It's Autumn Time!

It's officially fall!  The subtle changes of seasons that come from living in this part of Texas make teaching about the changing seasons a tad difficult. Nonetheless, the children seemed to enjoy learning about the cooler weather coming, the leaves that change colors and fall to the ground and the busy animals that prepare to migrate or hibernate.  I for one am so very grateful for the cooler weather and the anticipation of what is to come in the coming months (Halloween!  Thanksgiving!  Christmas!)

 Counting leaves to increase number recognition and enhance one-to-one correspondence. 

 Collecting leaves for our fall art project.

 Examining leaves to learn more about the trees that surround us.

 Birthday boy Gideon! He was so excited to have a special snack (pretzel stick light sabers- yes, this boy is into Star Wars) and share his secret in a sack.  Birthdays are the best!!

 Our cooperative art project- beautiful fall banner of leaf rubbings.

 Adding some watercolors to make the banner just perfect.

The leaves are falling down.  Since we really don't have leaves to rake and jump into, we used our fine motor muscles to make our own leaves.  Their excited giggles  during this activity was contagious and the house was quickly filled with the happy sounds of childhood. 

Squirrel tag.

 Camden loved catching all the squirrel tails.

 Kara making a magnificent fall art collage.

 Thomas playing cowboy during playtime.

Butterflies & Bullfrogs

The school namesake, Butterflies & Bullfrogs was our theme this week.  I chose this name for the preschool because of the great changes that children go through during these precious preschool years.  They seem to mirror the metamorphosis that butterflies and frogs go through. It is a great reminder of how we need to treasure the stage our children are in and look forward to great changes ahead.

 Avah taking a quick break from fluttering like a butterfly outside.

 Hunting for butterflies that they hid for each other (plastic ones).

 B is for Balloon!

 We had a lot of fun with the red balloons that Kara brought in her secret sack.

 The children did an excellent job of retelling the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

 Working hard making butterflies.

 Cute Kara during art time.

 Four little caterpillars all wrapped up in their cocoons waiting to emerge as beautiful butterflies.

 They all earned stickers for cleaning up so well at the end of the day.

 We did lots of hopping on frog day.  The children hopped from numbered lily pads then created some of their own to jump from.

 Looking for frogs.  We were not successful.

 A gracious neighbor shared some fish food with us and we got to feed the fish and turtles in the pond.  Here the children are watching the food get gobbled up.

Silly Camden loving his apple snacks.

 Avah taking a turn being teacher and reading the children books.

Thomas sorting shapes and creating new pictures with the shapes.

Kooper getting ready to paint his pond with watercolors.

Welcome to Preschool!

Welcome to Preschool! 

I've been anticipating the first week of school since school ended last May and I wasn't disappointed with how wonderful it was.  I've got a great group of children here at Butterflies & Bullfrogs!  

The purpose of this blog is for you to have a glimpse (albeit small) into the preschool day of your child. I keep the camera handy, but photographing all that happens is just impossible.  I should also note as I do every year, that I'm not a great photographer (yet!) and your children are much cuter than these photos show.

 Welcome Thomas!

 Welcome Gideon!

 Welcome Camden!

 Welcome Kooper!

 Welcome Kara! (I promise she did smile during preschool)

 Welcome Avah!

 The group!

Gideon running so fast during our outdoor time.  The boys all wanted to have an Olympics race.

 Kara working with the others to build a castle.

 Camden getting into his finger painting.

 After I measured the children I cut string according to their height and they had to find things in the room that were the same height. Avah discovered she is actually taller than the kitchen now.

 Thomas working to build magnificent buildings with blocks.

 Camden sorting out all the orange blocks first.

 The children working on creating pictures with various shapes. They wanted to do every picture I have. Guess we'll have to pull this out again soon.

 Avah & Gideon quietly looking at books after snack time (while I wipe off the table).

Camden and his apple picture.

Not pictured is the children taste testing a variety of apples, matching uppercase to lowercase letters from the apple tree, singing lots of songs, reading some great books- including The Kissing Hand  (you must read that to your child before they go off the school), picking numbered apples and jumping that many times, learning our zoo phonics, planting apple seeds from the apples we tasted, learning all about each other and having a very fun week.  Thank you parents for sharing your happy, eager to learn, cooperative children with me.