Preschool Theme: Growing/Planting



Self-Selected Time. The kids worked on puzzles while others played.

Circle Time. The kids showed each other the monsters they had cut out.




Art Time. Gardening Hats. All the kids decorated gardening hats with random things like pigs, beads, leaves, shells, balloons, etc.






Academic Time. Foot Flower. I painted all the kids' feet and they stamped in on paper. They added stems and made drew Xs on the bottom for grass.







Math Time. Trace the hand of the child and have them put the leaves on (double sided tape works great). Have the kids count the number of leaves on their tree.

Snack and a Story. Avacodo Smoothie. I like avocados but I was curious how this turned out. It was creamy and yummy. Half the kids really liked it and the other three were not fans. I got it from the Family Fun Magazine. They said that avocados are added to a lot of ice cream in South America. I called it green ice cream and since it was "ice cream" the kids wanted to eat it with spoons:)



Music Time. We all got instruments and danced around.




Science Experiment. Planted seeds. I bought potting soil for inside, little pots, and seeds at the Dollar Tree. I sent the kids home with packets so they could see what the plants would look like and know how to care for them.



Colorful Carnations. Each child picked a color and colored their water. I explained that plants drink water using their stems. We did this toward the end of preschool, so we didn't see the carnations change color.





Random Thoughts:

Grant: He does a great job during circle time with our dance, songs, and funny things; Jonathan told a story about going to the hospital, then Grant had a story-they all had little stories today during snack time.

Jonathan: Such a sweetie today. Nicole spilled her red water outside and went to get napkins. Without being asked, Jonathan went in and grabbed some too to help her. Very thoughtful; He does awesome...awesome in quiet reading time now.

Nicole: She is very independent (in a good way) and always jumps right in with every project with confidence. I have heard from the kids "I can't..." before. I don't think I've ever heard that from Nicole as she always tries her best; Very darling very great to have in preschool.

Halley: When the kids were telling stories, she had to make sure everyone was listening and that they knew it was her turn to talk; she likes working on crafts and projects; she is happy being funny and hanging out with her friends-she has a great sense of humor.

Donny: He got really pumped when I announced we would be planting seeds; Donny really went to town decorating his hat and likes wearing it; As always a great eater and likes any veggies or fruit we have; he is sooo photogenic-he has such big brown eyes and always-takes great pics.

Apollo: Donny was having a hard time drawing his Xs. I was making the smoothies so I asked Apollo if he would help him. Donny was sooooo happy when he got it. Apollo was yelling, "You are right, Donny!! You did it!! Yeah!" Apollo had his hands in the air. Donny was so happy and so proud and had Xs all over his page.

Preschool Theme: Monsters


Circle Time. We had a fun array of books to read today. We read Where the Wild Things Are during circle time along with our other normal activities.


Art Time. Monsters. The kids made monsters out of gloves using fabric paint, googly eyes, yarn (for hair), pipe cleaners, and glitter puff paint. They loved making it and are having fun wearing them. I got this from the Family Fun Magazine (my all time favorite).


Academic Time. Click on the image below to print the W water page the kids traced. I wrote their names at the top so they could trace them too.


Math Time. We made monsters with different amounts of body parts-2 noses, 6 ears, 5 eyes, 4 arms etc.


Snack and a Story. We had Watermelon with Waffles to celebrate letter W. We read another monster book afterward.

Music time. Go here to see the video the kids watched and sang along. They looooved it and asked me to play it again and again. there are some great songs at supersimplesongs.com. I put "She's a monster by Neo" while we all danced and acted like monsters.


Science Experiment. We looked at all our eggs that we had put in various liquids last week. Don't read any further if you don't want to know the results (I didn't know and I'm glad I didn't-it made it more fun). I was just excited as the kids and would note the difference every day. The little scientists took copious notes. The egg in vinegar soaked in the liquid and got big and squishy and we popped it (yes, popped the egg) and it squirted out. Halley kept saying-"it's peeing". There were big reactions with the other eggs too. We put them in root beer, red dye, lemon juice, vinegar, and milk.



Game. Monster. Different kids took turns being the "monster" as the others races back and forth to the "safe" couches. Physical Fitness. We all jumped rope. Donny was an expert.

Homefun: The kids need a little help holding their scissors (we've done a couple scissor activities) so I found a monster for them to cut out and bring back next week. Click here to print out a cut monster cut out activity.



