The Wonder Years Preschool

Halloween Party

2010-10-29T11:43:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this was the only picture I took today! We ended our day with a Halloween lunch and some extra play time. The kids enjoyed the cute cupcakes Christine made. :)

Preschool 10/27

2010-10-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

Theme:
Halloween!

Circle Time

Books: The Halloween Play, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat

We played Trick or Treat memory and Halloween Bingo. I printed them out from a website online and the kids really liked playing both games, Bingo especially. It was easy - only 9 squares but just easy enough that they were interested.

Centers

Halloween costume dress-up with paper doll (and dude).

Sort the monsters eyeballs. There were 6 different colored monsters and eyeballs and each monster had a different number of eyes.

Princesses chatting on their phones.

Pretending they are in the car going to a doctor appointment.

Art

These are the glue ghosts we started on Monday. Basically you just draw an outline of a ghost on wax paper using Elmer's glue and then fill it in with more glue so you can't see the paper. Add some eyeballs an let dry over night.

Ta-Da! Super cute ghosts!
The kids role played with them for a bit today making ghost sounds and chasing each other around.

Did our letter of the week - F is for fish crackers.

Outside/Science

I'd been wanting to do this with the kids and thought what better time than Halloween? I played it off as we were going to mix a secret potion that would become ooze. We started with green food coloring first.

I told the kids to scoot back a bit because they were crowding and I didn't know how crazy it would foam up. This isn't exactly what I'd meant...

Then we added some purple coloring and did it again.

...and again.

They then went and made their own witches soup. The dump truck was filled with rain water and they kept dumping random stuff in - wood chips, leaves, dirt, whatever they could find.

Snack

Fish crackers and raisins

Preschool 10/25

2010-10-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

Theme:
Halloween!

Letter: F
Number: 7
Color: Orange and Black
Shape: Triangle

Circle Time

Books: Happy Halloween board book, Cliffords Halloween, Ghosts in the House

We started our theme with just talking about what they know about Halloween - which pretty much summed up to dressing up and candy. I asked them what they did over the weekend, if any of them went to a Halloween party? Isaiah said he went to Olivia's soccer game and stayed home and played games. Megan said her daddy took her to a movie and Red Robin. Tatum said she went to Red Robin too. Lola said I don't want to talk about it. Haha...

Art

Used Halloween stickers and used a picture of a triangle to put them on. Then they practiced with the triangle in the middle and writing the word triangle.

They did some cookie cutter stamping with orange and black paint.

This got REAL messy, REAL fast. The table was basically black by the time they were done. They really enjoyed it though and didn't seem to mind getting messy, I wouldn't expect anything less from preschoolers! :)

We also did some quick glue ghosts...pictures will be in the next post. They had to dry overnight so they weren't quite ready until Wednesday.

Centers

Silly kids trying to decide what they should do next. Isaiah looks kind of scared of Tatum in this picture. She was doing a funny face of course.

They pounded pegs into our class pumpkin (kind of like lite brite except we didn't carve it first). They all kept coming back to this multiple times during the day.

Cute friends digging in the sensory bin.

Finger puppets.

Snack

Open face little bagel with cream cheese and Halloween sprinkles and an orange

Preschool 10/22

2010-10-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

Theme:
Community Helpers

Circle Time

Songs - Einsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, Baby Bumblebee
Books - Trashy Town, Community Helpers A-Z

Today we talked about garbage men and mailmen being community helpers. Just as luck would have it today was our garbage day so we anxiously awaited the garbage man to pick up our trash. When he came, the kids were glued to the window until he was out of sight. We noticed when he drives he stands up and is not sitting down. I asked them why they thought he was wearing a bright yellow vest and where they think he takes the trash too. Megan apparently was the only one who's been to the dump because the other kids didn't seem to know what I was talking about. Or maybe they'd forgotten if they had ever been?

