Costume Party Fun!

Happy Halloween!!!! We had a blast at our costume party today! Here’s what we did:

We started the day off with one of my favorite Halloween books, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. It’s a lot of fun to read with young children, because there are many opportunities for them to help tell the story. They really got into it!

We made some Spooky Hands with Mrs. Twedt. This was a great exercise in fine motor control; it was kind of tricky getting that popcorn into those gloves! The children loved it, though. Most of them took it out of their bags to share with the parents and family members who picked them up at the end of the day!

Then it was time for our parades. In the morning, we walked over to the “big school” to visit Mrs. Hunchis and Emma’s mom in the AEA office, the secretaries in the high school and central office, and the lunch ladies. I want to thank all of those people for letting us stop in and show off our costumes! It meant a lot to the kiddos! In the afternoon, we were able to be a part of the elementary school’s costume parade. The children had a blast showing off their costumes and looking at everyone else’s. Most of them were very excited to see the 3^rd grader dressed as ketchup to match my mustard costume!

After the parades, we came back for a much needed snack. We made Mummy Pizzas! When I first told them we what we were going to make, most of the kids looked at me with disgusted looks and said, “I am not eating that!” Once they saw what they really were, they were a hit though.

To finish off our day, we had a game and an art activity. The group was split in two and one group played a game with me while the other did the art activity. The game was called Mix and Match Pumpkins. The kids took turns racing to some big cut-out pumpkins and gluing one piece of the face to it. By the end of the game, we had some pretty crazy looking pumpkins. Painting pumpkins was the art activity. The kids got creative as they painted. One kiddo even said, “They can be anything we want them to be, Mrs. Hansen!” That’s the kind of creativity I love to see.

What a great day it was! Thank you to everyone who made it wonderful!

Don’t forget to help your child with his/her homework tonight! It shouldn’t take long at all, and you can send it back with him/her tomorrow! Thanks!

Have a great time trick or treating!

Writing and Dancing and Letter Sounds...Oh My!

Wow! This week flew by faster than any other so far! Here’s what we accomplished on Wednesday and Thursday:

We started journaling this week. Each child has a journal in which they write at the beginning of each class. In just one week, it is amazing to see how intentional their drawings and writing have become. At the beginning of the week, I saw a lot of this:

 The kids would draw a picture, and I would add the words.

By the end of the week the kids were beginning to experiment with writing their own words, so I saw a lot of this:

 It may not look like much, but those symbols at the bottom of the page are my friend's words! He will read them to you if you ask him to!

It is just the neatest thing to watch these early literacy skills growing in my young friends!

Ever since the Read-A-Thon, music has become a huge part of our classroom. The new CDs I’ve downloaded onto the iPads come in handy in so many ways. There are songs to help us line up by the letters our names start with, songs teaching us about rhyming, and songs just for fun. I’ve started taking the iPads into our music and movement area, and they are always in use. 

 Dancing to The Penguin Dance!

We experimented with making music using water on Friday. The kids used baby food jars and a metal spoon to make music. They noticed how the pitch of each jar was different and how it could be changed by adding or taking away water. 

Outside, we played a game called Around and Around. The game was an exercise in alliteration (when two words start with the same beginning sound). The kids would walk around a pile of play food saying this rhyme:

Around and around and around we go.

Where we stop, nobody knows!

When I called, “Stop,” they would quickly grab a food item. I then pulled a picture card from my pile. The child who had a food that started with the same sound as my picture card won that round. This is a challenging skill for most of the preschoolers, but they are beginning to catch on. Take some time to talk about the beginning sounds of words with your child if you have some free time this weekend and let me know how it goes!

Next week, we’re going to start a study of Lake Mills. As I have been changing the dramatic play center to include different types of jobs, the kids have taken a strong interest in running a business and the different jobs people have. I’m hoping to take some field trips throughout this study to various businesses in Lake Mills. If you would like to assist with these field trips or have an idea for a field trip, please let me know!

