Week 13: Winter Holidays, Cc, Green, Diamond, & 11

This week our theme was Winter Holidays. We read our Scholastic magazines and learned about lots of different holiday helpers.

We made gingerbread men and then “lost” them and had to go on a hunt to find them. We practiced graphing and sequencing with steps on how to make a gingerbread man ie. mixing, baking, and decorating. Then we practiced patterns with gingerbread men.

We also made x-mas play dough. It was so fun! We practiced our “I am a Scientist” poem again and talked about how we had to measure and mix all the ingredients to make the play dough. We couldn’t just leave it in a big pile and magically it would become playdough.

Finally, we learned that C is for cotton. 

Week 12: Polar Animals, Pink, Circle, & 9

This week our theme was Polar Animals. We sang a little Arctic Animal Song where we learned that Arctic animals have white fur that helps them hide in the snowy places they live.

We made polar bears out of tp rolls. They were super cute. Each child painted their own rolls, glued on the pom ears and nose, and then placed the bear's eyes. They did such a great job!

We also made penguins out of rectangles, our shape of the week. We learned that even though penguins are not all white, they are a polar animal and live in the snow too.

We did a lot of charting this week. We charted penguins by size, shortest to tallest. It was shocking to some students to learn that the emperor penguin is taller than a child. We also worked on patterns with arctic animals.

Finally, we learned that S is for stamps and snowmen. We hung the snowmen down the hall for all to see.

Week 11: Pilgrims & Hh

This week our theme was Pilgrims. We continued to talk about what we are thankful for, or happy to have. We made corn by painting with Legos, and then made corn from beads. We also made turkeys out of paper plates and tp rolls, then we painted our hands and made turkeys that way too!

We learned a Thanksgiving Song to the tune of The Muffin Man: The Pilgrims came to America, America, America. The Pilgrims came to America, a long long time ago. (insert: The Pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower…They made friends with the Wampanoag… They planted seeds and the corn grew tall…They had a great Thanksgiving feast… Happy Thanksgiving!) Ask your little one to sing this for you with the motions we’ve practiced. It’s very cute.

Finally, we made a House from the letter H, our newest letter. We also cut out a pink circle. Everyone is getting so good with scissors!

Week 4: Letter Ee & Review

This week we learned the letter Ee and its sounds. We made some elephants out of E’s and sang our letter sound song. I was really impressed with the scissors skills that went into cutting out our elephants and how precises some kiddos were when placing their ears, eyes, and tails.

To review all the letters, numbers, and shapes we've learned so far this year, we had scavenger hunts throughout the week. Letters, shapes, or numbers that we have learned were posted down the hallway. I would then hold up one of these things and each child had to find it and bring it back to it’s baggie. There were enough of each for every child to find his/her own. All the kiddos did a great job. It was rewarding to see how much they had learned already. My favorite part though, was seeing the kindness and joy in this activity when friends helped each other find the letter, number, or shape.

At this point in school we are learning how to work at different centers in the room during learning time in class. My classes divide into two or three groups and work on different things while I work at different centers with groups as they rotate. This has been a little tricky for the classes. It demands they listen to instructions when given since I won't be at every center, but also allows them freedom to figure things out on their own, or with a friend's help.

We are also starting to practice using our words with our friends before coming to the teacher with a problem. It's amazing how many times I hear my name during a half day of school. Often times when a child comes to me with a problem, it is as simple as: 

"She took my toy!" 
To which I respond "what did you say to her about it?" 
"Nothing"
"OK, why don't you go tell your friend how you feel about what happened."

Once the child does the accused typically gives back the toy and all is forgiven. The version of "he hurt me!"  is also popular in my classrooms with the same conversation happening between myself and the child telling me. Children are often so focused on their own games or tasks they have no idea they bumped into a friend or stepped on their foot. Once it's pointed out they feel very sorry for it and all is forgiven.

Week 10: Season to be Thankful, Nn, Review

This week our theme was being Thankful, especially for Veterans. We learned that Veterans work to keep us safe. We also learned that Thankful means “happy to have.” We made a Thankful Pie out of two plates where one rotates so you can read the different things we were “happy to have.” 

Our letter this week was Nn. We stamped numbers all over our N’s. The class also worked on some fall patterns with our substitute while Ms. Megan tested students one at a time.

