Can't Wait for Summer Camp!

Splashing to the End

I can't believe the end our preschool year is here! It seems like yesterday these little ones came to my door, eyes wide filled with hesitation and excitement (I think I felt the same way). I've noticed how they now nearly leap out of their cars and run with excitement to come and learn together with their friends. This week we certainly had fun with friends as we had fun activities and returned to some of our old favorites. We finger painted, danced, sang songs, read books, made wavy bottles, ate popcorn and watched some pictures of the early days of preschool (I loved hearing them exclaim, "That's Me!"), splashed, sprayed and squirted water, made bubbles and chased after them, and last but not least got to watch the butterflies.

Squirt Bottles and children = everything is wet!

Washing all the outdoor toys (including themselves!)

Melting ice with warm water and predicting what shapes the ice will take and finding out what happens to ice in the sun. They are great little scientists!

Happy Birthday Boston!

Boston excitedly showing the children some books. He then followed up with reading a story to them- they loved it!

Hatching butterflies!

Bubbles!

Kyler and Sierra enjoying a quiet moment while perusing through animal books.

Watching one of the butterflies emerge from her cocoon. What a fabulous end to the school year. I've watched your little ones change and grow just as these butterflies have. It's been a privilege to teach them and to be a small part of their lives during these formative years.

Creepy Crawlers

Bug, bugs, bugs! Not my favorite things but actually quite fascinating. We learned that insects have six legs (not eight like spiders) and three body parts: head, abdomen and thorax. We learned that ants and bees are hard workers and there can only be one queen bee. We learned that ladybugs don't look at all like adult ladybugs when they are born and they eat a lot of aphids. We learned that most bugs don't want to hurt us, though they do need to protect themselves. We were actually able to spot a few insects in the yard and on the trees with our magnifying glasses.

Inspecting our class visitors- caterpillars! The children have been fascinated watching their growth this week and hopefully soon we'll have real live butterflies at preschool.

Ladybug, Ladybug fly away home. We did a fun ladybug action song a few times during music time.

The children all got to take a turn being the teacher and write down the number of ladybug spots to put on their ladybugs.

Using wax sticks to make letters

or if you are Sierra and do things your own way- make jewelry for all the girls.

Happy Birthday Kyler!

We were all so excited to share in the birthday of Kyler.

For part of his share bag, Kyler told the story of the Lion and the Mouse. The girls were entranced by his great story telling and picture showing.

Thumbprint insects. Sierra made a dragonfly and a loooong snake. Some got ultra creative and used their entire hands to make creatures out of.

We ended the day playing "Tiger tag". The children sure love to run and chase each other.

Under the Sea

I can tell the end of the school year is looming by the tardiness and conciseness of this blog. Thank you for your patience! The children and I loved singing fishy songs over and over, playing ocean with the parachute, going fishing, telling stories to each other, laughing together during share bag (it has turned into a comedy performance: ), and enjoying the gorgeous weather.
The girls playing "working". I asked them all what they wanted to be when they grew up and here's what they said:

Sierra, Avah & Porsche: Ballerinas
Kyler: T-Rex
Gideon: Firefighter
Boston: Big

Doing the crab walk. Get down on the floor with your preschoolers and try this. It's actually harder than it looks but they were all able to do it!

The submarine that took us under the sea for some fishy discoveries.

The children had to put the letters on the fish together to spell word while the word was modeled for them. They all did great. I knew it was a challenge because when they figured it out they jumped up and cheered. I love that preschoolers have so much confidence in themselves.

Avah always finds a book or two to read during playtime.

Glitter, sequins, googly eyes and bright paper made for some beautiful fish.

This was my favorite! A neighbor gave us some food for the fish in the pond. The children were fascinated watching the fish and turtles gobble up the food. I was fascinated watching the pure joy that just couldn't be kept inside as the children watched in awe as the natural world opened up to them. This is what childhood is about!

Fiesta!

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo this week with our own preschool style fiesta. We counted in Spanish while we washed our hands before snack and the children talked "Spanish" to each other during play time. The pinata was also a hit as well as dancing to the mariachi music. We also got to spend some time thinking of our mothers and preparing special gifts for them. Don't worry if you are reading this before Mother's Day-I purposely didn't snap any photos of them hard at work for YOU. They loved the process and I hope you love the end result.

Boston showing off the rocket ship he is creating with various shapes.
Kyler ready with tools in hand to fix the preschool room toys.

Boston hard at work building.

Authentic Mexican Fiesta dress modeled by the lovely Porsche.

Avah twirling so very fast in the skirt. It's big enough that I even got to put it on and dance to the mariachi music with it- very very fun!

I loved watching Kyler take the initiative to put together a game for the other children and then...

lead them in playing it. He is a strong, good leader that the other children follow readily

Sierra loves to be the "teacher" and was going back and forth between Porsche and Avah and helping them read their books.

Matching rhythm beats is harder than you would think for a preschooler as it requires a tremendous amount of focus and brain power. Toward the end we were all able to to a simple rhythm together. Then they worked in teams to make letters with the sticks.

Taking aim at the pinata! All of the children got a turn to whack the pinata three times. During the turn of the last child it broke (couldn't have masterminded it any better) and candy went flying everywhere and kids scooped it up like crazy. The great part was how well they shared the candy to make sure everyone got four pieces.

Journal writing: I love my mommy because...

Avah: She is wonderful!

Gideon: She reads books to me.

Porsche: She is pretty and she helps me when I'm afraid of the dark.

Kyler: She takes me to Tiger movies.

Sierra: She read me lots and lots of books.

Boston: She is kind and give me lots of hugs and kisses.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you amazing mothers!