Time Change

Hey Everyone- Tomorrow, Thurs. Dec 11, I need to start preschool at 10:15 instead of 9:30. I am happy to still do it for he full 2 hours unless it interferes with your nap/lunch schedule, then we could end at 11:45 if it is easier. Please let me know when you prefer it to end. I need to change because we have our Christmas enrichment dinner and we are setting up in the morning until 10:00. Originally I told them that I couldn't help because of preschool but when I found out we had over 90 signed up I can't not help. Anyway, Maren suggested that I switch days and do it today, but I realized with the practice for the program and such it would just be to much for one day. Let me know what time you think. Thanks- Shel

Today @ Katie's house

We began by gluing together our sled ornaments. Then went over the calender and took turns raising hands to tell about the REAL meaning of Christmas. I was super proud that when I asked if Christmas was all about Santa they all said NO! That's right!
We sang Christmas songs. One of them was Once There Was a Snow man, pictured below.
Snack was those natural fruit snacks from Sprouts and popcorn. Some kids LOVED them, others weren't so down.
We played the Alphabet matching game. Where we match upper and lower case letters. Then we were suppose to say a word that starts with that letter's sound. I say SUPPOSE to because Kawika was SO tired at this point that he got up in everyone's face. I feel like I need a babysitter..J/K(well not totally, but I AM NOT asking for one)
The kids played outside for a little bit before it was time to get some reading in the Pirates book. It went by SO fast.

Before Snowman

Tall Snowman

Small Small Small Snowman

PS if you can fix the spacing on the pictures that'd be great. My computer is Wack. Also as of today the Calendar is correct. So disregard any past conversations.

Lesson Plan for Activities in December

In my attempt to be more planned and prepared I have decided to schedule for activities in December. For Friday, December 5th I would like to have a field trip to Wildlife Zoo. I will try to recruit a few women in the ward to come so we can get the preschool rate. Then Friday, the 19th we can have a Christmas party. I will plan all the activities, games, and we'll draw names beforehand for a fun cheap secret Santa gift exchange! We can have it here or maybe so everyone can come do it at the park for more space! Love to get everyone's feedback! Thanks!

No Preschool Tomorrow

I am sorry to do this so last minute, but I am not going to be able to have preschool tomorrow. It was a crazy unexpected day today so I was unable to get some Thanksgiving activities together. I will also try calling everyone in the morning! Happy Friday! Thanks everyone and hopefully I'll see everyone at Twilight!

11/18/08

Some things we did (in no particular order):

*Quick review of different sounds as we marched around the cultesac.

*Read Tree House book (about pirates :)

*Ate pretzels and Gogurts

*Played Duck Duck Goose (or Ketchup Ketchup Mustard :)

*Reviewed the Calendar and kids took turns explaining Thanksgiving to me.

*Went over different words that end in AT, (we haven't done T yet, but they all know that sound great.)

*Hand writing pages

*Recess in the yard

I hardly ever take pictures but today, I had a moment to capture them eating. I should have taken a picture of us marching in the front, that was pretty cute.

(I didn't say it was a GOOD picture :)

Cute kids:
London: When all the kids went outside to get away from the Dog, she decided it'd be a great time to get some alone time with him inside.

Alyssa: Is so excited about Grandma coming or something about Grandma.

Jade:Put Israel in his place when he said girls can't be super heroes (I totally had her back)

Israel:was put in his place by a girl :)

Finn: Walked in some spilt dog water and was pretty positive it was dog pee, so we had to wash his feet & slippers thoroughly before we could breath well.

Kawika: Loves to do anything to distract the class from learning, which usually works best with Alyssa.

Preschool lesson 11/11- Rain/Weather

We had another fun day at preschool. We stared out singing songs, reading the book, and talking about the seasons. I asked them what there favorite season was and then asked them what had happened on Sunday after church. Finn was so excited and knew exactly what had happened. RAIN!!!
We went into the kitchen and I put some water in a pot. As the water was heating up I asked them why it rains. This is what they said:
Alyssa- Because it's winter
Israel- So we can jump in puddles
Jade- So we can use an umbrella and use a coat
Finn- We need to have fun outside and play

I explained why it rains and then demonstrated it by holding a pan full of ice over the pot of water on the stove (about 5 inches above) As the steam goes up to the pan it forms condensation on the pan and then it starts to drip. They were fascinated by this!!!

