Super Star Preschool

Has anyone see the Easter Bunny?

2011-04-21T17:05:00.006-06:00

We had such a great time at our Easter parties! They all were so different and fun in their own ways. Check out some of the fun activities we did!

We made beautiful 3 sided Easter Eggs.... the stickers were the best part!
Can you guess what is in the egg? They were really good at this game, but the cotton ball stumped them all!
We all had to put on our good eyes to find our numbered Easter Egg!
Cute kids!
Anyone for a treat? Rice Krispies with peeps! YUM!

My little peeps in the afternoon class had a great party too!

We colored and cut our ears so we could be ready to be the Easter Bunny!

We had a lot of fun making the bunnies HOP! We even hoped, crawled, spun, and hopped on one foot! Miss Debbie, where was your camera!

Where is my numbered egg?

Cute as a Easter Bunny!

We had a great day! Thank you so much little bunny mom helpers!!!

Easter Party 4's

2011-04-21T16:31:00.008-06:00

We had a great time at our 4 year old Easter parties! Check out some of our fun projects!

Tissue paper eggs look so pretty and they were so much fun to make because they were so sticky! Can you find the matching bunny! Wow! There was a lot of fun Easter Bunny colors!
Look how much fun, those cupcakes sure were yummy!

Easter Bunny, Easter Bunny, where is your egg, somebody stole it from your home! We had a lot of fun making our Easter hats!
In our Easter bonnets, with all the frill upon it, we look so cute! A little treat to help us recover from the Easter Egg hunt! We are ready for Easter! Thanks for all your help everyone!

Easter is on it's way! (4's)

2011-04-21T16:03:00.006-06:00

Hippity hoppity Easter is on it's way!We are helping the Easter Bunny count his 100 eggs by counting by 10's!
We can help the Easter chicks count to 100 by 10's too!
We graphed and analyzed our jellybean data!

and our marshmellow bunny data as well!

We wrote down the what we were hoping to find in our Easter Baskets, yum! We can hardly wait! Did anyone say Easter party?

We are getting ready for Easter! (3's)

2011-04-21T15:36:00.004-06:00

We had a great time getting ready for Easter! Look at some of the fun we had!Poor Humpty Dumpty! He is just an egg, be careful don't fall!
I LOVE watching the 3 year old class cut! They are getting so good! Look at that concentration!
It's an "Ee" Easter basket!
Sorting and counting jelly beans is so much fun, especially when it is time to eat them!
What do you get when you mix a can of sticks, the alphabet and jelly beans?

A lot of jumping jelly bean kids and a whole lot of fun! We had a great time playing jumping jellybeans!

Which letter is on the jellybean? Yummm, the Easter bunny sure likes them!

Check out those bunnies- and don't forget to check out all that cutting we did all by ourselves!

We are ready for our Easter Party!

Outer Space Fun!

2011-04-08T21:56:00.005-06:00

We had a great week at preschool! We had a lot of fun learning about space!

We played some fun space games!

We had a race to the moon, while identifying the letters of the alphabet. We had a great time creating our aliens for our books.

They did a great job! They were only given paper and they created their own idea of what aliens look like.

It was a little messy, but a whole lot of fun!

Our books turned out great!

Here we are as astronauts! Our rockets are ready to take off!

We have 8 planets in our Solar system, look at those 7 stars! Wow! Our paper is big!

Watch out for the UFO! Our moon has 5 creators and look at those shooting stars!

There were 3 astronauts eating 2 yummy ice cream cones. Watch out for those crazy aliens!

This is such a bitter, sweet time of the year. It is so exciting to see all the things we are doing in preschool! I am so proud of how great my little friends wrote all of their numbers! They worked so hard on their books and did a great job! I'm really going to miss them. I had one friend tell me today, "I guess I really am going to Kindergarten." I said, (with a smile) no you can't I'll miss you! She said, "I have to go, I got my kindergarten shots!" So sweet, so cute! I think I'll go cry now..... I really love these little guys!

First the Rain, now the Rainbow!

2011-04-08T21:43:00.002-06:00

"R" is for rainbow and we had a great time on rainbow day at preschool!

We sorted and counted our rainbow candies... the best part was eating them! We had a great time chasing rainbows.

Rainbow fruit loops was so much fun.... I thought I had a picture, but I guess they kept me hopping and I didn't get a chance to snap one. As one of my friends said... "Miss Debbie, that was a fast preschool day!" I couldn't have said it better, we had a great time!

Rain, rain come and play!

2011-04-05T18:36:00.002-06:00

First come the clouds......

roll, count, and add fill the clouds.... and then it will rain on our umbrellas... can you guess where the raindrop is? What number is hiding?After the rain, comes a ......

2011-04-05T18:20:00.004-06:00

Spring has sprung at preschool!

I don't know about you but these daffodils just make me smile! Spring is here!

Spring flowere are so much fun to have around so we visited the Super Star Preschool Spring Flower Shop!

First we played a game of Spring Flower Bingo!

... then we set up shop!

We had a lot of fun "buying" all the pieces for our spring flower basket project. Each piece had a price and we bought all the pieces as we needed them to put our flower baskets together.

Miss Debbie had fun pretending to be the flower shop worker.

I had the cutest costumers! Welcome Spring! We sure are glad you are here!

It's a Pizza Party!

2011-04-05T17:50:00.006-06:00

Anyone for a pizza? They are super yummy, with pepperoni, mushrooms, and cheese!

Did you know what the most important ingredient in preschool pizza is?

The letter "Pp" of course! We put lots of P's on our pizzas!

We put them in our preschool pizza ovens to cook! Watch out they could be hot!

How about some pizza games!

Pizza puzzles can be so much fun..... can you match the the mommy and baby letters?

It's a Pizza Party!! Can you find all the letters on your pizza? The first one to fill their pizza yell out Pizza Party!!!!

We had a great pizza day!!!

Has anyone seen a Leprechaun?

2011-03-21T10:04:00.003-06:00

Has anyone see a Leprechaun? We are really trying hard to find one, because everyone knows what a Leprechaun will give you to buy back their freedom. GOLD!!! We were on the hunt to find a Leprechaun, but we found that they could be very tricky!!!

First, to get us ready we played some fun games to help us get excited to find Leprechauns!

We were feeling very lucky after playing Lucky Bingo!!
The 3's painted a Leprechaun and found some pretend gold to put in the Leprechaun's pot!

We even had some surprise green treats to help give some extra energy so we catch those tricky Leprechauns! Thanks Moms!!!!

We even built a tricky trap inside, just in case he decided to come in our class! We really weren't too worried, we knew Leprechauns lived outside; they do need to find fairies to make fairy shoes!

We got out the magnifying glasses... to find all the clues!

We looked in all over; anywhere a Leprechaun could hide!

But he tricked us!!!!!! He messed up our classroom and he even got into the paint! He left footprints everywhere!!! That tricky Leprechaun!!!

At least he left us some gold, candy gold!

Better Luck next time!

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!!

2011-03-06T15:46:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! We had a seussical time this week celebrating Dr. Seuss's Birthday! We had a lot of fun creating silly pictures like Dr Seuss and we played some fun games trying to rhyme like Dr Seuss! Of course, we learned some interesting facts about Dr Seuss and read a lot of his creative books! He was our inspiration for some additional pages for our math books!

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish, how many fish do you have in your fish bowl?

2 red + 2 blue= 4 fish all together!

What, oh what, is on your hat Mr Cat

What, oh what, could it be,

What is on your hat Mr Cat

It is a AB pattern that I see!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of all the cats our our preschool floor drying, they were so cute and colorful! It was like they were having their own birthday party!

