Merry Christmas!

Our Polar Express Party was pretty much perfect this year! Thanks to all of you wonderful parents for chipping in with our brunch! You know a party is a success when the kids don't want to leave at the end! I thought it was so sweet that there were a few moans and groans when I said it was time to get their backpacks to go home! We could have partied all day, those preschoolers are DIE HARD Christmas fans!

A special thanks to Karin and Teresa for their help with this party. It was definitely a three-man job! It went so smoothly and we wouldn't even have these cute pictures to look at without Karin's camera-so thanks! I love it when things work out as planned!

Yellow and Blue Make. . .

December is the perfect month to celebrate the color GREEN! I have always debated if I should wait and do green in MARCH for St. Patricks Day, but I have found December is much more fun! So many holiday decorations are GREEN and red would be so lonely without green by her side during the Christmas season. So, GREEN day was celebrated on this day in December and we will save St. Patrick's day for a nice review! We'll see if these cute little preschoolers can remember the two colors they need to make GREEN. It wouldn't hurt to show them this post and see if they can remember.

Cc is for CHRISTMAS!

December is HERE!

So many Dd things, so little time! Oh look!
We also Discovered more things that start with Dd. . .

Drew!

and Dawson!

Dd is also for DECEMBER! This will be the quickest, where did the time go?, blink and you'll miss it, CRAZIEST month YET! Just you wait and see! I already feel like we have so much to do and so little time and adding the computer glitches to the mix has not helped!

So, to make the most of it, even more so than EVER, we will pack in the activities and enjoy every moment! Take a look back at this first week of December! We definitely filled our days with lots of fun and laughter! We took advantage of the nice, mild winter weather and played game after game of

Duck-Duck Goose, and. . .

Hickory Dickory Dock!

What fun we had!

These pictures also remind me of how grateful I am to you wonderful parents who take the time to come to school when you can. I know it is difficult (d is for difficult), but it is WORTH it! You are still your child's first and most important teacher and by simply showing up at school, you are making it clear to your child's bright little mind that school is important and you are there to support him/her! You'd be surprised at how far reaching this one, simple, act can be in your child's education, not just in preschool, but throughout his/her education. So, thanks so much for taking the time to make the most of our preschool days together! I couldn't do it without you!

Catching Up

Good Grief! Talk about being behind! Here is a peek at our Glorious Gg week! It was a quick one. Just one day at school and the other on our grocery store field trip! See if you can GET your preschooler to talk to you a little about what he/she remembers about preschool this week. This Gg collage ought to have a few clues for him/her!

Recent Birthdays!

We have had LOTS of OLDER and WISER preschoolers walking through the preschool doors this past couple of weeks! Happy Birthday to these awesome kids:) Hope you had great birthdays!

Thanksgiving Friendship Feast

We had a great feast! In case you were wondering what your little pilgrim or indian ate at our special meal, here it is:

Ainsley brought Applesauce
Avery brought Apple juice
Brooklyn brought Bread
Camden brought Cheese
Carson brought Cupcakes
Dawson brought Donuts
Drew brought Donuts too!
Ella brought Egg Nog (yum!)
Halle brought Ham
Makenzie brought Mandarin oranges and M&Ms
Megan brought Milk and Marshmallows
Mrs. Peterson brought Popcorn
Ryken brought Ritz crackers
and
Trent brought the TURKEY!

What a feast!
Thanks to everyone for sharing!

Also, Thanks to Carson's mom for setting up the feast for us and basically doing ALL the work! You are great:)

Harmons Field Trip

Well, all I can say is I HOPE that our field trips will get a bit easier! We started off a little crazy but it all worked out in the end! We had PLENTY of parent helpers but the problem was, none of the kids wanted to ride with their own parent! Everyone wanted a first class ride in Mrs. Peterson's van and it was hard to explain to everyone why they could not all be accommodated:)

We made it there safely however and we all had a grand time. I must say, Harmon's is a really great store, but I don't think it is my favorite field trip location. I like a more BEHIND THE SCENES look at the supermarket and Harmon's just didn't quite deliver. I like how other stores have allowed us access to the back room so we can see how the shelves are stocked and how the food gets OFF the delivery truck and INTO the store.

