JuJuBee Preschool

Letter Q and A SNOW DAY!

2012-01-25T17:16:00.000-07:00

Last week we had letter Q day and made some Queen crowns. Although I told the boy they could have King crowns. :) THey loved making these and we decorated them with gems and markers. My little girl loved it so much that she wore it all weekend for her birthday parties.

We also made Quesadillas for cooking this day.

Yesterday was such a fun day!! We haven't really had any snow yet this year and finally Monday night it started coming down. My little girl was so excited that she ran to get all her snow gear on that she has been dying to wear each day, and ran out to help dad shovel. As I watched them I knew we had to have a snow day for preschool. I was excited as the kids got to school because they were all telling me how excited they were for the snow and that they were going to go home after and make snowmen. These are some of the fun activities we did.

We headed outside and filled our buckets with fresh snow. Then came inside and colored the snow with old markers and made snowmen out of them.

We practiced our numbers by playing snowball bingo with mini marshmallows.

And of course finished our snow day off with some yummy hot chocolate.

New Stuff:

I have had some fun with the DJ Inkers that my step mom gave me. I love all the fun fonts they have and the graphics are adorable.

I am excited about a bunch of new books I got for reading. I also just ordered some leveled readers from scholastic that I will be sending home for reading each night.

Just a reminder that we have Parent/Conferences starting tomorrow. I look forward to seeing some of you and talking about your sweet little ones. :)

Polar Bears

2012-01-18T16:04:00.000-07:00

Last week we talked about Polar Bears: I always love showing the kids this website and the video on polar bears. It is a good one without showing them eating seals or anything crazy. Polar Bear video and Pics from National Geographic

We also made these polar bears out of circles. They had fun making them but I have to say that my idea to practice cutting skills made this project a little hectic with 12 kids.

We talked about polar bears and other arctic animals having blubber to help keep them warm. I love doing the crisco experiment with ice water to show how the blubber blocks the cold. The kids always really like this experiment as well.

We made polar bears out of sliced bananas, rice cakes, vanilla yogurt, olives and oreos for cooking.

I also wanted to include a recipe that we made the week before that was delicious. We have a little guy in our class that is allergic to eggs. I found a great recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that don't have any eggs. I will be making these again as a family treat.

oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe

Where did December go?

2012-01-02T16:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, did I really miss the whole month of December posting? I am so sorry! Here are some of the fun things we did during the month.

We read the Fable : The Lion and the Mouse and then made these cute Lions on letter L day.

We made an advent calendar to count down the days until Christmas. You put on a cotton ball each day until Santa's beard is full. My little girl loved doing this everyday.

We also made a little Christmas treat. Pretzels, melted hershey kiss and m &m's

Letter M day we made our very own mountain. They really enjoyed being creative with these.

I took everyone's picture and then we made Christmas ornaments with them to give their parents as a gift.

We also had our Christmas party: This was a lot of fun. We made Christmas trees out of sugar cones, green frosting and candy for the ornaments.

We also played Christmas bingo and a gift game.

Thank you to everyone who helped with the party. It was a lot of fun! I hope you all had a great Christmas and look forward to seeing all the kids again tomorrow. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-28T21:52:00.001-07:00

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.

2011-11-15T17:47:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-30T15:55:00.000-06:00

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?

2011-10-16T17:26:00.000-06:00

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

Love these elephants!

2011-10-06T17:44:00.000-06:00

Hope you are all having a great week! We had a lot of fun talking about the letter E and letter F this week. For letter E we made these adorable elephants.

One little boy told me that you can't make an elephant out of a letter E. But I told him to surprise me and be creative. This is what he came up with!

Love it! Here are the rest of them. They all turned out great!

"Miss Julie, I'm not going to make an elephant. I'm going to make a Super Hero E!" And yes he did, not too shabby :)

We also talked about "Emotions". We took turns drawing pictures of a person excited, happy, sad, surprised, mad and frustrated.

Happy means getting candy and toys and having fun. Sad is when my brother or sister takes my toys. Mad is when somebody hits me or takes my toys away. Frustrated is when I can't find something that I need. Surprised is when I wake up on Christmas morning. Excited is when my mom has a special surprise. We also read the book "When Sophie gets Really, Really Mad!" and talked about what to do when you get really mad. Such as; taking a break, finding something to play with. But never hit someone when you are mad.

Today we talked about the weather changing and getting cooler. We discussed the leaves changing colors and starting to fall off the leaves. We sorted our different seasons and the things you can do in each season.

We also played everybody's favorite game. Will it Sink or Float?

Apples Prediction: Sink but it really floats

Hand Sanitizer: Prediction: Sink but it floated

Rabbit egg holder Prediciton: Float but it sunk

Chip Clip: Prediction: Float YES!!! it floated

Goggles Prediction: sink Yes it sunk

Cookie cutter Prediction: Float but it sunk

Quarter: Prediction: Sink and YES!!! it sunk

Plastic lid: Prediction: Sink but it floated

Nail clippers: Prediction: sink YES!!! it sunk

Plastic spoon: prediction: Float and YES!!! it floated

We also have been practicing our Handwriting. I can't believe how good some of them are getting at writing their letters.

And it wouldn't be preschool without a fun treat! We made some yummy carmel apples.

I hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy the beautiful Fall weather! Just a reminder that we will be meeting at Vineyard Nursery next Tuesday for our Field Trip. Thanks!

"Every thing's free mom!"

2011-09-29T13:03:00.001-06:00

I love this quote! It happened today as we made donuts for letter D day. When it was time to go this adorable little boy said, " Mom, we made donuts today. And every thing is free at preschool mom!" I couldn't stop laughing. What a cutie! We have been super busy but definitely are having a lot of fun. Last week we read the story, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Afterwards we made bear masks. The kids loved telling me if they were the papa bear, mamma bear or baby bear. I think a majority were baby bear.

We also made some homemade butter and put them on mini blueberry muffins for cooking this day. If you can't tell it was letter B day.

The butter is super easy to make. Just whipping cream and a little salt. You can put it in a jar and shake it over and over again. We were almost out of time so we made ours in the blender. It was really good later after being in the fridge for a day.

For letter C day we explored with the primary colors. We were able to mix them and make new colors. I always usually buy carnations to show how water travels up through the stem of the flowers. But the two stores I went to didn't have carnations so I ended up buying white daisies. I later learned that they don't work the same as carnations. All the dye got stuck in the center but didn't go out to the pedals. We will have to do this experiment over again. What a bummer :( We also made caterpillars into the letter c.

Also, I wanted to share some of the books we have been using lately.

We use the big books for shared reading lessons. They are great because they follow a pattern and the kids are able to read along with me after I have read it first. We also use it to find the letter we are studying. I love the alphabet books. They have pictures with each word before making a small story. We use these during reading groups. The kids are so excited to be reading words. And of course everyone loves the I Spy books.

Last but not least. Here are the delicious donuts we made today. They were so easy to make and were DELICIOUS! I think I will be making them for Christmas breakfast each year as a tradition. I have included Paula Dean's recipe if you are interested in making them.

Yummy Donut Recipe

First week and absolutely no tears!

2011-09-18T23:16:00.000-06:00

This last week was a blast! I have such an adorable class and was completely shocked that nobody cried on the first day when they had to leave Mom and Dad. It was fun to see some of the kids that were 3 last year and so nervous, just run right inside this year as excited as ever!

The first day is always really busy with learning how everything goes. We went over rules, and all the expectations while at preschool. We also read the book, "The Kissing Hand". I love this book because it talks about a little raccoon who is scared to go to school so his mother tells him the story of the kissing hand and she kisses him right on his palm. She reminds him that he can put his hand on his cheek and it will make his heart feel warm and always remember that his mom loves him. I gave each of the kids a heart sticker to put on their hand to remember that their moms and dads love them even when they are at school. Later we made "ME" masks. It was cute to see how creative they were. I did an example before hand and reminded them all the parts of their face, "nose, eyes, eyebrows, freckles maybe, ears, etc." They were excited to show them off to the class and the camera.

