Keeping Faith.

Good afternoon, 

I have been sitting for over an hour now just looking at the screen trying to think of something I can say about our week in preschool. Unfortunately, my mind is completely refusing to shy away from the news updates referring to the mass Elementary school shooting that took place in Newtown, Connecticut earlier this morning. 

The only homework I am giving for the weekend is to go home and cuddle your child. Tell them how much you love them and please say a prayer for anyone linked to the shooting. I can not even comprehend what they must be going through on this tragic day. I can only thank god that all of your children are alive and well. However, I morn for each  innocent life that was lost today. 

"You can do more than pray after you have prayed; but you can never do more than pray until you have prayed."  A.J. Gordon 

God's Peace. 

-Megan. 

Hey Diddle Diddle.

Happy Holidays Everyone! 

I have found it especially easy to get into the holiday spirit now that we finally have our "Winter Wonderland". The kids were so excited as we were counting down the few short weeks until Christmas is here. 

Speaking of Christmas, I would like to thank you and your families for making it to our annual Christmas party yesterday. It is always so much fun to have all of the kids together in one room and watch as the parents were able to sit back and socialize. Mary, has always done such a beautiful job at making the night one to remember. 

Aside from all of the holiday talk lets get back to why you are all here. 

Today in preschool, we had a very special day! One of my favorites in fact. We spent the morning going over our very favorite nursery rhymes. We started by memorizing "The cow jumped over the moon" and then went onto "Twinkle Twinkle little star". With each new rhyme that we learned we also made crafts that we motioned along while singing aloud the silly songs. 

As our next activity the kids we able to make there very own Nursery rhyme books. Each book was full of my favorite mother goose rhymes. The whole lesson of the day turned to be such a success. I don't think the kids even knew that they were learning with all of the fun that we were having! 

Homework: At bed time this week I challenge you to chant a new nursery rhyme everyday. Its a great memorization tool to use with your child and has endless possibilities for fun! 

If you want to take your learning to the next level go onto www.pinterest.com, type in nursery rhymes and let your creative juices flow! 

Thanks again for reading! 

-Megan

Review of November.

Review day!!

With every new month comes a set of new changes! 
Today in school we put our minds to the ultimate test to see what we could remember from the month of November. 

Below is a list of everything that we covered in the previous month;

• Colors: Brown and Orange
• Pattern: A,A,B
• Number: 4 
• Letters: E, G, L
• Shape: Squares
• Monthly themes:  our 5 senses, and Thanksgiving (with our thanksgiving theme we covered a lot on Pilgrims and their history)

After the kids had there full share of review they were rewarded by spending the rest of our morning chanting some of there favorite nursery rhymes and making funny little puppy masks. All in all resulting to be a pretty fun day in preschool. 

Homework: periodically look back on my posts of review days and see how much your child remembers. Its one thing for a child to learn something, its an entirely different thing for a child to retain that information. Also, as you all know the cold and flu season is in full blast at Mary's this week! To keep your little one as healthy as possible make sure they are washing there hands frequently, getting plenty of rest, and please if you notice fingers or toys in the month explain germs and how by doing so can make others sick! This has been some what of an issue and we are really trying to crack down to stop it. All we want is happy, healthy, kids. 
Thanks for reading! 
-Megan  

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