the boys academy

Ways We Travel!

2009-03-30T12:01:00.006-06:00

Centers

Carsten gluing his traffic sign to the correct shape.

Great Job, Mason! You got them all right!

The car mat was a big hit too!

Brieanna, Jack, and Ray

Ray & Jack playing on the car mat of Heber.

Field Trips!

Airport trip!

L~R: Mason, Brieanna, Ray, & Jack
My friend Jenny, let the kids come out to the airport and see the airplanes and the big jets.
We learned that airplanes have 3 wheels(# of the week), and airplanes need fuel, & wind to fly.

Our little pilots holding on to the prop~Ray, Jack, Brieanna, and Mason
Pilots like to get their picture by the planes prop. Always before you start the planes engine, you shout"Clear Prop" so that nobody gets hurt.

School Bus trip!

Jack & Ray in the bus car seats.
If you are under 5, you have to sit in a car seat on the bus.

Mason, Sophia, Miss Annelisa, and Jack learn about bus safety.

Grma Susy, and the boys inside the bus.

Watching the bus lights and learning what they mean.

The boys are as tall as the bus wheels!
Buses have 6 wheels, and 24 side windows, and 2 really cool horns.

Thank-you Ray's, Grma Susy for a fun trip to the Bus Garage.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

2009-03-30T11:28:00.005-06:00

Centers

At centers we made our passports to fly to Ireland.

Snack

For snack we sorted Lucky Charms into rainbow colors than ate them.

Mason & Jack had fun sorting their snack

Great job, Brieanna!

Music & Movement

We danced and sang the "Leprechaun in the Cave!"

Story Time!

We learned about how people in Ireland celebrate St. Patrick's Day and all about Leprechauns!

Activity

We went on a Shamrock hunt.

We found one of our clues under the tree!

(l~r) Carsten, Maddison, Ray, Jack, & Mason

Shapes, Shapes, & More Shapes

2009-03-16T13:56:00.011-06:00

Centers

Mason in the Lego center

Jack in the play dough center

Mason in the button math center

Carsten likes the button math center too!

Ray likes to play Curious George shapes, in the computer center.

Snack Time

Ray and Jack eating their oval, circle, and triangle snacks

When the boys wanted more of a certain kind of snack they had to ask for it by shape.
More oval(grapes) snack please.

Music & Movement

We had fun making shapes with our bodies.

Circle

Square

Triangle!

Another time, we played balloon toss.

The boys had a blast,

trying to keep their balloons in the air!

Story Time & Activity

Miss Annelisa read us a lot of books about shapes in our world.

We loved making Triangle hats and playing Pirate!

(l-r) Carsten, Mason, Ray and Captain Jack!

February 24

2009-02-24T20:57:00.006-07:00

Another good day learning about food...Today we focused on food groups and added a new center of sorting and classifying foods along with the letter schoolhouse, sorting cards, and tower building.

For story time we read books about food including Stone Soup, and I Know and Old Lady. We also talked about x-rays for the letter X and the kids got to see a real X-ray picture of teeth.

For snack the kids got a food from each food group: carrots, cheese, raisin bread, and walnuts.

For music and movement we tried out different types of exercises. We also looked at pictures of the human heart and showed the kids where there hearts were. We tried to listen to our hearts before and after doing exercises. The boys loved running around in a circle.

For our activity, we drew food guide pyramids and had the boys cut pictures from grocery store ads to fill in each category. Finally, we couldn't resist going on a nice long walk outside to soak up the beautiful weather. Pretty soon we'll be playing in the sandbox again.

Feb 19th more food fun

2009-02-19T02:24:00.001-07:00

Centers:

The kitchen
Magnet letters
Chalkboard literacy
Matching shapes game
Tower of boxes
Toward the beginning of Center Time, the boys were all doing their own thing for the most part: Ray in the kitchen, Jack playing the matching game, Carsten working on writing letters at the chalkboard, and Mason working on words and creating silly words for Miss Katrina to phoenetically pronounce.