Love the big smile!

After making these we played the m & m game. Always a favorite! I made up a simple chart. Each child gets to pick 2 colors and based off of what color they pick they tell us something about themselves.

Green: favorite animal Yellow: Favorite Book Orange: Best Friend Red: Favorite food

Brown: favorite thing to do outside and Blue: Favorite Sport

Every kid loves seeing a school bus at this age! And even though they don't ride the bus to school we made a little treat and made our own buses. Nothing too fancy!

On Thursday we did our normal routine in the morning and then did Apple day to introduce the letter A. I always love apple day and telling the kids the story of the Little House with no windows and no doors, with a star inside. This year I even made the story about a little boy in our class. He loves sharks so we even made him visit a shark in the story. :) At the end I cut open the apple and show them the star inside. They always think it is so neat. Afterward we made carousels out of our apples.

We also played a little math game with these apples to see who could find the number I called out first and cover it. They all did pretty well at knowing their numbers and being able to recognize them. There is also a fun game you can play with this with your more advanced learners. It is called Stinky 7. All you do is have 2 dice and some counters. One player rolls both dice and then adds up the 2 and covers the sum of what they rolled. They keep going until they can't go anymore. For example if they roll a number that has already been covered or if they roll a 7. (There are no 7's on the board, therefore the name Stinky 7) then the next player rolls. The first person to fill up their chart is the winner.

It was such a fun week. I am really looking forward to this year! We also took class pictures. You have no idea how hard it is to get everyone looking at the camera with a smile. O well. I think our shirts turned out really cute this year. I love the lime green.

Almost time for a new school year

2011-08-04T13:11:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to let you know that I will be getting the new year packet out to you that are registered for this Fall. I plan on working on things this weekend and will deliver them to you next week. We will be having our Ice Cream Party on September 10th at 11 am and will start class on Tuesday, September 13. We have been having a great summer! My little guy is now 6 weeks old and is such a good baby. Hopefully he will start sleeping through the night soon :) I can't wait to get going again, I have missed those cute little smiling faces. Please feel free to call or email me if you have any questions.

Plants, Mother's Day and Bugs

2011-05-15T15:07:00.002-06:00

I have to say sorry for taking 2 weeks to finally get back to posting. I try to usually post every week but I think that being in the tail end of this pregnancy has been tiring by the time I am done teaching and then picking up the house. All I feel like doing is taking a nap. I can't believe how quickly this year has gone by. We only have 2 weeks left! It has been such a fun year and I have loved watching how much these kids have grown. Most of them were 3 when they started and they seem so grown up now. Last week we talked about plants and the different parts of a plant. We also talked about the difference between fruits and vegetables and have been working on identifying which foods are veggies and which ones are fruits. This has been tricky but they are starting to get better at it.

I pulled up a tulip from our yard and showed them all the parts of a plant. They were so fascinated to see that plants have roots. For Mother's Day we painted terra cotta pots and then they were able to plant their mom a little flower in it. We also made up a list of things they loved about their mom. It was really funny to see when one person mentioned something that their mom bought for them the rest of the class kept saying things that their mom had bought for them too and that was why they loved them the most. :) Don't worry moms I know there are plenty of other things they love about you!

This week we were able to go outside a lot with the nice weather. We looked at lots of bugs and talked about how many legs insects have. Here are some the activities we did.

We watched and sang along with this cute video about ladybug

Ladybug song

We then made our own little ladybugs. One little guy informed me that " ladybugs are red Miss Julie. " I told him he was right but we were going to make all sorts if different colored bugs. He still wanted all red so he colored some of his red. They were able to put dot stickers on the bug's back and count how many each had.

For cooking we made some of these yummy snacks that looked like different insects.

Fabulous Foods Insect Snacks

Butterfly Life Cycle

2011-04-21T14:28:00.001-06:00

This last week we talked about the butterfly life cycle. I ordered my caterpillars from Insect Lore and should be getting them next week. The kids are so excited about it. Here are some of the art projects we made to go along with it.

Caterpillar

Butterfly Masks

Also today we made these yummy treats for Easter! They were super easy and so yummy :)

Hidden Surprise Easter Egg Treats

Frog Life Cycle

2011-04-07T14:21:00.001-06:00

I am sort of bummed out. I was planning all year on ordering tadpoles from Insect Lore to watch them grow into frogs but when I called to order they said Utah has some law that does not allow frogs to be shipped here. Weird? I tried a few other places but they didn't carry tadpoles, and I thought about doing Praying Mantis eggs because they hatch between 95 to 200 insects but you have to release them right away or else they start eating each other. GROSS! So I think I will just order the butterflies again. They are always so much fun and the kids love them.

This week we talked about the Frog Life Cycle;

We sang some frog songs and then played a game with lily pads and a play frog. You have to try and get the frog to land on one of the lily pads. I was planning on doing it outside with a swimming pool for the pond but the weather was crummy this day.

We also made these wheels to show the life cycle of frogs. It is also fun to do bubble wrap for the eggs if you have some.

For cooking we made these delicious frogs. I was snacking on the peanut butter dip for lunch afterwards it was so yummy. You can also substitute just cream cheese or chocolate spread if you have a nut allergy.

Here is the recipe out of my Kid's Cookbook:

Green Apples

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup cream cheese

2 Tbsp. Powder Sugar

Green Grapes

Chocolate chips

Cut apples into wedges, I love using my Pampered Chef Apple cutter. If you don't plan on eating them right away it would be good to put the apples in lemon juice to prevent browning.

Mix peanut butter, powder sugar and cream cheese together. Put mixture between 2 apple wedges. Add more mixture on top for eyes. Then using a toothpick thread on a grape and chocolate chip and poke toothpick through the apple.

Enjoy.

Welcome Spring!

2011-04-02T17:32:00.000-06:00

We are so happy that Spring is finally here! It has been a cold winter and it is so nice to see all the flowers popping up and the grass and trees starting to turn green. We talked about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb. Although I am not sure if it quite went out like a lamb with how cold it was. I guess the last day was nice though so we will say it went out like a lamb. Here is a fun little art project we made to go with our theme for the day.

We also talked about all the animals being born this time of year and how lots of animals hatch from eggs. Although these look like chicks they were actually ducks but you can call them chicks too if you want.

This little guy made his into a turtle since turtles come from eggs too. He then asked me if we could learn about turtles next time at preschool which is the reason for our next activity. :) This is the brother of the little boy from last year that told me how excited he was for letter T day so that we could learn about turtles. Surprisingly they have never been to Sea World although they love all Sea Life. I think this should be there next family trip. :)

Turtles come from eggs too Miss Julie!

We were able to make these turtles out of coffee filters. It was fun to see all the different ways the kids decorated the shells.

We also made turtle bread. I made the dough the night before and then let it rise before preschool. We then shaped it as a turtle and then let it rise some more before baking it. I added green food coloring to the dough when mixing it so it would be really green inside.

Here's the recipe if you are interested in making it. It was really easy to make and super yummy. I think I want to make it into a regular bread loaf.

Turtle Bread

March is also the month of Dr. Suess's birthday so we watched a film of the book One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue FIsh.

One Fish Two Fish book/movie

In the book he talks about his pet Yink who likes to drink Pink Ink. They loved saying this over and over again and finding the rhyming words in the book. We made some Pink Ink to drink. Just milk, strawberries, ice and some more red food coloring to make it extra pink. They loved having pink mustaches.

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!

