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!!

Worms, Flowers and the Greenhouse!

That is quite the mouthful of words, but there has been a lot of activity at preschool the last few days. Dirt and worms (they call them night crawlers because they are so big and juicy!) were added to the sensory table. The dramatic play area was transformed into a flower shop and we visited the college's greenhouse, which is right next door to our preschool playground!

A bowl full of worms!

A beautiful bouquet of flowers!

Lots of flowers are growing in here. 

How many worms can you find?

squiggly, wiggly worms

All dressed up!

There is sure a sea of pink in this picture!

Future Teachers!

I enjoy watching children pretend to be teachers. It's typically the children in the TR class who enjoy doing this. They sometimes tell me they are going to pretend to be a teacher (maybe they think they have to get permission first...), or some children just start pretending. It's a fine line to cross. I usually stand back and watch but cautiously and only get involved if I am invited to be a "student." Yesterday the children wanted me right there - front and center. My role was the student. And I go along with it! It started out with one child wanting to do it and then expanded to more children wanting to play this important role. I had to get out the timer for turn taking. There was a lot of "Is it my turn yet?" But overall, they patiently waited until it was their turn. I think everyone who wanted to be a teacher was able to fulfill that role for at least a few minutes anyway. 
There are several things I observed about pretending to be a teacher: 1. You get to write on the white board. 2. The students are supposed to answer your questions. 3. You get to sit on the teacher spot!!

Learning about letters.

Counting the name cards
to see how many children are at preschool.

Writing numbers on the board.

"What is this?"
When we learn about the letter
of the week, we show the children pictures that go along
with that letter. The teacher usually asks individual children,
What is this? And so the "teachers" imitated that behavior.
And some were singing our letter of the week song too...
"Our letter of the week is __Q___,
the sound it makes is ____Qua, Qua, Qua_.
Our letter of the week is ____Q__,
__quack___ (show picture card)
begins with ___Q___."

(tune: Mary had a little lamb)

There were additional teachers who taught the class, but I didn't get a picture of everyone...... You might notice the hanging pocket center to the right - that is where we keep the letter of the week picture cards. Children enjoy pulling them out.  Ms. Larisa sorted about 40 different letter picture cards after the fun was over. 

Rhyming!!

Simple rhyming activities to do at home!

Rhyming words are fun and help children gain important pre-reading skills! Here are some simple activities to do that encourages rhyming. Let your children come up with fun, nonsense words too…

• Read rhyming books (Dr. Seuss – Hop on Pop, One Fish Two Fish, Wocket in my Pocket; Is Your Mama a Llama?; One Duck Stuck; Rumble in the Jungle) Emphasize words that rhyme – repeat them over and over again.
• Sing or chant Nursery Rhymes!
• Play bingo or memory rhyming games
• Here is a rhyme we do at preschool:

2 little blackbirds sitting on the hill.

One name Jack and one named Jill.

Fly away Jack, Fly away Jill.

Come back Jack, Come back Jill.

Insert other possible verses such as:

2 little blackbirds sitting on (in)  my shoe

One is__red____ and the other is a ____blue_____.

Fly away red, Fly away blue.

Come back red, Come back blue.

Other rhymes: My nose – tulip and rose; A rug – bird and bug; My toe – yes and no; A dish whale and fish; A boat – horse and goat; A star – truck and car; A tree – ant and bee; 

A box – cat and fox; A log – cat and dog; A tie – cake and pie; The sun – silly and fun; In a pool – church and school; A house – frog and mouse; A block – watch and clock; A king – necklace and ring; In heaven – six and seven; Sticks – five and six; My dad – happy and sad; A sink – purple and pink; A gate – seven and eight; Down below – fast and slow; Jell-O – green and yellow; My head – blue and red; A ball – short and tall…..What can you come up with?!?

Astronauts!

Today we read a book called: Astronauts by Sarah Tieck 
It was a very informative and interesting book to read about all of the work, knowledge and preparation required to be an Astronaut. It is not for the faint of heart. Afterwards, during circle, some boys set to work on building a spaceship that would be going into outer space. After the spaceship was ready and the astronauts were inside, it blasted off into space. And there were some of us onlookers that got to witness this exciting event. The "director" of the astronauts went around and invited the entire class to watch the spaceship take off. It required using our imagination! 

The book about Astronauts.

The Astronauts waving from 
their perch in the spaceship.

The view from the onlookers perch
a safe distance away from the
spaceship. Note the other astronaut
at the controls on the ground.

Astronaut Sand

Children amaze me. They are creative and imaginative and help me think outside of the box. I've had moon sand in the sensory table and rolled it outside today to dump it in our sandbox. There was an eruption of excitement when I did this. Who knew that moon sand being dumped in with regular sand could be so thrilling? It's the little things. Then, four little guys got to work...they were digging fervently and furiously, on a mission. Out of the blue they discover hidden "treasure" - several sand shovels and a small cup that had been buried deep in the sand, and they discovered it. And they were pumped! 

The conversation going on in the middle of their digging was really cool! 

Rockets and Spaceships!

This week we worked on rockets or spaceships at the art table. Thanks to all of the families for cereal boxes and loads of other materials that we used to create our own spaceship or rockets. We pushed two tables together to work on our projects and off we went!! It was awesome to see how creative children were and how each spaceship or rocket was unique, depending on the child creating it and what features they wanted it to have! 

Colored duct tape is awesome! 

What a busy place!
Ms. Larisa had to keep the tape coming....

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.....

BLAST OFF! 

TR group getting busy with
their rockets and space ships.

The airplane simulator is now a rocket
ship simulator. The astronauts
are laying down because that's the position
they would be in if they were to take off
in a rocket!

Count down....

Testing out the rockets.
They seemed to be in good working order.