We had another fun morning together. Today we learned more about insects, toured the Art Museum, and worked on a very special art project. Our Annual Art Museum was a huge success. The boys and girls loved searching for their masterpieces. All of the artist did great job and we thank our classroom aides and Mrs. Kunkel for helping mount all of the artwork. Back in our room we decided to use traditional watercolor paints to make butterflies. Again this is another multi-step process where the painter needs to wet the brush, touch it to the paint, transfer to the paper and then wash the brush before repeating the pattern. This was tricky for some. We were wetting our brush, touching it to the paint then washing it before applying the paint to the paper. Definitely something we can continue to work on. Regardless the paintings were lovely. Next up, we began working on a special project. The children enjoyed painting these boxes and covering every inch in paint. As the children finished the painting project several wanted to cut. So cut we did! We did manage to make it out to the playground this morning, soupy as it was. Several of the children were on a bug hunt. I have a few bug houses and they were eager to fill them with roly poly bugs. They certainly were a lot of fun to observe. Next week we will be studying Ocean Life. We will have a variety of new centers to explore as well as our final visit from the Tobin Arts Center on Wednesday. I hope you all have a restful weekend and that we be blessed to see the sun at some point.
Everyone had a great morning learning about bugs. We began right way at car line. Everyone was finding roly poly bugs at the entrance while we waited for our friends to arrive. As we made our way into the classroom the children were excited to see a new array of centers. There were puzzles, patterning activities, sorting games and even a breakfast cafe set up in dramatic play. We were fascinated with my bug collection. The specimens are suspended in acrylic so you can see the full insect. We were amazed at the different colors and body shapes of the various insects. During art we worked on our fine motor scissor skills. They have come such a long way this year. We began only able to snip paper and today we were cutting circles. I was amazed at how well everyone did. We turned our colorful circles into a name caterpillar. They are hanging in the classroom now. We are looking forward to Friday. Hopefully the weather will hold out so we can go on a bug hunt outside.
Friday is also our Annual Oak Hills Art Museum. There is a display set up in the wing over the preschool. All parents, siblings, and grandparents are welcome to stop by during the morning, right after drop off, or at pick up to stroll through the museum. Each student artist in the school has a piece of art they completed this year, matted on display. It is quite the impressive collection. During the morning we will make a visit to the museum as a class. You won't want to miss it. Friday is also our last first Friday of the year. Please wear your school t-shirts! See you then! We had a very busy morning. Our day began with a fabulous Fiesta Float Parade around the upper mall. Moms, Dads, Grandparents, and friends gathered to watch the children show off their festive floats. From there we headed down to the Fiesta Room. We made tortillas, participated in a cake walk, made maracas, and had an opportunity to get our face painted. Huge thank you to the parents who helped make this fun time possible. Our next stop was the piñata. What fun! Then before we knew it we headed to music with Ms. Rachel. She brought her guitar in and we all got a chance play it. We finally made it to our room and everyone just wanted to play and explore. Some friends even wanted to paint on the easel. Thanks to our party parents we enjoyed a special Fiesta lunch. Yummy! I hope you all enjoy the Fiesta Holiday on Friday. We will be back at it next week as we explore insects. I'm sure we will catch a roly poly or two to observe.
Thank you to our party parents. Your efforts made it a special day for the children. What an exciting morning. Not only did we have all new centers but the dramatic play was transformed into a lemonade stand which was a huge hit with the class. We also really enjoyed learning how to use a hole puncher. During Music class there was a special guest, one of the preschool parents, who came and shared her harp with the children. To top it all off, we made friends with real, live, earthworms! Mrs Wolfolk shared her harp with the children in Music. Everyone enjoyed the beautiful sounds it made. Back in the room we began to learn about earthworms. First we used plastic worms to drag through some brown paint and make worm paintings. Finally the time had come to meet some real earthworms. Some of the children were a little squeamish at first but that passed quickly. We spent a lot of time discussing how important this little creature is. God made them to be our helpers in the garden. They dig tunnels underground that help air get to the roots of our plants. I will attach a few videos of the children with the worms in the GroupMe. After exploring and observing out worms we released them into the garden so they could help our plants grow strong. We still have some worms left for a little more exploration on Friday. Hopefully anyone that wasn't ready to hold the worm will be ready to give it a go then. We also have a Tobin Arts Center visit on Friday.
