Picnic time!

The ants go marching one-by-one, hurrah, hurrah. The ants go marching one-by-one, hurrah, hurrah. The ants go marching one-by-one, the little one stopped to check out our fun!
What do you think of when you think of a picnic? We think of picnic baskets, red and white checkered tablecloths, hot dogs and sandwiches at the park, ketchup and mustard, and ants! Check it out:

We practiced our basket weaving skills this week! We talked about how picnic baskets are often times baskets that are woven together using thin wood. We used two different colors so that we could see the pattern that we made as we went. The kids caught on quick!

We practiced some more patterning skills by making our own picnic tablecloth. I had the squares drawn, and the children used red crayon to make their own patterns.

For a dramatic play center, we had a supply of food, aprons, spatulas, and a barbeque for the kids to roleplay. There were even some ants at this center, because ants are sure to find good food at a picnic!

For a math center this week, we played the classic ants in your pants game. The children chose a color and tried to see who could be the first to get their 4 ants into the pants. Once someone won, they counted the total of how many ants landed in his pants.

We also talked about where ants live and how they are very strong. We helped these ants get back to their ant hill by marching them in alphabetical order using the lowercase alphabet this time. They even had a hint because these ants made a pattern. They marched in  red, black, red, black order.

And, if you still aren't squirming in your chairs thinking about ants in your pants, we made more! The children could also visit our playdough center to make their own ants. There was a supply of black playdough and black pipe cleaner for the children to build their ant armies.


And, for an art center this week, we played with mustard and ketchup! I filled a mustard and ketchup bottle with yellow and red paint, and the kids created their own condiment creations. We used a spin art machine to make our pictures.

Everyone of them came out so different!

We spelled a-n-t this week and learned a song teaching us how to count by 10's to 100. It goes as follows:

Counting by Tens (Twin Sisters Productions)

Ten (clap, clap, clap), twenty(clap, clap, clap),thirty(clap, clap, clap),forty(clap, clap, clap),fifty(clap, clap, clap),sixty(clap, clap, clap),seventy(clap, clap, clap),eighty(clap, clap, clap),ninety(clap, clap, clap),one hundred(clap, clap, clap),

That’s it!

Counting by tens is so much fun.

Counting by tens it can be done.

If we practice over and over again, we will learn how to count by tens.

Ten (clap, clap, clap), twenty(clap, clap, clap),thirty(clap, clap, clap),forty(clap, clap, clap),fifty(clap, clap, clap),sixty(clap, clap, clap),seventy(clap, clap, clap),eighty(clap, clap, clap),ninety(clap, clap, clap),one hundred(clap, clap, clap),

That’s it!

Counting by tens is so much fun.

Counting by tens it can be done.

If we practice over and over again, we will learn how to count by tens.

Let’s do it again, double time.

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred.

Counting by tens is so much fun.

Counting by tens it can be done.

If we practice over and over again, we will learn how to count by tens.

Our stars of the week this week were:

"Big Boy" Tyler!

and the loveable Miss Addison!

We also had a birthday this week. A very Happy Birthday to Brynlyn who turned 5!

Easter and Spring time!

Rain Song by Handwriting Without Tears

It’s raining, it’s pouring

Puddles in the street

I’ve got my raincoat

Boots for my feet

I’m going outside

Playing with Sam

We’ll find a puddle and

We’ll make a dam

It’s raining, it’s pouring

Let’s get a boat

It’s raining, it’s pouring

Little sticks will float

It’s raining, it’s pouring

Such a happy day

I love when it rains

And we go out to play

We celebrated the rain this week with the above rain song. If you can't avoid it, may as well welcome it, right?

Along with the Spring rain, we also talked about carrots this week.  We read a Curious George book entitled The Perfect Carrot.  We learned about how carrots start as a seed and grow into a perfect carrot awaiting our picking. We even enjoyed this fun center where we were able to pick and re-plant some carrots still attached to their leaves.

We also practiced identifying and labeling our shapes with our spring inspired pattern block mats.

