Shapes

Our unit for the week was shapes. We had fun using shape stickers, shape puzzles, pattern blocks, and shape magnets.  It was also to fun to play "I Spy" and find shapes in our classroom! Additionally, the kids enjoyed drawing shapes outside with sidewalk chalk.

One of the books we read this week was Mouse Shapes  If you're not familiar with it, it's a darling story...I've attached a link.  I read the book to the kids and added it to our classroom library.  Here is the link...your child may enjoy watching it with you!!  Mouse Shapes
On Tuesday we had music with Mrs. Jenkins...I could hear singing about seasons coming from the music room!

Summer was our "Birthday Girl" and "Maple Leaf" this week.  She brought in yummy protein brownies for a special treat!  On Thursday we met her mom and her dog!  He was a bulldog...we thought it was cute to listen to how noisy he is when he breathes!!  We were able to pet him and we saw him give Summer lots of kisses!! 

We had fun mixing colors on Tuesday.  We used finger paints to mix the primary colors and were very excited to discover that red and yellow makes orange, blue and red makes purple and blue and yellow makes green. 

We were so happy that we had nice weather and were able to get outside both days this week!

Some of the shapes we learned about and used this week!

Puzzles during morning choice time. 

Calico Critters have been a hit this week!

All our pictures are in the tree!

Happy Birthday, Summer!

Using finger paint to mix primary colors. 

Shape magnets!

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Outdoor playtime.

Meeting Summer's mom and bulldog!

Summer had fun leading us back to circle time room!

Colors

This week we talked about colors!  We had fun reading Clifford the Big Red Dog on "Red Day" and Color Bear on Thursday.  We also enjoyed bringing in something blue for our first show and tell!

We met Mrs. Jenkins this week and loved our first music class with her!!  She had us using rhythm sticks, as well as singing and getting to know our names! 

As part of our unit on colors, we planted a red chrysanthemum on Tuesday.  Look for it when you come to Maple Leaf next time. 

Thursday was picture day and Lisa Haasch, from Center Street Photography, set up a nice area outside to take our pictures. We had fun playing on the equipment and using sidewalk chalk after we had our pictures taken. 

We celebrated Samuel's birthday this week.  He was also our "Maple Leaf" of the week.  On Thursday his mom came in and we met his baby sister, Lilly, and watched while Samuel showed us how he can do somersaults!!

We've been learning the letters in our names.  We used blue paper, glue, and cheerios to create our names. We've also been singing the alphabet as I point to the letters and finding out letters on our circle carpet!

Listening to Clifford The Big Red Dog on Red Day!

Happy Birthday, Samuel!!

We made our own Cliffords to take home with us.

Samuel showing us how he does fancy somersaults!

First Week of School

It was a wonderful, if a little rainy, first week!  We allowed plenty of time for playing so the kids could become familiar with each other.  We also played a few get to know you games. 

On the first day we read a book called "If You Take a Mouse to School" and then went on a scavenger hunt to find clues that Mouse left us.  We went into all of the different rooms on the lower level and went outside to the playset as well.  Fortunately the rain stopped for a while so we had about 15 minutes to play outside.

When we came in it was time to wash our hands and have snack.  After that it was Activity Time.  The kids enjoyed playing at the sand table, using glitter glue and beads to create an art project, playing make believe with our Weebles Village, as well as many other activities!

On Thursday, Mrs. Willer came in to help us.  The kids enjoyed singing her some of the new songs they learned like our Snack Song, Line Up Song, Good Morning and Goodbye Songs.  Ask your child to sing these songs to you!!

Mrs. Chyko worked with the kids at the paint easel as they created their first masterpiece at Maple Leaf. 

Because of the rain, our parachute games were played inside.  We made fast and slow waves and made it go up and down.  When we sat on the parachute Mrs. Gould blew bubbles for us to pop!

Morning activity time!

The books we read this week.

Passing the bean bag and saying our name.

Coming in from our scavenger hunt. 

Morning activities, we made bracelets with beads, traced our hands, did free drawing and added letter stickers at the craft table. 

Activity time...trains, sand table, Weeble Village were some of our choices!

Graduation

We had lots of fun the last two weeks of preschool.  We worked on reading books about our Dads and making presents for them for Father's Day.  We heard the stories Just Me and My Dad by Mercer Mayer, and My Dad the Magnificent by Kristy Parker..  We learned a song that helped us spell Daddy, it goes to the tune of Bingo but uses the letters D-A-D-D-Y instead.

