Fairy Tales

Castles castles everywhere! I love getting out these dress-ups and toys! The hardest part is always narrowing down which stories to tell, I probably need 6 weeks to give this theme justice, but here's what we did in two:

Dramatic Play

Medieval Castle


Filled with dress-ups fit for a queen. Or princess, king, prince, knight, dragon, or magician.




And a modern kitchen with a microwave, because they gotta eat, and the kids keep asking when they can play with the kitchen again. It was played with constantly! At one point, a castle full of princesses defended their castle with a banana, whisk, and grapes from a horde of attacking dragons,  so I'm sure they're grateful it was there!

Week 2, Jack's beanstalk was added after we'd read that story.

Blocks

Toy castle with fingerpuppets




Jack and the Beanstalk figures and story cards were added to the castle.





Can I just share one of my biggest teaching regrets that comes around every time I pull out my Jack and the Beanstalk box? I bought this at a UEA conference over a decade ago. There were a whole bunch, all marked down. I couldn't afford much and was getting some other puzzles and dominoes kits I love, so I only bought the one. I don't remember getting to use it while teaching Kindergarten, so I didn't see it's value then either. The kids LOVE it! Every year I pull it out, they go crazy for it. We use it together in large group, but I have to have it out to play because they love it so much. They love retelling the story and acting it all out with these little wooden figures. And the CD and story cards are so great at telling the story and helping us sequence it. I decided a few years ago to go to their website and get other stories and I was shocked at how expensive they are! So I just continue to be grateful for the one I have, and covet the others on their site. If you want them for your kids, or you're a teacher visiting the site, you can find them here.

I also had out nursery rhyme puzzles and a Frozen memory game. The memory game was a big hit, and I helped get them into small groups to play and they did great at taking turns and getting along. I was impressed!

Art

Glitter glue! So much better than the loose stuff, and such a good small motor skill to squeeze those little bottles!


Paint stamps


Sequins and sparkles! I love how it even shines in the pictures. Sparkly pom poms too, plus leftover glitter glue.


We also used the art table one morning to make our gingerbread men snack. They made the dough, and rolled and cut out the cookies. Then played play dough, and I added a Princess Sofia and Cinderella play doh toys. They shared and played impressively well with those!

Small Manipulatives

Gingerbread Man floor puzzle


Fairy lacing cards


Opposites puzzle (after we'd done it in small group)


And by popular demand, Goldilocks and the 3 Bears mini-dramatic play set up.  They loved acting it out so much, they begged to do it again. So it was out for free play time when they came back the next day, and they played it over and over and over. I loved hearing them retell the story again and again and tell each other the lines "my porridge is too hot!" etc. It was darling. And such great reading comprehension!!!


The magnet board had the alphabet and a pic for each beginning sound.


Writing table

"Magic" color changing markers


Fairy tale stickers


Striped markers


Snack

Day 1, we made, decorated, and ate gingerbread men, and decorated an extra to take home. We also read the story that day.

Day 3, we ate porridge to go along with our reading of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Most of them really liked it! My family eats it for breakfast regularly. I don't think it's even technically called porridge, but thanks to preschool, it's what all my kids call it! We use this:

Large Group

We learned the word "pretend" and determined with each
story we read, if it was real or pretend. And that fairy tales are pretend stories. Because pigs don't build houses and bears don't eat porridge! They loved pointing out those silly things in each story.
We also learned the song, The Knight Chased the Dragon. It's to the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel."

All around the castle, the knight chased the dragon.
The dragon said it was so fun, pop goes the dragon!

We held hands and danced in a circle as we sang, slowly, then faster and faster. They loved it.

Day 1, we read The Gingerbread Man, then did the floor puzzle together.


Day 2, we read Jack and the Beanstalk and put the story cards in order, and listened to the song and acted it out with the wood figures.

Day 3, we read Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, then used the masks and props to act out the story a few times so everyone got a turn.