We also talked about using the phone for help and dialing 9-1-1. I gave them scenarios of situations and asked them if they should call 911 or not. They all seemed to understand what an emergency was so hopefully they won't unnecessarily call it one day...

Centers

We cut paper, used stickers and crayons and 'made' our own mail stuffing it into envelopes. We pretended to deliver it around the room.

Played with wooden blocks and made our own city complete with fire station, police station, library, etc. They used the matchbox cars on the 'roads' they made.

Outside

It was kind of a yucky day today so we had an indoor playground!

Snack

Pooh crackers, raisins and peanuts

Preschool 10/20

2010-10-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

Theme:

Community Helpers

Circle Time

Books: Doctor Maisy

Today we talked about doctors being Community Helpers by helping us keep our bodies healthy. We go to them so they can check our bodies every year and we see them when we are sick and need medicine.

Art

We made a doctor's bag and glued down things that we thought would be in it.

We also did a paper plate dalmatian dog dipping their fingers in black paint to make his spots.

And we did our letter of the week project - E is for Elephant.

Centers

The kids really, really got into the fireman role again! I arranged the chairs to be a 'fire truck' and they took turns driving the rest of us to the fire. We'd pretend squirt water on it and go rescue the babies and kitties (that's what they told me...). Gosh, we must have role played this for at least 20 minutes. Lola loved helping me make the siren noise on our way to the fires. :)

They also role played with the doctor kit, babies and stuffed animals. They did very good sharing and patiently waiting their turn with all the different instruments.

We worked a bit with tangrams .

Outside

I drew a 'road' on the patio and then some signs - stop light, yield and stop. They loved it and it was so warm out we all peeled off our jackets!

Snack

Pooh crackers

Preschool 10/18

2010-10-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

Theme: Community Helpers

Letter: Continuing D and Introducing E

Number: 6

Color: Orange and Black

Shape: Triangle

Circle Time

We read 'Officer Buckle and Gloria' and 'Going to the Firehouse' books. We talked about what to do if there's a fire in your house and how you crawl on your tummy to an exit. We practicing STOP, DROP & ROLL. Then (thanks to Lola's awesome daddy!) I passed out fire hats and sticker badges. They had a blast playing with them and pretending they were putting out fires. :)

Art

I have a lot of art projects lined up for this week and they seemed interested enough to tackle some today.

We made a fingerprint counting book.

Our letter of the week project (this we didn't get to do last week for D)

Practiced writing the number 5 and then followed the activity on the page - color the mail letters, cut out and paste by the mailman's bag.

Centers

Today we did some shadow matching with fireman objects, a fireman puzzle & some tracing lines from the cop to the robber. The kids enjoyed cooking food in the kitchen and took turns shopping, buying and being the cashier.

We also pulled out our sensory bin. They love to pretend they are witches cooking a stew. :)

Snack

Fish crackers & Animal crackers

Preschool Fieldtrip! 10/15

2010-10-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

Our first fieldtrip and of course it was to the Craven Farms pumpkin patch! All week we've had fun learning about pumpkins and what a fun way to end the lesson and week.

Unfortunately poor Tatum came down with a stomach bug and couldn't go. We really missed her and wished she could've joined us. :(

Our first stop was a cookie and a 'farm story'. Then we were ushered out to look at some animals.

The kid's really enjoyed playing on all the fun outdoor things they had. Megan had some issues sharing and even after a time out was a little grump all day.

Megs and Isaiah tromped to the very END of the patch to find their perfect pumpkins.

They were so cute watching them walk together and discuss which pumpkins looked best. :)

Trying to get a cute picture of all of them with their pumpkins and Megan did NOT want to stand next to them. I'm not sure where this newfound independance is coming from but I'm pretty sure I don't like it.

She was in the picture but on her own terms. haha

It was such a fun day and I thank all the mommies (and grandparents!) that came.