Community Helpers

2011-03-17T14:36:00.000-06:00

The last couple of weeks we have talked about a few people in the community and what their different jobs are. We talked about farmers and all the hard work they do to supply us with fruits and vegetables. We learned about the job of a police officer and made some hats and police badges that the kids got to wear so they looked like a police officer. We also learned about the job of a baker. How they get up so early to start baking all their foods and have to make sure they measure the ingredients and follow each recipe. We made chocolate chip cookies this day. Next we talked about Fire fighters to go along with our field trip that was today. For cooking we made smores. I originally wanted to make a camp fire to cook the marshmallows but thought it would probably be a little too much work. I am glad I passed on it because we were running out the door after a busy day with melting chocolate all over the kids faces. Our field trip was great. The Fire Fighter reminded the kids to get down low to stay away from smoke and to get out of the building as fast as they could if there was a fire. We also got to see all the trucks they drive and got to look inside of them.

Making Barn animals for art.

Cooking yummy smores and making some fire fighters that looked like themselves.

Trip to the Lehi Fire Station: Getting ready to watch a movie about Fire Safety.

Crawling out of the building.

Getting help up to see the Fire Truck.

Heavy, heavy coats they wear.

Happy to all get our own little Fire Hat.

Make a silly face :)

We had lots of green on today since it is St. Patrick's day. Before the field trip we had a great time eating a green breakfast and finding out that our Leprechaun traps didn't catch a Leprechaun but he did leave us some gold. :)

Nursery Rhymes

2011-03-01T19:07:00.001-07:00

The last couple of weeks we have been working on nursery rhymes. I am posting some pictures of some of the projects we did to go with them.

Hickory Dickory Dock,
The mouse went up the clock,
The clock struck one, the mouse ran down.
Hickory Dickory Dock.

We memorized the rhyme and also have been practicing making our own rhyming words. We also discussed telling time on a clock. We always keep the big hand on the 12 and practice just moving the little hand to tell time.

Hey Diddle the Cat and the fiddle

The cow jumped over the moon.

The Little Dog laughed to see such sport

And the dish ran away with the spoon.

We learned about the different phases of the moon and then they got to use moon and star stamps to make a picture.

Such a cute picture! I love the dish and the spoon :)

Next up:

Star Light, Star Bright

First Star I see tonight.

I wish I may, I wish I might,

Have the wish I wish tonight.

We did a fun little art project. First I had to teach the kids how to make stars. Then they drew stars on their paper with white or yellow crayons. Afterwards you have them paint over with blue or black paint. They love watching their stars, moons, rockets and whatever else they made magically appear. Just make sure you do the crayon pretty heavy or else they don't show up as well.

Our last nursery rhyme was:

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on a Tuffet

Eating her curd and Whey.

Along came a spider who sat down beside her

And frightened Miss Muffet Away.

For this activity it was cooking day and so we made spiders:

The recipe is

2 tablespoons peanut butter

2 Tablespoons powder sugar

2 tablespoons crushed graham crackers.

Add a little milk to mix them together well. Roll dough in coconut if desired. I really liked it with coconut and it made the spider look more hairy. But some kids didn't want it. Then roll into balls and add raisins for eyes and licorice for legs. This makes one spider.

This guy didn't have all 8 legs.

THis one was an octopus from a little guy who loves everything about the ocean!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-10T13:13:00.000-07:00

Today was our Valentine Party! We played ABC heart bingo, made heart pizzas and passed out Valentine's. Earlier this week we made animals out of hearts. This activity was a bit of a challenge for the kids because I showed them some I had made but told them they needed to be creative and make theirs all on their own. They turned out so cute! And full of lots of glue.

Pics from our party! It was a little crazy today so I didn't get a lot.

Reading Valentine stories.

Little toddlers enjoying all the candy!

Passing out Valentine's.

Heart shaped pizzas made from English muffins.

Heart Art

My examples:

With the butterfly you can talk about symmetry and making the same hearts on the other wing.

The kids art work!

This is a fish with multiple eyes! I love how all the hearts stacked on top look like scales on the fish.

He was so proud of his!

Celebrating Groundhog's Day and Chinese New Year!

2011-02-07T22:13:00.001-07:00

What a fun week we had! We got to celebrate 2 holidays :) We started out with Groundhog's Day. My camera wasn't charged this day so I didn't get to take any pictures of the kids. We first talked about what a groundhog is. Most of the kids had never heard of one. I showed them some pictures of them. A lot of them thought they were a beaver or a squirrel. (So cute) After telling them about a famous groundhog named Puxatony Phil we watched last years announcement of whether or not he saw his shadow. They got so excited to find out the next day if we would have 6 more weeks of winter or if Spring was on it's way. (I am really hoping that his prediction will be right, I am ready for sandal weather!) Afterwards we talked about what a shadow is and how it is made. We then made shadow puppets on the wall with a flashlight and all the blinds closed. They absolutely loved this part! For art we made a little groundhog that pops out of the grass to see if he can see his shadow or not.

I posted this years CBS announcement for Groundhog's Day in case you didn't get to see it!

Puxatony Phil 2011

For Chinese New Year we were so lucky to have one of the student's mom come talk to us. She is from China and had all sorts of fun pictures to show them. She talked about how long they celebrate, decorations and clothing, the color red is the lucky color and she also shared a fun tradition that all the kids get red envelopes to take with them when they visit family. Instead of getting presents they get money from their relatives. She brought some chocolate coins for them all to have as well as some sweet egg rolls that are more like a dessert. They were so yummy. Thanks again Xiao Xiao it was such a fun day!

After she talked to them we made Chinese Lanterns for decoration and then practiced eating ramen noodles with chopsticks. This was one of my favorite days we have had. The kids were so happy and it was so much fun to see so much excitement on their faces.

Icebergs

2011-01-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

Today was so fun! It is my birthday and the kids kept singing happy birthday over and over again to me. They were so well behaved and I felt super lucky to have things go so smoothly today. We learned about icebergs in the arctic and talked about them melting. We started by writing our name in the snow (shaving cream).

Afterwards I had frozen little paper cups of water that they pulled out and dumped blue water and salt on to watch them melt. They loved doing this and started a little competition to see who could make their iceberg melt the first.

And last today we made our own edible iceberg floats! Just make blue Kool-Aid and pour half into a clear plastic cup, add some sprite and then a scoop of vanilla ice cream at the top for the iceberg. So yummy!

Strangers

2011-01-25T13:35:00.000-07:00

We have been talking about safety and today we discussed strangers. We watched a quick little movie clip on Little Red Riding Hood and talked about who was the stranger in this story. Of course they all yelled out, the wolf. I like this version because they make the wolf appear to be very friendly at first and he looks nice when he really is a big bad wolf. We discussed how not all bad people look mean. Some of them can look really nice but may want to still hurt you. We also talked about Little Red Riding Hood and what she said to the wolf that you should never say to a stranger. For example; telling him her name and where her grandmother lived. I also found a great list of things that are good to talk to your kids about when discussing strangers. It talks about things a stranger may say to you to try to get you to come with them. And what to do if you get lost. I have included the movie and list for your convenience to look at. Afterwards we made puppets of the big bad wolf to remind them that they should stay away from people they don't know.

Little Red Riding Hood story

Talking to kids about strangers

The Bean Museum

2011-01-25T13:22:00.002-07:00

We were able to go to The Bean Museum again this year for one of our field trips. We always have so much fun here seeing all the animals and finding them in a scavenger hunt. We also had a reptile show given to us again. This part is so fun to see real reptiles and learn about different things that make them different from other animals. Just a side note though: They don't open until 10 if anybody is wanting to go earlier. We learned this the hard way. :)

Answering questions about reptiles.

Must use 2 fingers to touch the animals.

Pretending to be a turtle and hide in the shell.

Snake names Cuddles:) How appropriate for a boa constrictor.

A little nervous about touching the snake.

A gecko.
I can't remember his name and it has been bugging me. Oh, I think it was Bruskie. Not sure on Spelling.