Week 9: Hibernation, Ll, Orange, Octagon, 1-8

This week our theme was Hibernation. We learned that Hibernation is a long winter’s sleep. We built some block caves for our toy bears to hibernate in. We pretended to sleep like bears, ladybugs, and hedgehogs, all animals who hibernate.

Our letter of the week was Ll. We stamped letters onto our Ls- so fun! We also had the number 8 for the week, and our shape was an octagon, which happens to have 8 sides. It was very exciting to see the connection there. 😊 We colored our octagons with our color of the week, orange and cut them out. It’s so wonderful to see all the growth this class has made with their scissors skills.

Week 8: Trees & Leaves, Bb, White, Hexagon, 7

This week our theme was Trees and Leaves. We had so much fun learning about leaves, trees, and seasons this week. We went on a leaf hunt and charted all the different colored leaves we found.

Our letter of the week was B, so we glued buttons onto our Bs. These turned out really cute. 

Our color of the week was white, and our shape was a hexagon, so we cut out our hexagon on our white paper. The whole class is really improving on their cutting skills! 

Their writing and tracing skills are also developing quite well. We traced our letters, shape, and number in our notebooks and everyone is holding and controlling markers so much better than the beginning of the year!

Week 7: Fire Fighters, Tt, Gray, Oval, 6

This week our theme was Firefighters and Fire Safety. We went on a Fire Safety Scavenger Hunt. This was really fun and we walked all over the YMCA looking for alarms, sprinklers, and fire extinguishers. All the kids did a great job graphing how many we saw of each. I was really impressed. 

We also learned that firefighters use water to put out fires. We had a little relay race and ran cups of water to put out our “fire.” Despite the cooler weather the class had a lot of fun doing this outside. 

We talked about things that are safe to touch and things that are hot, or burning like a candle and are not safe to touch. We made little “Safe to Touch” books. The kids did so well cutting these out and marking out things we should not touch.

Finally, we learned about 9-1-1. We dotted a paper phone and practiced calling 9-1-1. We learned that is how we can call a firefighter, policeman, and an ambulance if there is a Big problem and we need help.

This week we learned the letter Tt and its sound. We put tape all over our letter T’s. 

We also colored our shape of the week, oval, with our color of the week, gray, and cut them out. Everyone is improving with their scissor skills.

Week 6: Autumn, Letter Rr, Red, Star shape, Number 5

This week we learned the letter Rr and its sound. We pretended to be “Rrrrrockets” and blasted off. For some of our letter craft this week we painted Rainbows and glued cotton ball clouds onto them. 

We also colored our shape of the week, star, with our color of the week, red, then again, my older class got to cut them out. The classes have picked up on the pattern of this craft to the point that my older class knows to look to the bulletin board for what color they will then start searching through the crayons to color the shape in front of them. All with no guidance from me! They also no longer argue that their shape is colored with a couple scribbles in hopes to get the scissors sooner. They know that at this point I insist the shape be fully covered before they can begin cutting- I don't care if they've scribbled all over the paper as long as the shape is covered.

This week our theme was Autumn. We made leaf puppets. They were very cute and the kids did a really good job with them. We also did more experiment testing to see if acorns, rocks, leaves, and apples would sink or float. It was fun to experiment with the apples and see if the color of the apple mattered if they sank or float. If you’re eager to know- it doesn’t, apples float no matter the color. 😉

Chocolate Pecan Pie as seen on The Chew

I'm writing this post because its Thanksgiving again, and as I opened Pinterest to get one of my must-have holiday desserts, the page I sought no longer existed. What?!? How am I supposed to celebrate the holidays without my favorite dessert of the last (almost) decade?!?

I began frantically searching Google and Pinterest for any other posting of Carla Hall's original chocolate pecan pie recipe, but alas I couldn't find one. I finally stumbled upon a Disney video of The Chew with Carla explaining it, however it didn't provide the measurements for the ingredients. I was encouraged to finally have her list of ingredients, the list I've been using for years, and I was sure I could figure out the measurements by comparing other similar recipes. I dusted off my recipe book to write down the ingredient list, and low and behold... I'd written the whole recipe down years ago! Hooray! The holidays are saved!

Here is the recipe in case you too are searching for a perfect chocolate pecan pie recipe.

