We all made it through the very busy day, but we were definitely falling apart and ready for naps at the end of the day!! Out and About days are so much fun. It's a good thing that they take up most of the day, because we don't have much energy (or attention) left after the walk back!

The day started with Ms. Angela. She was teaching us all about baseball. We learned the names of all the bases and even got a chance to hit three balls off a tee! The kids were all so excited. There were baseballs going in all different directions....some close and some far....some forward and some backward.....but we are all good sports and cheer for our friends no matter what!

Immediately after that, we headed to Fire Station #2. The walk to our destination is always much slower than the walk home, so LOTS of encouragement is needed to keep the little feet moving! We rang the bell and the fireman came and to let us in. The first thing we got to see was the big, red, firetruck! We had all been looking forward to this. The firemen asked us questions about the things that we had been learning and we were able to tell them about 911, stop, drop, and roll, and crawling under the smoke. They were so impressed!

We got to climb in the firetruck and see where the firemen sit on their way to a fire. It was so big, everyone needed help getting up inside. We sat in front of the lockers where the firemen keep their things and watched as Fireman Joe showed us all the clothes they have to wear to a fire to keep them safe. He got dressed and told everyone not to be afraid of him if he ever needed to come to their house to help them. We all took turns giving him a high five to show that we weren't scared.....even though he did look different with the mask on!

The firemen showed us where they sleep, the kitchen where they make all their food, and the place where they watch TV. It looked just like the rooms we all have in our houses! The opened up the special garage and let us take some pictures in front of the parade truck with the big ladder on top. They also gave us each a coloring book and our very own fire hat! Fire Station #2 was great and the firemen were so helpful. We learned so much while we were there today!

After a nice quiet lunch, we all put on our new hats and pretended to be firemen. There were so many new things to practice......one child even said "Who will cook our food??". It's a whole new perspective once you get to go behind the scenes!!!

FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!!  Today was an amazing day all about Fire Fighters!  We learned so much to get ready for our Out and About to the Fire Station tomorrow.  It will be so exciting to see everything in action.

Our book today was called Fire Fighters by Norma Simon.  It was a story about all things that firemen do at the fire station and the tools they use to put out a fire.  We learned so many new vocabulary words!  We made a list of all the things from the book that we want to look for tomorrow on our trip.  We went in the hall with some pretend smoke (a white shower curtain) and talked about why it's important to stay low and crawl instead of walking.  Everyone took a turn crawling UNDER the smoke so that we wouldn't end up coughing!  It was a lot like Ms. Michelle's tunnel....so their were zero protests!

In art, we made fireman hats.  We are getting much better with painting, but it is still an activity that requires many adult hands to help!!  The hardest part was keeping the wet hats off the kiddo's heads until they were dry. 

Science was easily the favorite activity of the day!  We took a short walk to the park with our TK friends for our experiment.  After a short lesson on fire safety and some predicting about what might happen when we set the paper on fire, we put a piece of blue construction paper on the grill and lit it with a lighter!  You could have heard a pin drop!  Everyone watched in amazement as the paper burned!  They had so much fun with that activity, I don't think they even noticed that we didn't play at the park!  We talked about the science experiment the whole walk back and not one kid said anything about playing.  Instead there were some pretty difficult questions about where the paper went and why it wasn't blue anymore.  Now.....that is real progress!!

Ms. Michelle was back today and she brought so many fun things!  We started with cotton balls on a parachute.  When we shook the parachute, it made "snow".  The kids LOVED this!  So much giggling and laughter!  There were numerous, spontaneous requests to do it again!  After that, Ms. Michelle brought out some snow in a bowl.  It felt cold and wet, even though it wasn't.  She had hidden some things in the snow and had some measuring cups for the children to play with.  It was a mini Touch and Feel pool!  We finished the session by making snowmen out of marshmallows.  These were special marshmallows....not for eating.....only for art!  At least that's what I told the children.....about one hundred times!!  It wasn't as hard as you might imagine to keep the kids from eating their projects, but there were definitely some marshmallows that didn't make it onto the paper!!  Today was Ms. Erin's last day with us!  She has been a wonderful help and I'm sure Ms. Michelle will miss her as much as the kids will! 

