5 Senses.

Hello Everybody! 
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving break and didn't have too hard of a time getting back in the swing of things after having a few days off. 
Today in school we jumped right back into our learning and really got a lot accomplished. We started out our day by creating pattern strips using our A, A, B or orange, brown, brown pattern for the month of November. 
Keeping our color pattern in mind we then went to work at making a book of things that we identified as either brown or orange. 

Shifting away from the patterns for the day I then introduced the book "My five Senses". This was the perfect way to jump start our new topic that we will be covering for the next few days. After reading the book I then worked on explaining what each of our senses is used for and where we use them. The kids got a better grasp on there senses when we did our hearing exercise. This was a simple exercise  where they were given various bottles with different products inside. They were then instructed to shake the bottle and try and guess what was inside based on the sound that it made.  Homework: for the rest of the week try and be aware of times you can bring up what sense your child may be using. For example when you are eating dinner ask what one of their senses they are using to eat there food. To take there learning a step further here is a great website of  different games you can play using your five senses. I hope you check it out! http://www.littlegiraffes.com/fivesenses.html 

To finish up our day at preschool we put our creative caps on and went to work. Each child was given lots of squares varying in size and color. The only direction they were then given was to create there own personal collage. This was a fun task that they really seemed to enjoy because it gave them the chance to use there imaginations.  
All in all today turned out to be a successful day! 
I hope all of your days ended with the same feeling. 
Until next time!
-Megan

Gobble, Gobble.

Albuquerque is a turkey,
And he's feathered and he's fine.
And he wobbles, and he gobbles,
And he's absolutely mine.

He's the best pet that you can get,
Better than a dog or cat.
Albuquerque, he's my turkey,
And I'm awfully glad of that.

Albuquerque, he's my turkey,
He's so cozy in his bed,
Because for our Thanksgiving dinner,
We had scrambled eggs instead.  

Good afternoon folks!  

The day has finally come! It is Wednesday, our final day before Thanksgiving break! Yay! 

Above is a silly song that has been chanted everyday for the past couple of days. The kids have been hard at work trying to get each line memorized and most actually do pretty well with it. Tomorrow if you are in need for some Thanksgiving day entertainment, prompt the kids to sing aloud there silly turkey song. And thanks to me, you now have no excuses for not being able to join in...your welcome=)

As you can imagine our week in preschool has been packed to the brim with thanksgiving activity's. Below is just a portion of the things we got accomplished this week. 

We crafted turkeys using our footprints as the body and our hands as the feathers. This was such a fun activity and the kids loved that there turkeys were made solely from them. After that we moved onto making a new page in our " Thankful books" There job was to make a picture of everything they thought would be served at  thanksgiving dinner. For snack we made cornucopias made from waffle cones and filled it with yummy goodies.  Aside from all of our thanksgiving crafts we also we able to read a ton of books that went along with our theme. All in all succeeding at having a great that I am greatly thankful for. 

Thank you for reading and I hope all of you have a wonderful thanksgiving! I wish you safe travels and full bellies. Happy Holidays!

Warmly, 

Megan. 

                                                                                                               

Changes.

Yesterday, was a day full of  fun and exciting changes. We opened our eyes to find the cold and white surprise of snow! Now, the first snow fall of the year was not the only thing that made our Monday morning special. November 12, 2012 also marked a day of remembrance all across the world. To commemorate veterans day at preschool we worked hard at making beautiful american flag head bands. While the kids crafted, I went on to tell the story of how we came about veterans day and what meaning the day holds. I giggled as the children gasped when they were told that we have been celebrating Veterans day sense the day world war one ended way back in 1918. Which was 94 years ago, and makes Vets day older than all of there grandparents.

 After our veterans day lesson was over we then turned our attention back to our thanksgiving day theme. We started by adding another page to  our "what we are thankful for" booklets. This week we added a picture of the family that we are thankful for. These booklets have not been sent home yet and are being used to track your child's progress.

Continuing on with our theme we then set off to work at making helping hand coupon books. The kids were given the task to come up with a list of things they could do on thanksgiving to help there family. The turkey coupons that were sent home yesterday represent that promise. If you can, try to hold your child accountable for the promise they made to you on there coupon. It is never to early to start stressing responsibility!

