We had a few minutes in the room after drop off before we headed out to the Superhero Training Camp. So many fun activities awaited us. While the 4's and 5's were graduating, the 3's classes participated in Superhero Day. We headed over to the D-Wing for some exciting play. There were so many activities set up to keep everyone challenged. Our favorite activities were the balloons, leaping over tall buildings in a single bound, and painting spider webs. On our way out of the Superhero Training Camp we stopped for a quick photo of our superheroes in action. After all of that excitement we went back to our room for some sensory play. We used our Kinetic Sand, a few superhero figures and some gems to create a fun play time. We were telling stories about our heroes saving the treasure from the villains. Some of our stories were quite dramatic! We concluded our morning with lunch and Superhero Training Camp graduation. We celebrated with ice pops! A well deserved treat! I can't believe next week is the end! This year has flown by. We have learned so much and grown together. Next Wednesday will be Camping Day. There will be a multitude of activities throughout the morning to end the year in style. Then on Friday, we will end the year with a whole school picnic (weather permitting) in the ravine, just across the parking lot from the playground. Please plan to join us with your favorite lunch and blanket/chair to sit on. Don't forget your camera.
We had a fun morning exploring all of the new superhero centers. There were a few princesses among the crowd as well. We brought out the stepping stones again and the children really enjoyed hopping from one to the other, often barefoot. Another big hit today was the pizza parlor set up in Dramatic Play. During art we used a large box, marbles, and some paint to create Spider Man spiderwebs. Next, we headed over to the D Wing to work off some energy on the Superhero obstacle course. We had fun balancing, racing, tumbling, and throwing some balls around. We will add even more activities on Friday. After all of that physical work we needed a cool down activity. We went back to our classroom and worked with some playdough. We added superhero action figures to the mix as well. Outside on the playground we continued some superhero play. Several children also asked for treasure bags to fill with sticks and acorns. We have gotten to a point in the year where I am able to sit back and watch the children play. Back in September I needed to help children when climbing or encourage them to take safe risks. Not any more! Everyone, physically, is well adjusted to the play structure and no longer need assistance. It is amazing to see how much they have grown and learned this year. Friday will be the 3 year old classes Superhero Celebration Day. We will dress in superhero/princess clothes or t-shirts and spend time at the Superhero Obstacle Course. We will even have a special ice pop treat for all of our superheroes. Looking forward to this exciting day. Our 4's and 5's classes will be graduating as well. So much to celebrate at the end of the year. I still can't wrap my brain around next week being our last week together!
The children enjoyed a morning of ocean themed play as well as preparing the finishing touches on our Mother's Day gifts. Each child made these gifts with love. The boys and girls had so much fun using some new tools to help make their Mother's Day gifts. Although I cut out the vinyl, each child chose their color scheme and transferred the vinyl onto the key chain blank by themselves. They even got to use pliers to squeeze all the pieces together! I was very proud of their efforts and so were they. We also had fun painting seashells on the easel. We also worked on a pretty advanced cutting project to make crabs. The end results were so sweet but there was a lot of cutting and we were so caught up in it I didn't get a single picture! The crabs will be sent home next Wednesday. Please enjoy it when it arrives. The children completed it 100% on their own. This just goes to show exactly how far we have come with our scissor skills this year. We had a few minutes to ourselves on the playground this morning before the Dragonfly class joined us. The Owls were deep in imaginary play. It was awesome to witness. Apparently the mulch was hot lava and the children were trying to stay on the play structure so as not to burn their feet. Every once in a while someone would head down the slide. Everyone else watching was shouting to make sure you have your "lave shoes" on (so they wouldn't get burned). I was truly enjoying the full evolution of play styles the children have gone through this year. Even Ms. Kunkel commented after chapel today just how much this group has grown and matured. So very proud of them! While we were playing everyone posed for a special Mother's Day picture as well. Hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day! Next week will be Superhero week. Feel free to dress up or wear superhero t-shirts both days. If you are not into heroes, princess dresses or t-shirts are fine too. We have only two weeks left. We are going to make them extra special! There were only 6 little Owls today but that didn't stop us from having fun. We walked to class from carline hand in hand ready to explore all of the new centers in the classroom. We were in for a treat this morning with the Tobin Arts Center visit. We met a tap dancer. He showed us his special shoes and the sounds they make. Then we did some tapping, jumping, stomping and clapping together. I will attach some video of the presentation on GroupMe. Back in our room we did some scissor warm ups with some turtle life cycle strips. We discussed the sea turtles life and saw some pictures of a sea turtle rescue my family had helped with while on vacation several years ago. Then we put our scissor skills to the test and cut out a jellyfish (the favorite food of the sea turtles). Then we used some paper strips to add the tentacles. They are so colorful hanging from our ceiling. I am very impressed with how far along everyone is with their scissor skills. Looking back at the blog from the start of the year the children didn't even know how to hold a pair of scissors let alone use them efficiently. Some of the children still wanted to be creative so I dug out these throwback paint with water pages. I use to love them as a kid. So we got busy painting some ocean scenes with water. We made it out to the playground and I asked the children to sit for a photo before they began running around. As you can see by the attempts, all they wanted to do was run! The pictures, although not perfect were too funny not to share. Another day in the life of the Awesome Owls! We are looking forward to Friday and even more ocean fun!
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!
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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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