Soon they were working together building towers with boxes. We had to add to the fun by throwing balls at our tower and I even took a few videos (that they of course loved to see).

As for the videos:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7477474392073444728&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9183088384399887495&hl=en

Circle Time:

We updated the Calendar, sang the “Rainbow Song” (having the boys pop up when the color of their shirt was called), read “The Snowman’s Annual Ball,” a wonderful wintery story about food festivities, dancing, and skating. They loved this book, and the poetic prose. Off to wash our hands, singing the “dirty” song.

Snack:

I love watching the boys and their routines. Jack and Carsten are always the first to the snack table, where Ray and Mason love to spend a bit more time washing their hands. Jack and Carsten helped set out the napkins and glasses at everyone’s seat. Then we enjoyed some cookies with frosting, and pears.

Showing excitement for the letter "Ww!"

The Letter “Ww”

This week we are learning about the letter “Ww.” As the boys were eating their snack, we used the chalkboard again and talked about familiar words that begin with W: window, water, wave, & whale, as I drew them, or pointed to them. Then they took turns pointing to a “w” and we sang our phonics song together.

Letter Game

I cut out letters from magazines the other day and put them all over the dining room to help all the kiddos. We played a game where the boys would run and point to a letter of their choosing. When it was their turn they would tell me which letter they chose and the sound that it makes. They loved this. I’ll put up some new letters for next week.

Music & Movement

The boys were very excited for music & movement. We passed out the scarves and sang & moved to “Jonny Brown,” quickly becoming a favorite. They even made a train with their scarves and ran down the line together. Then we chose instruments and sang as we rowed “Row row row your boat.” As we row up hill, our tempo slows and our tone lowers. Then when getting to the “merrily” part, we ride quickly down a hill and sing higher. They love this song. Finally, we took a train ride and followed eachother through the house singing “Engine Engine #9” (another favorite). We sing “A-way” (high then low tones) as we put away our instruments…they think this is funny.

Our Activity:

For today’s main activity: we have been talking about recipes, so we read Hudson Talbott’s O’ Sullivan Stew’s together. The overall theme is “Everyone is one of us.” There are tall tales, magic, fantasy, sea dragons, wailing wolves, a king, and a heroine. After reading this fun story together. We came up with our own recipe. One for a cake, filled with a dragon, fairy, leprechaun, king, sneezing Kate… The boys drew as they felt comfortable, but mostly dictated the crayon I was holding.

Then we talked a bit about setting the table. (They are getting better at helping during snack time). They were each given a napkin, plate, spoon, fork, knife, and glass. I quickly showed them the basic layout, and we sang and danced to a fun song about setting the table. Hoping for some table setting confidence and willingness for those cute moms out there! Maybe next week we’ll set our tables again and have a dinner party with our play food (during Centers).

Outside Time:

Another trip to the petting zoo. Along the way, the boys scooped up snow and ate it merrily. Annelisa even found us at the petting zoo. :)

Thanks for the fun day and for all the help offered!

Dentist Day

2009-02-17T20:30:00.010-07:00

The boys enjoyed doing a few new centers today in addition to the kitchen and grocery store center. One was a "doctor" center where Ray checked Carsten's blood pressure and the kids got to explore medical tools.

Next we read some books about what to expect when going to the dentist and what kind of foods keep teeth healthy. We gave the kids carrots and pears to start off snack time and let them look at their teeth in a mirror to see that healthy food doesn't stick to their teeth. Then everyone got to eat an oreo and look at their teeth again. They were pretty quick to try and clean up with water and Mason even asked for another carrot (he was pretty embarrassed by his black teeth).

Next we ventured to the dentist office (Sprink Creek Dental with Dr. McNaughtan). The boys were instantly captivated by the "space" table in the waiting room. Promises of the magic chair got them into the back where they did a great job of sitting in the chair, opening their mouths wide, and even taking a turn with the cleaning instruments.

They all did such a great job and got treat bags afterwards. A special thanks to Mrs. Carol and Mrs. Tamara for helping us with this fun field trip!!

