By Miss Michelle

Hello all! I hope you had an amazing weekend! The preschoolers really loved our under the sea theme last week, so I have decided to continue it throughout this week. This theme could really go on forever, but there is so much I want to do with these guys! So we have more sea creature art projects planned for this week as well as more books and videos to look at. Today, I wanted the kids who weren't here to make jellyfish last week to get a chance to make one. We also had to make clown fish for our jellyfish to eat :). I love the preschooler's imaginations! When we traveled outside, we decided to make a snowman with all this fresh fallen snow! His name is Olaf (the snowman from the movie Frozen) and he is beautifully made with three snowballs and rocks and sticks! I hope your Monday is as happy as ours :)

By Miss Michelle

Happy Thursday all! We were very busy today at preschool. there are now two new class pets; Mr. J and Miss Zoey! They are jellyfish in a bottle that we made using two plastic bottles and sacks. We through in some blue food coloring to make it look like they were swimming in the ocean! The preschoolers also made jellyfish out of paper plates and paper. They are really loving the under the sea theme this week, I may expand it into next week!! I'm always happy to see the children learning while during any activity, so while making our jellyfish we talked about patterns we could put the "stingers" of the jellyfish in. I set out orange and yellow steamers or stingers and observed what colors they chose. Some kids used all of the same colors and some of the kids used a few of each. When I asked why they picked those colors, they replied "because that's what jellyfish look like." Silly me, I should have known ;) I hope everyone has a fun and safe weekend!!

I apologize for not posting any photos but I am having trouble getting our new iPad to post them on this website. Rest assured, I'll catch up with the new technology some day! 

By Miss Michelle

Today at preschool, we started the day by looking at a book about under the sea creatures. Personally, I had no idea there was a thing called a sea snake, but today we learned all about them! The preschoolers and I were so intrigued by these animals that I looked up some videos about them on YouTube. I'm so thankful to have this technology in our classroom because it allows us to learn so much more. For example, one video we watched showed us how sea snakes find food in the ocean. The kids really enjoyed seeing these sea snakes putting their heads in the ocean floor to hunt for fish eggs. I asked the preschoolers, "how do you think these snakes breath under water?" Since this was a question I didn't even know the answer to, we decided to look it up! In case any of you are wondering, sea snakes do not have gills and must resurface to breathe. 
We also traveled to the charter school today for more buddy reading!! I love how the preschoolers look forward to seeing their reading buddies! Also, I'm happy to see how comfortable the younger preschoolers have become at the charter school and with their reading buddies. Building relationships with older and younger children is very important for preschoolers. I'm thankful to be a part of a community where this is so easily possible. Happy Wednesday everyone!

By Miss Michelle
Happy Tuesday everyone! Sticking with our under the sea theme this week, we made crabs today using paint and our hands!! It was a really fun activity that all children enjoyed doing. After making our crabs, we hung them up on our new bulletin boards! They look great!! We also had another visit from Miss Kathy today! The preschoolers met up with their charter school tutors to play hockey. This was a great team building opportunity for the preschoolers as well as the older kids.  We all had to work together as a team to score a goal and the preschoolers did a great job. Another great day here at preschool!!

By Miss Kerri Ann
I was lucky enough to spend most of my morning with the preschoolers while Miss Michelle observed in the Charter School kindergarten class.  To kick off Miss Michelle's "under the sea" theme, we worked with sand and shells in our sensory table.  Violet, Jayla and Joey were very engaged in this activity.  Daniel showed his friends how they could listen for the sea by holding shells up to their ears.  Daniel and Delia worked with our new light table building blocks.  I thought it was interesting that they chose to build horizontally rather than vertically.  I think the light shone through better this way.  We also did an impromptu art activity after reading "Daisy Head Maisey" by Dr. Suess. 

