Rocking out to record player music!

We have a spin art area in the preschool - the spinny part of it is actually a record player. Today, the children started asking questions about what this thing (record player) actually was. I explained that you put a record on it and listen to music. They were curious and wanted me to get a record so they could hear it. And so I obliged and the fun began! We danced to several records because they couldn't get enough of the fun! It was a good 'ol preschool dance party (that is what one of the children called it!)
It was a good flash to the past because that is how I grew up listening to music....

Here we are dancing away! 

Ms. Tami came into the room because she heard
the music playing and took our picture as we
were dancing!

The hokey pokey!! 

The last days of preschool....

I always get a little nostalgic this time of year, especially as this will be my last year here at HCP.  The MWF class is experiencing this too as they move onto Kindergarten next year! It's always interesting to see what activities children chose to do for the "last time." Soak it in children!!

Salt painting is a cool thing!!

It started with a few simple blocks and animals,
and then.....

more was added and the play exploded!!
(not literally, but there was so much role playing
going on!)

Little puppies and kitties riding in the
bus.

Enjoying the sensory table.

Making collars for the giraffes. :) 

We're going to the zoo....

We have 3 tubs of zoo animals at preschool. And those tubs are usually dumped and the animals placed in a variety of homes or cages in the block area. Some children sort them by groups, some role play with them, and others build homes for them. It's neat to see how children use their imagination! 

Each animal group has their own place.

This zoo train is headed to the......!

For the love of hermit crabs!

Hermit crabs take the cake when it comes to classroom pets. They are pretty low maintenance and I usually have several children that are the "pet keepers" - they check on them everyday, pick them up (yes, I allow the children to handle them; they are careful to pick them up by the back of their shell and not touch the pincer claw and will usually ask for help) and carry them around or just observe them. It's helpful to have these pet keepers because Ms. Larisa gets a little busy and usually forgets about the poor crabs. Here are some pictures of what the TR class does with the hermit crabs.

These two children
were the crab whisperer's as the crabs actually
walked around a little.... sometimes the crabs
don't do a thing. 

It's fun to read to crabs too.

A herd of children gathered around to
watch and see if the crabs would walk
around.

Giddy Up!

Today we learned about Horses! Ms. Rebecca planned and led all of the activities today. The highlight of the day was riding stick horses in the preschool. Yee-haw!!

Off they go! 

Getting his horse ready to ride.

There they go!

Moooooo......

Guess which animal we learned about on Tuesday? Yep - COWS! Ms. Morgan planned and led all of the learning activities and we had a blast. We made butter, milked a cow, played with farm animals and much more!

Here's the homemade cow that Ms. Morgan made.

Squeeze and pull those udders! 

Farm animal fun!

Ms. Haley joined in the farm play.

Shaking the jar of heavy cream to make butter.
We ate some butter on a cracker for snack and
it was very, very good!

Farm Animals!

We have had a busy month since the last post - where does time go? This week we added farm animals and metal fences to the block area and it was the busiest place - ever! Thanks to a preschool family for loaning us their farm animals and metal fences - it adds a lot to the block area. There was a lot of neighing, oinking, cock-a-doodle -dooing and all kinds of noises coming from a certain area of the room. It was neat to see the children role play with the animals and even problem solve (on their own) with turn taking.....
Ms. Ivonne planned and led the activities on Monday.

They figured out how to combine the fences together
so they could play together!

It was an active place to be!!