After we sang the Daddy song in class (I had the letters up on the board as we sang it) some of the kids wanted to draw pictures of themselves with their Dads.  On their own, they spelled their name and Daddy!!

One of the highlights of working with young children is watching them discover the joy of writing letters...so impressive to see them do it on their own with sidewalk chalk....wow! 

When we arrived at school on Tuesday all of our sunflower seeds were growing and our butterflies had emerged from their chrysalis.  Such excitement!!  We took the butterflies outside and let them go after snack.  Then we had a chance to run around for a while as well!

We had our final extended day this past week and went on a lovely spring walk.  We noticed all the flowers on the trees were coming out and enjoyed looking for flowers we knew as well.  We found daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths.

Our preschool sing/graduation was another highlight of the week.  All of the kids did such a nice job in the program...I will miss them...it's been a terrific year!

Observing our sunflower seeds!

Practicing for the sing with Heidi. 

Our butterflies as we found them when we came to school on Tuesday.  Notice the empty chrysalis's at the bottom of the garden. 

Letting the butterflies go!

One butterfly landed near us on the ground. 

One of our painted ladies!!

Going on a spring walk during extended day. 

We had fun playing with cherry scented play dough!

The 2019 Graduating Class of Maple Leaf Preschool!!  What a good looking group!!

Moms

This week we heard lots of good stories about Moms.  We read Five Minutes Peace, All In One Piece both by Jill Murphy as well as Blueberries for Sal, a Caldecott winner from 1949, and My Mom is Fantastic.  During circle time, the kids shared with each other things they love about their moms.  Some of the things they said were, "I love playing with my mom", "My mom makes the best macaroni and cheese," "I like it when my mom takes me to the park," and "sometimes my mom buys me ice cream...my favorite is cotton candy!!"

We had fun making a special gift and card for our fantastic moms!

Graham was our Maple Leaf this week.  He shared his poster with us on Tuesday and on Wednesday his mom, two big sisters and his dog, Humphrey, came for a visit.  His sisters and his mom each read us a story.  We had a chance to pet Humphrey and he showed us how he can shake!  Thanks Graham for helping to make our week extra special!

Listening to one of Graham's favorite stories with his sisters, mom and Humphrey!!

Happy Mother's Day!!  The kids all picked the color background they wanted and painted it, then they picked the color flowers they thought their Mom would like the best, finally they added stems and leaves to their masterpieces!!  

Joan helped the kids make Mother's Day cards.

A special treat that Graham brought in for his Maple Leaf week.  Yum....and so pretty too...thanks Graham!!

Preschool STEM activity...creating patterns and designs with pegs.

Morning activity time...it's so cool to see the kids taking turns and playing games all by themselves, they are playing Zitternix (colored sticks) and a color matching game. 

We definitely have some future engineers in our class!!

It rained this week so we did indoor movement instead.  Here we are playing the Beanie Bag Dance.  

flowers

We talked about seeds and flowers this week.  We learned that seeds need dirt, water and sun to grow.  We read several books about seeds including The Little Seed by Eric Carle and Clifford Plants a Garden by Norman Bridwell.  We had fun planting our own sunflower seeds on Tuesday and are excited to watch them grow and see how big they get!  

 The Garden Song is one of Mrs. Gould's favorite songs.... this video helped us learn it. (click on the link)

We're still watching our caterpillars daily.  They've nearly doubled in size since we first observed them last week!

Our butterfly squish art projects.

So beautiful!! 

The kids loved opening up their paper to see what their butterfly looked like!!

Of course we can't have butterflies without caterpillars!!

Lauren was our birthday girl and our Maple Leaf of The Week.  On Tuesday Lauren brought in birthday cupcakes in a cone to share with her friends.  Yum, what a delicious and pretty treat!!

We had fun adding the m and m's to the top of our cupcakes!!

Happy Birthday, Lauren!! 

It was a rainy week so we did movement inside.  We pretended to be caterpillars and turned into butterflies among other things!! 

Lauren's mom came to visit our class on Thursday.  She read us a delightful book about a dancing giraffe!  

Then, we created our own dancing giraffes.

Thanks Lauren for helping make our week so special!!  

Lauren brought in giraffe treats too!  They were delicious and so cute!!