Snowy Owls

2011-01-25T13:13:00.000-07:00

We have been talking about Arctic Animals this month. One of them that we talked about this week was the Snowy Owl. This bird is so beautiful to watch especially when flying. They are a brownish color during the summer months and the rest of the year a beautiful snow white. They primarily eat lemmings.
We read a book about these birds and then made an edible owl for cooking. They loved eating these. Thanks to Amy from superhealthykids for the idea.

recipe from SuperHealthyKids

Arctic animals and health/safety month

2011-01-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

It's been a fun and busy month so far. We have been working on lots of things and I have been doing a lot of testing for Parent/Teacher conferences. But through it all we have of course enjoyed ourselves too. We have a field trip this week to The Bean Museum and will be seeing their live reptile show. I am excited to go. This month we have been focusing on Health and Safety as well as learning about some Arctic animals and their survival skills in the cold bitter months.

We talked about the Emperor Penguin and how the father penguins hold onto the egg while the mothers go to get food. The father has to make sure not to drop the egg and have it sit on the ice for too long or else the egg would crack and the baby would die. After the baby penguin is born it is also important for him to hold the baby between his legs to keep the baby warm and able to survive. We watched a video to show the kids how this exactly works. I was so excited to use my new apple TV so I didn't have to show the video on my laptop. Instead we watched it on a much bigger screen. The link is below.

Penguin Dads

Afterwards we did an activity that we did last year. I have rolled up socks that the kids get to pretend to be the father penguin caring for his egg. They have to waddle around holding the egg between their ankles. If it falls out they have to quickly pick it up with only their feet.

We also made these cute little penguins for art that day.

For Health and Safety so far this month we talked about the Food Pyramid one day. I made a picture of the food pyramid and then had a bunch of different foods in a box. Each child got to use my little shopping cart to go shopping for some food. They then brought the food they picked up to the chart and told me which food group it belonged in. They really liked doing this. We had talked before they went shopping about how important it is to eat all sorts of food and to not eat a lot of junk food. I was surprised that they all wanted to pick healthy food when they went shopping. No one would pick out the donuts, cake and other junk food. Hopefully they eat that healthy at home :) Afterwards we played food bingo and then made some juice using my juicer. The juice had apples, oranges and carrots in it. I always find it funny that they think it will taste gross to have carrots in their juice and then end up loving it. They all looked so cute with little orange mustaches. Too bad I didn't get a picture of them.

On a different day we talked about emergencies and made a list of things that were emergencies and what isn't an emergency. I found a news clip of a little girl who was able to save her mother during a seizure by calling 911. The kids thought this was so neat that they could call the police to help them if someone was in trouble and needed help.

Girl saves mom video

Afterwards we each took turns practicing dialing 911 on a toy phone and then made our own little phone to practice learning our home phone number. I laminated each phone so they could keep practicing at home with their parents.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-02T18:37:00.000-07:00

You will have to forgive me for not updating the blog the last couple of weeks. Life got super busy and I kept forgetting to get to it. We had a great month though! We were able to do Christmas Around the World and learn about different ways that other kids celebrate Christmas. The first Country we talked about was Germany. Their Santa Claus is named St. Nikolous. Saint Nikolous Eve is on December 6th. On that night, German children put a shoe in front of their home's fireplace, so that Saint Nicholas will leave behind goodies. This custom is a bit similar to our Santa Claus tradition, in that children wait to see whether they have been deemed "good" or "bad" by Saint Nick. Children who think they may have been "bad" worry that twigs will be left in their shoes. They also love to decorate their homes with Gingerbread houses. The children were able to decorate their own gingerbread house and color a picture of the German Santa Claus.

Another day we talked about Christmas in Mexico. They have presents delivered from the three kings also on January 6th. In Mexico they love to celebrate with lots of pinatas. They also make homemade ornaments with foil. I thought I took pictures of the ornaments we made but can't seem to find them. We used tin foil cupcake liners and flattened them out and then glued scraps of green and red tissue paper on it. I then punched a hole at the top and strung some yarn through it. The kids loved learning how to say Merry Christmas is Spanish. Feliz Navidad! I found a picture online of a foil ornament to give you an idea of some of the ornaments they might make.

We also had a Polar Express Day this month. The kids looked so cute all dressed up in their pajamas. We played a couple of Christmas Games and then I had them all sit in rows that would be like a train. We read the book and talked about the bell and how the boy was the only one in the end who could hear the bell of santa's sleigh ring. It was because he still believed in Santa Claus. I had some large bells that looked very much like the bell from the book and we took turns jingling it while singing jingle bells. For cooking today we made homemade hot chocolate. I have a really good friend who is obsessed with "real" hot chocolate not the stuff out of cans. I use to think it must taste pretty similar but I was so wrong. This hot chocolate was so delicious and healthy as well. It is made with honey to make it sweet instead of sugar. It is also really easy to make.

Hot Chocolate

2 cups milk (or try 2% milk)
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
Combine 1 cup milk, honey, and cocoa powder in a saucepan and heat on stove on low/medium heat until honey and cocoa dissolve. Add the other cup of milk. Heat until you get the temperature just the way you like it. Whatever you do, don't boil. Top with whipped cream or marshmallows.

Serves 2.

I gave them each a peppermint stick to stir their hot chocolate and suck on too.

We were also really busy taking pictures and working on our Christmas books we made for the parents.

Finally the last day we had our big Christmas party! Thank you so much to those of you that helped out, it was so much fun. We played a fun game with a gift bad and a bean bag. The kids had to balance the bean bag on different parts of their body and get it into the gift bag. They also played Santa Says which is just like Simon Says. We made a really yummy popcorn treat with m &m's and almond bark. We read some christmas and winter books. Played the dance freeze game. Just turn on some Christmas or any music really and let the kids dance like crazy, freezing when the music stops. They love this game. And we also opened our gifts from each other, every child was able to get a new book!

I hope you all had a wonderful Winter Break and Christmas. I am looking forward to starting up again in a couple days. See you soon!

Snow Men

2010-12-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

I forgot to put in a few pictures of an art project that we did last week. We first got some snow and talked about how and where snow comes from. The kids got to watch during the class time and see how the snow started to melt into water. They were really surprised that is wasn't very much water after it had all melted. We also made these fun snowmen.

Getting Ready for Winter

2010-12-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

Today we talked about how animals and people get ready for winter. We played a fun little game with my daughter's bear and a bunch of her clothes. I would make up a story of what the weather looked like when Mr. Bear got up in the morning and then they would take turns picking out something that Mr. Bear needed to wear for that day. We discussed how it was fun to do that with a stuffed animal to learn the ways people dress and stay warm in the winter time but how it is very different from what real bears and other animals do to get ready for winter.

The children learned that a lot of animals collect and eat more food before winter comes.
They get more fat and fur on their bodies to keep them warm during the cold months.
And some animals even hibernate during the winter.

I found this really cute video on National Geographic kids that talked about Mother Polar Bears that hibernate. The kids really loved the baby cubs.

Polar Bear VIdeo

After watching the video we did an experiment that we also did last year that shows the kids how extra fat can keep them warm. All you need to do it put Crisco into 2 ziplock bags. Then put both of those bags in another ziplock bag. The kids first touch some ice water with their bare hand and then compare it to putting their hand in the middle of the fat and then touching the water. Their hand stays very warm in the crisco bag.

After doing the experiment we made some trail mix and they got to pretend they were hibernating and then when it was time to wake up they went to find there food. We made the trail mix with the following ingredients:

1 cup pretzels

1 cup craisins ( I bought the cherry kind)

1 cup Gold fish

1 cup peanut butter chips

1 cup m &m's

1 cup cheerios (any flavor)

It was really yummy and the kids really seemed to like it.

