Our FAVORITE frog song....

The frog life cycle is a pretty neat thing to see....especially through the eyes of our children.  We learned all kinds of new vocabulary words that describe how a frog grows:  from egg, to tadpole, to froglet, into adult frog.  The kids had already completed a chart about all the things they knew about frogs.....which was quite a lot, but now they have some new "grown up" words to use too!

Susannah brought in a toy kit that had pieces for each stage of the frog's life cycle.  She told us all about each one as she showed them to the class.  The kids took turns talking about similarities and differences from each stage. The asked the best questions!  Turn taking, sharing, asking and answering questions, listening....it was one of those priceless (however, unplanned) teaching moments!

The book today was Too Many Frogs by Sandy Asher.  In the story, Rabbit lives alone. He cooks for himself, cleans up for himself, and at the end of the day, reads himself a story. It's a simple life, and he likes it. But one evening, Froggie shows up at his door. He wants to listen to Rabbit's story, too. While eating a snack-or three. While lounging on a pillow-or ten. And bringing over his family-dozens and dozens of frogs! Rabbit has finally had enough; Froggie will have to go! But when he sits down alone to read himself a story, Rabbit realizes something is missing: someone to listen; someone to share a wonderful story.  Froggie is missing!!

The discussion after the story turned from frogs to sharing, using warm fuzzies, and making friends.  The book is so cute, but I didn't think that the kids would hone in on the character lessons within.  I'm continuously suprised by them!  Despite all the whining, arguing, and frustrations that naturally come with a group of 4 and 5 year olds.....they truly are kind little people, and geniunely care about each other!

On a side note.....THREE MORE DAYS OF SCHOOL!!!!

Fat Frogs on a Skinny Log by Sara Riches is a simple counting book that begins with one fat frog sitting on a skinny, slippery, slimy, slithery log.  It is full of repetitive adjectives and builds from one frog, up to 10 frogs before the log turns over and everyone is dumped into the pond.  The kids thought this book was hilarious!  They even wanted to read it TWICE!!

We didn't get to play outside today because the playground was too wet from all the rain. The kids voted (our new class policy when making a decision) to do centers in the classroom.  It always shocks me that the writing and math centers are a big hit!

We found some really cute frog videos on YouTube, but this one was the obvious favorite.  The kids loved the idea of talking to an actual frog.....and, one named Francois!!  What could be more fun!

ANTS were the insects of the day!! These little bugs are easy to find outside....we've all seen them everywhere!!

We had to start the day with our science activity because it needed some time to "work"!  We made some predictions about what kinds of foods that ants might like to eat.  The kids named all sorts of things!  Then we took a paper plate and divided it into three sections....cake, cereal, and grapes.  With real food in each section, we voted again!  Cake and grapes were pretty closely matched!  The kids have really got the hang of this voting thing!  We dropped our plate off in the sunshine on our way to the playground.....hoping that some ants would find their way for a snack....

Our book of the day was one of Ms. Ellen's favorite, Hey Little Ant by father/daughter team, Phil and Hannah Hoose.  This book poses the eternal question:  to squish or not to squish!  There is a boy in the book who struggles with what to do about the little ant he finds beneath the shadow of his shoe.  The best part about this book....it ends with a question....What would you do?  The kids get to decide how it ends.  10-1 we decided to let the ant go!  I wouldn't dare say which kiddo has a small rebellious streak and wants to step on the ant.....my lips are sealed!

A check of our science on the way out to find Moms showed only a few ants!  They were on the cake when we started observing, but those ants were indecisive!  They wanted to try all the foods and crawled from section to section with no apparent favorite!  Each child walked away from our little experiment thinking that they had made the right prediction!!  Couldn't have worked out more perfect!!

I almost forgot to mention art today!  It was full of surprises!  I can't tell you about the things we made.....it's a secret....maybe the crafts will stay hidden in backpacks until Sunday.  If not, know that was the intention!!

What a happy way to spend my birthday!!  I think the kids were just as excited as I was!!  There had all sorts of questions about when my "party" would start and if my mom would bring cookies or cupcakes!  It turns out that Ms. Ellen took care of everything.....cake and cookies!!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

The rain finally stopped and Mr. Jimmy got rid of all the puddles under the equipment.....so outside we went for some fresh air!  We really missed the playground yesterday!!

Today's book was The Crunching Munching Caterpillar by Sheridan Cain and Jack Tickle.  This is a story about a little caterpillar who wishes he could fly.  He envies the Bumblebee for his wings, and really wants to soar through the air like Bird.  He crunches and munches along as they all tell him he wasn't meant to fly!  His friend Butterfly comes along, and smiles a secret smile when he tells him to keep dreaming because sometimes dreams come true!!  The kids all predicted correctly.....Caterpillar turned into a butterfly and his dream came true.....he could fly!