What a fun day learning about such an important community helper!!

First thing this morning, we had the kids all help us take the white rice out of the Touch and Feel pool and color it all different colors.  Each child picked a color food coloring to add to their bag of white rice.  Then we shook it all up so that the color could get mixed all around.  Fun little way to encourage some morning exercise!  We made rice that was blue, red, yellow, and purple.  The kids loved it.....and it sure was pretty!

While our colored rice was drying, we FINALLY had our pictures taken.  The photographer was wonderful and interacted so well with all the kids.  I am sure that you will all be please with the pictures he took. 

After that, we played on the playground for a while and really enjoyed watching the wind blow all the leaves around.  We have to be careful out there because the acorns that fall are very hard and don't feel good when they hit us......but it sure is fun to explore what's inside!

Our story today was Thanksgiving Day by Gail Gibbons.  It's similar to the story we read last week about the pilgrims and the indians and how they shared the very first Thanksgiving together.  The kids all listened very well, with the promise that we would be doing something fun with our colored rice as soon as it was over! 

We used the rice to decorate the feathers on our turkey picture.  Very carefully everyone added rice to the feathers one color at a time.  The finished product was really cute and everyone completed it totally independently!!

For lunch, we decided to have a Thanksgiving picnic in the room next door.  The kids were all having such an awesome day, we had a special holiday surprise for them.  They got to watch The Berenstain Bears Count Their Blessings video during the picnic!  It's a cute story about the bear cubs wanting things that they didn't have.  A big storm came and when the bear house lost power, they all took some time to talk about things they were thankful for!  We reminded the kids how that's exactly what we had been talking about at school.

I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!  Ms. Tiffany and I are so thankful for your children.....and for you allowing us the opportunity to work with them each day!  Gobble, Gobble..... HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Lunch with the Little Pilgrims and Indians

Thank you all so much for making today such a fun day for the children!  They asked all day what time Mommies and Daddies were coming.  It was a special treat to have you all here!  I hope they you enjoyed your afternoon at with our class!

We read a book today called Thanksgiving by Brenda Haugen. It was a story that taught us about what the Pilgrims and the Indians did on their first Thanksgiving, and how that's different from the things we do now. We talked about parades, and going on trips to grandparent's houses, and eating lots of special foods.  I'm not sure if what the children said that they are doing for Thanksgiving is accurate, but everyone certainly is excited about something!!

I'm sure you all made note of the rainy (are you kidding me?) weather today!  So.....no pictures again!  That doesn't stop us!  We went on a walk around the block today rather than play on the playground.  We definitely needed a little movement break, but we didn't want wet socks and pants for our special lunch.  The kids sang songs and practiced their "I am thankful for..." sentences while we walked.  No quiet walks around here!

Lots of art projects today.  We wanted to decorate the tables so that our lunch with family could be extra special.  We made Indian or Pilgrim hats.  The children were actually complimenting each other on their coloring.....completely unsolicited!  We made Pilgrim hat cups that can be filled with a treat for later.  We put out turkey napkin rings with our names on it.....once we decided on the perfect seat for our family!  I didn't even realize that would matter! 

We almost all fell apart when the TK kiddos ate lunch early.....I wasn't sure we were going to be able to hold out until Mommies came.....but with some reminders and additional helper "jobs".....we did it!  It was so wonderful to see how excited the children were to see their family come in the door for lunch.  They have all been working so hard on the songs and sentences that we showed you today.  I hope that it is as clear to you as it is to us the significant progress that your children have been making! 

I didn't add my handprint to the Thankful Tree today.....but mine's pretty easy.....I am thankful for your children.....and the opportunity to be a part of their little lives everyday!  THANK YOU!!

