Whoo, Whoo Loves our Twos???

This week our 2s learned the nursery rhyme "A Wise Old Owl". 

We looked closely at owls and enjoyed a favorite story, Owl Babies.

Lots of time people ask me, "What do you do with 2 years olds at preschool"?  Well, here you go!  

We create.

We learn to work with our friends- during a WHOLE GROUP art project???

There are times we don't even attempt this with our 4s!   What can I say, they are amazing!

We learn to use school tools, and manage our materials.

It is true, the only way that you can learn to manage the flow of glue, it to actually work with a glue bottle.  Yes, there are messes, but that is what we are here for.  

Today we played a auditory discrimination game.  

We pretended to be owls and flew around the classroom with the rhythm of the music.

When the music stopped, we all had to find a safe nest in which to rest.  

Our little owls are such good listeners!

Butterfly Release

 Our Monarch Butterfly hatched from its chrysalis on a Saturday :(  

We can make plans, but we can not plan nature!

I was able to keep her happy with fresh flowers for nectar and water until Tuesday, when all of the boys and girls would have a chance to see her.

That butterfly was so FAST, she must have really been ready to go.  

She flew up very high, very fast.  She did not pose for a picture! 

  I think the looks on their faces are priceless.  If you look carefully at the top, right hand corner, you can see her wing.

   Even though they didn't get to see her emerge, they got to see her fly away! 

As she went, I heard a sweet little voice say, "Oh, I see she's already off to Mexico"- just when you think they are not listening!  This student remembered what we learned about the Monarch's migration habits and applied it to our experience!

Wild About our 3s!

We are just wild about our Sunshine 3s!  They are the sweetest bunch of little learners you will ever meet.  I know I say it all the time, but the community that they build in the 2 year old room really does carry over and make a HUGE difference in the 3 year old program we are able to offer.  

 

This week they studied wild animals.  They built habitats for them with play-doh, careful to think about what each animal would need to live. 

They sorted the animals, either by type or color- choose your owl rule!

They enriched their vocabulary through experience...

and used elaborative language to tell about what they noticed.

It looks like these animals are getting a nice bath at the water table watering hole!

Finally, the animals made tracks in the play-doh.  It is neat to notice how each one makes a different mark.

Nocturnal Fours!

This week our 4s learned about animals that are nocturnal.  We spun a web, just like spiders do. This takes lots of team work.  We had to STICK together to make it work.  We had fun trapping "little bugs" that tried to crawl through our web! 

We pretended to be owls and played a listening game.  Mrs. Georgia said words and the little owls had to listen to hear if the word began with the /f/ sound.

When the little owls heard a work that began with the /f/ sound, they had to quickly find a nest. 

Our little owls used their excellent listening skills for this phonemic awareness activity!

C recreated a scene from our story, Owl Babies at the easel!

Simple Pumpkin Math

This week we have featured the book Five Little Pumpkins in our math center.

The game that accompanies it can be played many ways and accommodate learners at all levels.  The following pictures show the way 2 different children accepted the same invitation to learn.

You can line the  pumpkins up in order from 1-5, just like G did.

Then she placed the correct number of pompoms in each one.

If you need a little hint, their are dots on the bottom of each pumpkin that you can count to find our the number on the side.  

Or you can sort by color, like the next child did.  Either way, the child chooses their own objective.  There is  no right and wrong, just an open ended invitation to explore numerals, number concepts, , in this case algebra, and practice fine motor skills.  This is a child-directed center, which means that a teacher may stop by to interact, but does not tell the student what to do.  Such a simple and fun activity!  You can get all of the supplies you need at the Dollar Tree and do this at home!

Family Movie Night

We had the BEST time tonight at Family Movie Night.  The weather was perfect, the picnic was fun, the movie was just right, and the snuggles were just what we all needed after a busy week!

Two members of the class of 2016-2017 enjoyed themselves!

We loved getting to spend time with some of our sweet graduates.

The sun set just as I had hoped it would!

After a picnic supper and some playground fun, it was time for the show.

Thanks to you all for making this a  night to remember.

We missed many of our friends, but know that we will do it again soon!

Have I mentioned lately that I have the best job ever???

Fire Safety Week

Fire Safety and Prevention week falls each year during the first full week of October.   Although we focus on safety throughout the year, this is a good opportunity to teach our little learners what they can do to keep themselves safe during an emergency.  

Our 3s enjoyed pretending to be fire fighters!  

They saved the day and put the fire out.

We assembled firetruck puzzles.

During this math lesson for our 4s, we drew cards printed with numerals.  Each child read the numeral, then jumped the specified number of rungs on our ladder.  

We learned our numbers, honed in our one-to-one correspondence skills, and used our whole bodies to learn.

We met with fire fighter Nick.  He taught us many important ways to be safe when there is a fire.

We got to use some of the tools that fire fighters need to do their job.  Here we are working with the infrared camera.  We could "see" heat.  

Then we sprayed water! 

Our future fire fighters were SO excited about this opportunity.

For the first time in my career, a fire department was called out during our Fire Prevention Presenation.  Thankfully we had 2 departments on campus today.  Rose Hill was happy to present to both classes, AND we got to see what happens when there is a real fire call.  

We practiced being fire fighters on the playground. We completed this fun obstacle course.   

First we dashed through the tunnel.  

Then we "climbed" 2 ladders...

and made our way to the fire.

After we put the fire out, we set it up for the next fire fighter.  

Teamwork at its finest!