Here are some books we read today as well:

Water Cycle Day/ Yummy treat/ Turkey Hats

2010-11-20T10:14:00.001-07:00

We have had a lot of fun learning about the weather and all the different seasons. This week we talked about the water cycle. There are some big words like evaporation, condensation and precipitation but we just focused on the process and what is happening. I found this cute little story about Drippy the Raindrop to help the kids understand it a little more and then we did a science experiment with blue water (Oceans, lakes and rivers) and cotton balls ( our clouds). All you do is rest the cloud on top of your river and watch as the cloud fills up with water. Then they got to pick it up and watch the raindrops begin to fall. They really liked doing this.

Drippy the Raindrop

Making our own little rain clouds. It was great when the kids left preschool today to see a bunch of black clouds. They were all talking about how there was going to be rain today.

For cooking this day we made frozen chocolate bananas! They were so yummy :) All you have to do is freeze your bananas before (I cut mine into thirds and stuck a popsicle stick in it). Then melt some chocolate. We used Reeses peanut butter cups and chocolate chips. Also add a little oil so your chocolate is a little more runny. Dip your banana in the chocolate and then cover with sprinkles or other fun toppings. Amy at Super Healthy Kids has some great tips if you want to look at her site. The kids loved them and so did I. I think I need to make some more, they were so yummy.

Chocolate Banana Recipe

We also made some turkey hats this week for art. I spent at least an hour prepping most of the stuff so that it would be easier for the kids but it still took a lot of time. It was worth it though to see how cute they looked and how excited they were to wear them.

Fairy Tales and Seasons

2010-11-15T21:52:00.000-07:00

I have to apologize for not getting the last 2 weeks posted sooner. We had a gross sickness going through the family last week and I completely forgot to post the week before. To top it all off when I went to download my pictures they were gone. I think my 2 year old may have got to the camera and deleted them. So I have just taken a quick few pictures to show you some of the fun activities we did.

Fairy Tales: We were able to read a couple of my favorite fairy tales. The Frog Prince was the first one and the kids loved making these frogs out of paper plates. I think there favorite part was gluing on the tongue and then making their frogs ribbit over and over again. I love how fairy tales teach a life lesson. In The Frog Prince we learned that it is important to keep your promise if you say you will do something.

We also red the story The Little Red Hen. We talked about the importance of helping out with the work if you want the reward at the end. They were then able to help roll out the dough and help me make scones. We did this activity last year and the kids always love the scones. Even though they usually put way too much cinnamon sugar on it.

Seasons: We have also been talking lots about the seasons and how the weather changes for each season. We have been doing a lot of sorting to practice learning the difference between each season. The kids have been doing really well at the sorting games and seem to be catching on well. We have read some fun books as well to go with each season. We collected leaves one day. We talked about the leaves that were still on the trees and those that had fallen on the ground. They loved to see all the different colors that the leaves were changing. We then practiced tracing our leaves onto paper and then they got to paint their leaves all the different fall colors.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-29T21:29:00.001-06:00

Thank you so much to all of you helped out with our Halloween party! The kids had so much fun :)

Ghosts we made earlier in the week.

Decorating Cookies :) YUM!

Pin the nose on the Jack o Lantern, it was a ton of fun and the kids loved it.

Here is a poem and a song the kids loved singing this month.

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

I meant to get a picture of all the kids in their costumes but of course I forgot with how busy it was.

Field trip, spiders and dinosaurs

2010-10-23T18:00:00.000-06:00

What do those three have in common? Not really anything other than the fact I got behind on posting the last 2 weeks and need to update with some pictures. I will try to keep it short and sweet.

We went to Pumpkin Land in Vineyard again this year for our Fall field trip. It is always so much fun and the kids seem to have a great time. This year they had tons of new things. I was so impressed with how much they had added. Everyone had a great time. Thanks to all you that came and helped out.

Dancing in the gourd house.

It didn't take us very long to find the exit. Last year was much more difficult.

They added a bunch of animals this year. The kids really loved seeing them all.

Going through the "light alley". It was actually much darker than this. My flash on the camera made it look so light.

We ended the field trip by celebrating a little boy's birthday and having cookies.

For art one day we made these cute little spiders. They were much more work than I expected them to be but the kids loved them and loved making them dance around. So it was all worth it in the end.

This week we learned all about dinosaurs. I have mostly boys this year and they were so excited to learn all about the dinosaurs. We talked about where and when they lived. What sort of things they ate and we even found a dinosaur egg. We also talked about different ways scientists believe they died and talked about them being extinct.

The dinosaur egg they found after a scavenger hunt. They got to smell it, feel it and guess when they thought it would hatch. One little guy said it felt like a watermelon. :)

We played don't get stuck in the swamp. The swamp kept getting bigger and they had to jump over it without falling in. They loved this game.

Our egg hatched! They thought I was pretty funny to paint a watermelon. It was a nice little snack too.

We made a volcano ready to erupt out of play dough. I found a fun recipe that said to mix the vinegar with water and dish soap. It made the volcano really foamy.

Here is our edible volcano. Chocolate pudding, ice cream cone, frosting for laval and dinosaur fruit snacks. One way scientists think the dinosaurs died was from lots of volcanos erupting. They loved these and almost everyone said they were going to wait to eat it when they got home because they wanted to show it to their moms. I found it funny at the end of the day to see some of them sneaking over to take a lick or a bite. I guess they just couldn't wait any longer.

Black and Brown Day

2010-10-11T08:54:00.000-06:00

The first month of class came and went so fast. I can't believe we are already in October. We had a great time last Thursday with Black and Brown day. We talked about bats and the kids were fascinated watching a video on Flying Fox bats. They are HUGE! I don't really mind bats but I may be a little nervous with these guys flying around me.

After talking about where bats live, the food they eat and the different features they have that make them a mammal and not a bird we made a picture of bats. The kids had a lot of fun making them.

This little guy was so bashful about getting his picture done. It was so adorable.

Since lots of bats eat bugs we made some dirt with some worms on it for the kids to eat. They loved this tasty treat of oreos, chocolate pudding, cool whip and gummy worms.

I am so excited for our first field trip tomorrow. See you then!

Pink and White Week

2010-09-30T21:31:00.000-06:00

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!

2010-09-23T16:30:00.000-06:00

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

2010-09-16T13:26:00.001-06:00

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

Combine garbanzo beans, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil into a mixing bowl.
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.
Cut vegetables and pita bread into bite-sized pieces, arrange on a plate and serve along with the hummus.

Watermelon Day

2010-09-09T14:13:00.000-06:00

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

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.)
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.
Combine the crushed ice, watermelon cubes, lime juice and watermelon, raspberry, or lime sherbert, and blend until smooth.
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!

2010-09-07T14:01:00.000-06:00

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.

Ice Cream Party!

2010-08-12T17:50:00.001-06:00

Wow summer is almost over and although I have had a great time this summer with my family I have sure missed my cute kiddos in my house every week. I am so EXCITED to get going again. This will be such a fun year. We have our Open House/ Ice Cream party coming up on August 28th at 1:00 to 2:30 PM. You can come anytime during that time and stay as long as you want. I can't wait to get to know your child more and look forward to all the fun memories we will have this year.

Graduation Day!

2010-05-28T09:11:00.001-06:00

It was a great day despite the wind blowing all the kids caps off and all of my decorations getting blown away. They looked so cute and were so excited. We sang 3 songs that they had chosen as their favorites. "The Chicken Dance" "Sally the Camel" and "Tiny Tim".

We were missing a couple of kids in this picture.

Then I had each child come up as I read a little note that I had written to them with a picture of me with them. They were excited to get the star suckers that I had to go with the diploma.

Afterwards we were able to let our butterflies go off into the world. They didn't really want to leave so the kids were able to hold one while their parents got a picture. I had to laugh at a couple kids who wanted to hold the butterflies a little to rough. :)

Afterwards the kids were off to play on the playground. Thank you for all of you who brought a treat to share, they were delicious!