M&M Factory!

2011-03-06T15:31:00.005-07:00

We had a lot of fun being "factory workers" at the m&m factory this week. Did you know that if a candy doesn't have a "m" on it's tummy it can't be an m&m?

We found all the candies that had a "m" and made sure it was a m&m official color.
We counted and sorted our m&m's and used our deactivate eyes and magnifying glasses to make sure they all had "m's" in the right places.

Did you know that some candies didn't have "m's" on their tummies.... it is back to the machine for them, or our tummies, which ever tasted best.

We sang a song with Hap Palmer, "colors." We had to turn on our listening ears and pay attention to our colored m&m to see when we stood up and when we were to sit down.

We love m&m's, they are just so fun and ...... yummy!

M&M Fun!

2011-02-28T17:45:00.002-07:00

We took a little break from dinosaurs and had some fun with M&M's! Miss Debbie couldn't let the letter M pass us by without a little fun with every one's favorite candy!

What color M&M guy are you?
Wow, look at all those colors! Which color did you have the most of? Which color was your least? Which colors were the same?

We are ready to graph!

DinoMITE FUN!

2011-02-28T17:27:00.006-07:00

We had a great time learning about Dinosaurs! We worked so hard on our Dino books and we were so excited to take them home!

Long ago the dinosaurs roamed the earth!

Paleontologist find the dinosaur bones and take them back to the museum. We now have a good idea what the dinosaurs looked like.

Paleontologist tell us where the dinosaurs lived and what they ate.

Paleontologist have made the most unusual dinosaur discovery! It is a preschoolosaur!

Look at these amazing Dino discoveries!!!

Playtime Fun!!

2011-02-28T16:43:00.007-07:00

I just couldn't resist taking a few pictures of some of the fun things I saw during playtime!! Don't you just love preschool imagination!!

It's a Dinosaur Zoo!

It was such a sweet experience to watch these two play! They were so sweet and kind with the babies! I love how it is still OK to play babies... even the boys! I think we should all stay in preschool!

Sending some Valentine LOVE!

2011-02-28T16:37:00.003-07:00

We had a great time at our Valentine Parties! Here is just a few pictures to see a few of the fun things we were up to!!

Thanks for all the support and fun Valentines! We had a great time!!!

A little break from the cold!

2011-02-20T18:17:00.003-07:00

We had a lot of fun with our little break from the cold.... if only we could really be in Hawaii! The power of make believe!!

Polar Week Fun!

2011-01-30T12:05:00.011-07:00

We had a great week at preschool this week learning about our polar friends! Here are some of the fun things we did!

Polar friend patterning in the 4's.

Penguin counting in the 3's

Reading with our polar friends and bears, I hope they liked the book!

Did you know that polar bears don't hibernate? The mommy polar bear takes care of her babies in a snow cave for a month after they are born, but that is the closest they come to hibernation.

Morning 3's

Afternoon 3's

Afternoon 4's

Sorry morning 4's class I took the picture after circle time in each class. It was during circle time we had the unhappy potty- I had a mess to clean up and was a little distracted. Of course I remembered when everyone had left.

We made a fun polar friend book this week as we learned about many different animals. I think we decided we are glad we don't have to live in the snow!

Next week- lets get a little warmer! I think we should go to Hawaii!

Brrrrr, It's cold!

2011-01-21T15:09:00.008-07:00

This week we started our arctic animal unit in 4 year old preschool! We explored ice and added our findings to our Science books!

We were busy creating our daddy and penguins for our Polar Animal book! It was a lot of fun to watch them. I traced their foot and gave them a square of white and orange paper and told them to cut the pieces to make the rest of their penguin "parts." So many of them claimed they couldn't do it... but with a little persuasion they all finished it on their own. I loved how they would bring it up and show me how cute their baby was and bring friends over to see their penguin. They were very proud of their work!

Anyone for some penguin bingo- "penguino!" It was a fun review of the letters we have been working on.

How many penguins tall is everyone in the class? Are we as tall as real penguins, or are they taller? We found out! Miss Debbie even had to find out how many penguins tall she was!

Have you seen the biggest snowman! This week in the three year old class we were busy creating our own biggest snowman! Hopefully you were able to read the book with your child- there was just a little bit of glue used this week ;) but how else can you learn to use a little drop of glue unless you give it a try.

Run, run, run and fast as you can! You just caught me Gingerbread man!

2011-01-02T14:57:00.014-07:00

We are going on a gingerbread man hunt! They ran all over Miss Debbie's house and it was all of our jobs to help her find them! They were no where to be seen!

Not in the yard!
Not in the oven or the dishwasher!

We finally found them in the preschool room! They were there all along!!!

They sure tasted yummy!

In three and 4 year old tummies!
and we had a great time creating our own gingerbread man and wrapping our presents to our mom's and dad's! Christmas was fun at preschool!

Hope you had a magical Christmas !

Candy House Fun!!!!

2010-12-10T15:45:00.005-07:00

We had so much fun building candy houses at preschool! I think the preschool room will smell like sugar for at least a month! Thank you to everyone for bringing candy to share and to all the moms who helped!! Hopefully we didn't get too many tummy aches from too much sugar!

Thanksgiving Feast!!!!

2010-12-10T15:24:00.007-07:00

Here are a few pictures from our Thanksgiving Feast! It was so fun going as the Indians with our fun new Indian names!!! Thanks to everyone who helped with the food!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T10:18:00.006-06:00

We had a lot of fun at our Preschool parties this week. So many cute kids in such fun costumes!

This picture made me laugh.... doesn't it look like a three year old class? Everyone doing their own thing and looking very cute doing it! So fun!!!!

The party was a lot of fun! Thanks to all who helped! Thank you to everyone for bringing treats to share! It was the highlight of the party! Hope everyone had a very Happy Halloween!!!

Apple Fun!

2010-10-08T14:49:00.005-06:00

Just a few pictures of some apple fun we had this week at preschool!

In the three year old class we made "apple Aa" necklaces with Apple Jacks! Yum!

Our Farm Fresh Produce basket are ready to go home!

With our apple science we observed, compared, and measured our apples. We recorded our findings and put our results in our Science Journals.

(yep, I need to learn how to flip pictures Ü)

Songs!

2010-10-01T20:24:00.010-06:00

I had some request for some of the songs we are singing in preschool. Here are the words and the tunes they are sung too.

Orange

(tune: Ten Little Indians)

O R A N G E, O R A N G E, O R A N G E (say each letter)

Orange is what that spells

Jack-o-lanterns are always orange

Carrots are always orange

Oranges are always orange, O R A N G E!

Triangle

(tune: Are you sleeping)

Trixie Triangle, Trixie Triangle

has 3 sides, has 3 sides

She says yield, but don't stop!

See her on the roof top!

Count her sides, 1,2,3

Benjamin Bunny

(tune: Beautiful Dreamer)

Benjamin Bunny, what do you see?

Name all the things that begin with a "Bb"

Babies and bubbles and butterflies too,

beach balls and bears and balloons that are blue!

Farm Fun!

2010-10-01T15:08:00.013-06:00

We have had a lot of fun this week at preschool. We have been working on our farm books in both the 3 year old class and the 4 year old class! They should be done and ready to come home next week. At the beginning of the school year we work on some of these big project and starting the week after next, we will be working on some fun Halloween projects and bringing more home on a daily basis. Here is some pictures of some of the projects we have been involved in this past week at preschool!

The three year olds added Mary had a Little Lamb to their Nursery Rhyme books.

A little socializing while we paint our Old McDonald's farm!
A little play time!

