Rain, Rain Go Away

Wednesday we started off the day with a fun circle time discussion! Our topic was RAIN, another type of weather. I asked the kids to give me some examples of patters, each child gave me funny patterns using colors, food, body parts, clothing, and names. Then we talked about weather patterns. Our favorite pattern is dark clouds, rain, sunshine, rainbow. One book we read had a fun moving thermometer. I asked what kind of clothing they should wear if their mothers said it was 30 degrees outside, many said swimsuits. We learned about the weather temperature starting with freezing to really hot like 100 degrees. It was fun! Phillip tried to read us a book. He did a good job sitting and holding the book.
We practiced writing the letter W/w with fingerpaint on a little table. That was messy and ever so fun! After a while the kids played bloody hands. That was even more exciting. We made fun little weather wheels for the kids to take home. Some of the kids made sun or cloud suncatchers with old CD's and construction paper.

For snack we ate yummy dirt cups with worms. Ewwwww!

W is for Weather; Star Shape

Monday for preschool we had a great time learning about the letter W. We practiced making the W shape with pipe cleaners. W says, wah! Some W words are: water, wave, weird, what, why, and weather. Since our theme is about weather we talked about the weather and what it means. The kids learned about wind and pressure systems that make the air compress and move. We made hypotheses about what wind could or could not move. Then we experimented using straws and various objects. The wind could move a feather, string, cotton balls; it cannot move rocks, toy cars, clothes pins, or buttons. I read a fun book entitled "What Can the Wind Move?" A silly story about a wind that borrowed items from a town and later returned them. Using straws the kids blew paint over some dark blue paper to make a snow storm.

We focused some on the star shape. The kids made a star with their fingers. Each child also laid on the ground and looked up through our fingers to see the shape. We learned how to make star shapes using lines. Our snack included star shaped cheese, meat, and bread.

Our last little project was to make wax paper and crayon stars but that activity flopped big time. The kids had a hard time shaving off the wax crayons with pencil sharpeners. It was a good idea but too time consuming. We are so glad the Lily came to visit us! All the kids really missed Ella too. Stay tuned for the next installment.

Friday Fish Day

Today was all about underwater

During circle time we talked about creatures that live under water - sharks, whales, orcas, lantern fish, octopus, fish, clams, alligators, jellyfish, crabs and a platypus.  

We learned about different underwater habitats including large oceans (which are salty), lakes (which are smaller and not salty - except some lakes like the Great Salt Lake) and rivers and ponds.  

We looked at some different types of seashells and talked about underwater creatures that have homes attached to their bodies - like crabs, clams, and the turtles who live in the city park pond 

(and the turtle Zane saw, who was unfortunately run over by a car).

Let's see your best fish face!

We used our water bottles to make our own tiny oceans.  

It was fun to measure our own sand and pour it into our bottles using a funnel.

We learned that fish living together in a group are called a school, 

and we enjoyed eating a school of fish for snack.

By the end of Joy School, we needed to get out some energy (perhaps due to the Swedish fish and jello?).  So we pretended to be sea creatures, which for some reason involved a lot of screaming :)  

Zane and Will were sharks who chased the others, who were fish 

(except Amelia who was a mermaid in distress)!

The letter 'U'

Today we learned about the letter U.

U sounds like... uh, ooo, and you.

We thought of words that start with U... umberella, ukulele, up, under, underwater and 

umillief (Amelia's contribution - I am not sure if I spelled it correctly!)

And practiced writing big and little letter U's in the air and on our chalkboards.

After learning about ukuleles, we each took turns playing a song on the ukulele 

(while others danced if they wanted to).

I am still trying to get "Get Your Sparkle On" out of my head!

We decorated boxes that we used to make our own ukuleles.

We traced letter U's with underwater creatures (goldfish and whales) and then ate them for snack.

 

We practiced writing letter U's using whatever colors we wanted :)

and played our ukuleles... what a day!

Green Green Green!

Back to Joy School after a long holiday!  

At circle time we all shared what we did (and ate) for Thanksgiving...

rainbow jello was the crowd favorite! 

Everyone identified one green animal and was responsible to take care of that animal during circle time.

We talked about each animal and we all made green animal sounds!

 

We had a green animal parade, led by Bryn and her tiny green frog.

 

We read Green Eggs and Ham... 

 And ate some for snack...

Who likes green eggs and ham?

Who does not?

(Will clarified that he likes green ham, but not green eggs)

We finished by creating some green works of art...

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!