Homework: Each child was sent home with a picture of a turkey and a baggie of tail feathers and numbers. Instruct your child to put thus many feathers on there turkey along with the correct number on top. Tip: try and mix colors up frequently by saying; I want you to put four orange feathers and three red on your turkey. You can also have then subtract so many from the turkey as well. This will not only work on there counting skills but help them learn to fallow directions better.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day!
-Megan.

Sunny Sunshine!

Hey, Hey, Its a sunny day! 

Today in school we continued on with our learning. We started off the day by going over the days of the week, and practicing our orange, brown, brown, pattern of the month. We then moved onto learning the number four. To which we studied by making a list of things that there were four of, such as how many legs are on a chair, how many wheels are there on a car, exc. As always we then went onto making our paper four's that we colored orange and decorated with four fuzzy black balls. 

To end out the day we flashed back to yesterday and continued working on our letter (L's). We did this by completing two worksheets showing us how to properly write capital and lowercase (L's). 

Homework: Sit down with your child and practice the days of the week. A lot of the kids (specifically the younger ones) have been struggling with this some and could use a little practice. 

Have a great day!

Megan

Giggles.

We've got ANOTHER holiday to worry about. It seems Thanksgiving Day is upon us. -Charlie Brown

Today on this fine Wednesday afternoon I sat in the presence of your children and watched as there eyes lit up with the mention that thanksgiving is near. To accommodate our up and coming holiday we have set off on a thanksgiving expedition. To sound off our ride we started by creating our very own versions of the Mayflower. We also spent time talking about how it took 65 whole days to sail from England on the Mayflower. Another fun craft we went on to explore today was our hand sewn canoes. Now, when I say that they were hand sewn of course I mean using paper and yarn. I mean we are talking of preschoolers here=) 

While the kids were hard at work decorating there crafted canoes we settled down for a true story  written by a pilgrim child. The story told of the voyage the little girl and her family made on there trip here to america. I found it so interesting how kids were able to show there emotion when they heard how different they were from the girl, yet they were still similar in many different ways. 

After our story we took a small break from our thanksgiving talk and went onto learning the letter (L). We started out by making a long list of everything we could think of that started with L, all while coloring our paper L's. 

To end our day the kids were told to draw and color a picture of a good friend that they were thankful for. This lesson ended to be a quite humorous one as I looked onto everyone's pictures. At one point I stopped and asked one student who his special friend was? (He had drawn a picture of a circle monster looking guy, with one eye, a small horn, and green skin). He then replied by saying that he was thankful for his friend Mike Wazowski......if you don't already know this is a monster from the movie Monsters inc. All I could think of was wow,the things that some kids think of. The best part was that the drawing was extremely accurate. 

Thanks again for reading! I'm having such a good time with all of your children. You would be shocked how many times I am caught giggling in class lately just thinking about some of the things that go on in preschool. I need to start video tapping classes and sending them to Americas funniest home videos!

Have a great day!

Megan

Recap.

Happy Friday All! 

Hope everyone had a great week! Here at Mary's we have had a fun packed few days in celebration of Halloween! While it has been a little crazy I wouldn't have changed a minute of it for the world. Wednesday, in preschool we of course had to focus our theme of the day on nothing but Halloween.  We celebrated by making our very own pumpkin men while filling the room with wonderful sounds of  a funny Halloween song. As part of our lesson we worked on letter's H, O, and P, along with number three. After our work was done      we circled up for good old story time. We read one of my childhood favorites "Corduroys best Halloween Ever"  along with "Clifford's first Halloween." In days prior to Halloween I worried a tad that the kids attention spans would be off the wall and no work would be done but honestly it was one of our better days in preschool. I did however learn that it is  the day AFTER Halloween I need to be afraid of.
For our lesson Thursday (November 1st)  we had a simple review day..at least we tried. Together we went over everything that we had learned in the month of October. Now the kids weren't  necessarily naughty per say, we just had an interesting mixture of overly hyper kids who didn't get not enough sleep....not a fun combination in my mind. However, we toughed it out and got our work done. All in all it was a great week! 

Have a great weekend! Stay warm! I hear we are in for our first snow fall of the year. 
Thanks for reading!
Megan