We watched a great video....that the kids LOVED....that showed a real caterpillar spinning a chrysalis and hatching into a butterfly!  There were several requests to watch it multiple times!!

For art, we made the cutest Bug Hats and then we re-enacted the caterpillar to butterfly process.  I hate we didn't video it.....we could have had our own You Tube sensation!!

There was a definite hurry to get to lunch....the kids know how this birthday thing works!  So, we lit the candles on the cake and sang BEFORE we ate.  The cake and cookies were used as a reward for little people AFTER they ate their lunch!  You might have noticed your child's lunchbox was more empty than usual.....needless to say the plan worked!

Thank you so much for making my birthday extra special!  It is amazing that I get to call what I do with your children "work"!  I am truly blessed to have found a way to share my talent and have fun everyday!  Thank you for that opportunity!

We Voted!!

We took a break from bugs today to make the kids a little more civic minded and teach them about voting! They always think it's neat to learn about the things that grown-ups are talking about.....and grown-ups are certainly talking about this vote!!

Voting is a hard concept to introduce to kids. We started with a Scholastic book called The Pledge of Allegiance. The only words are the pledge of allegiance and it has some really great pictures. The kids all knew that they lived in the United States of America, so we talked about how in our country grown-ups get to vote who is going to be in charge and make decisions. It was really cute when I said today the people would be making decisions about who would be in charge in Charlotte and the kids immediately nominated Ms. Ellen! I think she would be great in charge too.....but her schedule is kinda full!

Another moment of confusion came when Ms. Ellen introduced the word "poll" as one of our vocabulary words. This, as you know, is slightly different from the first things the kids thought of....THE NORTH POLE! The discussion almost lost focus and headed off in it's own direction.....a Santa/Christmas direction.....but we rescued it just in time!!

The highlight of the day was our trip across the street to the poll. We had already talked about our flag and what it looked like, so when the kids spotted the flag pole, we KNEW we were in the right place! A few at a time, the kids got to go inside and check out this "voting" thing! We told them that they could tell which grown-ups had voted by the special stickers on their shirts. We gave them all "grown-up stickers" of their own for doing such a great job on our mini Out and About!

We even held our own vote on the walk back to school....lunch or art. Lunch won by a landslide. I think it was an easy vote! Even the grown-ups were in agreement on this one!!

AND......What a beautiful day outside for Ms. Michelle's last day! We met her in the courtyard and she had SO many fun things set up for the kiddos to do! They were so excited to give her the cards and presents, they needed several reminders to wait until the end!! The love giving presents.....and they LOVE Ms. Michelle!!

Thank You Ms. Michelle!! We loved "finger fun" OT this year!

Here's our word cloud that describes Ms. Michelle:  happy, joy, touch, talk, sensory, skip, hop, OT, jump, move, engage, talk, soothe, learn, excite, and communicate!

Ladybugs used to be one of my favorite insects....so cute....so harmless.....right??  That all changed one summer when my house was infested with about a million or so of the little creatures!!  Nothing is cute or harmless when they come by the millions!!  I tried to hide my personal trauma associated with today's topic....the kids certainly helped.....they LOVE ladybugs!!

Today's book was The Very Lazy Ladybug by Isobel Finn and Jack Tickle.  This ladybug is so lethargic that she doesn't even know how to fly. She decides to look for a new sleeping spot, and, since her mobility is restricted, she latches on to a number of passing animals. As she soon finds out, a kangaroo is too bouncy, a monkey's incessant swinging makes her dizzy, and a tiger's roaring makes it too noisy to sleep. Finally, she thinks she's found the perfect spot-on the trunk of an elephant. However, the elephant sneezes and the ladybug is launched into the air and has to fly at last. The kids thought that the book was SO funny! 

We made ladybug books that were all about WHERE the ladybug was in comparison to other insects.  The kids had to find the right spot so that their pictures matched what the words in the book said!  It was a great following directions activity!!  Ladybugs were everywhere!!

The most fun part was teaching the kids that you could tell how old a ladybug was by counting the spots!  They thought that was the neatest thing!  It was a huge deal and such a big decision deciding how old each ladybug in the book should be......

BUZZ!!  BUZZ!!  Today was all about bees!  The kids have this fascinated/terrified relationship with this particular insect.....so we didn't quite know what to expect!

We spent a little extra time on the playground enjoying the sunshine.....and looking for bees.  Luckily, we didn't see any.  The kids decided that it was too hot for them!

Our book was The Beeman by Laurie Krebs.  It is the story of a beekeeper.  It talks about each one of the tools he needs while taking care of the bees, like the jacket with the hood and special gloves.  It talks about the different kinds of bees in the hive and how each one has a job to do.  The book even shows how to beekeeper gets out the honey.  LOTS of new vocabulary in this book, but a wonderfully simple way to help the children understand that bees, even though they might be scary, have a very important job.