Preschool 10/13

2010-10-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

Theme:
Pumpkins

Circle Time

Books: Haunted Party, Berenstein Bears and the Prize Pumpkin

We had our pumpkin friend back again today and passed him around as all the kids wanted a turn in holding it!

We guessed if we thought the pumpkin weighed heavier or lighter than us. Then they each stepped on the scale to weigh themselves.

Tatum - 32 lbs
Megan - 55 lbs
Isaiah - 47 lbs
Lola - 37 lbs
Pumpkin - 16 lbs

Played some file folder games - matching pumpkin faces and Pumpkin ABC's

Art

We listened to Raffi's '5 Little Pumpkins' song and then did our own art project to it. They all really liked putting this one together!

Later we did an open-ended art project with tissue paper circles (pumpkins), pipe cleaner (vine) and real pumpkin seeds. Lola chose not to participate in this one. She was too engrossed in playing something else at the time.

Snack

We made individual pumpkin pies. The kids helped measure the ingredients, mix it all up and scoop it into their own bowls. I had planned to have them eat this right away but didn't see before in the directions it had to set up in the fridge.

So we had saltines and string cheese, went outside to play, finished our day in the preschool room and came back down stairs to have the pies at the end of our day. I think in the end they all only at the whip cream on top! Oh well!

Preschool 10/12

2010-10-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

Theme:
Pumpkins

Letter: D
Number: 5
Color: Black and Orange

We had sort of a mixed up day today. It was a make-up day since we didn't have school Monday for Columbus Day. Lola wasn't here and Tatum came 1/2 way through our morning.

Books: Whooo's There?

Megs, Isaiah and I made some pumpkin pie playdoh that smelled SO YUMMY!

We did some observations of our in class pumpkin. They drew it in their journals and then they held it and touched it noting how smooth and cold it was.

Art

For art they did still life with the pumpkin. I think they did pretty well with a non-directional project, just some paint, paper and here ya go! Tatum and Isaiah liked seeing how their colors mixed together.

Centers

We played in the sensory tub again and scooped marbles and sorted them. They played with the kitchen and pretended to make pumpkin pies.

Snack

String cheese and fish crackers

Preschool 10/8

2010-10-08T13:47:00.000-07:00

Theme:
Fall

We talked more about squirrels today and where we think they might live. We made a bear cave under the table and they enjoyed hiding out under there.

Centers
Had fun playing with the Halloween sensory bin. Digging through black beans and orange rice is so mesmerising! Even I love feeling it pour through my hands over and over. :)

Color matching with paint samples.

We played a dice game with leaves. They took turns rolling the big dice, counting out how many it landed on and then choosing that many leaves from the pile to stick onto their tree. We did about 2 rounds of this before their patience started to wear thin and they all started just grabbing leaves to stick on. The concept was good though! It was good for them though because they all needed to practice getting the paper off the backs of the stickers.

They traced some lines I had written on paper also. Curved, wiggly and straight. Good practice in preparing to write letters.

Snack

Carrots & crackers (both orange like our color of the month!)

Tatum likes showing me what she's eating. :)

Preschool 10/6

2010-10-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

Theme:

Fall Is Here!, day 2

Today we talked a lot about squirrels. How they gather nuts, where they live, and what they eat.

Art

Painting with our hands with Fall colors.

We also made our own squirrels. They colored the squirrel template and then cut & glued on pieces of grey yarn for the fur.

Afterwards I told them they were going to pretend to be squirrels and I was going to hide, ok scatter nuts around the room and they had to hurry and gather them and bring back to the nest (the bowl). They were quick at this!

Afterwards we observed all the different nuts - shapes, size, texture. We sorted them out and in doing so Megan found an almond that was easy to open. Out popped a yucky looking old nut. She wanted to eat it but I told her no. So we went downstairs and tried some fresh almonds I had in the fridge.

Afterwards we enjoyed some playtime outside!

Snack

Fish crackers & cheese

Preschool 10/4

2010-10-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

Theme: Fall Is Here!