How many eggs does your chicken have?

The 4's getting our fish ready for our duck pond.

The 4's showing Brown Bear for our poetry book!

Brown Bear

Brown Bear, Brown Bear,

Loves to eat! Honey is his favorite treat!

(how many Bb's do you see? Are they upper or lower case (mommy or baby) letters?)

First Week Fun!

2010-08-28T13:17:00.011-06:00

The first week of Preschool was a lot of fun! We had a great time getting to know each other and our school. We played games and worked on our school work! Here are a few things we did this week!

The three year old classes explored colors this week while visiting the color zoo! We played a game where we sorted different colored pom poms.

The best part was using tongs to sort with!

The three year old classes also made "magic" colors when they used droppers to fill beakers with the primary colors! It was so much fun to watch the colors change!

Of course we had a little time for dress ups!

The four year old classes have been busy making 2 books this week. Day and Night in the Jungle and our Jungle Safari book. Watch out for our name snakes! Some were longer then others- but I think they were all friendly! We also worked on our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom name trees, thank goodness I think there was enough room for our names!

Dinomite Fun!!!!

2010-02-26T16:00:00.005-07:00

We had so much fun this past week and a half creating our Dinosaur Books! Hope everyone enjoyed reading them at home! They were sooooo excited to take them home to show you! Just thought I would share some snapshots of our books!

It was a lot of fun creating our own Dinosaurs! Creating a new species takes a lot of imagination!

All of their dinosaurs were so cute and unique- just like they are! I grabbed a few pictures just to show a small sample of some of the amazing creations!

Sorry morning class- the pictures I got of your dinos were the wrong directions and my computer editing skills on blogger are lacking! I'll remember that for next time!

The three year old class had a great time as well with their dinosaurs! I'm so sad I didn't get a picture of the bag dinosaur! I thought I had and I'm not seeing one! I just couldn't resist getting a picture of the "pack of pink dinosaurs!" It is a once in a life time chance to have a class that all WANTS a pink dinosaur!

Valentine Party!

2010-02-26T15:54:00.004-07:00

We had a great time at our Valentines Party. We played some fun games, ate some very decorated cookies, and passed out some awesome Valentines; in very decorated Valentine bags!

Did everyone get enough candy?!

Pj's and Teddy Bears!

2010-01-29T16:10:00.002-07:00

We had a lot of fun in our pj's! We talked about what bears do in the winter and we thought it was only appropriate that we should be in our pajamas too!

The 4 year old's added another page to their math books- we counted how many buttons were on our brown bears.

We watched a movie with our bears called "Bear Snores On" I think our stuffed friends liked it almost as much as the preschool friends!

The 3's worked hard on their cutting and made bear head bands. We read a book called "The Teddy Bears Picnic." It said we needed to come in bear disguise - so the bears would think we were one of them! I thought they looked cuter then the average bear!

Hawaii Vacation!

2010-01-29T15:59:00.003-07:00

We had a great time in Hawaii- I hope you didn't miss us too much while we were gone! Here are some pictures of our trip!

We all made a flower lei to make us feel a little more Hawaiian!

The 3's and the 4's made different versions of the Hawaiian ocean!

The 4's wrote postcards to their parents telling them how much they were missed while we were gone!

We ended our day by having a "Hawaiian" cookie and watching the fire dance ( a DVD from the Polynesian cultural center) at our luau!

Winter Fun!

2010-01-29T15:46:00.003-07:00

Here are some of the things we have been doing in January!

"I spy" some ice cream! You have to have good eyes and be real quick to play this game!

I had to catch them playing- it was so cute! They all had a phone and they were talking to each other!

This three year old class LOVES dress ups! On this day in particular they all changed their outfits at least 4 times a piece!

Sweet little snowman glyphs! Great listening and following of directions!

The four year old's watched very carefully to see which ice cube would melt faster- the one with salt or the one without. We recorded our findings and put it in our Science books!

Lots of Christmas Fun!

2009-12-30T14:31:00.011-07:00

Excitement sure was building for Christmas at Preschool here are some fun things we did at preschool in December!

Lots of candy and decorating going on with our Gingerbread houses!

Anyone for some crazy sock action?... or how about a little bit of candy for those socks?

A little festive "who" hair, which helped us all get in the spirit of Christmas!

Anyone seen a gingerbread man.... his shadow shows us he has been here! Where could he be?
We found all of the Gingerbread babies!

Decorating some Gingerbread men!

Matching up some gingerbread men to their ovens! Be careful- don't peak!

How about a little Reindeer Instructions to help Santa get to our houses!

And last but not least.... We had a great time making something special for Mom and Dad! I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and look I'm looking forward to a great New Year!!

Tis the season!

2009-12-04T17:03:00.005-07:00

We have started making some fun stuff to celebrate the Christmas Season!

We counted Christmas cookies to add to our math books!

We also had a little Rudolph Fun!

There has been a little building go on at preschool!

2009-12-04T16:55:00.005-07:00

A little Lego fun! (Lisa do you love the smile:) )

A few cooperative efforts...

A castle...

and the Beaver Damn, of course!

Thanksgiving Feast!

2009-12-04T16:14:00.007-07:00

We had a great time at our feast! Thanks to everyone who helped at the party and with food!

... and Thanks to Andrea Reid (aka, my personal photographer, for the following pictures.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are getting ready for our Feast!!!

2009-12-04T16:01:00.003-07:00

Showing off our Potato Turkey- Who knew potato could fly, talk and play with other potato turkey friends?

Painting tortilla tepees can be so much fun!

How many shapes can you find on our turkeys?

Every Indian should have a patterned necklace!

We have been busy!

2009-11-13T18:09:00.006-07:00

We have been hard at work learning about fall the past few weeks! Here is a sneak peak into our Science Journals (4's)

Popcorn Science!

We looked at Fall leaves and graphed them as well.

We drew a picture of our favorite activity for fall and we went outside to find signs of fall!

We talked about how popcorn popped and popped some for our popcorn turkeys!

We talked about how fun it would be to get buried in a pile of leaves with only our faces showing!

Working hard on graphing leaves!

We practiced writing our letter "Ee" and made a fall tree!

We went outside and colored our signs of fall- too bad it felt like summer that day!:)

Look at all the patterns on our pattern dolls!

Of course we took time out to play! Look how well we worked together to make our huge creation!

Here is the brown song we have been working on this month- in case you haven't heard it already!:)

Halloween Parties!

2009-10-30T17:08:00.004-06:00

We have been waiting all month for today! We sure had a lot of fun! Have you ever seen kids as cute as these!

We made witches brew! That is fun stuff!

...and had a little treat! We played games and passed out treats!
Thanks for all your support! The kids took home some great treats and had a lot of fun!

October Fun!

2009-10-30T16:51:00.003-06:00

We had a lot of fun making our Haunted Houses this week at school! Hope they didn't spook you too much!

The three year old class showing off their shapes they made on geo boards

Creepy , Spooky Things!

2009-10-23T15:32:00.003-06:00

The past two weeks we have been focusing on the creepy, spooky things you might see at Halloween!

We started with learning our Spider facts!

We had fun reading Miss Spider's Tea Party and making our own Miss Spider!

The day wouldn't have been complete without a tea party of our own!

Which "tea" do you like the best?- Pink seemed to be the overall favorite!

Da, Da, Da, Da, Da, Da, Da, Da, DAT man! Hope they sang it as much for you as they did for me! It is great to get that sound practice in!

Hope you wern't too scared of the monsters that came home this week! Watch for our class monster book to come home in the next few weeks!

