Aloha! Welcome to Hawaii!

Our last day luau was so much fun! Between our special snack, a chance to play in water, and a decorated room, the children could hardly contain their excitement!

We started the whole thing off by boarding the plane and getting ready for take off. We fastened our seat belts and chewed some gum (so our ears wouldn't pop), and set off for Hawaii. While on the plane, we watched an in-flight movie, Mickey's Hawaiian Holiday.

When we arrived in Hawaii, we got our very own leis! Then we headed off to explore (interest areas). The kiddos made their own grass skirts, relaxed on the beach, made sand castles, and watched a volcano explode.

The next part was my favorite part of the whole day! Judy brought in a sprinkler for the kiddos to play in! They couldn't have been more excited! It was a little chilly (and sprinkling a little in the afternoon) so we weren't out for very long; it was long enough for them to enjoy the experience though!

After the sprinkler, we came back inside and enjoyed a tasty Hawaiian snack. We made kabobs with some traditional Hawaiian foods - pineapple, bananas, cherries, ham and cheese. Not only did this taste fantastic, but trying to get their food on their skewers was a great fine motor experience for them.

After snack, it was time to hop back on the plane and return to Lake Mills. We got some more gum for the flight, and enjoyed another in-flight movie. This one taught us to say the name of the state fish of Hawaii - the humuhumunukunukuapua'a.

We had a fabulous time in Hawaii! It was such a blast to share this with your children. Hopefully, they had as much fun as I did!

The Best Day Ever (Two Days in a Row!)

We had the best week this week! In planning the last week of school, I never imagined how wonderful and fun all of the events would be. It was truly the best way to end a great year!

I'm going to talk about our East Park trip tonight, and I'll share our luau fun tomorrow.

First of all, I figured that the van trip was going to be a super exciting for the kiddos since we had never taken a trip like this before. Their faces were so happy and shiny as we headed out! The kiddos in my van were noticing all kinds of things on their way - everything from cows, to trains, to flowers - and these things kept them talking the whole way!

As soon as we got to the park, we piled out of the vans and had a quick snack.

Then it was off to play! If you have never been to the giant playground at East Park, you absolutely need to go sometime! When I lived in Mason City last year, I used to jog right past this playground and I always thought that it looked cool. Cool doesn't even begin to describe this park. There were so many towers and tunnels and obstacles for the kids to maneuver through that the kids would have been content to play forever, if we had let them.

Initially, the kiddos were mostly interested in the equipment - bouncing, balancing, running, swinging, climbing, etc. After a while though, there was some pretty cool dramatic play happening. I saw kids pretending to be in cages, to have magic powers, and to drive trains. It was also super cool to see the morning kiddos building relationships with the afternoon kiddos. It's amazing how my two groups really became one big group this week - I loved it!

After we played for over an hour, it was time for lunch. Lunch was a bit of a struggle, because of the crazy, crazy winds. We had milk and ranch everywhere from our blown-over cups and baggies. Everyone got their fill, though, and then we quickly reapplied sunscreen and headed back to the playground.

Finally, it was time for us to go home. The kiddos were covered in sweat, dirt, and chocolate milk, but they were still beaming. What a great day! On the trip home, we had a few sleepers, which made me smile. They played so hard!

Throughout the day, I heard a number of kiddos excitedly saying, "This is the best day ever!" That is music to a teacher's ears, let me tell you! Sharing this day with all of the children made my heart so stinkin' happy!

Just a Little Something

As I was sitting on my couch finishing up the slideshow for tomorrow night (and seriously tearing up - how in the world can this year be over already?), I remembered something funny that happened today (so now I'm laughing and crying - I'm a mess...). I thought I'd share it with you.

I got a library card on Friday, and I'm very excited about it! My summer shall consist of many, many books! I was telling the kids about this, and I asked them if any of them had library cards. A few said they did, but most said they didn't (and, like most things preschoolers say, it's hard to tell if they're telling the truth).