Looking ahead to next week we will celebrate Fiesta on Wednesday. We will begin that morning with our Float Parade. Like the Fall costume parade, parents are welcome to join us in the upper mall after drop off as we parade our floats for all to see. Part of our festivities also include Piñata's. If you have any treats, small toys, or stickers that you are able to contribute please bring them in Friday so we can stuff our Piñatas with treats for each classroom. Thank you for your patience in the delay of Friday's post. The children had a great time playing this morning. In Motor Skills they were able to head outside for some fresh air and we even had time to plant our own seeds. At snack time we were able to taste test rainbow carrots! During Motor Skills we had class outside. The boys and girls really enjoyed the parachute. Once we were back inside we worked on a cutting activity and had the opportunity to choose our own type of seed to plant. We took them home and hope they will grow! We finished our morning with some playground time. Looking forward to Wednesday and the Earthworms that will be visiting us! See you then!
We had a wonderful time exploring plants and flowers today. The boys and girls enjoyed the new centers and especially the flower shop. Lots of fun pretend play happening all morning. I have been wanting stepping stones for the class for a long time and finally broke down and bought us a set. They are a fun way to incorporate more gross motor skills and balance activities in the classroom. They were also a huge hit with the children. They discovered them right away and began hopping from one stone to another. Before I knew it they decided that the rug was hot lava and they needed to hop from one stone to the next to avoid "burning" their feet. I also allowed the children to take their shoes and socks off if they wanted. Going barefoot incorporates another level of sensory to the activity. Needless to say, this was the favorite activity of the entire morning. After story time we broke into two groups and worked on a fine motor poking activity. Each child had a picture of a flower, a cork board, and a jumbo push pin. We laid on our stomachs, propped ourselves up on our elbows and used the push pin to poke holes in the flower outline. Not only does this help us from accidentally poking a friend but it helps build upper body strength and hand eye coordination. The class loved it! During art we made unique flowers out of buttons. The are so pretty. We also took a trip over to the preschool garden. This garden was planted by our Monday, Life Skills students. We brought water bottles over to help water the plants. This is also a wonderful way to strengthen our hand muscles. We were delighted to discover that the green bean plant had some beans on it that were ready to pick, so a few of the children got to sample a bean fresh from the garden. We also noticed a green pepper, baby strawberries, and blooms on the squash and cucumber plants. All in all, it was an exciting day with many new experiences. Friday we are planning to decorate some planters, fill them with soil, and plant some seeds to bring home and watch grow. See you then!
We had a great morning. We continued our dinosaur time and even made some tasty Dinosaur Brownies. I think that was the big hit for the day. Today was the last day for Egg Races in Motor Skills. Everyone seems to have good control and balance. You can see in many of the photos the children are walking with one hand behind their back. Once we made it back to the classroom it was time to whip up some brownies. I found this super cute mix at Walmart and couldn't resist. Everyone had a chance to add ingredients and mix up the batter. As the brownies baked we made a fingerprint dinosaur and cut some dinosaur strips. We decided our dinosaur friends needed some fresh air today so we took them out to the playground with us. The dinosaurs loved the slides, climbing the structures, and being buried in the mulch. After lunch we had just enough time to try our Dinosaur Brownies. The kit came with these cute little shovels for digging the bones out. It was a little messy but everyone agreed they tasted great! I hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy watching the Eclipse on Monday. I am praying the weather holds out for this once in a lifetime experience. Next week our room will be transformed into a flower shop and we will be planting some seeds of our choice to take home and care for. Can't wait!