Valentines Day

2009-02-12T16:46:00.009-07:00

We got off to a great start today by making cutting out sugar cookie shapes and making valentines for our fellow preschool pals during centers.

During Center Time we read books that had to do with Valentines and how they are delivered by the Post Man. When the cookies were finished the kids got to frost them and eat them for snack while we read a book about making Valentine cookies.

Next we had music and movement and the kids enjoyed making a train while singing Engine Engine Number 9 and using their instruments.

Finally, we decorated our own Valentine "mailboxes" and let the kids deliver the Valentines they had made earlier. We had a great and yummy day. Sorry we missed you Mason.

February 5

2009-02-05T13:17:00.004-07:00

Another successful day learning about food and nutrition. The kids loved the kitchen and grocery store centers and especially enjoyed loading all the food up in a box and hauling it over to the kitchen (great teamwork guys!)

Next we moved on to circle time where we read "The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food," and "I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato." The boys were really interested in talking about muscles and bones and even blood. During snack time we read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," which most of them could recite from memory and also "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs."

For music and movement we did a portion of the movie "Happy Healthy Monsters" called "jump." The boys loved jumping along to the music and listening to their heartbeats before and after exercising. Next we did an activity where the boys sorted healthy and junk food into smiling and frowning faces. A great exercise for making good choices!!

We practiced our U words "up" and "under" with a little more movement including London Bridge is Falling Down. The boys had lots of wiggles today so we headed outside for a walk to the corner petting zoo.

Tues Feb 3rd (healthy food)

2009-02-03T14:43:00.004-07:00

Centers for the day:

grocery store
kitchen
measuring table
literacy table

Mason's favorite area was the cash register. We decided that he was the official shop keeper. Thanks to Sara for bringing money for the kids!

Ray enjoyed shopping, cooking in the kitchen, and using the cash register

Mason was wondering if these spaghetti o's were real...yup, thx to Aunt Kathryn :)

Jack really enjoyed setting up the store. He's quite the organizer.

Even the babies had a great time during centers

Anneclaire measuring noodles in the measuring center

Carsten seeing how many noodles will fit in the measuring cups

Sorry, I didn't take pics after Center Time. Here is the rest of our session:

Our activity: We read An Edible Alphabet and discussed good food: veggies, fruit, our favorites. We then baked some whole wheat bread in the bread maker and ate some grapes for our first snack.

Our activity time continued as we began a science experiment with potatoes and clean/dirty hands. We played hot potato to get one of our potatoes good and dirty. It was a lot of fun. We'll be watching our potatoes over the next month to see what happens when we do or do not wash our hands.

Then we learned a new song (signing time volume 2) about washing our hands...

Oh woah, look at my hands

Look at my hands, they're dirty

Oh woah, look at my hands

Look at my hands they're dir-rty

A little soap and water,

Oh woah, look at my hands

Look at my hands they're clean

ASL signs we learned/reviewed today:

bread
grapes
clean
dirty
water
soap

During Circle Time we enjoyed the new calendar days (thx Heather), and read a couple more books about good food: Apples to Oregon & The Cock, the Mouse, and the Little Red Hen.

For our letter of the day, "U," we sang our phonetics song and then I drew items on the chalk board that begin with the letter "U," and had the boys guess what I was drawing...they even got "underwear!" I liked using the board...a nice change.

We danced and sang, Jonny Brown, as we moved with the scarves.

Outside, the kiddos drew with chalk, hunted for cat poop and pine cones, trudged through the snow (or fell, as was the case with Carsten). Ray wanted us to know that he didn't push Carsten. So funny.

They ate their bread outside with a bit of butter and our only fatality was Anneclaire getting stuck in the garage (so sorry sweety!).

Overall, a great day. A huge thanks to Sara for helping in so many ways...you rock girl! See you all Thursday!

Dinosaurs!

2009-01-30T16:11:00.007-07:00

Centers

Computer time with Caillou, at PBS kids.org
Play dough Center

Mason, making fossils

Great Job, Jack.

Ray & Jack playing the foot print match game

Snack Time

Dinosaur pudding!