Grant: Grant said about the blueberry waffles, "I like blueberries" and Apollo followed up with "I like the Boom Boom Pow"; He was so concerned that Halley hadn't come with him this morning and asked her why she didn't come; He is always cracking jokes and has the funniest things to say-I need a pen and paper just to follow him around because I wish I could remember them all to have for the blogs.

Jonathan: He loves to play and loves to be outside-he had so much fun running around with the jump ropes and kept asking me to grab on and chase him-I got a little workout; he was so happy to celebrate his birthday with his friends last week and someone (I can't remember who) asked when we were going to have cupcakes today. The kids favorite thing to do today was to ask to smell the eggs then say act disgusted.

Nicole: She walked by Apollo and gave him a hug and said, "Love you"-she is always very loving to everyone; Nicole asked where Annie was today (always so thoughtful) and I said she is not old enough for preschool. Apollo replied "She can't remember the tings (that's how he says things)"; We sang a song "Go Away Scary Monster, Go Away" so as the women came to pick up the kids she would sing that to them-funny".

Halley: She had fun pretending to be a monster; Halley looooved playing our monster game at the end of preschool-she had fun being chased but also did great as the monster trying to get everyone else; she likes everything we do in preschool and is such a gets into each activity (she's not always a fan of my snacks...not even of watermelon but loved the blueberry waffles); always funny and always fun to have.

Donny: He was an awesome jump-roper!! He is athletically talented. He showed Apollo how to do it. I said around...down...jump. He was copied exactly what I said and picked it up right away. He likes anything related to sports or physical fitness and is good at it; Donny was very helpful today and picked up all the pens without even being asked.

Apollo: He is verybig on detail and his Ws looked amazing today. He and Donny took their monster gloves to scare Katie when we went to pick up Annie-they were so excited; He had a lot of fun during all the songs today and really enjoyed dancing, singing, and doing the hand motions today; he asked for our "Beaver Time" song first thing after Hokey Pokey this morning.

Preschool Theme: Farm Animals

Happy Birthday, Jonathan.





Circle Time. The kids showed off their names they traced. All so very proud.

Art Time. Traced farm animals. I bought these for preschool. The kids practiced tracing and we talked about which animals we see at a farm and which we see at the zoo.

Pig Nose.
Materials needed: Yarn, egg carton, black marker, pink paint

Directions: Cut the egg carton bottoms (the part the eggs sit in) into its twelve sections. Let the children paint it and put the nostrils on it. Next attach string to both sides (staple or punch holes and tie) and the kids have cute pig noses.

Academic Time. Celebrate letter V. We practiced drawing letter Vs on dry erase boards (I got the ones with lines on them). For a change, we went outside on a bench.
Math Time. Click here to print out this fishbowl.








Snack and Story. Bears in yogurt.

Music Time. We acted like different animals to the music.


Animals on the Farm (tune of Wheels on the Bus)

The pigs on the farm go oink. . .oink. . .oink
Oink. . .oink. . .oink, oink. . .oink. . .oink
The pigs on the farm go oink. . .oink. . .oink
All night long

The sheep on the farm go bah. . .bah . . Bah
Bah. . Bah . . Bah, bah. . Bah . . Bah
The sheep on the farm go bah. . Bah . . Bah
All night long

The cows on the farm go moo. . .moo. . Moo
Moo. . Moo . Moo, moo. . Moo . Moo
The cows on the farm go moo. . Moo . Moo
All night long

The ducks on the farm go quack. . .quack. . . quack
Quack. . Quack . . quack, quack. . Quack . . quack
The ducks on the farm go quack. . Quack . . quack
All night long

Mary Had a Little Lamb

This is the way we. . .

This is the way we plant the hay
plant the hay, plant the hay
This is the way we plant the hay so early in the morning

This is the way we feed the chickens
Feed the chickens, feed the chickens
This is the way we feed the chickens so early in the morning.

This is the way we chop the wood
chop the wood, chop the wood
This is the way we chop the wood so early in the morning

This is the way we milk the cows
Milk the cows, milk the cows
This is the way we milk the cows so early in the morning

Science Experiment.

What happens to the eggs?

Get several raw eggs and place them into different liquids (we did rootbeer, vinegar, red dyed water, lemon juice, and milk). I wrote down the guesses as to what the kids thought would happen to each egg (we'll take a look at them next week). milk: G-explode, H-crack Root beer: J-explode Lemon Juice: G-explode Vinegar: G-explode Red: Explode, D-turn red



For our second science experiment, we put little capsules in hot water and they grew to be farm animals (thanks Aviana).


Games. I played farm animals sounds (googled to find them) and had the kids guess what they were.