Thank you also for making this a fantastic year. I loved teaching your adorable child and am looking forward to a great year next fall. :)

2010-05-25T18:38:00.001-06:00

This free photo slideshow customized with Smilebox

Thank you for making this such a wonderful year! I have loved every minute of it. Thank you for allowing me to teach your child. I love ever single one of them. I am excited for our preschool graduation/party on Thursday.

Super Healthy Kids

2010-05-25T17:49:00.000-06:00

We had a great visit from Amy from Super Healthy Kids. She has a great website with some great ideas for cooking and eating healthy. She read "Gregory the Horrible Eater" to the kids and talked about healthy and not healthy things we eat. They got to play a fun game of throwing a dice and matching a fruit or veggie to the color it landed on. We also sang a song to go with each fruit or veggie that was chosen. It was pretty funny at the end when the kids were so excited to play with her pretend food. I think I will need to get some for next year. :)

Teddy Bear Picnic

2010-05-24T15:57:00.001-06:00

What a fun day we had and thank heavens the weather cooperated for us. I was so excited for this day. A few of the kids were able to bring their sibling with them, that would be coming to preschool next year. I got going early and decorated outside a little. We had a bear to welcome them to the picnic and bear footprints leading up to the door.

We did some fun listening skills about bears and sorting the bears or stuffed animal they brought in different sizes, colors and if they had clothes on or not. We also played hot potato with a bear while listening to the song, "The Teddy Bear's Picnic"

Their favorite part was decorating cookies with gummy bears and Teddy Grahams. And of course going outside to eat lunch in the big tent and read stories about Bears.

At the very end of the day we played Big Bear, Big Bear (a fun tag game) They loved running around and screaming. It was a blast!

Also, I forgot to mention that our butterflies hatched last Tuesday! Right while the kids were there. I couldn't have planned the timing more perfectly. We will release them next week for graduation!

The red stuff is meconium (not blood). They pump color through their wings at the very end and it releases that red stuff.

Books and Birds

2010-05-14T10:50:00.002-06:00

We had a great week! One little boy brought his cousin who was visiting with him this week to class. She was so adorable and everyone wanted to be her friend. I love it when kids are nice to each other. On tuesday we talked about making our own books. The kids got to make a picture book and read it to the class. They turned out cute but I have to admit that some were a bit confusing. We also learned about the story, "The Ugly Duckling". Afterwards we talked about what lesson they learned from the story. It was so cute when one little girl said, "It's ok to be ugly, one day you will be pretty". :) We discussed how everybody has different talents and things that they are good at. We also made our own bird feeders. So far I saw one bird pecking at ours outside, hopefully more will find it. For cooking we made Orange Julius I promised the kids to include the recipe as this was another favorite. Next week should be a lot of fun. We are having our Teddy Bear Picnic on Thursday. I can't wait to share pictures of the fun day!

These are our grass heads we made a few weeks ago with out plant unit. The kids were so excited to take them home and give them a hair cut. I used white socks this time instead of black like I normall do. I think I will stick to the black as the dirt made them look super dirty.

As promised, Orange Julius Recipe:

1 (6 oz.) can of orange juice
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
12 ice cubes

Mix all ingredients in the blender and enjoy!
It's that easy :) I doubled the recipe and it wouldn't all fit in the blender so I had to mix the ice 2 different times. Hope you like it!

Butterflies

2010-05-06T18:45:00.000-06:00

Our caterpillars are getting bigger and are about to go into their cocoons. We talked about the butterfly life cycle today and the kids drew some cute pictures to go with each part of the life cycle. We read the book, "The Hungry Caterpillar" and they enjoyed using my stuffed caterpillar to eat through all the food.

Yes they look sort of gross I know :)

I found this great site on You Tube that shows the Butterfly Life Cycle:

Butterfly Life Cycle

For cooking we made our own little butterflies, they were super yummy and they loved matching the wings with corresponding colors to show symmetry.

For art we made these cute butterflies and made a little card to go with it for Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all of you, I hope you have a great day on Sunday. Thank you for sharing a little piece of your child with me, I absolutely love them.

Rocks!

2010-05-05T12:26:00.000-06:00

This post is from last week. I was out of town all weekend and didn't have time to update everything until now. We had a great time with rocks last week. The kids loved learning about how they are formed and were so excited about making their own rock collection. On thursday the kiddos got to be geologists. We did all sorts of experiments with their rocks and they were so excited about each one.

We looked at the rocks with magnifying glasses.

Measured them to see how long they were.

Tested for iron in the rock (if they were magnetic)

Found out what colors were in our rocks.

Tested how hard our rocks were and if they could scratch glass.

Found out what rocks had limestone in them (the rocks would bubble in the vinegar)

If their rocks sink or float (all but one obviously sunk)

There were some pretty amazing looking rocks!

Thanks for all your help gathering and putting together these fantastic rock collections!

These are our edible ladybugs we made. They were super yummy.

Day of Surprises!

2010-04-27T12:50:00.000-06:00

I told the kids during circle time today that we had two surprises: The first one was that our caterpillars made it in the mail yesterday and will hopefully hatch in 3 weeks into butterflies! Just in time for graduation.

For art we read the book "The Grouchy Ladybug" by Eric Carle. Thank you Natalie for letting me borrow your book, hopefully I can find mine. After reading the book and learning all about aphids (the bugs ladybugs eat) we made our own ladybugs using our hands and paint. Most loved getting their hands messy and dirty and others chose to use a paintbrush so they didn't get their hands "yucky". :)

They kept asking when the surprise was coming and I told them to keep waiting. Eventually one little girl's mom showed up with a book to read. That wasn't too exciting.

But it was a book about cats and kittens, and then next thing she brought in was A LOT more fun!

Their cat had kittens and they were so adorable. Just 3 weeks old. They will need homes soon so let me know if you are interested in getting one and I can give you a phone number. Thanks Angie for bringing them in, it was so much fun!

Sand rocks, lava rocks and heat and pressure rocks

2010-04-26T21:29:00.000-06:00

Last week we finished up our unit on plants. I will have more pictures soon of our sock heads that we planted grass seed in. I am hoping that they will start growing soon. I used a different soil this time so I am a little worried that they may not grow as well. For cooking we made a "dirt pie" basically just a chocolate oreo pie and the kids loved it.

On thursday we started our rock unit. I taught them about the 3 different ways that rocks are made.

Sedimentary Rocks (sand rocks) form over thousands of years of sediment laying in water.

We alo learned about Igneous Rocks (lava rocks): rocks that form when molten lava cools. This was the kids favorite of course making melted chocolate and letting it cool into their lava rock.

I didn't take picture of our last rock but it is the metamorphic rock (heat and pressure rocks) these are formed when igneous and sedimentary rocks change into a new rock because of heat and pressure. We layered igneous (honey) and sedimentary(bread) rock and then we put a lot of pressure on them. I actually sat on it and squished it. They thought is was funny to see me sit on the food. Next week they are bringing their own rock collection for us to do some experiments on. Each kid will get to be a geologist.

P.S. Tomorrow we have 2 surprises, can't wait to show the kids what they are :)

Plants

2010-04-16T08:27:00.001-06:00

This week we started to learn about plants and flowers for our science unit. We made these cute flower masks. The kids really liked them and would look at each other and start laughing. They really enjoyed learning about all the different parts of the plants. We even talked about the different parts of plants that we eat all the time. Roots: Carrots, radishes and beets; Stem: Celery; Leaves: Cabbage and lettuce; Seeds: Peas and Corn; Fruit: Tomatoes; Flower: Cauliflower

For cooking this week I tried out a yummy recipe from superhealthykids. The kids really liked it. I think it will be a recipe I make for our family. It was so yummy. All you need is: 1/2 cup of vanilla yogurt, 1/2 cup of peanut butter, 1/4 tsp. Cinnamon, and 1/4 cup of chocolate chips. Mix them all together and then dip apples, strawberries, bananas, pretzels and whatever else you like.