Oh well, I guess. We did not get to see those things, but we DID learn a lot about exotic fruits and vegetables, meat and dairy, and cake decorating. We also talked to many nice and knowledgeable employees and were treated well all the way around! We even got to bring back some yummy cookies to school! I think all the kids would agree that this field trip was a success!

Totally, Terrific Tt Week!

Take a look, Tt means. . . turkeys, toes, Tiger Tim, turtle, train, tree, tire, triangles, tennis, TOGETHER and tent! This week, we were so THANKFUL for the letter Tt! Here are some other fabulous Tt things spotted around preschool:

teeter-totter

taking turns

Treats from Trent!

Fun stuff! However, we didn't just talk LETTERS all week, we also spent a lot of our time discussing the concept of being thankful too. it is funny to listen to the preschoolers try to put their thoughts into words regarding this topic.

We read the book, "Thank You Thanksgiving" and in it, a little girl takes a walk and says, 'thank you' to everything she sees. So many of the preschoolers were confused by this. "Why is she saying thank you to the clouds? They aren't doing anything!" We had a great discussion about how everything in the world is a gift and can make us very happy if we stop to think about them. We talked about how it would be to NOT have clouds (and other things). Hopefully this was a good jump start in the right direction in helping the preschoolers discover their budding feelings of gratitude.

Here are a few pictures of some of the other activities we did this week:

Brown Day Fun!

P is for PRESCHOOL!

For the first week of November, we decided to focus on the letter Pp. I wanted to do more "pumpkin" projects and since Pilgrim and PIE and a whole bunch of other seasonal words begin with Pp, I thought it was PERFECT! I always try to tie in our letter with whatever else we might be talking about. This makes so much sense since the kids are only at preschool two days per week. We need to get the most bang for our buck and kill as many birds with one stone as we can! Make sure you are doing this at home as well. It makes all the difference!

Play-Doh is always a hit. Of course, I grabbed the camera at the tail-end of the activity so I missed out on some of the creations. I am impressed with this group of kiddos! They are not only creative, but GREAT at cleaning up the mess! Makes it easier to haul out the play-doh when I know I don't have to stress about the mess! Great Job preschoolers!

H is for Halloween!

Halloween Week was a blast here at preschool! We talked about all things spooky and ANYTHING that we could think of that began with our letter of the week, Hh! Of all the things that start with Hh though, Halloween might just be everyone's favorite. Here is a collage of all things Letter Hh. Let your child HELP you learn more about it!

Here is another FAVORITE thing at preschool that starts with Hh...

Speaking of Halle, she was one of our Halloween Puppet Theater Greats (a.k.a. one of the few who REALLY got into the performance)! We set up the puppet show outside on Tuesday. Some of those kids could have kept up the performing ALL day! Mostly the stick puppets were found hitting each other and giggling hysterically. We might need to work on that a bit!

We had a great Halloween "party" on Thursday! I put "party" in quotes because I have simplified it so much over the years, that really, it's just a regular preschool day with a few spooky touches! Believe it or not, this is JUST the way the kids prefer it. We keep the same routine and it is all extra special because we are in our costumes and our centers and activities are all Halloween based. Just simple and special. Low on bells and whistles but HIGH on fun and excitement!

For this age group, my main goal of the day is to help the kids overcome their "Halloween" fears and anxieties. Some kids are terrified of masks (even if they can see the person who is underneath) and some kids are afraid of speaking up when it is time to trick-or-treat! It makes sense to talk about these issues at school and try to help these preschoolers become more confident on the this spooky day.