On Monday, we are having a costume party. I sent home notes on each child’s shirt on Thursday, so hopefully you all found them. Please send your child’s costume with him/her on Monday. We’ll be parading our costumes throughout the church and at the big school. (The afternoon class will be participating in the costume parade with the big kids at the elementary school this year! I’m way too excited about this!) Then we’ll come back to the classroom for special snacks and games.

It should be a great week! I can’t wait!

What a Child's Hair Might Look Like If She Had Full Control

We've had a crazy busy, and definitely fun, week already!

Here are some of the highlights from Monday and Tuesday:

 We've been working in small groups again. The above picture is what our Guess Who's Coming to Dinner game looks like. I can already tell the children's counting skills are beginning to get better and better! It's been fun watching them grow!

 We opened up a hair salon in our dramatic play area. We have been exploring jobs that involve water. So far we've talked about firefighters, car washes, and now hair salons. Today we had friends getting hair cuts, dying their hair all sorts of colors (including rainbow.... watch out parents! :P ), and getting manicures - all pretend, of course. We used water color paints as nail polish for one important reason: it washes off! These real experiences help children build all kinds of cognitive, social, and language skills!

Outside we've been playing Pick Pocket Tag. The kids tuck a long piece of fabric in their back pockets or in the waistband of their pants. When I say go, they try to pull the tail off their friends. If their tails get pulled they have to sit down, but they can still pull the tails of the friends who run by. It is hilarious to watch them play! Sometimes they end up circling each other for a long time - that makes me laugh every time!

For those of you who attended the Read-A-Thon, I'm going to ask that you turn in all of your pledges by next Thursday, November 3. (Holy cow! November already!) Have all checks written out to SON Shine Preschool. We'll deposit them all and then send one check to St. Jude's. Thanks again for coming and participating!

We Read Up A Storm at Our Read-A-Thon!

Our Read-A-Thon was a blast and a half! The night had two purposes: first, I wanted to take some time to educate families about how they can build early literacy skills in their children, and second, each book we read helped us raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital!

We began the night by enjoying some delicious pizza from Pizza Ranch. I want to make sure to thank them publicly for helping fill us up for our big night of reading! Make sure to thank them if you visit any time soon!

After our supper, we headed up to begin the reading. We rotated through a cycle of a read aloud, family reading time, and an activity for the next two hours. Here are some highlights of our evening:

The kids enjoyed three read alouds, including two from our special guest readers: Mrs. Wagner and Mr. Sherman! 

We sang some awesome songs, including our favorite: Tooty-Ta! If you weren't able to make it, I'm going to try to work this song into another program this year so you have a chance to see this. It's hilarious!

We went on a scavenger hunt throughout the church to find the letters in our names. I think we're still missing an i, so if you find it while you're here some day, you definitely win the prize!

We ate spiders made from Oreos, licorice, and M&Ms!

Most importantly, we...

enjoyed some quality family reading time!

When the evening was all said and done, we gathered a rough estimate of how many books we read and how much money we made for St. Jude's. 

We read about 80 books and made about $350 for St. Jude's!

Great reading everyone and thanks for coming! 

The Coolest Thing Ever!

Okay, I’m going to do two posts today. One to show what happened during preschool hours on Wednesday and Thursday, and one to share all the fun we had at our Read-A-Thon.

On Wednesday, I introduced the kiddos to water beads (A.K.A The Coolest Thing Ever!). Water beads are a polymer crystal that absorbs water and gels similar to gelatin; this polymer is the same substance found in diapers. They are traditionally used for floral arrangements, but they are a ton to explore in preschool too! They come in many different colors, and we made four different colors. The really cool thing about clear water beads is how they disappear if you put them in water. When we began interest areas, I had all of the clear water beads hiding in a tub of water. I asked the kids if there was anything in the water, and, of course, they looked at me like I had seven heads because obviously there wasn’t anything in the water. They were so surprised when they reached their hands into the water and came out with handfuls of water beads.

