Thankful for Thanksgiving!

Thankful for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is such a fantastic time of the year and it is a great opportunity to teach some valuable ethic lessons. There is so much we have to be thankful for and that was at the core of our lessons during our time in the classroom around Thanksgiving.

In addition to reflecting on life’s treasures, we spent time learning about the history of Thanksgiving. We took a little trip to the computer lab and watched some fantastic scholastic videos on the history of Thanksgiving and on the Mayflower. The kids really enjoyed learning about the lifestyle of pilgrim and Indian children and the life style the endured at the time.

We also sang a fun thanksgiving song that is always a hit with the preschoolers:

I’m Glad I’m Not a Turkey – (To the tune of Have You Ever seen a Lassie)

I’m Glad I’m Not a Turkey, a turkey, a turkey

I’m Glad I’m Not a Turkey on Thanksgiving day!

They’ll stuff you and bake you and then they will taste you

I’m Glad I’m Not a Turkey on Thanksgiving day.

Cute, eh?

And of course we had a great time making some fun thanksgiving themed crafts.

A thankful turkey

And a hand print Mayflower ship.

I hope that your thanksgiving holiday was blessed and gave you many more things to be thankful for.

Thanks for stopping by.

Mrs. Winter

More Color Fun

More Color Fun

Whew, time is flying! During the month of November we finished our lessons on colors and of course, Thanksgiving. In the last post about colors you can find all the details about our ways to make learning about the colors more memorable. We wrapped up the color unit with the colors purple and brown.

For our purple craft we used wine corks (Very fitting) to stamp a group of grapes and then drew a simple green or brown stem on top.

For our brown craft we made a brown bear with paper plates and some pre-traced shapes for the kiddos to cut. We also read the book, (you guessed it), “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See.”

The color unit is always a blast in preschool and it is great to have it checked off at this point in the school year!

Thanks for checking in,

Mrs. Winter

Colors, colors, colors.

November has been all about colors! These preschoolers are pros when it comes to colors. I wanted this unit to be memorable, informative, and a way to reiterate what the students already know.

One of my favorite parts of the color unit is having each student (and the teachers J) dressed up for the color of the day. We are quite a sight to see as we walk through the hallway (Nothing like a swarm of 24 color coordinated 4 year olds to grab your attention.)

In addition to dressing up for the festivities the students have been bringing in some cut outs from magazines so we can create a “color collage” for each color that we learn more about. As a class we discuss familiar items that coordinate with our color of the day.

Another great activity that helps with color recognition is a little song we sing during circle time.

Sung to the tune of “The Muffin Man”

Can you find the color ________?

The color ________?

The color _________?

Can you find the color ________ in our classroom?

I created an “artist pallet” with “dollops of paint” the students each take turns walking around with the pallet and a paintbrush (**without any paint on it) and pretend to paint objects around the classroom.

And of course, we had some fun making color crafts each day. Here is a little look!

Red Lady Bugs

Orange slices

Yellow Hand print Suns

Green Eggs and Ham Day (I forgot to take a picture of our craft but here is a pic of one of the kiddos checking out our green eggs as they cooked.

Blue Whales

The crafts were a lot of fun to do and we still have two more colors day left! 

Thanks for stopping by, 

Mrs. Winter 

Shapes and Fire Safety

Shapes and Fire Safety

These past two weeks in our preschool room have been spent learning about our shapes, fire safety, and the letters T & N. Shapes can be tricky so I wanted to share some poems that can be helpful with remembering each shape!

Sammy Square is my name

My 4 sides are just the same

Turn me around, I don't care

I'm always the same, I'm a square!

I am Danny Diamond

I am like a kite

But I'm really just a square

Who's corners are pulled tight

Ricky rectangle is my name

My 4 sides are not the same

2 are short and 2 are long

Count my sides, come along

1-2-3-4

I am Ollie Oval

A football shape is mine

Some people think that I'm an egg

But I think I look fine!

I am Sarah Star 

You can see me twinkle from afar 

My five points make me complete 

When I'm brightly shining I can't be beat

Harry Heart is my name

The shape I make is my fame

With a point on the bottom and two humps on top

When it comes to love I just can't stop!

