Halloween

I'm still learning how to use this new computer and somehow in the transition from PC to Mac I lost all the pictures from Farm Week. I am hoping someday I will find them in some random spot. Thankfully I do have the pictures from Halloween. It was such a fun week. Preschoolers and Halloween is an awesome combination!

Spider ring counting and sorting.

Checking in on our winter squash and flowers we planted during farm week.

Halloween races

Porsche the flying witch.

Making our spider snack. The kids made them all themselves and they all turned out so cute!

Costume craziness

I just love Halloween and all these adorable kids!

Decorating our pumpkins from pumpkin day.

Searching for hidden pumpkins. The kids were very clever in their choice of hiding places for the little bitty pumpkins.

They all tried to guess the circumference and weight of this big pumpkin and compared it to their little pumpkins.

Reaching into the goop.

The scary pumpkin they all wanted to go with their scary Halloween faces and the scary Halloween village they enjoyed watching during lunch.

Trains & Planes

We were flying, we were chugging, we were having a great week at preschool. The children learned a lot about trains and planes- though admittedly they know already knew a lot about the subject.

After the children determined which train seat they got to sit in;by counting the number of trains on their ticket and matching the corresponding number to their seat, they got to put puzzles together. This class LOVES puzzles!
We discovered a frog hopping about our backyard! The children were so excited!! They worked well together to catch him then they decided they should take him to the pond to his mommy.

It was an everything trains day, even at snack time.

Chugg, chugg, choo choo off they go!

Playing the classic "Duck, Duck, Goose".

More snack time fun- this time Gideon graphed his fish by color.

Charlie being a little bit silly while creating his airplane scene.

Ty Crumley is one of our neighbors who is a pro at paper airplane making. He was our special guest that taught the children to make their own airplanes.

He was a great teacher! The children were all able to make their very own airplanes.

They they decided they needed to make an airport for their airplanes.

Letter writing practice. The letter K can be tricky so we used a worksheet to help them get it just right- and they did.

Our Amazing Bodies

Our bodies truly are amazing! I'm always in awe at the creation that is our most valuable possession. We spent our circle time talking about our body parts and what they do and how to keep them healthy and strong. Outdoor time was spent using those body parts in a myriad of ways. We read the hilarious book Parts that made us all so grateful for our skin that keeps all our parts inside of us. We did the hokey pokey and spent some time talking about right and left. We put puzzles together, made shapes and letters with our bodies, wrote in our journals, boogied to some fun preschool tunes, enjoyed igloos and crackers and grapes for snack, and all around had a great time!

Learning to draw our bodies. These were so cute they are hanging in the preschool room for everyone to enjoy. Gideon's has 28 fingers on one hand- what would that be like?
Exploring the internal organs of our bodies. I tried to use anatomically correct terms but sometimes a "tummy" or so slipped in. They loved learning about their hearts pumping blood throughout their body and their lungs filling up with air and the liver cleaning their blood, etc.

Using some wood pieces to create letters. The children figured out they could make the letters without the cards to help them out.

Using strong legs to walk on stilts. They also crossed a pretty high balance beam- and nobody fell off!

Honestly I'm not exactly sure what this is but they were so engaged in creating and working together as a group I didn't want to pester them with questions. They wouldn't have anything to do with taking it apart so the masterpiece still adorns the patio. Perhaps on Tuesday it will become something altogether different.

Yes, toes can paint!

But hands work better.

Making letters with their bodies this is the Letter "A".

Roaring Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs seem to capture the imaginations of preschoolers like few other things can. There is something about learning about large fierce creatures that seems to help them cope with their own feelings of growing up. It made for a great week at preschool with many activities geared toward helping them master new physical feats, learn new cognitive skills and practice emotional strategies.

That is Boston's look when he is proud of himself- he had just found a dinosaur that began with a certain letter.
Parachute time is so much fun and uses lots of energy.

Happy Birthday Gideon! Another fantastic four year old in preschool

Using the rhythm sticks is one way to help the children learn to hear syllables in words (an important pre-reading skills). It also is great for their memory when each of them makes a rhythm up that everyone else has to copy.

I loved how the children kept commenting how much their mothers were going to love their dinosaurs. They seemed to work extra hard to make them as wonderful as can be for you.

Has your dinosaur hatched yet? This was a great messy project that some of them loved (others weren't too keen on it which is just fine).

Working together they got this big dinosaur puzzle all put together by themselves.

Digging for dinosaurs. After the dinosaurs were discovered they needed a bubble bath then the kids decided they needed all the dirt scrubbed off them too. It was a very messy, wet, fun morning.

All time favorite preschool song has to be "We are the Dinosaurs". They marched in so many different ways to this very fun song. I think they like it because they get to ferociously roar at the end of it.

Making our own dino fossil footprints. We made volcano's first and of course, the children were fascinating by each eruption.

Playtime during dinosaur week wouldn't be complete without lots of dinosaur play.

Ending out the week with a dinosaur matching game. In their journals they each made up a story about a dinosaur and then drew a picture- oh how fun it was to hear them tell me about their t-rex adventures.

Your children are the best! I couldn't ask for children more eager to learn who share with their friends and listen so well. Thank you thank you thank for for giving me the opportunity to be a part of their lives.