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.