One of our centers is to practice trick-or-treating. Each child takes a turn to go behind a door (and pretend it is their house) with the bag of candy they brought to school. All the other kids line up and take turns knocking on the door and saying, "Trick-or Treat!" It is amazing how hard it is for some kids to be able to do this. After all, we have taught our children to never speak to strangers, let alone ask them for candy! It helps a great deal to practice these skills before heading out on the big night.

We practice saying "Thank You" as well as each child receives their piece of candy. I think it is important for preschoolers to learn good trick-or-treating manners. Included in this discussion, we also talked about how important it is to never tell a person that we don't like a particular candy, we should just simply be happy for whatever our neighbors put into our bags. I talked to them about how they need to go home and go through the candy with their mom and dad. If they see a kind of candy they don't particularly like, they should give it to someone in their family who does like it. Most everyone agreed that this was a good idea!

Hopefully our discussion at school will help everyone have a happy and safe trick-or-treating experience! That is the goal anyway! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pumpkins and a WHOLE Lotta ORANGE!

Okay! If your child doesn't know what the color ORANGE looks like after today, then I don't know WHAT we will do!?! We were SWIMMING in ORANGE today and could not have had MORE FUN! Take a look for yourself!

And since we're on the subject of orange, today was a great day to celebrate our favorite ORANGE, "must-have" Halloween item, the PUMPKIN!

What is the difference between a pumpkin and a jack-o-lantern? Your preschooler knows!

The difference . . .

is in the FACE!

First we picked our pumpkins from the patch and then played a pumpkin game. The game goes like this: We put all the pumpkins in a bunch and made a circle around them. Then we sang this song as we held hands and skipped around them.

Pumpkin, pumpkin in the patch.
Pumpkin, pumpkin on the vine.
There are (seven) round and orange,
I'll take one and it is mine!

As we skipped and sang, I tapped a child on the head to pick their pumpkin (they had to try to remember which one they got from the vine) and they took it out of the center of our circle. We kept singing the song and taking away pumpkins until they were all out. We sang the song SEVEN times until everyone had their turn and they did not get tired of it!

After the game, we did the dramatic transformation of turning pumpkins into happy jack-o-lanterns! I am amazed every year by how this one, simple activity can bring soooo many smiles!

During recess we played another game called, "Pass the Pumpkin"! Oh if only EVERY school day could be this easy and FUN! I just love FALL!

October 20th

The one and only LOWLY picture of the day! We were QUITE busy and I neglected to pick up my camera today. I remembered in time to get this one shot of the kids with their shape bats, which kind of defeats the purpose of taking pictures at school since they brought these bats home to show you anyway! On days like today, when we don't bring too much home, I would like for you to know that we STILL had a full and busy day. We played a lot of REVIEW games (involving all five of the letters and sounds we have learned so far) as well as remembering some of the concepts we have learned recently. Since I didn't get pictures of our actually DOING these activities, I thought I'd take pictures of the activities themselves and post them here for you to talk about with your child. Have him/her sit on your lap and look at the next few photos together and see if he/she will tell you about our fun REVIEW type day!

(To make the image big enough to read, don't forget to double click on it.)

I actually really enjoy these types of review days. We played a lot of games and sang lots of songs. I think the kids are really coming along on these first five letters too! Make sure you talk about M and W and how they can look a lot alike when you turn them upside down. I have been encouraging them to remember their sign language positions for that letter and to remember that the "points" stick up with W and they go down with M. Also remember to point out environmental print that they know; McDonalds for M and Walmart for W!

A Wonderful Week!

We learned all about our world this week AND the letter Ww, of course! Each week it amazes me all the things around the room, or topics that come up in conversation, that relate to our letter of the week. It is so beneficial for your child to hear the reminders from you (and other family members) about letters and sounds. Don't be afraid to POINT out the discoveries as you recognize them. Like today, for instance; Mrs Webb (Audrey's mom) was our Mom helper. How great that her last name began with our letter of the week! We made a big deal about that. As well as anything else we noticed that began with Ww.

