Goodnight Moon

My first time teaching the little Busy Bees was so much fun! All these kids are darling and such good kiddos. All of you who have figured out the schedule and material the last couple years have done a wonderful job. Thank you! I've thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the group this year.

This past week we learned and read all about Goodnight Moon (one of my favorites). The first day we colored pictures and painted moons for our Lapbooks.

Is Stewart drawing with both hands?? Hilarious.

On Tuesday the garbage truck came which was very exciting... the kids got two honks from the driver.

Ava was calling her "people" while the action was going on.

For snack the first day we had a Bowl of Mush (applesauce). Poor Trevor and Luke did NOT want to eat a bowl of mush for our snack. It was probably because I was going overboard calling it MUSH. Look at this face... April how do you ever say "no" to him?

 

The kids were hilarious on the couch pretending like they were sleeping after we read Goodnight Moon. This was impromptu on their part. They all loved the page that reads, Goodnight "Nobody"... they got a kick out of that.

Then we walked around the house to see if we could find a room with a "red balloon". Yay! We found a room with red balloons for everyone.

One activity on the second day was to put our little pictures we had drawn in the right sequence as we read Goodnight Moon. I was not anticipating that it would get so crazy with all six kids spreading out their picture cards all over the floor at one time. It took a little bit of work keeping things in order but the kids were total troopers. Ava did the best job. I kept thinking she wasn't in to it because I'd see her doing little gymnastics moves but when I would ask her about her cards she would show me she had them in PERFECT order... with time leftover to dance.

Margaret and Luke were so cute sharing books with each other during reading time.

So I had to post this because I was thrilled someone was appreciating the little doll house I bought for Adelle a couple years ago. I spent A LOT of time finding the "perfect" doll house and Adelle has never been in to it as much as I was hoping. Thanks Margaret!

Playing outside was of course a favorite for the kids. I dont' know why but I got the biggest kick out of Luke. He pushed a little grocery cart around collecting items and he was so particular about keeping all the items from falling out. He was like a little bag lady.

I had a fun week with the kids!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Week two of preschool was a success! This is a fun group of kids. Here they are during playtime, the girls in the kitchen and the boys putting cars in the "castle jail".

 

Our story for the week was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. This story focuses on letter identification so we did a lot of playing with letters.

 

Each child had a plate of letter crackers with the letters in their names and they had to match and glue them.  They did pretty well with this activity. 

 

Then we went outside to hunt for letters buried in sand. You can't see the letters here because the kiddos had already snatched them up as I grabbed my camera! It was fun to see how many they could find.

 

After snack and outside time, we painted our own coconut trees.

On the second day of preschool, we explored a coconut. We felt the outside, noted its color and shook to hear the liquid inside.

 

Then we cracked it open. We saw the color inside and felt it was smooth. Some tasted it. For snack we had a Pina Colada Pop so they could taste something with coconut milk in it.

We came inside and found those missing letters again!  This time they were hiding under the cracked coconut halves. The kiddos enjoyed seeing what letters they found under the coconut they picked.

Then we took our coconut tree paintings and turned them into Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees by adding letter stickers.

Busy Bees with their finished products!

1st Day of Pre School!

Our Busy Bees 2012!

Now this is one fun group of kids!  I really enjoyed being able to teach these cuties for their very first day of Pre school.  They were so well behaved.  So attentive.  So eager and excited.  On the first day, I got a lot of blank stares as I pulled out the weather chart, taught them Scat the Cat, etc.  Inside I was dying and trying hard not to laugh out loud.  Once they felt me out a little bit, and got used to the whole pre school idea, they were excited to help and take turns and do what came next.  Attention spans were SHORT, very, very short so random things got thrown in here and there like play-doh, puzzles, and blowing bubbles outside.  

 

 This week we read Jesse Bear, What Will you Wear?  It is a cute story about a day in the life of a bear named Jesse. It talks about what he'll wear, what he eats, times of day, and a whole lot more.  We dressed up our own Jesse Bear, found hidden bears on every page and talked about Jesse Bear's healthy lunch.

 

We "sorted" bears.  Mostly the kids just loved making them into a train or lining them up.

We talked about love and ways we show love.  In the book, Jesse Bear's Mom and Dad show love and care for him in different ways so every time we saw love, we held up a heart.  This was not a hit.  They mostly loved just poking each other with the ends of the heart or making the heart fly like a butterfly.  :)

Stewart helped Jesse Bear find his shirt by tracing lines and he did it perfectly!

And this is what happens when Elliott is up from nap time.  They were all so sweet to him and each wanted a turn to "sit by the baby."

I wish I had taken more pictures!  All in all, it was a great first week.  It's going to be a fun year!

New Busy Bees

 We had our park meet-up day, and boy is this group different than the last.  :)

Technically, everyone is new, but we are so happy to have Kelli and Stewart join the busy bees!

 You can tell that all of these kids are second or middle children.  All of the kids left their moms side to go play (unlike last year). 

 Preschoolers: Ava, Blake, Stewart, Luke, Trevor and Margaret.

Cute boys. 

 

Megan made these cute get-to-know-you name cards.  I think all the kids loved them.  I know Ava still carries hers around and explains each picture to everyone. 

 Trevor listening as Megan talks about his card.

 Kelli entertaining Grant so I can be the paparazzi.

 Soon to be big sister, Margaret, listening as she is being talked about.

Yeah!!  We're so excited to start preschool!