After they explored for a while, they helped me make yellow, blue, and purple beads. The only frustrating thing was they had to wait until the next day to see the colored beads since they take 4-6 hours to rehydrate. 

 

We also had a great time making Orange Banana Smoothies with Jodie on Wednesday! The kids get so excited about cooking days; they ask me almost everyday if today is a cooking day. 

On Thursday, we made our own watercolor paints. Not only was this a great literacy (following the recipe) and math (measuring and counting) activity, but it was a great lesson on colors. I only let the kids use red, blue, and yellow food coloring for the paints, but I told them we were going to make purple, green, and orange colors too. They had to guess which colors to mix together to make these colors. Sometimes they were right and sometimes they were wrong, but every time they were excited about the new color they had made.

During small group time this week, we’ve been working on our counting skills and our letter recognition skills. On Monday, the counting group played a game called Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. They drew a card to find out how many guests they would have for dinner, and then they worked together to set the table for their guests. On Thursday, they played a game with water beads. They were given a cup with a number written on it, and they needed to put the correct number of beads into their cup.

The letter recognition group went fishing for letters (buried in water beads) on Monday and learned some letter songs to help them remember what the letters look like and what sounds they make on Thursday.

Overall, we had another fantastic week at SON Shine!

Goop...Oh the Goop...

Man, this week is flying by. I can’t believe it’s time to blog already. We’ve had a ton of fun learning so far, although some of it hasn’t been quite as successful as I had hoped (more on that to come).

So far, I think the children’s favorite thing to learn about during this water study has been sea animals. I read them a book called Big Sharks this week, and they have been picking up on a bunch of little facts about sharks. When Pastor came to read to them today, they couldn’t wait to tell him all about sharks. It’s a super cool thing to see, and I wish you all could see it!

Since Big Sharks is a nonfiction book, I took the time to talk about this with the kiddos. At this age, they are capable of understanding that some books are about real things and some books are made up. It is good for them to have this understanding early, because it will help them make more sense of what they’re reading when they start that process.

On Monday, we attempted to make Gak. Play dough is very popular at SON Shine, so I wanted to give them another dough-type item to play with….unfortunately, it didn’t turn out like I thought it would. Instead of dough, we ended up with goop. It wasn’t completely unsuccessful though; the kiddos still had a blast playing in the goop. Everyone took a turn! We won't talk about the mess it made in the classroom.... I don't mind though. Seeing the kids completely engaged in something is awesome, so if that means I have to spend extra time cleaning up then I'm okay with it!

We also got out the bikes for the first time yesterday. I set up a track for the kids to ride the bikes on to practice steering. They had fun zipping in and out of the hula hoops trying to get from one side to the other.

Today, I opened up the SON Shine Car Wash! The children each had a job at the car wash. Some were washers, some were driers, some were cashiers, and some were drivers. It was cool to hear some of the stories the children came up with as they drove their cars through the car wash. I heard everything from, “Hurry up! I’m going to be late to work!” to “My car is really messy because I like to drive it through the dirt.”

We also played a fun game outside called Shark Attack. One child was the shark. S/He would sit on a scooter and chase the other kids (the swimmers). This was a great exercise in following the rules. There were three rules in our game: (1) use walking feet (otherwise the shark had a hard time catching the swimmers), (2) when the shark touches a swimmer, the swimmer freezes until another swimmer touches him/her, and (3) stay inside the boundaries. Overall, the children did an excellent job remembering the rules, and they all had a blast playing the game!

My next entry probably won’t be until after the Read-a-thon, so I hope you are all planning to come! I haven’t heard from anyone about coming for supper yet, so please let me know if that is your plan. I want to make sure we have enough pizza. If you have any questions about the night, please let me know! I think it’s going to be great!

