October - A time for imagination and creativity

  As the weather cooled and fall set in, it was the perfect setting for celebrating Halloween and visiting the local pumpkin patch.  We went to The Farmstead in Meridian near the end of the month.  It was our first field trip and the kids did beautifully.  I'm lucky that so many parents wanted to come along that day too.  See some of the pictures below:

 This is both the morning and afternoon classes combined.

 Just chillin on the hay wagon after picking pumpkins.

 Riding the cow train and playing in the old west town.

 They made it through the straw maze as a team!

In addition to the field trip we were getting ready for Halloween.  We played Dress UP!

And put on puppet shows!

We made some spooky ghosts!

And some spooky treats to eat.  Our spiders were made with Ritz crackers, peanut butter to hold them together, pretzel sticks and jelly beans for eyes.

Our jack-o-lantern masks were made with flour tortillas, butter and cinnamon sugar and then broiled.

Even with all this fun we learned 5 new letters!

E is for Elephant.  

F is for Fall. We painted beautiful fall leaves, jumped in real ones and went on a nature walk to see signs of the season.  We read the book "Harold's Purple Crayon" and talked about imagination.

G is for Ghost and goats.  We read the book "The Three Billy Goats Gruff".  We "discovered" hidden letter G's when we used magic paint to uncover them.

H is for Halloween.  We made our own shape monsters this week, read the book "Quick as a Cricket" by Don and Audrey Wood and learned to sing one of their favorite songs of the year.  The words are "I'm a mean old witch with a hat, and I ride on my broomstick with my cat and my face is wrinkled and my hands are too and you better watch out or I might scare youuuuuuuuuuuuu"

J is for Jack-o-lantern.  We read "The Little Old Lady Who wasn't afraid of anything", "The Dot" (another book about seeing things in a new way) and "Pumpkin Eye".  We had a Halloween party and added some new sight words to our vocabulary.  I try to have the kids see sight words in as many ways as possible.  Here they are "getting the feel" of the word by using play dough to cover a laminated card with some of our sight words.

It was a full month of discovery, learning and fun!

September - A time for new beginnings

Even though it's fall and lots of people think of this time of year as an ending, it's the start of a new preschool year and for my students it's been a time of new skills, new friends, new knowledge and new routines.  Sometimes all those new things can be a little scary so our theme for September has been COURAGE!

  

Making new friends and caterpillars.

Looking for bugs and answers to all our questions.

To support our theme we read books like "First Day Jitters" and "Chrysanthemum".  We went on a "Bear Hunt" and spotted several ferocious ones, but "we weren't afraid".   We learned a new song about being brave.  It's sung to the tune of "Bingo" and the words area:
If you climb a tree even though it's high, 
Then you are being brave.
B-R-A-V-E
B-R-A-V-E
B-R-A-V-E
Then you are being brave.

If you try something new even though it's hard, 
Then you are being brave.
Chorus
Then you are being brave.       
Ask your child to sing it to you.  They like to sing it with gusto!               

                                           Matching written letters to letter magnets.  They stick to the cookie tray!

We have also been working on letter sounds, names and shapes.  So far we've covered:
A is for apple and ants (We read "Apples, Apples, Apples" and "Apples A to Z")
B is for butterfly and brown bears (We read "Brown bear, brown bear" and "Once there was a caterpillar")
C is for caterpillars, corn, carrots (We read "The Very Hungry caterpillar" and "Ten Little Caterpillars")
D is for ducks and dots (We read "Make Way for Ducklings")

We've made art projects for each letter which are being compiled into an alphabet book.  They are so proud of their projects they always want to take them right home, so here's a little sneak peek.

B is for Butterfly!

We are also working on learning the names of our numbers.  This year I'm using a new DVD by Heidi Songs to help them remember numbers 0-10.  The kids love practicing.

We have also been working on practical skills and making an All About Me book which the kids will bring home this week to share with you.

   Looking for those ants we've been reading about!

 Learning to pour a cup of water.

                                                                                      Mastering a computer mouse.

   Getting all the pieces in the right places.

Listening to a story on tape.

 Blowing bubbles of all shapes and sizes.

Success! I put the puzzle together!

Peeling carrots is good for small motor control.....and it's fun!

We've also been learning the pledge of allegiance.  With someone to help I'll bet your little one can do quite a bit of it already. :)  They are all so bright and eager to learn.  The other day one of the little boys said, "Miss Cindy, I love to learn new things.  It makes me happy."  I agree and I'm lucky enough to learn new things along with the kids every day!  What a great beginning.

Using music, movement, play and art we learn phonics, math, literature and good social skills!

Fall classes are filling up!

I only have a few spots left.  Our AM class will meet M,W, F  from 9:15-11:45 am.   Our PM class will meet M,W, F from 12:30-3:00.  If you are interested or have questions, give me a call at  713-8113 or drop me an email at cindyspreschool@gmail.com


Through games, music, art and academics, we prepare children for a bright future!

March 2013 - Joy of Spring, Community workers, St. Patrick's Day and Easter

Wow!  March was a full month!  We continued our study about community workers by focusing on firefighters.  We reviewed the letter "F" for firefighter and did a letter search for the letter "F".  We made a picture of a house with a tissue paper fire and a firefighter beside it.  We practiced stop, drop and roll and crawling around the house on our bellies to escape the smoke if there was a fire.  (If you haven't already, you might want to talk about your family's fire escape plan and practice it.) We read the book "Flat Stanley and the Fire House" and then each child was sent home a few weeks later with their own copy of the book. Then we visited the fire station on McMillan where Chris and others helped to show us around.  They even sent the kids home with their own firefighter hats and badges.

We continued learning about other community workers like farmers, teachers and policeman and we made paper doll of some of these.

Next we transitioned into talking about signs of spring and we prepared for St. Patrick's Day.  Anytime I said "leprechaun" the kids jumped up and did an Irish jig.  They loved catching me saying the word.  We built a leprechaun trap and baited it with Lucky charms cereal, but he was too fast and escaped.  He did leave a note saying he wouldn't give us his gold, but that he might play tricks......which he did.  He turned the water in our toilet green.  The boys said it's because leprechauns "pee" green.  Later when our vanilla milkshakes turned green at snack time, the girls worried aloud if the leprechaun had peed in them.  I assured them that green was a leprechauns favorite color and that was the reason the shakes turned green.  We also made leprechaun book marks and read "St Patrick's Day" and "Jack the Leprechaun".  We baked Irish Soda bread. Everyone helped and it was yummy!

Green Milkshake Mustaches!!

More body memory learning

Some children learn by seeing something.  Some learn better by hearing it.  Most of us learn by a combination of learning styles or modalities.  One often overlooked learning modality is kinesthetic or body movement.  Preschoolers ALL learn better by integrating movement with new ideas.  In early February we practiced writing our letters and numbers in an interesting way.......Watch and enjoy.

Feb. 22 Our Field trip to Rosauers

The end of February we began a unit on Community Workers.  We first learned about grocery clerks and chefs.  We made chef's hats from tissue paper and card stock.  They were so cute.  We learned the song, "911 is who you call, who you call, who you call, 911 is who you call, when you need some help" (London bridges tune).  We then went on a really fun field trip to Rosauer's Grocery Store on Eagle Rd.  Sandy was our guide and she was excellent.