We made the sound of a rain storm

• sit on the floor and started by rubbing your hands together like it was starting to drizzle.
  
• Then snapping like the rain falling down.
  
• Pounding our hands on our laps like it was getting harder.
  
• Stomping our feet on the floor at the same time as pounding our hands in our laps
• I also clapped while the kids were doing this to make lightning
• Then stop doing this in reverse until you get back to the end of the storm with just a small drizzle again.

The kids also really liked this so we did it a few times. We did a #6 worksheet and then played for a few min until the mom's came.

Preschool Lesson 10/6

This is a little late! Here is what we did--

Circle Time
Question of the day-- How many brothers and sisters do you have? The kids loved answering this one and talking about their brothers and sisters.
Songs-- Shake your Sillies Out, Days of the Week
Calendar-- We talked about how we are now in a new month NOVEMBER. November is in the fall and all the leaves change color and fall to the ground. November also has Thanksgiving! Then we colored our calendar. I had them find the box with a one in it and cross it out, then a two, three, etc until we got to the sixth. They found most of the numbers pretty easily which I was excited about.

Number Order (Math/Numbers)
We started with flashcards of 1-5 (the numbers they have learned so far). I put them out on the floor in the wrong order and asked them if it was right? They all knew right away that it wasn't right and were very good at helping me get them in the right order. We talked about how numbers have to go in the right order (as well as ABC's etc). Then we split into two groups and I gave each group a set of flash cards and they had to work together to get them back in the right order. They did well working in little groups and we played this a couple of times.

Then I got out the big flashcards of 0-10. I layed them out in order and we counted each one to make sure that they were in the right order. Then I randomly picked up 6 numbers (Kade joined us so there were six students) and gave a number to each child. The kids took turns telling us what number they had and then put it in the right spot with the remaining numbers. This was a little confusing at first especially if there were two numbers in a row missing (ie 0 1 2 _ _ 5) but they caught on very quickly. They definetly recognized 0-5 with no problems, ten was good for all of them and 7 and 8 were so so, 6 and 9 got mixed up a few times. I was very impressed though because most of the time they would get the number right and they almost always knew where to put it.

Then we did a dot to dot. I first did a dot to dot on the white board so they could see how to do it. How you have to draw a line IN ORDER from one number to the next to make a big picture. Then I showed them what would happen to the picture if you went 3, 7, 4, 9, 5, 1, etc. They thought that was pretty funny! Then they got to do their own fall dot to dot. Israel and Finn got through the whole thing with out help. Alyssa, Jade, and London got to 7 or 8 and then they needed a little help. Great Job Kiddos.

Play Time/Snack Time---one of their faves although we had to do it inside since the grass is growing!

Story Time
We read 3 chapters of Mummies in the Morning. They were loving it. Jack and Annie met a Ghost Queen named Hutepi who was looking for a book. Jack and Annie wanted to help her but they were trying to read the hyroglyphics on the wall to find out where the book was.

Number Walk
We played number walk to wrap up the day. See post below of last Preschool at Briana's for game details. The kids really like this game and are doing an excellent job at recognizing their numbers.

Today at preschool!

We have Israel doing his Power Ranger kung fu!

Well today was so much fun and I hope the kiddies enjoyed themselves! Thank you Briana for all your help! We started off with circle time and I was happy to see everyone was really picking up on all the songs! We then decorated cupcakes everyone was very peticular in how they wanted theirs to look, such creative kids! We had playtime inside today because the grass outside was wet and they looked too cute to risk getting their costumes wet. We played Halloween Bingo and pin the tail on the cat and made a fun ghost. The time went way too fast and we didn't get to read our book. Sorry! But we did manage to get in a counting pumpkins worksheet at the very end! Briana, Alyssa just missed it and I should have sent one home with you, but I have hers here if you'd like it. We ended with a round of Duck Duck Goose. They really enjoyed that game probably the very most! I wish I took more pictures! Thanks for a fun day!

Lesson Plan for Thursday

We will have preschool here (Harvey's) and I will have some Halloween activities and games. If everyone wants to wear their costume that would be fun too. Maren will be sending a fun Halloween craft and if anyone else wants to that will be great! But I think I have enough planned already! We are excited! Hopefully everyone can attend!

Preschool Lesson Plan (10/23)

Last Thursday we learned about RECYCLING and Reviewed NUMBERS 0-5.

