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!

Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed!

Fall is here!  We are celebrating the season of harvest, first with apples!

We started apple fun day with apple pie baking.

Each child pressed 1/2 of a biscuit super flat  to make a bottom of our pies.  

We used the small muscles in our hands to knead and spread the dough.  

Next, we passed around the chopped apples and added them to our pies.

The boys and girls did such a wonderful job and have clearly mastered the skill of "take some and pass it".  Not the easiest concept for our little learners who are still, rightfully so, really focused on "ME"!

Then we added brown sugar and cinnamon.  

The children followed our step-by-step directions and used their very best listening ears.

Time for a little pat of butter!

...And finally, the top to our pies.  

While they cooked, we learned the legend of Johnny Appleseed and why he was thought to have worn a pot on his head!

We went on a Johnny Appleseed parade.  We wandered around the school, wearing our pots and pretending to spread our apple seeds.  Look closely, did you spot Johnny in our group picture???

Finally, we were treated to a wonderful apple party by this sweet little snack helper!

Apple trees, apple chips, ice cream with apple sauce, apple fritters, and apple juice.

It was another one of those "Best Day Evers" at preschool!

Grandparent's Day!

Last week at preschool, we learned about our families.  Grandparents are an important part of our families, and today was all about them!

We invited them to preschool for a special breakfast.

We wrote an acrostic poem for them.

Some of the highlights include:

 "D" is for dirty- "They work in the yard and hardly EVER take a shower."

"Y" is for Yawn.  "They yawn a lot and snore".

"E" is for Eat.  "They take you to Highway 55 to eat."

It was so nice to treat our grandparents to a morning as special as they are!

Each child made a pot holder for their family.

They boys and girls did a wonderful job serving their grandparents and helping them through the line.

We had smiles for miles!

It was nice for the teachers to meet all of these Pops, and Mops, Nanas and Papas, Neenas and Pas.  

Thank you all for joining us at preschool.

We even cleared the tables for our guests!

                              The children took their grandparents to our classroom for centers.
                                   The loved showing them how we work and play at school.