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!