QUESTION OF THE DAY---(to practice raising hands)
**What do you like to do with your mommy?
Alyssa-- paint
Israel-- "hmmmmmmmm" (I will come back to you)
Jade-- dress up, paint, and cook
Finn-- set up my trains
London-- paint and sing songs
Israel-- (still thinking)-- play

RECYCLING
We talked about what recycling means (reusing something, making new paper out of old paper, turning off lights, etc.) We dumped out a huge bag of garbage (don't worry it was clean recycleable materials) and decided if they were paper or plastic and put them into the appropriate box. We also talked about other things being recycleable (glass, metal, etc.). The kids caught onto this really quickly and were excited to pull out different things from the pile. This also worked well for "sorting" skills which we learned earlier this month.

We then made paper bag pumpkins and recycled some materials we already had around the house (ie brown paper bag and old newspaper for the inside!) Everyone got to pick their own shapes for eyes, nose, and mouth.

NUMBERS
We are reviewing the numbers 0-5 for a couple of weeks just to get number recognition down pat. We played number balloons. There were six ballons with dots (zero dots, one dot, etc.). When I played the music the kids got to hit the balloons everywhere, when the music stopped they had to pick up one balloon and come over to me. I then pulled out a number flashcard and we got to see who had the balloon with that many dots. The kids were very good at this game (we could have played for 30 minutes but we moved on!).

Next, we played number walk. We had the numbers 0-5 on foam sheets spread out in a circle. When the music played they walked around in a circle and when it stopped they stopped on a number. We went around the circle and each child told me what number they were standing on. At this point I was really impressed because everyones number recognition was way better than a few weeks ago. They did great.

We finished up with a number worksheet with numbers 1-5.

KNIGHTS AT DAWN
We finished our book by reading three chapters. I got the book on cd from the library and let the kids listen to it instead of me reading it. They really seemed to be interested in it this way. We acted out some things as we listened (pulling out a flashlight, swimming, looking for tree house etc.)

We also had snack and play time as usual! I did get some pictures of the kids but they will have to come later!

F.H.E. Activity

Ok so just got some bad news and found out that the Pumpkin Patch closes at 5 pm on Monday. We have been in Prescott over the weekend and hurried back to make our Primary program. So I am so sorry I overlooked this until just now. I was planning it for Friday originally so I must have just been given weekend rates and times when I had called the first time. How about we do it Wednesday? It is open until 9pm. We could go at 5:30-9pm. If this does not work out my house is always available and we could have a pumpkin carving party with treats and fun games tomorrow night! Let me know!!! Thank you!

Last Thurs at Preschool! 10/16

Okay, so this is a little late, but better late than never right? We had a great time last week! We talked about following directions. Why we do what we do like... why do we brush our teeth before we go to bed instead of in bed? They thought that was funny, but it was a good way for them to realize that we do things in a particular order for a reason. We made cupcakes to show another example. So I stared with all the ingredients for the cupcakes and asked the kids if I put all the ingredients in and mixed it up if we would get good cupcakes. They said yes, so I put a few decorating sprinkles in the bowl, a few cupcake liners and acted like I was going to put the mix in. They all tried to stop me like I was crazy and that I wasn't doing it right. We got out the directions and then followed them in order and they loved taking turns putting in the ingredients and scooping it into the cups. It really helped them get what I had been explaining by seeing and do it hands on.
We also did a few worksheets on what order did it happen. I would hold up the pictures and have them help me put them in order. All of the kids really had to think about it and I would say that it would be a good idea to do another preschool lesson again on this in a few months. Briana, since Alyssa wasn't here I have the worksheets if you want them to practice with Alyssa, they had things like the first picture had a apple with a few bites out of it, the next picture had a apple core, and the last picture had a whole apple. The kids really could get that one fast, but others were much more challenging and I am working with Jade on this concept to help her. That was the basically the day.
It did take a while to make the cupcakes so if you ever wanted to do a food project I would start that toward the beginning of the day. It took much longer than I ever thought it would, but the kids really loved it so I would do it again :)

Pumpkin Patch???

Okay if ya'll would like to take a vote... Sorry I am just doing this now but I have been trying to get everyone's thoughts and ideas as to what they would prefer! It sounds like everyone would like to have husbands go. So since it is open until 11pm I propose we do it for F.H.E. on Monday night. There is no discounted rate but it is $7 per child 2 and up. A little pricey, I know! but it does sound fun! So I am open to do Music Day tomorrow. It is up to you guys!

Question?