Dino nuggets

Look, I got a Stegosaurus!

Ray likes to dip his dinos in snow(ranch) & hot lava(ketchup)

Activity

Making bread stick dino bones.

Stretch it!

Roll it!

They boys had a great time learning about Dinosaurs.
Their favorite book of the week was "The Mino-a-saur", and their favorite song was the days of the week song.

More Winter!

2009-01-27T15:27:00.007-07:00

Centers

Snowflakes

Play dough letters

Great Job!

Preschool Lego train
LtoR-Brieanna, Ray, Mason, Carsten, & Jack

Circle Time w/ Miss Annelisa

5 Little Snowmen song

Learning to warm our hands!

Snack Time

Grape snow cones & Trail mix

Yummy!

Music & Movement

Ray, Ice skating with wax paper!

The kids loved ice skating!

Maddison, Carsten, and Mason

After a while skating on our hands & knees was more fun.
The kids loved it so much we had to do it again!

All About Winter!

2009-01-21T09:29:00.007-07:00

CentersHow do you get the toys out?

Do scissors work? No

How about hot water? What will happen?

Look! It melted it! That is so COOL!

Mitten Match

Ray and Maddison trying to find the matches.

Snack Time

Hot Chocolate and Cookies!
Yummy!

Outside Time

Carsten & Mason on the sled.
Let's go Miss Annelisa!

Carsten

Ray sledding

Jack didn't want to play.

Let's go sledding!

Mason, Ray, & Brieanna

Christmas Around the World!

2008-12-17T09:28:00.010-07:00

Center Time

Lego's at Miss Heather's

For everything about school being new and different, the kids did really well, and played great together!
Ray's lego creation!

Christmas in Mexico

Brigham's Mom, Miss Mandy, came today to our school and taught us all about Mexico, and Mexican Christmas traditions. This is a sundial, made out of bone.

Mexican Children get to break a Pinata, for a Christmas celebration.

This was by far the best part of the day!
Way to hit it Brigham!

Take a good swing at it Ray!

Way to go, Jack!

Good hit. Andalyn !

Mason

Carsten

Look at all the candy!

Here is the flag of Mexico, the kids thought it was the flag of Christmas!

Mason helps shake the Crispa for snack!

Centers

Carsten counting M & M's for his Christmas tree.

For Circle time we decorated a Palm tree, and talked about Christmas in the Islands

Christmas in Japan

For snack the kids ate a traditional Japanese Christmas cake. It was so Yummy! It had strawberries and whip cream on top!

Miss Annelisa read a story about a Japanese girl in the Friend

Here are the kids showing off their Japanese Oragami swans. In Japan they put oragami animals on the tree for Christmas oranaments.

some lyrics

2008-11-09T20:03:00.001-07:00

Do you know the colors of our rainbow?
Do you know the colors of our rainbow?
There's red, orange, yellow, green, purple, and bloo-oo-oo,
clap-clap-clap-clap
Do you know the colors of our rainbow too?

Pumpkin Painting!

2008-11-04T09:01:00.003-07:00

For one of our Centers on Halloween we painted pumpkins!
The kids really got into it, and did a great job.

We have some great little artists in our Preschool!

After school Ray & Brigham wanted their picture in the

Pumpkin patch!

Two Handsome boys!

Recipe for Gak!

2008-10-31T13:13:00.002-06:00

For preschool this week we learned about things to do with Halloween!
One of the fun things we made was Gak.
Here is the recipe:
1 C. White Elmers Glue 1/2 C. Hot water(really hot)
3/4 C. warm water 1 TB. Borax
2 drops of food coloring

In a gallon ziploc bag put glue, warm water, and food coloring.
Zip the bag closed and have the kids mix this together.
Next in a cup mix together hot water, and borax. Open the bag, add the borax mixture,
and mix together until a soft ball forms and some of the liquid is gone. Next pour the mixture in to a bowl and let the kids continue mixing until the watery part is most gone. Pour the excess liquid off. then you have GAK! Store in a ziploc bag in the fridge. The kids love to play with this.
Make lots of fun colors.

pumpkin luvin' boys

2008-10-22T23:12:00.003-06:00

Spooky Spiders!