Ingredients:
1 c dark corn syrup
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp softened butter
1/2 c sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
3 eggs
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla
1Tbsp white vinegar
1 1/2 c pecans
1/2 c dark chocolate chips
1 pie crust

Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350*F
-Cream butter and sugar, then add 3 beaten eggs, cornstarch, salt, vanilla, vinegar, and corn syrup
-Prepare pie crust
-Glaze bottom of pie crust with egg white
-Sprinkle crushed pecans and chocolates on pie shell
-Pour pie filling into prepared crust
-Bake on center rack of oven for 40-50 minutes or until set
-Cool on wire rack before serving
-Note- tap center of surface of pie lightly- it should spring back when done

Week 5: Pumpkins, Letter Oo, Purple color, Diamond shape, Number 4

This week we learned the letter Oo and its sounds. We glued some orange paper onto an “o” and sang our letter sound song. We also colored our shape of the week, diamond, with our color of the week, purple, then my older class again cut them out.

Our theme this week was pumpkins and we did a lot with them. We read about them in our Scholastic. We painted pumpkins with legos. We made pumpkin spice play dough. We opened a pumpkin up and got a chance to scoop out the pulp- it was split pretty evenly on those who thought this was awesome and those who were grossed out. Finally we also listened to the “Five little Pumpkins song,” and built our own gates (block walls) for pumpkins (small orange things from around the room). You can find the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAHZCJpCeDs

     

Week 3: Apples, Letter Aa, Color Green, Triangle shape, and Number 3

This week we learned about apples, the letter Aa, the color green, the triangle shape, and the number 3. I feel like we really figured out the preschool routine this week! Both of my classes did a great job with every activity we did 😊

For our letter of the week activity we colored an “a” red and glued a leaf onto it to make an apple. We also made our own apples! It was very fun. The kiddos got to wrap a paper tube with tape and draw 3 seeds to make a core, next we glued the red skin (cupcake liners) onto the top and bottom, then we hunted for sticks outside to make our stems.

We worked a lot on tracing and holding pencils this week. We worked on tracing our names as well as working in our notebooks where we practiced our letters, numbers, and shapes for the week. After doing this for three weeks, the kids are doing really well.

Finally, we were scientists all week! We observed, questioned, and tested. We looked at the color of apples we had, thought about if we will like them or not, then we tasted them to see if we did like them! We even documented our results. 

One day our snacks were apples and so we experimented some more and we all tried to eat through the parts of the apples we'd been learning- the skin, the flesh, the core, and the seeds!

Here is a link to our rhyme we’ve been saying about being scientists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-k2wzXbVw0

Week 2: Making Friends, Letter Aa, Color green, Triangle shape, and Number 2

We had a great second week! The kiddos are doing really well playing and working together. We are still doing such a great job coming into class, putting backpacks away, and signing in. This week we learned about Making Friends, the letter Uu, the color blue, the square shape, and the number 2.

One of the first things we made this week was a “Which Friend’s Hand is This?” book. Each friend had a picture of his/her hand taken and added to the book. It's a fun was for the children to walk the classroom meeting friends, learning names, and trying to match hands to pictures.

For our letter of the week we colored a U and glued on an umbrella. When we learn a new letter, we sing our letter sound song. After two weeks and two letters, the kids have caught on to the tune and now only focus on inserting the correct letter name and sound. 

For our shape and color of the week we colored a square blue, my 4/5 class were also allowed to cut it out. 

Finally to go along more with our Making Friends theme and adding a little science, we painted our two hands blue, made a “friendship quilt” with our hand prints, and talked about germs. It takes a long time to wash off paint, just like washing off germs.

Week 1: School Rules, Letter Ii, Number 1, Rectangle Shape, and the Color Yellow

Week one is in the books! For being the first week of school it went really well! Out of my two classes I only had one kiddo cry the entire time. Success! Most kiddos actually came in ready to take on the world and that was pretty awesome. I also had two potty accidents in the first week; but that's not a bad percentage for this age, or for first time preschoolers. It's going to take a while before we really get the routine of school.

We start our days by hanging up backpacks and signing in our our sign-in chart. This helps the littles to begin recognizing their names, practice holding a marker, and writing their own name. Everyone has done a really good job of getting this routine down in the first week.

Another exciting first week activity we did was measure ourselves! It was so fun to see where we were on the chart and where our new friends are. We are excited to grow over the year and see where we end up!

This week we learned the letter Ii and its sound. We colored an I and glued paper ice cream scoops onto it.

