We had a wonderful celebration this morning. The children enjoyed some new games, an Italian restaurant in dramatic play, and painting Easter Eggs at the easel. Out on the playground we began to notice signs of spring. There are flowers blooming on a few of our trees, fresh leaves are growing on vines, and we were able to spot life where we never would have imagined. One of the children noticed something moving in the mulch under the playscape. We all gathered to see what was so interesting. To our surprise there was a BIG caterpillar type insect wiggling around in the mulch and leaves. We took note of his top coloration and how he camouflaged with his surroundings well. Then to our surprise he flipped over and we were surprised by a colorful pink and purple underside. Watching this creature was captivating. God never ceases to amaze us if we slow down and take notice. We also had a blast at our class Easter party. We enjoyed some fun treats, decorated our own cupcakes, and participated in an exciting egg hunt! Thank you to all those who sent in eggs for our hunt and of course to our host for a delicious lunch. It was a great end to a fun filled day. I am sending my love to all of your families as we enter into the Easter season. My God Bless you all! Happy Easter!
We began our morning with a really special snack. Since we have been exploring rocks this week we thought it would be fun to eat rocks as part of our snack. We read a story about all the different types of rocks that are on the Earth. We learned that there is one special rock that people can eat. In fact, we eat it every day! Salt is a naturally occurring mineral that we can eat. So for snack this morning we enjoyed some pretzels that had salt on them! We had a wonderful time on the playground enjoying the comfortable morning. Back inside we completed our homemade geodes. The children again explored a giant geode in class and chose the color they wanted for inside their own creation. Once they are dry we will send them home. We also revisited the rock collections that I brought in to share. The children loved all the colors and beautiful crystals. Some even decided to water color paint some gems of their own. The rest of our morning was spent in free play as the children decided what they were interested in doing. The dramatic play area was bustling with activity. We are all looking forward to our Easter celebration next Wednesday. Please remember to pack a set of 8 filled eggs for our egg hunt. You can send them in with your child in the morning. Lunch will be provided next week so just pack a drink. Have a great weekend.
Our morning began with pictures and snack followed by music. The children really enjoyed dancing with scarves to some spring time music. When we returned to the classroom we worked on a special get well soon poster for one of our friends. We miss him and hope he is getting stronger every day! This week dramatic play was focused on healthy eating. We have a salad bar set up and the children really enjoyed mixing and sharing salads together. During story time I was able to share part of my rock collection with the children. They were amazed at the beauty God can hide in something like a rock. We explored geodes, crystals, minerals, fossils, and average everyday rocks. The children were fascinated at how many different types of rocks can be found and how many colors they can be. We discussed their textures, some were smooth while others were rough. Some rocks were shiny and others were dull. They all said the most unusual one we explored today was a piece of sulfur. They were surprised that is was bright yellow and smelled like rotten eggs! During art we began a two day project. We are making our own replica geodes. The children painted the exterior of their geode today and will finish the sparking gemlike finish on the inside on Friday. It was a wonderful morning full of curiosity. I look forward to Friday!
What a perfect day for a bike ride and a picnic lunch! Thank you all who came to cheer your riders on and bring their gear. It was nice to have a half hour to visit with one another and watch the children enjoy the outdoors. Our morning began with a sweet themed snack. Little cars made of grapes and apples. They were a big hit with the children. We read stories, painted on the easel, and enjoyed more time in the auto repair shop. I cannot tell you how many times someone asked if it was bike time! To say the children were excited to head out and enjoy a ride together was an understatement. It was most anticipated! Thank you all again for helping make today so special for the children. I'm looking forward to next week as we learn about rocks, paint rocks, and explore fossils.
I hope you all had a wonderful Spring Break! It was so good to see the children again today. I think they were pretty excited to see each other as well. We hit the ground running with an exciting dramatic play set up and many new offerings to try. With a wide variety of tools in hand the boys and girls got right to work fixing our car. With only one car, we had to work on sharing and taking turns sitting in the drivers seat. There was some pretty impressive team work going on. We also enjoyed some special transportation stories throughout the day as well as several lacing opportunities. One of our favorites were lacing keys onto a key ring. Then of course we needed see which door the keys opened. While we traveled around school today to the playground and music class, we played a little game of Red Light, Green Light. We would stop and freeze for a red light and walk together for a green light. This was the inspiration for our art project. We had our choice to rip the colored paper or cut it with scissors (both excellent fine motor activities). Then we sorted our paper and glued them into circles to make a traffic signal. We finished the day with some play dough time and visits to other activities set up this week. The weather is supposed to be beautiful on Friday for our Wheels Day Celebration! We will meet parents at the bottom of the stairs where we come in to bike around the area for a bit and share a picnic lunch. Please remember to bring protective helmets and bikes (or some type of riding toy) when you come join us for lunch. The children are really excited to ride together.
We continued to enjoy learning about dinosaurs this morning. The children requested that we bring the dinosaurs back to the playground. It was a beautiful day. Ms. Amy asked that I share a few pictures of the kiddos enjoying Motor Skills out in the ravine. Back in side we painted old school style. I found these "Paint with Water" books at the Dollar Tree and could not resist! The children loved them. They were one of my favorites as a little girl too. Along with our dino play, we also enjoyed a Sub Shop, several dino themed fine motor, math and literacy offerings as well as a sweet nesting doll that one of our classmates brought to share. It was a big hit! I hope you all have a wonderful week off. The weather should be much better than our last week off! Stay safe and I look forward to our next study of Transportation.
This may very well have been one of the most exciting and engaging days we have had all year. The Owl Class loves dinosaurs! From the moment we entered the room this morning I knew the children were going to really enjoy this topic of study. Knowing that dinosaurs can lead to some more aggressive play, we began our morning with a discussion about the dinosaurs in the classroom. Ms. Kristen's dinosaurs are all kind dinosaurs and they all follow the school rules. We were all friends and there was no need to "roar at" or "attack" any other dinosaurs or friends. This set the foundation for a day of fun! Since it was such a beautiful day and we were enjoying the dinosaurs so much I told the children they could each choose a dinosaur to bring to the playground. Wow! That suggestion was a hit! We had so much fun with our dinosaurs. Some were taken for a spin down the slide. Others played peek a boo in the tunnel. Dinosaurs were traced with chalk, and played in the rocks. We didn't want to come in when our time was up! Back inside there was a new addition to our room. My kids have outgrown our tree house so I brought it in for the class. It as a hit. They loved playing with the pulleys, trying to lift their dinosaurs. There was a lot of exploring as well as imaginative play going on! This will remain in the class and we will just change out the items we use to play with it. One of the things I love most about dinosaur week is that we discuss some pretty rich vocabulary and no one is afraid of it. In fact, the children can't get enough of it. They want to know the name of every dinosaur! Today our experiment helped us discuss extinction, fossils, and paleontologists. Tootsie brought us a bag of cookies. She asked us to pretend that we were paleontologist digging for dinosaur fossils. Our cookie represented the rock, fossils are found in, and the chocolate chips were the dinosaur fossils or bones. We used toothpicks as our science tool to help us chip away at the "rock" to free the fossils. The best part of this experiment was that after we had freed at least five fossils we were allowed to eat the cookie! I was impressed at how seriously the children took this challenge and really worked hard to free the fossils! For art today we all enjoyed painting on the easel again. As you can see it was a jam packed day! We had a blast and can't wait for round two on Friday!
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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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