Pink and White Week

On Tuesday we worked on sorting for math and adding/subtraction with colored bears. For Art we talked about the story The Three Little Pigs. I found the disney video and showed it to them. They were dancing the whole time when the little pigs would sing and kept laughing through the movie. The best was at the end when they said, "AGAIN, AGAIN!" So I have included the link so you can watch it over and over again in the comfort of your own home. Don't forget the popcorn. :)

Three Little Pigs VIdeo

Afterwards they got to make their own pig and then we mixed brown paint and shaving cream and covered the pigs in mud to help them cool off. The kids loved this!

White Day

White day was a tricky one: I decided even though we are a couple of months away from getting snow maybe we could still have a snow day. 

We talked about how snow is made in the clouds and what happens to it when it melts. They loved pretending to build their own snowman. And singing Once There Was a Snowman, we then made our own snowflakes and decorated them with glitter. For cooking we made Snow Ice Cream 

(Vanilla Ice Cream) I love when we put the powdered milk in the mix and I told them that it was snow flakes we were putting in. There's nothing wrong with pretending right? 

Green and Orange week!

What a fun but busy week! The weather has been so nice that we had to get outside this week. For green day we sort of made it similar to Earth Day, even though that isn't until the Spring time. We talked about the earth and all the things outside that are beautiful. We talked about ways to keep the earth beautiful and to keep the planet healthy.

The kids made some art work to go along with some of their favorite things outside.

We also went to the park right by my house and helped pick up litter to clean it up. We finished up the day with some field games and playing on the playground. Thanks Nicole for your help with this walking field trip. 

Besides learning our colors we have also been working on the numbers 1 through 10. I recently found a ton of great preschool supplies at PartyLand. The kids love practicing writing their numbers and we are working our how to hold a pencil correctly. 

For orange day we measured a pumpkin and cut it open. The kids were able to use their senses to touch, smell and feel the inside and outside of a pumpkin. We counted some of the seeds, until they started to lose interest at about 35 and there were probably 100 seeds inside. :) 

We practiced cutting circles and squares to make our own pumpkin and then they were able to glue some pumpkin seeds onto their artwork. 

This guy loved his glue :)

Cooking today was Delicious! We made these super yummy pumpkin shakes. If you love pumpkin pie then you for sure need to try this shake out. I added more ice cream just cuz I love mine super creamy. Hope you enjoy it.

1/2 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 to 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream (more if you like it that way)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg

Mix it all up and then enjoy your pumpkin pie as a milk shake.

Blue and Purple Week

Well I officially feel back into the swing of things. The kids are doing great at falling rules and getting everything done. And we all are a little more comfortable with each other. On Tuesday we had blue day. They got to wear their JuJuBee shirt to preschool and we took a class picture. We also made different shapes and animals with some blue play dough. We reviewed our 3 primary colors (Red, Blue and Yellow)  And then had fun mixing colors to see what new color we could make. They really enjoyed this.

On thursday we had purple day: We did some finger painting to make some cute grape art work. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of this one. We also tried to do a science experiment but it didn't work as well as I wanted it to . I think I will need to play around with it a little and we will have to try it again. For Cooking we made a purple hummus dip. It was very yummy and the kids loved helping. They also enjoyed eating it. Here is the recipe if you want to make it yourself.

Ingredients

• 15 oz. can garbanzo beans, drained (keep the liquid)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp. of lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 can of beets (only the juice will be used)

Supplies

• Variety of raw vegetables, cut for dipping (carrots, celery, broccoli, etc)
• 1 package of pita bread
• Measuring spoons
• Food processor
• Mixing bowl
• Mixing spoon
• Serving plate

Directions

1. Combine garbanzo beans, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil into a mixing bowl.
2. Put the contents of the bowl into the food processor and blend on low speed, gradually adding about 1/2 cup beet juice and 1/4 cup of reserved garbanzo bean liquid, until the desired consistency is achieved.
3. Cut vegetables and pita bread into bite-sized pieces, arrange on a plate and serve along with the hummus.

Watermelon Day

Today was red day so we had all our activities about Watermelon. We made predictions on how much our class watermelon weighed and measured. Then we weighed it and measured it to see who was the closest. We also counted how many stripes were on the watermelon and found out if a watermelon will sink or float. All the kids were surprised to see that it floats. We also painted our own watermelons and added some real seeds to our art. And last we made a watermelon slush that the kids all loved. I thought it tasted ok. I think I my have put more watermelon in the drink then I should have. I am going to try making it again with exact measurements and see if it tastes better. It was a great day and the kids were so excited to show their work to their parents. And I was left with a huge mess and a very sticky floor, but it was worth it to see how much fun they all had!

Fun Time Painting

Enjoying our slushies

Watermelon Slush Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 cups fresh watermelon cubes
• 1 cup crushed ice
• 1 cup watermelon, raspberry or lime sherbet

• 4 teaspoons lime juice
• 1/2 cup miniature semisweet or white chocolate chips

Instructions

1. About 10 minutes before you're ready to mix the smoothies, place four tall glasses in the freezer to frost. Then wash the whole melon as you would other fruits and vegetables, and cut it into quarters. (The number of quarters you'll need to yield 3 cups of cubes will depend on the size of the melon.)
2. Slice each quarter you plan to use lengthwise into three wedges, then slice the flesh away from the rind. Use a fork to scrape away the seeds and chop the melon into cubes.
3. Combine the crushed ice, watermelon cubes, lime juice and watermelon, raspberry, or lime sherbert, and blend until smooth.
4. Pour the mixture into the frosted glasses and top each one with a half dozen or so miniature chocolate chips. Serves 4.

First Day and Yellow Day!

Today was the first day of school and it was so fun to see how excited the kids were with their little backpacks on. Of course we had a couple of tears but I think that will always be the case with how little these guys are. I was nervous all weekend trying to make sure everything was perfect so things would run smoothly. I think I may have been too organized this year though because we finished with about 10 minutes left at the end. Last year I was scrambling to get everyone's shoes on. This month we are doing a color theme for each day. Today was yellow day. We did file folder games to practice our colors and drew pictures of things that are yellow (sun, banana, star, and my favorite, tacos). We also made bumblebees and practiced the shapes that were on the bumblebee. For PE we played some bean bag games and of course started to learn some of the favorite songs from last year. I think the favorite today was The Cool Bear Hunt song. I had a blast with the kids and am looking forward to a great year with them.

File Folder games

Making our BumbleBees

I ordered shirts for all the kids this year from a friend and they turned out so nice. They were so excited to get them.