Day 4, we read the 3 Little Pigs and put story cards in order of the story. Then they each got pieces from a sequencing puzzle to put together, first-middle-last. Each child got to "read" their story by telling what happened in their puzzle first, next, then last. They did so so great!

Small Group

Week 1, my group read The Tortoise and the Hare and talked about the opposites in the story (fast and slow). Then we matched these opposites puzzles and took turns telling what our opposites were.

The other group made these cute sticker scenes.

Week 2, my group decorated crowns and I helped each child review the letters in their name, and add their name to their crown with letter stickers.

The other group played with my math counting bears.

5 Senses

Playing catch-up here! Thanks for your patience with my blogging, or lack thereof last month.

Dramatic Play
We just simply had our housekeeping/kitchen set up. This was the kids' request. I had thought about another restaurant area, but when I asked them, they just wanted to play house. Simple, and a well-loved center!

Blocks
Large foam number puzzle. I love this one for the texture.


ABC train blocks

Wood train tracks, for 2 days due to popular demand


Art
Day 1, since we missed 1 apple day due to sickness last week, we finished some things today. So for art, we did apple stamping.


Jello collages. I LOVE the smell of this one! This one was popular all day, with a line waiting to fill an empty seat. They loved the smell, and watching the colors turn bright in the glue.

I decided to get rid of this spice rack this summer, then as I dumped out the few spices that weren't empty yet, I realized I should have kept them for a great sensory experience too, but too late! I recycled this for our art, and filled the jars with Jello powder. When we actually did it, I needed the space for the bins to collect extra powder, and it looked more like this.


Play dough with different textures for stamping. They liked showing off cool designs to each other, and they table ended up pretty full with other stuff they brought over to stamp and see its texture. And we used that word "texture" over and over and over.


Made gingerbread men for snack, then painted with dot markers.

Small Manipulatives
Links

Bristle Blocks

File Folder games about faces (my kids have cool church teachers that make these-and then I steal the ones I want for preschool)



Gingerbread Man floor puzzle


Letter magnets on the board. They loved these more than I expected. They liked connecting them to make trains, and spelling their names.


Farm Sounds Bingo was out after we'd used it in small group too.


Writing
Scented markers

Scented colored pencils

Texture Line markers

Snack
Apple Pie, from last week. They weren't huge fans, but they tried it.

Smoothie. This was a fun way to use all 5 senses, since the blender is so loud!

Gingerbread Men. They made them during art, then got to eat one for snack, and decorate another to take home during small group.

Outside
Sensory table: cornmeal, because it's a sensory experience we hadn't done yet! I added in test tubes (the kids call them potion bottles) just for something different, and they had a lot of fun.

Tents and Tunnels. I didn't get a pic without kids, but they had a lot of fun dragging them around and making new set ups and designs. They especially liked them upside down this time. I guess whatever works.

Large Group
We didn't learn a new song this week, but we did read and act out this poem each day.

Day 1, we read Your 5 Senses to introduce them. We went outside with a 5 senses paper on a clipboard, and they drew pictures of what they smelled, heard, saw, touched, and tasted. Most tasted the raspberries or grapes, but a few got more adventurous and tasted grass, which I strongly discouraged! They had a great and productive time exploring, often running up to me to tell me something else they heard or touched. So even though a paper comes home with scribbles, I know they were observing and finding real things.

Day 2, We read about our sense of touch and made texture hands. I had hands cut out already, and a tray full of items. They chose which ones to use and glued one to each finger. Then I had them describe its texture and I wrote down on each finger how it felt.

Day 3, We read Look Here, and talked about sight. Then we played a game about not having sight. We set up some obstacles in the room, then they each took turns walking through it blindfolded. They got to choose a seeing friend to help them, by using touch to hold their hand and guide them, or using sound by telling them where to go.

Day 4, we read The Gingerbread Man and acted it out. This was their favorite activity of the week! We then talked about what senses we used to make and eat our gingerbread men for snack (spoiler alert: all of them), and then again for the book, what senses did we read about? And we filled those out on a chart. They really loved the retelling part! The next week, I kept the book in the reading center, and found quite a few of them "reading" it as they flipped through and read the pictures.

