Happy Summer Sweet Twos!

On Friday we celebrated a sweet little birthday, and the end of the preschool year.  It was a wonderful morning at the park with family and friends!

Muffins with Mom

As teachers, some of the most fun we have is helping our students make things for their family members.  These watering cans were the sweet gifts our 2s presented their moms at this year's Muffins for Mom breakfast.  

We shared giant muffins and powdered donuts with our moms.

We spent time together celebrating these special ladies.

We give thanks for each and every precious child that you entrust to our care.

This is our way of saying thank you!

Donuts with Dad

As we come to the end of our 5th year, it is neat to reflect on our little school and how it is grown.  As the years have passed we have developed traditions, as any family does.  This year, we started a new one- Donuts with Dad.  We honor mothers each year in May since we are in school near Mother's Day.  We are never in school for Father's Day, but that does not mean they should be ignored.  Starting this year, our 3s celebrate Dads and our 4s celebrate Moms.  Now each group has something special to look forward to!

First of all, we taught the dad how to play nicely at preschool.

Then we sang to them.

Finally, it was time for the present.

Each child colored a real tie for their dad to wear.

They even put them on right away!

After all of the excitement, it was time to eat.

It was so nice to have the daddies and granddaddies at school.

I think they had fun too!

Mommy and Me

 

With a class full of boys, our annual Mother's Day Tea was in jeopardy...

Never fear, I said, I've got an idea!

Let's have a paint party!

We began our time together with a reading of Guess How Much I Love You. 

Then Mrs. Renee, our guest artist and speaker, gave us some instructions on how to blend colors and add highlights to show light.

Each mom or grandma had a canvas, and each child had a canvas.

When displayed together, they make one big picture.

The moms and their children painted together for at least an hour,

then we gave them a break and let them have some quiet.

Mrs. Renee' talked to us about God's love and deep and wide it truly is.

It was finally time to eat snack.  

We had a paint pallet full of fruit and cheese and crackers.

Then, for the piece de resistance, a blank canvas of a cupcake!

It was the most fun to decorate our cupcakes with all difference types of toppings.

So thankful for these kids and their amazing moms!

 

The finished product , each child wrote "I Love You to the Moon" in their precious 5 year old print, and the mom wrote her part, "and back". I hope that these paintings will find their way into each home and serve as a reminder of this special time together. I hope they become a treasure that will keep the memory of preschool alive in each family's heart.  

Surprise!

Imagine my surprise when I returned to work after a sick day and 2 snow-days to find a precious little party waiting for me!

It appears that while I was out my best buddies had been making big plans.  They planned the colors, the presents and the menu. We dined on babies in a blanket, baby carrots, fruit, powdered donuts, pink lemonade and curly noodles.  

Each child presented me with their favorite book when they were babies. 

They signed their names on special book plates that will ensure I remember each one.

It was so sweet to find out what their favorite books were and to now have them to read to Hattie.

We used this opportunity to practice the manners we have been learning at preschool.

We placed our napkins in our laps...

remembered to eat first, talk second...

and passed the cheese around the table, serving each other first. 

Each day I find myself more and more smitten with this fantastic group of children!

I also am SO thankful for the big people in their lives who helped them surprise me.  

T is for Transportation

With a room FULL of boys you have to keep the block center BIG, the ideas fresh and the pace quick!  This week is right up their alley- transportation. We are learning about the many "Ways to GO".  Our literacy centers for the week are full or transportation fun as we learn how people and things move around our community.  

Our first teacher led center has children writing their "Ts" with trucks!  We taped markers to the backs of the trucks and asked the children to drive them around their papers.  

I love that the activity forces them to think about the individual strokes involved with making each letter. The words for making each letter are sort of like a map for the trucks: Big line down, little line across...  If you follow the map, you get to the right place! I also love that a child that is struggling with fine motor development can experience great success in this exercise.  Driving the trucks with the markers attached called for movement more from their shoulders and elbow, rather than the small muscles in the fingers. 

 I thought this would be more of a challenge for them, but it wasn't at all.  In fact, it was so easy for them, they ended up writing their names and sight words.  

Our second teacher led center had us stamping license plates for the state of NC.  

This group was tasked with writing the 3 sounds they could hear in each word.  We did the first one together.  We isolated the sounds, and stamped them one at a time.  Once I was comfortable that they were ready, I turned them loose.  

I was then able to help each child with their individual needs: for example, understanding why we put "c" with "a" in cab, instead of "k", or helping differentiate the /u/ and the/o/.  I treasure this small group time when I can challenge the kids in the just right way.

Our independent group for the week is making traffic signals.  Their job is to put those pincer grips to work and tear paper into small pieces.  

Then they squeeze the glue with all their might and fill in the circles.  

Remember, please don't tell them they are learning, they think they are having fun!

Meanwhile, we watch them develop small muscles, sort, complete a spatial visualization task, use teamwork, make a plan,  and think about their place in the world around them.  

Tomorrow we rotate and everyone does a new center!

*For my teacher friends, I made the NC license plate CVC template.  I also made one for my beginning readers who are just now hearing beginning sounds.  It provides the medial and ending sounds, leaving one blank for the beginning sound.If you would like a copy, just let me know. Happy to share.  The objects were picked knowing that it was be a teacher led center, meaning that I would be there to make sure they spelled cab instead of taxi, and jet instead of plane.