Is the Pumpkin Patch still happening?I know we talked about making it a weekend or family night thing.

Katie's house

It is so crazy how fast 2 hours can fly by when you have kids that can actually sit down and learn. I just love seeing how much they absorb!

• Reviewed whole alphabet and numbers 1-10.
• Went through all Phonograms and introduced G(as in baG, and Gem), & H (Open mouth and release breath, unvoiced) Practiced raising hands on things that start with these sounds.
• Played Pick-up-Rings (not a real game, but Kawika spilled all the Halloween rings.)
• Watched Letter Factory and practice saying the first sound of each the letters.
• Made sucker Ghost and got other Halloween goodies.
• Ate Halloween rice crispy treats(I snuck in some Total when I made them so they aren't totally bad)
• No book today...Time went by too quickly. I guess no more movies :)

*Israel participated in everything and just wanted to eat suckers the whole time.
*Finn was very excited at how fast he did his worksheet, but didn't want to eat anything.
*Jade loved having orange everything to match her. She wasn't into the worksheet.
*London enjoyed getting a head start on her worksheet so she could play in the fire truck. but also didn't want to eat.
*Alyssa did very well working on everything. I forget that she's the youngest and still has another whole year before Kindergarten.

The kids are all doing so well with Phonograms. They are going to be very prepared for next year! I had Jada in public preschool the year before Kindergarten and I just have to say that what we are doing is...I don't want to say better, but on a curriculum level, yes better.

Today at Preschool 10/14

Today at preschool we reviewed colors (primary, secondary, warm, & cool). We then talked about lines and how every picture uses lines. We looked at several pictures of art and picked out all the different kind of lines. We then traced a page of six different kinds of lines, this went well. Then we tried a dot-to-dot made up of different lines (this went OK). We did Gg and Hh worksheets also.
Before we read from the book we looked at Finns castle and nights and talked about the drawbridge, portcullis (gate), courtyard/ keep, crenelation (the up and down notches at the top of the wall. They each chose their own knight to hold and lift every time they heard the word knight during the story. We read two chapters.
We had popcorn for a snack except London who says popcorn makes her choke so she had animal crackers. Then we played. They all behaved really well again!

Preschool (10/9)

WOW!! The kids are doing so well! I am really impressed with how well the kids are doing andactually learning and retaining--way to go mommies!

Here is the rundown for preschool last Thursday!

Circle Time 9:45-9:55am (10 min)
Question of the Day—What do you like to do with your daddy? (practice raising hands)
Calendar—This month is October. Today is Thursday.
Song—Seven Days in a Week (Thank you Nicolle for the great CD)

Numbers~5 9:55-10:20 am (25 min)
Flashcards— Count 1-10, lay out cards, children count objects and check the number on back(got these awesome flashcards at Walmart for 97 cents FYI)

Whiteboard—Practice writing the number 5 and drawing 5 objects
Tactile Numbers—color and decorate the number 5 with 5 stickers

Reading Time 10:20-10:30am (10 min)
The Knight Before Dawn (we read chapter 3)

Finn dressed up like a Knight to get the kids excited and we drew a picture on the whiteboard to explain all of the new words we learned like moat, drawbridge, hawk house

Snack Time 10:30-10:35 am (5 min)

Play Time 10:35-10:55 am (20 min)

Sorting 10:55-11:20 (25 min)
Foam Shapes—sort foam shapes by color, and then by shape (the kids did really well with this--they were a little confused about the shapes since there are blue hearts, red hearts, etc. but they caught on really quick!)
Activity—sorting and gluing fruit loops onto their own paper

Lesson Plan (10/24)

Well thanks to KT I have found our halloween activity for the end of the month! There is the cutest little farm with a petting zoo, mini mazes, play areas, a bounce house, and of course a pumpkin patch. Admission is $7 per kids ages 2 and up. I am going to call and see if there is any discounted rates for preschools and get more info! But check out their website! It looks like a hit!! http://www.tolmachoff-farms.com/
P.S. I am getting together a circle time CD with the songs that I use for Briana. It includes Shake my wiggles out, Welcome song, Goodmorning song, Days of the week song, Months of the year song, and a few more I'm deciding on. Let me know if anyone else is interested in me burning them one! Thanks! ;)

10/7/08 KT's house

9:30-10:00

• Reviewed whole alphabet and numbers. They recognized anything I threw at them.
• Reviewed phonograms A-E and introduced F(gently bite on lower lip and blow, not fah) and what words start w/ it's sound.
• Practiced raising hands while doing all this, and also talked about Halloween since Briana said they liked that so much.

