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.  

And It Comes To an End...

 Happy 5th Birthday Boston!

Thank you all for sharing your wonderful children with me this year.  

Under the Sea

With the rainy weather on Tuesday it almost felt like we were under the sea.  After the rain abated some, we went and splashed in the puddles.  Is there anything more delightful than the pure joy of watching children splash in puddles?  I also got to watch their faces light up as they fished for letters then created words from these letters.  We looked at numerous pictures of fish and sea creatures and spent some time discussing the environments that they thrive in.  Among other books, we read The Rainbow Fish and discussed how we can be happy helping others.  We danced and danced and sang one of their most favorite songs, "Slippery Fish".  What a fantastic week!

Creating their fishy masterpieces.

 Feeding the butterflies that hatched much earlier than I anticipated.  One of these years I'm going to time it just right, so we can release the butterflies on the last day of preschool.  I know the symbolism of that is beyond the children, but for me as their teacher and you as their parents, I know you appreciate the metamorphosis that has occurred this year.

 Love Porsche's big flouncy hat bouncing about while playing hopscotch.

Waiting for the butterflies to emerge from their little homes.

The butterflies flying away amidst loud cheers from the children (thankfully my neighbors are kind).

 Their plants have done wonderful this year.  Hopefully later this summer there will be watermelons and pumpkins growing about. It's been so fun to watch them with pride in their eyes observe the growth of their little plants.

 Happy 5th Birthday Kyler!

 Watch out- vicious sharks on the attack!

Of course, on fish day we just had to feed the fish in the pond.  There were so many that came to gobble up my stale bread.  The turtles even came to join in the feast.   

I'm still not sure how Porsche shoe ended up as fish food but alas it did.  I ended up wading into that yucky water to retrieve it.  Then I lost my shoe in the process.  Lots of laughs at the pond (and lots of soap scrubbing the yuck off my legs).

Creepy Crawlies

I must confess I am not much of an entomologist.  Bugs creep me out, but alas they are such a huge part of our world that we must explore them at preschool.  The children seem to be free from the hesitations I have with holding bugs or having them creep on me.  They were fabulously curious about all the insects around them.  We watched a clip of a video that showed insects very up close and we learned about their body parts and how they are created to trick their predators.  

Counting ladybug spots.  The children actually took turns being the teacher and got to write out the number of the spots to be put on the ladybugs.  They are getting better at writing out their numerals.

Observing the ladybugs in ladybug land.  My biggest fear is the top would pop off and I'd have ladybugs all over, but the children were very careful and just watched in awe as they scurried about.  We also watched caterpillars until they decided to build their cocoons.

They found oh so many insects in they backyard...

 and by the pond.

 Porsche made little name tags for her snack- so cute!

The ants go marching two by two hurrah hurrah!

Kings, Queens, Castles & Thingsm

Looking beyond the fluffy (but very fun) Disney Princess explosion in our world, there are many great learning opportunities associated with Kings and Queens.  We talked quite a bit about brave and kind Knights and Kings and Queens who use their manners.    The children were a bit surprised when I showed them pictures of real life Kings and Queens (Thank you England for keeping your royalty). Such a fun week and a reminder to me that their is royalty within each of these little ones.

 The classic lacing shapes are a classic for a reason.  Working on fine motor skills is preparing them for all that writing that is in their future.

 Before you can become a Knight you must practice saving a damsel in distress.  First you have to ride your horse and use your lance to fight off the bad guys (it was a balloon that Kyler had just popped).

 After crossing the moat and storming the castle you come face to face with the dragon-tossing bean bags at him is the best way to get rid of him.  Then you get to save the princess!  All the Knights did fabulous and saved the princess each time.

 The kids had so much fun with these crackers with letters stamped on each one.  Cheeze-its aren't something I buy normally, but when they encourage early literacy I'm all for it.

 We talked about how shields were important to identify the Knights.  The children thought about what they could put on their family coat of arms.  In the end it was so much fun to just cover them up with paint.

 Our Jousting Tournament

 On Guard...Our Knights and Princess Knights in shining armor.

 The children could absolutely loved this straw builder set.  Seriously, they didn't want to do anything else.  So we built in the morning...

 and kept building...

And built some more.  Even then, it was with great reluctance that they cleaned them up (I promised them we would play with them this Summer)

Avah is such a pretty Princess!