April showered us with fun!

Hi everyone,


In April it rained and rained and rained, but we still had a ton of fun!

We went on our first field trip to Zamzows and saw lots of small animals including bunnies, chicks, ferrets, guinea pigs, bearded dragons and birds. Thanks to all the moms, dads and other family members who came along. The kids really enjoyed combining the AM and PM groups for lunch, art, music and circle time after the fieldtrip.

We completed and sent home our alphabet books. The kids were so excited to show off all their hard work and how much their letter writing has improved. You might notice most of the pages have dates on them. We didn't learn the alphabet in order from beginning to end. We learned in order of frequency that letters appear in words, so the dates allow you to see what their earliest attempts look like in comparison to the most recent.

We learned about birds and went on bird-spotting (quail, ducks, geese, sparrows, robins and starlings) walks with our hand made binoculars. We also learned about many birds (ostrichs, penguins, seagulls, pelicans and owls) that we didn't see on our walks because they live in other parts of the world. We listened to and identified bird calls. We learned about body parts of birds such as beaks, bills, webbed feet, crests, wattles and where their ears are hidden.

We got excited about Easter by dying easter eggs, making edible nests, baking bunny biscuits and going on an Easter Egg hunt. We also read "Peter Rabbit", "The Golden Egg", "The Country Bunny and the Golden Shoes", "Bentley and the Egg" and "The Runaway Bunny".

We practiced our math skills with dot-to-dot pictures, the missing number game, calendar skills, counting our snacks, and a match up the number and object skill page.

We added "The Owl Chant", "Six Little Ducks", "Little Rabbit Foo Foo", "The Bunny Pokey", "In a Cabin in the Wood", "Here comes Peter Cottontail" and "There's a little white duck" to our repetoire of music and movement.

Next week begins the our final month of preschool. The kids are excited about our upcoming fieldtrip. You've probably heard the saying "April showers bring May flowers". Well, in May I don't think flowers will be the only thing blooming as our preschoolers continue to learn and grow!

Talking points February 1st and 3rd

This week we were:

• learning the letter "R" sound so we 1. traced a giant letter R with our fee.t 2. made a page for our alphabet book with a painted rainbow. 3. sang our alphabet sound song. 4. had guessing can items that began with that sound.
  
• learning about the color red so we 1. read "Clifford the Big Red Dog" and made a Clifford puppet. 2. mixed primary colors to make secondary colors in water with food coloring and with paint on our rainbow painting. 3. played I spy something red. 4. categorized the color of our snacks on special place mats before we ate.
  
• learning about our numbers so we 1. painted a large #1 and #2 (pm class) with glue and strawberry jello (color red) 2. played "Which number is the coin hiding under?" 3. counted the days of the month and practiced writing our phone numbers 4. built towers with marble works.
• talking about being a good friend and Valentine's Day so we 1. read "The Day it rained Hearts", "No Kisses", "Humu" and "The Best Worst Friend". 2. sang "Make New Friends". 3. learned how to cut out a heart. 4. had dramatic play time in which the children dressed up as heroes.

See you all next week!
Miss Cindy




Miss Cindy teaches preschool for 3 and 4 year old children in Boise, Eagle and Meridian, ID.

Talking points Jan. 11 & 13, 2011

This week we:
1. were learning the sound of the letter "o" so we
a. made an owl necklace from pasta, straws and cereal with a picture of an owl
b. made an octopus page for our alphabet book. We counted the eight legs.
c. sang "I love O words" and "Today we'll look for O's"

2. were learning about circles and ovals so we
a. made circles and ovals with our bodies
b. looked at objects and predicted which ones would roll (the circles do)
c. sang "Wheels on the Bus" and "Ring around the Rosie"
d. painted a picture of circles (PM class)
e. baked circle cookies
f. sat on an oval during circle time
g. used playdough to make circles and ovals

3. were learning to be responsible people who help others so we
a. read the "Little Red Hen" and acted like the hen by grinding wheat and baking our own bread
b. read "Just a Mess" in which little critter couldn't find his baseball mitt until he cleaned his room.
c. talked about what chores they have at home and school

I also added some new stations where the kids could choose working with clay, measuring volume with rice, matching puzzle pieces that have objects to count with the correct number and magnetic letters to practice making new words.