The Worst Thing That Can Happen To A Preschool Teacher...

Well, as many of you who I see on a daily basis noticed, I completely lost my voice this week. I felt wonderful - I didn't have a sore throat or a cough or a fever or a headache or any other sign of the flu or a cold - I just simply lost my voice. That has never happened to me before, and I hope it never happens to me again! I realized fairly quickly that this is the worst thing to happen to a preschool teacher. Thankfully, it was almost completely normal today. The kids did a fabulous job being super listeners to help me deal with the lack of a voice! I was actually pretty amazed at how well they listened when I told them my voice couldn't get any louder than a whisper! Thank them for me!

Now, on to the good stuff. Yesterday, we had an afternoon visit from the firefighters. It was a blast for the kiddos, and it went very smoothly. I was so happy that no one was afraid of the firefighter in the full uniform (although it might help that this particular firefighter was Keely's dad - Thanks, Ryan!). Last year, I think I ended up with four kids trying to sit in my lap because they were scared. They learned all sorts of ways to stay safe from fire, and, of course, they got to see the fire truck! What a fun time everyone had!

We did a few more investigations with water. We learned about sinking and floating by making boats out of aluminum foil. The kids made a prediction about how many bears it would hold. I got all sorts of predictions from 5-115! Then they added bears one at a time while we counted to find out how many bears would make it sink. Mrs. Twedt was surprised that one of the boats held 64 bears!

We also did an investigation of how water reacts on wax paper. The cool thing about water is that it really wants to stick together, so on wax paper, which repels the water, you can push the drops of water around to see this sticking in action. We used eye droppers to make drops of water on wax paper. Then, we took pencils and dragged the drops around the paper. Some kids tried to break the water drops apart, which is actually pretty hard to do. Some kids tried to push all of their drops together to make one mega-drop.

We also did some cooking today! Since we weren't able to cook with Jodie this week, I brought the cooking into the classroom. We made Doughnut Muffins - they're muffins that taste exactly like doughnut holes! The kids read a recipe to find out what and how much to add. They did all the stirring, the measuring, and the pouring (with some guidance from me, of course). After the muffins came out of the oven, we rolled them in butter and then cinnamon sugar! Yummy! They were a hit! Even one friend after saying, "I'm not sure if I like these," told me they were tasty!

I got a newsletter out on time today, so check your child's bag/folder! Don't forget our Read-a-thon is next week! I'm really, really excited, and I hope that you are too. There's a note on the newsletter about signing up for the supper before the Read-a-thon. We need to know for sure how many people are coming, so we know how many pizzas to get!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Learning is Messy

Sorry, sorry, sorry about the lack of updates recently! I'll try my hardest to be better at that.

Here's what we've been up to:
We have been working hard to learn as much as we can about water. We:

made our own ocean, complete with a water slide and a doctor's office,

 learned how rain happens in baby food jars by using hot water and ice cubes,

 explored melting and freezing with ice cubes,

and investigated our new water wall! My husband so graciously helped me create this over the weekend, although it didn't take much persuading. He told me over and over again how this is just the type of thing he would have loved to play with when he was in preschool. The bottles pivot on their nails so the kids can make new tracks for the water to run. It always falls into the gutter at the bottom and flows back into the tub.

We also have been taking some time to talk about fire safety, since this is Fire Prevention Week. This morning, the Lake Mills Firefighters came to talk with the kids about how to stay safe and to show us their truck. The fire puppy also made an appearance. The firefighters will be visiting again tomorrow afternoon to see the afternoon kiddos.

Just a funny side note: Our motto this year has become "Learning is messy!" Yesterday, after some intense investigation of ice cubes and water, we ended up with giant puddles all over the floor. While I was helping some of my young friends help clean the water up, one of them told me, "It's okay, Mrs. Hansen. Learning is messy!" I smiled. 

Water, Water Everywhere!