Letter of the week: C

Number: 4

Color of the month: Orange

Shape of the month: Triangle

Circle Time

Introduced theme of the week and talked about leaves changing colors, falling from the trees, jumping in piles of leaves, what animals start gathering food for the winter, etc.

We sang a song about leaves falling down and we also sang Eensy Weensy Spider & Where is Thumbkin? per Tatum's request.

Centers

This week enjoyed the Concentration game. I know it's pretty advanced for them but they worked hard at getting the right shapes in and then we'd start the timer and wait for them all to pop up.

Dancing to music!

We did some beading, patterns & sorting.

We played a game where 1 person sat in a circle on the floor (I made it with a jump rope). We all counted to 4 and and threw the leaves in the air. The person in the circle had to count how many landed in the circle with them.

They each enjoyed having a turn!

Silly faces!

Snack

Crackers & peanut butter

Art

We did our letter of the week - C is for caterpillar. They glued pom-poms onto the letter C to make a caterpillar and then added some googly eyes. I guess I didn't get a picture of them; some art projects need a lot of guidance and I don't always have the time to snap a picture! This one required lots of gluing so I'm guessing I was busy with overseeing the use of too much glue. ;)

We also did some dot a dot with the letter C & caterpillars. And then we did some practice cutting. Lola loves to cut so she was pretty happy.

Left to Right: Megan, Tatum, Lola, Isaiah

Preschool 10/1

2010-10-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

Theme:
Animals of the Forest, Day 3

Circle Time
We discussed what animals in the forest eat - berries, leaves, bugs, & other small animals. We read the books below:

Then we played a matching game.
Tatum and Megan patiently wait for me to explain the rules. I must've been long winded because by the time I was done they were all laying on their tummies.

Snack

Animal crackers and string cheese

Art

We did raccoon paper bag puppets but I never took a picture of them I guess.

We also did a messy project outside stamping apples onto the letter A.

After we were done they all needed to be cleaned up so I dumped some water and dish soap in the water table. It was perfect! Then they wanted to wash the apples. :)

It was a beautiful day so we took full advantage and had a lot of outside play time on the swings, trampoline and just running around.

Preschool 9/29

2010-09-29T13:59:00.001-07:00

Theme
Animals of the Forest, Day 2

Circle Time

Read the book 'Bear's New Friend'. I love these books! The pictures are so cute and the moral behind the story is always a good one.

We pretended to be raccoons digging through trash to find something good by only feeling and not looking. I had about 6 things in a sack and they took turns reaching in to find one thing. Then they had to describe what it felt like (smooth, pokey, soft) and guess what it was before pulling it out.

Then we made a chart with 4 animals on it. We took turns saying our favorite one and then I wrote our name under it. Friday we'll do this again and see if their favorite changed.

Centers

They enjoyed the trains and animal hospital again today. I had set out letter B worksheets at the table in case some wandered over to do some. They all eventually did but didn't take any interest in writing, just coloring. That was fine because we just talked about things that start with the letter B (some of which were on their paper).

Megan and Tatum took turns 'reading' books to each other.

Snack
During snack time I read them another story 'The Kissing Hand'. This was such a cute book and I'm surprised I'd never seen it before. I had only checked it out from the library because the raccoons on the cover went along with our theme but after having read it, it might have to be a permanent book in our house.

At the end of the story was the sign for 'I Love You' so I showed them how to do it with their fingers.

Isaiah wanted to have a picnic snack on the floor so we had our fishy crackers there. They we 'seasoning' their crackers with the play food. Haha! I held up a potato and asked them what it was -

Isaiah said 'chicken nugget'
Megan said 'cantaloupe'
Tatum said 'bean'
Only Lola said 'potato'!!

Made me wonder if they knew what all the other play food was that they play with?!

Art

We did 2 art projects today. I didn't really care for how our letter A collages turned out the week before so I wanted to do something different for B.

