About Birds

Today we read a book about birds. It was sweet with pictures of art created with clay. The book basically taught the kids that there are a variety of birds and the birds that can deal with season changes.

We followed up by making our own clay art. The kids got an outline of a bird on a piece of cardstock. They each received some playdough and went to town trying to spread the playdough around to arrive at a complete bird. They really enjoyed this project.

Our letter this week is U so today we practiced "writing" the letter with an umbrella, under water, in some rocks. See the pics! They did super.

We also made our version of a bird feeder. This was a super exercise for fine motor development. We could have done it all day. They couldn't stop. We strung cheerios on pipe cleaners and then made a circle shape. These can be hung on a tree branch or bush outside for the birds.

We played a little leap frog and hopped over lily pads and finally sang a song about lines with two sticks that we pretended were lines. We tapped 'em together. Loudly. Softly. Under our chairs. In front of our tummies. Over our heads. They giggled and had fun.

Have a great weekend.

Catch Up

We are a bit behind with our posts. Since last Friday to be exact. So here is what has been going on since then.

Last Friday we finished up our unit on Fairy Tales. We read about The Princess and the Pea. Most kids had heard this before (or seen it on Jack and Ruby). The kids followed up by making their own castle out of shapes. Then, we tallied the shapes we used and wrote out the number. We are still working on exactly how to tally and then record the corresponding number. No worries as this is an advanced theme for these guys.

We also recorded our thoughts on what we would do for a day "If I Were Princess" (mind you even the guys were princesses this week since our letter was Q we went with the feminine of royalty.). There were some interesting comments. No one wished for World Peace ... oh yeah, this wasn't the Miss Universe or anything.

Today we went to art class and Mrs. Erikson had us learning about Alexander Calder. We sent home some information (her newsletter) on him. But Mrs. Erikson talked with the kids about 2D and 3D art and they made their own 3D sculptures.

This week our letter is U so we are going to the pond. We are discussing all things pond (not really a correlation to the letter, oh well. Win some. Lose some). We have been talking about creatures that live at the pond and how some differ from close relatives that live on land. Eg., the toad and frog. We will also discuss life cycles of the frog and butterfly this week. In fact, we have butterflies "growing" in our classroom right now! The kids are watching them move through the cycle. We saw them in the egg stage and now they are in the larvae stage. We have watched them get bigger and bigger. Next is the chrysalis and this is neat because they form a chrysalis on top of the container they came in. We move them to a butterfly garden and wait for them to emerge. We always let the kids release them shortly thereafter. This is pretty exciting for us all!

We made a turtle craft today and discussed briefly tortoise vs. turtle. We will talk more about this on Friday. Turtles are found in water. Their feet are webbed. And, the shell of a turtle is lighter in weight than that of a tortoise. The tortoise's shell is more dome-shaped. He lives on land and has claws vs. webbed feet. His legs are shorter and more sturdy. Both animals are considered reptiles.

We will fill you in on Friday's events later.

Monday & Wednesday Four's

Getting back into the swing has proved a bit challenging ... not much ... just a bit. So we are a day late and covering both Monday and today in this post.

Our letter this week is Q. We had a fun "big event". The kids had to be a Queen and search for a Quarter. One child went to the back of the room wearing a crown. He/she hid their eyes while a teacher gave another child a Quarter. The Queen had to determine who had the Quarter. They enjoyed this little game.

We also had French class with madame. She thought our country was cold!

Since we were celebrating the letter Q, we asked the kids what they would do if they were Queen For A Day. We wrote down their answers and posted them outside in the hallway.

We also began our week of studying "fairy tales". We quizzed the kids about what fairy tales are. To our amazement, they understood they are "stories" that are not real. They also were told that usually these fairy tales have lessons in them. We started the week with Jack and the Beanstalk. Then we followed up with a retention activity. We had little cards with pictures and when we showed each one, the group had to tell us if the character was in the story or not. They did very well with this well known fairy tale. Oh. You can thank us later as we told the kids the lesson with this story was to do as your mother tells you. We also told them it's a good story about faith.

We also completed a little "book" about the shy guy "letter Q" who always went somewhere with his buddy "U". This would have been in your mailbox on Monday.

Today we extended the fairy tale study with the story of The Three Little Pigs. The lesson here was to not rush through things. To take your time, and do quality work. We followed up with a matching lesson. The kids matched pigs to their homes. These were in your mail today. Finally, we had some fun with dominoes. The kids got three dominoes and had to "record" their findings on a piece of construction paper using stickers.

Have a super Thursday off. Hope your Spring Break was great!

Eggstra Special Day

You guessed it! Lots of fun with plastic Easter eggs. First off though, we had Music Class. The kids always enjoy the Music Lady!

Next, we explored our plastic eggs and how they interacted with water. Beforehand, we put small amounts of food coloring in each child's egg. They were put in groups of two each and shared a bucket of water. They put their eggs in and were instructed to see if the eggs would sink, float, bubble, etc. Soon they discovered the water turning colors! They noticed the holes in the bottom and top and watched how the water poured out of the egg. So much fun!

Next, we went to the art room. This time, the eggs had tempera paint and liquid starch inside. We taped one end up so the holes would not drain the paint mixture. The kids were instructed to keep the eggs closed and use them as paint brushes. They did so and decorated some sweet little construction paper Easter eggs.