Halloween Fun!

2009-10-09T15:45:00.012-06:00

The last two weeks in four year old classes we had a lot of fun with Halloween projects!

We sorted and counted our X- ray bone candy!

We made a spooky black cat to hang in our trees, to scare the trick or treaters!

We made a trick or treater glyph!

We also added some pages to our ABC Poetry Book and our Science books and...

Don't forget the singing! (Thought you would enjoy hearing some singing- It is just one class, but they all sing it just as well- I have to catch the other classes in the act as well!)

3 year old fun!

2009-10-02T15:45:00.003-06:00

The three year old class was busy this week.... almost as busy as The Very Busy Spider! I hope you and your child enjoyed reading this book that they created the past few week! We also had a lot of fun making play doh chicken eggs- to match the number on our chicken mat of course!

We also finished our Mary Had a Little Lamb Nursery Rhyme Pockets this week! There sure are some silly songs in those pockets! We started working on our Little Miss Muffet Nursery Rhyme Pocket this week as well.

We will say so long to the farm and start enjoying some of the fun the Halloween season will bring.

Who is in the Barn?

2009-09-25T15:32:00.003-06:00

Who is in the barn? A lot of cute kids who worked hard this week finishing their countdown Barn books! Thanks to our morning class "models" here is a sample of our finished project! Great work 4 year old classes!

September Fun!

2009-09-18T16:34:00.005-06:00

We are having a lot of fun at preschool in the month of September! We have been learning and playing a lot together! I have been busy getting the routine set up with the preschoolers and they keep me on my toes, so I haven't had a lot of time to get pictures. I need to get better at getting some fun pictures of such cute kids. Here are a few that I have from the first few weeks of school!

Here is some great team work from some of the three year old class while building a tall tower!

The three year old class worked hard on their apple "a" necklaces- we practice what letter sound "a" made and sang Apple Annie's song.

The three year old class also gave Samantha the Sheep a "haircut" while counting and taking turns "cutting her wool".

The 4 year old class worked on some apple science this week. We measured and weighed and put our findings in our Science Journals.

The four year old class talked about what farmers grow for us on the farm this week. We enjoyed "growing" our fruits and vegetables and bring home some "Farm Fresh Produce." I wonder what kind of animals we will see next week?

We Are WILD about Preschool!

2009-07-29T09:37:00.003-06:00

ATTENTION Safari Explorers (4's) and Zoo Enthusiasts (3's) are you WILD about preschool?!! I'm WILD about preschool and I can't wait to show you around on the first day of school!!! School will start on Tuesday, August 25 for the 3's and Wednesday, August 26 for the 4's! Our preschool open house is scheduled for Thursday, August 20- come and pick you your welcome packet, your new preschool bag, and your first day of school "homework". Invitations for both the open house and the first day of school have been mailed. I am so excited to get to know your little explorers! It is going to be a fun year!

Guess who I saw this summer!

2009-07-28T18:22:00.004-06:00

I went to visit my preschool friend Fanny Frog at the Zippity Zoo with Zelda the Zebra! I went all the way to Texas for my visit! I had so much fun learning new things and I bought some new songs for us to learn as well. I can't wait for school to start to show you! Hope you are having a great summer!!

Summer is in the Air!

2009-04-27T11:35:00.000-06:00

Wow! It’s hard to believe that we have made it to our last month of school! We may only have 3 1/2 weeks left of school, but that doesn't mean we are going to stop working!
April was a lot of fun! We worked hard on our letters. We helped the princess find the letters umbrella U, elephant e, jumping j, fraidy f, and licking L. The letters U and E are still hard ones to remember their special sounds so keep reinforcing these letters in your daily activities.
In the month of May we only have two more letters we need to help the princess find. Buzzing Z, and beating B. Because these letters are being introduced towards the end of the year, please keep reinforcing them with your preschooler throughout the summer. The frog princess is looking forward to the last week of school too, this is when we will use our magic to change her back into a princess!
Throughout the month of May we will be winding up the school year. We will be finishing our journals, science books and our portfolios.
Please join us the Santa Clara city park for fun, lunch and a short informal graduation program on Tuesday, May 19. We will be singing some of our favorite preschool songs and present graduation certificates and portfolios. Lunch will be a potluck, everyone will bring something to share and bring their own sandwich. The 3’s will come at 10:30 to play and have their program. We will combine all the classes for lunch. The 4’s will have their program after lunch. I will be sending more information and food assignments on our invitation soon.
It has been an awesome year! We have made such great progress! Thanks for being such wonderful and supportive parents! You truly have beautiful children!

Is My Child Ready for Kindergarten?

2009-04-27T11:25:00.000-06:00

Sometimes a child may feel anxious about starting kindergarten. Reverting to old habits such as bed wetting, thumb sucking, baby talk or temper tantrums is not unusual. Following are some suggestions for reducing the anxiety your child feels about that first big day of school!
· Take care of your child’s personal needs. Be sure s/he can tie shoes, zip zippers, button buttons, and use the bathroom without assistance.
· Take you child to visit the school before the first day. Visit the classroom, locate the rest rooms, practice opening the heavy outside doors and then play on the playground.
· Use your child’s teacher’s name often in daily conversations.
· If your child will be walking to school, walk the route together several times before school starts.
· Get acquainted with other children in the neighborhood who will be going to school at the same time. Arrange some play time with these children during the summer.
· Read books with your child about going to school.
· Make a “big deal” of your child’s first day of school. Give it the importance it deserves.
· If you are a working parent, help your child understand how s/he will get to and from school and the child-care center.
Go with you child the first day of school. Walk all the way to the classroom but don’t linger. Your child will do better if you leave him or her to make the adjustment

Graduation Date!

2009-04-26T20:37:00.000-06:00

Please mark your calendars for Tuesday, May 19th for Graduation!!! This date is different form the original date I gave you at the open house in August. I added some preschool days to make up for some of the days I needed to take off during the year. Invitations and May calendars will be on their home soon! Also, I know there are not a lot of days in May, but we are still very busy at preschool!! In fact, we are trying very hard to finish up some end of the year activities. Please try to send your child to school every day- it is so hard to go back and try to have the kids finish up something that the rest of the class has already done. We are also working very hard on our songs for our little graduation program. I can't believe I'm talking about graduation!!! I hope your kids have enjoyed preschool, as much as I have enjoyed having them in preschool!

Let's have a great last month of preschool!

We all Scream for Ice Cream!!!!

2009-04-26T20:12:00.001-06:00

Thank you everyone for coming to our big field trip to Big Scoops! I hope the kids enjoyed eating ice cream with their school friends!

They are soooo cute!! Even with an ice cream face! Thanks for your patience. It seemed a little easier to watch the movie and wait in the bigger space. I learned this year to split the classes up and come at least a half an hour later to shorten your wait time. Sorry about that, I hope you still enjoyed visiting with each other!

Anyone for Ice Cream!

2009-04-19T16:31:00.000-06:00

This Friday- April 24 will be our second and final field trip of the school year. We will be going to Big Scoops Ice Cream Parlor. We will watch a short movie on how they make ice cream, make our own cone, and best of all- eat ice cream! We will meet at Big Scoops at 10:00 am. The cost of this field trip is $2.25 per student. You can bring the money with you on Friday. If you are not able to come on Friday will you let me know. Also if your child is coming with another mom please let me know. If you need to arrange for your child to come with someone else and need some ideas, I would be happy to help. This will be preschool for the day. It will also be an extra day for the 2 day classes. The kids are really looking forward to this!!! Again, Thank You for your support!!!

Isn't it Lovely!!!!!