Small Group

We finished the apple centers we hadn't from last week.

We explored taste by tasting salt and sugar, then journaling our favorite things to taste.

We explored texture and touch by making texture rubbings around the room.

We explored sounds by playing Farm Sounds Bingo.

We explored smell by smelling different bottles and sorting which ones smelled good or bad to them. Then they did a worksheet (Ugh, you know I hate those), but with a good purpose. While I'd always rather sort the real smells (like we did) than do a worksheet, they really need the cutting practice! So they cut along the straight lines and I helped them hold their scissors correctly. I didn't worry on the sorting and gluing side, since many were just being silly, and that's just fine in preschool! So if your child came home with garbage on the good smelling side, I know :)

Favorites week!

I didn't get pics of it all, but here's what your kids chose as their favorite things to do from the school year:

Dramatic Play

Camping

House/babies

Pizza Restaurant

Doctor's Office

Blocks

Bowling

Magnatiles (this was actually on the shelf for the full 2 weeks, and was off the shelf and being used constantly these 2 weeks. If I had to pick 1 favorite toy of the class this year, this is it, hands down! If you're ever considering a toy for your child for birthdays or Christmas, this is a great one!! It never grows old. And they can be so creative with it. I got my set of 100 on Zulily for $19 a few years back, no joke. They can be pricey, so watch for deals! They are SO worth it.)

Bristle Blocks

Number Pegs

Car mat and cars

Toy castle

Small Manipulatives

Lacing ABCs

Lacing cards

Small magnets (balls, sticks)...no idea what they're called ;)

Puppet theater

Reading Center
They requested all the stuffed animals come down from the cupboard, so they were added, along with some of my favorite books!


Art

Painting in many different ways!
-spin art
-marble painting
-roller painting

2 snack preps, then art...they love cooking! They made mummy hot dogs, a request they remembered from Halloween. And we also made cookies for the last day.

Slime
This technically wasn't a favorite they'd chosen, but apparently slime making went viral this year, so I hadn't been able to find glitter glue all year to make it, and finally had a good reason to do it! It was a big hit.

Many kids asked for the recipe. I don't use an exact one, but if you google elmer's glue and borax slime recipes, they'll get more specific. I was using 6 bottles of glue, and you don't just times the recipe by 6, so that's why it's not exact. I pour in the glue, add a bottle or 2 of water and mix it in. Then I added a spoonful of borax to a couple of cups of warm water and stirred until it dissolved. I added it to the glue as I stirred and stopped when it felt like enough. It was actually too wet, and I had to pour some water off. I also added a little more borax water, as it was too sticky. That's why my recipes aren't exact :) You can store it in a ziploc bag in the fridge.

Snack
The kids voted for their favorite snack, which they all just wanted popsicles. So I convinced them to pick 3 more for the other days.
We made mummy hot dogs, which were just hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls.
We had goldfish crackers and juice.
We made chocolate chip cookies. Some of you requested that recipe, so here it is:

2 cups butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 large packages vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
4 cups chocolate chips (we did half peanut butter chips)

Cream butter, sugars
Beat in pudding
Stir in eggs and vanilla
Blend in flour and baking soda
Stir in chocolate chips

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes

Large Group/Small Group

We read some of my favorite books, that don't necessarily fit in a theme, but I just love to read. We practiced the songs we had chosen to sing to our parents. We wrote in our journals about our favorite preschool moments. We drew self portraits to compare to the self portraits we had drawn at the beginning of the year. We played ABC bingo and put together rhyming puzzles. We made potions-this was most important to the class! Good old-fashioned baking soda and vinegar, made magic with some dish soap, food coloring, and test tubes to mix them in. And we also took a fun field trip to visit some chickens, and play in a different yard! We really had a fun 2 weeks playing!!



Thank you for a great year! I will get pictures up soon on dropbox and email you, so you can download the ones you want. We seriously had so much fun this year. I am excited to have most of you back next year! Have a great summer!! We'll be working hard on finishing the yard, so we'll have some gorgeous green grass to run on! Thanks for your patience with our construction this spring.

