Monday, December 6, 2010

Preschool Theme: Space


Self-Selected Time. For self-selected time, I added big foam letters and numbers for the kids to play with and a kid size tent with a car mat and little buildings. I'm also always adding fun items to the dress-up kit.











Circle Time. Besides our regular games and activities, the kids shared their homefun with the group. During preschool we drew hidden messages with lemon juice for their parents, and their homefun was to heat the paper up. Fyi- if you're doing this project, you almost have to burn the paper (I put the papers in the oven at low heat) to get it to work. Grant and Halley were super excited to share their work.






I put Jonathan's in the oven and it turned out great.




Bugsby Space Adventure. Grant used the Bugsby pen to lead us through a space story. The preschool kids and my kids loooove Bugsby books. Apollo plays with them in his room before bed...they play with them all the time. Great for road trips too. If you're thinking of a cool reading tool...Bugsby is great. It's a big pen and you switch out the cartridges depending on the book the kids are "reading". Annie is 22 mo. and she loves to use it too.



Art Time. Kimberly let me borrow a book "Early Years Thematic Notes" that had a cute idea for our space theme. We had all different sized lids for the kids to trace with crayons to make planets. Once they colored in their planets, they painted their space picture blue-the wax repels the paint.






Academic Time. We organized all the alphabet letters and numbers 1-9 on the floor. I found this at some church garage sale (they have a preschool). Garage sales are a great place for learning toys at a cheaper rate...$5.





We all celebrated our puzzle putting together success.






The kids colored astronauts and traced the letter "N" I had dotted on each of their papers. Click HERE to print off your own. I printed off the face of each of my students.






I copied off some aliens and had the kids color them. On the backs were dotted numbers they could trace. After they aliens were cut out, I would call out a random number and the kids would find it in their pile.



Snack and a Story. Steel Cut Oatmeal Cranberry Muffins. Yum. Ziggy turned me onto steel cut oats for breakfast (fyi 1 cup steel cut oats to 4 cups water-put in pan on low until it thickens-yummy with peanut butter and a little syrup in it). I looked up a steel cut oats muffin recipe on line and came up with this one. I didn't even cook the oats a head of time and they came out great-kind of a hearty texture. I got the steel cut oats from Sprouts in a bin.


Steel Cut Oatmeal Cranberry Muffins
Ingredients:

  • 1 C steel cut oats
  • 1 C unbleached flour (I used bleached and it was fine)
  • 1/2 C dried cranberries
  • 1/2 C brown sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/3 C olive oil
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 C milk
Directions:
Put in muffin paper and cook for about 15-25 min @ 350 degrees. Let sit until cool. Enjoy!

I made 2 doz. and they were gone in two days. My preschool kiddos all looved them and went to town-super healthy too.






Music Time. I bought some pom poms for each of the kids. They had so much fun dancing around with them to Christmas music.










Quiet Reading. All the boys happened to sit together on the couch so I couldn't resist a shot of them.




Science Experiment. We finished our science experiments (with the worksheet) from last week. The kids also made and flew airplanes. We talked about evaporation and the water cycle after some of our water escaped out of the cup we left out. Jonathan put Nerds into water during our last class and I pulled it out of the freezer to check it out (a fun experiment to try).


Physical Fitness. We walked, ran, went slowly, etc. the same distance and timed ourselves to see what way was the fastest and slowest.

Ending Circle Time. I love to hear what the kids remembered from the day. Very cute.


Random Thoughts:
Grant. Always has his funny little words that he adds and the kids go back and forth saying funny things and laughing; he liked sharing his lemon juice homefun with everyone and was not happy when Annie wanted to check out his oven mitts; he called me Mommy a couple times today; he looked like he glowed with a little tan; he liked sharing about his trip-liked the pools; he was very excited about his planets all class long.

Halley. Got SUPER excited about sharing her homefun during circle time and started speaking loudly and quickly about dinosaurs; the muffins were a hit today and even Halley wanted another muffin; I had not bought pom poms for Annie (not knowing she would be in class today) and asked if anyone would let Annie use one...Halley said she could, so nice; Halley kept bringing books for Annie during quiet time.

Jonathan. He had fun during music time with his pom poms; he is super fast during our physical fitness section and beat all of us on a few of the activities; I think it's cute how he calls me Miss Robyn outside of preschool (most all of the kids do even if they didn't before preschool); he likes to play; he is always so polite every week.

Nicole. She was very particular about making her solar system and had to put a lot of paint over the whole thing- she is always into the art or crafty stuff we do; she likes to do things herself; liked playing with the Bugsby books; she likes looking at the pictures after I take them; she always has a beautiful smile.

Donny. He reminded me that it was his dad's birthday today; he likes the "Bugsby Books" (all the kids did); he was good at organizing the puzzle even when the thrill of starting it was over, he worked on it until it was finished; he still talks about the roller coaster from Disney Land when we go on our bear hunt.

Apollo. He asked for water today and I laughed as I teased him and said "What's that in front of you" and he started laughing. All the kids thought it was so funny so they all started asking for water and I would reply the same way-everyone was giggling; he loves preschool and is so fun to have in class.

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