Best Touch and Feel Yet.....

The "touch and feel" pool today was a BIG hit!  We blew up lots of gloves and tied them off like balloons and put them in the pool.  I would like to go on the record and say that blowing up gloves is not as easy as they make it look on TV!  There were also several pairs of non-blown up gloves in the pool for the kids to try on.  Passing the balloons across the pool to each other, giving balloon high fives, and pretending it was a brush were some of the wonderful self-initiated games the kids came up with.  They could have played in that pool all morning!

Ms. Angela came today and the lesson was all about balance.  After a relay race with bean bags, she played a song that told us what body part to balance our bean bag. We started with it on our head, which was pretty easy, and moved to more balancing acts, like elbows, foreheads, and knees.  It was so much fun!  Everyone did a great job following directions!  She also had another course set up for us that was all about using our arms to help us balance.  There were balance beams and bridges to walk over, and a special balance board at the end.  Everyone tried to do it....even if parts of it were a little scary and we need to hold Ms. Angela's hand!

After playing on the playground, we decided to do something different and have science outside.  First, we watched a video that showed a farmer milking a cow.  You can watch it at home by searching "Milking Arabella" on YouTube.  We pretended to milk our own cow with gloves filled with water.  Tiny holes in the fingers of the gloves caused the pretend "milk" to shoot out when the kids squeezed them just right.  They LOVED it!  We were in trouble when the kids realized that they could aim that stream of water.... at each other.... and at the teachers!  We were thankful that we were outside and it didn't really matter!

Our book today was Old MacDonald Had a Farm by Jane Cabrera.  It is very similiar to the song, only at the end there is something going "waa waa waa" and we find out that Old MacDonald also has a baby on his farm!  The kids enjoyed singing this song and pretending to be their favorite animals.

Today was so much fun!  We took lots of pictures that I will post later!  I'm already getting excited about tomorrow!  Our first Natural Wonders Class!  I can't wait to see what see brings for us to explore!!

Playing in the Ooey Gooey Mixture

Mixing corn starch and water makes a mixture that isn't quite liquid, but isn't quite solid either!  It's so much fun (and exercise) for little fingers!

Fun with Ms. Michelle

Show and Tell

Henry brings in his toy tools and shows us how to use them all!  Jack tells us about his favorite Tonka truck that has a special handle and opens up to hold more toys!

Today started out as a chilly morning, but ended up being a beautiful afternoon! We began October with an overview of our new theme On The Farm. The kids were all very excited to share what they already knew about the farm and the animals that lived there. We read Barnyard Banter, which is a story about a lot of different animals from the farm and the sounds that they make. The kids enjoyed pretending to be each animal and matching sounds to pictures.

Ms. Michelle was back again today and we did Kid Yoga in the courtyard! The kids took turns drawing out cards that had visuals of each movement, and we tried our best to make our bodies look like the pictures. It was a great way to stretch out our muscles! Ms. Michelle is all about messes and today was no exception! She gave each child a bowl and some "white stuff" (corn starch) to mix with water. If you've never made this concoction at home, I strongly recommend it! It turns into a crazy mixture that is hard, but runny like a liquid when you pick it up. After the kids made the decision to actually touch it, we had trouble getting them to be finished touching it! So.....any stray patches of white on their clothes or in their hair.....no worries, it's just corn starch! Ms. Michelle promises to send a list of messy activities next week for you all to try at home. No reason we should have all the fun at school!!

No puddles on the playground today, but our class is making fast friends with the Weekday school and today everyone was playing with a new friend. Gianni was digging in the mulch, Reid was swinging, Jack was climbing, Susannah was riding a bike, and Henry was cooking in play kitchen. It was really neat to watch them divide off and play with the other kids!

Art today was cotton ball sheep. We talked about descriptive words like fluffy and soft. The kids really liked this simple project. Centers were full of new farm inspired toys, like a See N Say, a farm puzzle, and some Lace and Trace animals. The farm toys that we always have were old news!

We all missed our friend Garrett today! We hope he feels better and can join us again tomorrow! Special congratulations to Joseph and his family as they welcome a new baby sister!

The Speech Garden Preschool has pink hair for HOPE!

As part of a fund raiser for Breast Cancer Awareness month, Ms. Tiffany and I got pink hair extensions today!  Just thought we would let you know in advance so you wouldn't think we had decided run away with a rock band!!  We'll both be at school tomorrow.....just with brighter hair styles!

Our first trip to the park....

Couldn't quite catch everybody.....they were having SO much fun!!  Can't wait to go back!

Learning about signs....

We saw LOTS of both of these signs!  It was a little competition to see who could spot them first!

Stopping by the mailbox to mail some letters!