I held up the paper and asked them if they know what letter that was. Right away Tatum yelled out 'B'!!! Yay!

They first colored it with a Brown crayon and then proceeded to glue lots & lots of Buttons on. They loved this!

Our next art project was doing an animal habitat. I loved seeing how each of their papers came together. Each so different and imaginative. Great work guys!

Preschool 9/27

2010-09-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

The theme this week is
Animals of the Forest

Letter: B
Numbers: 2 & 3
Color: Red

Circle Time
In circle time today we discussed forests, what kinds of animals live there, what their homes might look like, what our favorite forest animals are, etc.

I read 'Stranger in the Woods' and they pointed out what animals were in the book.

Centers

The kitchen seems to continuously be a favorite for them all. They love pretend cooking and fixing food for each other.

They stacked blocks as high as they could and we counted them as they put them on. We did some butterfly sorting (large, medium, small) and some color matching with bee's and flowers.

They stacked blocks as high as they could and we counted them as they put them on.

Snack

We had graham crackers with strawberry cream cheese frosting on top. Also some apples & apple juice. They gobbled those crackers right up! :)

Outside Play

I've been having issues with outside time because all they want to do it swing...and none of them can swing by themselves...and there's only 3 swings. So I told them this week that I will give them 2 big (underdog!) pushes and then they need to swing by themselves or ask a friend to push them or swing alone on their tummy or find something else to do.

This totally worked! They did ask for more pushes after the 2 but I just said 'No more' and they were fine. Tatum helped push Megan and Lola. Megan pushed Lola and Isaiah swung on his tummy. Then after a few minutes of all that, they all found something else to do - ride bikes, do the slide, kick the soccer ball. It was wonderful and they were able to burn off some much needed energy. :)

The one exception I made was the tire swing because none of them can push it while they are sitting on it. And if someone gets off to push, it's impossible for them to get back on once it's going!

Art

Owl headbands!

Stamping patterns. I stamped the first 4 stamps to get the pattern going and then they had to finish the last 2 boxes by figuring out the pattern. They all did excellent at this!

Then they wanted to stamp some more so we turned their papers over and let them at it.

Preschool 9/24

2010-09-24T23:01:00.000-07:00

We didn't have preschool today because Lola ended up coming down with a cold. I would have done it with just Megan but I ended up cleaning the house like a mad woman for Meg's family birthday party on Saturday. Poor Meg's just wanted me to play with her and I kept having to tell her 'in a minute'. Before I knew it the day was nearing an end and I felt so bad I hadn't just said to heck with the cleaning and sat down to play with her.

At that point I vowed to never let that happen again. Birthdays are a crock and should be spent just enjoying who you are celebrating. Cleaning house, running errands, filling goody bags, baking, planning menu's, ignoring your birthday girl so you can do all that, that's not what birthdays are about.

So I'm sorry Megan for letting the party get the best of me. I promise to lay on the floor with you and play Polly Pockets or bingo or memory when you ask because before I know it you will be celebrating your 18th birthday and won't want to do that with me anymore.

I once read this quote and it explains it all: "Cherish the here and now before it is there and gone"

Preschool 9/22

2010-09-22T14:53:00.000-07:00

Theme: Apples, Day 2

Circle Time

Read books '10 Apples Up on Top' & 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?'.

Showed them 3 different apples - Red Delicious, Granny Smith & Honey Crisp. Then discussed how they were different or the same. Also what they thought they would taste like.

I showed them this color matching game and all 4 of them worked together to match the apples:

Centers

We continued with the same activities as earlier in the week.

Snack / Science

Taste tested the apples that we talked about in Circle Time earlier today. They liked guessing what each would taste like, trying the different kinds and giving their opinions afterwards.

Art Time

With my help we painted each of their arms to look like tree's and then they dipped the eraser end of a pencil in red paint to dot apples on their tree. They all stayed pretty interested in this activity.