2009-04-19T16:25:00.000-06:00

WE DID IT!!!! EVERYONE HAS THEIR ICE CREAM SCOOPS!!! It is a BEAUTIFUL sight!!!

They should be so PROUD of themselves!!!!

We will be having an ice cream party (yes, it is different then our field trip to big scoops.) when I can get everyone to class at the same time :)

Thank you so much moms and dads for your help!!!!!

Don't Rainbows Make You Happy?

2009-04-19T15:47:00.000-06:00

Here are a few pictures I snapped of the classes for Rainbow Day!

The 4 year old class after they completed rainbow puzzles!

The three year olds had a great time building their fruit loop rainbows! I think it was even more fun to watch them build them!!

I need to be better about taking more pictures!! We just get so crazy busy this time of year that I get forgetful! I'll work on it!!

2009-04-03T16:59:00.000-06:00

March has been a lot of fun! The children really enjoyed playing in yucky stuff to find the letter Y. We also had a good time trying to find the leprechaun! Unfortunately, we never found him, and he sure made a mess out of our room. Fortunately, he did leave candy gold. In March we added the letters yucky Y, Gucky G, and Kicking K.
Spring brings a lot of opportunity for fun activities at preschool and the month of April is no exception. We will be looking at letters and doing activities centered around the fun of Easter! We have jelly bean day, Easter Egg day and Easter bunny day!
This month we will be working on the letters jumping J, elephant e, fraidy f, umbrella u, and ladybug l. Keep reinforcing these letters at home, especially the letter U, it seems to be a hard letter for some children.
We will be talking about some of the fun things with the weather this month as well, such as rain and rainbows. Fish day is scheduled for later this month. The 4 year old calendar reminds you to bring fish scales. I will be sending a note home explaining this in detail when the time gets closer.
Don’t forget we have a field trip on April 24th to Big Scoops café! We will meet there at 10:00 and watch a short movie, make an ice cream cone and eat ice cream! This will be preschool for the day. The cost of the field trip will be $2.25 per child. The kids really love this adventure together!
4 year old parents: I would like to finish up our ice cream Kindergarten readiness activity. Please help your child with their address if they haven’t already passed it off. I would like to finish it up in the next 2 weeks!
I can’t believe that it is April all ready and that our school year is drawing near to the end. This year has gone so fast! Thanks for all you do, I appreciate your support!

Preschoolers are out of this World!

2009-03-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

Spring is on the way, which means a lot of fun activities are in store for us at preschool!
We have been working hard on our letters this past month! We added driving “V”, running “H”, drumming “D” and ticking “T”. The children are doing great! Keep reinforcing these letters at home, more letters are on the way!
In March we will be adding yucky ”Y”, gucky “G”, kicking “K”, The celebration of St. Patrick's Day has always been a favorite day! Can you believe that I have been chasing that darn leprechaun for 17 years now, and he always finds a way to mess up the room and leave a few footprints! This is the year we are going to catch him and get his gold!
As posted on the observed holiday list, given to each of you when you signed up for preschool, Spring Break will be observed the week of March 13-20. (*Reminder– we will be out on the 13 but will start up again on the 23, even with the older kids out of school. If you have any questions please let me know! Enjoy your break! I hope everyone has something fun planned!

Just a little Yuck!!

2009-03-01T15:33:00.001-07:00

That Yucky "Y" he is just so yucky!!

Yucky Y day is just so much fun! It is a lot of fun to play with yucky stuff!! A lot of the kids wanted to know how to make the yucky stuff so I told them I would put the recipe up for you. I love it because it doesn't break into tiny pieces like play dough and it doesn't stick to clothes. Save this recipe for some summer fun! It has also been a great hit at classroom parties- just throw some wiggly eyes in and color it green for Halloween or throw in some valentine confetti and color it pink for Valentines. Enjoy!

Yucky Y stuff!

(flubber)
2 cups white glue
1 1/2 cups water
Food coloring
2 level tsp. Borax soap (type of Laundry soap)
1 cup hot water

Combine the glue, water and food coloring. In a large bowl dissolve the Borax in the hot water. Slowly stir the glue mixture into the Borax. It will coagulate and be difficult to mix. Pour off the excess water, then let it sit for several minutes. Drain off the remaining water. I store it in a zip loc bag.

It was a great day in 3 year old Preschool!

2009-03-01T15:29:00.001-07:00

It was such an exciting event in 3 year old preschool this week that I just had to share!!! EVERYONE cut out their dinosaur ALL BY THEMSELVES without ANY HELP!!!!!! Are you noticing the baby drops of glue!!! Such fun things to make Miss Debbie excited!

GREAT JOB!!! They are getting so big!

Welcome Shelly the Turtle!

2009-03-01T15:23:00.000-07:00

We had a fun visitor in our 2 day 4 year old class this week for Turtle Day! Our friend Riley brought Shelly the Turtle to share with us! Shelly is about 20 years old, he likes to eat snails and tomatoes! He is very fast, especially when he is looking for some sun! (Yes, they did find out Shelly was a "he" after they named him) Thanks for bringing him, he was a lot of fun!

Valentine Fun!

2009-02-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

Is the candy gone yet?! It looks like everyone made out all right! We had a lot of fun at the Valentine parties- I find that it is just so busy I sometimes forget to take the pictures- here are a few I managed to get.

Our BEAUTIFUL Valentine Bags!

Our necklaces look FABULOUS!

What is a Valentine Party without a frosted MASTERPIECE?

Next week we'll talk about taking care of our teeth, good timing I would say!

February Fun!

2009-02-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

We have our February Calendars ready!

This past week the 4 year olds had a lot of fun getting their dinosaur habitat ready!

Now we just need to have a Valentine Party!!!

Please remember to have your child just sign their Valentine cards- they will need 10, because who doesn't just love themselves, its hard when you don't get one of your own!:) We will be making our bags this week!

For the four year olds who are working on their phone number, I wanted to share a song that may help them to remember it. It goes to the tune: Flies in the Buttermilk, if you don't know the tune, let me know and I can sing it for you.

555-5555, 555-5555, 555-5555 This is my phone number.

Later when we are working on our address, Dashing through the snow work well.

1234 East 4567 South

Santa Clara, Utah is Debbie Gourley's house.

Thanks for your support! I'm looking forward to a fun week!

February Frolics!

2009-02-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

January was a lot of fun! We added four

new letters to our princess song M&M m, Quiet q, Silly snake, and igloo I. Keep looking for these letters in your environment. We learned about ice and animals that like to live in icy lands. We especially liked playing the penguin game by putting the penguins on the ice and trying not to let them fall off! This month we also worked on the blue and purple songs! The 4 year olds are getting better at patterning and graphing!
In February we will add four new letters as well! We have running H, driving V, drumming D, and Ticking T. The letters are coming faster now so please help reinforce them at home!
The four year olds will be looking at another Super Author this month, Dr Seuss! We will be looking at the silly ways he uses words and some of his interesting art work! Dr Seuss books are a wonderful books to read to your children! The rhyming text helps children in their beginning readings skills by picking up on something the experts call phonemic awareness, which is the process in which you can hear different sounds in words. We will also be working on rhyming words this month to help in this process.
February is National Dental Health month, we will be talking about how to keep our teeth healthy in conjunction with the letter T.
Don’t forget Valentines Day! The children are all ready getting excited for our valentine parties. Please send the appropriate number of valentines with your child on party day! (10) Please sign, DO NOT ADDRESS each valentine. The children will be making a sack for their valentines at school and will take them home to open. Opening them at school has proven to be tragic! Have you ever seen a preschooler with mixed up valentines? It’s not a pretty sight! Thanks for everything, and Happy Valentines!