Right now, I am trying to teach your child to recognize the sounds at the beginning of words. Take time to REALLY focus on YOUR child's first letter and sound. Make a big deal of things that share the same sound with your child. If we can get your child to master his/her own first letter sound, he/she will naturally have the desire to move on to beginning sounds of other people that are important to him/her. Gradually, he/she will have more and more letters and sounds under his/her belt. Also, have your child look at the pictures on this blog with you to get him/her thinking about the letters we learn each week.

When you make learning the letters meaningful to your child, that is when the magic happens! Always keep letters and sounds in mind when you are interacting with your preschooler. It makes a BIG, BIG difference!

Here's a glimpse at our WEEK with Ww!

Take a look at what ELSE we did this week:

And last, but not least. . .WALL WRITING!!!!

It might look like grafitti, but no worries, it will wash right off with a good spray of the hose! I love letting the kids draw AWAY on that ugly block wall. Nothing cuter than kid writing in pretty colored chalk! I told the kids if they could write their name, I'd take their picture next to it. Here are a few snapshots. I took a few more than these, but the bright sun ruined some of the images. I'll have to try again another day. Hopefully this will motivate some of our less enthusiastic writers to practice writing their names:)

Fire Station Field Trip

Our First Field Trip!

We had a GREAT time at the fire station (and riding the SUN TRAN bus to get there) and learned so much!

Make sure you ask your preschooler to tell you all about fire safety, they are EXPERTS now!

Super Ss Week

This week in preschool we are focusing on quite an important letter, Ss! Sooooo many things begin with this letter. We had such a blast thinking about Ss words and looking for things around the room with that sound. We noticed so many things! Take a moment to look around your own Surroundings! Play I Spy and Simon Says! Don't stop thinking about letters and especially Ss this week!

We are also focusing on SAFETY and SHAPES! Make sure to have discussions about items your child brings home in his/her backpack. Sometimes the time just goes by TOO fast at school. Make the most of what you can do at home! Have fun with learning and sharing everyday.

A is for APPLES and ALLIGATORS!

Hello Everyone! Welcome to the preschool blog! I will try to update with a new post every Wednesday and Friday, to give you and your child something to look at and talk about on the days he/she is not in school. I will try to take pictures of things we did throughout the day and also, little things around the room that I might want your child to remember and talk to you about. Try to check in at least once a week, I think it will be a great learning tool as well as a way for you to see more details of our days at school.

Here is a little peek at Red/Apple Day. I wasn't as diligent with taking pictures because it was sooooo crazy, but I did manage to get this group shot. There were a few children who did not want to cooperate though (hey, it was our recess time, who can blame them?)! So if you don't see your sweet little child in this pic. you'll have to go and ask him/her why?!

We had a PACKED and fun day of learning. Hopefully these pictures will spark a fun conversation with your child! Have fun and see you all soon!

Week 3, Sept 22 and 24

Fun is an understatement for what we experienced this week at preschool! We learned all about our FIVE senses and anything else we could think of that started with Ff! Ask your preschooler if he/she can remember what was in the letter can this week and also if he/she can remember our "Alpha Animal" (Fenton Fox).
Also, we played a fun FRIENDS game that has a little song with it. See if you can get your preschooler to hold up all five fingers and do the song for you, pretending the fingers are his/her FIVE FRIENDS. It goes like this:

Five friends sitting in a bunch,
Mom and Papa called one home for lunch.
'Come on home! Come on home!'
Take one away and now there's
Four friends sitting in a bunch,
Mom and Papa called one home for lunch. . .
(keep going until you get to one friend left, then sing)
One friend, sitting all alone,
So I got up and went home!

Another fun rhyme to remember this week:

"I have senses, count them FIVE
Makes it fun to be ALIVE!"

See if you can get your child to tell you ALL five senses! Have FUN!