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.

Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas! These little ones had a great week celebrating Christmas. Here are a few highlights:

• talking about the birth of Jesus and the nativity
• playing "Santa Says" and doing an obstacle course
• counting, sorting and graphing bows
• making special gifts and then wrapping them
• making peppermint bark to give to others (if they didn't tell you- one bag is to share with their families and one bag is for someone special)
• playing jingle bell freeze and dancing with bells
• doing yoga and making letters with our bodies
• exchanging gifts and reminding me that it is more exciting to give than to receive
• and much more!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. We'll start up Preschool on Tuesday, January 11th with winter week-snowmen and of course a snow ball fight!

Cultural Christmas

I LOVE Christmas time and I've been anxious all year to start the preschool festivities. We focused this week on the different ways other cultures celebrate the holidays. The children really liked the idea in Germany of putting the presents on the tree and had a great time marching around the backyard with tree limbs singing "O Christmas Tree". Our Swedish Saint Lucia day began with a candlelight classroom and lots of cozy blankets for story time. It's been fun to teach them that the holidays are more than just about Santa Clause.

The children literally jumped out of their seats with excitement when they saw Porsche walk in with her snack. Snack time couldn't come soon enough!
Cutting food into quarters and halves- fractions that are fun!

Making a "Q". After everyone gets in a circle they stick one leg out to make a Q- then tumble to the ground in giggles.

Whose that hiding behind the tree?

Decorating our Christmas Tree ornaments.

Kyler really liked all the glitter glue.

Boston focusing hard to get the ornaments just right on his tree.

The finished products! Sierra thought we should have a contest and judge them, however we determined they were all unique and all winners!

This new toy doesn't quite go with the Cultural Christmas theme, but due to a delay in shipping it arrived just after builder week and it was too fun to put away. They worked on drilling the bolts into patterns and every one of them did perfect! (This toy was a huge hit so I'm sure you'll see more of it than just during building week)

St. Lucia Day! Boys in Star Hats, Girls in Wreaths (I opted not to light candles on the wreaths!), warm rolls and hot chocolate. We watched a short video of an actual St. Lucia procession so of course we then had to have our own procession around the house.

Dancing time! They actually each did a solo performance for me of a snowflake dance. Next time I'll try to video it so you can see them in action- truly priceless

Jack be nimble...

Jack be quick...

Jack jump over....

the candlestick!