lesson to plan.

Joseph, Max, and Delainey have their preschool routine down!  They know exactly what to do when they arrive and what comes next.  We started the morning off with handwriting practice.  We then moved into circle time where we learned about the great storm and flood that Noah and his family endured.  We learned a rhyme about raindrops and sang a few songs about weather.  

For show and tell I asked Max to bring something that he would wear on a sunny day, and he chose to bring basketball shorts.  Joseph was instructed to bring something that he would wear on a windy day, and he chose a coat.  Delainey was supposed to bring something that she could wear on a rainy day, and she brought a raincoat.  What smart little children.  We talked about how it is important to dress for the weather.

Next we moved into the first part of our lesson on clouds.  We talked a bit about the water cycle and evaporation.  I had the children rub hand sanitizer in between their hands and shake them.  This object lesson helped the children learn about evaporation.

Then we talked about what clouds are made of.  I had the children blow their warm breath on a cold spoon.  A tiny cloud appeared. We talked about how the tiny cloud on the spoon is like the clouds in the sky, formed when warm, moist air and cool air come together.  

We also made a batch of ice cold lemonade to illustrate the same concept of combining warm air and cold air to create water vapor.  Then we drank the lemonade with snack.  The kiddos were thrilled about this!

Next we did a little science experiment.  We made a cloud in a bottle using warm water, matches, and pressure.  We all had fun with this.

After our science experiment we talked about the different types of clouds using our cloud finder  We went outside to see what kind of clouds were in the sky.  Unfortunately there was not a cloud in the sky.  

Each of the children got to take home their own cloud finder and use it to observe the clouds, and record data on their cloud observation chart.  

During the last part of our lesson I read "The Little Cloud" by Eric Carle.  It talks about how clouds can look like different shapes, like sheep and airplanes.  After the story Joseph, Max, and Delainey got to make their own cloud shapes using cotton balls and glue.  Then they had to tell me what kind of cloud they made, with the help of our cloud finder.  Delainey made a cumulus cloud, Max made a cirrus cloud, and Joseph made a stratocumulus cloud.  

We had lots planned for preschool this week, and we managed to squeeze it all in.  Our little scholars seemed to understand what clouds are made of, but it will take a little more time to understand how they are formed.  I think they will also enjoy making cloud observations each day.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Suess!

To celebrate the birthday of Theodor Geisel (aka DR. SEUSS) we met up at the Main Branch of the Durham Public Library for a fun-filled Read Across America acitivty.

The hour was packed with Dr. Seuss activities!  Two librarians acted out Green Eggs and Ham and read a few more Dr. Seuss favorites.  The kids sang songs and played intruments, played a Dr. Seuss character matching game, made Cat in the Hat masks, and even got some birthday cake!  

(Guess the cake wasn't enough for these two!)

You could tell the librarians a) really like their job, and b) put a lot of time into this event...there were even little Thing One and Thing Two nametags for each child.  Cute!

Thanks for meeting us so far from home.  We had a blast celebrating with you!

F is for Family

Today at school we learned about families...and had a lot of fun doing it!

We started the day with some letter work...F for family, of course!

Since Lainey was a little late, Owen got to sit in her seat for a while.  Obviously, he was pretty excited.

During calendar time we talked about Adam and Eve, the first family on the earth!  For show and tell, the kids each brough a picture of their family.  

We hopped right into a math lesson, counting how many people are in each family.  Then we counted how many girls/ boys are in each family, and made a little graph.  We found out that Delainey has the most girls in her family and Max has the most boys!

We had fun reading This is my Family by Mercer and Gina Mayer.  It's such a cute book, and talked about how each member of a family is special.  It was perfect for our group!

We also talked about how each person has their own role in a family...mommies, daddies, and kiddos, too!  We talked about how we need to help eachother and show love, and dicussed specific ways to do both.

For our snacks, we made "family trees" out of green grapes and pretzel sticks.  Joseph the genius impressed me by making his trees three dimensional, with the pretzel sticks standing upright...it was pretty cute!

While the kids ate, I read All Kinds of Families by Mary Ann Hoberman and MArc Boutavant.

For our craft, the kids each made their own family trees.  Using the picture they'd brought from home, each child (with a little help) cut out the members of their family, glued them on some apples, and attached them to their very colorful trees.  I love how they all turned out!  

