Seeds

This week we turned our attention to seeds.  We looked at seeds as we first came in today and talked about seeds that are planted in the ground and grow pumpkins.

Outdoor Classroom:  The weather is still cooperating and we plan to go outside everyday.  Thank you for dressing your children appropriately.  It has been chilly in the morning and a light jacket does feel good.

Circle Time:  We read the book "Growing Pumpkins".  It was a giant-sized book.  We learned three new songs:  "I'm an Acorn", "Way Up High in the Apple Tree", and "Five Little Pumpkins".

Snack Time:  We had bananas and juice today.  Thank you, Anish.

Free Time:  While the children were playing, a giant group gluing project was going on in the Art Center. 

See you on Wednesday for the Pumpkin Patch field trip.  Please remember to come inside with your child on that day.

Picture Day!

Today was Picture Day!  The photographer's name was Jerry.  He took every one's individual picture and then a Class Picture when he was all finished.  Since Mrs. Lehenbauer was busy helping Jerry, Mrs. Stineman from the Preschool Board helped us out.  On Thursday, Macyn's mom, Dawn (who is also on the Preschool Board), helped us out.

Outdoor Classroom:  After our Open House last night and before Preschool this morning, a spider got busy and spun a beautiful web by the water table.  It was interesting to see the web.  Chloe wondered why Mrs. Myers' spider in the bug catcher has not spun a web yet?  We don't know.  On Thursday, we let all of the bugs in the bug catchers go free.  We felt that they needed to have a nice weekend with lots of space.

Circle Time:  We read the story "Ten Little Ladybugs".  This book helped us with our counting skills.  We sang bug songs and "If You're Happy and You Know It".

Snack Time:  We had bananas and juice.  Thank you, Karley.  Thursday's snack was graham crackers and apple juice.  Thank you, Bennett.

Free Time:  Since it was Picture Day we didn't have the paints and markers out so that our clothes would stay nice.  The children discovered how fun it was to use the glue sticks and the hole punches.

Green Group, all of your permissions have been returned.  Thank you!  See you next week.  Yellow Group, thank you to those who have returned permissions. 

Still Finding Bugs

Don't forget that Picture Day for the Green Group is Wednesday and Thursday for the Yellow Group.

 

Mrs. Whiteman and Mrs. Myers searched outside the preschool today and found the following bugs:  earwigs, a black cricket, roly-polys and an unknown beetle.  Parker brought in a leaf with an empty spider's egg sac.  On Tuesday, Mrs. Myers brought a bug catcher full of bugs that she found on her walk at home.  Inside it were two grasshoppers and a biiiiiiig spider!  Bryson brought in bird feeders to put in our Outdoor Classroom.

Outdoor Classroom:  The storm blew off the top of our sand table while we were gone.  Our sand got wet from the rain.  It was fun to play with the wet sand for a change.  Evan and Easton kept busy making an environment for the bugs we caught using acorn tops, leaves, sticks and mulch.  We also found a big spider and added him into our bug box.  On Tuesday, the ramps and balls were out.  The children had fun figuring out what to do with them.  When they realized that there were not enough balls to go around they discovered that acorns rolled down just as well. 

Circle Time:  We read "Our Neighborhood" and sang "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" using a fast, slow and medium tempo.

Snack Time:  We had crackers and apple juice.  Tuesday's snack was Go-gurt and juice.  Thank you, Annabelle.

Free Play:  Painting with squishy rings was offered at the easel.

Our Open House is tonight (Tuesday) at 5:30.  We hope to see you there.  Don't forget to get those permission slips in with payment by Wednesday (Green Group)!  Permissions for the Yellow Group are due on Thursday.

The Bugs Are Free!

After watching the bugs for the past few days, we decided it was time to let them go free.

Outdoor Classroom:  We thought the moth that Mrs. Whiteman had caught was dead, but when we looked closer...he was alive!  He flew away.  We opened up the container with the daddy long legs in it and they crawled away.  A few children let them crawl on their hands and up their arms.  We opened up the locust container that Abbey had brought in and touched its crunchy shell.  There was no bug inside.  The moth that Mrs. Myers brought in today was dead, but we still touched its furry body.  And finally, we released the crickets.  They hopped away so fast that nobody was able to catch them.

Circle Time:  We read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".  We sang a few bug songs.

Snack Time:  Ava brought in Rice Krispie Treats and white cherry grape juice.  Thank you, Ava.

Free Play:  The children were busy and had fun playing train with Mrs. Myers.  There was also a lot of action at the Art Table. 

Thank you to everyone who returned their book orders and field trip permissions.  Please remember to include payment when returning the form for our trip to Shady Knoll.

We Had a Helper

Parents:  The field trip note went home today (Wednesday).  Please fill it out and return it as soon as possible.

Mrs. Whiteman had an appointment this morning so we were lucky enough to have Mrs. Lehenbauer and Mrs. Stineman join us.  They enjoyed participating and we loved having them.

Outdoor Classroom:  We didn't do the water activities today since it was a little chilly when we went outside.  So, we had scarves and ribbons.  We ran with those.  We had a lot of people playing with the toy trucks and tractors which was fitting because we had a lot of construction going on in the road.  We were lucky to have the weather hold out, so we stayed out a little longer than normal.

Circle Time:  We reviewed the big butterfly book that we read on Monday that showed the life cycle of the butterfly.  Then we read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle which is also goes through the life cycle of a butterfly.  The children seemed to enjoy the books very much.

Snack:  Parker brought crackers, watermelon and milk.  Thank you, Parker.  The watermelon was a hit!

Free Play:  The Duplo blocks really got a workout today and so did the Magnatiles.  We enjoyed the Media Center reading under the canopy.

