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!

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!

Oh! Please Take Me Fishing!

Last week, I noticed the kiddos were beginning to get restless with the bakery that was set up in Dramatic Play. I called a group meeting and asked them to help me decide what we should turn the area into next. I flipped through the pages of a book full of dramatic play ideas and they stopped when they found one they liked. They were all very excited about turning the center into a fishing spot!

We decided we'd need some water, some fish, and a few fishing poles, and we got busy working. First we made the river.

Then we made some fish! Here's Maddie carefully tracing our template fish:

The afternoon class helped make some trees to make the center look like a real fishing spot.

Once all of the scenery was complete, the kiddos went fishing! They've been having a blast with this!

Watch Autumn as she tries to catch a fish!

I added a few camping supplies, too, like a pretend fire, a roasting stick, and some marshmallows and hot dogs. Mrs. Twedt was super, super generous and got us a very nice tent to add to the center too! (Thank her for all of her support whenever you see her. She is truly a blessing to all of us!) Now, it's a full-on outdoor center. It's so fun!

Eli and Ellie camp through the "night" snug as a bug in our new tent!

Building Our Own Bodies

We have been hard at work learning about our bodies. It has been fun to watch the children pick up on the different organs and what they do. I'm hoping to combine all of this knowledge into a group project in which the children create a body out of recycled materials. We did some brainstorming today to come up with what the body should have and how to make each organ/body part. Here's our list:

I sent home a note with the afternoon class (I'll send one with the morning class tomorrow. I forgot to write it up during the morning class. Oops!) asking families to send in any materials they might find useful. I can't wait to see what the children bring to add to our body. Thank you ahead of time for all of your donations. I'm hoping to start our construction tomorrow.

The kiddos' favorite way to explore the body is in our clinic in the dramatic play center. They have been exploring many different social roles in this center including doctor, nurse, parent, patient, and receptionist. The babies have come in handy these last couple of days, and the children have been acting as parents to sick children. It cracks me up how caring they can be as they act as parents, and how mean (giving multiple shots and performing surgeries) they can be as they act as doctors. I even had one child who "took out the heart and the bones" today.

(sometimes I join in too)

The children have been absolutely in love with the parachute these last couple of weeks. I've been introducing new games throughout our gross motor time, and the kiddos have been having a blast. Their favorite activity of all is called Air Conditioner. Two children go under the parachute, lay down, and close their eyes. The rest of the kids move the parachute up and down to fan the children off. This is the activity we do to cool down at the end of our gross motor time, and the kiddos have started asking to do it whenever they feel hot.

The zoo building is still happening in full force. Each zoo is different than the day before, and I love to watch the creativity and imagination happening throughout that process. The afternoon class especially has been dedicated to this process. They even have their favorite animals, which they have named, and they work very hard to make the houses for those animals better than ever. Here's an example from today:

I'm really excited to start building our bodies! It should be a great chance for the children to show what they know!

Holiday Celebrations Around the World and a Whole Bunch of Singing!

Wow! This week went by super fast! I realized yesterday that we only have two and a half school weeks until Christmas break! How did that happen?

We spent a lot of time this week trying to get back into our routines. Coming off of long breaks can be a challenge for preschoolers, but luckily we didn't have any problems! We also spent a lot of time preparing for Sunday! I cannot wait for you all to see the hard work the kiddos have been putting into our little program! I think you'll enjoy it. :)

We have been working on transitioning from our Lake Mills study into a study of holiday traditions around the world. In the next two weeks, we'll be learning about various celebrations families around the world celebrate, like St. Lucia Day (Sweden), Los Posadas (Mexico), Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas. To start this study I added a few celebration artifacts to the classroom and let the children explore. They:

 made bouquets out of artificial poinsettias and

decorated a Christmas tree.

A few of the kiddos made and decorated trees out of play dough and a few painted some trees too!

Outside of those beginning exploration activities for this new study, we also: 

 played doctor and patient in our clinic,

played many new math games where we practiced counting, patterning, and number recognition, and

played with endless amounts of play dough.

Next week, we'll really start to delve into the different celebrations, and I'm incredibly excited about it!

I'm also excited to see you this Sunday! Remember to have your child in the classroom wearing a yellow SON Shine shirt by 10:00 so we can be ready to go by 10:30! I know there are a few kiddos who don't have a shirt yet, but I'll have one for them to borrow on Sunday and I'll be ordering a few more so that you can have one to keep. See you then!

 

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.

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!

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!

Crazy Outfits, Shells, and Puzzles - What could be more fun?

The first week of school has been full of wonderful learning experiences for all! We spent most of the week learning about the rules and routines at SON Shine. We learned about how to stay safe inside and outside and just what to expect everyday. Since many of the kiddos are experiencing school for the first time, this process is a huge adjustment. The preschoolers from last year have been patient and taken an important role in helping the new preschoolers learn everything. They have become excellent role models, and the new kiddos have been picking everything up quickly!

So far, I have introduced Blocks, Dramatic Play, Sand & Water, Discovery, Library, Art, and Toys and Games. Here are some pictures of all the things the kiddos have explored this week:

 They dressed up in all kinds of crazy outfits.

 They relaxed in the library while reading some great books.

 They sorted, scooped, collected, and analyzed shells and rocks.

 They put together many, many puzzles.

We studied the story of creation during our Faith Time this week. I made some felt board pieces for the kids to use to retell the story. Most of them can tell exactly how the world was created! It’s very exciting to see!

On to some news – I’ll be sending folders home every Thursday (Wednesday for my friends who don’t come on Thursday). Please check them as there will likely be important papers in them. This week, I sent home some information about Parks and Recreation activities, a book order, and a note about our first unit of study. I will be sending home bi-weekly newsletters with a review of what we have been up to and information about important dates and events. These newsletters will be in your child’s folder as well.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I’m looking forward to a full week next week! We’ll be continuing to work on learning rules and routines and starting a study on Balls!