LOTS of concentration....it's not as easy as it looks!!

Indoor Fun With Ms. Angela

Macaroni.....Pasta.....Noodles.....whatever you call it.....when you string it on some yarn, it makes a very fun piece of jewelry!  It takes patience and persistence, which we all got a good lesson in today, but the completed necklace it well worth the effort!  We can't wait to show it off tomorrow!

Our book today was Thank You, Thanksgiving by David Milgrim.  It's about a little girl who goes out on an errand for her mother and while she is walking, she talks about all the things she is thankful for.  In the book, there is snow on the ground and the little girl is all bundled up.  It was a real contrast from the weather we've been having lately!  After we read the book, the children all took turns practicing a "I am thankful for ....." sentence using picture cues to help us "read".  I won't tell you too much about this activity because we hope you get to see it in action tomorrow at lunch!!

Ms. Angela came today.  She had some fun warm up games where we all had to listen to the music and do the action that it told us to do.  Walking, crawling, jumping, running, tip toeing, skipping, and galloping......it might have been the longest song ever created, but the kids certainly enjoyed it!  The main lesson today was about hockey and hitting a puck with a small hockey stick.  Everyone got a turn to pass the puck to their friends. They all waited and cheered on their friends so nicely!  As a reward for such great listening skills, Ms. Angela took orange swimming noodles and stacked them up in a pile. The kids took turns jumping over the pile.  It was fun to see the kids expressions when they cleared the jump, and when they knocked all the noodles down!  Either way, we all left Ms. Angela laughing!

Outside time started off with a light sprinkle.  The kids are getting used to being out in the rain.  They hardly noticed.  The funny part was that today the Weekday teachers saw us outside and hurried out to join us!  We are rubbing off!!  Now, I must tell you that they left.....very quickly.....when the sprinkling rain got a little heavier!  We, in true TSGI fashion, waited until all the kids were seeking shelter under the climbing equipment to call it a day!! A little rain never hurt anybody!!  Fingers crossed that tomorrow the Thursday curse won't continue.....we would love to finally mark pictures off the list.....but it doesn't look like the weather is going to cooperate!! We'll see......    

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!  Today we started learning all about Thanksgiving....and it only makes sense to talk about TURKEYS!! 

Ms. Michelle had an indoor circuit set up for us to jump, spin, rock, and carry heavy balls.  Spinning was easily the class favorite, but everyone took turns doing all the activities.  Then we headed outside for a special treat!  Ms. Erin brought this huge box of different colored feathers for us to explore.  We dug through the feathers to find some buried treasures.  Did you notice it was especially windy today?  To the delight of the children, every time someone mixed up the feathers a big gust of wind would carry them across the courtyard.  Red feathers, blue feathers, purple and bright pink feathers......later today strangers might wonder what kind of exotic birds live near the church!  Ms. Michelle had a turkey template and once we gave the turkey eyes and feet, we got to choose some of our favorite feathers to add to the picture.  By the end of the activity,  we had feathers all over us!  In our hair, on our clothes, stuck to our faces.....who knew feathers could be so messy??  Cleaning up was kinda difficult, but everyone was laughing so much nobody really minded!

Our book today was Thanksgiving is For Giving Thanks by Margaret Sutherland.  In the book, the children talk about all the things that they are thankful for.  They were thankful for their families, their teachers, their pets, for playing outside, and for food.  Our class talked about what it means to be thankful and how lucky we are to have all the things that we do.  We are going to be talking all week about being "thankful" so be sure to use that new vocabulary word at home too.

Before we sat for our art project, we went on a leaf collection walk.  We gathered red, orange, yellow, green, and brown leaves in a bucket.  Some were big and some were little.  Ms. Tiffany and I are thankful for all the beautiful trees surrounding the church.  So much variety, and so many pretty colors, in such a little space.  We used the leaves as feathers for our hand print turkeys.  If your child's turkey looks a little plump, it probably means that they probably had wiggly fingers while we were tracing!

