First Week of Preschool (Sept 10th & 12th)

This was the first week of preschool and the kids were so excited! Our book was The Napping House, by Audrey Wood. Most of the kids were familiar with the book, but that only added to the fun. I asked them to bring an animal or blanket that they sleep with. After reading the book the first time, we acted it out, with one child at a time representing the people or animals in the napping house. There was lots of giggling during this activity. 

 Sorry that my pictures are so blurry. Not sure what was going on. For math, we moved to the table and practiced sequencing/acting it out with paper dolls. I really wanted to reinforce the order, as this is important for both math and reading comprehension.

 The last page of the book has a bright, after-the-rain scene with everyone playing outside and a huge rainbow. We talked about rainbows and learned the color order, then painted them with watercolors. I was so proud of them for working hard to stay in the lines and put the colors in proper order. That takes patience and determination at this age.

I didn't get a picture, but they loved having Allergic Andy come to visit during the phonics lesson. He was a puppet (at turtle who remarkably resembles Crush) who sneezed with a big Aaaaaaacho any time we said the sound of a (as in Andy, apples, aunt, ants, etc.) I can't remember any more because I am writing this over a month later, like a very naughty teacher.

 On Thursday, Logan and Margaret built a Lego tower taller than themselves during free play.

After the book, our activity was rhyming. I rolled a ball to them (we sat in a circle) and said a word and they tried to rhyme it. Most of them had a VERY hard time with this, so we adjusted it. They said a word and rolled ME the ball and I rhymed with their word. A couple of them caught on, but it was really a challenge. We need to do this more, as learning to rhyme is important in their reading and spelling acquisition. They had fun with the activity.

For math, we worked on one-to-one correspondence, sorting, and order using the counting bears. Each child had 6 bears of various colors. We counted them one at a time, sorted them by color, then by size, then lined them up with the red first, blue second, green last (you get the idea).

For our art activity, we did another rainbow, this time with glue and torn paper. No one was bored by repeating the rainbow, and I really wanted to reinforce the colors and the fact that in some art projects we use specific colors in specific places. I thought they were beautiful!

End of the Year Party

 Amazing how fast this year went by.  The kids eating their snacks.

 Water gun coloring.

 Michal was working on the letter 'L' this week, so she had a bag of ladybugs for the kids to play with.

 Letting the ladybugs go in the garden.

 Water balloon toss.  The balloon toss didn't quite work out as planned.  They ended up just throwing the on the ground.

 Ava and Margaret's Lion mask.

 What a fun bunch of kids!!  I couldn't pick just one, so here are a few of their last preschool pictures.

Caps for Sale

5/14/2013

Caps for Sale was a fun book for the kids to read. They all loved it. I love doing the songs 

with the kids they enjoy dancing around and being silly.

The music was Tooty Ta. Of course they loved to put their bottoms up!!

We learned a little about money. They each got a handful of coins and noticed how different 

each one is the color, the size, the faces and building on them. Then we did a cute work sheet 

on counting pennies.

All the kids did a great job with counting!

The craft was to paint and decorate caps. The kids love to paint. I thought they each did a great job keeping the paint on top. They got to add a few puff balls to the side.

Here are the cute busy bees with their caps on!

Random cute girl that joins the group!

Trevor, cute Trevor, would not put his cap on.

The next day we worked on patterns. I first made some patterns with blocks and they told me what came next. Then each kid had a turn to tell there friends what color square came next. 

The kids did great.

Then they got to make there own pattern with the hats. It didn't work like I had planned.

Then of course our monkey craft. The kids loved putting them together and adding their own faces.

The Big Green Pocketbook

 My last week of preschool.  Crazy!!

This week we read The Big Green Pocketbook.  Cute story.  After reading the book, I had some grand ideas, but since my sewing machine was buried in the rubble of our kitchen remodel, those grand ideas didn't happen.  I really wanted to make them each a big green hobo sack (like I did last year), and put all the things from the story in their bags.  Oh well, maybe next year.

 Instead we made Mother's Day presents (which we didn't get to the mom's until after we got back from vacation - they took forever to dry).

 My sister-in-law gave me this awesome clay, and I was saving it for an occasion like this.

 Sorry, Luke's is blurry.  The kids punched it down to their desired shape, and then I helped them make their hand imprints.  They also wrote their own names (minus Margaret, who was off to play by then).

 When preschool is at my house, I don't even bother doing Ava's hair. :)

 Eating my carrots from the garden for snack.

 They had a 'ball' (no pun intended) with this game they made up.

 I can't believe it's been an entire year.  These kids have been so much fun.