Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving week! I had a great time and we had dinner at our home this year. We cooked for 20 people! Luckily I have a fabulous husband who did almost all the cooking, and we had other people help bring things as well. :) I can't believe it is almost December. This year is just flying by. We did quite a few things for Thanksgiving this year. Some of them were: 

Learning about the food pyramid and the different food groups. Afterwards we had our Thanksgiving Feast which included; Turkey, carrots, apples, string cheese, a roll, and a cookie. Something from each food group.

 (This picture was taken a couple years ago with a different class. I forgot to take a new picture.)

The kids got to write down what they were thankful for onto leaves and put it on my Thankful Tree. Almost everyone was thankful for their mom or dad. Some said friends, or a brother or sister. One was even thankful for Halloween costumes :)

We also learned a favorite Thanksgiving song, hopefully some of them sang it to you.

Turkey Dinner, Turkey Dinner
Gather around, gather around
Who will get the drumstick? Yummy yummy drumstick
All sit down, All sit down

Corn bread, muffins
Lots of stuffing.
Pudding pie 10 feet high!
We were all much thinner before we came to dinner.
Me oh my! Me oh my!

We also made these turkeys. Their feathers are painted coffee filters and then you add them to the body. They really enjoyed making these.

 Isn't he so adorable? This little guy was so proud of the legs he cut out on his turkey.

 I told them to be creative so this little guy decided he would do an upside down turkey. :)

Thank you again for letting me teach your child! I am so thankful for each of them. They always brighten my day and bring a smile to my face.

Can I just tell you how much I love your kids! They are so cute. :) Today we read a book about the Letter K and it was talking about kittens. One little girl said to me, "Ms. Julie, my mom won't let me have a cow, a horse or even a cat because she says they poop all over the place!" She said this very sadly and seemed upset that she couldn't have a pet but I couldn't help but laugh. I tried to keep a straight face but just couldn't hold it in. We have been having lots of fun. I am sorry I haven't kept things updated more often. With a newborn as well as a bunch of judging for piano competitions I have been so busy and this was put on the back burner. I will try to do a better job.

Some of our recent projects:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's horses, and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

With this art project we talked about shapes earlier in the day and then they got to make their own Oval shaped Humpty Dumpty. I just gave them the supplies and they got to be creative.

We made YUMMY chocolate ice cream on letter I day. Can I just tell you how much I love my Vita Mixer? A Whole Bunch! It even makes play doh!!!

J is for jellyfishes. The kids loved making these and then pretending to sting each other with their tentacles. 

We talked about the Pilgrims coming to America and the kids were so fascinated to hear all about them coming over the ocean on the Mayflower and trying to build a new place with freedom. They also loved hearing about the big feast they had with the Indians and the First Official Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to Thursday. We will be having our annual Preschool Thanksgiving Feast. After talking about it they got to make themselves into a pilgrim.

Here are the little Pilgrim hats we made. They were DELICIOUS! And so easy to make.

Pilgrim Hats

Today we talked about the Letter K. K is for kangaroo so we made these little Kangaroos and played a few jumping games.

I love this bingo game. It is great for Listening skills. The kids always love it too!

Latest Happenings

I feel so bad! I didn't take one single picture at our Halloween party :( The kids all looked so cute and I wanted to get a class picture with us all dressed up. I guess that's just what happens though when you get busy having a good time. THANK YOU so much to those of you that stopped by to help out. Everything went smoothly and I know the kids had a great time!

Here are some of the latest things we have been doing:

Having lots of fun practicing letters in shaving cream.

I didn't get a picture of all of the things we did, but you basically get different objects and blow bubbles on them to see if the bubble will stick or pop. Things that the bubbles popped on included: dirt, straw, piece of paper and a plastic plate. Things that the bubbles stuck to included: Tin Foil, water and soapy water.

We also talked about the leaves changing colors and falling off the ground. The kids got to collect some leaves and made a picture with them.

 I love this picture: He thought it would be fun if all the leaves fell on top of the guy!

Also in honor of Halloween coming up we did some activities related to spiders. We made a spider friendship web. Basically you have the kids sit in a circle and then take a ball of yarn taking turns rolling it to other people. Each time it is rolled we held it in place with a piece of tape. Before the child could roll it they had to give a compliment to somebody. There were some really cute things said. Most liked telling someone that they liked playing with them. There were a few that said they liked someone's shirt, their socks or their smile. :) 

We also made thumbprint spiders. I love seeing how creative the kids can be. 

Who's ready to go on a field trip?

We made our way down to Vineyard Nursery for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. I love going to this place but the last 2 years have been such a pain because of construction. Sorry to those of you who got lost or stuck on the freeway. We had a blast making our way through the corn maze (it took a little longer this year) :), seeing all the different animals, playing in all the tunnels and slides, walking through the light alley, and of course finishing things off with a snack and picking out a pumpkin!

 Class photo minus one child that was still trying to get here.

 My little bat :)

On Thursday we talked about the letter G and read this book that I wrote when I was younger. As I was reading it I thought, " I would love to get this book published!" But I think I would need the permission of the 3 other people who helped write it and I haven't talked to them since Junior High. O well, at least I get a copy of it. :> We then made our own giraffes to go with it. The kids always love making these stand up. 

We also made Harry Potter's famous Pumpkin milkshake! I thought it was funny because a couple kids said, " I don't like this Miss Julie." but then kept drinking it and said, "oh I really like it now!" I have attached the recipe with it. It is really yummy if you put the whipped cream on top. 

Harry Potter Milk Shakes