Preschool Theme: Nursery Rhymes...THANK YOU, HEIDI






My sister, Heidi, gave me one of my favorite presents this year for Christmas. She planned today's lesson. It was darling-she based everything on letter S. She cut out scarecrow parts for the kids to put together (including a little picture of how it should turn out) and had the name of each student on the bag. So, thank you for this and all your cute ideas we did today! Very thoughtful...very creative!





Circle Time. Each child brought a nursery rhyme to share with the rest of the group. Halley had little paper finger puppets to share Humpty Dumpty.




Grant brought a blind mouse ( a mouse with goggles on it) and pretended to cut off his tail with a plastic knife as we did Three Blind Mice-he had it on cd.





Nicole dressed up as Old McDonald.



Apollo drew a spider and we pinned it to his shirt and he held up a sun as he red "Itsy Bitsy Spider".



Donny brought "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" and all the kids did the actions.



I put cotton balls on a headband to represent Mary had a Little Lamb.



Jonathan shared his book with us.


Fun things to do with nursery rhymes: we acted them out and I had the kids clap so they could feel the cadence.


Art Time. We finished our opposite books by coloring black crayon on white paper and vise-verse. I hole punched them and tied them together with curling ribbon (see my last post to go to the website and see more pictures of the book pages).


We put together the kids, scarecrows as we talked about other words that start with letter S. This was a big challenge for my preschool kids (our first time using glue sticks)-and after they were all done they were so proud of what they had accomplished.






Academic Time. Heidi had Ss we could trace and a little match the picture to the letter activity on back.





For math time, I read "Mother Goose Math" and had all the kids count together.



Snack and a Story. The kids made salsa (this starts with ....S). I have split the kids in groups to make snacks, but found out today for this age group, they like taking turns doing something one at a time and making one item all together. We had the chance to joke and talk as we made it.





Homemade Salsa Recipe: Put the following in a blender-1 can Rotel tomatoes, 1 can diced tomatoes, 1/4 C onion, 1 tsp jalapenos (I did not add this with the kids), 1/4 tsp sugar, 1/2 t cumin, 1/2-3/4 t garlic salt. Mix together and refrigerate for 15-30 min.

Quiet Reading. We got a lot of Nursery Rhyme books from the library for the kids to read. My favorite is "This Little Piggy". It gives directions on the bottom of how you can interact with your kids when you read it (Apollo and Annie can't get enough).

Here are some thoughts from the day:

Grant: During Self-Selected time Grant said "Follow me Mates!" and the whole crew followed him back forth across the room; Krista told me she and Grant had practiced his "Three Blind Mice" nursery rhyme-I was dying as he pretended to cut of the mouse's tail-he was super excited to share; he looooved the salsa today.

Jonathan: He leaned over to me and said "I missed you, Miss Robyn"-so sweet, melted my heart; the kids were playing dress up and Jonathan announced "I'm the king" and Apollo declared "I'm the Sultan", then Grant "I'm the rescuer" and Donny, "I'm the firefighter"; he had fun joking around with everyone during music time-the boy likes to move.

Nicole: As always, Nicole goes all out on projects. She attacked the glue stick and I doubt there was any left afterward. She LOVES projects and gives them her all; Apollo put on a Mexican wrestling mask and was the monster and was chasing the kids around. Nicole said, "Is that you, Apollo?"; as I was getting snacks, Nicole said "I love you, Miss Robyn"- I told her I loved her too...and I do very much.

Halley: The kids were pretending to put out fires today. Halley was upset and sad and when I asked her why she said they had put a fire on her. Apollo said "we're just pretending Halley" and they were putting everyone on fire and putting the fires out (Grant, Apollo, and Donny had on their fire fighting hats); I was happy to get a goodbye hug; she loves sharing her homefun with the rest of the group (today but it is true always).