During art we made paper plate bees.  The kids all took the parts and followed directions to make their bee look just like Ms. Ellen's sample.  Waiting is so hard.....but we talked about how you can't finish your work if you don't listen for the directions.

The highlight of the day was a sweet treat!  We did a honey taste test!  We used our senses to notice it was a thick substance with a pretty gold color.  The honey was sticky too.  BUT.....everyone took a taste and LOVED it!  We even had some kids who requested a second taste!!  We all agreed that next time we saw a bee outside, we wouldn't scream or be scared, we would say "thank you" for making honey!  We'll see if that works......

Swarm of bees!

May is here! The kids are so excited as we count down the number of days left in preschool until they become "green friends"! 10 MORE DAYS!!

Today we began our discussion of Bugs Above Your Head. We talked about bees, ladybugs, mosquitos, beetles, butterflies, moths, and flys. All these bugs have something in common that helps them get above our heads.....WINGS! We talked about the three parts of an insect....head, thorax, abdomen.  Big words....but new vocabulary that the kids think is cool to use!

Our introductory book today was The Bugliest Bug by Carol Diggory Shields. It's a story about a bug contest in the woods to find the "bugliest" bug. Each bug takes a turn to show off their special talent to the judges. One plain, tiny bug named Dilly watches. Dilly notices something strange about the judges, but it's too late. They turn out to be spiders who want to eat the insects. The spiders throw a web over all the bugs. Dilly tells them the only way to escape is for every bug to do what it does best. So.....the stink bugs stink, the ants march, the flys fly, and the mantis' pray. The spiders get scared and run away. All the other bugs decide that, no matter how plain, Dilly should be named The Bugliest Bug.

Ms. Michelle came today and worked on letters again. Each child was given a picture with a letter puzzle piece missing. They rode the scooter out into the room to find their missing letter. After riding back, they used magnet pieces to form the letter and, then, took turns writing the letter on the dry erase board. It was a team activity that required waiting for your partner and cheering them on. The kids all love writing and wanted to show every grown-up the letters that they could write.

Finally the playground was back to normal. Nice, spring, sunny weather outside. We spotted some bugs out there too! We also took a short walk today to watch the tree workers cut down the big tree in front of school. A crane picked it up by the roots! The kids LOVED it! I think they could have stayed out there all morning. But they came back inside comparing mosquito bites and talking about flys on their shirts.....guess that's the bad news about spring.....BUGS!!

Young Athletes Field Day Celebration!

Thank you Ms. Angela! You are awesome!

Rainy days inside make for LONG days at preschool!  Lots of grumpy faces arrived at school this morning which was not a happy way for the teachers to start the day!  We worked through all that in a morning circle time where everyone expressed their feelings and we gave each other COMPLIMENTS!  That was an unexpected vocabulary bonus for this week.....the kids love using big words and really understanding what they mean.....and it's kinda neat for us to hear too!

We learned some new weather songs today in a special music time.  The rainy weather interfered with our playground time, which turned out not to be a huge deal.  The kids haven't had a free-play, center time in so long, we decided that might be a good thing to do.  There were puzzles, farm animals, blocks, books, and a writing center.  I think everyone took a turn at the writing center.  Drawing, writing, tracing, coloring letters.....guess that's not really "work" to them yet!!

Our book today was Storm is Coming by Heather Tekavec.  It's a story about farm animals who get very scared when the farmer tells them to hurry to the barn because Storm is coming!  They don't really know what a "storm" is, but as each sign of the storm appears (wind, rain, thunder, and lightning), they are reassured that those things will scare Storm away.  It is a cute book and the kids listened so intently.  Then everyone took a turn sharing about a storm that they could remember.  Some days it's REALLY hard to tell that this is a communication preschool.....and that makes me smile!!

Thankfully the sun came out today, so we could explore the lesson on shadows!  The kids enjoyed running and jumping and watching their shadows move in the same way. We looked at shadows of trees, playground equipment, the church.....and did you know.....even sticks have shadows??  After a short experiment, the kids all now know that you need bright light or the sun to make a shadow.  We tried really hard to find our shadows in the shade and in the dark.....but, they weren't there!

Ms. Michelle came today and played a really fun letter game with us.  Each child picked an animal card, named the animal, and identified the written letter on the back of the card.  Ms. Michelle helped everyone trace that letter, then find the matching letter from the floor.  After that, the child had to find their letter in the alphabet and put it in the correct spot.  Then....they had to find a puzzle letter from a tub of beans and put that piece in the puzzle.  MANY STEPS.....but they each knew their letter when they were done!  Lots of practice with the same thing, in a bunch of different ways!!  Ms. Michelle also brought the tunnel and some circles that make sound when you jump on them.  The kids were breathing hard after a couple turns at each! 