Hawaii Here We Come!

2009-01-29T14:39:00.000-07:00

What is not to love about Hawaii in the middle of winter?

We sure had a lot of fun- even though we just pretended we were enjoying the sunshine!

A Little Hula Dancing!

Creating our own oceans!

If only.........

January Fun!

2009-01-19T16:26:00.000-07:00

So.... What do you do at preschool when its a little cold outside and its the blah month of January? You create some of your own fun!

I Love both of the snowmen we made this month in 4 year old classes (on will go in the "special book". ) I love to see how different they all look and it is so fun to see the kids do something that they think they can't do but really can!

Anyone for some M &M's?

So sorry in advance for the mess the mice made. If it makes you feel any better my son (now in 7Th grade) still recalls "Quiet as a Mouse Day" and how he couldn't dispose of the mouse until he was in the first grade. He said he loved his mouse. So... I did my fair share of vacuuming the saw dust. I made a memory:)! So may your saw dust not fall and may you appreciate that it wasn't a real mouse! Isn't that what preschool teachers are for?

Who couldn't like something so cute?

Let's Get to Work!

2009-01-02T19:43:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your support during the Holiday Season! I really appreciate the candy you sent to school! The candy houses looked fabulous! Thank you for the fabulous Christmas gifts!
We had a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas, we were very busy getting presents ready along with making sure we learned some new letters and continuing with our counting and patterning skills! I hope you enjoyed the little Christmas tree ornament or frame your child made for you.
I have been really excited to see the progress the children are making! They are recognizing their names and the letters and numbers we have been working on. They have improved so much with their cutting,
During the month of January and throughout the rest of the year we will begin to pick up the pace a little. We will be adding a new letter virtually every week! Try to continually reinforce these letters at home. This month we will be adding M&M “M”, Quiet “Q”, “S” a snake, and igloo “I”. I have some fun activities planned to reinforce these letters and sounds.
We will continue working on our counting and number skills. In the four year old class we will also continue to reinforce graphing and patterning skills.
January is a great time to talk about the changing seasons, we will talk about the fun things we can do in winter. Yet, who doesn't love to escape the cold of winter? We will be planning our “trip” to Hawaii! Don’t forget to wear your summer clothes! (Cheek your calendar for date).
As always, thanks for sharing your child with me! I love them! I’m looking forward to another fun month!

Sparkling Snow Dough

2009-01-02T19:37:00.000-07:00

Sparkling Snow Dough
2 c. water
2 c. flour
1 c. salt
4 tsp. Cream of Tartar
4 tsp. Oil
Iridescent glitter

Combine all ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture thickens and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Form the dough into a ball, place on waxed paper, and allow to cool before kneading in a desired amount of glitter.

We are Ready for Christmas!

2008-12-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

Excitement- check

Christmas trees ready- check

Stockings sewn - check

Candy Houses made- check

Presents for parents made and wrapped- Check!

We are ready for Christmas at Preschool how about you? Hope you had a wonderful and magical Christmas!

Dress up Fun!

2008-12-23T19:18:00.000-07:00

Just capturing a little dress up fun at preschool!

Anyone call for a doctor? How about a princess!

Welcome Christmas Festivities!

2008-11-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it’s the most wonderful time of the year again? November flew by! The 4 year olds did a great job on their Thanksgiving books as well as their Turkey Cards. The three year olds really enjoyed making turkey’s, especially the painting part! Who can forget wearing our pajama’s to school! The children really enjoyed that activity, thank you for your support! We also had a great time at our Thanksgiving feast, but getting ready for it was half the fun!

The children are becoming more and more familiar with the letters we have worked on thus far. Keep up the great work you are doing at home! Ask your son or daughter if they can sing the alphabet princess song for you There is Apple A, wiggly W, Soda pop X, Nuts to N, Octopus O, and Popping P. Also ask them to sing the Brown Song for you, they did a great job learning this color song this month!

Keep working on numbers at home, focus on the numbers 4, they are able to count objects 1-5, we just really need to be able to recognize each number, we will continue to work on these numbers at school during the month of December!

We will be adding some new letters in the month of December, the letters are Cookie C and Roaring R. The four year olds will continue to work on patterning throughout the month. Both classes will continue working on matching letters, recognizing numbers, counting and cutting!

The best part about December is making presents! Do you think it can remain a secret?

2008-11-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

Gingerbread
Play Dough
1 1/2 c. flour 1 tbsp ground ginger
1 c. Salt 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground cloves 1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp ground allspice 1 cup boiling water
1 tbsp powdered alum brown paste coloring

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, and alum. Add the oil and boiling water; then stir until well blended Add the spice and coloring. Then knead the dough until it is smooth. Store the dough in an airtight container.

The "Write" Time to Start

2008-11-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

Is your child writing at the age of three and four? You bet! You just have to know what you are looking for. Watch for your child to go through these stages of writing: 1) drawing, 2) scribbling lines and “reading” what they say, 3) writing familiar letters over and over again and reading what they say, 4) sounding out words when writing and 5) writing with correct spelling.

Your child has been preparing for writing since he/she first grabbed a rattle in his/her tiny hind. The fine-motor skills necessary for successful writing develop over time. So does a child’s understanding of writing. How can you set the stage for continued writing readiness?

· Model Writing: When your child sees you writing daily for many different reasons, he will want to imitate you. He will also see how important and useful writing is. Write out such things as your grocery list, cards, and to-do lists in front of your child so he can learn by watching. Talk out loud as you write, telling your child what you are doing.

· Provide supplies and opportunities for you child to exercise his hand muscles. Designate a writing drawer or box somewhere in your house to fill with supplies such as
* paper of various sizes textures and colors.
*writing tools including markers crayons and pencils
*Play dough
*puzzles and building toys.

· Talk about your child’s drawings and writing. When presented with a drawing or a paper filled with scribbles encourage your child by asking him questions abut his work. Offer to write down his dictated story.

Still not sure if your child is writing? Keep encouraging him and when the time is “write,” your child will let you know!

Thanksgiving Week Fun!

2008-11-30T14:44:00.000-07:00

We were very busy at preschool this past few weeks and we had a lot of fun getting ready for our feast! It was a lot of fun getting our pretend Indian name. We picked the names from 2 bowls and but them together for a fun new name! The four year olds enjoyed painting their "taco" tepee and we all had a lot of fun putting together our candy tepees. Our Thanksgiving feast was really yummy! Thanks to everyone who helped with the food and at the party!

4 year old pm class Painting their tepees!

4 year old am class creating their candy tepees!

2 day 4 year old class and the three year old class enjoying the "feast"!

"P" is for Pj's and Pancakes!

2008-11-14T22:54:00.000-07:00

Wearing your pj's and eating pancakes at school is almost as fun as Halloween! So who can resist taking a class picture? Don't they look cute!!!

Here is the busy three year olds! There is always so many interesting things to look at!

Here are the two day four year olds- We missed you Cate!

Here are the morning 4 year olds, and. . .

the afternoon 4 year olds!

We had a fun week this week! Next week we'll be wrapping up some of our Thanksgiving projects!

It's November!

