leaf painting

Found this art idea from http://www.momto2poshlildivas.com/2012/11/pine-cone-leaf-painting.html and adapted it a bit. 
Here's what we did:
1. Chose a leaf cut out.
2. Chose which Fall colors to paint the leaf.
3. Teacher globed paint in the empty rolled oats container (or tub since I only had 2 oats containers)
4. Added acorns, pine cones and popcorn kernels.
5. Closed the lid then shook and rolled the container until we were done, or until our arms got tired. 

They are displayed at the preschool!!

a nature scavenger hunt!

Fall is here and the college campus is loaded with a variety of trees and seeds, such a great place to explore and discover nature!! Today during my small group activity, we set out to find a variety of nature items, each child having their own list of what to find, which I ended up holding since it was a little windy.

Coloring our nature bags with "colors of nature crayons"

We are ready to explore!

The wind was blowing us everywhere.

We found everything on our list.
Ms. Larisa actually checked off the items on our lists
since the wind was not being very helpful.

dot to dot art

I follow several educational preschool blogs and often find great ideas. Here is one I found recently and we tried it today. It was simple, but creative! First I put sticker dots on card stock paper, then the children connected the dots to make shapes, and lastly added more detail to the shapes. They created some great pictures and we kept them for their portfolio books. A great activity to help children learn how to draw shapes. 
This idea came from www.teachpreschool.org

Shop day!

Today we learned that the preschool isn't the only thing in the Laban Peachey Center. We visited the "shop" just across the hall. Mr. Tim is really good at working with wood and he taught us all about saws, hammers, nails, drills, etc. He even made a wood truck for our preschool, plus some pretty awesome homemade wood tops! It was a fun day. 

We had to put safety goggles on first.

Mr. Tim had us feel a rough piece of wood. He used a sander to make it smooth.

hello!

He used this saw to cut a piece of wood for our truck.

This band saw cut out the front part of the wood.

Then he drilled a big hole in for the window.
And two smaller holes for the wheels. 

Time for wood glue.

Ta da - a new wood truck for preschool!

To TOP it all off -- Mr. Tim was gracious enough and made us all tops to take home.
Aren't these cool? He said his wife saw this idea on pinterest. :)

Thursday morning and Yost Center

Today was a lesson in waiting and patience. For art today we stood to paint and because we used roller paints, there was only room for 2 children at a time. The waiting was hard, but everyone got a turn!! At the end of the day (right after snack) we ventured over to Yost Center to visit a preschoolers dad who works there. We walked into Yost Center and a basketball player was shooting baskets, so we stopped and watched. It was so fascinating. He would throw the ball into the basketball hoop and then the ball would fall into a machine and throw it back out to the player. Pretty cool. We visited the preschoolers dad's office and then took a picture on the basketball courts, and then we got to play at the rocks and trees. 

The vivid colors were mixed together, layer after layer.
They turned out so pretty - each one unique!!

Collecting paper hearts in the cup
(yes, they are left over from valentine's day)
and hearts on the shirt. 

Giggly girl.
Isn't that just the orneriest face you've ever seen?

She's not sleeping, even though she looks like it. She looked so relaxed and comfortable sitting there in the tub, looking at a book. Don't you want to join her?

A basketball player shooting some hoops.
See that ball machine? It was cool to see it throw the ball back out to the player. 

Dad and son. :) 

In an office but not in trouble. 

It was hard to focus on Ms. Larisa when there is a
basketball player shooting hoops in the background. Oh well, we tried.

  

Bel Canto practice

We are sure getting some good music time in these last few weeks. Ms. Molly leaves early on MWF so she can make it to Bel Canto practice on time. Today we got to be there for practice, about 10 minutes. They sang a  "hello" song in Zimbabwe and then we stood up with them to learn how to sing Do, Re, Mi with the hand motions. It was a little like Sound of Music, except Julie Andrews was not there!! We had a great time. 

When we walked in the room, Ms. Molly went over to get her music folder from a cabinet and then she showed it to us.

Mr. Russell Adrian, choral conductor

They sounded great!!! The sound in this practice room was phenomenal!!!The kids were entranced. 

Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do!!
We may have some future Bel Canto Singers!!
Ms. Kathryn (comes in on Mondays) is the tall lady wearing the black jacket and 
Ms. Molly is wearing the red sweater. 

Administration building

Today we had 2 visits on campus, one right after the other. First we walked to the Administration building (tallest building on campus) to the 2nd floor (business office) to visit Mr. Mark, a preschoolers dad. We also met Mr. Karl and Ms. Debbie who also work in that office. We had a quick lesson in economics (ha!) in that it costs money to go to school. :) Mr. Mark gave us a Hesston College sticker and a piece of candy (handed out at the end of the day) and we got to push an "easy" button, which said "that was easy" over and over again. Then it was off to Northlawn.

                                                   

That was easy!

Right outside the Administration building