10:00-10:20

• Played outside w/ Oreo, our new puppy. Jade was a little scared so Israel kept her safe.

10:20-10:40

• Ate apples and cheese. If they ate most their apples they got 2 oreos(to celebrate the dog and Halloween). London and Finn chose to play w/ pup during this time till they realized there were oreos. London scarfed down her apples and I think Finn ate a little and then said he's okay w/0 an oreo.

10:40-11:00

• Read chapters 1 and 2 in the Tree house Book. Alyssa decided she wanted to play w/ Kawika during this so I'm not sure how much she got. :) I was just glad he was happy

11:00-11:15

• Worked on F worksheet

11:15-11:30

• Read and information book about Knights which the girls were totally NOT into. Even Jade was rolling around, the Tomboy that she is.

FYI-- Art Easel

For your imformation---- Big Lots has a 2 sided art easel on sale this week for $20.00. One side is a chalk board and the other side is a white board, with a bottom area to store chalk, markers, etc. I think I will be getting one to use for preschool (or maybe even just to give to the kids for Christmas---and then use it for preschool!) Just thought you might be interested!

Today at Preschool (10/2)

Hooray!! We finished Dinosaurs in the Dark! It seems like the kids really enjoyed reading this longer book and I am very impressed with how much they retained. We reviewed the whole book briefly and somewhat reenacted the book with miniature toy dinosaurs. It was nice to have something that the kids could look at while we read the last two chapters. For our "general studies" we talked a lot about each kind of dinosuar-- the name, what they like to eat, and other things. We also made a "Dinosaur Notebook" just like Jack who takes notes on the different dinosaurs.

We did the October calendar and the kids spent A LOT of time talking about Halloween and what they were going to be. Then the conversation lead to Christmas coming soon and they all talked about what they wanted for Christmas and where they were going for Christmas. I didn't plan on spending so much time on this but it was really cute because the kids were so excited and they were doing a really good job of raising their hands to have their turn so I just went with it!

We spent a little bit of time with our number "4". We counted together up to 20 and then traced the number 4 in the air. We played with our number bucket (as posted from before) and tried really hard to find the "magic number 4". I was really impressed at how well the kids recognize their numbers. The kids were ready for play by then so I just sent the "writing number 4" worksheet home with them! The kids are doing great and I am excited at how well they are doing!

Magic Tree House

I found this link and thought it could be fun, but, my printer does not work. If any of you think this is fun let me know. The kids answer three questions about the book to earn their "stamp"

Lesson Plan for 10/10

For activity day I thought we could go to Oasis gym. The crossroads are 87th ave and Bell rd. and the street name is Kelton. I have several free punch cards so if every family can do the $5 then I have enough for all the siblings to be free. If I can just get a count of everyone who would be able to attend so I can let them know. It starts at 10am and goes until 11am. They set up several preschool aged play areas. There is a huge foam pit to jump into and a couple trampolines. It is really fun and my kids love it! We tend to go at least once a week. Let me know your thoughts and hopefully everyone can come play!

Today at Preschool 9/30

Today we did the calendar, went over the letter Ff and reviewed Aa-Ff. We then talked about warm (red, yellow, orange) and cool (blue, purple, green) colors. We looked at Pre-Raphaelite art and decided if it was more warm colors or cool colors (the colors are better in the book we used) they did a great job.

April Love by Arthur Hughs (cool)

Dante and Beatrice by Henry Holiday (warm)

La Belle Dame Sans Merci by Frank Cadogan Cowper (warm)

I am Half Sick of Shadows by Sidney H. Meteyard (cool)

Then they each drew a picture where they were supposed to use only warm or only cool colors.
We read 3 chapters of the book, ate a snack and played. They all behaved very well.

Dinosaurs Before Dark!

Hello everyone---sorry we missed last week! It looks like the kids are having a lot of fun!!

WHAT CHAPTER ARE WE ON FOR DINOSAURS BEFORE DARK???--If you don't mind, when you post about your preschool day could you post what chapter(s) you read, that way we will have a little heads up before our day! THANKS!

