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!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Making Sensory 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!!
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!!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
FINALLY a Sunny Day....
We broke the curse!! Today was beautiful! Our Out and About simply couldn't have been better! We arrived at the pumpkin "patch" to find ourselves all alone! In true Speech Garden fashion, we turned it into our very own learning playground! The kids were running around touching the pumpkins, trying to pick up the pumpkins, yelling at each other to come look at this pumpkin, and even sitting on the pumpkins. Since the owner was no where in sight.....we let the children explore however they wanted. It was great! We found a jack-o-lantern that had withered in the sunshine. We found a pumpkin with a mysterious hole in the back of it. We found pumpkins that looked like green apples.....little pumpkins.....big pumpkins.....pumpkins that rolled around.....pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere! It was SO much fun!
Our class worked together to pick the most perfect pumpkin for our journey to the park! It was really hard for everyone to agree on just one.....but with some persuasion.....we did it! Thank you to Ms. Tiffany's mom, Mrs. Lorraine, for driving all the back packs and our special pumpkin back to school! Seven blocks is a long way to carry a pumpkin!!
The walk to the park was full of things to talk about.....a bike club waving at the kids, trucks blowing their horns, people in cars waving.....we sure do get a lot of attention while we are Out and About! At the park we used descriptive words to make sentences about our pumpkin. Everyone took a turn holding it and trying to pick it up. THEN.....we (or I) cut it open to see what was inside! I wish you could have seen their faces! We had spoons to get the seeds and the pulp out, but mostly everyone just used their hands! All the insides went into a bowl that was, after we finished, full of a super slimy and bright orange mixture! Of course, we didn't stop there! We gave our pumpkin two triangle eyes, a triangle noise, and a happy mouth! The kids all watched with amazement as the pumpkin turned into a jack-o-lantern!
After all that hard work, we couldn't leave the park without stopping for some fun playground time! The kids love that playground! Big slides, swings, bouncy toys, a huge jungle gym, and LOTS of room for running around! There is no complaining and I think that we could stay there all day! But....when the big kids from the elementary school head down the hills, it's time for us to grab the rope and go home!
When we got back to school, we only had time for lunch and Show and Tell. The kids are typically tired and quiet after a long walking Out and About, but today, with our jack-o-lantern as a table centerpiece, there was so much to talk about! And when Evan announced that he had Halloween treat bags for everyone, it was a fabulous way to end a great day! Enjoy the weekend and the Halloween holiday!
Our class worked together to pick the most perfect pumpkin for our journey to the park! It was really hard for everyone to agree on just one.....but with some persuasion.....we did it! Thank you to Ms. Tiffany's mom, Mrs. Lorraine, for driving all the back packs and our special pumpkin back to school! Seven blocks is a long way to carry a pumpkin!!
The walk to the park was full of things to talk about.....a bike club waving at the kids, trucks blowing their horns, people in cars waving.....we sure do get a lot of attention while we are Out and About! At the park we used descriptive words to make sentences about our pumpkin. Everyone took a turn holding it and trying to pick it up. THEN.....we (or I) cut it open to see what was inside! I wish you could have seen their faces! We had spoons to get the seeds and the pulp out, but mostly everyone just used their hands! All the insides went into a bowl that was, after we finished, full of a super slimy and bright orange mixture! Of course, we didn't stop there! We gave our pumpkin two triangle eyes, a triangle noise, and a happy mouth! The kids all watched with amazement as the pumpkin turned into a jack-o-lantern!
After all that hard work, we couldn't leave the park without stopping for some fun playground time! The kids love that playground! Big slides, swings, bouncy toys, a huge jungle gym, and LOTS of room for running around! There is no complaining and I think that we could stay there all day! But....when the big kids from the elementary school head down the hills, it's time for us to grab the rope and go home!
When we got back to school, we only had time for lunch and Show and Tell. The kids are typically tired and quiet after a long walking Out and About, but today, with our jack-o-lantern as a table centerpiece, there was so much to talk about! And when Evan announced that he had Halloween treat bags for everyone, it was a fabulous way to end a great day! Enjoy the weekend and the Halloween holiday!
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Our book today, Brooms are for Flying! by Micheal Rex, was full of action words. We got to practice putting -ing on the ends of words in simple sentences. More fun was when we practiced the actions from the book about Halloween characters getting ready for the holiday! There were bats flying, brooms flying, mummies reaching, and feet stomping! We made a lot of noise out in the hall laughing and being silly! We even practiced saying "trick or treat" loud enough for people to hear!
We made sock bats for art. The kids used some fine motor skills to stuff the socks with paper towels to make the bat body. We added eyes, a mouth, wings, and some scary teeth.....well, kinda scary! The kids had great fun flying their bats around the classroom. Ms. Tiffany and I were holding our breath that they made it home in one piece!
Ms. Angela came today and we continued practicing kicking and trapping soccer balls. We did finally get to go outside, which is SO much better for kicking, but it sure was muddy out there! That added a whole new element to running around chasing soccer balls! We worked a lot in partners today, and even though it's hard when we don't get the partner that we want, working together is a good part of being a team! I think that everyone's favorite activity of the day was kicking into the goals! As always, Ms. Angela is a really bit hit!
In calendar and centers, we continue to work on basic counting skills, learning the days of the week, and letter recognition and identification. The kids are getting the hang of the question and answer schema, and are becoming more independent every day!
The kids all got a special treat from Mr. Gary, who works at the church. His wife made Halloween pins for our preschool and, at the end of the day, each child got to pick the one that they wanted. There were ghosts, and witches, and jack-o-lanterns. It was a nice way to end a very fun day!
We made sock bats for art. The kids used some fine motor skills to stuff the socks with paper towels to make the bat body. We added eyes, a mouth, wings, and some scary teeth.....well, kinda scary! The kids had great fun flying their bats around the classroom. Ms. Tiffany and I were holding our breath that they made it home in one piece!
Ms. Angela came today and we continued practicing kicking and trapping soccer balls. We did finally get to go outside, which is SO much better for kicking, but it sure was muddy out there! That added a whole new element to running around chasing soccer balls! We worked a lot in partners today, and even though it's hard when we don't get the partner that we want, working together is a good part of being a team! I think that everyone's favorite activity of the day was kicking into the goals! As always, Ms. Angela is a really bit hit!
In calendar and centers, we continue to work on basic counting skills, learning the days of the week, and letter recognition and identification. The kids are getting the hang of the question and answer schema, and are becoming more independent every day!
The kids all got a special treat from Mr. Gary, who works at the church. His wife made Halloween pins for our preschool and, at the end of the day, each child got to pick the one that they wanted. There were ghosts, and witches, and jack-o-lanterns. It was a nice way to end a very fun day!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
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