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!! 

Butterflies

It was so nice to see everyone again after spring break!! The kids all had things that they were so excited to share with one  another during circle time... playing outside, going on trips, visiting with family, etc.

Tuesday was extended day and we had nine children in our "lunch bunch".  After lunch we walked down to Wildwood Park on 1st Avenue and had so much fun playing outside for a good 45 minutes! Fortunately the weather was nice every day this week so we made sure to get outside and take advantage of it!!

We learned about butterflies this week.  We read several books about caterpillars and butterflies including Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  We had live painted lady caterpillars waiting for us in circle time!  We've put them in a butterfly garden and we're observing them each day as they turn into butterflies.  In just three days we saw them nearly double in size!

During art we painted egg cartons that we're turning into caterpillars and we created beautiful butterflies with Mrs. Chyko using the squish art technique.

Teagan was our Maple Leaf of the Week.  We had a special treat on Tuesday and on Wednesday her mom came in and we had a dance party!! So much fun!!  Thanks Teagan for helping make our week so special!!

Thanks for the delicious cupcakes, Teagan!!

We used our rainbow rope to stick together when we walked to the park!

Our Tuesday "lunch bunch" at Wildwood Park.

We loved the dance party!!

Lots of creativity, thinking and imagination was going on during activity time... building, playing with cars, and

working in the housekeeping center!!

We think Mrs. Willer may have made the world's largest hopscotch! We all wanted to have a turn to jump in it!!  

Spring Fun

The week before spring break we heard lots of stories about rabbits and eggs including Peter Rabbit, Max Counts His Chickens, Max's Easter Parade, The Great Easter Egg Hunt, and Can You Find the Eggs, Pooh? We also practiced singing with Mrs. Jenkins and had a lot of fun getting outside to play!
We decorated bags so we could go on an Easter Egg Hunt.  We each had to find 6 eggs, each a different color.  The kids did a great job with this...a great thinking and counting activity!

Ellery was our Maple Leaf of the Week as well as our birthday (half birthday) girl!!  Ellery and her mom taught us about cactus and the dessert and then we each got to paint our very own cactus!

We had fun drawing together!

Our decorated Spring Eggs.  We used pom poms to paint with!

Ellery and her mom reading a book to us about the desert! 

Painting our cactus.  When we finished painting we went to choice time!

It's fun to see how much the kids are now able to create with sidewalk chalk.  Letters are everywhere, as well as different types of animals and people!!

Ellery's birthday treat.  Homemade cupcakes....yum!!!

Happy Birthday, Ellery!!  Thanks for helping to make our week so much fun!!

Bunnies and Eggs

We finished our Monet paintings this week by adding little dots of color to create flowers on our lily pads.  We had fun painting with pom poms and clothespins this week as well.  We read several books about bunnies and eggs, had music with Mrs. Jenkins, and loved playing outside.  Graham was our birthday boy and Everly was our Maple Leaf. We enjoyed celebrating with both of them!  Mrs. Willer came in on Thursday and during activity time helped us put together 2 giant floor puzzles!  Mrs. Chyko taught us a new game called Zitternix.

Happy Birthday, Graham!!  4 years old!!

Thanks Graham for the delicious brownies!!

Everly's mom and dog, Tygh, came in.  He weighed 150 pounds and was taller than most of us!!  He showed us some of his tricks and let us pet him.  He was so soft!  He also liked to give kisses!!  He was soooo big he reminded us of Clifford the Big Red Dog.  Later in the day we heard a story about Clifford's  Easter.  We thought of Tygh while we were reading it!!

Everly loves unicorns so she brought in rainbow, unicorn cupcakes!  What a yummy treat!  

Everly brought in a picture that looked liked Tygh for us to color!  Thanks Everly for helping make our week so special!

. We used watercolor paper and mixed our own watercolor paints on a painter's palette to create our masterpieces.  Beautiful!!! Can you find  the picture of the real Monet painting?