Tatum's work of art:

We didn't have outside time today as we were pretty busy inside most of the morning. We drew apple tree's in our journals, played Candyland and Hullaballo.

.......................................................

After school ended we celebrated Lola and Megan's birthdays with a fun lunch & cupcakes. My friend Candace came over with her little ones Maya & Sean. The kids played outside for awhile before eating lunch.

Then we had cupcakes & Megan opened some presents from her friends. It was a fun day indeed!

Preschool 9/20

2010-09-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

Our theme this week was APPLES.

Letters: A & B

Numbers: 1 & 2

Color: Red

Circle Time

After doing our usual calendar, weather, songs and Pledge of Allegiance, we read the books 'Apples' & ' Llama Llama Red Pajama'. We talked all about apples - colors, taste, texture & what kinds of food we can make with them.

Centers

The kids worked great together this week in centers! Megan and Tatum scooping and sorting pom-poms.

Lola and Isaiah loved the animal hospital & using keys to open each door. They were great at taking turns.
Pounding the foam alphabet puzzle pieces in.
More animal hospital.

We also explored the geoboard with rubber bands. No pictures of it but they liked putting the different colored bands on.

Snack

We made cinnamon apples! I had diced some up earlier and they scooped them out of the bowl into a baggie, sprinkled cinnamon in and shook it up.

They all gobbled them right up!

Art Time

Torn apples! Ripping paper and gluing. Nice face Megs.

Showing off their work. :)

Games

We tried playing Hide & Seek with the apple and took turns while each child got a turn to hide the apple. I don't think any of them understood the point because they would each hide it in the same place as the person before them. Then when we would go into the room to find it, the hider would announce and show us where it was. I was laughing so hard because it was so silly!

We also had some fun with the musical instruments. Isaiah really got into the guitar. :)

Preschool 9/17

2010-09-17T15:03:00.000-07:00

We finished our week of our 'Friends' theme today. Just Megan and Lola today but we had fun painting, practicing our letter A's and singing songs.

It was raining outside so we didn't get to go out to play. Instead Lola requested we dance to princess music.

Baby Bumblebee Song

2010-09-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

Here are the lyrics to one of our favorite songs we sing at Circle Time. The kids always scream 'Again, Again!' when it's done. I think I sung it 4 times in a row one day. :)

I'm bringing home my baby bumblebee,
Won't my mommy be so proud of me,
(Cup hands together as if holding bee)

I'm bringing home my baby bumblebee,
Ouch! It stung me!
(Shake hands as if just stung)

I'm squishing up my baby bumblebee,
Won't my mommy be so proud of me,
('Squish' bee between palms of hands)

I'm squishing up my baby bumblebee,
Eew! It's all over me!
(Open up hands to look at 'mess')

I'm wiping off my baby bumblebee,
Won't my mommy be so proud of me,
(Wipe hands off on shirt)

I'm wiping off my baby bumblebee,
Now my mommy won't be mad at me!
(Hold hands up to show they are clean)

Preschool 9/15

2010-09-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

Today we continued our Friends theme. In Circle Time we discussed what friends are, what they mean to us and how we treat them. We talked about who our friends were and who some famous friends are (Woody & Buzz, Dora & Boots, etc.). I read some books about friendship - Unlovable & Bear Feels Sick.

We also talked about the:

Letter of the Week - A
Number of the Week - 1

Color of the Month - Red

For Art we did 2 projects today. We began our alphabet art projects. For each letter we are learning, they will do some type of art involving the letter. For A we painted red Apples using a red pom-pom. We will be adding each letter of the week and putting together an ABC book.

Our next art project was a Friendship sun. We talked about what makes a good friend and how you know someone is your friend and then added our friendship words to the rays of the sun.

Free Play:

Little Miss Lola doin' her thing while chatting on the phone. She is never NOT in a princess dress. :)

I taped a large A on the floor and the kids walked it as we talked about what starts with the letter A. And that each of them have the letter A in their name.