Donny: He's a smarty pants and did really good with matching the letters to the pictures (he would love preschool workbooks and would find them fun and challenging); I noticed he responds better when I touch him on the shoulder when I ask him to do things (thought this would be helpful for his parents); I'm a wimp when it comes to spices so when I had some salsa I said "Whew, I need some water, whew" and Donny said "Whew, I need some water, whew" and took a drink:)

Apollo: He enjoys working on projects and enjoys reading books during quiet reading time; he gets so pumped up during preschool seeing his friends doing all the activities-he becomes a little jokster and becomes full of energy; this is the second week he told me he would be the teacher; he is very particular about doing his tracing and projects.

Preschool Theme: Opposites



Great idea: I got this idea from Krista and I love it. I picked up these lasagna tins from the Dollar Tree so the kids could glue, glitter, and paint in them. I always put a table cloth on but this makes clean up even easier.



Circle Time. The kids shared the opposite pairs they brought with the other kids. We read a story about opposites.

Art Time. Opposite books.






Go here to download the pictures of opposite pairs. I copied each picture and pasted them in Word (4 to a page). Their pages look awesome. The kids use a swimming pool amount of glue per object so we'll have to let them dry for a while and finish them next week.







The kids added some texture to three of the pages for fun...cotton balls to the SOFT kitty, sand on glue to the turtle's HARD shell, and leaves we collected to the dog OUTSIDE.





Academic Time. To celebrate letter R we looked at Youtube clips of a roller coaster, rabbits, river rafting, and runners racing. We did a page out of this Preschool Workbook. I got them at the Dollar Tree. Apollo finished it in two days and loved it so I bought it for all my kids. They have great academic workbooks and flashcards for many ages.

Snack and a Story.

Big Marshmallow. Little Marshmallow.


Mushy applesauce. Crunchy crackers.


Sweet fruit snacks. Salty chips.

Black and White cookies.
We read Red Stop! Green Go! By Dr. Suess

Music Time. We did the bug dance. We hop forward and backward-step left and right so we talked about the opposites. I put on Black Eyed Peas (again...they love it) and we danced high...low...crazy...peacefully...fast...slowly...loudly...quietly...big...small.





Games. We played Red Light, Green Light. We played charades where I told the kids to do something like sleep and after the kids guessed what the child was doing, we all did the opposite.




Physical Fitness. Our first attempt jumping rope.





Random Thoughts about the kids:

Grant: He called me mommiebobby or something today; when I asked if he wanted applesauce he said no, just the marshmallows and chips-funny-normal kid; everyone loved his crocodile-it was the hit of the party; I love how he always comes running in to preschool...he even gets me more excited for preschool with his great attitude!

Jonathan: Good eater, very polite, he picked flowers for me today when we went outside to play so I put them under my headband; he picked flowers for his mom last time but I forgot to tell her; he loves to play with trains; I could tell he was done making his little book and said he felt sick but as soon as we started music time all of the sudden he had energy and was as happy as could be:); I asked Apollo what his favorite part of preschool was and he said playing trains with Jonathan (just before preschool started) he said "I asked him to play with me and he played with me."

Nicole: The lasagna tins are awesome for Nicole to keep her creativity contained-she doesn't color with one pen but a handful at a time and every inch of what ever she does is covered; she loved doing a puzzle with Halley today; she's such a GREAT helper and is the first one to clean up

Halley: I loved the opposite pair Halley brought- diaper and undies-she was very proud to show them to the group; she worked hard at jumping the rope and had fun; she saw Jonathan picking flowers for me so Halley did too-very sweet;;

Donny: Feel better buddy.

Apollo: He has a very long attention span and had fun putting his book together. He was very detailed and did an amazing job tracing his letters; he was frustrated jumping the rope-we'll have to work at it; he was goofier than normal today-probably just getting more comfortable and having fun with the kids;

Preschool Theme: Sports

This day was filled with fun events that are easy to put together and a lot of the items can be found around your house. Great afternoon activity for your kiddos.



Self-Selected Time.






Circle Time. When I was young, I put together a babysitting kit. I pulled it out the other day and have been doing different activities with the kids. I read "The Yellow Mitten" today to them as they took turns holding up animals.



