Monday, September 30, 2013

Apple Fun with our 2s!

Being the snack helper is HARD work!  
You have to bring the snack, feed the fish, hold the flag, and lead the line!

This week we worked with apples.

We learned a fun rhyme that ended with shaking an apple tree.  

Once the apples fell, we had to pick them up, put them in our baskets, and name their colors.
We are developing balance!

Center fun with markers!

F brought everyone a little apple pie!  
The grown-ups in the room loved them too!




An Apple a Day!

We had an apple-icious week at preschool!

We tasted Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith apples.  

We tasted each one seperately and took some time to discuss the different flavors with our friends.

We used great words- like SOUR!
We noticed that some were sweet, some were tart.  Some were firm, some were soft.  
This was a fun way to introduce the concept of opposites!

Once we tasted each one, we decided which was our individual favorite.
Later in the week we used this information to make a graph.

Wednesday we celebrated Johnny Appleseed Day.  
We wore silly pots on our heads, like legend has it that he did.

Then we made a parade.  We pretended to spread apple seeds all over the playground.
(I will never forget the year that we sprinkled black beans-since apple seeds are hard to come by- all around and they sprouted in the sandbox!  The children thought we had sowed apple trees.  I learned my lesson and now we just make-believe)

We loved reading The Apple Pie Tree and got inspired to bake our own apple pies.
First, we pressed out the dough.

Then we added a scoop of chopped apples. 

Time for cinnamon and sugar, and a little pat of butter.
In no time our classroom was smelling like a bakery.

Finally, we added our votes for best apple to our class graph. 

We found out that most kids like yellow and green apples, and only a few like red!

We have come to a good understanding of equal in our class, 
and this gave us an opportunity to see it again in real life.

Those apple pies were so tasty!

Saturday, September 21, 2013

A Day with our Sweet Twos!

Today was the first day with all of our twos!

We spent time together learning our school routine.  

We had a very successful circle time.  
We read the book Mary Had a Little Lamb and took turns pretending to be either Mary or the Lamb. 
This little game of follow the leader was lot of fun for these tiny learners.  

Time for centers!  These boys and girls are exploring our bear counters in the math center.

In our teacher directed art center the boys and girls learned to use a glue bottle. 
Squeezing glue is the best, and after all, the only way you can really learn to control the flow of the glue is to have the chance to try!

These turned out to be some pretty cute little lambs when we were all done.

What a cool tower these friends made in the block center!

While we waited for snack to be prepared we did the Bean Bag Boogie.

We listened to the song and followed directions to place the bean bag on the specified body part. 
We found our elbows, feet, shoulders, heads, backs, knees, and chins!

Snack time!

Yum!

We had a great day, even though due to the weather we couldn't go outside. 
 That just means we had extra music and center time. So proud of our boys and girls.  

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

We Pick You!

Today our sweet 4s invited their grandparents to preschool for a special day.
We treated them to a little entertainment, breakfast, and a gift.  Honestly, this is one of my favorite events that we do at school.  

We started getting ready last week with 2 amazing volunteers!

We apple printed a dish towel for each set of grandparents.

Then we had to fold them all!  Thank goodness for precious little helpers 
who were more than willing to pitch in!

We packaged each up with a little twine and a note that read
"If grandparents were apples, we'd pick you"!

On the morning of the event, we were all SO excited!

The boys and girls told us lots about their grandparents during the week and we shared their words with our guests in the form of an acrostic poem that spelled GRANDPARENTS. We also sand a special song.

Then it was time to eat!

Everyone tried very hard to be a good host/hostess.
 


We gathered around the table and enjoyed breakfast together.

Some grandparents even got to eat in our classroom!

It was so nice to meet all of these special family members.

Time for presents!

The children were very proud of the gifts that they had prepared.

The grandparents seemed to like them as well!

It was a terrific day at preschool, one for the memory books for sure.  









Saturday, September 14, 2013

Our New Twos!

It always an exciting day when we welcome our 2s for their first day without mom and dad!
They were all very brave, even the moms and dads :)

The boys and girls came to school for an hour in small groups.  
We learned how to say the Pledge of Allegiance.


We painted school buses on the easel.

We discovered the sensory table, which is full of the most brilliantly colored rice.

Then we cleaned up!  How nice to have such super helpers?!

We worked with play-doh...

and made new friends.  

Can't wait to see everyone again next week!