Later, Delia, Daniel and I played Chutes and Ladders.  I haven't played this game in a while and it struck me how great it is for identifying two digit numbers as the blocks are numbered 1-100.  I also love the cause and effect pictures that go along with the chutes.  We had some great conversations about what was pictured on the game board.

By Miss Michelle

I almost forgot to tell everyone!!! If you visit our classroom, you'll see that we have a few new friends here at preschool! We are lucky enough to be incubating chicken and duck eggs. As you can tell from the pictures, the preschoolers are very curious about the chicken/duck eggs and can't wait for them to crack! I am just as excited as they are about meeting these little creatures.

Today we also got to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and nice weather. I'm very impressed by how well the preschoolers can ride bicycles and scooters. They really love to go over to the basketball court at the charter school and ride around. Soon that gets boring, so we set up an obstacle course for them to ride through! Thanks again to Miss Suzy for coming to visit us and hanging out! We always love to have her here. Have a great weekend everyone!!

By Miss Michelle

Today at preschool we went over to the charter school again for more buddy reading!! The kids really enjoy this program and I'm so thankful we could get it going again! We had a little change of plans though, after we finished buddy reading, we went outside for P.E. with Miss Kathy!!! Another round of the penguin Olympics is over. This time the preschoolers had to slid down a hill on their tummies and race to kick a ball through a hula hoop. It was really entertaining for us to watch! The next game involved us sliding down a hill on sleds and knocking over as many bowling ball pins as we could! I'm sad to say that I did not get a turn to try this game, but there's always next year. :) Another fun filled day here at preschool. I hope your Wednesday was as wonderful as ours has been!!! 

By Miss Michelle

Hello everyone! Sorry I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, but Happy belated St. Patrick's Day!! We were very busy here at preschool! We had a few charter school kids come play with us and we set up a different stations full of fun St. Patty's day activities. We also made sugar cookies yesterday and decorated them with green frosting! Yum!!

Today, we had a visit from Miss Kathy!! She had St. Patty's Day things for us to do! She comes decorated in green from head to toe; including a wonderfully green hat! She had stories to read with us and other fun filled games. The preschoolers and I were lucky enough to get to play with all different types of leprechauns! We also played a really fun game that involved the kids picking up as many little leprechauns as possible before "the monster" opened their eyes and shouted "freeze"!! As usual, we really enjoyed our visit from Miss Kathy!!

I'm sorry, but I'm having a difficult time uploading all the pictures that I took these last couple of days (maybe my computer is trying to tell me I take too many). If I can get it to work tomorrow, I'll repost them here! 

By Miss Michelle

Happy Thursday everyone! We had a very exciting day at preschool today! It was Mr. Joey Lotz's third birthday yesterday and his friends wanted to help him celebrate! Since we do a lot of art projects inside the school, I thought the preschoolers would enjoy going outside to do one! We brought out a roll of white paper and four different colors of paint to do some finger painting. I wrote "Happy Birthday Joey" and let each child decorate a portion of his birthday banner. Delia is expecting a visit from her grandfather soon so she wanted to paint him a welcome sign. I wasn't too surprised when the kids got bored painting on paper, so I asked them where else they'd like to paint. Their response was "everywhere!" I apologize if your child comes home covered in paint today, but they really enjoyed the freedom of painting wherever they chose! We also had a visit from our volunteer Miss Suzy today and she was kind enough to help everyone with their finger painting! I want to especially thank the Lotz family for bringing delicious cupcakes to share with us today for Joey's birthday!! Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

By Miss Michelle

Today at preschool was wonderfully wacky!! Just as we did last Wednesday, we went over to the charter school to visit the 3rd and 4th graders. These students are our reading buddies! Miss Amy and the 3rd and 4th graders have made us feel very welcome over at the charter school and the preschoolers love their buddy reading time! I noticed the books the charter school kids read to us are the same as the ones we have over at the preschool. It's fun to see the preschoolers talk about the ending of a book just as the 3rd graders are beginning! We can't wait for the next wacky Wednesday!!