Mail's Here!

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. -Benjamin Franklin 

Happy Monday Everyone!

The kids and I kicked off our week in preschool today by jumping for joy that there are only three day's left  until Valentines day! Reminder: we will be having a small Valentines party on Thursday. Each child is expected to hand out individual Valentines to share with their friends. Have them personally write out each name, this will be great writing practice for your preschooler! Also, if you have more then one child  attending Marys please send a Valentine from each child, not as a family. This is will involve everyone and make them feel apart of the holiday.

 To continue on from last weeks lesson, the kids reviewed the work of a mailman. With this lesson we covered what things get sent in the mail,why we have mail and what we have to do with our mail before the mailman is able to deliver it. We also went on and shared if anyone has ever received something in the mail before. If you are looking for a special project to do with your child please consider letting them send out a letter in the mail so they can get some experience in what we are talking about. 

 

Currently, we are discussing letter D, today we reviewed more on what things begin with D.  Continue on with this from home! Our activity of the day was spent counting hearts. Each child started out with a black and white worksheet with seven hearts. Their job was to color each  heart differently. They were then given seven cut out hearts with a number on the front. To play the game all you have to do is match up the number with the correct heart on the worksheet. It is pretty self-explanatory once you see the worksheet if that was not clear enough. 

Homework: Have your child come with completed valentines for Thursday's class party. Work on mailing letters, if you don't want to let them mail a letter personally have them grab the mail out of the mailbox a few times. Continue working on what words begin with letter D, and play through our counting game throughout the week. 

Have a great week! Thank you for reading!

-Megan

February Fun!

Lets Review!

We are kicking off the month of February in style! Today, the kids worked hard bringing in the new month by dusting off their brains and thinking back to everything we learned in January. Here is a brief summery of everything we went over. Your child was also sent home with a reminder for you on our progress. Keep it close, and refer back over time to keep the information fresh in your children's minds.

January Review: 
Color's of the month: Yellow, white, and blue
Letter's: Yy, Nn, Ii
Pattern: ABC
Number: six
Shape: crescent
Theme: Outer space
 To complete our review we made flash cards of everything that we have learned over the course of January. Use these cards to review with your child. 

Out with the old and in with the new...almost.To bring our space lesson to an end we did one final project today. The kids were given a worksheet titled "When I was in space I saw (fill in the blank)", They were set off on their own to come up with anything and everything they could think of that would be seen in outer space. Everyone did really well with this. I was surprised at the depth and detail that went into their pictures. For example; they remembered that Mars is known as the red planet and colored it according. Pretty impressive!

Finally, we topped off our bright and sunny Monday by putting our crafting skills to work. The kids set off on one last space expiation. Your little space explorers worked hard at decorating their very own astronaut helmets to help them breathe in space! 

Here is a sneak peak at today's snack in honer on groundhogs day! Ssshhhhhh! It's a surprise!

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!
-Megan

Shoot for the stars

"Shoot for the moon! Even if you miss it you will land among the stars"-Les Brown

Our week has been filled to the brim with everything over the clouds...literately. With each day we dig further and further into the world above. We started out Monday by making a new pattern strip using various sizes of crescents. From there the kids put their counting skills to the test and completed a fallow by number worksheet. They were rewarded in the end by realizing the numbers made the shape of the big dipper. We then went onto making our very own models of the solar system. Wednesday, our time was spent reading the story "If I could go to space". After, we made a bright and fiery sunshine while we sang the words to "Oh, Mr. Sun". Then Thursday came around and the kids were giddy with smiles while they put their creativity to work. Together, we created two new books. The first was a moon book, using tin foil to make the shape of a moon at each stage in an orbit. For the second book we put our thinking caps on and came up with objects that included the shape of a crescent in its original form. Our list consisted of a smile, moon, sail boat, and umbrella. 

Aside from all of our solar crafts, the kids have been hard at work continuing to learn their everyday skills. This week we really focused on following directions. We completed various worksheets that required everyone to listen closely so they would know what to do. Learning number six and letters I, N, and Y continued. We practiced the days of the week and worked a tad on finding the difference between the top, bottom, and middle of something.
All in all making for a pretty busy week here in preschool.
Have a great weekend!
-Megan

BLASTOFF!

If only it were actually warm enough outside to melt a snowman....

BRRRRRRRRR! Its a cold one out there on this Thursday afternoon. We are warming up in preschool by setting our minds to brighter things. Today this included crafting a snowman who just sat in the sun way to long. Poor guy...he can send some of that sun our way! I would gladly exchange it for the frigid wind we have been having! 

Next we set off on a lengthy flight to space. 

5-4-3-2-1....BLASTOFF!!!! 

Today marked the very first day of our solar system exploration. We kicked off our learning by reading oodles upon oodles of books explaining everything in space. The kids also put together a demonstration on how when the earth rotates our day changes from a sunny day to a dark night. We learned TONS of big, important words that will come up throughout our space study. Go ahead and ask your kids if they recognize any of these words after today: planet, big dipper, commit, constellation, Venus, Mars, Mars rover, Neptune, Pluto, Earth, Saturn, moon, stars, and sun. These may seem like huge words for a preschooler but you would be shocked how well the kids were able to point them out! They were working really hard at this. I am excited to continue on and see how far they will come! 

