Friday, April 28, 2017

Happy Friday from preschool!  

Jack enjoyed sharing his stamps with friends again today! Using them to create pictures that remind us of the beach...perfect for such a cloudy, rainy day!

Books on CD are still a huge hit! What a great opportunity to listen to a book, while following along with the written text! Also fantastic for self regulation and learning to following directions. Having to wait and listen for the special sound to know when it's time to turn the page is hard work! But, what a fun way to start a life long love of reading! If a friend wants a turn at the listening center, he/she places his/her nametag on the table so we know who is next!

Many friends decided to plan and work together in the block center today! Some chose to create a cake and sandwiches for a birthday party, while other visited the fire/police station to see what was happening there!

The weather outside made for a perfect PJ day, wrapping up our week of the young child! 

Smiles all around for this fun dress up day!

Hmm...what should we do first today since the rain has kept us inside?

In our jammies, so time for a sleepover...on "bunk beds"!

And a little break before we get our bodies moving again!

 To finish up morning meeting a few tiny hippos came to visit us...and they brought their hut (red cup).  We counted the hippos.  We all agreed there were seven.

Then, we closed our eyes!  When we opened them...hmmm...some hippos had hidden in their hut.  Our job was to figure out how many hippos were in the hut.  This was actually a bit tricky for many of us today.  We knew there was only 1 left on the carpet, so how many were hiding to still have 7 dinosaurs?  We tried a few times, with a different number of hippos hiding...still a bit tricky, but we are getting better!. 

We were so excited to hear that Mrs. Dose was our guest reader for today!  She shared with us her favorite book that her mom read to her growing up and a book she enjoys reading to her daughter!

We wrapped up week of the young child with a movie day...complete with popcorn!  We watched Veggie Tales that reminded us the importance of family and responsibility.

We practiced our ball handling skills...throwing, catching, and kicking!

During Jesus Time we remembered how the Holy Spirit came to the disciples with a "Whoosh" of the wind and flames of fire above their heads!  We know that's not how the Holy Spirit came to each of us, but instead we each received the gift of faith and the Holy Spirit's power when baptized.  For those not baptized yet, The Holy Spirit speaks to them through God's Word.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

We sure had fun with our mis-matched, artsy Thursday!

We improved scissor skills again today as we continue cutting straws into tiny pieces!

We LOVE books! What a great opportunity to listen to a book, while following along with the written text! Also fantastic for self regulation and learning to following directions. Having to wait and listen for the special sound to know when it's time to turn the page is hard work! But, what a fun way to start a life long love of reading! If a friend wants a turn at the listening center, he/she places his/her nametag on the table so we know who is next!

 Jack shared some stampers that he brought from home!  We had a great time creating while improving small motor control!

And...we mixed it up today as we celebrated week of the young child...in our MISMATCH clothes!

In one word...BRRRR!  It was chilly outside this morning, so we had to keep our bodies moving to make sure we stayed warm!

 To finish up morning meeting a few tiny hippos came to visit us...and they brought their hut (red cup).  We counted the hippos.  We all agreed there were seven.

Then, we closed our eyes!  When we opened them...hmmm...some hippos had hidden in their hut.  Our job was to figure out how many hippos were in the hut.  This was actually a bit tricky for many of us today.  We knew there were only 2 left on the carpet, so how many were hiding to still have 7 dinosaurs?  We tried a few times, with a different number of hippos hiding...still a bit tricky, but we are getting better!. 

It has been two weeks since we "planted" our bulbs, so today each friend (not here yesterday) took some time observing his/her bulb.  He/she then drew a "week 2" picture of his/her bulb in his/her bulb journal!  We noticed that some bulbs have grown a really long stem, many even have a bunch of stems growing!  All of our bulbs have sprouted and are growing strong roots! It is exciting to see how each one is different, yet the same!

All 5 of our caterpillars have formed a chrysalis (as of yesterday)!  We learned that while in the hard "cocoon" the caterpillar is changing into a butterfly!  So, we took a little time discussing the four stages of a butterfly.  Today we concentrated on stage 3, Pupa!

After some observation, each friend (not here yesterday) drew stage 3 in his/her lifecycle of a butterfly journal.  We are quite excited to see metamorphosis take place from caterpillar to butterfly in our classroom!

Continuing our celebration of the week of the young child, we had a "field trip" from the Magic House! Mr. Mitch presented "Sense-sational" Science.

We learned all about the 5 senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting!

Jonah used his sense of sight to build a tower (very quickly)

Then...he had to try again without the sense of sight!

More friends picked out of a bag to tell us what the next sense would be...

We learned that vibrations make sound!

Vibrations can even turn things like styrofoam bowls and pizza pans into musical instruments!

And...the sense of smell...what do you smell in the balloon???

It was cinnamon!!!

What sense will be next?

We have the sense of touch

Can you figure out what is in the balloon and find it's match...just by touching???

Kyler and Jack can...way to go!

Liam discovered our final sense was taste!!!

During our second outside time...we created a stepping stone that we will use in the garden area of our playground! After Mrs. Dose and Mrs. Mudd mixed up the concrete, we each took a turn pushing in the colored stones and seashells (we had picked out this morning) into the concrete!  We can't wait to see what it looks like once it is dry!!!

After each friend pushed in his/her stones and seashells they got their wiggles out on the playground!

We did a great job following directions...making a beautiful stepping stone!

During Jesus Time today Zippy reminded us that sometimes we get mad or sad. We need to remember to take a deep breath and pray about it.  We all have the Holy Spirit to help us to forgive and show the love of Jesus to the person who made us feel angry or sad!