Bubble gum party

Bubble gum party. Sounds fun, right? Today there were three girls all dressed up for a bubble gum party; they were inviting others to join in the fun. I was one of the lucky ones invited, so I joined the fun. There was a very specific order of events that needed to happen. They described them to me in this way:
1. Sign in to the party (on the white board in the house area)
2. Eat some food (which was graciously prepared by one of the hosts)
3. Have a sleep over (which lasted really long and involved snoring....)
4. Go buy some things at the store.... but this actually didn't happen because the play suddenly changed to going on a train ride (#5).... 

In the midst of this wonderfully orchestrated play were multiple ideas/suggestions/opinions. Who gets to decide what happens next? How do you mediate this play when everyone has an idea and how they think it should go? Well, it worked out okay. We decided that whomever was driving the train got to make the decisions. And there you have it! I wish that I could have gotten a picture of the events 1-4, but I was too involved to go grab the camera, but did capture event #5.

Here we are on the Polar Express that left
at night. We barely made it in time, but the
conductor waited until everyone was aboard.
We were a bit cramped, but we all fit on the train.
And somebody brought snacks. Yes!

Oh no! The engine stopped working during our trip.
Thankfully, we had a handy man
on board (guy in the yellow shirt)
that fixed the problem with his trusty tools!

What an experience. To anyone observing this, it may appear a little chaotic, but it actually went quite smoothly even with differing opinions and ideas. The spontaneity, team work and creativity was great to observe and be a part of.

If you're a preschool teacher, you have to learn to play along with whatever happens. It's always an interesting journey - it never turns out quite how you expect....

So much for a bubble gum party.....

Frog and Toad!

SHOWTIMES:

March 1......7p.m. March 2...... 7 p.m.

March 3.......... 7 p.m. March 4.....2 & 7 p.m.

and March 5........ 2 p.m.

Tickets available online at books.hesston.edu 

or call 620-327-8105.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Children are so excited about giving and receiving Valentine's. It is a special day for them. And of course the candy too......!! 

Here is a fun knock knock joke just for Valentine's Day!
Knock - Knock
Who's there?
Olive
Olive who?
Olive you (I Love You!!)

Here are some pictures from today (Tuesday). 

It doesn't get much cuter than this!
His mom asked him if he wanted to dress
fancy for Valentine's day and he said,
that's a good idea!! P.r.e.c.i.o.u.s.

Making Valentine's with Ms. Haley at
the Valentine Station.

Making heart shaped cookies
and other yummy goodies!

I made something for you!

Don't these look tasty?

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Train Engineer

We ended our two week focus on Community Helpers with learning about a train engineer. A preschooler's (MWF) dad is a train engineer but he was not able to make it to class, so the mom came instead and she brought some of his gear along with other cool things. 

Her dad works at night and it
gets cold - so this is his
warm, fuzzy hat to keep 
his head warm!

He works for BNSF and their color
is orange. 

A lantern light

These keys don't start the train.
They actually unlock the tracks. 

This is the BNSF book of rules -- it was really big!

And this was a book that had
all of the train "traffic" lights in it.

There's a lot to learn (and remember) to be a train engineer!!

The Doctor is in!

This week the house area was transformed into a Doctor's office and a preschool parent (who is a nurse) graciously gave us several items to use for "dress up". Ms. Naomi and Ms. Rachel set up the Doctor's office with syringes, gloves, stethoscopes, bandages, etc.... Let the pretending begin!!

Ms. Rachel was the patient. Lucky her.

She's still not well...poor Ms. Rachel. 

Taking care of the baby. 

Ms. Rachel is one sick teacher!

Looks like the Doctor is ready for surgery!

This Doctor does house calls. 

K-9 Elsa visit!

We enjoyed another visitor today - Elsa the K-9 dog! Mr. Colt works for the North Newton PD and brought Elsa along. We learned a lot about a police dog - they go with the police officer wherever they go, they live at the police officer's home, the dog and owner have to go through special training, the police officer talks to the dog in German; she follows his commands!

He talked to us about all of the things
he carries on his belt. 

We got to pet Elsa; she was friendly.

This gal has dogs at home,
so Elsa really wanted to sniff her!!

Colt showed us how Elsa catches her
favorite toy. She was a good listener and catcher!

The back of his police car is where Elsa
stays. She even has a water bowl!

This guy was proud to show off Elsa.

And Colt gave us Jr. Police Officer badge stickers to take home!

Friday visitor!

Another exciting day at preschool. Sergeant Chris Carter from HPD visited us during circle time. We actually came up with questions to ask him to learn more about what he does as a police officer. Then we got to see his police car. It was a pretty cool day!

The list of questions that we asked Sgt Carter.

Answering all of our great questions.

His radio had different channels - so he could
talk to the Newton Fire Department
if he had to.

Lights and sirens are always cool!

Our class in front of the cruiser!

Thursday visitor

How exciting to have a community helper visit our class - Mr. Deputy Sheriff of Harvey County! The children were in awe, unsure and a little speechless about the whole thing. Tim was dressed in his Sheriff's uniform and I assured the children that he wears his uniform when he's working and regular clothes when he's at home. Sometimes seeing a person in uniform frightens children because they don't perceive it as a real person, but someone who is different or scary. 

He had all kinds of interesting
things on his vest. 

He had a cool flashlight.

Anyone want to try lifting the vest?

It was very heavy!

Use those muscles! 

This little guy's dad is the Sheriff Deputy.

This is how someone rode to preschool today.

Inside the Sheriff's car (or cop car!)

He turned the lights and sirens on!!

We were so excited to get outside that
Ms. Larisa forgot to put coats on!
(We weren't outside too long...)