Today at Preschool (9/26)

Well today was music day and the kids were great! We started off with circle time and discussed the days of the week and months of the year. They each had a calendar and all knew it was September and needed a little help with what day it was. Israel knew it was the day to go visit Grandma and Grandpa in Utah! We sang some color songs like..."Pink Pink who is wearing pink if your wearing pink then please stand up. Put your finger on it to show me that you found it"... etc. and of course the days of the week song. We then played Brown bear Brown bear. I had laminated some pictures of animals and we started with Brown bear brown bear what do you see? I see a white polar bear looking at me. The kids were really good with their animals and would correct me on what they were! We had grapes and granola bars for lunch and talked about how they both started with the letter G. We made shakers and danced around to the ABC songs. Then we had primary songs and each practiced leading the music. Definately not the boy's favorite! We read some of my favorite book... If you give a Mouse a Cookie and a few Dr. Suess books. Finally we traced letters and of course played. We had a lot of fun!

Lesson plan- Some things go together & number 3

This is what we did today-

• All of us sat on the special blanket and took turns telling everyone our favorite color to practice being in front of peers again
  

• We sang songs like head, shoulders, knees and toes and then I would mess up a song and have them correct me. Each of us took turns using our imagination making a song silly and we had to correct them. It was a lot of fun, but it got really silly!!!

• When we read the book today they all remembered what had happened in the last chapter and as we read, they all got so close to me and were gripped! We read 2 chapters today because they were so interested. After we were done they asked if I could read more. They really are loving it. Thanks again Maren!

• We talked about how some things go together. I held up a book and had them choose what things went together like a bee and a flower or a bee and an ice cream cone. They already understood every example that I gave them so I had them each take turns thinking of something that they like or use and then we would think of something that goes with the item. This is something that you can practice at home. They all loved it and were very creative in their answers.
  

• The #3 worksheet

• Lots of fun!!!
  

Request

Please label your posts. there is a list already going on the side, if your post fits into one great! try to keep it a general label so that more then just one post fits under the category. I went in and added labels to all the posts so far and changed the label on Briana's post to science instead of magnetism numbers instead of number 1.
Thanks,
Maren

Katie's week 1 and 2 Phonograms-as taught in Spalding

I am only teaching the sound, not all the rules, no need to confuse them. When I hold up the phonogram card I don't ask what letter it is, I just hold up the letter and say, this is "A, A, Ah" while holding up fingers 1, 2, 3.

Last week:
A-
1. At
2. nAvy --- Usually at the end of a syllable
3. fAther---May say AH @ the end of a syllable
B-
1. riB--- close lips to form a line, then voice sound

This week
C-
1. Can
2. Cent---C before E, I, or Y says S, but followed by any other letter says K
D-
1. liD---Press tip of tongue against upper ridge behind teeth, then voice sound. Keep jaw still.
E-
1. End
2. mE---E usually says this at the end of a syllable.

We played sound hide and seek last week, read a LOT of books(including Rabbit's Color Book), sang Alphabet and other songs, colored with primary colors, and pretty much the coolest stuff ever.

Arizona and the number 2 -9/18

We had a great day at preschool! We started by letting the kids all tell something fun they did this week so they can get used to talking in front of groups of peers. They all really like talking about themselves!!! Then we sang songs while everyone took turns going to the bathroom. One had to go so they all had to go. Aren't kids so funny that way. After that, I thought I'd read the chapter book while I had there attention and they loved it. I almost read more. As I was reading I would stop and ask questions and they would all raise there hands and shout out the answers. It was a great idea. Thanks Maren.
We learned about where we live, that within our country there are states and we live in Arizona. I told them facts about Arizona and things unique to the state as we glued the pieces to the map. To tie in the #2 I made a Arizona match game and we counted all the pieces first. Then we played the match game which was a great bit hit. They wanted to keep playing. We also did the #2 worksheet.
I almost forgot. We made our September calender. They loved putting the stickers in the boxes and we went over the months of the year raising our hand when we got to September. I had them draw an X in the boxes for the days that had already passed. Some of them totally got that, others weren't sure what that was about, so I'm not sure if I should do that again or not. Thanks for another great preschool day!

Schedule CHANGE

I (Briana) am going to be out of town next week. Shelly will be taking my Thursday, so the schedule for the next couple of weeks is:

Tuesday Sept.23-- KT's (no change)
Thursday Sept. 25-- Shelly's
Friday Sept. 26-- Nicolle's (no change)
Tuesday Sept. 30-- Maren's (no change)
Thursday Oct. 2-- Briana's

I changed the schedule on the side bar to reflect the change!

