What I'm Thankful For....

Okay, I apologize for missing a full two weeks of blogging. Between parent/teacher conferences and Thanksgiving, there was a lot going on. I should be back on my regular blogging schedule now though!

I know I'm a little late in this post, but I wanted to take some time to mention all the things I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving/holiday season.

1. I'm thankful for each and every one of my awesome young friends. They bring smiles to my face every single day and make all the work completely worth it. 
2. I'm thankful for the SON Shine families. You all care so much about your children, and I am so grateful you let me be a part of their lives.
3. I'm thankful for the parent board members. You five ladies help me make many, many decisions and plan our fabulous events. I certainly couldn't make SON Shine the place it is without you!
4. I'm thankful for the staff of Salem Lutheran Church. They are always there to lend a helping hand whenever I need it. Their support means so very much to me. 
5. I'm thankful for the members of the state legislature who fought hard to keep the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program going. Being able to release the financial burden preschool can have from the shoulders of the families is a fantastic thing, and I know it is helping all of you!
6. Lastly, on a more personal note, I'm thankful for my own family and friends who support me and provide me a chance to step away from SON Shine and relieve some stress.

I hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving! I'll leave you with some pictures from Monday and Tuesday.

We made body tracings and the children used all kinds of materials to decorate them. (They're hanging in the hallway outside our classroom, so feel free to check them out!)

 Kick Bowling - it's like bowling, but you kick the ball instead of rolling it!

 Lots of music....

Lots and lots of music!

Quiet End to a Busy Week

The last two days have been very quiet at SON Shine, and I’ve got to say that I really enjoyed them. Of course, quiet does not mean that we haven’t been learning; I just mean the kids have been very intent in their play and I have been doing my best to let them lead the way.

(First of all, I apologize for the lack of pictures. My batteries died yesterday, and I didn’t have a chance to get to a store to buy new ones last night. Sorry about that.)

We spent yesterday taking a little detour from our Lake Mills study. The kids have been increasingly interested in the marble tubes we have, and I decided to capitalize on that interest and see how the children solve problems. I built a few towers and took pictures of them before the kids arrived on Wednesday. During interest areas, I had the kids look at the pictures and try to build the same towers I had. It was cool to see them work as a team (or at least try - that’s definitely a skill that is still being developed) to create the towers. It was a great opportunity for them to practice taking turns and using words to communicate their ideas too!

We had Cooking with Jodie yesterday, and we made grilled cheese sandwiches! I think my favorite part about these sessions is the time the kids have to talk to each other. They share the craziest, most detailed stories during these times!

Today, since the afternoon class didn’t meet, the morning class had a relaxing day. Instead of doing my planned teacher-directed activities, I let the kids have complete control over what they wanted to do during interest area time. Many of them decided they wanted to use the listening center to listen to our letter songs – the ones from our graduation program last year. (It’s so much fun listening to them talk while they listen to those songs. They’re constantly saying things like, “Hey! This is Keely’s letter!” and “I remember this one! It’s Tara’s letter!”) The others spent a great deal of time building with the Legos. There was the inevitable singing and dancing to Tooy-ta and The Penguin Dance, and we even had some fun with the parachute.

All in all, it was a great way to end the week!

Have a great weekend!

From Freezers to Safes to Paint Mixers - Our Walking Tour of Lake Mills!

Our study of Lake Mills is in full swing, and it is turning into one of the most exciting studies so far!

Our walking tour of Lake Mills yesterday was a great experience! My goal was for the kids to start thinking about what kinds of experiences they’ve had in Lake Mills and what kinds of workers there are in this town. I had originally only planned to walk by the businesses on the sidewalk, but Judy and I decided it would be even more beneficial to the kids if we went into those businesses and asked the employees what kind of work they did. I’m so glad we decided to do that!