We had some loud thunder during our day.  Some of the children were excited.  A few, not so much. 

More Bugs

Parents:  The field trip note went home today (Tuesday).  Please take note and return as soon as possible.

The crickets are still with us, but Mrs. Whiteman brought in a moth and 3 daddy long legs for us to look at as we came in this morning.  On Tuesday, Abbey brought in a cicada shell for us to look at.  We tried to treat them gently and be quiet so that we did not scare them.

Outdoor Classroom:  We wore our coats and went outside.  Thanks parents for dressing your children for the weather.  Because it was cold, we did not play at the water table.  Instead, we used the scarves and wrist ribbons and ran around the yard pretending that we were butterflies.  The Yellow Group found an earwig and two rolly-polly bugs.  We put them on the table and watched them crawl around.

Circle Time:  Our story was called "A Butterfly Is Born".  It was a BIG book.  It showed the life cycle of a butterfly using huge pictures.  We also looked at the book, "Papi, How Many Stars Are in the Sky?" from the Creative Curriculum.  We looked at the pictures and talked about when we see stars.  We sang all of the bug songs that we could before it was time to line up for snack.

Snack:  Today's snack was bananas.  The children peeled them themselves.  We reinforced the routine of staying at the table until being excused by a teacher.  On Tuesday we also celebrated two birthdays; Ava and Nevaeh.  Happy Birthday!

Play Time:  We painted with fall colors at the easel.  Thank you to Brennan and Sawyer for bringing in some ties and some jewelry.  We will use them in the Housekeeping Center.

Because the children are starting to wear coats, we will start to teach them how to do it themselves.  The 'preschool way' is to lay the coat down with the hood/collar at the feet; put the hands through the armholes; then flip the coat over the head.  Any help that you can give us with reinforcing this new skill would be greatly appreciated.

Another Great Day!

The children seem to be settling into our school routine.  It is becoming easier to transition between activities. 

Outdoor Classroom:  The construction equipment on Tanglefoot was not in use today.  Even though there wasn't as much to watch, we appreciated the quiet!  We found spiders that had made webs on our fence.  On Thursday, the construction equipment was active.  The back hoe loader was scooping the dirt into the dump truck.

Circle Time:  We read the story "The Very Busy Spider" by Eric Carle.  The children seemed very interested in all of the animals mentioned in the book.  They seemed to know their animal noises very well!  We sang more bug songs including "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and we learned a new song called "If You're Happy and You Know It!".

Snack Time:  We had bananas and milk today.  The children were encouraged to peel their own bananas.  Thank you, Kaitlyn.  We had CheezIts and apple juice on Thursday.  Thank you, Kaylee.

Free Play:  Children kept busy during Free Play and were offered a chance to paint with Tempura Paint.  They made lots of pictures on the easel.

Nevaeh passed out a birthday treat today.  Happy Birthday, Nevaeh!

Have a great day and enjoy the break in the weather.

Here Come the Crickets

We have started to notice bugs around the Outdoor Classroom, so, we are going to focus a little more on bugs for a while.  Today Mrs. Whiteman brought in ten crickets which she bought at Teskes.
They eat carrots and drink from a cotton ball soaked in water.

Outdoor Classroom:  Mrs. Whiteman brought in a big container that had a hole in it the size of an acorn.  Several children spent the morning putting acorns in our "acorn bank".  It was fun.  Noelle spotted an ant on the tree.  It was moving very fast.  On Tuesday, Olive found a Cicada killing wasp that had died.  It is big and scary looking.

Circle Time:  We read the stories "The Very Quiet Cricket" and "A World of Families".

Snack Time:  Easton brought Rice Krispie Treats and apple juice.  Thank you, Easton.  Our snack for Tuesday was Mini Club Crackers and Juicy Juice.  Thank you, Macyn.

Free Play:  The children played in all of the Centers and painted a mural together.  We will hang the mural out on the wall in the hallway.  It turned out very pretty.

Try to stay cool!

Talking About Bugs

Today we started noticing a few bugs around the school.  And, so, we started talking about them a little.

Outdoor Classroom:  Olive found a spider on her marker when she was coloring.  It was very, very tiny.  Bennett had a spider on his leg.  He did not like that one bit! 

Circle Time:  We read the story "Butterfly, Butterfly".  It has a beautiful pop-up of a butterfly that surprised us at the end.  We sang as many bug songs as Mrs. Whiteman could thing of like:  "The Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Here's the Beehive", "Ladybug, Ladybug", "Two Little Butterflies Sitting on a Hill" and "The Ants Go Marching".

Snack:  We had Go-Gurt and juice from Payten.  Thank you.

Free Play:  All went well.  We had a lot of artists and builders. 

Have a great weekend.

Day of Exploration

We are getting to know each other here at Preschool.  We are even learning each other's names.

Outside Classroom:  We explored the various things in our yard including acorns and pine cones.  We collected things with our buckets.  We broke open acorns and looked to see what was inside.

Songs:  We sang our welcome song, "Rise and Shine".  We also did "The Freeze". 

Story:  "Wemberly Worries" was our story today.  It is about a little girl who worries about everything, including school.  But, when she goes to school, she meets a friend and that helps her to stop worrying.

Snack:  We had our plastic glasses for the first time.  Guess what?  No one spilled.  Brennan brought apple juice and animal crackers.  We wound up talking about the zoo and the circus!  Our snack on Wednesday was from Ethan.  We had milk and CheezIts!  Thank you.

Free Play:  There was a lot of activity in the block area building tracks for cars and other toys.  Mrs. Myers read stories to us in the Media Center.