We also had our first painting session- So fun! We painted our number of the week: 1. We used water colors, and that has multiple steps: 1- water, 2- paint, 3- put paint to paper, 4- repeat. Using water colors is so basic for many of us, however this is a very complicated task and was new for many of the littles. We also talked about how we need to use one color at a time so we don't mix colors and end up with all brown; if we do that, we will only be painting things brown the rest of the year. Who knew water colors were so complicated? 😉

Then we all colored our shape of the week: rectangle, with our color of the week: yellow. For my 3-4 class I then went around and helped most of the class have a turn trying out scissors one on one. For my 4-5 class, about half the kiddos knew how to use scissors and the other half received a little help. In both classes we discussed what we are allowed to cut- not hair, not clothes, not ourselves, or our friends, yes we can cut paper. We also discussed the safe way to hold scissors when we are not using them. My older class caught on quickly and were allowed to walk the scissors to the class scissors tote when finished.

We also had our first fire drill of the year. The kids did great. The alarm was a bit loud and they covered their ears; but they got out and stuck together getting out of preschool and to our safe spot.

Though we did a lot of work this first week, I also made sure there was a lot of free play time. This first month of school is going to have the most free play time. Learning ABCs and 123s is important in preschool, but in order for any child to really be ready for Kindergarten, they have to have developed social and emotional skills to succeed. That's where play in preschool is actually learning. My older class already has many of these social and emotional skill foundations and so they are truly excelling in most everything we are doing both structured and not. My younger class however needs a lot of unstructured play where they are learning to share, take turns, and use their words to express their wants, needs, and feelings.

Finally, I've collected all the children's folders they brought for the school year. Some teachers like to use these as "take home folders." I do not. I believe that children should always be learning responsibility and in my experience preschoolers have a hard enough time unzipping their bags, shoving papers into the bag, and re-zipping. I run around helping them with this task. If I chose to use the take home folder system, I would be the only one putting all of their belongings into their folders and bags. Instead, I chose to keep all their provided folders and create a memory folder to be taken home at the end of the year. I've kept all their first day and week work and will collect more work throughout the year. It will be a sweet collection for families to have of their child's growth and progress through preschool.

My Bright Beginnings

Not many people know, but I made a career change last year. I had been working in child care for a few years and risen through the ranks. On the outside all looked good. Multiple promotions sounds like a good thing. However, managing adults and dealing with adult problems is not my forte. I enjoy working with kids. I love to see them grow and thrive. My heart swells when I get to be one of the reasons they are learning and growing. So, when a preschool teaching position became available, I jumped at the opportunity. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

I joined the Y preschool team half way through the last school year. It was a rough transition for the kiddos. They were used to one teacher and then had to meet this stranger and go with her flow. Thankfully, preschoolers are pretty flexible, and open to change as long as the change is fun.

Last year ended wonderfully and this new school year is showing promise to be just as awesome. So, I've decided to document my journey and share some of the fun things my classes do through the year.

A little background:

I have two classes this year. Both are half days. One class is ages 3-4, while the other is 4-5.

Both classes have the same themes, letters, numbers, colors, and shapes to learn for the week. However they will not always do the same activities. Sometimes they will have the same activities, but the older class may have more steps or more fine motor skills to practice.

Buddyboy happens to be in my 4-5 class. Sometimes it's nice having him with me; then other days it's really hard having your own kid in your class.

Last year I only had one half day class, so I'm interested to see how the juggling of two classes, at differing developmental and academic stages, goes.

I'm hoping I'll be able to keep up with this blog since I really enjoy this work and want to share all the awesome things we do.

My Top 5 Books on Parenting

As usual, it's been a while between my postings. I am currently seeing a trend of # sharing your top 7 books. Really??? Only 7??? Hmmmm. I can't even narrow it to 10. However, if I am allowed to narrow by category, this seems more achievable. So, here are my top 5 parenting books thus far in my almost 7 years of parenting. Enjoy!

Also, these are not in best to worst order, but in order of my finding and using based on my children's ages and stages. 😉


1. The Nursing Mother's Companion

This book was my first favorite parenting book. It reassured me while pregnant with my first child that I would be able to feed her once she arrived and help her to survive with substantial food I provided. This book provided multiple issues that can occur and multiple ways to help you and your child solve the problems. It didn't make me nervous, and while I was learning how to be a new parent through my exhausted and PPD state, this book never felt shaming but was always encouraging. Because of the easy with which I found nursing to be, I was able to nurse both my children until their first birthdays, after which I called it quits.





