Hh, Triangle, Houses & Homes

A "triangle" show & tell kicked off our final preschool day. The kids shared a triangle shaped rock and toys with triangle shaped parts, like noses, spikes, & fangs. It's always fun to share!

We had a group discussion about the types of homes people live in. The kids talked about how they each live in a house but all of our houses are different. Some are tall and some are long. When I asked who they live with though, they all said, " My mom!"

Then we talked about where different animals live and played animal charades. Each child picked a picture from the stack (keeping it a secret) and acted it out for the others to guess. Then we put the animal in it's correct home on the poster.

After practicing writing the letter H, we paused to eat a snack: muffins on triangle napkins with Hot cocoa. (Except Ella had hot chocolate. She told us only old men drink cocoa. Cute!)

We learned a big word - prediction. We predicted if some household items would float or sink in a tub of water. There were a few surprises but everyone predicted the pig bath toy would float and they were right.

We finished up by creating a town from blocks. Some built houses and buildings while others built roads.

We packed a lot of fun into one short week!

H is for Halloween!

Zane was eager to have a Halloween party! The kids came in their costumes and there was excitement in the air. They each took a turn to tell about their costumes.

Lily was Little Red Riding Hood with a beautiful cape.

Will was Robin Hood with a real feather in his hat.

Stella was Hermione and even had the scarf too.

Amelia was a princess with a beautiful headband made by her mother.

Ella was a witch, a GOOD witch.

Zane was a vampire but without fangs.

We colored the letter H and then created Haunted Houses with stickers. The kids had fun deciding which scary creatures were going to live in their houses.

The kids built Haunted Houses for their snacks too. Some liked the candy corn and others stuck with the chocolate chips.

Most of them thought it was strange to eat graham crackers with frosting. Am I the only mother who does this? Lily and Zane thought it was delicious.

Our shape is the triangle this week so we played Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin. They all did a good job getting the nose on the pumpkin. Will and Zane got it right in the middle. I think they may have been able to see under the blind fold. Maybe.

We sang a song about Three Little Witches and read a story about pumpkins rolling down the Hill and into the House. None of the kids liked my idea of handing out vegetables for trick-or-treating. They all want CANDY!

Happy Halloween!

Buckin' Buckaroos!

On Wednesday, we wrote with rope (and talked a bit about those crazy silent w's at the beginning of some words- like write). Then we pretended to be rodeo buckaroos and get bucked around in the square bouncy house (minus the stick horse this time!) Everyone was very good at taking turns and often got out early, so that someone else could get in!

R is for Rodeo!

On Monday, we talked about the letter "R" and works that start with R- such as Rodeo. We talked about what a rodeo is, the events in a rodeo, and a bit of the history behind rodeos. Some of the kids knew all about rodeos. Then we went out back and had our own barrel race on a stick horse. A few kids just wanted to ride an imaginary horse instead. It was fun to watch the kids gallop around our "barrels" in lots of creative patterns!






Next we practiced writing the letter "R" and identified objects that start with "R".



After snacks we worked on the shape of the week- square. They could all recognize and identify a square by name, so we talked about what properties a square has and what makes it different from a rectangle. We used different sized craft sticks to experiment making squares and rectangles.

Puppet Show

 

Friday we rounded out the week with review on the letter M and it's intricacies. The kids liked the Spaghetti book so much we read it again and then read the 5 Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree.

The kids put together monkey puppets with paper shapes, glue and Popsicle sticks. They helped decide what to use for the river, the grass, and the tree. We practiced our song a couple times before having snack.

Boy, those brown caramel apples were delish. While we waited for the Mommies to show up the kids played in the front yard. We put on our puppet show before Preschool ended. The kids are all natural actors and actresses. We all hope you enjoyed this Mmmmmm, mmmm good week with the Letter Mm.

Brownity Brown

Wednesday we celebrated the color brown! Did you know that to get brown you mix equal proportions of red, yellow, and blue? We learned about that! Our kids are celebrities when it comes to mixing colors! The kids colored and cut out a book about brown things they colored. We really missed Will on Wednesday.