We also started making a class turkey.....but he has lost his feathers!!  Please help us make him some more by decorating the feather we sent home today.  Use magazine clippings, drawings, words, or pictures to include things that you and/or child is thankful for.  The children are all so excited about lunch with Mommies and Daddies on Thursday.....we can't wait to show off for you!!

Putting those new pointers to good use!

No pictures today!  I knew when we got assigned the Thursday spot, we were in trouble!  I guess they don't know about the Thursday curse!!  So.....of course, you got your children all dressed up.....and it rained!  We'll try again next week!!

Our community helper for the day was teachers.  It was a really fun way for the kids to show off what they know!  We talked about what teachers do and say and look like!  We decided to do art early today because we were going to use the project for the rest of the day.  We made teacher pointers.  The kids have been learning the first letter of their name, so we took some letter tiles and stuck them to the end of the pointer so we could know which one belonged to which child.  Oh the pointing we did!!  We pointed to letters....and numbers....and shapes....and colors.....and the days of the week.....and the weather chart..... and the schedule....and our letter of the week!  We pointed to pictures in books.....we pointed to items around the classroom.....we pointed to our friends names!  This art project was easily the most favorite of the year so far!  The funny part is that when you ask the children in your class to "be the teacher", you get to see yourself like they see you.  They do what you do and say what you say.  They even copy your not so attractive mannerisms!  Someone famous said that imitation is the highest form of flattery.  Not sure about the accuracy of that, but they sure were cute!

The book today was Teacher; Sharing, Helping, Caring by Patricia Hubbell.  The book went through all the things that the teacher helps the children do and learn through the school week.  We talked about how the kids in the book did some of the same things that we did everyday.  Everyone was a really good listener for the whole story.

Today was an extra-ordinary, inside day!  No pictures like we planned.  No playground time because of the rain.  No Out and About.  BUT.....I think the kids had just as much fun today as any day.  It's not very often that the children get to stand up and tell the whole class what to do.....and they never get to do it with the teacher's permission!!!

Dr. Wheelock's got nothing on us!!  Today WE were the vet for all the animal puppets.  We checked out their eyes, noses, mouths, felt their tummies, gave them shots, band-aids, and big hugs!  There were sick turtles, and sick bears, and sick birds....even a sick kangaroo!! 

Our book today was Sally Goes to the Vet by Stephen Huneck.  It's a story about a dog named Sally that is playing with her friend Bingo the cat.  She is running and doesn't see the tree in front of her.  She bumps her head and falls down.  Her people daddy takes her to the vet, who checks her out.  After a shot, he sends her home and tells her she will feel better soon. 

In art we made Sally puppets.  Everyone colored spots on their "Sally", then we gave her two eyes, one nose, and a red tongue.  We had fun putting the puppets on our hands and barking at all the other dogs in the room!

Ms. Angela came today.  We did more catching and throwing.  It was tricky this time because we had to stay inside because the courtyard was occupied.  After our warm-up, Ms. Angela gave everyone ribbons on a stick.  We had to listen closely to the directions and twirl the ribbons where she said.  We moved them high, low, and side to side.  Then we switched hands and did the same thing!  The kids loved it....and it sure was pretty to watch all the different colors flying around the room.  Then Ms. Angela had four catching/throwing stations set up around the room.  The kids could choose from bean bag toss, basketball, throwing to a friend, and velcro tennis target.  I think that all the kids took a turn at each activity, with some teacher prompting, but it was clear by the end that everyone had a specific favorite that they kept coming back to.  Ms. Angela is so encouraging and patient.....AND she is teaching us so much!

We caught up on Show and Tell today too.  The kids are really improving in their ability to listen and ask questions.  There was even some follow-up conversation between kids as we walked to dismissal!  It's really neat to think back to the first day we did Show and Tell and remember how much talking the adults had to do.....now there's always a kid taking the lead! 