2008-11-02T14:32:00.000-07:00

Time sure flies when your having fun! I can’t believe it is November all ready! The children are making great progress! This past month we have been working on the letters A, W and X. This month we will add the letters N, O and P. Keep reinforcing these letters as you see them come home in various ways. I truly appreciate all you do to support me at home!
In November we will again be exploring some of the joys of the season! We will be talking about Thanksgiving and all the fun stuff that comes with it. We will especially be talking about what it means to be Thankful!
In November we have “P” week. This is one of my favorite letter weeks of the year, and has been for some of my past students as well. I just wanted to point out that we will have pancake and pajama day at preschool! Be sure to have your child wear their pajamas to school that day!
The four year old class will be working on patterns towards the end of the month. After pattern day look around your world and help your child find the patterns. You will be amazed at how many you can find! Patterning is a very important pre-math skill that will really help your child later in their math studies!
Again, I am looking forward to another fun month! If you have any questions or concerns please give me a call!

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Pie Play Dough!

2008-11-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Pie Play dough
5 1/2 cups flour 1 container 1 1/2 oz
2 cups salt pumpkin pie spice
8 teas. Cream of tarter orange food coloring
3/4 cup oil (2 parts yellow, 1 part red)
4 cups water

Mix all of the ingredients together. Cook and stir over medium heat until lumps disappear. Knead the dough on a floured surface until it is smooth. Store in airtight container. (Can cut recipe in half)

Halloween is Finally Here!!!

2008-11-02T14:05:00.001-07:00

Halloween is finally here and don't they look great!!

3 year old class!

2 day 4 year old class!

4 year old am class!

4 year old pm class!

So long til next year Halloween!

Did Someone say Halloween Party?

2008-11-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun at our Halloween Party this week!! We read lots of fun Halloween books, played games, ate cookies we decorated, made yucky witches brew, and passed out treats. Witches brew sure can be stinky!!

Haunted House Fun!

2008-11-02T13:47:00.001-07:00

We had a lot of fun making and decorating our Haunted Houses in the 4 year old classes this week! I love watching their little minds work as they decide on what they want their house to look like. I hope no ghosts hitched a ride and scared anyone at home!

Halloween Week!

2008-10-25T21:20:00.000-06:00

Don't forget to bring your treat to share to the Halloween Party on Thursday or Friday! Your child can wear their costume to school for our party day, but please remember to leave accessories at home, we don't want any sad kids on Halloween night if they forget something at school. Parents are welcome to stay for the first 15 minutes for pictures. We will all go out front for a class picture. If you have any questions, please email or give me a call!

We Went to the Pumpkin Patch!!

2008-10-25T18:19:00.000-06:00

We had so much fun at the Pumpkin Patch!! There was so much to see, learn, and do! Thank you to everyone who came and helped, I hope you had a good time- I know I we will be talking a lot about it this week at school!
Miss Debbie with the 3 year old class!
Miss Debbie with the 2 day 4 year old class!
Miss Debbie with the 4 year old am class!
Miss Debbie with the 4 year old pm class!

Thanks again! You are awsome!!!

Here kitty, kitty!

2008-10-25T18:13:00.000-06:00

We sure had a lot of fun making black cats last week! What is not to like about black garbage bags and a little newspaper!

I Caught You Reading. . . Together!!

2008-10-25T18:09:00.001-06:00

I just thought it was so fun to see the 2 day four year old class reading together! I loved how they formed a circle and were just sharing Halloween stories! They really are becoming good little friends! I hope it warmed your heart like it does mine!

Xray- Bones and Witches Brew!

2008-10-12T20:22:00.000-06:00

This week in the four year old class we worked on the letter X and wrapped up the letter W. The four year olds are getting better with their scissors skills as we continue to cut more at school. It can be hard to start cutting around objects, if you are noticing some missing pieces or extra tape, you may want to help your child cut at home. Cutting a picture out of a coloring book could be great practice. All of the preschool classes enjoyed sorting and counting their bone candies this week. Especially when it came time to eat them!!

This week in our class we talked out our skeletons. We talked about why we need our bones and what we can do with them. We added a picture in our Science Journal, one showing the outside of our bodies and the other showing the skeleton in our bodies.

What would you put in your witches brew? There were some wild imaginations at preschool this week trying to figure it out!

October Fun!

2008-10-12T19:49:00.000-06:00

We had a lot of fun creating our monsters for our October Calender!

Watch out for the Alphagator!

We Have Had a Great Start!

2008-09-29T20:55:00.000-06:00

In September the children had a great start! Most of the children have learned to recognize their names and have become very aware of letters in their names and letters in each others names! They have learned how to participate in class, especially in circle time. They have learned how to sit quietly and get their work done and when they are finished they have learned how to play with one another. We go a little slower in September, but we have established a good routine, one of which I rarely change, and we have established our classroom rules.
Three year old moms– THANK YOU SO MUCH for coming in for a day this month. It was so nice to have help with these little ones. You helped set up a routine that will help me throughout the year. It was so fun to have you and to get to know you a little better!! I really appreciate you!!
With September behind us, we are looking forward to starting a new month and learning new and exciting things! We will be enjoying the joys of the Fall and Halloween season throughout the month. We will be focusing on shapes, cutting, the number 3, and the letters A, W and X. Again, we go slow with the letters at the first of the year, and really pick up the pace after Christmas.
Thank you for all your help and support at home! Please feel free to call or email me anytime with any questions or concerns! My goal is for your child to have fun at school and to plant the seed for the love of learning. If there is anything I can do to help facilitate this please let me know! I know we will have a great month, what’s not to love about creepy spiders, monsters, haunted houses, and pumpkins?

It's Time for a Field Trip

2008-09-29T20:50:00.000-06:00

We will be going on a field trip to the Staheli Farm in Washington Fields on Friday, October 24th. We will meet with all 4 classes at the farm at 10:30. This will be preschool for the day. Everyone who would like to participate needs to drive their child to the farm and pick them up their as well. In order for your class to participate I will need at least 3 helpers per class. If you would like to carpool you will need to arrange it independently. We will get a tour of the farm, go to the petting zoo, and pick out a pumpkin. The cost for this field trip will be $2. The field trip will last about an hour and a half. More information will be coming home as our field trip approaches. Thanks for your support!!

Learning Speech Sounds

2008-09-29T20:46:00.000-06:00

Many parents of preschoolers have concerns about their child’s speech and the sounds they are not making. I have had some concerns voiced to me this past month so I thought I would pass on some information I received from the Speech and Language Pathologist from the Granite School District. Here are some of the ages children can typically produce specific sounds, some produce these sounds before the listed age and some after. Keep in mind that each child’s development is individual and if you have more specific concerns you should consult your pediatrician.
Sounds for 3 year olds:
m mine p pie n no
b bye w wet h hi
k cookie d do

Sounds for 4 year olds:
t tie g go

5 and 6 year olds add:
v valentine f five
ch cheese y yo yo

7 year olds add:
j juice sh shoe

8 year olds add:
l look r run
th this th thin
9 year olds also produce:
s so z zoo

2008-09-29T20:45:00.000-06:00

Monster Mash
(flubber)
2 cups white glue
1 1/2 cups water
Food coloring
2 level tsp. Borax soap (type of Laundry soap)
1 cup hot water

Combine the glue, water and food coloring. In a large bowl dissolve the Borax in the hot water. Slowly stir the glue mixture into the Borax. It will coagulate and be difficult to mix. Pour off the excess water, then let it sit for several minutes. Drain off the remaining water. Add a small package of wiggle eyes if desired. Store Monster mash covered in the refrigerator when it is not being used.

End of September Fun!

2008-09-28T15:19:00.000-06:00

We had a lot of fun this week in preschool! Although we were sad to hear that the princess is a frog, we were excited to find out that we can meet all of her alphabet friends in the Magic Kingdom and learn the magic spell to change her back into a princess at the end of the school year! All of her preschool friends painted a crown in honor of the princess. The four year olds worked together to build her castle (wow! that was a hard puzzel!) and Miss Debbie put another castle that we created in our portifiolo showing a handwriting example for the first of the school year.

