Adventures of a Preschooler

 

We've started a new chapter! Savannah has begun attending a formal preschool. Her first day just so happened to be a Fall Festival. They had pony rides, pinata, face painting and more. She thought preschool was a party!! In the two weeks that she has started there she can spell and write her name. She read a very basic book to us the other night. SO CRAZY! My little four year old is growing up way too fast!

 

We are having fun with the cousins! I've tried to incorporate some "fun learning" in addition to the usual daytime happenings. These boys enjoy playing with bugs and mud. Yuck! I managed to pull them inside for some science! I tried out the old ivory soap trick. Simply pop it in the microwave. Average instructions are for 2 minutes, however, my sister's microwave is tiny so we cooked for about 45 seconds. It doesn't take long for that little bar to poof up like a cloud. Another day we did the baking soda and vinegar volcano trick. I didn't have any clay to form around it, but hey, they still enjoyed it. Hooray for summer science! 

 

A gift from my preschoolers! Thanks guys! I feel so blessed to have been able to teach and spend time with you!

 Hooray! It's graduation time! This week's theme was airplanes...soooo...we flew to our graduation! I made propeller pops for their treat. Aren't they ding-dang cute?! They're simply made using large marshmallows with frosting on one end, dipped in sprinkles and I used a skittle and pretzel rods for the propeller. Awesome! I made each kid a "suitcase" which was cracker jacks wrapped up and left to be picked up at the "baggage claim." I made an airplane out of cardboard to be our photo prop...those photos are coming. Our craft was made using candy and a rubber band as you can see in the picture.

 I'm going to put another plug in here for libraries. Totally use them! They have such wonderful resources! The letter of the week was Z so I chose to read this book for storytime. Super cute rhymes. As they entered my house they had to grab their boarding pass and check out the map to see where they were going. I had some fun travel scrapbooking paper that I used. For graduation I made everyone a cap and a certificate. For their caps, I used paper bowls with the rims cut off, fun scrapbooking paper squares on top, with a ribbon for the tassel. I had set up my living room with chairs to represent seats on an airplane. My timing wasn't right, it wasn't until we were outside that I remembered to do this, but I intended to provide them with complimentary drinks and pretzels or cookies. I even had a Delta fly wings sticker to make it look fun!

 To make the occasion a little bit more fun I dressed up as a flight attendant. I used my old uniform but stripped it of all stripes, badges, and ribbons. While on the "plane" I had to tell them where the exits and laboratories were located, "This plane comes equipped with two exits, one in the rear, and one in the front. You are free to walk around the cabin to use the bathroom which is located in the front." and so on. They loved it! We did our graduation ceremony and celebrated with simple party items.

We wrapped up the awesome day with a paper airplane flying contest. Each kid made one using construction paper and flew them off the back deck. They'd then run downstairs as fast as they could to fly it again. Treats were served on the back deck and they relaxed before going home. What a special day! I can't believe it's over! I've been teaching this preschool group for seven months now! They are such special, wonderful kids! Below are their graduation photos!

 Mason Graff

 Savannah Owens (not a pleasant smile eh?)

 Andrew and Gavin Ripa

 Antoine Taylor

 Noah Huling

 Allison Huling

Jamison Davis (love his little smile!)

 

 Preschool is almost done! I can't believe it! This week we had a rabbit theme, so, for fun...I used The Adventures of Peter Rabbit to help make the day. We started out by doing the, ya know, boring stuff (worksheets). These kids are so patient with me. There are some weeks where I can't come up with enough material so I force upon them the crazy worksheets I create. Well, here goes. We created a hopping bunny craft using paper cups and rubber bands. Lunch was brought by a wonderful friend We had bunny cut out grilled cheese, rabbit crackers, carrots and apples. We had a bunny hop relay. I made some carrot batons and bunny ear headbands. They had to wear these and hop up and down the sidewalk and pass off to their team. Okay, so they all wanted to hop at once and the ears kept falling off. It's the memory that counts! I also made a garden sensory tub. The kids were able to plant seeds in Mr McGregor's garden, just like in the story Peter Rabbit! 

To go along with the garden theme, I made brownies decorated to be a garden. Chocolate frosting and crushed oreos created the dirt, shaped starbursts and licorice for the carrots, licorice and green skittles for peas, red skittle dipped in white chocolate for the radishes, and cornflakes mixed in green-dyed white chocolate. Wa-la! It was a hit!

