Thank you card

We are planning to deliver a thank you card to the Fish Hatchery today. I asked each of the children who were here yesterday to tell me their favorite part of the field trip. Here are their answers:

Ethan: "My favorite part was where I got to see the fish in the bathtub."
Michael: "My favorite part was when I saw the fish factory."
Britton: "My favorite part was when the big fish jumped out."
Kiley: "I love to see the little fish. And I love to see him. The one who showed us the eggs and stuff." (Brad)
Kayson: "Seeing the fish."
Lexi: "My favorite part of the fish was the fish splashing that liked to eat."
Gavin: "My favorite part was the fish that splashed me."
Tyler O: "When I 'feeled' the fish. When Brad caught it and I touched it and it jumped out."
Corban: "When the big fish swam."
Jack: "I liked the big fish. Daddy took me."

Kazia: "Seeing the little fish, little, little, tiny fish. And when the fish splashed."
Kinsey: "Seeing a fish like purple and they splashed my face. And the little fish."
Kobyn: "My favorite part of the field trip was the tiger fish."
Harold: "My favorite part was when I feed the fish and seeing the big fish."
Paige: "The mommy fish."
Ava: "Fish."
Tyler T: "My favorite part was feeding the fish."

Cute! I hope the fish hatchery enjoys the card!

Field Trip to the Fish Hatchery

I was so happy with our field trip to the fish hatchery! The students enjoyed seeing the fish, and I was so appreciative of all the parents that were able to come and help!

I am sorry it was so cold! The wind coming off the ice and the water made it pretty chilly!

First, we went into the outside building and saw the brood stock. The brood stock are the fish they keep to spawn. They are huge!
Brad with the fish hatchery was so great with the kids! He put a big line of food on the cement side of the "pond" and told the kids to come and push it in. The fish went crazy and splashed all over, getting the kids pretty wet! There were lots of giggles. Then he got out one of the fish from the brood stock and let the children all come and touch it if they wanted to. One of the boys was very concerned about that--he knew that it couldn't survive if it wasn't in the water. :)

We walked down through the building and saw the various fish and the sizes. We saw rainbow trout, cutthroat trout and kokanee salmon there. He also mentioned that just in that one area they had over 450,000 fish! Amazing!

When we finished there we went into the building where we saw fish eggs and really small fish in the big "bathtub" type tanks.

It was such a fun trip! A huge thanks to the Whiterocks Fish Hatchery for letting us come! They are available for tours M-F, just call and set up a time if you are interested in learning some more!

Morning class:

Afternoon class:

After the fish started splashing, all the kids ran away, but there was still a little bit of food on the side. Ava, Paige and Kinsey, and then Harold, all were super brave and went over and pushed the rest of it in, even though they got spashed! Also, if you notice the poster, Brad gave us one like that to put up in the preschool. Cool!

Thursday, Feb. 16

Today was kind of a catch-up day. It was scheduled to be a "winter" theme, but with the weird winter we've had, it didn't work out so well!

I also had a few activities I've been trying to get to, so it was a good day to finish everything up.

Remember last week when we learned about letter Tt? We ran out of time before finishing their tigers, so as the children came in, I had them paint black stripes on the paper plate tigers we'd painted last week. At the end of the day, we finished the tigers by gluing eyes and ears onto the tiger, and some of the children chose to draw noses and mouths on the tigers too.

First we learned about letter Vv. We talked about the word Valentine and how to make the sound for Vv. Lots of the students have a difficult time making the sound--they tend to suck their lip in (if that makes sense--it's easier to show) and how if you make the sound correctly it makes your lip "tickle."

We did a number page. Each page was blank and had a number on the side, then I gave the students a sheet of stickers and they had to place that many stickers on their paper. Again, I had one paper that was from 0-6 (numbers we've "focused" on so far) and then one from 0-10 as a challenge.

I did this in small groups, with about 3-4 students rotating in and out, each doing it on their own with my assistance and on their own time frame. As a bonus, taking the stickers off the pages and putting them onto the paper was a good fine motor activity as well.