My name is Carol the crescent

I am quite unique

I look like a moon whose light is florescent

Look out your window and take a peak

I am Cindy Circle

Watch me turn round and round

And you will learn

I'm not straight and I don't bend

My outside edges never end!

Tommy Triangle is the name for me.

Count my sides and corners

there are one, two, three

To help understand our shapes I spent time discussing with each student while we worked on our crafts where you may find these shapes in the world around us. This can be a great way of helping students differentiate between some tricky similarities between shapes. 

The students enjoyed making some fun shape crafts and even WRITING whole shape words with little assistance from their teacher! (So proud!) Here is a little look at our little learners hard work.

Fire Safety Day brought a ton of excitement to our preschool room! Not only did we get to learn about fire safety as a class but we also got a special visit from our local fire fighters.The fire fighters spent time talking to the 3 preschool classrooms about how to stop, drop, and roll, how to check the door for heat, and to always remember that fire fighters are our friends. I don't know if I have ever seen a group of 50+ preschoolers so enthralled! And to add to the excitement our very own Mrs. Macek dressed up in the fire fighters gear to show the class that there is a friendly person underneath the big fire fighter suit.  Here is a little look at the excitement!

We also made our very own Fire Chief hat to wear for the rest of the day to show that we know about fire safety!

Thanks for checking in,

Mrs. Winter J

October fun!

October Happenings’

The month of October has been keeping us busy busy busy. These past two weeks we have learned about our five senses, the season fall, and the letters R & S.

During “5 sense week” we explored everything around us using our senses. We made a “looking window”, a musical maraca, and some yummy homemade bread in a bread machine. In our looking window craft the students imagined their favorite thing to look at and the colored a picture accordingly. They added window panes and curtains to their picture. If was so fun to hear about all of the different response to “What is your favorite thing to look at?” The kiddos also LOVED the bread machine. There is a little window on top of the machine so the student we able to check in and watch as the bread was cooking. We talked about how we can use all 5 senses to describe our delicious bread.

“Fall Week” was also a blast. Fall is my favorite season on the year and I enjoyed getting to teach the students about it. We talked about all the fun seasonal activities, the changing colors of the leaves, and the changing weather. We also did some fun fall crafts. We painted fist pumpkins with stems and vines, we found some beautiful leaves outside and did some leaf rubbings, and we made a mosaic fall leaf with tissue paper.

We have been having lots of fun!We have also been working on our letters. Each week we  have our handwriting routines and spend time talking about the sound that the letter makes. Through out the week we brainstorm words that start with the corresponding letter so that we can fill up our "Word Wall." The kids have been learning at such a great pace and I am so proud of the gains that they have made. Way to go preschoolers!

Thanks for checking in! 

-Mrs. Winter 

Friendship Week

Friendship Week

Friendship week is a wonderful week in preschool. Throughout the week as we did our daily activities I talked with the students about “what friendship looks like” and “how you can be a good friend.” I loved hearing their responses because no matter who you are, what you do, or what your age is, it is always refreshing to hear about the dynamics of friendship.

Here are some of the responses:

“Friendship is when you let someone else play with your favorite toy.”

“Sharing if someone else wants a toy you can pick a different toy.”

“Ummm..you can get them a snack.”

“You can help your friends clean up even if you didn’t make the mess.”

“Friendship is a whole big family that has God in it.”

“Friendship goes in the middle of your kissing hand.”

We have some wise kiddos in our preschool class! For friendship week I tried to make each craft something that they could work on together. We made a friendship wreath, a friendship quilt, and friendship bracelets.

The friendship wreath is where I was able to talk to the students in smaller numbers about friendship and what it means to them. 

The friendship quilt was fun because the students each drew their own depiction of friendship. They were also able to see the quilt come together as I hung their pictures on the wall. We talked about team work a lot during this craft.

The friendship bracelets and necklaces were great for exercising the students small motor skills, counting skills, and color recognition.

Side note -I dyed the pasta at home and it was amazingly easy. Just 1 cup of noodles, toss in a bag with 1tablespoon of vinegar and then add a couple drops of food coloring and shake, shake, shake. Set it out to dry and it is as easy as that.

Thanks for checking in!

Mrs. Winter