Valentine's Fun

Happy Valentine's Day! We sure loved preschool this week. When I talked with them about the holiday and what it was all about I asked each of them to tell me who they loved and they all said they loved each other (don't worry later they all told me how much they loved their mommy's, daddy's and brother's).

Kyler can't get enough of the building tools. He is very safety conscious and wears his goggles faithfully.
Avah baking cookies for us all.

They all decided they wanted a new story spot- nice & cozy. Their attention span continues to grow as we read around three books now during story time.

Sorting hearts.

Finding hearts in the sensory bin.

Counting out hearts.

Hmmm... not quite sure what they were playing but it made me laugh to see them so earnest in their play.

Happy, Happy Birthday Porsche! Thank you for sharing your delicious red velvet birthday cake with us.

Of course we had to dance to the song, "Happy Birthday Princess". This girl didn't want to stop dancing!

The very fun valentine exchange.

Learning to say "I love you" in sign language.

Finishing up the week with a few more heart themed math activities.

Lots of love this week at preschool.

Kings, Queens, Castles & Things

My parents were visiting from Nevada for a few days so I took a small break from blogging so I could spend time with them. They just left this morning so we are back to our normal routine, though I sure liked the routine of my mom doing the dinner dishes! Anyway, we had a wonderful week of Castles, Knights and Princesses. We had a fun Knights-in-Training obstacle course, tossed red hot dragon beanbags to each other, learned a bit about medieval times, decorated crowns and shields, practiced writing our names in our journals, held a jousting tournament, and we even baked some cookies (it had nothing to do with our theme, but it was just kind of a cookie day).

Avah shared some princess playdoh with preschool and the children sure loved it! We will certainly be bringing it out again soon. Thank you Avah!
Boston and Kyler got very serious about protecting the King in the castle with the Knights.

Gideon doesn't just build with the blocks, he has to organize and count them first.

Avah so focused on painting her shield.

Gideon at the jousting tournament. There wasn't a clear winner, however all the children enjoyed the chance to play.

Tea Party girl version: fancy clothes, cookies, "tea" and the best manners.

The boys version: The poles and the toys beneath it were a fire that fueled the train that Boston and Kyler shared driving with the computer keyboard and telephone.

It's really hard to get shots of them dancing because they are so fast, especially when they had scarves they twirling and whirling.

The bravest knights and prettiest princesses.

Wild Animal Adventures

I heard a lot of roaring, hissing, braying and howling at preschool this week. The children played a spirited game of Animal Memory giving a loud "hip, hip, hooray" when a match was found, kept us guessing during animal charades, listened to zebra and hippo tell stores (puppet show) and then made their own puppets and even took a journey to Africa in the safari bus. Their exuberance for all things animals was apparent as they delved into a lot animal play during free play.

Searching for animals near the pond. Sometimes I forget how literal children are and talked about hippos drinking at watering holes like this. Avah then went on a serious hippo hunt and kept asking where they were. I'm afraid she was quite disappointed on the realization that there are no hippos in my backyard.

Searching for animals on the safari.

Working together to plan a fantastic block zoo.

Getting the tools ready to build the zoo.

Lining up some animals for a walk.

Watching the fascinating builders next door. They watched a forklift deliver pallets of bricks and watched the bathtub man deliver his goods. It gave me an opportunity to talk more about the process of home building with them.

Resting in between dancing songs. At the end of each song I encourage them to lay down till the next song starts-gives them a chance to catch their breath after all those crazy moves.

Slithering snakes.

Counting out bananas to feed the monkeys.

Sierra got the camera and took this pictures (one of many surprises I found on my camera). Sometimes I have the children practice writing their numerals on top of mine with different colored chalk. This is a great activity to help reinforce writing their names. Try it with crayons, markers, chalk or even paint- so fun!

Mother Goose on the Loose

We spent a lot of time reading, reciting and acting out nursery rhymes this week. Nursery Rhymes are chock full of great brain development activities so while we had a fun time, we were learning too (always my objective). Hopefully your child will be able to recite one or two for you.

Welcome Avah! We all had so much fun getting to know her. She fit in so well with the other children and acted as if she were amongst her best friends. We are excited to have her join us.

Astronaut Boston getting ready to blast-off.

The "Ship"- a spaceship and a boat and....

Captain Porsche giving out instructions.

The class showing Avah how to do Allie Alligator- she caught on quick.

Porsche brought two books in the share bag that she read to the class. She even let them take turns turning the pages. What a priceless moment watching her read to her friends.

I got to read to the kids in the story cottage. Of course, we had to do some dramatic play after stories were over.

Coloring our Humpty Dumpty eggs before we had them fall. The kids were fascinated watching them fall to pieces. Then we got to sample some extra hard-boiled eggs. Most of them loved to eat "Humpty Dumpty" eggs.

For their last activity of the day they sat and softly sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star while they made their star pictures. (I'm serious- they really did sing softly and sweetly)

Day two of the ship adventures. This time Gideon took to the helm with Boston as his first commander and various children taking turns.

What do you see?

Checking the progress of their journey by looking through their journals.

Creating with play-doh.

Gideon's birthday cake masterpiece.

Running races and

playing ball ended our fabulous preschool week.

Brrrr....It's Cold!

It was a frosty week at Preschool this week. The weather cooperated and was indeed cold, though it could have really cooperated and snowed- wouldn't that have been fun. Instead we used our imaginations a lot and created our own snow fun.

It took a lot of concentration to move "snow" balls into cups. They deserved the pride they showed when they filled them up. Sierra smiled and giggled the entire time she played in the "snow".

Actually they all enjoyed this activity and turned the table into a very wintry scene. They quickly realized how much fun it is to practice writing letters in the shaving cream.

After working together and cooperating well together they built their "cave". Finding a spot for all the bears in the cave was a bit tricky, but they managed to all hibernate. I heard lots of snoring in their cave.

Porsche practicing her snoring and then roaring (only when springtime was declared).

The first day back these children just wanted to play together. When each child would arrive they jumped up and down with excitement. The friendships they are developing with one another are priceless.

Our "snow ball" fight.

Porsche taking aim. Since I was the target of most of the snowballs I was grateful they weren't real!

Putting all those snowballs to work building a snowman. The children built this entirely themselves. They decided they needed rocks for eyes, gravel for the mouth (we couldn't find any but they did find a twig in a mouth shape) a carrot nose and of course all the accessories.

Creating snowmen to show Mom & Dad.

It's so nice to be back in preschool. We sure missed all of you and are looking forward to many more fun weeks to come.