Miss Cindy teaches art, music and age appropriate activities in Boise, Meridian and Eagle, ID

Happy New Year 2011

It's 2011 and we had a fun, full, first week back to school. We:

1. learned about INSECTS! Ask you child how many legs an insect has and how many body parts.
   
2. learned the letter "g" and made a goat page for our alphabet book
   
3. made grasshoppers (PM class completed them, AM class will finish on Tuesday)
4. sang "The ants go marching", and "The first grasshopper"
5. read "Snow is Falling", "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "The Ant and the Grasshopper"
   
6. talked about the stages of "metamorphosis" of a caterpillar.
7. cocooned ourselves in towels and became butterflies.
8. ate grasshopper legs for snack time on Thursday and "Ants on a Log" on Tuesday.
   
9. practiced measuring volume at our new rice table.
10. used 3" pieces of yarn (the size of most grasshoppers) to compare larger and smaller objects in the classroom.
11. used our new foam letter puzzle to spell words with our feet and find the letters in our names.

See you next week!

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! See you in 2011.

Thank you all for being willing to switch days this last week. Tuesday was a wonderful reunion with almost our entire family at the airport, many hugs and kisses, a big meal together and lots of catching up. I hope your holidays are filled with family, friends, good food, warm fires and maybe some snow. :) We will resume school on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011.

Here's what we did Dec. 15th and 16th. We:

• learned the "p" sound as in panda, pencil, pig, penguin, purple and pink
• made a page for our alphabet book
  
• decorated Christmas cookies (you might not have seen them, because most of the kids ate them immediately)
• completed our salt dough ornaments
• practiced writing our letters in shaving cream (in case you wondered why their hands smelled like men's cologne)
• sang "Ring, ring, ring the bells", "Guess who's beard is long and white", "We wish you a Merry Christmas", "Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer" "Once there was a snowman" and "Jingle bells"
• read "Horton Hears a Who" and "Christmas Mice" to follow our theme of compassion.
  
• completed the count down to Christmas Santa.
• practiced cutting by making strips for a construction paper chain.
• practiced shapes and colors (circle, oval, rectangle, triangle, square, star, heart, red, blue, yellow, green, orange, brown, purple).
• learned how to play dominoes with Toy Story III pictures on them

Miss Cindy teaches 3 and 4 year olds in West Boise, ID.

Alternate schedule for week of December 13-17

Remember we will be holding class on Wednesday (12/15) and Thursday(12/16) this week so our family can welcome home our missionary on Tuesday!

Here's what happened in preschool Dec. 7th and 9th! We:

• learned the letter "B" sound as in bells, babies, balloons and blocks.
• made another page for our alphabet book with paint and glitter.
• made edible Christmas trees from ice cream cones, icing and candies.
• played music with jingle bells and glasses filled with different levels of water.
• made count-down-to-Christmas Santas.
• read "The Night before Christmas", "With Love, at Christmas"(this one made me cry), "The Berenstain Bears learn to share" and "Little Racoon's One Big Question".
• painted our salt dough ornaments (they will come home next week after the clear glossy sealant dries)
• learned and sang "Ring, ring, ring the bells", "Guess Who's beard is Long and white?" and "Once there was a snowman"
• played Christmas bingo

Miss Cindy uses music, movement, stories and art projects to prepare 3 and 4 year olds for kindergarten.

November 16 - December 2

Wow! It has been very busy at our preschool. The week before Thanksgiving we dressed as Indians and Pilgrims and had a Thanksgiving feast. Ask your student about:

• dancing the Turkey Pokey and the Turkey strut
  
• singing "If you're thankful and you know it" and "Gobble, gobble, gobble, said the bird"
  
• chanting "Mr. Turkey big and fat"
• making a grateful turkey whose feathers listed our blessings
• making music with homemade instruments
• dressing up as pilgrims and Indians
• reading "The First Thanksgiving" and "Grover's book of Baby Animals"
  
• playing "Hide turkey hide"
• learning the sound for the letter "M"
  

Then this week Nov. 30 - Dec. 2, we:

• learned the letter "C" sound
• made a caterpillar for our ABC book
• read "The Kissing Hand", "The Cat in the Hat" "The Biggest Best Snowman" and "C is for Clown"
• reviewed the letters we've learned and begin making words like "cat, hat, sat, mat, fat and rat"
• played "Cootie" with a Santa face
• began making a Santa Advent calendar
• sang "Guess who's beard is long and white?" and "Once there was a snowman"
• began making salt dough ornaments which we'll paint this next week.