Our book was the silly read entitled "More Spaghetti, I Say!" The kids loved the idea of making mountains out of spaghetti and eating different sauces like mustard with spaghetti.

We played Monkey See, Monkey Do where the kids imitate each other doing silly actions. Our favorite part of circle time was singing the Itsy Bitsy Monkey:

The itsy bitsy monkey climbed up the coconut tree
(Pretend to be climbing up a tree)
Down came a coconut & hit him on his knee-OWWW
(Make a fist & hit knee)
Out came a lion a shakin his mighty mane---ANNND---
(Frame face with hands to look like a lion & shake head)
The itsy bitsy monkey climbed up the coconut tree.

We ventured outside on a Brown hunt singing:

We're going on a brown hunt, we're going on a brown hunt
What do I see, what do I see?
I see a brown (branch), I see a brown (branch)
That's what I see, that's what I see

Poor Zane almost perished a few steps into our walk from extreme hunger. We made it in time to rescue him with 4 servings of brownies with banana frosting. The kids taped some of the brown treasures to paper.

Mm, Monkeys, & Brown

We had a great week in preschool! Class was held at Amelia's home. We learned about the letter M, what sound it makes, words that start with M, and how to write big and little Mm. The kids did a fun worksheet where they had to draw two pictures of things that start with M. Stella's mom and her new sister stayed to help us out. Monday was a little crazy! Must be those weekend jitters still hanging around.

We read 5 Little Monkeys Play Hide-and-Seek. It is a fun book about 5 silly monkeys who try to get out of bedtime by playing with their babysitter. Then we pulled out the mini-trampoline and acted out the 5 little preschoolers jumping off the bed and onto the floor. That was great fun!

Our craft was glueing marshmellows and macaroni onto a large M. Will's M art was marvelous! The kids enjoyed getting some wiggles out when we marched to music as monkeys, machines, monsters, etc.). Snack was a monkey's favorite snack: Bananas. The kids dipped their bananas in caramel or chocolate sauce.

D...Dinosaur...Purple

Stella had a great time "teaching" her first week of Joy School!  

We were happy to have Lily and Abby with us this week and we were grateful to have 

the help of Rose and Christine!

 MONDAY

Our first circle time was very interesting and involved impromptu songs about the weather (including actions), a re-organization of the days of the week, and discussions about whether it was "Fall" or "Autumn."  I was so impressed with how well the children knew the Pledge of Allegiance, great job parents!

We wanted to make purple play dough, but did not have purple food coloring... a little experimenting led to the discovery that we could make purple (and other colors) by mixing colors we did have.

 

We also wrote letters for our upcoming field trip to the Post Office.  We were so busy that I completely forgot to serve snack, which did not go unnoticed.  I was reminded repeatedly that at preschool, we are supposed to have a snack.

 

 

 

WEDNESDAY

 

The windy walk to the Post Office was well worth braving the chilly air.  We got a behind the scenes look including the large safe where stamps are kept, the backside of the Post Office boxes and the special door that Santa uses when visiting the Post Office.  We got to climb in a mail truck and pretend that we were all pieces of mail by riding up and down on the loading dock lift!

After purchasing postage stamps and placing them on our letters, we stamped the envelopes with the official Post Office stamp and placed them in the large mail bin for sorting and delivery.

 What a great field trip, thanks Sidney Post Office!

 

 We finished the day with purple juice and upper and lower case "D's" made of crackers, bagels and celery (some of which was actually eaten!) and read the book "How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You?"

 

 

FRIDAY

Show and tell included Bryn's purple dinosaur, Amelia's purple unicorn, Zane's morning walk with his dad and the YUMMY caramel that followed, Stella's Tiana doll, Ella's dog, and Lily and Abby's birthday recaps!

 

While drawing our own dinosaur pictures we discussed...
herbivores and carnivores, bipeds and quadrupeds, fossils and extinction, and paleontologists.  

We learned that dinosaurs have different features that make them unique!

 

Dancing to dinosaur songs was not a big hit with everyone
(okay, so Stella was the only one to "walk like a dinosaur"),
but the dinosaur bone cookies, dinosaur fruit snacks and painting dinosaur fossils
sure hit the spot! What a great week!