Then they took turns laying down with another friend to make the A shape. Isaiah was cool with it until I told him I was going to take a picture which is why he hid his face. He was fine though when I showed it to him on the camera. :)

Lola and Tatum's turn. Lola just couldn't put down the wand. Ha!

Outside they helped clean out the sensory table that will soon be brought in. Our weather is suddenly changing from Summer to Fall here and we won't be able to use it outside much until Spring. I have lots of stuff planned for this table though!

Tatum riding bikes. I think this is her favorite thing to do outside!

We tried doing some letter worksheets but those didn't go over so well. I think I will hold off on those until we have our day more routine. I do have other activities we can do that will help with the letters. I just think a sit down worksheet with a pencil in hand is too intense this early on however I would like them all to get there eventually.

Our day today went much more smoothly though (or at least for me!). I think I wasn't so stressed about not having enough to do or having too much and not getting to it. Megan on the other hand is having a hard time and I'm not sure why. She throws fits if she doesn't get her way at that moment. But afterwards when I talk to her, she fully cooperates and understands and shares. I think she might be testing me to see what I'll let her get away with. Hopefully she'll come around soon. Why does it always seem it's the teacher/coaches kids that are the worst ones?!

1st day of Preschool!

2010-09-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

I have to admit - last night I was SO nervous & anxious about today. I was scared of failing and started second guessing myself as usual.

What if the kids didn't like me?
What if I couldn't control them?
What if I let the parents down?
What if the kids refused to do my art projects/circle time/listen to books?
What if Megan didn't like sharing her Momma?

I was seriously up last night until 2am thinking it all over wondering if I made a mistake in taking this role on.

Well I'm glad to say that after a short 4 hours of sleep last night, I woke with a clear head & no worries. I feel in my heart that this is right. I know that what I'm doing is what I should be doing. 2 steps forward and no looking back. :)

The room all came together this past weekend and I was so excited for the little one's to arrive!

We had some pic's taken and then headed in for Circle Time.
Isaiah, Lola, Tatum & Megan :)

They were so good about 'owning' their own carpet square. :) I sang some songs to them, did calendar & weather, then read a book. From there I had planned to go over to the table for a structured activity but they were getting kind of restless from having to sit for awhile already. So instead I explained the different centers and rules about cleaning up 1 thing before pulling something else out - then they went and had 'free play'.

Megan and Lola eventually wandered over to the table where I had a writing activity for them to do. Meanwhile, Tatum loved the dress-up area and Isaiah spent a lot of time cooking for me in the kitchen. He even was kind enough to bring me a coffee!

I rounded them up and we sat at the table for snack. Isaiah passed out the napkins as everyone found a seat. I placed 1 bowl of fish crackers (thanks Christine!) in the middle and they took turns putting some on their napkin & then passing the bowl to their neighbor. They each were responsible for pouring their own water too and this fast became the fun thing to do. At least they drank a lot!

We cleaned up, had a potty break and then got our coats and shoes on to head outside. We swung, rode bikes & scooters, went on a slug hunt (yuk!), picked blackberries and jumped on the trampoline (that was everyone's favorite!).

After coming inside we went back to the preschool room and sat in Circle time again. I had cards showing different emotions on them. I showed them each one and we talked about them. For example, for the Sad card Isaiah said he was sad when his sister broke his toy. (heehee!)

We then flipped them all over on the floor and took turns picking one. Whichever one we picked we had to show our own emotion to match the card. This was funny and they all did really well with understanding it.

Oh and Megan came back inside with a little inch worm on her shoulder so we put it on top of the book shelf and the kids watched it intently for the rest of the day.

We then headed to the table and did an art project making our own stick puppet. Here it was neat to see the difference in their ages. Megan and Isaiah being 4 yrs old, knew how to draw a face on the puppet and add the hair. Tatum and Lola being 3 yrs old, didn't quite know how to draw a face yet. They are all at the correct stages and doing what they should be and I like having the multi ages together. The older ones can help the younger ones learn better and the younger ones can help the older ones learn how to become role models. Both Isaiah and Meg have older siblings so they are always following rather than leading. This is one of the Montessori concepts that I love.