The book today was Guess Whose Shadow! by Stephen Swinburne.  It a book that explains what shadows are and how everything has a shadow of it's own.  At the end of the book it shows different shadows and the kids have to guess what is making that shadow.  Once they got the hang of it....they got every one right.  They even started high-fiving each other!

13 more days.....

Recycle, reuse, and conserve! All new vocabulary words that we've learned this week!! The kids are really excited about learning how to "take care of the Earth"!

I have to admit that the teachers found out something new today too. Dilworth is a much cleaner neighborhood than we thought when we headed out for a Litter Pick-Up Walk! We had BIG plans to rid the streets of all kinds of trash! It was a fairly unproductive trip.....the eagle eye children did find some tiny pieces of paper, and there was the occasional rare find of a bottle top, but overall, the sidewalks to and from the park are trash-free!

The highlight of the trip was teaching the kiddos about the buddy system. Everyone had a partner for the trash walk. Each set of children was given a plastic bag for collecting. Learning to work together, take turns, and stay with your partner was probably more valuable than any actual trash that we might have picked up!

Evan brought a book from home called Protect The Earth that we used as our literature for today. It was a great story that had all of our vocabulary words from the week. The kids were all able to talk about what each word meant and give examples about how we could help the earth. It was very exciting to see how much they remember from our discussions earlier in the week. And lunch time was a whole new experience....no more throwing all the trash away.....the kiddos insisted that we start recycling some of that trash!! To protect the Earth, of course.....wow.....they take this learning thing VERY seriously!!

The Touch and Feel this morning was all the recyclable products that we collected over the weekend. I wasn't sure what the children were going to do with the stuff, but their imagination far exceeded my expectations. They found pretend telephones, telescopes, the makings for a really great tea party....and, of course.....musical instruments!! Who knew that trash could be so much fun!

To "clean up" from the morning mess, we sorted all the recyclables into categories: paper and plastic. The children did very well with this.....and they thought it was great to cheer each other on during this process.

The cheering continued as we went outside to join Ms. Angela. After a much needed warm-up (the weather was a little chilly), we practiced our hockey aims. There was a course set up and the kids took aim, and made their way through the courtyard. The object was NOT to use their hands.....but that didn't come very naturally to any of them! Ms. Angela is so much fun....the whole time is filled with laughter!

Our book today was Are We Hurting The Earth? by Margie Burton and Friends. This book reviewed all the ways that we could help keep the Earth clean and healthy. We talked about how at Preschool we could only use one squirt of soap in the bathroom, one paper towel, and make sure the lights were off when we left the room. TSGI is on a mission to do our part to take care of the Earth!

Art was a big hit! We took the recycled materials and made Trash People. The kids had so much fun designing their person. Some even found hats and earrings for their people! With a little direction, they created some great art!

We ended the day by celebrating Gianni's birthday with cookies. The kids all sang very loudly.....they have been getting lots of practice lately! LOTS of birthday kiddos this time of year!!

Trash People!

Trash OR Treasure?

What is the EARTH and how can we take care of it?  We learned that turning off the lights when we aren't in a room, using both sides of a piece of paper, planting trees, picking up litter, and recycling are just a few ways to help keep our Earth happy and healthy!

Today's book The Earth Book by Todd Parr gave some specific examples of why we should take of Earth.  We save water so that the fish will have plenty of water to swim in.....we don't throw trash on the ground so that the animals will have clean homes.....and we turn off lights to save energy.  So much to learn and the kids were so interested.  (Earlier in the year, we made them all germ aware and gave them healthy food knowledge .....and now we may have created little "green" children who are socially conscious!!)

We spent some time during language circle talking about why everyone uses green and blue when they draw the Earth.  Green for the grass (and land) and blue for the water.  We needed these facts to help us complete our art today.....which was Earth Art.  We decorated coffee filters with green and blue markers.  They didn't look all that spectacular UNTIL we sprayed them with a water bottle!  The colors started to bleed together to make beautiful works of art.  We keep them overnight to dry.....but I can't wait for you to see!

Ms. Michelle had an obstacle course with balance beams and bowling for everyone to complete.  We made wind with the big parachute and tried to keep several balls from falling off the top while we each held a handle and shook it up and down.  It was a workout!!  She also had some bandannas for us to practice folding into shapes.  Ms. Michelle explained that folding into a rectangle and a triangle are age appropriate skills for our kiddos!  It was definitely a difficult task for all of them.....so now you can request special help with folding the laundry.....as a therapy activity!!

16 more days!!!

Learning the Parts of a Plant Through Dissection!