2008-10-21T14:05:00.006-06:00

Today @ preschool we learned about Spiders.

For one of our Centers made blow spiders with straws and water colors. The kids were really good at this and loved to watch the paint spray across the page.Jack
Ray
Carsten

We also played with the play dough, which is one of every bodies favorite Centers.

Mason cutting out Halloween shapes.

Today the big hit was finding the spiders hidden in the leaves.

Look! Jack found a spider!

Then counting the spiders. Brigham found a lot. He counted to 21.

For Snack time we made spiders,

We put eight pretzel sticks in a small Choc. donut,
and then added the choc. kissables for eyes.
They turned out great and the boys had fun eating them.

For Activity we made follow the directions spiders webs and then colored & cut out a spider to put in it.

Here is Ray, with his picture. He actually cut his spider in half, but we were able to glue it back together. The boys had fun, and did a GREAT job at following directions!

Fire Station Fieldtrip

2008-10-03T18:16:00.001-06:00

Fall theme - Oct 2nd (katrina)

2008-10-02T14:14:00.003-06:00

Another fun Fall day...

Centers today were: Leaf art, grab bag math, trains, and puzzles.

The Leaf Art was definitely the most popular. Leaves that we had found on our Fall Walk were painted, and prints were made. The prints turned out way cool and the leaves looked really neat as well, so we added that to their art.

There was a place to wash paint from their hands, but the kiddos enjoyed mixing the paint in the water as well.

During Circle Time, we worked on our Calendar, sang Do you know the colors of our rainbow, and read Color Dance.

We've learned that Snack Time is a great time to do our Letter Box. Today we worked on the letter "Ee." For a twist, I had items in the box that started with E, and some that did not. We decided which items began with E, which did not, sorted them, and even got to hold one for a bit.

For snack we had soda crackers, apples, and peaches. The boys enjoyed watching me cut the apples and peaches and guessing how many pieces there would be each time I cut them. Ray was the first to figure out that after I cut the apple in half and then in half again, that there were not 3 pieces, but 4. Way to go bud! They thought this was a bit of magic, so we did it again and again as we passed out the snack.

Soon it was time for Project Work, and we began to make our Pumpkin Cookies together. The boys were very excited to help me make the cookie dough. Later, Brigham wanted to eat the dough, they all thought this was a great idea, but as I had put an egg in there, I explained that we should only eat dough with eggs at home with our mommas and daddys. For Miss Katrina would feel soo bad if any of our preschool friends got sick from the dough. :) So I'll include the recipe below:

Pumpkin Cookies

2 sticks of butter

1/2 c turbinado sugar (i found mine at smith's)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 can pumpkin puree

1 c rolled oats

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 c chocolate chips

2 1/2 c whole wheat flour

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes (yes, my oven broke, so we were cooking them for much longer...thx for your paitience everyone!)

Everyone was so good, helping smelling, tasting, etc. When it came time to put in the spices, I let them smell several (parsely, chile, cinnamon, etc.) and asked them to tell me which they thought would taste good in the cookies. They all had good ideas. (we have some great noses and bakers) I also had them help me find the ingredients. When it was time to add the pumpkin, I showed them cans of corn and pumpkin and thankgoodness they chose the pumpkin! Same with the chips, they could choose between the corn chips and the chocolate chips. We had fun making decisions together.

As our cookies were supposedly baking, we went in the front room for movement and music. We began by doing the Dance book, copying the moves and positions of the dancer. They are getting pretty good!

We watched a clip of the Disney movie, The Game Plan, that is about a quarterback who plays a part in his daughter's ballet recital. We watched their performance that took place in the forest with fairies, animals, a witch, and her bats. The boys were very into the ballet and wanted to watch it again, we didn't have time, but if anyone wants to borrow it, let me know. :) After the clip, we had our own Fall Ballet, where we moved like the forest animals, trees, and bats.