So what is not to love about yummy apples! The four year old's worked on their apple science this week. We completed a book on the four seasons of the apple tree and our apple science clipboard, which we added to our Science Journals. We observed the color of our apples, weighed and measured our apples, and compared our apples with others to see who had the largest and smallest. We also did a little art for our portfolios and some to take home!

It is always a lot of fun to watch a three year old with a little paint and an "Aa" eating alligator. The three year olds also enjoyed counting marshmallow alligator teeth... and maybe enjoyed eating those teeth as well?!!

2008-09-28T15:00:00.000-06:00

This week we met Apple Annie and learned her song and chant. (Everyday we say her chant, we work on the song until we met another letter in the magic kingdom)

Chant: Apple Annie, Apple Annie A/A/A, a/a/a (both long and short sounds)

Song: Tune: Jingle Bells

Apple Annie, Apple Annie

How are you today?

Tell me all the things you know about the letter Aa.

Alligators, astronauts, apple trees that sway;

These are all my favorite things that start with letter Aa

Reminders for Apple Week!

2008-09-19T22:36:00.000-06:00

3 year old class- Please wear red (if you have some, don't buy something new) on September 23.
4 year old classes- Please bring an apple to school. We will be doing some apple math and science. 3-day classes September 24th and 2- day class September 25th.

Thanks so much!

Home and Back Again Bags!

2008-09-19T18:31:00.000-06:00

I am excited to inform you about an activity that I implemented into my program last year and had a lot of success with; and I'm excited to continue again this year! They are called Home and Back again bag (or boxes). These bags have activities that you and your child can work together on at home that use concepts that we are working on at school. I worked hard last summer getting these together. I am excited to hear your comments on what you thought worked and even what you thought did not work.

Each bag contains a variety of activities and generally a book. Some bags contain many activities. Please read over the parent letter that is in each bag, for example, you may decide that you may just want to focus on the shape and color game in that bag. Don’t feel like you need to do EVERY activity in that bag. For example, in the 4 year old class they have a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom bag with 10 different activities. Your child may only be ready to sit down for 2 or 3. I would appreciate if these activity bags were well supervised. I spent many, many hours putting them together!! Aside from the time there is a lot of money invested as well as products that I cannot replace. Everything is labeled with what should be in the zip lock bag as well as how many pieces there should be in each bag. PLEASE count and make sure it all gets back in!!

Please return the bag on the next preschool day so everyone has a chance to take each bag home. I understand that some nights may be crazy and you may not get a chance to try the activities in the bag. If this is the case, please let me know if you would like another opportunity to take the bag home after the rotation through the classes and I will make arrangements. I hope you and your child have fun working on these activities together at home and I will be looking forward to hearing from you!!! As always, if you have any questions let me know.

Happy “Homework”

Week of September 15-19

2008-09-19T18:10:00.000-06:00

We are really getting into the swing of things at preschool! The children are getting into the routine and really working hard! In the four year old class this week we started our Word wall writing. This is where the children pick a word card from the word wall and draw their own version of the picture. When they are finished they use the model to write the word themselves. It is amazing to see how far they come during the school year. Here are some friends from our 3 day classes (both am and pm) showing off their first attempt at word wall. (We generally do word wall 3 to 5 times a month.)

We also enjoyed the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault and illustrated by Lois Ehlert. It is so sad when all the letters get hurt when they fall out of the coconut tree! Luckily, the mama's and papa's are their to rescue their babies!! We even enjoyed the short movie of the book- it has a real catchy tune (maybe a little too catchy!) All of the classes made a version of a chicka chicka boom boom tree to go in their "special book." Here the 2 day 4 year old class show off their artistic abilities and smiles!

Green Song and the Number 2 Song!

2008-09-19T17:30:00.000-06:00

The 4 year old classes have been working on 2 new songs this week!

Green

(Tune: Row, Row, Row, your Boat)

G-R-E-E-N, G-R-E-E-N

I know how to spell green

G-R-E-E-N!

Caterpillars are green,

and grasshoppers, too!

I know how to spell green, G-R-E-E-N!

Curve around and slide to the right,

to make the number 2!

Week of September 8-12th

2008-09-12T17:56:00.000-06:00

We had a lot of fun exploring colors and names this week! Here the three year old's are using tongs to sort colored pom poms. They had to work together to sort so many colors! Name bottles we a great hit this week as well!

In the four old classes we explored colors and names as well, but we also started to add some science books and experiments to our science journals.

Here is our "I am a Scientist" book, which describes what a scientist does as he is conducting an experiment (observes, measures, and compares.)

We also added our "Color Dance" book to our Science Journal. In this book we experimented with mixing the primary color paints and predicted what would happen.

Red Song!

2008-09-12T17:50:00.000-06:00

These are the words to some of the songs we have been working on in preschool for the month of September. I use the cd's, books, and graphics from Frog Street Press.

( Tune: Are you Sleeping)

R-E-D red, R-E-D red,

I can spell red, I can spell red,

Firetrucks are red,

Stop Signs are red too,

R-E-D, R-E-D.

Cindy Circle

2008-09-12T17:42:00.000-06:00

(Tune: If you're Happy and you Know it)

Cindy Circle goes around and around

From the sky to the ground, she goes around

She is on the ferris wheel.

She's a beachball for the seal.

Cindy Circle goes around and around.

You will see her on the stop light in the town.

She can bend from end to end,

roller skating with a friend.

Cindy Circle goes around and around.

2nd Week Reminders!

2008-09-07T13:15:00.000-06:00

Book orders are due on Thursday and Friday. (We are now set up with online Scholastic online book orders! I have sent out an email with the instructions on how to order online, if you didn't get this email and are interested, please let me know, Thanks!

Please bring a plastic bottle with a lid for Thursday or Friday (aprox. 16 oz we will be making name water bottles.)

Thank you so much!!

First Week Fun!

2008-09-07T12:51:00.000-06:00

We had a lot of fun the first week of school!! Here are some preschool friends in the 2 day 4 year old class experimenting with making new colors!

The morning and afternoon 4 year old classes had a lot of fun making some magic of their own! Here they are exploring what happens when you mix 2 colors of play-doh!

Welcome to Preschool!

2008-09-01T17:51:00.000-06:00

Lets get going! I am so excited to start a new preschool year! We are going to have a lot of fun! I enjoyed seeing you and your children for the first time at the open house! I wish I would have had more time to talk with all of you! Thank you so much for your support! You have darling children!

In the month of September we spend time getting to know each other and the classroom routine. I have found that once our routine is established the children know what to expect and can become more independent. I very rarely change the routine. Sometimes children have a hard time coming to school the first week or two. This is to be expected. Please let me know if there are any special needs of your child that I can help with so we can make the transition as smooth as possible. Rest assured I will call you if there is a need.

This month we will be learning to recognize our own names and the 4 year olds will be reviewing their colors and making “new colors.” Your child will be introduced to our alphabet princess who had an unfortunate run in with an mean dragon who has turned her into a frog. The only way to break the evil spell is to find all the letters in the kingdom and learn their names and sounds. With any luck we will be able to accomplish this goal by the end of the school year. This month we will begin our letter search by finding the letter “A.” (We find the letters slowly at the first of the year and pick up the pace in January.) They will also be introduced to the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. If you don’t already have this book it is one that the children really enjoy, especially as the year progresses and they are able to recognize more letters. Here we go! September will be a fun month!