What to do?

School is out and it's the holidays. What to do? Here are some simple ideas with things you may already have on hand....

• Homemade play-dough (here's a recipe: www.familyeducation.com/fun/playdough/6-homemade-playdough-recipes)
• String beads on pipe cleaner
• enjoy books together
• build a fort
• paper and markers (draw pictures and send to family or friends)
• play games! (https://www.familyeducation.com/fun/christmas-activities-traditions/12-days-fun-cheap-christmas-activities-families)

Merry Christmas!

We had a terrific response of giving for our "giving tree" at preschool. Thank you all for your generosity in giving and helping the children learn the joy of giving during this season! I know that the Hesston Resource Center and families that receive these items will appreciate your thoughtfulness. Thanks again!

Wishing you a blessed Christmas season!!

Class pictures

It has taken us almost all semester to get class pictures done. But we did it!

TR class

MWF class

We are thankful....

We are thankful for each family and child who attends preschool. We are honored to work with and teach each one. Thank you for entrusting them into our care. 

                                 

Nature

Nature is one of my loves and I try to integrate it into each day, in some way. A few weeks ago we learned about apples and I had collected a LOT of acorns and buckeyes for the sensory table. We dumped all of the acorns and buckeyes on the playground in hopes that the squirrels would find and hide them. Nope. They aren't very hungry squirrels. Every single acorn and buckeye are still on the playground. The children are very fascinated with these acorns and buckeyes and are collecting them and stomping them whenever we go out to the playground. It's great! 

Stomp and crack!

She cracked open and lined up these nuts
for the squirrels. She made it
easy for them.

Making pumpkin muffins

Such good, dedicated little helpers. We had a good time and nothing dumped or spilled. Whew!!

We are ready to make some muffins!

Stirring takes work and concentration

Get all of the lumps out.

Here's our step-by-step recipe

Mixing the wet ingredients

It's helpful to have a friend
hold the bowl while you mix.

Mixing dry and wet ingredients
together.

And I don't have a picture of the finished product.
We were too busy eating them!! 

Pumpkin Muffins Recipe

I know something is good if the children ask for the recipe (or say "make it again"). Most of the children really enjoyed the muffins. Not a crumb left. Here is the trusty recipe. I did make some substitutions and it seemed to work okay (I used canola oil in one batch and butter in another). 
Monday's group made the muffins. Tuesday's group just enjoyed them. :)

BEST EVER PUMPKIN MUFFINS

Serves: 12

Ingredients:

·      1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

·      1 cup sugar

·      1/2 cup dark brown sugar

·      1 teaspoon baking soda

·      1/2 teaspoon salt

·      2 teaspoons cinnamon

·      1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

·      1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

·      2 eggs

·      1 15 ounce can pure pumpkin puree

·      1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

·      1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Directions:

1.   Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place 12 paper liners into each well of your standard size muffin baking pan.

2.   Measure out the flour, sugars, baking soda, salt and spices in a medium bowl and whisk together. Set aside.

3.   In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin puree, coconut oil and vanilla extract.

4.   Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir together. Do not over mix, just stir until everything is incorporated into the batter.

5.   It is helpful to use a large scoop (like an ice cream scoop) to evenly distribute the batter into each well. They will be nearly full. This will help give your muffins a nice puffy dome.

6.   Bake your muffins for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Notes:

Recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction
Recipe by Lovely Little Kitchen at http://lovelylittlekitchen.com/best-ever-pumpkin-muffins/

Kansas Reads!

Kansas Reads to Preschoolers Week is 

November 13-19!

The title for this year's book is... Bear Sees Colors by Karma Wilson.  Although early childhood education professionals, librarians, parents and caregivers statewide celebrate the importance of reading in the lives of young Kansans every day, once a year, during the month of November, it is our goal that all Kansas children, birth through age five, experience the joy of an incredible story.

Bear Sees Colors is this year's incredible story. The story takes children on an adventure through the woods where they can help Bear and Mouse spot all the colors along the way. The story also offers children the opportunity to develop their rhyming and observation skills.

Check out your local Child Care Resource and Referral Agency and public library for Kansas Reads to Preschoolers events in your area.

Kansas Reads to Preschoolers is an annual event made possible by the State Library of Kansas. For more information about Kansas Reads to Preschoolers and to see programming ideas and resources for Bear Sees Colors visit the State Library Website, Pinterest, or the Child Care Aware of Kansas website.

