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. 

Zoo Animals

I was a major slacker with the pictures this week! My camera battery died during preschool, so there is a serious lack of pictures this week!

Tuesday I introduced the idea of animals we might see at the zoo. We started out by talking about the zoo, and who had been there, and naming some of the animals that we might see. I try to mention that the animals don't normally live in the zoo, that they live other places too.

I had a student come up and turn and put on an animal mask. Then I gave clues as to what animal it might be (like it's color, the sound it begins with, etc...) and then they turned around. Then everyone put on a mask and acted like whatever animal mask they had on. (I just noticed that first picture is in their twice. Oops!) There were tigers, monkeys, zebras and elephants. Just for future reference, both sessions LOVE tigers. :)

On Thursday we did our Zebra pudding activity. It's hard to believe that we have now gone through the entire alphabet this year! The students enjoyed helping to make the pudding and then eat it.

I had a few other activities planned, but making their own animal mask took the rest of the time after math! And I completely forgot to take any pictures of their masks! Sorry!

Insects

A few weeks ago we talked about insects. We did some fun things.

One of the main things I tried to help the children understand was that insects were different from spiders. We learned that insects have six legs, and spiders have eight legs.

On Tuesday, we did an insect hunt using our magnifying glasses. I had hidden lots of plastic insects in our classroom, and even a few that weren't insects. Each child got a turn to use the magnifying glass to find an insect and bring it back. We looked at them and talked about how they were similar and different.

On Thursday we made our own insects for our letter I craft using a molding dough, toothpicks, googly eyes, and "wings" from waxed paper. The students were very creative, and lots of their creations showed how much they had learned about insects. Several students' creations had three body segments, antennae and 6 legs. Pretty impressive!

Then for science we learned about the life cycle of a butterfly. We read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and watched a short video (about 2 minutes) that showed a time lapse of a Painted Lady Butterfly's life cycle.

We made coffee filter butterflies for art.

We've enjoyed watching our butterflies changing too. Last night our first butterfly emerged and another came out today. I am sure the students will be very excited to see that on Tuesday!