Valentine's Day

Preschool is such a magical place to be on Valentine's Day! The children were all so excited to pass out their valentines to all their friends.

We started out the day by learning about number 6 and doing our math page. Then we made valentines for our families. It was fun to see all the different things that came out of the one big heart I had traced for the students. They all liked the decorative craft scissors I let them use. (Bonus: they generally aren't sharp enough to cut hair or furniture, so I let my children use these at a younger age.) Some of the students got really into decorating the valentines, complete with extra hearts and words and messages, some just wanted the hearts.

Then we had snack--both Kayson and Kazia's mom had made extra cute snacks! Thanks!



After that we used foam stickers and crayons to decorate craft bags. The students got to choose their bags--there were red, pink, "love" ones, and plain white.

Again, some got really into decorating their bags, and some put one or two stickers on the bag and that was enough! I helped each student, one at a time, come over and place their valentines in their bags. It was so fun! They got so excited to give out their valentines, and even more excited when they would see a friend drop a valentine into their bag! Several of them would run over and look in the bag as soon as someone put a new valentine into their bag. So cute!



I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day celebrating with the ones you love!

Week of February 7--Transportation

The transportation unit seemed to be a big hit! I didn't take any pictures on Tuesday. For our theme activity, we sorted pictures of different vehicles by where they go--land, water, or air. We talked about how boats and submarines both go in the water, but boats go on top of the water, where submarines are very deep down in the water. We also did our number 4 page in our number books, and introduced letter Tt.

I set up a fire truck. The students played "Fireman" together and had fun pretending to drive the fire truck.

A copy of the math worksheet from Thursday. This is one way I differentiate depending on what the student is ready to do. This week's worksheet didn't have numbers to cut, so I gave number stickers (labels cut to size) for the students who aren't quite ready to write in all the numbers. For those that are able, they write in their numbers. It is very important to me that each child is taught at his/her level and what they are capable of doing.

Thursday I tried leave plenty of time for our vehicle making. The students were so creative! When I gathered all the "beautiful junk" at the beginning of the day, I felt like we had so much! But there wasn't much left by the time all the students finished. I loved their creations!

*I am sorry to Gavin and Britton--their pictures didn't turn out. Britton made a "marshmallow with eyes" and Gavin made a submarine.
Kayson-submarine, Michael-submarine, Ethan-"water and more and then some more and then sugar and more sugar and water and then you make something."

Lexi-"submarine with a tiger rolling in it," Kaylee-"a masterpiece," Kiley-a horn

Tyler O-rocket ship, Parker-boat (submarine), Ava-car

Kinsey-trailer truck (semi), Harold- "a truck with 5 flashing lights,", Tycen-"a silly race car"

Kobyn- "a race car with lights on the back and lights on the front," Kazia-rocket ship, Tyler T.- "a creation."

Fairy Tales

What a fun week at preschool! The students LOVED playing in the castle! It was two "towers" with a tunnel connecting them. There were windows and even a drawbridge! (Thanks to my husband for making it!)

Our big project this week was making crowns. There were three different styles to choose from, and the students decorated their crowns with crayons, glitter glue, and fake jewels. Their crowns looked fantastic!

We did several other projects this week. We learned about Letter Qq and Number 4 in addition to reading several fairy tales. We read "Rapunzel" and then did a math activity. I made a "tower" and the students had to cut a piece of Rapunzels' hair (a.k.a. yarn) the right length to reach the ground. Most were really, really long! We also read "Rumplestiltskin" and the morning class heard part of "Hansel and Gretel." I have heard that story a million times, but while reading it to a group of preschoolers, I found myself skipping lots of it. It's scary!

The afternoon class had a fun Show and Tell. Harold (and his parents) brought their English Bulldog, Hank, to show our class. Several of the students are scared of dogs, so those that wanted to came out and pet the dog, and those that were scared watched from the window. Thanks for the fun show and tell!

I am looking forward to next week! Thanks!