P is for Pirate

So this is a week at preschool where I can truly say preschool is FUN! I think the students would agree! ;)

So my cameras are both not working, so these were taken with my phone, so not great quality, and I apologize!

These uploaded in reverse order... sorry!

On Thursday we made pizzas. The students loved snack. Each child was given their own dough to squish out, I baked them for a few minutes, then they got to put their own toppings on. It was funny to see how many students thought a certain ingredient was "gross"--for some, it was sauce, some didn't want pepperoni, and a few didn't want any cheese!

Enjoying our yummy snack!

 Squishing out our pizza dough!

 We did a gross motor activity where they had to "Walk the Plank." They really got into it!

 The morning class with our Pirate Spy Glasses.

 For math we did a "Pirate Math" activity in small groups. I showed them a number on a flashcard and they had to count out that many pirate coins into their treasure chest. When they got it right I said "Arrrr!" which was apparently the funniest thing ever. :) Love these kiddos.

 PM class enjoying snack!

 Boston making his pizza.

 Riley walking the plank.

Thanks for sharing your cute little ones with me! I love it!

Week 3--Letters

This week we did letter activities and read Chicka, Chicka, Boom Boom! I love that book. Many of the students had read it before and enjoyed it.

Thanks to everyone for your understanding with my sick child this week! We will sort of extend this week into next, and try to get things finished up.

I didn't get pictures of several things. We've been learning/reviewing our shapes. I am also doing color and shape assessments with individual students first thing in the session.

On Tuesday we painted coconut trees. I kept these and we will finish them on Tuesday. I planned on putting these on our bulletin board for this week, but I will just take some pictures of our finished product and send them home. The afternoon class also celebrated Rylund's birthday.

On Wednesday, the morning class did a name activity. They were given a folded piece of paper. They were each given an envelope with letters in it. They had to sort and then glue the letters depending on whether the letters were in their names or not. I tried to carefully select the letters so that it didn't get too confusing. They did great. Some of the students had to put their name in order, not just glue it on the right side.

Also on Wednesday we talked about coconut. We did a coconut tasting activity. I offered each child a piece of dried coconut. We talked about different uses for coconut and then those that wanted to tried it. Many students didn't want to try it, and that was fine.

Both classes also did a classroom writing book. I will take a picture of it when I get it bound next week. It is a spin-off of Chicka, Chicka, Boom Boom where each student has a picture and their name on a page. They thought it was so funny when I would read their pages when they turned them in.

Letter N, Nutrition and Sorting

Here are a few pictures of the students making "Noodle Necklaces" for our craft for letter Nn. So fun!

As with all crafts like this, it is interesting to watch the students as they make things like this. Some students are very particular about how it looks and have a huge plan in their mind about how to make it look just right. Other students are just excited about getting it finished!

We also worked more on sorting. We sorted by shape and by size. The students did really well with this!

Here is a picture I took of our finished "Red, Green" stoplight. We talked about how some foods are really good for you and how they can be eaten a lot--like fruits and vegetables--and we called them green light foods. Then we talked about how other foods are yummy, but we need to just have a little bit and then stop.

Pumpkins, Leaves and Letter L

Sorry about no posting last week! It was one of the busiest weeks I've had in a long time!

This week we learned about letter Ll. We did a sticky note search (I'm addicted to sticky notes) where I write different letters on sticky notes and then we identified the letter and did different things once they found them--for example, if you have a letter P put your sticky note on Ms. Jamie's face. Stuff like that.

We used PlaDough to make the letters L and l and also a few other letters. It was a fun, yet educational activity. It's also good for fine motor skills. On Thursday we made lion puppets.

Have I shared with you why we make an art project for the letter? My philosophy is that the more opportunities for students to make connections to everything we are learning the better the chances that what we are learning will stick. So if I show students what the letter looks like, who has it in their name, how to write it, words that begin with that letter, and then do the art project, all the while emphasizing the letter we are learning, that's just more opportunities to learn the letter.

*Remember you can click on the collages to see them bigger.*

We also did leaf rubbings (Tuesday) and a leaf collage on Thursday. I had made a PowerPoint presentation about leaves with different pictures of leaves that we saw on Tuesday.

And here is the bulletin board we made last week with the pumpkins. The students helped me to cut and tear the pieces of tissue paper and then we glued them on. Also, note that I try to help the students to be successful with the least amount of direct help possible. Meaning, if we are cutting out a pumpkin, and your child will do it himself/herself and can be successful, I don't physically touch the project. Sometimes students are insistent that I help cut, and I do, but I give the child every opportunity to do it first. Several of the students pumpkins were cut out completely on their own. So even though there's lots of white space and some jagged lines, I hope you parents are proud of your student for doing something that was probably a little hard for him/her.

Somehow I missed getting Lilli's name by her pumpkin! Sorry Lilli!

I think I have a few more pictures from last week--probably on my other camera--I will try to get on soon. Thanks for your patience!

First Letter of Name Activity

This is a fun, creative thing I did with the students today. We talk about our names, and the letters, and I give each child a piece of paper with the first letter of their name traced big enough to fill up the paper. Then we get out our box of "beautiful junk" and they decorate away! It's so fun to see it!

(Morning class.)