 Preschool was all about Puppies and because of that, I decided to incorporate some Blue's clues so that the kids could find clues throughout the day's activities so that they would know what was next. I built this awesome dog house for them using my card table, some cardboard and a bunch of sheets....it totally rocked I must say. I decorated the house with some puppy-like balloons. My darling girl even wore her puppy outfit for the day and as you can see is modeling the sweet doghouse.

 

The first clue was for lunch. The second was a craft we made using two cups and a few supplies to create a "give your dog a bone" craft. Following that, our next clue led us to a worksheet using the letter "X" which was the letter of the week. Then we had to take the puppy to the vet for a broken bone and get and x-ray. Next, we played a Red Rover game. Finally, story time was all about reading puppy books and eating scooby doo dog bone treats out of some awesome dog bowls I bought at the local dollar store. I hope you can read the clues. They're pretty cute!

 Well, weather didn't cooperate with my original water plans to have some fun outside. I purchased several water guns, buckets and bubble tools to let the kids have fun outside. However, because the it was a little too chilly, I was up until 1am last night coming up with a last minute lesson plan. Soooo...here is what I came up with. I created a water xylophone with colored water. The kids had fun tinkering around with the sounds. We figured out how to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" while playing. Our science experiment taught them about density. In the order shown, we poured honey, karo syrup, dish soap, water and vegetable oil into a vase to see which ones sunk and which ones rose. We had a race using a tin foil river and milk cap boats. The kids blew wind onto the sail to race down the river.

The kids did some indoor fishing in the water. The classic old water painting activity was as popular as I thought it would be. I had asked them to practice writing/painting their "W's" but of course, they painted things like rainbows and monsters. I had seen on a couple websites how using colored ice cubes could be formed into sculptures using water and sponge brushes. It was a bust. Instead they kind of made a rainbow soup. Should you choose to try this activity, well, good luck. All other activities were rather popular with the kiddos. They seemed to be patient and interested with all the activities today. Who knew you could have so much fun with water indoors!

 I taught Joyschool last week and the lesson was on imagination and creativity. Part of the lesson plan included free play time where the kids pretended to be a certain profession. In this case, they were doctors and had to help the sick or injured. I pulled out anything I could possibly find that would work as doctor material. When I was pregnant with my first my mom gave my hubby a tool belt filled with plastic gloves, masks, goggles, tongs....you name it...for the assistance in diaper changing for the new dad...hehe...well, my brave husband never had to break out the "tools" and thus, I had lots of fun doctor stuff for them to use. I think they enjoyed being the "dead" person more so than the doctor simply because they were "fixed."

 The second profession we chose was a librarian. I attached some index cards to a handful of my girls' books and pulled out some stamps. The "costume" was simply some glasses. Then they of course got to sit down and enjoy some fun reading!

 

I had a hard time coming of with a lesson plan for the original theme so I decided to do all things V! I created a worksheet for them to practice writing their V's and on it there were four pictures; vase, volcano, vegetables, and video. We used three vases to create playdough volcanoes using vinegar and baking soda. They LOVED that. Next, I made some "pizza" slices out of cardboard and decorated one side like a V and they got to paint the other side with pizza colors. We had yummy pizza for lunch...V shape! Then we planted a vegetable garden using paper veggies attached to Popsicle sticks. Lastly, we watched the Letter V Song on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1BeBFqwyF0c)where they danced around on a V taped to the ground. This was probably the least work I've ever put into one week, but hey, it turned out alright! The kids had fun...that's what matters!

 

Today could not have been any more fun than it was! The kids got to learn so many new things! It was awesome. So the theme was balloons but I incorporated the movie "UP" in it as well since our letter was U. Just as little Russell in this movie is trying to get a new badge by helping the grumpy old man, these kids got their own badges by doing all the experiments. They got to enjoy the movie while they ate their orange lunch! I made them orange mac n' cheese with sweet potato fries, baby carrots, cantaloupe, goldfish, and orange punch. For the moms I made orange chicken and rice. Obviously, the color of the week is orange. Their first badge was earned by discovering texture. Several balloons were filled with items like playdough, sugar, water, dried beans, rice, MAYO!, cheerios, and flour. The next badge was earned by learning about 2 different compounds combined to form gas that inflates a balloon. We did the old vinegar and baking soda trick. Next, they had to keep all the balloons up in the air without letting them hit the floor and each time a balloon was struck, they had to sing the ABCs until they got to U. The next badge was earned by learning how molecules expand when hot and shrink when cold. We put a balloon over the mouth of an empty water bottle and when it entered boiling water, the balloon inflated. When it entered the ice cold water, it deflated. After that we had a balloon race by taping untied balloons to a straw that had a long piece of yarn sent through it. Two at a time, the kids would let their balloon go to see who's could go the farthest, the fastest. Finally, they enjoyed some orange cheddar popcorn in their hot air balloons! After the day was done, everyone went home certified in balloon science with 5 badges on their sashes. SO MUCH FUN!