Everyone was happy to be together this morning sharing their Easter escapades. We were eager to explore the new dinosaur centers. Every year this theme is one of the children's favorites. I had also added a sandwich shop to dramatic play and a wooden ball run on the run with a few dinosaurs. These were huge hits with the kids. During music class with Ms. Rachel, the boys and girls learned about woodwind instruments and had the opportunity to play the recorder. I'll send along the video of them playing in the GroupMe. Back in the classroom we read a few dinosaur books and then made some dino stick puppets. We then used them to tell a dinosaur counting story. Next we needed to use our imaginations to become Paleontologists. We learned that a scientist that studies dinosaurs is called a Paleontologist. We also learned that they hunt for dinosaur bones and fossils. We each got a few mini chocolate chip cookies and needed to pretend that the cookie was a rock and the chocolate chips were fossils. We used toothpicks to separate the chips from the cookie, or the bones from the rock. Once we completed the task we were allowed to eat the cookies. So much fun! We finished our morning with some fresh air. It was a beautiful day to run off some energy. We are looking forward to more dino fun on Friday. We will be baking dinosaur brownies with all the bones buried inside. I just know the kids are going to love it! See you then!
This is a quick week! We crammed a lot of fun into our morning. Today we explored new centers, made our own snack, dyed eggs, and had an Easter Party! For snack we made a very special snack. I brought in a bag of carrots and my food processor so we could turn ordinary carrots into "Bunny Money". That's right, the boys and girls learned how to safely peel the carrots. Then we put them in the food processor with a special slicing blade the cut the carrots into coins. We enjoyed our "Bunny Money" with some ranch dip and a side of crackers. Some of the children got a little creative and even made cracker sandwiches with carrot centers, After chapel and music we returned to the room to dye our Easter Eggs and decorate our baskets to bring them home in. Ms. Amanda helped us and the results were so beautiful! Once we cleaned up we had an opportunity to work with some Kinetic sand. We got to bury eggs in the sand and try to hunt for them. We headed to the indoor playground as our party parents set up for lunch. A big shout out to our party moms! Thank you for the delicious lunch, cookies and necklace craft. I hope you all have a blessed Easter weekend. For those traveling, enjoy the time away with family. Looking forward to some Dinosaur fun next week!
Our day began with a quick stop in the D Wing for our individual and class pictures. Everyone was very photogenic. Once we made it to our classroom we were delighted to find a large tree house for our bird friends to play in. We had fun exploring centers too. I also purchased a window bird feeder for the class and filled it with seed. We are eagerly waiting for the birds to discover it so we can have an upclose view of our backyard song birds. During art we listened to a book called, Little Green. It is about a little boy who spots a hummingbird in his yard. While he watches the bird he paints its adventures in the backyard. Once we finished the story each child got a large sheet of paper and used paint sticks to paint a similar scene. We listened to some classical music that reminded us of the erratic flight of a hummingbird. The paintings were masterpieces. Once we cleaned up and found all of the paint stick lids we were ready for an explosive experiment! We blew the heads off chickens!!!! That's right... we filled chicken eggs with a little water and an Alka-Seltzer tablet, snapped the head on and waited for the chicken's head to pop off! Lots of giggles and sooooo much fun! Look carefully and several of the photos to see the chicken head mid-air. After all of that excitement it was time to head outside and run off some energy. Next week we will only have class on Wednesday for our Easter Party. Some classes are headed off campus for their parties but we will have a regular day at school with our party from 11:50-12:30. Lunch will be provided so you will just need to pack a water bottle. See you then!
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Why Blog?Here you will find little snippets of our days together. When my children were in preschool and would come home I would always ask, "So, what did you do today?". All they ever said was, "Played." That didn't tell me much. I hope this blog will be a place to share what we have done and help you ask more directed questions of your child. You will see first hand just what we do after you kiss your little one goodbye in the morning. It will also be a great place to visit and see just how much your child has grown and learned throughout the year. Archives
March 2024
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