Wednesday, May 10, 2017
First Hanging Caterpillar
We've had 2 caterpillars on the lid all day today, and my kids are constantly checking on them. Tonight, right after dinner, we noticed this one had formed his J shape to get ready to make his chrysalis! I'm sure the others will follow soon!
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Growing Caterpillars
These guys grow so stinkin fast, and are now much more wiggly and fun to watch! The kids loved watching them today in school, and looking up close at all their features. They are now 8 days old, so they will soon crawl to the top and hang in a j shape, then form their chrysallis! I'm hoping by preschool Thursday, a few will have done that. One has been on top all day today, so he'll probably be the first to hang.
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Caterpillar updates
The caterpillars are growing fast! The kids were super impressed Thursday to see how much they'd already grown from Tuesday. They were also much more active on Thursday, and there were constant squeals, of "come look! They're moving!" They were fun to watch.
Here they are on Thursday:
They've already grown a lot, and are spending more time crawling all over the jar, and are really liking the lid. They've spun their little silk webs everywhere, and have shed their skins several times. We talked about that in class, and you can point out to them all the little black balls, that is their old skin they shed.
Friday:
Saturday:
Here they are on Thursday:
They've already grown a lot, and are spending more time crawling all over the jar, and are really liking the lid. They've spun their little silk webs everywhere, and have shed their skins several times. We talked about that in class, and you can point out to them all the little black balls, that is their old skin they shed.
Friday:
Saturday:
Monday, May 1, 2017
Our bugs!
Our class bugs arrived today. The caterpillars are always the most exciting!
I did something new this year, and also got a praying mantis egg case. There were some problems with my order, so another praying mantis egg case came free! Sadly, they hatch anywhere from 2-10 weeks :( So, fingers crossed one of them hatches in 4 so we get to see them! They have to be immediately released, or they'll eat each other, but we can keep a few. We will keep vigilant watch at home, and post here if anything happens or changes.
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Summer
Dramatic Play
We continued our Ice Cream Shop we started last week.
Blocks
We had out the Duplo Legos, one of the kids' favorite toys.
Art
Day 1, I had out green paper, pencils, and scissors and asked them to make leaves for our tree. It was great cutting practice for them! They could just cut, or draw their own leaf, and a couple asked me to draw their leaf for them to cut.
Day 2, we painted with watercolors.
Small Manipulatives
We had our counting file folder games out again.
Counting ice cream sundaes, with a numbered cherry to add to the sundae with the matching number of candies.
Pom pom shape mats
Writing
I added the colored pens to their regular writing supplies
Outside
Another rainy week!! So we had to play inside again :(
Large Group
We read The Day Before Summer Vacation and talked about fun things they like to do in the hot summer. Then, we reviewed all the seasons. We sing them each day with our weather song, but it's good to review! We then had journal writing time for them to write some of their favorite things to do in each season.
Day 2, we read a Tree For All Seasons, and focused on the summer tree, and the green leaves they added to our tree. We then made our 4 seasons books. Each page was just a blank tree to start.
For summer, they painted green leaves.
For fall, we painted fall colored tissue paper on with starch.
For winter, we painted with "snow paint" which is glue, shaving cream, and glitter.
For spring, we glued on split peas to be leaf buds.
Small Group
We stuck to the summer ice cream theme.
My group had ice cream cones and we matched the rhymes.
Miss Kim's group had ice cream cones with capital and small letters. They put the cones in ABC order, then added the matching ice cream on top.
We continued our Ice Cream Shop we started last week.
Blocks
We had out the Duplo Legos, one of the kids' favorite toys.
Art
Day 1, I had out green paper, pencils, and scissors and asked them to make leaves for our tree. It was great cutting practice for them! They could just cut, or draw their own leaf, and a couple asked me to draw their leaf for them to cut.
Day 2, we painted with watercolors.
Small Manipulatives
We had our counting file folder games out again.
Counting ice cream sundaes, with a numbered cherry to add to the sundae with the matching number of candies.
Pom pom shape mats
Writing
I added the colored pens to their regular writing supplies
Outside
Another rainy week!! So we had to play inside again :(
Large Group
We read The Day Before Summer Vacation and talked about fun things they like to do in the hot summer. Then, we reviewed all the seasons. We sing them each day with our weather song, but it's good to review! We then had journal writing time for them to write some of their favorite things to do in each season.
Day 2, we read a Tree For All Seasons, and focused on the summer tree, and the green leaves they added to our tree. We then made our 4 seasons books. Each page was just a blank tree to start.
For summer, they painted green leaves.
For fall, we painted fall colored tissue paper on with starch.
For winter, we painted with "snow paint" which is glue, shaving cream, and glitter.
For spring, we glued on split peas to be leaf buds.
Small Group
We stuck to the summer ice cream theme.