Lola & Tatums puppets are on the left, Meg & Isaiah's on the right.

After art, we went back to some free play. We all played with the train set, then cars on the rug (Isaiah and I had quite the collision course!). The girls wanted to play with the baby dolls so we brought those out and they all pretended they were mommies taking their babies to the Fair (even Isaiah). We pulled out the fishing set and went fishing, taking the great opportunity to sort the fish by color, shapes, and then counting how many there were. I was surprised they could all count to at least 10.

We ended the day by setting our inch worm free and saying good-bye to each other until Wednesday!

More summer fun and the beginning of a new season

2010-07-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

In the last months....we've done 2 camping trips:

Gone to a spray park that had a huge sandbox:

Pretended we were cats & dogs:

Done art projects with our friend Lola:

Made our 'Countdown to Disney' chain:

Had many a meals outside:

Done more art projects:

And did our 2 1/2 week road trip down to Disneyland!

School started this past week for my oldest and Monday is our 1st day of preschool. I am so excited - the room has all come together, the curriculum is done (the first week at least!) and we are anxiously awaiting our friends to come have fun!

Finished pictures of the room to follow ~

Summer Picture Catch-Up

2010-07-11T22:43:00.000-07:00

As we are on Summer Vacation and I am working towards getting our playroom transitioned into a preschool room...I thought I'd share some pictures of what we've been up to this summer!

Lots of time with the sprinkler:

Megan figured out real fast that she didn't particularly care for fireworks this year:

Backyard sports (in dresses mind you!):

Just being totally silly! Actually I think Megan was pretending to be a dog at this moment and was lifting her leg to 'pee'. Haha!

Lots & LOTS of swing time:

Spray park:

Petting zoo:

Pedicure (!):

Megs learned how to ride Riley's big girl bike:

Ferry ride:

Playing inside on rainy days:

We have SO much more that we would like to do and see this summer. Feels like it's slipping away so fast so I've decided for the rest of July I'm just going to fill our calendar up with fun (mostly free!) stuff to do. Otherwise I'm afraid we'll just not get to it.

Oh and by the way, late nights = late mornings. :) Ahhh, summer!

School 5/24 - 5/28

2010-06-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

This lovely weather is what I've had to work around this week.

Seems like October, not May (almost JUNE!)

Megan has been drawing lots of 'people' lately. I love that she always adds cheeks. :)

We made a trip to the zoo with the Woodinville Mom's Club. Our friends Lauren, Charlotte and Logan accompanied us. The penguins are always a favorite attraction!

The bears had just recently come out of hibernation and were busy pacing back and forth. We really wanted to see them catch a fish but they just seemed irritated rather than hungry.

Lunchtime with Charlotte. :)

Back at the penguin viewing...and taking a rest.

We had our 2nd to last swim class. Megan really loves swimming and I feel so much better with the summer coming up having had her in lessons since last Sept.

Doing a sit dive with her buddy William.

Our friends Maya and Tatum came over a few days this week also. Meg and Maya painted picture frames while Tate painted a picture.

We had lunch in the playroom...

...then read book for nap time. We counted all the apples 'Up On Top'

We worked a little bit on the letter D

The girls all had fun painting pots (cut milk cartons) to plant some Marigold seeds in.

While we waited for our pots to dry they crushed up oreos while I whipped up some pudding. We assembled 'dirt' for a snack - oreos, pudding, gummi worms.

Lola loving her dirt!

They then put stickers on their planters before we added dirt and seeds.

That was it! The weeks are just flying by and just a few more short weeks until schools out for summer!!! Yay! I have a lot of fun ideas to keep these kiddos busy and can't wait to go on some of the outings.