Week 6 - Autumn, Acorns, & Yellow Fun

We started off the day reading about autumn leaves. The kids pointed out the colors and we learned about the color YELLOW. We also sang songs about the 5 little acorns that fell off the tree and were eaten by a hungry squirell. The kids all had turns holding up the acorns and the squirrel puppet sticks. We also took turns matching leaves and sorting leaves (laminated matching game). We sang a few more songs before moving to the table for another fun fall activity.

We turned on our attention goggles to listen to Mrs Rognon talk.

And then we matched and sorted colors to play a fall m&m tree leaf game. Kids had to match up the colors (YELLOW) of m&ms with the colors on the paper.

Then Mrs. Call took us out on a leaf hunt. We found all sorts of fun things.

And the kids also wrote about what they were "nuts" about with the fall, telling us what their favorite thing about fall was. I can't remember what they all were off the top of my head, but there were some good ones. 

And of course we had to sneak in some shots of the baby girls. :) Annabelle did not like her mom putting her down.

Week 5 - O is for Octopus

The kids all had a blast at preschool this week. Well, I hope they did anyways! :)

We started off school by holding up the letter "O" cutouts and saying the name of it. We talked about the letter O, and then we quizzed each other on the colors of the letters. Then we held up some stars that were the color YELLOW. The kids were really good about their colors, and Kaylee even stood up to show off her YELLOW shirt.

Then I held up the book with an Octopus on it and asked what it was (Octopus! was the happy reply!) and what does Octopus start with? (They were a little less certain, but were happy to find it was an O!). Then I read the book, and when they saw the Octopus they were supposed to raise their "O" cut outs up.

We then sang the fun Octopus song.

Slippery fish, slippery fish 
swimming in the water 
slippery fish, slippery fish, 
gulp, gulp, GULP! 
Oh, no! It's been eaten by a... 

Octopus, octopus, 
squiggling in the water. 
Octopus, octopus, 
gulp, gulp, GULP! 
Oh, no! It's been eaten by a... 

Tuna fish, tuna fish, 
 flashing in the water. 
Tuna fish, tuna fish, 
gulp, gulp, GULP! 
Oh, no! It's been eaten by a... 

Great white shark, great white shark, 
lurking in the water. 
Great white shark, great white shark, 
gulp, gulp, GULP! 
Oh, no! It's been eaten by a... 

Humongus whale, humongus whale, 
spouting in the water. 
Humongus whale, humongus whale, 
gulp, gulp, BURP! 
EXCUSE ME!

The kids loved the song. Kaylee wanted to sing it over and over and over and over again. Issaac in particular loved the song and enjoyed singing it through out the lesson. In fact, he loved it so much, that whenever Jared or Everett would try to join in he let them know it was his words and his song so they had to stop singing/talking. (ha!)

Then we read some more fun stories, and the kids would point out when they saw an Octopus and when they saw the color YELLOW. The kids also helped me hold up some ABC books, where we learned about Oscar who loved his Octopus.

We also played a few games with the Octopus puzzle cutouts. The kids each chose a color and had to find the match. Then we turned the pieces upside down and played a form of memory, where the kids tried to match up the tops and bottoms via their color.

At this point my baby was done and crying a lot, and RJ was sweet and kept asking to help put her binky back in. Amber was there and was a life saver finding the kids a Wild Kratt's episode about squids, who are very similar to Octopus', so we watched that for a few minutes so I could feed the baby.

Once she was fed, we headed to the kitchen to trace "O's" and color our Octopus. Max spent the lesson downstairs because he was sick this weekend with a cold, but he joined us for snack and coloring portion.

I had a fun idea to glue cheerio's to the picture but it was pretty much a failure. I think I needed glue that either stuck better, or that I could get more out of or something. We also traced the kids hands for another project we'll complete next class.

And of course we ended the day with a yummy snack - of an Octopus out in the Ocean, of course.

And of course, have to show a shot of the babies in the family. ;) One slept the whole time, the other? not so much! ha!

Ice is fun

We had a blast doing experiments with ice. I went to a training recently where we talked about teaching with purpose, and letting youth lead the learning. I wanted to try some youth led science with preschool. I think it was awesome.

Each child had ice. They were able to feel the ice, try stacking it, rubbing it together. Since they are all little and they have oral sensory, they all tasted it as well. I didn't ask them to taste it. It was student led. Then I gave them cold water, and warm water. They felt the two waters with their hands. Then we hypothesized which temperature of water they thought the ice would melt faster in. I can't remember what they thought. The group was divided though, I do remember that.

Then they put some ice in the cold, and some ice in the warm, and watched the ice melt. Some of the darling children were very concerned about their melting ice, and they rescued it.

Then we talked about what happened to the ice. Where did it go? They thought it disappeared, and then they figure it turned into water. If I was smart I would have read them the Shel Silverstein poem about the snowball that wet the bed, but I didn't think of it.

Then we tasted some of the ingredients in ice cream: sugar, vanilla, cocoa, cinnamon, and lime juice. I think that was all. The favorite was the sugar, and the cocoa-which was actually dry hot chocolate. Max really, really liked this activity. He kept wanting more of everything. I was surprised how many of the little munchkins liked the lime juice.

The kiddos also painted with watercolor, and made icecream cones out of paper and snowballs. We had fun with ice.