Thanksgiving

Dramatic Play
We had the housekeeping/kitchen set up back. I added some turkey plates and cups to make it more Thanksgiving-ish. They loved cooking Thanksgiving feasts for each other!

Blocks
We played with mega blocks. I also brought out some trucks and tractors. I'm loving having this extra shelf for either dramatic play, or the block center, to add a few extra things the kids can pull out. There were also puzzles of things we learned about in past themes.

Art
We made turkeys, kinda :) I actually just had out glue and feathers and eyes, plus markers if they needed to draw anything. A few decided to make turkeys, but many made monsters, people, or just glued things together. It's why I love open-ended art! They can do and make whatever they want!


Day 2, we painted with feathers, and pipe cleaner turkey feet. It was funny watching them stomp the feet and act like turkeys as they painted.

Day 3, after our field trip, we did a turkey craft one of our moms supplied. The kids got to glue the turkey head and fathers to a body made of a brown paper sack. It was lots of fun, and really glue-y!

Small Manipulatives
The first day, we had our chameleons from last week out. They had been left to dry over the weekend, then I added the top spinning plate. They enjoyed playing with their plates and the stuffed chameleon.
 
We had out our favorite fall manipulatives, the squirrel pattern cards and apple counting cards.For Thanksgiving, we added turkey feather counting cards. They also liked playing with the feathers by sorting them by color.


I also added Leap Frog ABC magnets to the magnet board.
 
Outside
We played with wheat in the sensory table outside, along with all the other fun things to play out there! They really liked the wheat for digging and pouring. It's just so relaxing.

Large Group
We learned the word gratitude, and each day read a new Thanksgiving book. They taught about the pilgrims and Indians, and also about things we can be grateful for today. After reading each day, I also had them add thankful leaves to our tree, making it a thankful tree. Many ideas were pretty general, like family and friends, and some got pretty specific, like green popsicles. We also kinda learned the song, Over the River and Through the Woods.

On day 1, we reviewed our colors with Skittles turkey sorting mats. They got to sort their pile of Skittles by color, then they could eat them, or put them in a bag to bring home.

Day 2, we wrote in our journal about things we are thankful for. We also made our name turkeys, where the kids had to put the feathers with letters of their name in order. Their names were written on their turkey body to help. I didn't take pics, but you should have seen their turkey come home!

Day 3, was our field trip to Dick's! Thanks to all of you who came. Our host, Randy, was great with the kids and let them run and jump and be loud, so they all had a lot of fun. We toured the back of the store and saw where all the groceries are stored. We even got to go inside the fridges and freezers, and moo at customers from behind the milk.
We got to check out the loading dock, and ride up and down. They even got to go inside a frito lay truck, which they thought was amazing. Then they got to feed cardboard to the cardboard recycle monster. My son has been talking about that part ever since.
As we walked past the meat counter, we were also stopped by a customer who thought the kids were just so cute, she had to give each of them a dollar, including all the younger baby siblings. The kids loved that part!!
The bakery was pretty amazing too. We got to see glazed donuts, freshly dipped, and the giant ovens, plus watch the cake decorators at work.
The kids' favorite part was eating chocolate chip cookies at the end.
Once back at school, we added our favorite foods we are thankful for to our thankful tree, and they all said cookies!

Small Group
My group practiced rhyming words. I have a fall harvest game, with matching rhyming words. Rhyming is a difficult skill at this age, but I think worth introducing. They all did great at recognizing which words rhymed as I said them out loud, but did struggle with finding rhyming matches in the pictures by themselves. We worked as a group to match the rhyming cards. This is a skill we'll be working on all year.

Miss Kim's group played a harvest counting game. They all had harvest mats with pictures of grouped vegetables, and had to match the numeral cards to the correct amount of vegetables. They are doing wonderfully with their numbers and counting!

Both of these games were found at Kelly's Kindergarten.