We got to see the different areas the mechanics use to fix cars at Dave’s, explore the ice cream freezer at the grocery store (Brrrr!), see the librarian in action, walk into the safe at the bank, examine the paint mixer at Singelstad’s, and learn all about what kind of workers it takes to run The Grand! We were even surprised to find some bakers in Lake Mills. I was so proud of the kiddos who were brave enough to walk into these stores and ask the employees what their jobs were! What a fantastic experience we had.

 Learning about being a mechanic at Dave's!

 In the freezer at the grocery store!

 Watching the coin machine at the bank!

Also, I need to send a huge thank you to Judy for changing her schedule and coming on a Monday! Without her, we probably wouldn’t have been able to go, so thank you, Judy!

We spent some time writing our very own stories yesterday too. We created characters for our stories by cutting shapes out of peanut butter sandwiches. Then everyone helped write a story about these characters. It was so much fun to see how different their stories were! Children really do have the very best imaginations! 

Today we spent a chunk of time opening a Pizza Ranch in our dramatic play center. Many of the children asked to go into Pizza Ranch on our walk yesterday, but I didn’t want to walk in without letting the employees know first. I’m hoping I can set up a field trip specifically to Pizza Ranch in the next couple of weeks, but I’m still working on that.  Until then, the kids will have fun pretending to work in a pizza restaurant at school!

Dramatic play scenarios like this are perfect, real-life experiences for the children to practice writing skills! Take a look at some of these notes the children wrote while they took orders. Keep in mind that there are stages of writing. Everything from scribbles to letter-like figures to inventive spelling are typical of preschoolers and all lead up to the writing skills they will learn in elementary school.

I'm so excited to see where this study will take us! 

Please remember to sign up for a conference time for next week!

F.Y.I: On Thursday, we will not be having our afternoon preschool class. The school district is getting out at 1:30 to allow for families to head to the volleyball game, and I want to make sure you all have those same chances.

When I Grow Up, I Want to be Micky Mouse!

First of all, thank you, thank you, thank you for helping your children with their homework on Monday! Taking that time to count with your children shows them that you care and it is a memorable experience for them!

With that homework, we did a couple of activities. On Monday, the children all guessed how many pieces of candy they thought they might get. I had guesses from 2 pieces to 1721 (pronounced seventeen twenty-one – it’s impossible to not smile at these things) pieces. We compared our guesses with our actual number of pieces the next day. No one guessed completely correct, but there were a few who were pretty close.

The wrappers opened up a whole new world of sorting. We sorted by color, type, size, and chocolate/not chocolate. The afternoon class was particularly interested in this activity, so they helped me create a graph of some of the favorite treats. The two favorite candies in the afternoon class were Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Willy Wonka candies. 

We also started a study of Lake Mills this week. We began by talking about what kinds of workers we might have in Lake Mills. We made a list of all the jobs our parents hold, and wrote a classroom book about what we want to do when we grow up. Some of my favorite answers to that question were an engineer (almost fell backwards out of surprise at that vocabulary!), Mickey Mouse, and Diego.

In the block center, we built our own model of Lake Mills. The children helped build The Grand, Pizza Ranch, Mills Theater, and a horse pasture. After they finished these buildings up, they started on their own houses. As they played in our pretend city, they discovered a need for a gas station and a fire station too. It was a blast to watch them build and label their constructions!

We also started building a city outside. My hope is to find some big boxes we can paint and decorate to be the different businesses in Lake Mills, but for today, we simply used sidewalk chalk. I drew a set of roads, complete with stop signs, for the children to ride the scooters on. The children helped me come up with ideas for what kinds of businesses we would need in our city. We ended up with a grocery store, a hardware store, a hospital, a farm, a gas station, and some houses. The children had fun as they pretended to drive around the city.

On Monday, we’ll be taking a walking tour of Lake Mills (just the downtown area, most likely)! The children will have a chance to look around the town to see what kind of businesses there are, and hopefully, they will begin to incorporate them into their play. Please dress your children warmly!

Have a fantastic weekend! See you on Monday!