December!!

Okay, I know you think that I forgot about the blog, but I didn't....promise.  It has been one very busy month!  Here is an overview of what we learned this month.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a ton of pictures because we were busy working on our assessments, and our program (which the kids did great at might I add). 
We learned about Polar Animals!!  We had a great time learning about polar bears, penguins, owls, and more.  We talked about where they live, what they eat, and how they live.  We talked about how penguins stay in packs, and when they move, the dads pack around their eggs on their feet.

We practiced this by balancing beanbags on our feet.  This was tough.  We can only imagine what it would be like with fragile eggs!  It takes some great balance to do this!

We made furry polar bears with coconut. 

                   We talked about different ice structures and of course had to build our own. 

We played mitten match.  The children are getting really good at matching games!  They love them.

We also talked about the eskimos and igloos.  We made our own igloos, but some of them didn't make it home because they were made out of marshmellows so they got eaten before they made it very far!

And, of course, we talked about the holidays this month.  We talked about some of the traditions we each have.  We made our own reindeer ornaments for our tree (out of puzzle pieces!), we talked about some of the different holidays celebrated at this time, and we made our treat countdown til Christmas.  We had a lot of fun practicing our program, and we finished learning the letters of the alphabet!!

I want to thank all of the parents that were so kind to come in and volunteer their time with us.  We enjoyed having visitors and I couldn't have gotten everything done without your help! 

We celebrated two birthdays this month.  Happy Birthday to Tyler and Zack!

Check out those grins!!  Cheese!

Hope everyone has a great holiday season!  Happy New Year!  Can't wait to see what it brings.  We still have a lot of fun things to accomplish this school year.  Can't wait to get started!

Dino-riffic!

So glad that everyone was able to "stomp" through the snow this week and join in our journey back to prehistoric times.  Dinosaurs are one of my favorite units because the kids enjoy it so much....even the girls.  We were even able to hatch our own dinosaur in each of the classes.

We put the dinosaur egg in some warm water on the first preschool day...........

And the next preschool day he looked like this!  This was a really fun activity.  I bought them at Lakeshore Learning for just a couple of dollars and the eggs break apart just like a chicken would hatch.  It continues to grow even a bit more after it completely hatches out of the egg.

We worked on the letters S and T this week.  For S we made slithery snakes out of playdough that would say "ssssssss" as they children formed them into an S.  And for T we made triangles out of toothpicks. 

The children were able to search for fossils.  We had our sieve shovels that they dug up the dinosaurs bones with, and then they were able to examine them and clean them with their brushes.  

We talked about what colors we thought the dinosaurs may have been.  We also used some different textures and did dinosaur rubbings to make our dinosaur skin.

The children made buildings and such for the dinosaurs to tromp on!

We practiced holding our scissors correctly this week.  We did this by cutting zigzag lines, which were our dinosaurs sharp teeth, and singing this song as we did so:

(To the tune of London Bridge)

Keep your thumb up when you cut

When you cut, when you cut

Keep your thumb up when you cut

And squeeze the blades together.

Dinosaur puzzles that helped us sequence our numbers from 1-10

We also talked about volcanoes this week and why they erupt.  We used baking soda and vinegar for our eruptions. 

We have started practing our program and the kids are doing great!  Can't wait for you all to see it!

We are also doing our assessments at this time.  I will have some paperwork for each parent to see how your children are doing by the Christmas break!

Dinosaur Song

                                                        (To the tune of I'm a little tea pot)

I'm a mean old dinosaur

Big and tall

Here is my tail

And here is my claw

When I get all hungry

I just growl

Watch out guys, I'm on the prowl!