We started our water study, and the kiddos have been enjoying it! We have been starting each day this poem:

Water

Water, water everywhere, water all around,
Water in the ocean, water in the ground.

Water in a river, water in a creek,
Water in a faucet with a drip-drip leak!

Water from a waterfall, rushing down from high,
Water from a dark cloud, raining from the sky.

Water at a fire, gushing through a hose,
Water in a garden, so every flower grows.

Water for the animals swimming in the sea,
Water, water everywhere for you and for me!

by Meish Goldish

The cool thing about poetry is there are so many early literacy skills the kiddos can learn from it. Just from watching me read the poem, they can learn that text flows from left to right and top to bottom, that the words I'm saying match up with the words on the paper, and (since I illustrated the poem I created for my chart) that the words and the pictures match up! We have also picked out rhyming words, and we're going to go on a letter hunt through our poem later this week! It has been really cool watching the kids enjoy this poem.  

Since we're studying water, we have been doing lots of activities using water, of course. On Monday, I filled up some tubs with water to put in the sand table. It has been nice this week, so I was able to wheel it outside. The kids have been exploring how to make water wheels work, practicing some fine motor fishing skills, and just experiencing water!

I had the water table inside today, so the kids had more time to explore the water. We did some water painting outside. We used paintbrushes to paint the sidewalk with water. The cool thing about that is the sun dries the water up fairly quickly, so we always have a fresh canvas to paint. (Unfortunately, I managed to forget my camera inside both times, so I was unable to get a picture of this.) 

Hopefully, you have received your pledge forms for the Read-a-thon by now! I can't wait to see what we can do for St. Jude's. Keep in mind, though, if you don't feel comfortable asking others for money but you'd still like to participate in the Read-a-thon, you are more than welcome to! I would love to have every student participate that night regardless of how much money we make! Our main focus that night will be to have a great family time while learning about early literacy skills - the support we collect for St. Jude's will just be the cherry on top!

Weekend Update

We've been wrapping up our ball study, and I know the kids are ready to move on to something new. We did still have some fun on Wednesday and Thursday though!

On Wednesday, we did some experimenting to determine which balls roll the farthest. We started out by rolling the balls down a ramp in the classroom. It didn't take long for us to realize that most of the balls were hitting the far wall and would certainly roll much farther if they could. I suggested we take our experiment into the hallway, and the kids all agreed. They had a blast rolling the balls to see which ones would roll far and which ones wouldn't roll at all.

It turns out the big basketball rolls the farthest - it almost made it to the door at the end of the hallway!

Shortly after we finished experimenting in the morning class, Eli wanted to see if he could kick a ball farther than it would roll, so we tested that too! Maddie helped him out by marking the spot the ball rolled to while he came back to the starting line to give it a kick. Then they reversed roles. It turns out that a person can definitely kick a ball farther than it can roll.

We also enjoyed another Cooking with Jodie day! (This was actually the first time the afternoon was able to do this.) The kids helped Jodie make some delicious mini chocolate chip cookies. It's always fun to get out of the classroom for a while, and throwing some tasty food into the mix makes the experience even more fun!

On Thursday, we had a fun painting experience! I brought our sand table outside and let the kids roll a basketball around in some paint to see what kinds of patterns it would make. They were pretty creative with how they rolled the ball around. Many of them just got their hands messy and pushed it around, but some worked in teams and one person would hold the tub up to create a slant and the other would push the ball up and let it roll back down. Either way, they had a blast!

The kids have been begging me to put water in the sand table since the first day of school, and I noticed, especially on Thursday as they were washing their hands in a bucket of water after painting, that they seem to have an intense interest in water. This leads nicely into our next study: water! Let me know if you have any special knowledge of anything to do with water! I'll be looking for experts to answer some of our questions!

Just F.Y.I - I dropped a newsletter and some information about the Read-a-thon in the mail for each of you today! Keep an eye out for it!