My group had ice cream cones and we matched the rhymes.
Miss Kim's group had ice cream cones with capital and small letters. They put the cones in ABC order, then added the matching ice cream on top.
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Spring
I had hoped for the sunny side of spring, to show warmth as a sign of spring, but we got rain instead. It's also a great sign of spring! Just a cold one.
Dramatic Play
Flower Shop!
Since Easter only gave them 2 days to play, we did an extra day of the flower shop. Plus, flowers fir the spring theme perfectly.
Day 2, I changed it into the Ice Cream Shop. They'll only get 1 day during this theme, so it will carry into our two days learning about summer. I have some play ice cream cones and treats, but I also added empty boxes of cones and Dilly Bars and ice cream cartons. They're reinforced with packing tape, but if they ever fell apart, I guess I'd make the sacrifice and eat more ice cream for more empty boxes and cartons.
It was a huge hit! We had tons of employees, running around, dishing up ice cream and running the cash register. They were not thrilled when I let them know part of their job was also clearing the tables when customers were done. They had just finished clearing out all the treats for the customers, and the table was piled high, but they did it! It was constantly busy, serving and cleaning up.
Blocks
Day 1 was the doll house
Day 2 was the farm and animals
Art
Day 1 was spring sponge painting on blue paper. Their pictures reminded me of warm and sunny days! They made so many, every flat surface in our room was filled with drying pictures.
Day 2 was feathers and glue. They made lots of interesting creations.
Small Manipulatives
Number bird nests with marbles from here
Flower, heart, and star links
Number folder games
Writing
Flower and bug stickers
Snack
Popcorn! We sang Popcorn Popping as it popped, and talked about spring blossoms.
Outside
On Thursday, we went out in the clouds, hoping to have time to play and plant flowers in front of the play house. My kids had helped me prep it the day before by turning the dirt and building a rock border. Once we started, the rain came! Luckily, it just sprinkled for a bit. We planted some different varieties of zinnias. The kids got to choose their seeds, dig their hole, then plant their seeds. We would have watered them, but the rain was enough. Most of the kids waited in the play house or on its porch as we planted, to stay out of the rain. I was glad each child got a turn to plant, and we got back inside before the rain picked up harder.
***As a side note, this area will soon be grass, hallelujah! As you've all noticed our dying grass up front, we are digging that up to level out, as we also level this area and the west side yard. As soon as that's done and the new sprinkler system is in, we will plant grass seed. That will mean that the play house area will be closed off a bit while it's growing. But when you all return next year, it should be beautiful! It has been put off all spring with all of the rain, but this Saturday is the day it all gets dug up! There will be a few transformations out back this summer too, so stay tuned! I wouldn't let my husband make the whole yard off limits at once, so the leveling and sprinklers and new grass out front will have to wait until summer. Thanks for your patience with the ugliness of our yard this spring.
Large Group
Day 1, We read B is for Bunny, which is a springtime alphabet book. We learned about baby birds and farm animals, blossoms and flowers, flying kites rain. Lots of spring fun!
Then we sang Popcorn Popping and Rain is Falling. We made popcorn blossoms for our class tree, gluing popcorn onto pink blossoms. It now looks like spring in here!
Day 2, we read Grow Flower Grow. We had planted our flowers out in front of the play house. We now learned what they needed to grow, and the book taught us it wasn't pizza and spaghetti! We then planted seeds in our pots to take home. They are zinnias, same as in front of the play house, and I hope yours will grow well at home!
Small Group
My group practiced beginning sounds with this page from The Measured Mom. I was so impressed by how well they did! I was more focused on the sound, than the letter it made, but many also knew the corresponding letter. After we figured out the sound, I told them the letter that made the sound, and they found the sticker for their page.
Miss Kim's group kept working on numbers and counting. These pages also came from The Measured Mom. They had lego stacking flower pages, where they build towers with that number of blocks. And they did these flower clip pages. Once they counted and clipped the right number, Miss Kim traded them for a new page to count.
Dramatic Play
Flower Shop!
Since Easter only gave them 2 days to play, we did an extra day of the flower shop. Plus, flowers fir the spring theme perfectly.
Day 2, I changed it into the Ice Cream Shop. They'll only get 1 day during this theme, so it will carry into our two days learning about summer. I have some play ice cream cones and treats, but I also added empty boxes of cones and Dilly Bars and ice cream cartons. They're reinforced with packing tape, but if they ever fell apart, I guess I'd make the sacrifice and eat more ice cream for more empty boxes and cartons.
It was a huge hit! We had tons of employees, running around, dishing up ice cream and running the cash register. They were not thrilled when I let them know part of their job was also clearing the tables when customers were done. They had just finished clearing out all the treats for the customers, and the table was piled high, but they did it! It was constantly busy, serving and cleaning up.