We will be reading this book during the closing story next week at preschool!

HAPPY READING!!

Train and the beach

You just never know where you will travel when you come to preschool. The train went to Florida today. I hopped on and joined the fun. The train ride took 159 hours, but it didn't feel nearly that long. While on the train, there was 1 worker on crew that kept us well fed. Upon our arrival, we got our swimsuits on, lathered on sun screen, gathered beach towels and we were ready for the beach! (I was told there was a restaurant at the beach so we didn't need to worry about food. And thankfully there were extra swimsuits on the train...none of us brought ours along!)

Here we come, Florida!

This is our (imaginary) ocean!

Ordering lunch. Our choices were:
peanut butter sandwich and chips
OR
hamburger and fries
(I tried ordering a strawberry shake with my
hamburger and fries and was told
I'd have to eat the burger and fries first and
then I could have the shake. Bummer!)

Here were are soaking in the sun at the beach.
Don't we look relaxed? 

All Aboard!

We learned a lot about Freight Trains today. The book I used is called, Inside Freight Trains by Donald Crews. It is a wonderful book - some of the pages slide open to reveal what is inside each car. We set up a train at preschool. The driving wheel turned into a train with chairs behind it. The favorite thing to do was to punch the train tickets. One of the teacher assistants helped with turn taking (to be the engineer with hat included) and all went swimmingly!! (This group did amazing with turn taking.) 

Here we go!!

Here's the preschool train!

And there was other train playing too.

Getting dressed up, adding cushions, phones, purses, etc.
are all essential for riding the train you know!

Applesauce!

Homemade applesauce. There is nothing like it. We made it today and there was not a drop of it leftover. It's easy to make. All you need are cooked apples and an applesauce maker (that's not the technical name of it). The children really, really liked it!! By the way, I cooked a variety of apples: Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Honey Crisp and some Gala. 

During circle we thought of things
we've learned about apples.
Forgive the lack of sentence structure!

We are ready to make some applesauce!

Turn and crank.

The children decided that the core, stem and seeds
may not be as tasty as the juicy
goodness of the applesauce.
One child exclaimed, GROSS as he saw
that stuff ooze out of the end....

I cooked a smaller second batch of apples.
Some children wanted turn #2 to crank
the machine. 

All gone!!

We are full of applesauce!!
(12 out of the 15 kiddos loved the stuff!)
WE LOVE APPLES!!

Stomp!

Even though we are talking about apples this week, the sensory table is full of acorns and buckeyes. Inside each of the hard outer shells are the nuts that squirrels love so much. We did some stomping today to discover what was inside these hard shells. 

The smaller acorns were easier to crack open.
Ms. Larisa had to use a hammer for the
buckeyes. They have a really hard outer
shell.

Stomp. Crack!

Look what we discovered inside!

More stomping...

It took some powerful stomping
to crack these shells!

And the children were good helpers cleaning
up the broken and empty shells.
We put the nuts on the playground outside in hopes
that squirrels will find them.
We'll check next week to see if they are still there!

Happy Stomping!! 

Halloween!

There was a calm excitement in class the last few days -- getting to wear costumes to preschool is pretty awesome.

These gals wanted to use my
special teacher wand and tiara.

Do you recognize us?
MWF group

TR group

elephant city

Building can be a quick task or it can be more deliberate, intentional and complex. Today is an example of the latter. One cool thing about team work is the collaboration and language that is taking place. Many ideas coming together. Negotiations and compromise are a must. It usually starts out with a few children building, then others join in and add their part, and then before you know it you have an elephant city or a skyscraper. (They couldn't quite agree on what it should be called).

The process is important.
Each piece has its place.
Deliberate. Intentional. Complex.

Getting there. But not quite ready.

I was ready to take the picture
and then a child decided it needed more...
so the orange cones were added.
This is when the discussion of what
it should be called was occurring....
Team work. Collaboration!!

Getting fancy

Some children were getting all fancy in the house area on Thursday. They got all dressed up and were ready to go...... but hadn't quite decided where it is they were going, but they were ready!!

The expressions here are priceless. 

Teachers need to get all fancy too.....

worms

Big, fat, juicy ones. Oh how they wiggle and squirm. Some children dug right into the dirt and others stood back, cautiously watching. Overall they were very fascinated with the little critters. 

24 squiggly, wiggly night crawler worms.....

Let me just look first and then I'll touch them. 

The teacher was strongly encouraged
to pick one up, but the child bolted.