2. The Happiest Baby on the Block

This book was a life saver in my daughter's first year where everything is new in parenting no matter how experienced you are at nannying, babysitting, or from reading books and blogs. This book helped both my husband and I figure out how to answer the screaming or crying which was baby's only way to communicate. Again, this book was never shaming, but always encouraging and providing options on ways to make the parent-child relationship an enjoyable journey. Thankfully, once our second kiddo came along we were familiar with these methods, and it was a much quicker adjustment to life with a baby with only a few times needing to glance through this book.






3. The Happiest Toddler on the Block

This book was a life saver when our oldest began testing EVERYTHING. Limits, patience, boundaries, you name it. How do we deal with this?! What is this tantrum about?! Why won't she talk to us?! This book answered these questions. I think out of all the books that we've read together, this was my husband's favorite. "They are little cave-people!" He tells anyone who is willing to listen on his new philosophy on toddlers.





4. 1-2-3 Magic: 3-Step Discipline for Calm, Effective, Happy Parenting

This book was really helpful once we had both kids acting up and the older was no longer a toddler. It as helped us as a family get through the grocery without meltdowns and embarrassment. This book was really good to build on what had already learned from "The Happiest Toddler on the Block." Both kids know that when I start counting, I mean business and will typically get a move on.







5. Calmer, Easier, Happier Parenting

This is the newest book that my husband and I are reading. While all the other books have been great, and have helped us feel more confident as parents, we are now entering a stage where our oldest is simply tuning us out. She doesn't seem to hear us when we ask her to do something, once, twice, three times. She doesn't hear us start to count until we are yelling, and we are only yelling because she is totally and completely ignoring us speaking to her. So far we've enjoyed this read and are very hopeful that this will be the next book to help us in our parenting journey of making a happy, healthy home for our family.



What are some of your favorite parenting books? Have you read these? Let me know your thoughts, I'd love to hear them!

Little Helper

Today we did some serious cleaning in the house. We have lived in our new home for just over a year and I finally emptied that dreaded last box. The one that was shoved in a corner and hidden behind a chair to be kept out of sight when I was fed up with all the unpacking and cleaning that comes with moving. This was my home school box. It had all the extra "little things" that were helpful to have, but not a necessity. So it has sat there, for a year, having been open a handful of times, waiting to finally be unloaded.

When going through this box, I found our preschool calendar. I haven't felt an urge to break this out again since this year Babycake was away in Kindergarten, and Buddyboy didn't turn three until a couple months ago. Since Buddyboy is now working on many things preschool, I figured we might as well put up the calendar.

Babycake enjoyed going through all the old school things. She even helped organize, hang, and laminate the calendar for Buddyboy. I think she was more excited about the whole thing than Buddyboy was. She hunted for our special fourth of July date marker, and placed a Happy Birthday date marker for her cousin born just yesterday.

I'm very happy one of the kiddos is excited to use the calendar, I just wish it was the one who will be learning what a calendar is. ;-)

The new kid calendar station

Babycake's calendar set up at the old house.

New Season of Letter of the Week

I tried, and failed, to start preschool with Buddyboy this year while Babycake was at school. He was vaguely interested in learning shapes and counting, would do a craft if I laid it all out for him, but really he was happy to just run rampant.

This summer however, Babycake was provided some instruction to keep her counting, reading, and writing, sharp over summer, and suddenly Buddyboy is into learning as well! I wasn't too surprised to see him sit contentedly for 10 mins crafting and singing letter songs while across the table his sister is doing her own work. Whatever she does, he has to do as well.

So While I've been having Babycake work on her words and numbers each morning with breakfast, I've had Buddyboy practicing his letter sounds and making crafts to go with each letter. It has been such a success! So far Buddyboy knows most shapes at sight, can count on his own to 20 (mixing a number here or there), and knows A is for alligator and apple, and E is for elephant without any help. As far as colors go, everything is yellow, or blue. We're watching to see if he has some color blindness.

In the end, I couldn't be more pleased with his sudden interest in specified learning. We have read every day of his life, and we discuss how things do and don't work b/c he's asking, but I've not been able to sit down with him long enough to specifically point out a 'triangle has 3 sides.' I'm pumped and hope I have the stamina to keep this up once school starts back up and I switch back working mornings instead of evenings. I'd like to at least get 3 days in of preschool-esc education in a week, but wouldn't be surprised if it becomes once or twice a week. Keep your fingers crossed for me!