Letter Ll, Five Senses and Patterns

So I totally neglected pictures this week. Sorry. 

On Tuesday we did an introduction to the 5 senses. We talked about the body parts that let us see, hear, smell, taste and touch. 

For patterns, we used the dot markers to make color patterns.

On Wednesday with the morning class we did an experiment on smells. I had different things in jars (garlic, vanilla, cinnamon, vinegar, mint, peanut butter) and I covered them and passed the smell around. We talked about how some smells are yummy and some are not!

We also made shape patterns with stamps. 

 Thursday we made lion puppets. Sorry about the quality of that group shot.

 Our fun thing for the day was making muffins! We talked about what ingredients are in the muffins and then we each got a chance to help stir. We talked about the smells and then we ate them for snack. I was a little worried about whether or not they would eat them, but they seemed to love them!

Fairy Tales and Thanksgiving

For our fairy tale week we read several fairy tales. One of the favorites seemed to be Rumpelstiltskin. I really like Paul O. Zelinsky's versions, very traditional (so be a little careful!) and the pictures are so beautiful!

On Thursday we made crowns. I had several styles to choose from, along with markers, glitter glue and stick-on jewels. Very fun to see all the different styles of creating these, from really decorated to super simple. 

We also had a castle to play in. The students really enjoyed playing knights and princesses. 

Thanks for the donations for our Thanksgiving feast! They had lots of yummy food!

 We also made turkey puppets. Simple, but fun.

 Then we made patterns using food. The morning class had 3 foods to choose from--candy corn, marshmallows, and goldfish. They created their own patterns. In the afternoon class I made the pattern and then each student came over and chose what would come next in the pattern.

 Afternoon class with their puppets.

 Afternoon class at their feast!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend off of school!

Occupations- Visitors and field trip

 What a great week! We had lots of fun on Tuesday. A big thanks to Clay and Amanda Mieure for setting up our K9 unit visits, BIA, Roosevelt Police, Jeremy Patton and the Roosevelt Fire Department. Also, thanks to all the parents who came to help with the field trip! You are wonderful!

*There are lots of pictures. To help with uploading and storage, I resize the pictures smaller. Click on the collages to see the pictures bigger, and if you ever want a picture of your child that I've uploaded, let me know and I will email the original to you. Please do not take any pictures from the blog.*

Officer Tabee with the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) came and brought his dog, Agar. Agar is a specially trained German Shepherd that is trained in sniffing out drugs. He is a non-aggressive dog, meaning when he finds the drugs, he stops and points to them, rather than aggressively attacking. Officer Tabee let all the students that wanted to come and pet Agar. He recommends that you always ask before you pet any dog, but especially a police dog. Some aren't as nice as Agar.

After talking with the children for a few minutes, we all went outside. They had hidden two scented training bags in my yard and the students got to see Agar work. It was really cool to see him just sit and stare at the spot once he'd found the scent. We also got to see Agar get his reward--a tennis ball!

 After a little bit of work (Letter Yy) we went to the fire station. A huge thanks to Ryan (don't know the last name!) who came last minute when the first firefighter forgot! The students enjoyed seeing all the fire trucks and equipment.

Firefighter Ryan talked to the students a little about getting out of the house if there is a fire, not playing with matches, and not hiding from firefighters. I highly recommend discussing these items with your child again.

 George and Michael got to get in the firetruck and turn on the horns and the sirens. They were loud! (I have several group shots on the fire truck, if you want one let me know.)

 The PM class got two special visitors--Officer Bird with the Roosevelt Police Department and his dog Buddy, and also Officer Tabee with Agar. Buddy is a newer police dog, and we got to see both of the dogs work.

*Side note: At one point, we had 4 police officers in front of the preschool. We joked about how safe your children all were! I'm sure the people driving past were wondering what I had done wrong to warrant such a police presence!

Then we came in and did our letter Yy paper and snack, and headed to the fire station. This time Greg took us around. The students had lots of "questions" (aka telling him random things) but really enjoyed seeing the trucks. 

Most of the students wanted to try on the fire coat and/or fire hat. Here are a few pictures of some of the students trying on the gear. 

Group picture. It was getting late, so it was a quickie, but here you go! Greg turned on the sirens quickly... and two students cried. Hope we didn't traumatize anyone! :)

On Wednesday, Michael's dad, Jeremy came to talk to the students about being in the Army. He did a tour in, I believe 2004, and is no longer active duty. He showed the students a map and briefly told them about what he did and why. Stuff like this is tricky to explain to 5 year olds--enough detail to help them get it, but not too much detail. Jeremy brought in some of his medals as well. Thanks, Jeremy!

Thursday we made Yellow collages (letter Yy is tricky for crafts!). We only used yellow art supplies for our pictures--paper, paint, markers, stickers, and yarn. It was interesting to see what they came up with. 

We also did a sorting activity. The AM class sorted shapes by size--small, medium, big, and the afternoon class just did small and big. 

Thanks for all the help and support this week! Looking forward to next week!

Letter O and Halloween

Sorry this post is late!

Last week was a fun, but very busy week! We introduced the letter Oo and our theme of Occupations. I read the students a book about Veterinarians and we talked about different jobs and the jobs of their family members.

The afternoon class had their Halloween party on Tuesday afternoon. They made ghosts (I bet some of you parents were wondering what exactly that was they brought home!), helped make and decorate sugar cookies and we did a little Halloween dancing--love the Monster Mash! And a HUGE thank you to all the parents/ grandparents/ family members who came to our Halloween parade. They were so cute!

 Wednesday the afternoon class did their Oo sound pages, we did a little sorting, and then we did our Halloween activities. I got out all the art supplies and they made monster friends in their class. And again, THANK YOU for the support at the Halloween costume parade!

 Thursday I knew all the kids would be tired. We did a sorting activity with toys and then we pulled out the shaving cream. This is usually a favorite activity. We practiced writing different letters and our names in the shaving cream and then they could just play in the shaving cream. It's always interesting to see how long some children want to play. Some play for a minute, some would play all day if they could!

 We also talked about the career of being an author and illustrator. I showed them different books and how in some books, one person wrote the story and was the illustrator, some had different people, and some even used real pictures. We also talked about how stories are sometimes true and sometimes pretend. The students then got to write and draw their own story.