The kids were getting so quick at these  that we decided to make a game of it and see who could finish theirs the fastest. These are great. You can pick up the shapes at any learning store and print the mats off the internet at many sights just by searching pattern block mats.

My Mon.-Wed. class had an extra day this week because their spring break is next Monday, so they used watercolors to make their own kite to fly in the wind. They had such a great time mixing colors.

Another art project we did this week were these karo syrup eggs. These were a lot of fun. To do this we placed a small amount of karo syrup on the egg and had the children spread it around with a paintbrush. Then, add the food coloring a drop at a time and have the kids spread that with paintbrushes as well. They started with the green, red, yellow, and blue. They told me what color they wanted and if we didn't have that color we decided what colors we needed to use to make it. They had a great time mixing the colors and the end project is shiny and pretty. This activity takes a long time to dry (over  24 hours) but I love the end result because the karo syrup stays shiny and hardens like an egg.

In the spirit of Spring and Easter, we talked about eggs this week. My inspiration came from this book:

It talks about how chickens are not the only ones that lay eggs, and in a rhyming sequence tells what other animals/reptiles do.

Along with the book, this center also had some plastic eggs filled with pictures of the other animals that lay eggs. The children could open each egg to find a find a flamingo, crocodile, spider, snake, ect.

For some of our Easter festivities, we had an egg hunt and a ring toss. Unfortunately due to weather, both egg hunts had to be held indoors. It was no upset to the kids, however.

Before we headed upstairs for our egg hunt, we read a book entitled Last One is a Rotten Egg. It talks about an Easter egg hunt and how one cousin unfairly collects too many eggs and takes the special "golden egg" that his cousin really found first. In the end, he ends up dropping all of his eggs and ends up with nothing. Of course, his cousins end up sharing and there is a happy ending.

For our egg hunt, we each were instructed to find one "golden" bag filled with goodies, and 8 candy eggs. The kids were very good about only taking their share.

We then went back to the preschool to check out our findings:

We scored all kinds of goodies!

Here are a few pictures of the Easter egg toss:

Thank you to Evy (and mom) for these cute bunny cakes.

Our stars of the week this week were:

Haylee!

and Easton!

We spelled m-u-d and e-g-g this week. The kids are really getting the hang of blending. I am so excited to see some of the older children reading or so close to reading!

The Circus and Sweets Candy!

The circus is in town!  And, made a special visit to our school.

Our week was full of clowns, juggling, balloons, popcorn, elephants and more!

We still did a lot of learning this week too!  Check it out:

For our literacy center, we had elephants on the tightrope! Each elephant had a letter of the alphabet on his belly and the children were challenged to balance the whole alphabet on the tightrope in alphabetical order.

For a math center, the children were able to visit the legendary McDonald's restaurant for some nuggets and fries.

Each nugget and fry container was numbered from 1-10 and the kids were instucted to put that many nuggets or fries into the container. They enjoyed doing this and serving to their friends.

For a sorting center, we sorted clowns by their size and color.

The children could sort them f rom big to small in the same color, just by color, or just by size.

And, for some dramatic play, we had popcorn, balloon animals, and juggling!

I borrowed the popcorn machine from a friend, and boy did the children love it!  They got so excited when the popcorn started popping.  They were giddy!

They did a great job at making balloon art.  We had animals, swords, flowers, and more.

We all attempted to juggle. Not many of us could do it (those clowns are amazing) but we never gave up!

For our song this week we sang Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree.

Our star of the week this week was:

Maxx! He loves the outdoors and has some great pets, including a turtle!

We also had the opportunity to visit the Sweet's Candy Factory this week!

Thank you to all you parents for your support and help with these field-trips. I literally could not do it without you. We had a great time on our 40 minute tour through the factory where we learned interesting facts! Did you know it takes 7 days to make a jelly bean? And, they made over 6 million pounds of taffy just for Wal-mart for the Easter holiday! Of course, you get to taste test along the way.....YUM!  Thanks

Sweet's Candy for a great visit!