Blocks
Day 1 was the doll house
Day 2 was the farm and animals
Art
Day 1 was spring sponge painting on blue paper. Their pictures reminded me of warm and sunny days! They made so many, every flat surface in our room was filled with drying pictures.
Day 2 was feathers and glue. They made lots of interesting creations.
Small Manipulatives
Number bird nests with marbles from here
Flower, heart, and star links
Number folder games
Writing
Flower and bug stickers
Snack
Popcorn! We sang Popcorn Popping as it popped, and talked about spring blossoms.
Outside
On Thursday, we went out in the clouds, hoping to have time to play and plant flowers in front of the play house. My kids had helped me prep it the day before by turning the dirt and building a rock border. Once we started, the rain came! Luckily, it just sprinkled for a bit. We planted some different varieties of zinnias. The kids got to choose their seeds, dig their hole, then plant their seeds. We would have watered them, but the rain was enough. Most of the kids waited in the play house or on its porch as we planted, to stay out of the rain. I was glad each child got a turn to plant, and we got back inside before the rain picked up harder.
***As a side note, this area will soon be grass, hallelujah! As you've all noticed our dying grass up front, we are digging that up to level out, as we also level this area and the west side yard. As soon as that's done and the new sprinkler system is in, we will plant grass seed. That will mean that the play house area will be closed off a bit while it's growing. But when you all return next year, it should be beautiful! It has been put off all spring with all of the rain, but this Saturday is the day it all gets dug up! There will be a few transformations out back this summer too, so stay tuned! I wouldn't let my husband make the whole yard off limits at once, so the leveling and sprinklers and new grass out front will have to wait until summer. Thanks for your patience with the ugliness of our yard this spring.
Large Group
Day 1, We read B is for Bunny, which is a springtime alphabet book. We learned about baby birds and farm animals, blossoms and flowers, flying kites rain. Lots of spring fun!
Then we sang Popcorn Popping and Rain is Falling. We made popcorn blossoms for our class tree, gluing popcorn onto pink blossoms. It now looks like spring in here!
Day 2, we read Grow Flower Grow. We had planted our flowers out in front of the play house. We now learned what they needed to grow, and the book taught us it wasn't pizza and spaghetti! We then planted seeds in our pots to take home. They are zinnias, same as in front of the play house, and I hope yours will grow well at home!
Small Group
My group practiced beginning sounds with this page from The Measured Mom. I was so impressed by how well they did! I was more focused on the sound, than the letter it made, but many also knew the corresponding letter. After we figured out the sound, I told them the letter that made the sound, and they found the sticker for their page.
Miss Kim's group kept working on numbers and counting. These pages also came from The Measured Mom. They had lego stacking flower pages, where they build towers with that number of blocks. And they did these flower clip pages. Once they counted and clipped the right number, Miss Kim traded them for a new page to count.
Saturday, April 15, 2017
Happy Easter!
Dramatic Play
We welcomed in spring with a Flower Shop. It's pretty simple, with lots of silk flowers from Dollar Tree. I had used pots with foam blocks in them in the past, but they just broke the foam into pieces and made a mess. So I set this up without them, and decided to add if needed, but they did just fine so I never added them.
They made bouquets for each other, for their mom's and grandma's, and they even built vases out of the blocks in the block center, so we had some beautiful displays over there.
Blocks
Day 1, I had the gymnastics mat out for some large motor play. I also had a bunch of balloons left over from my son's birthday party, so I put them all down there. They were a huge hit. They loved playing "don't let the balloon hit the ground" and passing them together. After one got stuck to the ceiling, we learned about static, and had lots of kids rubbing balloons on their hair in front of the mirror, and sticking them to the walls.
Day 2, I had out the ABC capital/small letter matching eggs, plus an item to go inside each letter. They had fun matching them, filling them, and then hiding them from each other. In fact, I just found a few more setting up our summer stuff, 2 weeks later :)
Art
Marble painting! I used egg shaped paper. They'd put it in the tray, then scoop a marble out of the paint with the spoon, and roll the tray around so the marble could paint their paper. They loved it.
Potato stamps. They're about the shape of an easter egg, so they're perfect for easter pictures. Some had simple designs carved in them, while a few were plain. Most kids didn't just stamp, and smeared them all over their papers.
Small Manipulatives
Easter/Spring magnets
1-10 Easter puzzle from here
E is for Easter mat with flat marbles
Writing
Easter stickers
Snack
We made egg salad to eat on crackers. They each got to peel a boiled egg. It was time-consuming, but it's a great fine motor skill! Then they got to take turns mashing them, and we stirred in mayo and salt. They each got some on their plates to dip their cracker in. All the kids tried it, and more than half liked it and ate it all! That's pretty successful for 4 year olds.