Making Two New Friends at the Vet

JubJub and Dr. Wheelock

I hope the kiddos got lots of rest while they were out of school because there was so much going on today, there wasn't even time for Show and Tell!  Don't worry....we will make it up tomorrow!  We continued with the monthly Community Helpers theme, talking today about a special helper for animals.....a veterinarian!

Ms. Michelle started our day with some Kid Yoga.  The kids all love to try and copy the movements of the people on the picture cards.  Stretching, and reaching, and balancing.....helps us practice moving our body in space.  Then we painted trees with textured paint brushes (handles with rags and sponges on the ends).  It was really neat how using these tools left a pattern on the paper!  While that dried some, we each went through the favorite blue tunnel a few times.  No hesitation from anybody.....even a little pushing to get to the front of the line!!  Amazing what a difference a few weeks makes!  We finished the session by adding thumb-print apples to our trees.  The red paint was sparkling with glitter, so it was especially fun to get on our fingers!

Our book of the day helped us learn some important facts to get ready for the Out and About.  It was called I Want to Be a Veterinarian by Michaela Muntean.  Ernie, from Sesame Street, took his dog Barkly to the vet's office.  There were pictures of all kinds of animals in the waiting room that a vet can see in his office.  We even learned about special vets who see animals at the farm and at the zoo!  The story told us all about Barkly's visit to the vet and how he even got medicine to make him feel better.

Our Out and About today was a trip to Dilworth Animal Hospital.  Dr. Wheelock and his staff were so friendly and helpful.  They showed us how they examine a sick animal, just like the people doctor examines us when we don't feel well.  It just so happens that Dr. Wheelock's furry little dog, JubJub, was sick today, so we got to watch the doctor check him out!  First, he used a special light to look in his eyes.  We all got a turn to look in a friend's eyes.  Then, the doctor used another tool to look in JubJub's ears.  He checked his mouth and teeth, then felt his tummy and fur.  We helped Dr. Wheelock figure out that JubJub had a tummy ache!  After he starts taking his special doggie medicine, he should feel better in a few days!

The highlight (for the kids) was the THREE lizards that we got to see!  They each looked very different.  One even had a blue tongue!!  Dr. Wheelock helped us touch two of the lizards very gently.  One was soft, and the other one felt very rough!  The staff at the office commented how very calm and engaged all the kids were!  Wow!  We have come a LONG way from our first Out and About where everyone was falling apart before we made it back to school!

Today was a fun day and the bright sunshine was beautiful!  It certainly didn't feel like the second week in November is supposed to feel outside!  In a month where we celebrate thankfulness.....the weather definitely made the list today!!

Kelly and Ellen present at Through the Eyes of a Child

Future Dentists of America!

Learning about the Dentist....

Open up and say AHHHHHH!  Today was all about the dentist!  We couldn't get a trip scheduled to the dentist office, but we had plenty of props to help make it real.  I have a whole family of dentists and they were more than eager to share some really cool things for the kiddos.

We had a large set of teeth, for counting and pulling teeth.  THIRTY TWO teeth!  Wow!  That's more numbers than we have on our calendar!  We had x-rays, lights, masks, gowns, toothbrushes, dentures, and even syringes.  We are starting to get the hang of playing "dress up" as community helpers, and using our friends for experimental patients, so looking in each others mouths and giving play shots was no problem today! 

Our book today was called Maisy, Charley and the Wobbly Tooth by Lucy Cousins. It was all about Charlie's trip to the dentist because he had a loose tooth.  He was scared at first, so all his friends went with him, but he soon figured out that the dentist office was not a scary place.  The dentist chair leans back and spins around, the x-ray machine takes pictures of your teeth, and sometimes you get a sticker for being brave! Everyone listened as we read, then we took turns matching things from our book to the real objects we had to explore.   

