Preschool Theme: Trains and Transportation




Toy switch. Each mom brought a bag of toys to switch with another student. This way they have "new" toys to play with and they'll be excited again to see their old toys when they come back (we'll be switching around for the next few weeks).


Art Time. License plate rubbings.





Wooden projects. Apollo loves these-they're a buck at Michaels and they have many many options (we've done a lot at our house).





Academic Time. Helicopter dot to dot. I put a big a little y for them to trace in the clouds. Click image below to print.








Math Time. Click on image below to print.





Snack and Story. The bran muffins were such a hit last time, we did it again. This time, instead of adding a cup of butter, I added a cup of applesauce. Tasted great.




I borrowed this flannel board and food guide pyramid from January. The kids took turn putting the foods in the right group.








Music time. We pretended to be trains. We sang Down by the Station (I would sing a line, and they would copy me).
Down by the Station
Early in the morning,
See the little puffer bellies,
Allin a row
See the station master
Turn the little handle
Puff, puff, toot, toot, off we go



Science Experiment.
Rolling jars. Several clear jars of the same size were filled with different items (quarter roll, napkin, salt shaker, etc.). We rolled them on the carpets and discussed how he items affected the jar's ability to roll.





Ramps. We had a big ramp (very long table) for the kids to roll cars down. I switched the angle and the kids could guess which angles made the cars go slower or faster. They LOVED this activity.

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.

Preschool Theme: Pirates.






This lesson was fun to put together. The kids came in pirate jackets, jammies, socks, and tattoos. We had a fun time.

Circle Time. Each child stood up in the circle, and showed us something they "treasure". They had books, pictures, and a picture of a train. It's cute to see how confident they are now. We did the normal circle time activities, and for our big book today we read Mrs. Muddle Mud-Puddle that had a Halloween theme to it. Here are the words to the "Days of the Week" song we sing every week (sung to the tune of The Addam's Family Theme Song):

There's Sunday, then there's Monday
There's Tuesday, then there's Wednesday
There's Thursday, then there's Friday
And then there's Saturday

clap...clap

Days of the week

clap...clap

Days of the week
Days of the week
Days of the week

clap...clap


Art Time. Ship Mosaics.






Materials Needed:
Thermo Web (you can buy in the scrapbooking section at craft stores)

Something to hold the beans
Picture (from a coloring book or off the internet). Click on image below for this pirate ship.


Dried/colorful beans (got mine from the bins at Sprouts)

Directions
1. Print out picture.
2. Thermo Web is like a sheet of double sided tape. Stick it to the picture and peel off the other side when the kids are ready to go to work.
3. Put the beans out for the kids to "color" to make a mosaic. I used the plastic container the apples come in at Costco. I cut it in half and put half the beans in one side and half in the other (so all the kids could reach wherever they sat at the table).

Academic Time. We counted 10 shells for this sheet the kids colored shells, traced the number 10, and traced their name (I made dashes for their names at the top). Click on the image to print.



We celebrated letter J. Click image to print.



Snack and a Story. We had "Ants on a Log" (raisins on peanut butter stuffed celery). The kids had fun putting their "ants" on top.






Music Time. The kids learned a new song called "Beaver Time" today. The kids took these "pirate swords" (glow sticks) and had sword fights in a dark room and jiggled them around. They loved it (each a dollar at Dollar Tree). Here's a pic I took of them playing in the dark.





Science Experiment. The kids dropped as many drops of water on the penny as they could. We talked about surface tension.








Games. Hidden Treasure. I had a zip lock bag full of rice (rice from Sprouts) for each student.



Then, in empty baby food containers, I put some small little objects: dice, bugs, fake coins (for the pirate theme), wooden beads, jacks, and colored beads.



The students took one of each object and put in in their zip lock bag. For their "homefun" this week, the kids are going to gather tiny objects around their house to add. Once they get all the objects, they'll make a list of everything inside and tape it to the back. The kids search for the items in the bag-great for road trips or any time to keep kids busy. The bag can be stapled together or items can be added later if you don't want to seal it.





Physical Fitness. Treasure Hunt. Here are my scary...or silly pirates.















To make a pirate hat, click on the pirate hat image below.




I printed out the template, cut it out, and let the kids color it themselves.



I got large Popsicle sticks and made a super simple version of a treasure hunt. Each stick had a location on one side and a physical activity on the other (like 10 frog jumps). After they did the activity, one student would choose the next stick/location. I saved the last stick and it took us to the "treasure chest" (toy chest). Inside, I had gold covered candy and rings I had made for them. I found ring blanks on line and glued gem looking buttons and brads to them.








Before review time, the kids worked on their pirate scenes with reusable stickers so they can do it again if they want.









Halley brought Halloween goodies she had made for the kids to share. So cute!