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.

Touch and Blue water slush

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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!

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 :)