Mrs. E. also read a book to the kids. It was all about the Easter bunny. How he walks on two feet vs. four, etc.

Have a super spring break. We will see you in a week!

What Is Inside An Egg?

We started the day with a tornado drill. The kids learned where to go in the event that the weather in our area is favorable for a tornado. Just past the inside gym, there are a set of steps leading to the parish worship hall. Our designated spot is a storage room surrounded by four walls in the center of the building. They all handled this drill very well.

We followed the drill with Music Class. Next, we did a little sight word review. The kids tossed bean bags that had a sight word safety-pinned to the bag. They tossed the bags into a bowl. Whichever bag landed in the bowl they got to name. If more than one bag landed in the bowl, they could choose. Some kids even took the challenge of reading ALL the words that landed in the bowl. We should tell you that while it is not a requirement to read before leaving preschool, many of our kids ARE! We just can't believe this group of kids. If your child is not quite there, no worries. It'll come. They are all practicing recognizing the letters and "making their sound". Super job guys and gals!

After the sight word practice, Mrs. E. taught the kids about different characteristics of a story. They learned about the "setting" and the "characters". Each child colored some characters (bunny, person, squirrel, etc.). Then, they got a "placemat" which was an illustration of the woods. When Mrs. E. then read a story, they got to place their characters in the setting. We were amazed at how well they grasped this information and pulled it all together to participate in the story.

Lastly, we broke off into smaller groups and studied a hard-boiled egg. Mrs. E. had the kids cutting out the "parts" and putting them together. There was the shell, the white part and the yolk. We had real eggs in the classroom that we cut down the center and the kids were able to observe and apply their newly-gained knowledge to the egg in front of them.

Mrs. Sapp's group first made some observations with their eyes. We recorded how large we thought the egg was and then recorded the actual size. Next, we weighed the egg and compared it's weight to that of 13 jelly beans. The plan was to switch groups but we ran out of time. Perhaps on Friday we will be able to switch!

Have A Super Thursday!

All About Spring

This week -- the last before our Spring Break -- will be spent talking about ... spring. What else would we learn about? There will be discussion about the weather; about flowers; about new babies; and more. Today we had a "letter review" vs. a new letter to study. The kids practiced writing the days of the week. It was tedious work but they all did it with no complaints. Some went a step farther and not only traced their letters but wrote them on their own, too. Impressive.

Our number today (because we haven't done that in a while) was 5. They love to go up to the dry erase board and try to write it themselves. A tricky number but they got it.

We played a little game that is like musical chairs. There were letters taped to the bottom of the chairs in the clasroom. We arranged them in a circular design. We played some music, when it stopped they took a seat. We called on a few kids at a time to identify the letter under their chair. Just about everyone got their letters. There were a few that needed a lil help. Just keep working on these over the summer.

We got some scissor cutting in today when we worked on an Easter egg decorating project and a 5 little jellybeans project. These went home today.

Finally, we had a little Easter egg race of sorts. The kids worked with three plastic eggs. Mrs. Sapp took them apart. The kids had to race (10 seconds) to put the matching tops with the bottoms. They had fun with this one.

Don't forget to put something in your plastic egg from last Friday and bring it in on THIS Friday. We have a little activity planned.

Also, there will be an Easter egg hunt at school on Friday. Mrs. McCarthy is organizing and we thank those that are able to contribute.

See you Wednesday.

Finishing Off With Numeroff

The kids really enjoyed all the Laura Numeroff books we read this week. As you know, our letter of the week was "L" so we celebrated by reading and learning about Laura Numeroff. We read: If You Give A Pig A Pancake; If You Give A Pig A Party: If You Give A Mouse A Cookie; If You Give A Dog A Donut; and If You Give A Moose A Muffin.

Today was Moose A Muffin. Mrs. Sapp talked to the kids about the moose for a minute. She even explained to the kids that a moose's antlers are about 36 inches long, each. So she put two yardsticks up to her head and moved about the room knocking things over and bumping into lights, etc. She even tried to enter and exit the room wearing "antlers". The kids got a kick out of this and we decided we could NOT have moose as a class pet.

We also made our own blueberry muffins. The kids helped us figure out how to make them. We also decided that the directions on the box could be really helpful. They even knew we needed to measure the milk with a measuring cup. Some said just pour a little milk in and some decided we should measure using a cup. Brilliant. We baked 'em and enjoyed a little snack after lunch.

Before lunch however, we graphed our favorite kind of muffin. The choices were blueberry (or any berry for that matter) and chocolate chip. The chocolate chip muffin had the most "likes".

Our guest parent came in and worked with the kids on a math lesson. Again, counting and working on number recognition. We decided we have to "spice it up" because they are doing so well. The exercise was to deposit a tiny colored egg into an egg carton. Inside there were pics of animals and numbers. They shook the carton and opened it to discover the egg landed in a "pocket". If it landed in the ones with the animal pics, they had to make that sound. If not, they had to count out that many little eggs.

We worked on our "L" craft and made cute little lions. Mrs. E. talked a bit about the difference between male and female lions.

Lastly, we wanted you all to know that one of our classmates' is a new big brother. The new baby boy was born on Monday and all are well. Please keep the family in your prayers!