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. 

the cold doesn't bother me anyway

Happy New Year! 

Winter has arrived! Wasn't it just a few months ago we were complaining about it being too warm?! :)

One of the first questions kids will ask upon arrival to preschool - are we going outside today? This week the response has been... not today, it's too cold. They respond with - I brought my coat. It will keep me warm. Me - It's still too cold even with a warm coat. 

We've kicked off the return to preschool with a winter theme! Imagine that.

The Jacket I Wear in the Snow is the book we read this past week. An appropriate topic to focus on - wearing warm clothes in the cold and snow. I think the title should read - the PARKA I wear when the bone-chilling Kansas wind blows...

Since we had "fresh" snow on the playground - I brought it inside - and put it in the sensory table.

cold hands don't bother us!!

how long did this last?
longer than you might think. :)

by Friday - the vote was for warm, soapy water!

Everyone was ready to be back at preschool this week. :)

Our Giving Tree

Thanksgiving is past us, but gratefulness and giving can carry on. I love the idea of giving (and not just during the "holidays"). Our giving tree is a tradition and one that started way before I started teaching at HCP. I've continued it because of the value it instills in young children --- 

giving to others. 

As I was explaining the "giving tree" to the MWF class about how we would collect food items to put under our tree and then give to HRC who provides food for families who may not be able to buy food for their family. A child responded with: "That's really sad. I'm going to tell my mom to buy food so I can put it under the tree". And that's what it's all about. 

Here is our tree. Thank you for your donations.