Soon it was time for Outside play. Everyone enjoyed spending time in the pumpkin patch, admiring Tonya's sorting of the pumpkins by size and color.

fall theme - sept 23rd (katrina)

2008-09-30T15:17:00.006-06:00

Sorry gang, I wasn't as good at taking photos this session, but after reading Annelisa's comment about Mason enjoying seeing himself in the blog and remembering what he did, I will recommit to this whole process. In fact, I was beginning to think it wasn't a good idea and that it was asking too much to ask of us busy moms. With that said, do what you can, and we'll enjoy whatever we can do :).

Anyways...

Centers for last Tuesday began rather early for me...my kiddos decided to do the art center as soon as I set it up. The goal with the art center today was for the kids to paint bugs that they had seen on their great bug hunt. I was pleased to see that the boys were also interested in painting letters...especially those in their name and last week's letter "C."

Mason and Carsten enjoyed the shaving cream letters together. Then they joined Jack in the Math grab bag center, where they chose a printed number and then placed beans on the paper that represented the number. I'm excited to do this again next center and add some more numbers. (i only did 1-10, but want to see how far they can go) :)

Mason then went and worked in the water measuring center alone. I think I'll bring this one out next theme i teach (colors), but use colored water for them to measure and mix with.

We cleaned up and sang following the leader to peter pan's music, and joined Ray and Brigham in at Circle Time. After some Calendar fun and a welcome song, we read, Color Dance and sang Do you know the colors of our rainbow?

Soon it was time for a potty break and washing up for Snack Time. Sara brought some raisins and carrots? (Sorry, i can't remember...i think it was carrots with ranch dressing). The big excitement, however, was the homemade chocolate cupcakes that Brigham and his Daddy had made together. The pictures are a bit dark, but you get the idea...

While the kiddos were enjoying their snack, we went through the "Dd" box together. They loved the sounds that came out of the "Dd" box just before a new item appeared :).

During Music and movement, we started reading and moving to Dance. The boys were very excited to follow and copy the dancer's movements. We also sang and moved to the Hokey Pokey. Last, we did our Across the Floor activity...always a big running and moving hit (thank goodness for Sara's great help with them stopping and slowing between each trick/movement.

It was time for our activity. We read the adventures of Brady the grasshopper as we put on our shoes. Outside, we gathered leaves and said hello to many of our neighbor's animals (the leaves had been blown from their tree...our only trees are deciduous!) I think it was Ray that was sure they had seen a bear (a black bull), and they also enjoyed the chickens and rooster.

With our great leaf finds, we rubbed on large sheets of paper outside and watched the leaf prints appear.

Next session we'll use these leaves in our art center...:)

And a few more pics:

Carsten & Anneclaire in the Art Center
Mason in the Math Center
Carsten counting beans
Mason pouring carefully

Jack studiously engaged in the Math Center

See you next time...looking forward to our Pumpkin cookies...:)

fall theme - Sept. 18th (katrina)

2008-09-18T20:47:00.010-06:00

We had a great session in Centers today. Our Centers were:

the water measuring center

shaving cream literacy center

play dough center

and

the train center

I think Mason hit all of the centers today, measuring, creating, and learning as he went.

Mason and Ray not only enjoyed drawing their letters in the shaving cream, but they also enjoyed the clean up as well.

The boys were very busy in the Play dough Center, particularly enamoured with all of the tools.

The boys didn't get nearly as wet at the measuring center today. They are getting better at pouring and estimating how much room is left in the bowls, etc, and learning how to use each of the tools to achieve their desires.

More good playing, sharing and building in the Train Center
After Centers, we sang Following the Leader and headed to Circle Time where we talked about the letter "Cc," sang Do you know the colors of the Rainbow, worked on our Calendar, and read The Mixed Up Chameleon.

Sara brought a big hit of a snack today: "C"hicken "c"rackers with "c"heese. Not just any cheese, but squeezy cheese that she used to write the boy's choice of letters on their crackers. They loved it and I think that snack time would have lasted another half hour if Sara's had would have held up :).

