Welcome back!!

Welcome back everyone! It was so fun to see your children's smiling faces back in preschool this week! We have also been privileged to begin a new afternoon class and are excited to get to know the new kids! Please be patient with us as we try to figure out how to work out the blog. Since we have essentially the same schedule for each class, we are going to put all the pictures and info on the same blog. And to avoid completely stressing ourselves out, our formatting will be a little different than usual, but hopefully it will still be fun and informative to look at!!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Today we welcomed the morning children with a bean bag toss and the afternoon class with blocks.

After Calendar time and a great discussion about Christmas, we reviewed our three classroom rules. 1) Keep your hands to yourself. 2) Listen and follow directions. 3) Share.

The afternoon class played a getting to know you game. We tossed a ball to each other as we called out names and named things we liked to do.

We introduced our "fun"damentals for January.

Oval

An oval, an oval, it can roll all around (roll arms around and around)

It looks like a circle... (make a circle over head)

That fell on the ground! (drop arms down and sadly look at ground)

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For the number 6 we played follow the leader. Whoever was wearing the #6 necklace got to choose an action we did 6 times.

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We found the colors white and blue around the room.

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And we looked at some ABB patterns.

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Next we read Polar Animals by Wade Cooper. We learned about Polar Bears, Penguins, Seals, Arctic Foxes, Snowy Owls, and Walruses. Test your kids and see if they can name some of them!

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After our book we played "Penguin, Penguin, Polar Bear." (Which you play just like Duck, Duck, Goose) The children had a lot of fun and only wanted to stop when I told them it was snack time!

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After snack, the morning class had time for a math game. I had some pictures of polar animals, they picked one out, counted the animals, and picked the number that matched.

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Everyone was able to pick from the review bags. We reviewed shapes, colors, and letters, then we introduced the letter Ii.

The Letter Ii

to the tune of Frere Jacques

The letter I. The letter I. (make ASL sign for letter, showing one hand then the other)

Has a sound. Has a sound. (bring 1 hand to ear and then the other hand to the other ear)

What sound do you make? What sound do you make? (palms facing up, shrug shoulders)

/i/ /i/ /i/! /i/ /i/ /i/! (Make ASL sign for letter, move hand forward and backward for each sound)

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We sang the song twice so we could say both the short and long i sound. Then we learned how to write the letter Ii and we colored a page for our alphabet books that the children will take home in May.

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After playtime the morning class sat down and read Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak and the afternoon class danced.

phew! I'm dizzy after spinning durning follow the leader!

MeRRy ChRisTmas aNd a HaPPy NEw YeaR!!!

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way!!!!!!!!!! Merry Christmas! WE are so excited about today and all the fun we had. After all the kids talked about what they wanted for Christmas we took our special bells that Miss Laura got from the Polar Express and sang Jingle Bells. Each child had a turn with a bell and we all sang. They are so cute. Taylee, Carson, and Sadie!
Zoe, Corey, and Tyler

Next we read our book, The Sweet Smell of Christmas again and as you can see we really relaxed for story time.

They loved laying on their tummies for the book and what a Kodak moment!!

After reading our story and discussing it again we came to the tables for a little lesson on the birth of our Savior. We read in the Bible, Luke 2: 7-14. Then we had little manger sticker sets to put on our paper. This was to help us remember why we celebrate Christmas.

Jacob and Kayli

After our mangers were done we had a great snack. And then we were off to the neighbors house to sing Christmas carols. Miss Laura and I forgot the camera and we are so sad we didn't get them singing. They all did really good and sang so beautifully, the neighbors loved it!!

After a quick review of our fundamentals we moved onto the the PaARrTy!!
Singing and dancing with our reindeer hats on. Don't they look adorable!!

So here we are getting ready for our gift exchange. Well as many of you know some of your kids may have come home with the same present. This idea was great but maybe too hard for this age group. They don't understand why they are giving their toys away. So next year we may suggest hitting the dollar store before we exchange gifts!!

And here they are, the cutest little reindeers you ever did see!!

On Sarah, on Mary-Kate, on Sadie and Jacob, on Corey, on Taylee, on Tyler and Riah, on Kayli, on Zoe, on Cade, and on Carson, to the top of the roof, now dash away , dash away, dash away all.

P.S. Just make sure you come back January 6, 2009.

Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry CHristmas!!!

Happy New Year!!

Miss Laura and I wanted to thank all of you and your thoughtful gifts. We love having your children in our Pre-School and are so exctied about the New Year!!!

I smell Christmas!!!

Today we were thinking about all the wonderful smells at Christmas. Our LBQ- what is your favorite smell of Christmas? We had a few kids answer candy canes, and hot chocolate. A few also said that they loved the smell of cookies. Boy are we excited about Christmas. After our pledge, weather, and calendar we were able to do our Fingerplay again,


Here is the chimney, (make fist with thumb inside)
Here is the top, (other hand over fist)
Open the lid, (remove hand)
Out Santa will pop! (pop up thumb)

Next we read The Sweet Smell Of Christmas by Patricia M. Scarry. This is one of my favorite Christmas stories and I have such fond memories of reading it as a child. I was excited to share it with the class. We first looked at the pages to see what we could understand from the pictures. Then we told the story from just looking at the pictures. After that we read the book and discussed our favorite parts.

We then finished our Fun Christmas books. We had the wreath to put on the door and also the stocking to color. We read the whole book while pointing to the words on the pages.

After our books were complete we ate our yummy snack.

Then we played I spy and colored our Red or Green picture.

After coloring our sheets we reviewed a star, the number five and the letters C and J.

We introduced the letter Rr.

The Letter Rr to the tune of Frere Jacques
The letter R. The letter R. (make ASL sign for letter, showing one hand then the other)
Has a sound. Has a sound. (bring 1 hand to ear and then the other hand to the other ear)
What sound do you make? What sound do you make? (palms facing up, shrug shoulders)
/r/ /r/ /r/! /r/ /r/ /r/! (Make ASL sign for letter, move hand forward and backward for each sound)

After learning the sound and tracing the letter with our fingers we then colored our Rr sheets that will go into our alphabet books.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008

Of course we started off with our learning box question. What is your favorite: Frosty or Rudolph? We all had a hard time deciding, but I think Rudolph won out! During calendar time, while we talked about the weather, Corey pointed out the sunny sky outside.

Then Miss Amber brought some fun Christmas songs to dance to! First we did a fun Fingerplay.

The Chimney

Here is the chimney, (make fist with thumb inside)

Here is the top, (other hand over fist)

Open the lid, (remove hand)

Out Santa will pop! (pop up thumb)

Then we danced to a version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

We wish you a Merry Christmas,

We wish you a Merry Christmas,

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

1. Let's all do a little clapping,

let's all do a little clapping,

Let's all do a little clapping,

And spread Christmas cheer.

2. (jumping)

3. (twirling)

Next we re-read Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett.

We completed another page in our Christmas books. Today we colored ornaments!

After snack we drew cards from the review bags. We reviewed Jj. The kids gave a thumbs up or thumbs down if the word began with the Jj sound... jump, tree, Santa, jewel, reindeer, jingle.

We played "Is it 5?" After we counted as a class, the children did their own worksheet.

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