Fire Safety - TR

We read the book, Firefighters by Robert Maass during circle today. The book describes what firefighters do and what they learn when they go to firefighter school -- how to work a hose, how to use a ladder, rope and tools, plus much more. It's always neat to see how children take concepts they've learned and integrate them into their play during choice time. One boy decided that he was going to be a firefighter instructor and teach us pupils how to be firefighters. And so off to school we go!

There was a lot of firetruck engine noises
going off in the block area. Yes, there are
3 fire trucks and one of them makes
real siren noises.

The art area was on fire! 

Here we are receiving important instruction
on how to use a fire hose. In very specific
detail. I think we got it!
Do we look studious?!

Then we had to learn how to use a rope.
Very important information.
I hope I can remember everything.

Fire Safety - MWF

There is something very fascinating and thrilling about firefighters. Children especially enjoy pretending to be firefighters and putting fires out, so we provided hats, hoses and firetrucks and let the pretending begin!

Putting out fires in the house area.
Don't see a fire? Look closer. A child
colored pieces of papers red and
put them around the room. These were
the fires the firefighters had to put out.
Clever!

Got the call and we must go!

These are the fire dogs sniffing out a fire.
Who knew?!
Kids crack me up. 

Art at Frog and Toad

Hopefully you were able to see the delightfully fun Frog and Toad show, but in case you didn't make it, I took a picture of the children's art work that was on display. And our name - Hesston College Preschool made it into the program. Impressive!

Looking good!

We are famous!

The beautiful set - wish we could snag this 
artwork for the preschool....

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!!