You know what you get when the theme for preschool is wind? Why, yes, of course, a kite! What better way to teach your child about wind then using an object that functions solely off the power of wind! We had such a fun time doing this....well, okay, so grandpa and the kiddos had a fun time. Grandma and I watched and took pictures! 

 Ahoy Matey! This week's preschool theme was all about boats and pirates. Well, okay, so I added the pirates. Mostly because they say "Aargh!" and the letter of the week was R. I got really excited for this week because it is my last one for a month while I'm on vacation. So the lesson was constructed through the use of a treasure map. There were four destinations, the final one being the treasure. The first thing they saw as they walked in was their eye patches they had to wear. Before everyone got there I of course had to have everything set up. Their first destination was making their Captain Hooks using red solo cups with a hole punched in the bottom of the cup and a rod of crumbled tin foil poked half way through. They held the half on the inside and the other half formed a hook on the outside. Their second station was letter matching uppercase to lowercase on some pirate themed letter cards. Their next was walking the plank and the final was the treasure and story time! I had actually set up the ship a couple days in advance because this week took so much preparation I wanted to make sure things were all ready.

I used some brown paper and burnt the edges to make the map. The kids loved their hooks and playing dress up in the boat. We were pirates a couple years ago for Halloween so we had some stuff for them to dress up in. They were quickly bored with the letter matching but really enjoyed the walking the plank! We walked down to a bridge and with my help, they walked the railing on it. But of course, their favorite destination was treasure island where it was filled with 18 gold coins which was our number of the week, and lots of gold chocolate nuggets. We counted the coins, enjoyed some chocolate and read a Pirate book. What a fun day!

 I had just gotten done with a big event for church so I was planning on keeping preschool pretty low-key. However, I found a really cute idea and I thought, "When in the world am I ever going to do something like this again....might as well add it to the lesson!" The shape of the week was hearts and the vocabulary word was wool. So I created these "costumes" for them to wear. They even let me paint their noses! I played a YouTube video for them of shearing sheep. We then did a shearing sheep activity of our own! I gave every kid a balloon, a craft popsicle stick and covered their balloon with shaving cream. Then they had to shear the sheep! It was so fun!

For story time we read a book and as always I prepared a treat for them to eat while I read. This was totally my hubby's idea! He is wonderful. All you have to do is give them s'more ingredients and shape them to form the sheep! They got to eat "Wool"! As I metioned, the shape was hearts and the letter of the week was Q, so, heart shaped quesadillas of course! The kids played Little Bo Peep lost her sheep Hide-and-seek! The fort was a perfect hiding place!

 It was hard to fit all the fun butterfly activities into this week. We had butterfly sandwiches. We made butterflies out of chips and chicken nuggets. It was P week so we made a fun Peacock craft using a few paints and handprints on a paper plate. I'm a huge fan of Pinterest and got several butterfly craft ideas from there. The other photos you see are ideas I got from all the wonderful Mommies out there getting creative. For preschool, we learned the life of a butterfly using different kinds of noodles. The letter of the week was P and the color was purple. So we made "stained glass windows" using four purple P's shaped into a butterfly. The vocabulary word was antennae, so of course, all our butterflies had to have them. What a fun week!

 Rain themed week was filled with making rain makers and fun science experiments! We filled paper towel rolls with rods of rolled up tin foil and rice. The ends were wrapped with wax paper and elastic bands. They had fun covering them in stickers and ribbons. Our science experiment for the week was creating rain in a jar. Simply boil some water, put it in a jar just like you see and cover it with a plate. Wait a couple minutes and add several ice cubes on top. The differences in temperature will make the steam in the jar condensate and water droplets will run down the sides just as they would if a the rain were hitting your window. It was pretty neat!

 Woohoo! Our first field trip! A great, awesome lady in our ward has a farm and I asked if I could bring 16 kids to her farm to check out the horses for Horse week!! She said Yes! The kids got to look at the chickens laying eggs, feed the horses, play on tractors and even SIT ON THE HORSE! That was certainly a first for I'm sure all of them. It was awesome!