Outside
The sensory table was filled with macaroni and plastic eggs. The eggs somehow became bombs buried in the orchard too. Most remained eggs, but you gotta love their imaginations.
They also just enjoyed the spring weather, playing on the swingset, sandbox, and playhouse.
Large Group
We learned lots of fun new Easter songs. I found this version of Peter Cottontail on youtube to teach them, and all these other videos were there too, so we tried some more. We did the Bunny Hokey Pokey, 10 Little Bunnies, and B-U-N-N-Y. We all loved how fun and active the songs were.
Day 1, we read the book, Best Easter Eggs Ever, and we dyed our boiled eggs using plants. We actually put them in before we read and sang, to give them more time. We used beets, spinach, and grape juice. The grape juice worked the best, spinach the least. It was a fun experiment.
Day 2, we read The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick. We then used peeps and other Easter marshmallow candies to make towers with toothpicks. It was a fun engineering project.
Small Group
Miss Kim's group learned more about letter E, capital and small. They used dot markers and these pages to stamp the letter Es. Many of them came home stamped everywhere :) Before you worry, most of the kids followed directions and got the Es. They just can't resist those markers, and proceeded to stamp the rest of their papers. It's preschool, so no biggie!
My group learned about measuring weight with a balance scale, and the words heavier and lighter. I had small eggs filled with different objects. They would hold 2 and guess which was heavier and lighter, then weigh them. After they each had a few turns doing that, they then added eggs to each side until they could get them to balance. They really liked this activity!
We welcomed in spring with a Flower Shop. It's pretty simple, with lots of silk flowers from Dollar Tree. I had used pots with foam blocks in them in the past, but they just broke the foam into pieces and made a mess. So I set this up without them, and decided to add if needed, but they did just fine so I never added them.
They made bouquets for each other, for their mom's and grandma's, and they even built vases out of the blocks in the block center, so we had some beautiful displays over there.
Blocks
Day 1, I had the gymnastics mat out for some large motor play. I also had a bunch of balloons left over from my son's birthday party, so I put them all down there. They were a huge hit. They loved playing "don't let the balloon hit the ground" and passing them together. After one got stuck to the ceiling, we learned about static, and had lots of kids rubbing balloons on their hair in front of the mirror, and sticking them to the walls.
Day 2, I had out the ABC capital/small letter matching eggs, plus an item to go inside each letter. They had fun matching them, filling them, and then hiding them from each other. In fact, I just found a few more setting up our summer stuff, 2 weeks later :)
Art
Marble painting! I used egg shaped paper. They'd put it in the tray, then scoop a marble out of the paint with the spoon, and roll the tray around so the marble could paint their paper. They loved it.
Potato stamps. They're about the shape of an easter egg, so they're perfect for easter pictures. Some had simple designs carved in them, while a few were plain. Most kids didn't just stamp, and smeared them all over their papers.
Small Manipulatives
Easter/Spring magnets
1-10 Easter puzzle from here
E is for Easter mat with flat marbles
Writing
Easter stickers
Snack
We made egg salad to eat on crackers. They each got to peel a boiled egg. It was time-consuming, but it's a great fine motor skill! Then they got to take turns mashing them, and we stirred in mayo and salt. They each got some on their plates to dip their cracker in. All the kids tried it, and more than half liked it and ate it all! That's pretty successful for 4 year olds.
Outside
The sensory table was filled with macaroni and plastic eggs. The eggs somehow became bombs buried in the orchard too. Most remained eggs, but you gotta love their imaginations.
They also just enjoyed the spring weather, playing on the swingset, sandbox, and playhouse.
Large Group
We learned lots of fun new Easter songs. I found this version of Peter Cottontail on youtube to teach them, and all these other videos were there too, so we tried some more. We did the Bunny Hokey Pokey, 10 Little Bunnies, and B-U-N-N-Y. We all loved how fun and active the songs were.
Day 1, we read the book, Best Easter Eggs Ever, and we dyed our boiled eggs using plants. We actually put them in before we read and sang, to give them more time. We used beets, spinach, and grape juice. The grape juice worked the best, spinach the least. It was a fun experiment.
Day 2, we read The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick. We then used peeps and other Easter marshmallow candies to make towers with toothpicks. It was a fun engineering project.
Small Group
Miss Kim's group learned more about letter E, capital and small. They used dot markers and these pages to stamp the letter Es. Many of them came home stamped everywhere :) Before you worry, most of the kids followed directions and got the Es. They just can't resist those markers, and proceeded to stamp the rest of their papers. It's preschool, so no biggie!
My group learned about measuring weight with a balance scale, and the words heavier and lighter. I had small eggs filled with different objects. They would hold 2 and guess which was heavier and lighter, then weigh them. After they each had a few turns doing that, they then added eggs to each side until they could get them to balance. They really liked this activity!
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