For playtime I set up a few "family responsibility" stations around the family room so the kids could role play.  They had a lot of fun and it was cute to see them trying out some new chores!

Max and Joseph tried their hands at swaddling babies.  I think Max is changing his baby's diaper before he wraps him up!

Joseph must be singing his baby a lullaby...

While the men took care of the babies, Delainey whipped up some yummy food in the kitchen...

...before getting to work with her tools.  I wonder what she was building!

Once Max got his baby to sleep, he tackled the ironing.  

(I later found the babies wrapped up carefully and stuffed under the pillows on the couch...I guess those two need a few more lessons in babysitting!)

Valentine’s Day!

February 14th was Valentine’s day so we talked about…wait for it…valentines! That morning Joseph had run a fever and was feeling yucky so he wasn’t able to make it. : ( It sure was strange not having him there! (Max thought it was so funny though that he got to do two jobs during circle time. “Sarah! I just said the prayer and now I am holding the scripture story! HAHAHAAA!”  It was funny.) During singing time we played a musical hearts game, where Delainey and Max would dance around like crazy to a song, but when the music stopped, they had to run to a heart. Each heart had something funny on it to do like…blast off like a rocket, spin around 3 times while singing the ABC’s, etc.  They thought this was pretty fun!  I had initially planned for them to make valentine hugs for someone in their family, but we all decided we wanted to make them for Joseph instead to help him feel better…so we traced their hands, cut out their hands, and then measured their wingspan with yarn.  We connected the yarn to the hands and then put those “paper hugs” inside cards that they decorated. For snack time we dined on bananas and whoopie pies with pink icing. (The icing didn’t turn out as good as I had hoped but they liked them so that’s what matters!)  For our lesson we talked about estimating, and they enjoyed estimating how many hearts were in various sized containers, and then counting them. We also estimated how many hearts would fit in their hands.  Then I traced their hands and they glued those hearts on. The last fun thing we did was that we played sight word Bingo…for prizes! I made some cards in Photoshop and they both did surprisingly well for neither of them having played bingo before—although Max grew tired of the game after he won his prize haha!  It was a good activity though and I will have to remember and do it again when Joseph is with us because I think he would like it too. We sure did miss Joseph…and look forward to preschool next week when hopefully the trio will be back together again!

 

L is for Love

As is appropriate with Valentine's Day in February, we are learning about love and families this month.  In addition to some fun math activities, today we talked a lot about how to show "Love" towards others.  

We started the morning off with handwriting practice at the table.  Then the children transitioned into a matching game on the floor.  They had to put broken hearts back together by matching a number to the correct number of hearts.  They did this quickly.  

We then moved back to the table for a little math lesson on sorting and graphing.  The children counted the different colors found in a conversation heart candy bag, and then sorted them all out by their different colors.  The children were making observations while sorting.  They could quickly tell that there were a lot of green hearts.  They were very engaged with this activity.  I was impressed with how hard they all worked on the task at hand.  Once we sorted the hearts, we counted each color.  

After our sorting and counting, we used our data to create a graph.  We talked about what color we have the most of, the least, and which colors were in the middle.  

After all their hard work, the kiddos got to sample one of each color heart.  

Finally we moved into circle time where we talked about the Good Samaritan and how he showed love.  We learned a cute rhyme and several songs about "Love".

Heart

I put my hands together,

This is how I start.

I curve my fingers right around,
And I can make a heart!

I then red them a story called  I Love You, Good Night.  In this book the characters compare their love to things like blueberry pancakes, how vines love trees, how boots love splashing in puddles, and like strawberry milkshakes.  So, guess what we made for snack?

Strawberry Milkshakes!

After snack we read another book called Franklin Says I Love You.  This lead us to a discussion of what we can do to show our love to others.  Then the children made gift certificates for their parents, for something they could do to show their love.  This is what they came up with... 

Max said he can show his love to him mom by "Changing Owen's Diaper".

Delainey said she can show her love to her dad by " Playing a game of animal match".

Joseph said he can show his love to his dad by "Helping him cut the grass and giving him lots of hugs".

We had a super fun day at preschool!  

Everyone did FANTASTIC!