Week One--Welcome to Preschool!

We had a fantastic first week of school! I honestly think this was my smoothest first day of school ever!

*I took a few group shots. I am sorry if your child isn't in the pictures. I try to catch everyone, but I am sure I occasionally miss someone.*

*Click on the collages to view them larger.*

Here are a few pictures of the afternoon class enjoying snack and then playing. What cuties!

 On Tuesday we read the book The Kissing Hand and then made our own hands. I traced their hands and then they decorated them and put a sticker in the middle.

 Here are a few pictures of the morning class. More than half of the students in the morning class are returning students from last year. It's great! It's fun to watch the students making friends. Even though some of them know each other from various activities, they all include each other.

 On Wednesday the Pre-K class did a letter matching activity. I drew a letter out of a stack and we said the name of the letter and sound, and then they used dot markers to mark it on their papers. We used uppercase letters this time. They enjoyed this activity and it worked on several skills. I am sure we'll be doing this several times this year. We also did a writing activity. I am planning to write at least once a week. At this point, the goal is for them to understand they can communicate an idea by drawing something on their papers. Towards the end of the year, I hope that most students would be able to write a few letters to represent their pictures and help tell the story. (Lots more on that later.)

 We worked on cutting in both classes. Students were given a strip of paper, scissors and a small cup and told to cut the strip of paper into small enough pieces to fit in the cut. Great activity. We did this in small groups and I was able to help the students as needed to be successful in cutting. Several students had never used scissors before. We did a more difficult cutting activity as an extension in the morning class. The students cut strips of paper and then rolled and glued them into a flower. I let the students choose whether or not to make the flower with their strips. When asked whether or not he wanted to make the flower, he said, "Well, that looks like a lot of work." Too cute.

 On Thursday we read the story The Rainbow Fish. It's a cute book that talks about friends and sharing. We made rainbow fish using dot markers and tinfoil for the sparkly scales.

 Here is the finished product! Morning class is on top, afternoon on bottom.

Thanks for the great week!

Thank you!

Thank you to all my preschool families for making this such a great year! I am grateful to have met so many wonderful people! Thank you!

Favorites Week

This week was bittersweet. I grow to love these kiddos so much and I hate to see them go, but yet, it's so fun to look back on the growth they've made and the hope that you've set them up for success later in their lives.

On Tuesday Kobyn's mom, Stevey, came to talk to the afternoon class. She was planning to come during the Community Helpers unit, but got really sick and couldn't come. She did a great job.

She told the students Rule Number 1: Only mommies and hairdressers get to hold the scissors. Hope that sticks. :)

Stevey gave each of the children either a quick shine  treatment on their hair or gel on their  hair.  They loved it. She also gave each child a squirt bottle and a brush. So nice.

 The parachute has been a big hit all year. We got it out today in both classes. We painted again today too. At the very end of class we all had a popsicle and played outside. Then we took a class picture.

Morning class:

 Afternoon class:

Butterfly Release

The day finally came to release the butterflies. We loved having them in our classroom! I think a few of them are returning to their release point, because it seems like I have more orange butterflies than usual in my backyard!

Thanks to Kayson's mom, Nicole for the pictures!

Pets and Mother's Day

Sorry I'm late getting this post up!

We had a good week talking about all the different kinds of pets that our families have. I especially appreciated Parker, Alexis, Paige and Corbin's families for bringing in their pets.


We also had fun taking pictures and creating the pictures for our Mother's Day presents. I hope all you moms felt special! I had to laugh about the question about what their mom cooks the best. I seriously think every child said whatever it was their mom had just cooked them. Most of the morning class said "eggs" or other breakfast foods, and the afternoon class had a lot of "mac and cheese" and "hot dogs." I love these cute kids!

I'll just walk you through the pictures...

Alexis brought her puppy and...

a baby lamb! They loved both!

Corbin brought in his two guinea pigs. I was amazed at how happy and calm they were. The afternoon class loved them!

Afternoon class painting pictures for Mother's Day.

Paige's baby kittens. 

Paige is holding one of her kittens. 

Tyler and Ava.

Harold with the kitten. He was so cute--he said, "Take a picture of me, teacher!"

Parker's grandma brought in her dog. 

This is our dog, Chester. John brought him into afternoon class to show his tricks. If you hide food in your hands, he will sniff and then touch the hand with the food. 

The kids loved it, obviously.


Thanks to all those who helped with this week!

Butterflies

We've really been enjoying watching the butterflies this week! We've had 3 butterflies emerge from their chrysalises.

 The afternoon class was curious as to how the butterflies eat. We've been putting cut oranges in the butterfly enclosure for them to eat. I explained that butterflies had a straw-like thing that they use to suck the juice out of the oranges. I cut straws for them and they practiced drinking "like a butterfly."

Plants and Seeds

This week we began reviewing all of our letters. I can't believe the school year is almost over! Crazy!

For science we talked about plants and seeds. On Tuesday, I had a big poster that showed pictures of different plants and had the seed next to it. We talked about how some of the seeds were big and some were small, some were round, some were more pointed. Then we talked about plants and seeds that are foods. I named off some different foods and the students had to tell me if it grows from a seed or if it comes from somewhere else, like an animal or if we make it. It was funny to see some of the reactions to different foods. For example, most students didn't realize lettuce was a plant. (I think it's because most people don't grow lettuce in their gardens around here. They knew the more commonly grown ones, like apples, tomatoes, pumpkins, etc...)

Today we talked about the three things a plant needs to grow (sun, soil, water). Then we planted our own seeds. They are just bean seeds; I wanted something that would sprout and show growth quickly. :)

The students were super excited about their plants. I hope they all grow!

Morning class with their plants. 

Tyler T., Corbin, and Tyler O. planting their seeds.

Afternoon class with their seeds.