Get Ready For The Holidays! and #5

Today we took down the fall leaves off the preschool tree. We proceed to talk about how most trees have no leaves on them when the weather is cold. We then learned about Pine Trees. Pine trees stay green all year even in cold weather. We then put up a wall cover, pine tree to replace the fall tree. We changed the month from November to December, we talked about things that happen during the month of December. (Hope I didn't get them too excited.) We made a Christmas Tree advent calendar. We played a game with it during class. We picked the numbers and out of a bag and matched it with the same number on the tree. I hope parents and family will help your preschooler with this Christmas tree advent calendar. They can randomly pick numbers and match it up, or find the next number to glue on. After each day I hope they will count how many days are still left uncovered, so they can start to understand the concept of time. My three year olds, I sent home stickers to place on the numbers. We do an advent calendar in class also, however, it is a lot more fun to have your own to do at home!

For the number 5 we counted the points on stars, we counted the fingers on one hand, and we counted the silly monkeys on the game board bed. We then glued 5 pointed stars to our number five. The 4-5 year olds practiced printing the numbers then gluing the numbers above each five fingers that they "hand stamped" onto a piece of paper.

A Feast For Thanksgiving!

A pretend trip to the first Thanksgiving is what we did today. After reading "The first Thanksgiving" and "One Little, Two Little, Three Little, Pilgrims", We made bonnets and head dresses for our heads. We colored Pilgrim finger puppets, and played pilgrim games (hot potato). We compared pictures of what pilgrims did and had along time ago, with pictures of what we do and have today. But the best part of today was our Thanksgiving Lunch! The children loved to serve each other the food that they brought. We practiced spooning, scooping, pouring, and passing. We made place mats earlier in the month to help remind us how to set a table. It was a lot of fun to have a big meal during preschool. I loved to see what the children liked and didn't like. I was really surprised that the pumpkin pie was such a hit! Believe it or not, I think the turkey was the least favorite, however rolls and olives were gobbled up! Thanks to all Mommy's who helped make this a fun and memorable day at preschool!

Turkey Time and the #4

Today we took a good look at Turkeys. We now know that they don't fly too high off the ground. They peck for food like chickens, they like to roll in dirt, and that they spread their colorful feathers. We read the book, "A Plump and Perky Turkey". Then we finally painted a paper, plate very colorful, and then glued a paper turkey head and feet onto it.

For our game today, we played Turkey, Turkey, Goose.

We played button button who has the button, and then talked and looked at a bunch of different buttons. We separated the buttons into different sizes, then colors. Last we separated the buttons into 2 holes and 4 holes. We then counted out 4 buttons to each child, then glued the buttons onto our #4. For our snack we had graham crackers. I showed the children how you start with one cracker, and if you are careful, you can break it into two crackers, then into four crackers. We put those 4 crackers onto our paper napkins which we had unfolded to to make 4 squares.

Being Thankful and the #3

The First Thanksgiving story was told. We looked at my world map to see where the Pilgrims sailed from to the land where the Indians lived. The story of Indians helping the pilgrims, and how the pilgrims were so thankful for their help. We made an Indian necklace, with a feather for each thing we are thankful for. I tried to write down the things they came up with. It's fun to see how one child will mention something, and soon all the children think that is the best thing, and they all will mention it. This year, almost all the children were thankful to go camping. You know who you are if you just came back from camping. I laughed each time I wrote going camping on a feather.

We leaned some more Thanksgiving songs, and played the Turkey Dinner Game (fruit basket).

The number of the day of course was #3. I read, then sang the song/poem "The Three Little Kittens". The children loved the poem, they didn't like me singing it too much. (probably because I would make funny voices when I just said the poem, but didn't when I sang). We glued pictures of the kittens in their mittens, onto the #3. I told the children to go home and ask mom and dad to help them with the story. The children didn't believe me that their parents would know the story. I promised them that they would. I'm not that old, right? You parents do know the poem/story about the Three Little Kittens who lost their mittens?! I hope I'm right, and you all know it!

