Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Week 10 ( Nov. 5, 6, 7)

Snack time and lunch time are not just for eating. The kids use this time for socializing, playing, and learning too. Pretzels are a favorite snack, because you can build with them too. Sometimes they make people or animals, sometimes letters and words. Such clever kids.

I have been asking the boys to "team up" to work together. Sometimes for a challenging task, sometimes just for playing. They are all friends, so it's easy for me to make any group. I like to watch their personalities mix.

Superheroes are right up their alley.  Each one of the preschoolers loves these toys. They have such elaborate imaginative play with these.

Color Clix again. Their creations are getting more and more difficult and challenging. I'm ever impressed with these toys and the skills that they help the kids to learn; concentration, imagination, fine motor skills, attention, and focus...

Our dress up corner is very fun, and has been more interesting to the kids right before and just after Halloween. They love playing dress-up.

Lacing and fine motor skills like this are a good idea to help them build up those tiny hand muscles so they can do tricky life skills later on, like tying their own shoes.

We read The Napping House and the preschoolers created their own magnets to tell the story themselves.  First coloring, then cutting, then telling the story on our magnet board (cookie sheet).  These went home in the backpacks with a lot of other things on Friday.

We had a very rainy puddly day this week and had inside recess. I brought out a new space station play tent that took over the whole room. The kids LOVED it.  They instantly became astronauts and were running away from aliens and having countdowns and counting how many stars they could see.

Then we made rocket ship and space pictures at table time. After the pictures were done, we cut them into pieces to make a puzzle. They loved that idea.  We read a few books about space too, it might continue on next week too, we shall see what the interest is.

Their block creations are ever impressive. The focus on detail always amazes me.

We started talking about money this week too. The names of the different coins and how much they are worth. It's a tricky thing to learn all at once, and we have some work to do, but it's a good skill to learn. Reinforce it when you can, if you see a coin, ask your preschooler it's name and how much it's worth. The more practice the better.

And of course, leaves! You can't go to preschool in the fall without doing something with LEAVES! Since the weather in Houston is far too warm for most trees to change, I had these sent in from Wisconsin. Aren't they wonderful? The kids loved talking about the different colors and shapes and smells. They got to choose their favorite leaves to take home, and the rest we took outside and tossed in the air to watch them flutter down, while we waited for parents.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

TUITION DUE & BOOK-IT REMINDER

Wednesday is the first day of class for the month, and that means tuition is due. Please bring your tuition Wednesday (November 5th). Also, please bring in your Book-It calendars so I can hand out the prize certificates to those who completed the reading goals this month. We started the program late, so the beginning of the month won't be included. If they kept up with reading at least 20 minutes a day alone or with a sibling or parent, then they reached their goal. I will also send home their November reading calendar on Wednesday. The program will go until March.

Week 9 (Oct. 28, 30, 31)

We had fun this week getting ready for Halloween! We read books about spiders and trick-or-treating and monsters and fall leaves... The kids painted these spider webs with water colors over a web I made out of rubber cement. They were excited when they saw that the paint didn't stick very well to the web. I think they turned out VERY well.

We read Where the Wild Things Are and drew our own monsters. We talked about some of the scary costumes and decorations we might see on Halloween. The kids were all excited to show how brave they were going to be on Halloween.  I love that these are the scariest/meanest faces they can make. They are such sweet boys.

Sometimes the floor is the best place to do their work. I am loving seeing their writing samples and how they have improved even in a few weeks.

Quiet book time is a very peaceful part of the day. The kids love reading alone and to each other.

I made "moon goo" (which is cornstarch and water) for the kids to play with. It is a very strange sensory experience. If you move it quickly, you can roll it into a ball, but then if you stop moving it, it becomes liquid again and drips out of your hands... Everyone took a turn.

We brought the blocks downstairs to play with while we waited for the parents at the end of the day. They work together very nicely for the most part, but when there are disagreements, they figure it out themselves. They are so smart.

Mega block building takes over the whole room when we play. They make elaborate stories and creations, but it takes a loooong time to clean up. :)

Working together on these 60 piece puzzles is another favorite. They always fight over who gets to put in the last piece though.

Rescue bots and super heroes were a big part of our week.  They make voices and story lines and build houses and plan rescue missions... It's serious business.

On Halloween, everyone dressed up, and not surprisingly, everyone was a super hero! I was a standard witch, but the kids told me I wasn't a very convincing witch because I wasn't scary. The kids loved being in costume AND being at preschool. They talked about themselves in the third person a lot too. "Wolverine is still hungry, can Wolverine have another apple please?" or "Iron Man needs to go potty. Can Iron Man be excused?" It was so funny.

One last Halloween project, they made jack-o-lanterns. I had them rip paper instead of cutting it. That works different muscles in the hands and is good practice for improved dexterity.

Outside the kids played, although I had to keep reminding them to be careful with their costumes so they could still use them to go trick-or-treating with. They were especially excited about making this super hero train down the slide. I bet they did this 20 times.

Then of course, we did a little photo shoot. They were too cute all dressed up. Logan and Ryan were Iron Man. Jeff and Lullaby were Captain America. Hawken was Wolverine. What an adorable group!

Being TOUGH!

Being HAPPY!