 For N week we made a Noodle necklace. It was certainly not the fanciest of apparel, but she was thrilled to wear it. We made a horse out of toilet paper rolls. By the way, if you're interested, keep all that kind of stuff! Old cake mix boxes, tissue boxes, paper towel rolls...they come in so handy for crafts! I think the horse turned out kind of cute! For lunch the kids ate out of "troughs" and they had "hay" (mac n cheese), apples and carrots...all of which horses love! The moms had nutella N sandwiches, nuts, and nachos. My friends are so awesome for bringing such fun lunches!

 We didn't do very many crafts for M week, but we managed to make a pretty cool mask! She had to put it on all her stuffed animals too! The theme for the week was cars and trucks, so, as usual, had to make a fun sandwich! Beep beep!

 I prepared a little gas station for the kids to fill up their cars they made out of jello boxes. I cut one side off of the box and prepared wheels, headlights, and gave them a sheet of "bumper" stickers to decorate their car with before attaching miniature license plates. They then had to stop by the gas station and fill up with gasoline, which was our vocabulary word for the week. The number was 13, so gas cost thirteen cents a gallon and the gasoline just so happened to be 13 M&Ms which of course was the letter of the week. I had a water play table set up where they could wash their cars and trucks that they had brought. Of course you can't have a cars and tucks day without playing Red Light Green Light! It was a hit. This little guy, Noah, was a superstar!

 There are so many wonderful books at your local library! Take advantage of them! We certainly did. For storytime they had a racecar snack simply made out of pretzel rods, frosting, M&Ms, and jumbo marshmallows. I've tried to incorporate something science-ish for each lesson, so this week's was a balloon-powered car. I taped down a "Start" and "Finish" line and we tried multiple times getting it to make it all the way. The little thing did pretty good! Each kid was given their own personalized license plate to wear for the day...courtesy of my awesome hubby! Each week we rotate lunches and my friend brought this yummy dessert! Tonka Truck Chocolate cake! Yummmmm!

Although I attempted to take the duck week a little easy, I still had just as much fun getting ready for the lesson! I prepared a worksheet of matching ducklings to their egg for uppercase to lowercase and since the letter of the week was L, that's all the letters they had to do. I also created different puppets on popsicle sticks for the different stages a duck goes through. First I acted out a simple show and let the kids do their own. They loved it! As you can see, I've gotten into preparing sandwiches in the shape of the theme for that week. This duck sandwich is one of my favorites thus far. The craft for preschool was made using egg cartons, coffee filter, easter grass and some cadburry eggs. It was a perfect treat for story time! My sliding glass doors have also become somewhat of a giant dry erase board for me. The number of the week was 12 and we used shapes and ducks to count that high. Each child was given a different numbered duck and had to match it.

I think it is safe to say that I had the most fun with Moon week. We did several moon crafts. Using some plain colored play dough we created a footprint on the moon. Savannah has landed! the vocabulary word of the week was full (moon) and the shape of the week was crescent. Learning the phases of the moon was fun using oreos and an earth frosted cupcake. Using a cardboard box and some white Christmas lights, I created a "Journey to the Moon" fort. The kids loved being little astronauts using the hats I made for them.

 Their drinks were served in spaceship cups. Since the shape of the week was crescents, lunch was hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls. Yum! We had a fun science experiment learning about the surface of the Earth. Fill a container like the one shown above with a thick layer of flour and a thin layer of cocoa. Then have the kids take turns dropping an egg into that container. The flour and the cocoa together will form a crater once the weight of the egg hits it. I taught the kids how astronauts have to eat their food out of a tube or from bags. So...we ate chocolate pudding out of snack baggies! Yum!

K week was filled with lots of fun activities, food, and crafts! We watched some You Tube videos of simple karate moves and practiced kicking some couch cushions. We had different kinds of Kabobs throughout the week and yummy snacks like kettle corn and kudos and kiwis! We made some cute crafts as you see; K is for King and for Kisses!

Wow! What a fun week we had for J Week! The theme, as I'm sure you can see, was Trains. Each child brought with them a box to decorate for their box car. I made a conductors hat for each of them to wear. They all received their very own "ticket to ride" in which I hole-punched just as a train conductor would. Their lunch was served along with this food train. Since the letter of the week was J, they had jellybeans and jello. The color was black, so they enjoyed some blackberries! For every letter of the alphabet there is a rather boppy song for it on YouTube. For J, they jumped on the J to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeYynmQ0v3Q

For I Week we learned about music through Instruments! There are thousands of resources out there on the internet; free printables and so many blogs freely sharing their ideas. I create a lesson plan every Sunday night for that week's letter/theme/number/shape or color using all these blogs and websites. Go searching! If you aren't inspired by the pictures on my website, keep searching other blogs! I'm sure you'll find many ideas for preschooling your cute kids!