The older children practiced cutting out pictures of food, then gluing the pictures to the correct picture of where that food came from. This helped with the meaning of "Harvest". Attached to the food chart, was a fun thankful for food poem. We didn't have time to color during class, and I hope that the children reviewed where the food we eat comes from and colored the food at home.

Time To Sleep (Hibernation) and the #2

Hibernation is another big word, but much easier to explain that some animals like to find a nice warm home and curl up and sleep all winter long. We popped popcorn and watched the video, "Bear snores on". I also have the book, and the children was amazed that the book was EXACTLY like the movie. I love to see how amazing things are to children. That made me smile!

#2 was fun, because we named many, many things that we have two of. Eyes, Ears, Arms, etc. I showed the children how we can make tiny feet with paint and their fist. We practiced on paper before we stamped tiny feet on the # 2, however, either the #2 was too small for the feet, or the children decided that 2 feet weren't enough. If you weren't sure what was on the #2 sent home, well there you have it, kinda, sorta, feet prints. I ended putting 2 sticker hearts on the #2 so they could at least count 2 of something.

The older children each had a copy of the story "The Napping House". We practiced listening to the bell on the sound recording of the story and following along with the reader. What a funny story with lots of colorful pictures. We learned that everyone needs to sleep to be healthy and sometimes it is good to take naps too.

It's Harvet Time!! and the #1

Today we learned a new vocabulary word, Harvest. When we pick all the fruits and vegetables from our trees and gardens, and we are now done with our garden until after the snow comes and we fix our gardens again. I love trying to teach small children big words. Harvest is one of those words. I'm not sure they knew what I meant until I mentioned vegetable stands where our moms like to go to get corn on the cob, that seemed to light some bulbs!

We talked about Scarecrows and there job to protect the field from birds. We read the book "The lonely Scarecrow", and sang the fun song, "Shoo Crow". We glued our very own scarecrows using different shaped paper. For our snack we had corn bread, and dried apples. Last but not least, we played a passing game called "Scarecrow Joe".

We stared our number theme today. For #1 we each chose "one" ribbon to glue to our one. I hung the numbers we will be decorating on the wall, so don't be surprised if the children want to also hang their numbers on their wall too.

Mind Your Manners and Many Colors

We finished our Color Theme Today. We made a fun wind sock with colorful streamers. I stapled the sock together, next time I'll try and remember to use tape instead. Sorry if you parents had to "Fix" the wind sock when you got home. It was fun to watch the children figure out how to "just glue the end of the strip". We practiced holding the paper with glue in place while counting to 10. We have some great counters.

One of my favorite lessons for preschool, is our "Manners" lesson. I will continue to sing the manner song, and reminding the children about using manners while we eat, play and work at preschool. I hope this will be a life long lesson, plus it's fun to practice, especially when the children start correcting, and reminding each other to "Mind Your Manners"!

We made a place mat to help us remember how the table is set, and a manners poem to recite. We decorated it with colored shapes.

We played a colored/matching/puzzle game. Each child brought home their own game to play at home.

For our story today, we read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" We all took turns naming off the color and animal that the brown bear saw on each page.

My 4-5 year olds practiced cutting today. I had them cut out their certificate of colors. Some of the children are such great cutters, that before I knew it, they had cut a little too much of the certificate, however, I am very proud that they ALL have become great scissor handlers, and have developed awesome cutting skills.

"Whoo" sees a Brown Owl?

The color today was Brown. Perfect time to learn about owls. We looked at some pictures of different types of owls, talked about how owls sleep during the day and fly around at night looking for food like mice, and very small animals to eat. We glued some feathers and beak to a brown owl mask.

We took down out sticker pumpkins off our preschool tree and put up Autumn color leaves. We learned that fall and autumn are the same season. We read the book "Leaves are falling". We took a walk outside to gather orange, read, yellow and brown leaves and matched them up with our paper leaves back inside.

For singing time, we learned 3 new autumn songs about the leaves changing colors and falling off trees. And for our game, we played a matching game with picture cards of things found during autumn time.