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!

"Every thing's free mom!"

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

Books and Birds

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!

I am going to name him "Fragile"

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.

W is for Whale

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.

Valentine Party

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!"

Fall is here

Last week we talked about the leaves changing and the different things that happen in Fall. I had collected some leaves while hiking over the weekend to let the kids use to make artwork. They turned out really cute and they loved looking at real leaves that were different colors. On Thursday we learned about bats to go along with the month of October. We looked at real pictures of bats and then made bat books. Afterwards for cooking we made dirt with worms in it since bats like to eat insects. All the kids wanted to eat them right away but waited to have them for when they got home. Next week is our field trip to Vineyard Nursery. I am so excited for it. To end this post I had to end with a cute story about one of the kiddos. Last week one of the little girls in the class hurt her finger while playing. I gave it a kiss better and let her put it under cold water and she eventually stopped crying. On Thursday I was going to pick something up and hit my head pretty hard on the table. The same little girl looked at me and said, "It's not bleeding, You're ok!" I thought it was so funny since she had been so upset when she got hurt. Kids are so cute and fun. I love the funny little things they say.