Thursday, November 3, 2016

We had another great day in preschool!!!

Many strengthened the finger, wrist, and hand muscles and used problem solving skills while making faces on pumpkins with playdoh!  (And...we were super excited today, we had brand NEW playdoh that was nice and sticky!!!)

While some showed me what shapes he/she could draw from memory after I said the shape name!

We then finished up morning meeting with Wiggle Worm...he is back!!!  Today he brought with him lower case letters on cookies.  If wiggle worm was picked from the bag...everybody WIGGLE, then stop!  Having to stop is tough, but it helps us learn self regulation!

 If a letter is picked, that friend told everyone the letter name and the letter sound!

 We had an expert baker that was going to be visiting the class today, but unfortunately her mother passed away and she not able to join us today.  So..."Baker" Mudd filled in...

Real bakeries make cupcakes, so we made our very own cupcakes today!

We learned...

We had to follow the directions...

Measuring the correct amounts of water, oil, and eggs is very important if we want our cupcakes to be yummy!

Each friend then stirred the cake batter 3 times!

We all gathered around to see how a hand mixer works...we did a great job with listening, making sure to keep our fingers away from the beaters!

Each friend then filled his/her own cupcake paper...and Mrs. Dose took them down to the kitchen to bake in the oven!

Just about 20 minutes later...

Viola...check out our cupcakes fresh from the oven!

We knew that something was missing...ICING!  But, we decided we better wait until the cupcakes cool so the icing doesn't melt!

So...while our cupcakes cooled...we had small groups (centers)!

With me we practiced connecting numbers to their quantities (early math skill).  At the bottom of each section of an egg carton was a number.  Each child counted out that number of bowtie pasta and placed in that section of the egg carton.  Success for some was being able to complete 1 - 6.  Success for others was being able to complete 1 - 12.

With Mrs. Dose, each child painted a unique piece using fresh corn on the cob as his/her painting tool!

We had a chance for a little "read to self" time.  Even if they are not reading the words, they are understanding that text is meaningful and can be read.

We combined some large motor activity with identifying letters and their sounds (early literacy skill).  As each child stepped over a letter on an ice cream cone (while staying on the balance beam), he/she said the letter name and the sound it makes.

And...time to improve small motor control as we stirred food coloring in white icing!  We wanted to have colorful cupcakes!

And the final step in making the perfect cupcake (and more small motor control fun)...icing our very own cupcake!

They turned out GREAT...and for all their hard work...we had them for desert at lunch!!!

See how much fun we had icing our cupcakes and then getting to eat any extra icing left in his/her cup!

After so much rain last night...we headed to the gym for large motor time today...

We needed to run, and run, and run...

During Jesus Time today we remembered the story of Gideon and his small army winning the battle over the big, mean army.  Gideon knew that God was on his side, that God would save them.  And, He did!  Just like God is always on our side and with us everywhere we go!