We decided to eat picnic style today! It was so much easier, I think we may cook on the carpet a lot more.

My little girl woke up earlier than normal today and joined us. Yum! Yum!

Zebras

2010-04-12T08:20:00.001-06:00

I hope you had a great Spring Break last week. We met on Tuesday and had a very small class of 3 kids. Even though it was small we had a lot of fun. And it was great to be able to give the kids some one on one attention. We made these Zebras with bleach for Art. The girls did such a great job on them. I'm looking forward to getting back to our normal schedule this week. See you on Tuesday.

I am going to name him "Fragile"

2010-03-31T16:42:00.000-06:00

We made these little guys for art on Tuesday. The kids really loved painting and picking out the pom poms that would make their little chick. When I had shown my example to the kids they asked me what his name was. I hadn't thought of a name so i said, "Frank is his name". The kids started to giggle. "What a silly name Miss Julie". As we finished making them we had 7 little chicks and one turtle. If you have read previous posts I'm sure you can guess who wanted to make the turtle. Why not they come from eggs as well. I hear one little girl say, " Guess what my chick's name is Miss Julie? Fragile!" Now that is much more creative then Frank. :) Man, I love these Kiddos!

I had decided to make these for easter as I remember making them as a small child. I had 4 or 5 of them. 2 big ones (Mommy and Daddy) and the rest were the babies. I loved them so much and took them everywhere with me. I kept telling people that they were about ready to hatch.

I had wanted to get an incubator and hatch our own eggs until a fellow teacher of mine told me that I wouldn't enjoy doing it. She said sometimes some of them can't walk and you have to get rid of those ones so that the healthy chicks don't kill it. So I decided that FOR SURE wasn't going to work. I am much too tender hearted. I am still keeping up tradition and will be doing the butterfly hatching in May though! I hope you have a great Easter Holiday. I am looking forward to our Easter party on Thursday.

Touch and Blue water slush

2010-03-25T11:49:00.000-06:00

We had one last sense to learn about this week for science. We talked about touch and the different things that they like to touch. The kids said they love to touch animals, their clothes, blankets and their moms and dads. I had a different item in each bag and they had to describe to the class using adjectives of what the object felt like. Then the class got to guess what was in the bag. A lot of them did a great job describing their object and were able to help them guess the correct answer.

Also this week we talked about animals and things that live in the water. For cooking we made a blue slushie that was our water and then the kids got to put fish inside their water to eat at the end. It amazes me how every week that we make something they think it is the best thing ever! They really loved this recipe so I included it for those of you that would like to make it at home. You can use any flavor of kool-aid. I just used blue raspberry to make it the color of water.

Kool Aid Slushie Recipe

1 cup water, 16 ice cubes, 1/3 cup of milk, 1 cup sugar, 1 package of kool-aid (any flavor will work)

Blend water, milk sugar and kool-aid then add a little bit of ice cubes at a time. Enjoy!

W is for Whale

2010-03-23T15:56:00.001-06:00

Today we learned about the letter W. We made these cute whales for art. The kids had a lot of fun painting them and putting in the water spout. Blue Whales are fascinating animals, check out this national geographic page to learn some neat facts that we talked about and see some real pictures. http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/blue-whale.html

We also made a list of things we need vs. thing we want today. It was cute when they kept saying all sorts of healthy foods that we need to live. On the list of things we need to live were; food, water, house, clothes and sleep. When we got to things we need I was thinking that they would say a bunch of toys they wanted but instead many said chocolate, diet coke, sprite. I had to giggle. :) We continued our list and thought of some more ideas; turtles, dolls, cars, and my favorite was a washer and dryer although I technically feel that we "need" these to survive. Hope you have a great week. Thanks for all the help from those of you that came last week for our field trip. I had a great time I hope you did too.

The Bean Museum

2010-03-18T14:13:00.001-06:00

What a fun field trip day! We had breakfast before we headed off to the Bean Museum at BYU. Most of us got lost but we eventually found our way. The kids had a great time learning about reptiles and then afterwards got to go on a scavenger hunt to find the different animals in the museum.

This is the lady that talked to us about reptiles. She taught us three things. 1- reptiles have scales

2-reptiles lay eggs 3-reptiles are cold blooded.

This was a crocodillian. It has eyes on top of it's head to help it hunt for prey.

Learning about scales and touching alligator scales.

A real live tarapin turtle.

A Gecko that loves to lay in the sand.

Boa Constrictor. His scales felt soft and mushy.

A large butterfly made out of hundreds of little butterflies.

Large alligator that we found on our scavenger hunt.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-16T13:36:00.002-06:00

Don't you just love how excited kids get? A Leprechaun came to our house today. We never found him but followed all the clues and found some green cookies for a snack that he left us. The kids couldn't believe how quick he was. When they found the treat he left they all started cheering and one little girl even said, "This is the best preschool day ever!" So funny.

For art we made lucky shamrocks using cut up green peppers, and we found out what shape of marshmallows is the most in a box of Lucky Charms. The winner (tie between pots of gold, rainbows and green clovers). We also played a fun little game of hiding a shamrock from the leprechaun and each child got a turn to find it.

Rain and Rainbows

2010-03-11T12:58:00.002-07:00

The last couple of weeks have been great. We have been learning about Weather. Last week we talked about the letter U. We made this cute umbrella art project.

There was a lot of glitter in the house, but the kids had a great time making this out of pipe cleaners, cupcake papers and cotton balls.

On Thursday we talked about the letter V. We made such a yummy Vegetable Pizza. It was super easy to make. You roll out a pizza crust and then bake for 5 to 7 minutes. The sauce is made out of 1 cup of Sour Cream, 1 package of cream cheese, and then a packet of ranch dressing. It was super delicious! Then top with your favorite Veggies. Most the kids loved cucumbers and carrots, a few liked cauliflower, and nobody put on green and red peppers, except for me of course. You should try it at home, it is one of my favorites for a snack now. We also played I Spy with my Little Eye to learn about one of our 5 senses of seeing.

This week we learned about rainbows. The timing was perfect since St. Patrick's day is right around the corner and we could talk about Leprechauns and a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Here is our art project we made.

This little girl helped me a ton! Those rings took forever to make and glue on. She finished so quick and helped the other kids. This was a project I made with my 2nd graders. I was SO IMPRESSED that they were able to make it so well.

For our 5 senses we talked about Taste today. They got to come up one at a time and be blindfolded and then describe the food they were tasting. The best was when someone described a marshmallow as crunchy! I couldn't help but laugh. We also made our own rainbow. All you need is a clear bowl, I used a pampered chef mixing bowl. You shine your flashlight at different angles and it bends the light into a rainbow on your ceiling. It works best with a dark room, but the kids were still able to see it. Did you know that rainbows are really circles? They just look like an arc because they are cut off by the horizon. It was pretty cool to see a circle rainbow on the ceiling.

For cooking we made rainbow toast! I was so excited to do this, I couldn't even sleep the night before. It looked so good when it was done and the kids loved it. All you do is dye milk the colors of the rainbow. Paint it on to your bread. Toast in toaster. Top with favorite toppings! Ours included: Cinnamon sugar, honey, and jam! You should make it some time, it was so much fun.

I can't wait for next week for a leprechaun to hopefully visit us and to go on our field trip to the Bean Museum.

Finally Turtle Week!

2010-02-27T10:36:00.003-07:00

This little guy has been telling me for months now that he can't wait until we get to the letter T so that we can learn about turtles! So when the week finally arrived I of course had to do a unit on turtles just for him. You should have seen how excited he was when I told him it was turtle day. We learned all about turtles and where they live, their babies, predators, and how they protect themselves. It of course wouldn't be turtle day without learning about the fable, "The Tortoise and the Hare". Afterwards we made our own turtles that had a string attached to them so that the kids could walk their turtle. They absolutely loved making them come to life.