We sang, The Bear went over the Mountain and began Music and Movement. The boys moved to Eric Carle's From Head to Toe, sang and moved to the Hokey Pokey, and practiced our hopping, jumping, rolling, skipping, etc. for Across the Floor time.

It was time for our activity of the day: The Great Bug Hunt. We gathered in the mud room, read, The Hungry Caterpillar, and got our shoes on for the hunt.

The first thing we discovered on our great bug hunt, was a watermelon...yup, in the grass (maybe josh had something to do with that...:)), anyways, we decided that the bugs would like to eat it.

Right away, Brigham found a grasshopper that later hopped onto his shoe and big toe. Brigham wanted to find a lady bug...sadly, we didn't find any today.
The boys found grasshoppers, a wasp, preying mantis, spiders, ants, butterflies, and crickets.

The boys looked for bugs beneath rocks, within the tall grass, and in the air.

Miss Sara was soo excited to find her very favorite bug: the preying mantis. The boys were also very happy to see it.
After the preying mantis sighting, the kiddos saw a magnificent spider web with a spider of course.
Brigham was very gentle with the preying mantis. He is our bug expert, loves to catch and hold the bugs and did it so carefully.
This is the group looking at the spider web
The boys took turns looking at the bugs through the binoculars

After our great bug hunt, we drew pictures of the bugs that we saw. Some of the highlights: Jack was very concerned that we not forget the little black ants. Brigham made sure that we drew his shoe and big toe that the grasshopper had landed on. Mason wanted a spider on our drawing. He and Ray were busy drawing while the others were telling me what to draw.

When the had finished their bug posters, they raced through the grass hopping like grasshoppers, jumping like spiders, running like aunts and crawling like a preying mantis. These boys are so much fun!

fall theme - sept 16th ( miss katrina)

2008-09-16T14:14:00.002-06:00

What an enjoyable session! The boys were so good today: listening, working together, problem solving...well, you decide for your self. Here is how our day went:

We began in Centers. The Centers for the day were:
the water measuring center,
the playdough center
the train center
and the shaving cream abc's center

Sara and I set up a good portion of the track before we began the session. The boys could choose two trains to use. They could add on to the tracks if they wanted to as well. They were told that if there was any unkind behavior, the train center would be put away. Sara and I were amazed at how well they all played together. In the beginning, Jack, Anneclaire, and Carsten were at the train center together. As Mason, Brigham & Ray joined in, Carsten & Anneclaire moved over to the playdough center. There were 4 boys in the train center and things were moving quite nicely. Trains were patiently waiting as others zoomed by, some train following was going on and they had a great time together. (a big relief, we weren't sure how it was going to go, but are excited to do it again :)).

Soon, Carsten, Ray & Jack were out on the deck measuring water together. Yes, they did get wet, but we now know how much water to let them have :). Helping each other, and enjoying the various tools, they had a great time together. Mason was soon there, and keeping the wetness to a minimum (requesting towels, etc. :)).

Meanwhile, Brigham was still at the train center. Alone, he built a village for his trains with trees, up on the couch.

Soon, it was time to clean up. As we sang the clean-up song, Sara and I made our way around, helping the boys clean the centers. We were informed that we were not to help with the train center. The kiddos were happily doing it all by themselves! All 6 of them smiling and running between the train track pile and the bucket:

As we left our Center Time, the boys sang and followed me through the house singing, "Following the Leader" to our rainbow blanket and Circle Time.

In Circle time today, we added to our calendar, sang, "Do you know the colors of our rainbow?" Then we read Eric Carle's Mixed Up Chameleon, which reviews colors, animals, and our theme from the past two weeks, all about me...being happy to be ourselves. The boys were all attentive, answering questions about the animals and colors.

Pictured above are the boys following me to Circle Time.

After circle time, the boys prepared for snack by making a potty/wash hands visit. They sang the Wheels on the Bus with Miss Sara on their way.

