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. 

Another year of fun and laughing!

First day of school! 

Here is part of our Tuesday/Thursday class. We were missing a couple. 

 And of course a silly face picture.

We talked a lot about friends and rules today. They got to make a little paper doll look like themselves. We talked about putting on all the parts of our face like eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, hair, ears. I love how some of them turned out so cute. One little girl made her nose look like a music note. I loved it!

We also made a friendship fruit salad. We talked about how fruit looks and taste different, just like our friends look different. We compared all the different hair colors in our class, and how some are taller than others, some wear glasses, some have pets, and we like different things too. We added all of our different fruits and then I tried to add a rotten banana. The kids all yelled "no" when I pulled it out. I told them that it is hard to like someone who isn't always nice and a good friend, sort of like how the banana is rotten and we don't want to add it to our salad. It is funny how much they remember that banana. The last few times we have had class they always talk about that banana and how they are going to be nice to their friends.

Color Week! We learned our primary colors this week.

Having fun with file folder games, and practicing our colors.

Blue Day
Looking for blue lizards, snakes, and animals in the bean table.

 Making Blue Bugs out of our letter B.

This one was a spider with it's 8 legs.

I love these Scholastic letter books that my mother in law gave me. They are so interactive with the kids and have lots of funny pictures.

Math practice: We worked on counting and addition this week. We also practiced grouping and comparing using the words most and least.

Yellow Day:
We played a game that is sort of like Freeze Dance. I would play music while the kids were dancing around. After I paused the music they had to run and find something in the room that was yellow.

We had fun painting a yellow picture with Yellow peppers, Lemons and Corn on the Cob.

Having fun in the dress up box.

Red Day: or basically watermelon day.
We learned the song Down By the Bay and talked about rhyming words. They love this song and how silly it is.
We measured a watermelon, counted how many stripes were on it, and checked to see if watermelons sink or float.
We also, painted our own watermelons and added real watermelon seeds.

This little guy said it was a rotten watermelon. (like I said, they really seem to remember that rotten banana.)   :)

We also made a watermelon slushy that I made a couple years ago. It was a lot better this year because I  added more lime sherbet this time. You can find the recipe on the side bar of the blog under watermelon week if you want to make it.

It was a great first week and I am loving these kids! Just a reminder that book orders are due this coming Thursday. I forgot to pass them out to the kids that come only on Wednesday so I will be giving them to you soon. Sorry about that.