Later in the week we continued to learn about our 5 senses with this week learning about different sounds that we hear. I found a great site that had all sorts of fun sounds. The kids had fun listening to them and trying to guess what each one was. For cooking we made Strawberry Banana Smoothies. A few kids said it would have tasted better with ice cream in it. But I told them it is good to have a healthy snack without lots of sugar. (Plus they got a cupcake for a birthday treat with it, so I figured they had plenty of sweets for the day :)

Olympic Week and the 5 senses

2010-02-18T11:51:00.005-07:00

Wow what a great week! We had a blast. We have been learning about the olympics and the kids got to participate in their own olympics. It was a blast.

These are the olympic flags we made. They got to march in together and we sang "It's a Small World After All".

Balloon race, and yes a few popped but they just thought it was funny.

Carrying an egg race.
This was so funny they got their gold medallion but when I asked them to hold it up but still let me see their face they just didn't quite get it. O well. They were so proud of their medal.
Learning about Canada. We made the Maple Flag and for cooking made waffles and homemade maple syrup. My sister in law, who is from Canada, says they love maple syrup on pretty much everything.

For science the next few weeks we will be going over the 5 senses. Today we learned about the sense of smell. I had each cup covered with some holes to smell. They made some of the funniest guesses as to what they thought was in each one.

Guesses: Pickles and Olives. Pickles was the right choice!
Guesses: Top Ramen, Pepper Correct Answer: Onion
Guesses: Bananas Correct answer: Marshmallows
Guesses: Flowers, Ramen Noodles, Soap Correct Answer: Wax that smells like flowers
They all guessed this one right! Bananas
Everyone got this one right: Cinnamon

Valentine Party

2010-02-12T21:27:00.003-07:00

The camera was charged and ready to go but unfortunately we were so busy that I only got one picture and it didn't turn out the best so I decided to not post it. We did have a great time though and I wanted to give a special thank you to the parents that were able to help. The best part was seeing how excited the kids got to pass out and receive their valentines. Sorry we ran a little over time, but I hope your child had a great time.

I like to add some of my favorite stories or quotes from the kids. This quote was a week ago by a cute little girl in our class. "Miss Julie, guess what? My dad got pulled over by a police man, but don't worry he didn't have to go to jail!"

Q is for Queen and dental health month!

2010-02-08T15:22:00.003-07:00

Last week we learned about the letter Q. I am so proud at all the kids at how well they learning the sounds and recognizing their letters. We made some crowns to go along with Q being the beginning letter for Queen. They were so excited about them and loved playing pretend. On thursday last week we did a big unit on dental health. We talked about ways to take care of your teeth and foods you can eat that are good for your teeth and of course the favorite foods that are not so good. I had started a little experiment the night before to show what happens to your teeth when a lot of sugar is on them and you don't brush. It was done with hard boiled eggs. The first egg is normal and hard, just like your enamel on your teeth, when you take good care of them. The second one had mushy soft enamel that causes cavities. The kids faces looked so scared when they felt the soft egg and none of them wanted to have their teeth turn out like that egg. So hopefully they are brushing more at home. I sent home a little chart to help them brush better. If you complete it at home and send it back with your child I will have a special prize for them. For cooking we made fresh homemade juice! Our mixture had apples, oranges, bananas and I put some carrots in as well! Some of the kids were a little nervous to drink it since it had carrots but everyone loved the juice once they tried it. I'm looking forward to our Valentine party next week! If you would still like to help out let me know :)

Open Enrollment

2010-02-01T17:31:00.003-07:00

I am happy to announce that people are already wanting to sign up for next year! I remember last year being so worried about getting enough students and now it looks as though it shouldn't be a worry at all. I will allow first priority to my families already enrolled and then will have open enrollment to the public on April 1. I will still be doing only one session and it will be the same schedule as I had this year. I am excited for all the new ideas I have planned for next year. This year was great but I see so many ways that I can make things even better. I will still base all of my curriculum off of the Utah State Core to prepare your child for Kindergarten. I look forward to a great year to come and want to publicly thank my parents from this year for all their help. It has been a great first year and went better than I could have expected.

Yes I'm still here

2010-01-31T12:34:00.004-07:00

I'm so sorry I haven't posted anything in the last week. I kept forgetting to take pictures and some days are so busy that I feel like a tornado hit the house with everything we have done and the huge mess at the end of preschool. We have done a lot of fun things though. For science we finished up our Arctic Animal unit. I was really bummed that we didn't get much more snow at the end of the month to make a penguin statue. O well, there's always next year. For cooking we were able to make some yummy pizza for letter P day. It was so good that I made some more for dinner that night. For letter O day we made these cute little owls out of Heart foams. The kids have been busy learning about money and all the different shapes the last couple of weeks. It's so funny to me that most of them didn't know pennies, nickels or dimes but as soon as we learned about the quarter all of them seemed to know this coin so well. I guess it's probably from asking for money to get a prize out of a machine at the grocery stores. Our Valentine's Day party is coming up soon. If you are interested in helping out with an activity please let me know, I always appreciate the extra help. It looks like the weather is starting to warm up a little. I hope we can all get feeling better as a lot of the kids have been sick this month.

Polar Bears

2010-01-14T22:50:00.004-07:00

This week was a lot of fun but I feel so bad that a few kids have been sick this week. We didn't have a lot of kids at preschool this week and it was really quiet. I think a lot of it has to do with the gross weather outside. I really want to feel the warmth again. I hate the cold weather. Anyways, enough about that here's some cute pictures from this week.

On Tuesday we learned all about the letter N. We made these cute noodle

necklaces. The cute little boy on the right always likes to dress up. He was Darth Vader this day.
Polar Bear treats we made for cooking. The one on top has strawberry

yogurt rather than cottage cheese because a lot them didn't want

cottage cheese.

This is a video sharing our experiment on how polar bears have blubber underneath their fur to keep them warm in the cold weather. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved the feel of the shortening on their fingers.

2010-01-07T14:54:00.003-07:00

Today was SO much fun! For science this month we are learning about different arctic animals. Today we talked about penguins. I taught the kids about emperor penguins and how the Dad takes care of the egg while the mom swims off to find food for the baby and the dad. We talked about the dad keeping the egg nestled close to his body between his feet to keep the egg warm. If he drops the egg it will break from the cold air. Each of the kids got to take an egg (a rolled up sock) and keep it in between his ankles. It was so cute to watch them protect their little egg and to quickly pick it up and put it back in if it fell off. We then learned about Penguins feathers and how they keep warm. We did and experiment with ice to show how the down feathers keep the penguin warm. The down feathers capture air and this helps keep them warm from the cold wind. It was a great day and a lot of fun. It was pretty funny during cooking to watch them stick the egg we used earlier under their shirts telling everyone they were going to have a baby penguin. Thank heavens it's not my job to explain that one to them :)

Happy New Year!

2010-01-06T22:32:00.003-07:00

A
Is it really 2010? I can't believe how quickly the year went by. I just wanted to wish every one a Happy New Year. We celebrated our first day back talking about the Chinese New Year. Even though they won't celebrate the Chinese New Year until the 2nd full moon this year which happens to be February 14. It was a lot of fun for the kids because we talked about the big parade they have. I showed them pictures of the dragon that is in the parade and we performed our own version of the dragon. They loved having a turn to be the head of the dragon and leading the rest of the class around the house. We finished off the day making our own little Chinese Dragon.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-28T14:21:00.003-07:00

I hope you are having a great Winter Break! Thank you so much for all of your help at our Christmas Party. The kids had a blast. They played musical chairs, made snowflake ornaments, ate yummy cookies and listened to some great christmas stories. Each child got a new book as a gift as well. I hope you enjoy your break and am looking forward to starting up again next week. It's crazy that I am already missing them and all their cute smiles. I hope you enjoy these cute pictures. Thank you Angie for taking them. I will make sure that my camera is charged next time.