Spring

Another busy week!  William celebrated his 4th birthday on Tuesday and Allison was Maple Leaf of the Week.  In addition we made pine cone bird feeders, got outside to play on our play equipment for the first time in 2019, and heard lots of stories.  We're still working on our Monet paintings and  We learned a new song about rainbows.  Here is the link so you can sing it at home as well!!I Can Sing a Rainbow

Williams birthday treat.  He loves Paw Patrol and gave each of us a ring with our mini cupcake!! Thanks William,
 we loved it!!

Our finished Dot artwork from last week.  We have Picasso's in the making at Maple Leaf!!

More Dot artwork!

Singing "Happy Birthday" to William.

Allison was our Maple Leaf of the Week.  On Tuesday her mom came in to share one of
Allison's favorite books about Elmer the Elephant.  Elmer is a one of a kind elephant, just like we're all one of a kind!!
We all enjoyed listening to the story and hearing it's message!!

Then we got to make our very own Elmers!

One of our finished Elmers!!

We looked at pictures of birds, shared what we already knew about birds and made peanut butter pine cone bird feeders!
Mrs. Chyko already saw a cardinal eating from the bird feeder she made!

A finished bird feeder!

Allison brought in a special treat for us on Thursday. Cinnamon Elmers!!  Thanks Allison for helping to make our week so much fun!!  

We loved getting outside again!  sidewalk chalk is always a favorite activity!

The snow is finally gone and we can play on the hill and our play equipment again, yay!!

Artists

Artists and the arrival of spring were the topics for the week!  We heard several books about art including Baby Einstein A,B,C's of Art, The Dot, Ish, and A Blue Butterfly which is a book about Claude Monet.  

One of our highlights this week was going on a spring scavenger hunt.  We had a list of "spring things" to look for.  Some of the things we found  included robins, cardinals, pussy willows, buds, flowers beginning to sprout, clouds, the sun, and pine cones.

After hearing this story we began work on creating our own Monet Water Lily paintings.  

Using the colors of the rainbow, we each got a streamer to run with!

Our class rainbow!

We had a rainbow of food for our snack...yum!!

After reading the book Ish by Peter Reynolds, we made our own Ish drawings and titled our artwork.  The children's drawings were wonderful!!

Creating a zoo with Magna Tiles during activity time. 

Tuesday was extended day, our lunch bunch!!

 Roman was our Maple Leaf of the Week.  We had fun learning about some of his favorite things when he shared his poster with us!  His Mom came in for a visit and brought us canvas and paint...perfect for Artist Week!!  We each chose our own image and had fun using our paints!  Thanks Roman for helping to make our week so special!!

Our class of artists, working on the project that Roman and his mom brought in to share!!

Reading books after snack time. The kids have become so good at looking through the pages and telling themselves stories based upon the pictures of the book.  This is a really important pre reading skill.

Lift the flap books and Care Bear books are some of the class favorites.  

Our finished artwork.  We are a bunch of Picassos in the making!!

Leprechauns, Shamrocks and Spring

We had the first taste of spring this week!  We were able to get outside on both Tuesday and Thursday and go for a walk.  We looked for signs of spring and heard a lot of birds singing, saw cardinals, finches and sparrows and a few robins, as well as a gaggle of geese flying back from the south.  We closed our eyes and felt the sun warm our faces and the wind blowing on our skin as well as having fun counting jets as we saw them flying across the sky.  We enjoyed looking at our shadows.  We loved doing different movements like waving and jumping and watching our shadows do the same thing!  We were so happy to have a chance to run around and chase our shadows!!

Jackson was our Maple Leaf of the Week.  He brought in yummy dirt cups as a treat.  We decided to play a little joke on the class and told them that Jackson went out back and dug up some dirt since he didn't have time to make any other snack.  When the kids heard this their looks were priceless!  Then Jackson and I started giggling and told them he really brought in pudding, crushed oreos and gummy worms and the relief spread over their faces. Pretty soon we were all laughing and enjoying the delicious treats!  Thanks Jackson for helping to make our week extra fun!

A leprechaun got in the building this week.  It left us a note and we tried to find him (Liam the Leprechaun) but all we could find was a box Lucky Charms and a unicorn castle that he left for us!  We made a leprechaun trap and put it out, but we only caught his shillelagh...we think he used it to get himself unstuck from our trap.  He left us another note and we went upstairs to find him.  Pastor Ashley and Lisa told us they saw something green go running by.  We were so excited and then we saw he left us gold all over the narthex!!  We each  found nine pieces of gold.  When we went downstairs he had taken our leprechaun ladders and hung them up and left us 2 more pieces of gold covered chocolate coins!!  What fun!! Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Going on one of our spring walks.  We were all so happy to get outside again!!

Our Maple Leaf of the Week!

Dirt Cups and worms. Such a yummy snack!!

Making cookies in the kitchen.

A matching letter game.

Building with Magna Tiles and Lincoln Logs.

Leprechaun Ladders and St. Patrick's Day bags filled with gold!

A leprechaun movement song...Jump, jump leprechaun!!

More Dr. Seuss Fun

What a busy week!  We started Tuesday morning with Victor's mom coming in and reading us a book called Mouse Count. Victor brought in a stuffed snake, big plastic jar, and 10 colorful mice to help us act out the story while we read...what fun!  We read it twice so everyone could have a turn putting a mouse in a jar. In case you haven't read this book, here's a link to a read aloud of the book.  Your kids  may enjoy watching it at home too!   Mouse Count Video
Next,  we made a snake out of a toilet paper tube, googly eyes, a tongue and shape stickers.  We enjoyed a special snack of jello jigglers that Victor brought in to share with us.  Thanks Victor for helping make our day so special!

Throughout the week we head the stories 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and There's a Wocket in my Pocket.  There were lots of grins and giggles as we heard the silly rhymes and saw the funny creatures Dr. Seuss put in these stories!  We played a game where we created silly rhyming words with our names.  (Playing with rhyming words and sounds is one of the best things we can do to develop reading skills in preschool aged children)

Our art project for the week was to make fish out of cupcake liners.  We had a red fish, blue fish, and 2 other fish as well.  We used q-tips and white paint to create bubbles in the ocean.

We celebrated both Parker's and Teagan's birthdays this week!

Joan and I taught the kids how to build using Lincoln Logs.  We had a lot of fun constructing buildings, stables, and log cabins!

Celebrating Parker's birthday!! Thanks for the yummy mini cupcakes!

Building with Lincoln Logs...the kids loved it!!

Look what I made!!

Some of our finished buildings!

Happy birthday, Teagan!!  Thanks for the yummy rice krispie treats!!

Listening to and acting out the story Mouse Count!

Our Maple Leaf of the Week with his special friend!

Dr. Seuss

We had fun talking about Dr. Seuss this week!  During show and tell we shared our favorite Dr. Seuss book or another favorite book.  The kids had fun going around in a circle and telling us the title of their favorite book and a little bit about the book.  Then we read the book Are You My Mother? by Dr. Seuss.  On Wednesday we heard Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss.  We had a lot of fun counting the apples as we read!

Sharing our books at show and tell.

Bree was our Maple Leaf of the Week as well as our birthday girl this week!!  Her mom came in for a class visit and read us one of Bree's favorite books....Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes by Kimberly and James Dean.  She also brought in a special birthday treat to share with us!

Counting along with Bree's mom as we tried to figure out who took Pete's cupcakes?  

Listening and moving to a cd.  We're doing the Beanie Bag Dance!

Our completed dinosaur footprints!!  

A super delicious cookie cake...yum!!  Thanks Bree for helping make our week so special!