For snack, the kiddos helped make smoothies. We talked about the blender, it's motor, the need for a lid, and they each helped add the milk, bananas and strawberries. If you'd like to help them make it at home:

2 cups milk

3 bananas

12 frozen strawberries

Those that were still hungry ate some pancakes from this morning's breakfast.

The pic below is a bit dark, but Sara and I got a kick out of how they would all cover their ears when the blender began.

After snack, we sang The Bear Went Over the Mountain and made our way back in the living room for music and movement. We read Eric Carl's I am I and the boys followed along with the movement described in the book. Then we listened, moved, and sang along to The Hokey Pokey. I was impressed with how many of them put their correct hand or foot in the circle. Finally, we began Across the floor, where the boys would walk big, small, run, hop, walk backward, spin, and take baby steps across the carpet and around the wall.

Our big activity for the day was Sand Construction. Before heading outside, we sat and read together Construction Countdown, a colorful book about large construction machinery, what each vehicle is called and what it does. It is also a counting book. The boys were great counting each vehicle with me, and listening to the description of each machine. They were very excited to use their own machinery to build their construction site. As the moms probably figured out, yes, there was water involved. Sorry about the sand and mud that the boys brought home. It was worth it though. We watched them build alone, together as a team, create, wash, and communicate with one another. It was a messy learning experience.

Ray and Carsten working together in the rich wet sand.

Mason was surprised to find that when his bus was filled with water, that the water escaped. Soon he realized that it was oozing through the doors.

Carsten and Ray worked for a while away from the main water area, digging, sand dumping, and coming back to the hose for water. They worked so well together. Way to go boys!

Brigham was busy creating his own "river" and site. The other boys enjoyed watching what he was up to. Here he is telling Miss Katrina where he wants the water to clean his dump truck.

After a while, Mason wanted to help Brigham in his river/lake building. Instead of waiting for me to bring the hose to him, he would take the bucket to wherever I was, fill it, and return to his buddy Brigham. Great problem solving skills Mason :).

Soon, the main lake/river was getting pretty big. It became the main dump truck car wash. I've never seen such a desire from boys to clean their vehicles. It was fun to watch. Pictured above is Mason helping Jack wash his tractor. Jack was very detailed about the cleaning process and would make sure that you got every bit of sand off :).

After getting pretty muddy and wet, Ray decided it was time to "climb the mountain!" Carsten, Anneclaire, Sara, and Will joined him on the adventure. When the crew reached the top they waved at all of us down at the construction site.

Thanks to Sara and all the boys for a wonderful preschool day. I had so much fun and am looking forward to more good fun tomorrow! miss katrina

all about me - sept 10th

2008-09-12T16:39:00.012-06:00

Centers

Everybody loves Play dough

Anneclaire

Ray

Carsten

Brigham

Painting Center

Circle/Music Time

Calendar

5 Little Monkey's Jumping on the bed!

The SMILE song

Happy Family song

Snack Time

Marshmallows sort

All about me books

Outside Time

Anneclaire & Carsten

Outdoor time in the sand pile was especially fun today,
because the rain had made it "just right" for sand castle building!

Ray

Brigham

fun in the sand

the boy's inspiration

Ray & Carsten

Big trucks!

working together

the great red bug find!

All About Me - Sept 9

2008-09-09T15:13:00.008-06:00

Unfortunately, Miss Katrina's camera batteries died after Centers, so you'll have to rely on Heather's great description to tell you all the kiddos did today.

Ray's Dot painting
puzzles
Let's paint together
Mason likes blocks
Great building & sharing

Mason painting
After a bit of social block building, Brigham was ready to get down to business, doing his block project away from the group.
After Miss Katrina took his picture, he asked to see it and wanted her to take one more! :)
Mason loves to play in the centers

Mason wanted Miss Katrina to take a picture of his creation too!

Ray and Jack were so cute singing the clean-up song happily as they helped.
We had a great day and the kids are really learning how to help clean up, and help each other.

Today for activity we worked on our all about me books, we colored a picture of our favorite color, most of the boys love GREEN. we also learned about how much things weigh, and got to weigh ourselves and see how tall we are too.