Lesson Plan For Music Day! (Friday the 26th)

Well it is Music Day this next Friday. I thought I would clue everyone in on what I had been brainstorming. I thought the kids could all safely make shakers (empty water bottles or vitamin/medicine containers filled with rice). I would prepare the other instruments before hand. Such as sandpaper hot glued on wood blocks etc. I have a few educational children's CDs that we will learn and shake our shakers to. They have songs like the ABCs, Days of the week, Colors etc. I thought we could also pull out London's Primary CD and briefly teach them how to lead music and let each child take a turn standing in front of the other children. Let me know what you think or if you have other ideas to add! Thanks for all you do! London is thoroughly enjoying preschool!

Great Link for our Books

I found this great link for the book we are reading "Dinosaurs before Dark". It has vocabulary, questions, and activities for each chapter. It also has this for many other Magic Tree House books which we will use later. We certainly won't use these as actual worksheets since our kids can't read but they have some good questions we could ask the kids about the last chapter as a review and about the new chapter that we read to them!! Just an idea--and I am sure there are many other great ideas out there! (I tried to put this link on the right side of the page under the book image but I think that Maren is the only one that can do that--so go ahead and add it if you want otherwise just click on the link below!)

http://www.mce.k12tn.net/units/units_with_books.htm

Lesson Plan~Sept. 11, Number 1 and Magnetism

I am back tracking a little but I thought that I would write down what we did last Thursday for preschool while it is fresh on my mind!! (On Thursdays we will be covering math and a general studies of sorts!) I like to plan and write out the details so I might as well share them with you all in case you want to reinforce or even steal this lesson the next time around!

Math
1) read through number flash cards together (number recognition 1-20)
2) talk about what a number 1 looks like (the number of the day)
3) write the number one in the air with fingers-- use this little poem "start at the top and down you run, I just wrote a number one!)
4) stand up , then lay down and be a number one
5) "The Number Bucket"-- I made a number bucket with a food storage metal can and magnetic plastic numbers 0-9 (2 of each, 88 cents at Walmart by the way). The outside of the bucket has the outlines of each number. Kids reach in to find a number, tell the other kids what number it is and then find where it goes on the outside of the can! The kids loved this one!
6) number 1 worksheet (with the number 1, the word "one", and a box to place "one" sticker in)

Magnetism
1) talk about a magnet and show the magnet wand (magnet strips hot glued onto a wooden food skewer)
2) explain that some things are magnetic and some are not magnetic
3) make small posters for each child with 2 sandwich bags stapled onto it and labeled "magnetic" and "NOT magnetic"-- the kids actually caught onto this really quick
4) lay out things on the table one at a time for each child and test to see if it is magnetic or not
** things used---crayon, straw, popsicle stick, magnet, 3-4 metal objects found in the garage, paper clips, safety pin, piece of paper

The kids were great and did a fabulous job raising hands etc. I will try and get some pictures of these things up soon as well!

Meeting Notes 9/16

Ideas for upcoming "Fun Days":

Halloween Party
Zoo
Pumpkin Patch
Christmas Party (before the 16th when KT leaves)
Dino Museum
State Fair

Nicolle these Ideas are for you to plan with, but, we all will help in executing the plans, i.e. make assignments for us to take care of / bring. We do not want one person to carry the cost and issues of planing bigger activity's. Feel free to make adjustments as you need. Also you choose which Friday you want to do Music and which you want to be the activity. Your Fridays fall on the same week as KT and Briana.

Everyone please send your child to school with a bag for their papers and a sippy cup.

Briana will prepare a Calendar to use in preschool with the kids each month and will be giving it to whoever has the first preschool of the month. Use this to talk to the kids about the Date at the beginning of preschool.

We will be sending around a chapter book to read during story time. We are starting with "The Magic Tree House Dinosaurs Before Dark" by Mary Pope Osborn read a chapter and send it home with the next child hosting preschool. Feel free to read a picture book too.
(ps this book belongs to Maren)

I think that is all. Thanks!

Today at Preschool.... 9/16

We reviewed the months of the year, days of the week and talked about today's date. We traced upper and lower case C, D, & E (Jade and Finn need to finish E at home). We the talked about the Secondary colors (green, purple, & orange) we mixed the colors with water and food coloring starting with the Primary colors and mixing to get the Secondary colors. We then used finger paint and mixed the colors to make our color wheels. We ate Popcorn for snack time and read "King Bidgood's in the Bathtub" for story time. Then we played!