SUMMER FUN

Summer came and went and of course I enjoyed the extra time with my kiddos and got WAY behind on posting. So here are just some of the fun things we did in July and August. I can't believe another year is about to start next week! I can't wait to meet some of my new students.

4th of July: 

We discussed what it means to be free and talked about the flag. We also made some fireworks. I made some firework stamps out of pipe cleaner and then we mixed some glue in our paint so that we could sprinkle some glitter on afterwards. 

Dragons: We worked on our cutting skills and made these fun letter D Dragons

Moose Day

I had just got back from a camping trip and told the kids about a moose running through our camp. We did some shared writing and wrote our own story about some moose. They were very creative and we also made pictures to tape on the wall to go along with our picture. 

We read a favorite book If You Give a Moose a Muffin. The kids loved this book. I had made some blueberry muffins and they got to decorate their muffins to make it look like a moose. 

Pioneer Day

This was such a fun day. Most the kids didn't know much about the Pioneers. We explored a map to show them all the states the the Pioneers went through to make it to Utah. We talked about how they traveled and how difficult it was. We had fun playing Button, Button, whose got the button? We made button bracelets and necklaces. (a favorite game and craft that pioneer children loved to do). We also made homemade butter and had fun making log cabins. 

They all wanted to model their bracelets and necklaces. :)

Grocery Day

We started by watching a virtual field trip of all the different parts of a grocery store. We talked about the different food groups and then had tons of fun playing grocery store. We also made shopping lists by cutting out different foods from ads. And we had a great time during snack time eating something from each food group. 

Homemade scale to measure different foods and compare sizes.

Checking out with the cash register.

 Music Day

This was my favorite day all summer. We had a blast! We talked about rhythm and beats. We played with bean bags to different songs and practiced tossing and catching. We went outside and listened to different music. We let the music inspire us and drew pictures with sidewalk chalk to tell a story. And we made maracas out of plastic eggs  and practiced shaking it to the beat. 

Watermelon Day

The kids loved singing the song Down By the Bay and enjoyed making up new rhyming words to add to the song. We measured a watermelon and estimated the weight, length and how many stripes were on it. We also made a fun watermelon craft that the kids got to take home and put on their window. 

Balloon Day

 The last day of the summer we decided to spend all our time at the park playing games with balloons. I had a bunch of balloons with numbers and they got to each pop a balloon to find a piece of paper that told them an activity to do. We also used noodles to try and get the balloons into a basket. This was a blast until some of them drifted off to the grass and started to pop. We finished the summer off with a yummy treat and some extra time playing at the park. 

What a FANTASTIC summer! I can't wait to start another fun year. :) I will miss those kiddos that are moving on to Kindergarten but am so excited for them and their next adventure. 

Plants and Butterflies

We have been learning about Plants and Flowers! We planted some of our own plants and I love hearing the kids talk about how their seeds have lots of roots. Or as my little girl calls them "roops". Here are some of the fun activities we have been doing with flowers. 

We made these flower masks out of their hands. This activity works well if you trace their hands the class time before. It takes way too long to cut out during class time. I have learned this from experience. ;) Also, I love having the kids practice making patterns with the colors. 

We practiced drawing flowers on our white boards and included the 3 main ingredients to grow a plant: Water, sun and soil.

This picture was taken because this little guy really wanted his mom to see his cool tower he made today! Hope you enjoy it Nicole.

For cooking we had to make dirt! I love this recipe, it is always a favorite and so yummy. Chocolate pudding, oreos, whipped cream and gummy worms.

So I am so excited to now have a new house with our preschool in the basement! The kids were so excited for the first day of class in their new preschool. I am loving the fact that at the end of class I can leave the mess and come back to clean it when I get a bit of a break. Here are some pictures having fun with some new costumes I got for our dress up box. 

 Super Hero Cape: But this guy loves being Harry Potter in this costume. I love hearing all the spells he is casts.

 The Big Bad Wolf. This one is a favorite. I think I need to get more animal costumes.

 Little Angel

The Chef

Here is our new water table that is the new favorite thing to do during centers. 

We also just started our Butterfly Unit. I ordered our caterpillars and we read the book The Hungry Caterpillar. We made some fun stuff to learn about the butterfly cycle. 

This is a sensory butterfly. We used a large plastic bag and added lots of fun things to it. Such as; feathers, pom poms, buttons, crete paper, ribbon, cellophane, glitter and whatever else I could find in my box of art supplies. We took time to use adjectives to describe what each object felt like or looked like before putting it into the bag. I love some of the words they used. Slimy, soft, hard, rubbery, slippery, tickley, crinkly, spiky, and there were many more. Afterwards, close it shut and blow a little air in it. Take a pipe cleaner and tie it so you have the wings and 2 antennas. 

 We also made butterflies out of food for cooking today.

Here are our butterfly life cycles made out of pasta. Well, all except the egg. I used a seed for the egg. But the caterpillar is rotollini, the cocoon is a shell shape, and butterfly is a bow tie. I let them color them with markers to add more color. They really love this activity.

It has been a great last couple of weeks! We also went on a field trip to Macey's grocery store. It was so much fun and the kids got so many freebies! I found out 2 new things about Macey's. They have a meat tumbler that you can have your meat tenderized and marinated and then they vacuum seal it for no extra cost. And you can also get a cake with a picture of yourself put on it made out of sugar. Both sound like something I would like to try :)