A Working Snack

On Tuesday of Fire Safety week we had a special, working snack. Being a 1/2 day preschool, we make the most of our time together and are always looking for ways to incorporate learning into all parts of our day.  This snack had us busy honing in our our listening skills-as we followed directions, learning to read a recipe, counting, developing spatial awareness, exercising our small muscles and strengthening our oral language skills, just to name a few!

Each child got a recipe and bag of materials.

They followed the directions step-by-step.

They helped each other, encouraged one another, and loved every second of being a chef for the day!

Thank you F for a fun snack!

And know you all know where the red icing came from on their clothes last week! 

How precious is it to hear them "reading" the recipe??

Rain, Rain Go Away!

I fancy myself a pretty creative person, especially when it comes to weaving lesson plans.  Each day includes time for spiritual, social, cognitive, physical, and artistic development for our children.  But I tell you, the 14 days in a row that it rained, I really started to run out of indoor physical activities...

So I got to the end of my creative rope and tied a knot.  I searched up ABC exercises.  What do you know, there are You Tube videos that will lead you right through the alphabet.  We stretched our bodies and brains right through indoor recess time.   

Once we did the whole alphabet, we each took turns sharing our favorite letter and stretch. B is demonstrating his favorite, along with many others', the Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, 

C's favorite required lots of balance! 

We will "stretch" our minds even further next time when we generate new words that begin with each letter of the alphabet and act them out.  I bet we could even make our own video that other kids could use on rainy days!  Maybe "F" is for flamingo, "W"is for worm, or "P" is for penguin!

Our First Community Adventure

In years past we have visited the library each month for story-time.  This year we decided to take story-time our into our community.  Today we gathered at the fire station in Wallace.  We had story-time first, and then snack.

We ate snack at the fire station, just like the fire fighters do.

Once again, our snack helper served up a delightful snack, perfect for our trip.

We had marshmallow fire hydrants, flame kabobs, and fruit roll up water hoses.

We invited the fire fighters to eat with us.  We really hoped that the alarm would NOT go off!

Next, it was on with the tour.  We saw the antique fire truck and the kitchen.

Did you know that firefighters have cubbies too?  

Ms. Lauren showed us how she can put her gear on in under 1 minute.

The boys and girls were fascinated by their cubbies.

We got to get inside the fire truck!

We had a nice talk with Mr. Taylor and learned that firefighters are our friends, no matter how they are dressed.

The children were so interested in what the firefighters had to share with us.  We are extremely proud of our Sunshine 4s!

SDS 4s, less 3 sick babies

We are so happy with our visit to Wallace Fire Department.  We will be back soon! 

Our next adventure takes us to the grocery store!

Good News ! We did it!

Here it is. The result of countless volunteer hours.  Generous donations. And something I didn't think we could ever have.  Today we purchased our first SMART board. 

As a private preschool, we are not elligible for most grants and fundraising programs like Boxtops for Education or Donors Choose. Overcoming little challenges like these make this accomplishment particularly sweet for us!  

Even better news is that we are getting the newest technology!  This SMART board does not use a projector. It is a complete touchscreen which allows 4 students to work on the board at once. One very good thing about this type display  is that it allows us to mount this unit on the wall close to the floor, so that it is easily accessible to  our little learners. 

We have SO much to learn and gladly accept this new challenge.  Can't wait to see what new doors this technology will open for our precious children. 

Here is what we already know. You all love and support this little school with all of your hearts. We are so grateful for each one of you who helped make this happen. If you put up posters for our consignment sale, shopped, told a friend about our sale, consigned with us, let us use your building rent free, partnered with us as a sponsor, prayed for us, built garment racks, bought lunch for us, or gave of your precious time... THANK YOU!  You are making a difference. 

Breakfast in Bed

The more we get together, the happier we will be!  It is true, we have had the best time cooking together as Sunshine this summer.  

Our last class was "Breakfast in Bed".

We began our time together with painting these breakfast in bed trays.

Each one was so unique and special to its artist.

We had American flags, Minions, fruit, ocean waves, Ninja Turtles- you name it!

Then we worked with partners to make blueberry muffins.

The right side of the table added an ingredient and the left side stirred, then we switched.

I broke a big recipe of muffins down into little recipes so each partnership would produce 4 muffins.

Cooking with friends is so much fun!

We counted as we scooped the batter into the muffin cups.

We made predictions as to how many scoops it would take to fill one cup.

We made messes and helped to clean them up,

Each child took home a new muffin tin and pack of liners.

Then we made muffin tin omelettes.

We found out what you call it when you eat breakfast food for lunch! BRUNCH

We loved eating our breakfast in bed and all the tasty foods we prepared.

Until next time, sweet friends!

Bonjour! From Wallace...

Bonjour and Bon Appetite!  

Our little French chefs assembled this morning for a fabulous day of cooking.

We started out decorating our chef's hats with fabric marker.  

We thought it might be fun to add some of the new French words we had learned while reading Madeline Says Merci

While we waited for our turn to chop vegetables, we built our own Eiffel Tower!

These little chefs are busy prepping for fondue.  They did such a nice job with their knife work!

They thought it was SO silly that I poured Sprite over their apples.  This was a trick of the trade they learned at camp.  Pouring a citric soda over apples keeps them from turning brown.  

Next, time to clean and chop the strawberries.  Here I taught them about using a trash bowl to save steps in the kitchen.  

Look-out, we have spatulas!!!

Time to put those manners to good use as we set the table for our lunch.

Love to see that teamwork!

First we ate our healthy choices...

Then it was time for fondue!  

We learned about "double dipping" and how to keep our fondue forks germ free.

This was the tastiest day yet at cooking class...

and the messiest!