celebrate KANSAS!

Celebrate KANSAS day this Saturday, January 31

at Kauffman Museum in North Newton

1:00-4:00 p.m.

Crafts, Activities, and Displays

NEW this year: Amelia Earhart, LIVE! (11 am - 12 noon)

Kansas Day Lunch at Bethel College Cafeteria (12 noon to 1 pm)

Tractor, Truck and Car Show (Kauffman Museum Parking Lot)

windy Kansas

It's KANSAS week!!

The small group activities this week are focused on wind and air. 

Here is the wind activity - which objects does the wind move?!

That is a fan - a powerful one at that!

You can't see it, but his object flew way up in the air! There were squeals of delight!!

The wind from the fan is pushing the scarf up. Look at the windy hair-do! :)  

BUBBLES!! 





This bubble landed on his hand and didn't pop!



The coolest part of blowing bubbles was to keep blowing air - it actually made the bubbles spin! They would float and land on the towel and not pop right away. This was such a fascinating experiment and this group was the last to go outside because they kept wanting to blow more and more bubbles. 

handwriting

Handwriting begins at a young age - and you as parents obviously see your children hold a writing utensil and attempt to write letters and words. A few years back, I heard about a handwriting curriculum and really liked it, so I started implementing it into the classroom - it is easy and fun for kids to learn how to write letters. It is called Handwriting without Tears; the pre-K version is Get Set for School! I first purchased the wooden capital letters and started using those as children learn how to form letters and then bought several other tools that we use quite often in the preschool. A lot of children are already writing letters when they enter preschool and that is great!! We focus a lot on capital letters, but it is okay if children already know lower case too. 
One of the most commonly used handwriting tool we use is the capital writing sheet - it demonstrates how to write BIG letters using big lines, little lines, big curves, little curves. It's easy for the children to learn!!
In December, I attended a webinar and learned a great way to help children learn to write their name. I wish I would have learned this technique years ago, but now I have it and started using it right away!
Basically I draw a line across the top of the paper (leave room for writing name), then write the child's name with a highlighter in capitals, next mark the starting point of each letter with a red star. Lastly, the children trace over their name with a darker marker. It has worked quite well so far this year. We use it mostly when children do an art picture - they "write" their name first and then work on art! Some of the common phrases they hear us teachers say: Start at the top and use your "busy fingers" (pointer, middle man and thumb), sleepy fingers stay sleeping (ring man and pinky)
Here is a sample:

The "smiley face" lets us know where to start writing.

This helps keep the name organized.

If you are interested in using this same format at home or want to learn more about handwriting- here is a link just for parents!! 
http://www.hwtears.com/hwt/parents

15 little monkeys

Hooray for a sunny day!! A good day for climbing in trees....15 little monkeys swinging in the trees....I kept hearing - look at me and Ms. Larisa take my picture!

giggling and talking like little teenagers. cuteness. :) 

climb high

As we (PM class) were enjoying a sunny day and hanging out at the "rocks and trees" on campus (near Lemons Center across from the library), I heard one child say - "Climb High" and off he went to climb high on a limb! And he literally did....

Here we are --  5 kids and 1 teacher. :) 

Sunshine girls

just the 3 of us

teachers can have fun too....

Part of "learning" for the ECE students is that they get to plan and lead their small group activity this term. During class today, they experimented and tested the activity. Did it work?!

Here they are having a smashingly good time. 

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles!!!

A "windy" experiment!

getting to know Ms. Bethany and Ms. Sarah

We are enjoying our time with Ms. Bethany and 

Ms. Sarah - they are jumping right into the kids activities!

A small group activity with Ms. Bethany -
Pentominoes: putting different shapes together.

Having a very important conversation with Ms. Sarah

It's Lego time - Ms. Sarah in the PM session 

tubes and ramps

There is a lot of creativity and imagination that goes on in the block area. I am always impressed with the many ways that blocks, tubes and other materials are put together and used. So much is going on in these young minds - creativity, constructing, problem solving, conversation, imagination, etc!! The MWF group is into ramps - everyday there is some ramp being built.

Here is a sampling from last weeks ramp combined with big tubes creations....

Hello! Looking through to see if the car made it through!

Lots of experimenting and problem solving!!

How far will it go?!?

Another way to use tubes, blocks and the car ramp.

Two-tubed legged child! 
Bet he can't move too fast with those attached. :) 

doll playhouse

Another "freebie" for the preschool...one of my lovely sis-in-laws gave me a rather large doll playhouse. 

The kids were crazy about it! Yes - even the b.o.y.s.  

Can you guess what era it was from?! :) 

I love that the kids can stick their arms inside it!

The boys did play with it differently than the girls.
The people were sliding down the roof and more "rough and tough" stuff, but they were playing with it. 

I love the addition of this hat. Just what you need while playing!

Fun stuff!!

whiteboards

I few years ago I attended a seminar focused on writing. In that seminar, it encouraged teachers to add whiteboards to the classroom to encourage writing. And so I did. We have two - one in the "house" area and another next to the puzzle table. I added dry erase markers and dry erasers and the kids draw, color and write all over them. They are used on a daily basis. Sometimes things get erased before I get a picture. It's such great practice! 

Here is a sample from this week:

Ms. Larisa made it into the "family". :)

lots of S's and 8's

envelopes

Teachers love donations and freebies!!!!

HC was going to get rid of a lot of envelopes with the old college logo on them. Someone thought of us - and aren't we glad! We took all of the envelopes. All 3 (large) boxes. 

Plus,we got 2-3 boxes of paper too....bonus!

(Our storage closets are full of paper and envelopes. A good problem to have.)

I added the envelopes to the writing center and this is what the kids did with them....

envelopes. paper. markers. check!

coloring.

writing. 

and punching.


The options are endless.

building

The MWF class has 12 boys and 3 girls. I bet you can guess which area of the room is used the most? If you guessed the art area, sorry you're wrong. Yep. It's the block area. building. constructing. crashing. blocks falling. yells of delight. and grunts. some problem solving and much discussion. and a lot of materials all over the floor. 

Almost every day there is a picture to be taken. Friday was no exception. A very complex structure was in the works. Many hands (and minds) were working and adding to it! 

To say I was impressed would be an understatement. 

I think we have some engineers in the making here....

adding the final details

The hard work complete!
Of course, right after I took this picture,
things came crashing down.

the jacket (hat, pants, mittens...) I wear in the snow

Art: the children were given the same materials, but each "person" turned out quite different.  

Here is the result.

(check out the bulletin board at preschool)

someone walked by as I was adding these to the bulletin board.
Their response - these are so cute.

here's the process of adding warm clothes to the "gingerbread man" as they called it. I love the faces they added to their pictures. Most of them got covered up with hats or scarves.
They really worked hard on this project.