One of my friends didn't answer the question, so I asked him individually if he had a library card. He looked at me, and said, "No, but I have baseball cards."

Baseball cards. Library cards. They're the same thing, right?

Also, I found this gem in my pictures. I hope it makes you smile.

The End of a Fun Week

This week has been fun! I've been following the kids and their interests for the most part. In addition to huge amounts of time spent outside, we've been doing a few fun art projects.

One project we did was tissue paper stains. For this one, the kids sprayed paper with water. After it was thoroughly wet (some might even call it soaked....), they cut up pieces of tissue paper all over it. We let it dry for a day, and then took the tissue paper off. The tissue paper stained the white paper and left behind a collage of colored shapes. The process was a ton of fun for the kids! They were so excited to take the tissue paper off and see what was left behind.

Another project we did was shaving cream marbled paintings. I'll let Maddie and Hannah show you what we did!

 

We put stripes of paint on top of some smooth shaving cream.

 We put the paper on top of our painted shaving cream and rubbed the top to get the paint to stick.

Then we pulled it up and scraped off the extra shaving cream.

The end results are really cool! Here are a few:

This was a super, super messy art project. Every kiddo chose to do this one though, so I think that makes it a hit!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Oh, What a Beautiful Day!

It has been absolutely gorgeous outside this week! We've been spending gobs and gobs of time outside, because, let's face it, that's where we all want to be.

We've been starting our day off with interest areas. Since we only have 6 days of school (after today) left, I've been working on wrapping up a few things with the kids. We've been filming our movies, writing thank you's to the various people who have helped us this year, and finishing up the final touches for graduation.

Yesterday, we went outside for the remainder of the day. The kids were absolutely amazed that we had circle time, snack, and faith time outside! When we go outside for long periods of time like this, I take our interest area materials with us. We've been singing/dancing to music, playing with cars, building with blocks, and playing some games on top of the normal outside stuff. The difference in what the children decide to do with the materials is amazing to see. Here's what it looks like :

 Reading books

 Snack time!

 Creating a city

Tying knots in the "garden"

I'm hoping to film the last movie today! We should be ready to go for graduation! I'm really looking forward to it!

Please remember to return the blue permission slip for the field trip by this Thursday! 

Rolling Out the Red Carpet

As I have mentioned in a few notes and in many conversations with you, we're rolling out the red carpet and becoming movie stars as we get ready for our graduation program!

I really, really wanted you all to see the children act out the stories we've been reading, but I know how impossible that would be if a large audience was present. (Let's face it - it's not very fair to ask a four year-old to get up in front of a large group of people and speak. I have a hard enough time doing that, and I'm much older than four years old.) I decided to turn our little plays into movies to get rid of the need for a live performance, and I'm really excited about this decision. We've been talking about movies and what making a movie involves. We've written scripts, talked about many different vocabulary words (like props, sets, and costumes), built sets, and practiced our roles.

The morning class is working on The Three Little Pig and the afternoon class is working on Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We have been practicing and practicing, and I'm planning to film the movies on Wednesday and Thursday this week!

Here's a peak at some of the hard work the children have been doing:

 Making the set!

 Trying out costumes!

I wanted to make sure we had some live entertainment for graduation too, so we've been learning a few songs to sing for you! The kiddos are adorable with this music. I have the music on the iPads, so they often play it during Interest Areas. No matter what they are doing, they cannot stop themselves from singing along with it! It cracks me up! This video kind of shows how this happens. Listen carefully, and you can hear children singing along in different parts of the room!

I'm super excited to share everything with you at graduation! I'm so, so proud of all the hard work the kiddos have done this year, and I cannot believe we have reached the end already. It is definitely a reason to celebrate!

Just a reminder: Our graduation is on Tuesday, May 22 at 6:30. I'd like the kids to be in the classroom at 6:00, so we have a chance to run through a few things. They may wear nice, dressy clothes!