To add to our learning we have also covered letter (Y,y) and number six over the past couple of days. With each of these we went over what things come in groups of six and what words begin with Y.

 

Homework: Continue working on the days of the week. Also, search your bookshelves for any books that may be on space and choose those for bed time. Getting extra reading time on our lesson will make things a lot easier for your preschool. 

Have a great week! Thanks for reading!

Warmly, 

-Megan

Thursday Cheers.

Happy Thursday Everyone! 

I hope you are all having a great week! Only one more day until you all get to enjoy your children for the weekend! Yay!

I want to start off by congratulating most of you for bringing back your child's homework from Monday. I was also impressed by the improvement in being able to go through the days of the week with more ease. Everyone has just about got it down, we are just struggling a tad on remembering to add in Thursday, but practice makes perfect. So lets keeping working at it!  

This week in the school the kids have been busy at work with lots of fun activity's. Wednesday, we spent our time learning the shape of a crescent. To become familiar with the shape we crafted a unique collage made completely of crescent shaped moons. In the end it was really fun to see how each child's collage differed from another even though we all used the same materials. Once our masterpieces were perfected the kids and I went onto our next activity of creating a counting mitten book. Adding to our theme of mittens,everyone joyfully chimed in on our new song of the day. 

Mittens, Mittens, Mittens
 Thumbs in the thumb place, 
fingers all together,
this is the song we sing in winter weather,
when it is cold, it doesn't matter wither
mittens are wool or made of finest leather,
 Thumbs in the thumb place, 
fingers all together,
this is the song we sing in winter weather.

Thursday, the kids continued on perfecting their skills of memorizing the days of the week. Aside from that we also worked further on learning more of letter (Nn), and our patter of the month: blue, white, and yellow. Our craft of the day was spent making a fun snowman that they are oh so excited to show each of you!

That's all for now! I hope you all have a great weekend! Dress extra warm I hear its suppose to be a cold one! 
-Megan

Musical Tots.

A day full of Music is a day full of fun! 

Six Little Ducky's                                                  

Six little ducks that I once knew,                              
Fat ones, skinny ones, fair ones too,
but the one little duck
with the feathers on his back,
he led the others with a
Quack, quack, quack (x2)

 Along Came Mr. Alligator
Six little monkeys sitting in a tree
teasing Mr. Alligator "You cant catch me, You cant catch me"
Along came Mr. Alligator quiet  as can be
and he snatched that monkey right out of the tree.
(Continue count down from six until you don't have any monkeys left)

These are just two of the songs we have been working on throughout this week. The kids LOVE getting to chant the lyrics aloud while gesturing fun hand motions. It has also been fun for Mary and I to see how good the kids memorization skills have gotten over the past few months.

Aside from our impressive musical skills the kids have also been hard at work learning all sorts of great new things. This week we focused on learning letters I and N, along with number six. With each new day and each new lesson the concept of fallowing directions has been stressed. Together the kids have gone through many worksheets where they were expected to fallow the directions on how to color and decorate there work. For the most part everyone did a very good job with this. As a result we were lucky enough to end our week on a high note. We spent our last morning before the weekend sewing (yes sewing) together our very own pair of mittens that went along with our story "The Mitten".

Homework: Practice saying the days of the week ( this has been a bit of a struggle). Brainstorm things that begin with letters "I" and "N". Practice writing them as well, along with number six. The kids were also sent home with a lined piece a paper with there names on it. There job is to write their names as many times as possible along the lines. Note: make sure they are making each letter to fall on the correct line. They are expected to bring each sheet back to our next Preschool lesson which is Wednesday morning.
Thanks for reading!
-Megan

Snowy Days!

No two are quite the same,

each unique in there own and special way

Some are big, yet some are small

creating joyous, playful fun for all

Yes, you guessed it my dearest star 

were taking snowflakes 

for those near and far. 

Yesterday, marked the snowiest, snow day yet this year for your preschooler! Which if you think back to the weather we were having that statement may seem a bit goofy. While the temperatures outside may have been rising. The kids and I set off on a snowy expedition. We started out our day by going over the color of the week. Can you guess it? I will give you a little hint. Its the color of the snow. Our list went on and on, brainstorming everything we could possibily think of that wear's the color white. 

To show our lesson of the day, that no two snowflakes are exactly the same the kids and I put our sissors and glue to work. We spent the next hour crafting two different kinds of snowflakes. The kids LOVED in the end when they got to compare there own flakes to eveyone elses. This gave them the chance to see how really no two were exactly the same, even though we all used the same tools. 

Here is a fun websight you can use if your looking for some fun wintery crafts. 

 http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/snow/art.htm

Enjoy!

-Megan!