The kids took turns showing off the sports outfits they wore and told about sports they played that week.


Art Time. We painted with racquetballs today. I printed off this coloring page for the kids to paint (click on image to print it off).



Academic Time. We cut out our own Olympic medal and the kids did a maze. I made slashes so the kids could trace letter Q.






We read the tiny books together reading about number 5 and 11. We are on a roll...the kids can find the right pages now with a little help.




Snack and a Story. In lieu of our sports theme, I passed out water bottles, granola "energy" bars, and Sport Jelly Beans.




Music Time. I played the bean bag song and the kids followed only this time with a big ball. They loved it.




We pretended to play different sports (volleyball, basketball, swimming, running, water skiing, and dancing) to the Black Eyed Peas.



We played "hockey" by swatting at the balloons with the wands I made for them earlier.



Quiet Reading. Most amazing thing! I announced Quiet Reading Time to the kids and asked them to pick out some books while I used the bathroom and got my book to read with them. I come back out and all...all of the kids are quietly reading their books!! We always do this call back thing where we talk about what we do for quiet reading and then we pretend to zip our lips and throw away the key (all with sound effects). I told them how amazing they were and went to do our key thing and Apollo told me they had already done it. He said he had already set the time (I always set the timer for 10 minutes). Who needs a teacher? I should just hand over my lesson plan!


Science Experiments.

1. Get as many different types of sports balls as possible and pass them around your class and talk about each one.



2. I split the class in two groups. I called out a sport and they pointed to the right picture. I printed off different people (I found some kid ones) playing sports-cut them out, and taped them up.


3. I handed all the kids some shoes, and we played with the laces on the shoes.


Games.

Basketball toss. Have your children toss a basketball into a small trash can or basket (we used the little trampoline as our target).



Hammer Throw. Take a tube sock and put a small ball (tennis ball, racquetball, etc) have your children sling it above their head and let it go. See who can sling the ball the farthest.



Discus. Have your children throw paper plates as a discus.



Javelin. Throw straws and see who can throw them the farthest.



Obstacle Course. Set up an obstacle course with paper feet. Today they hopped on one foot to the Trick-a-ma-stick (from the Dr. Suess game I Can Do That), walked around it holding a ball up high, hopped on two feet, and then did a little trick on the trampoline.




Relay Races.

Her are my random thoughts for the day:

Grant: He looked like the coolest guy coming in with his mitt, helmet, and baseball outfit; always so happy; looooved the granola bars; he and Apollo like to tease and wrestle; after Apollo told a story, Grant had a story about a big monster named...Grant and he had different voices-it was hilarious-I wish I could have gotten it on video; as we talked about the sports we played this week, he said he played with his dad last year (it's funny how they use time), he called the obstacle course Popsicle course and said "Let's Rock and Roll"; he always says the cutest things

Jonathan: We missed you today. Feel better soon.

Nicole: She loved the little soccer ball she brought today; She is such a pretty girl with a pretty smile-she looked darling in her little soccer outfit today; I always thing of how Carleton said she does everything with gusto-everything she paints is taken to the extreme-she puts her heart into everything she does; she had a lot of fun doing sports and had a great attitude

Halley: She was so cute in her tutu and danced around the whole time she was wearing it; she was funny when we painted our sport papers with a racquetball-she painted the ball and the paint container but wasn't to interested in painting the paper; she has such a fun time in class and gets very involved in every activity-a joy to have as a student

Donny: Even though Donny really struggled to cut his medal, he wanted to do it by himself and cut out the whole thing!; he is a little athlete-he threw the farthest both times on our hammer throw; he was so funny when the kids were telling about the sports they had played that week and he told a random story about running around and Apollo; after Grant and Apollo's story, Donny told a story about how he ran around and saw a wolf but his dad told him they weren't real

Apollo: I told the kids I had a story, but first Apollo had a story about his dad and a helicopter; he was saying funny things this week and said "my preschool kids will think it's funny" (I always call my preschool students my kids); I'm going to use these ideas from this lesson many times over because Apollo had so much fun