Ms. Angela came today and we worked on throwing and catching.  The first, and most important part says Ms. Angela, was warming up our arms for throwing and our ears for listening.  We did this by playing the drums!  Ms. Angela played a beat and we had to copy it.  Sometimes she played fast, and sometimes it was slow.  We had to be a good listener to make our drum sound just like hers!  Playing catch with a partner was next.  I know we have been dressing like doctors and dentists this week, but there might be some baseball stars in our group too!  We spent as much time running after the balls, as we did actually throwing and catching!  Ms. Angela had a finale game that was full of imagination and pretending.  She told the kids that it snowed in the courtyard last night and we were going to have a snow ball fight!  It was her against all the kids.....but they had to throw the balls over the net in order to get her!  Once all the balls were on the other side of the net, she called the kids over and told them to throw the "snow balls" at the teachers!  Well.....you can imagine the pure joy!  How often do you get PERMISSION to throw things at your teacher??  Ms. Angela is so fun and creative!  The kids love her and we are so lucky that she is a part of our program!

The ending of the day was a delightful surprise!  Joseph (and his mom) brought baby Juliette for Show and Tell.  She slept quietly while he told us all about what she liked to eat and how old she was, but the action really started when he took out her pacifier.  She started to cry and all the children suddenly became VERY interested in baby Juliette!  I'm not sure that they knew she was real until then!  Garrett had Space Ice Cream to share that he got on his recent trip to Washington.  The kids didn't understand how it could be ice cream when it was hard and not cold.  We had so much fun exploring it together!  Susannah brought her teddy bear and gave everyone a chance to give him a squeeze.  When we reminded the kiddos that there was no school tomorrow, there were a lot of moans and groans!  When the kids hate to miss school, it's always a nice boost to the teacher's ego..... I love that they love it here!

A Band-Aid Makes It All Better!!

The Doctor Is In!!

Can You Find Your Friends Heartbeat?

Making Sensory Boxes

Thank you Ms. Michelle and Ms. Erin for helping us start these wonderful boxes!

Learning about the doctor was so much fun!!  Today we began our monthly unit on Community Helpers and started off with "Helpers that Help Us"! 

Our book was Katie Goes to the Doctor by Liesbet Slegers.  It's a story about a little girl who gets sick with a fever and a cough.  Her mom takes her to the doctor's office.  At first, she is a little scared, but once she sees all the neat tools that the doctor uses, she is brave.  He gives her some medicine and she knows that even if it's yucky, it will make her feel better.  The kids loved listening to the story and all had to share about a time that they were sick and had to take yucky medicine.

I brought in some of the doctor's "tools" for the kids to explore.  We had masks, gloves, tongue depressors, a stethoscope, band-aids, and a reflex hammer.  Each child took turns dressing up like a doctor.  Then we listened to each others heart beat.  It was really fun to watch the kids eyes when they started to hear something through the stethoscope!  We checked everyone's reflexes and determined that we were all just fine!  Nobody needs a trip to the real doctor!  Let's hope it stays that way!

For art, we traced pictures of our arms on paper.  We colored them just like our skin and made several red spots for our "boo boos".  Then we pretended to be doctors again and put band-aids on the arm to make it feel all better.  This might have been our most successful art project yet.  The kids were really serious about applying those band-aids.  Everyone did such a great job, we all got one extra band-aid to wear on our bodies.  Who knew that was such a motivator??

Ms. Michelle and Ms. Erin came today and helped us all create individual Touch and Feel boxes for at home.  We added two kinds of pasta and a whole bag of fun things to explore and build fine motor skills.  The kids had so much fun building their boxes and then mixing up the contents.  Jewels, bag clips, pipe cleaners, paper clips, and pom poms make fun surprises to hide and find in the pasta.  Tucked inside your child's box in a sheet with more ideas for you to use at home.  Happy playing!

There was new mulch on the playground today and we all noticed it right away!  It gave us plenty to talk about and explore while we were outside.  Our weekday friends had so much fun running around in it, that several of our friends joined in and played too.  Even though it was a little chilly out there, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful first day of November!   Can't wait until tomorrow!!