It's Autumn Time

I'm way behind on posting this, but better late than never...

We had a lot of sick kids during this week in Oct. during preschool. There were only 3 boys on Tuesday and 4 boys on Thursday. I thought this would make for a looong preschool day, trying to figure out things to keep them busy since it wouldn't take them as long to complete a task. But it was actually the opposite. The boys focused on each task intently and the day was over before we knew it.

On Tuesday we talked about Autumn and the changes that occur. We painted a colorful tree with different leaf colors and also went on a leaf collecting walk. The walk lasted much longer than I anticipated. The boys loved walking around and collecting fun shaped and different colored leaves. We dried our leaves in the oven (since it was a bit damp outside) and squished them between some contact paper to hang up on a window as a light catcher.

On Thursday we focused on pumpkins. We made pumpkin cookies, which the boys loved. It's the easiest recipe ever: (I think I'll bring some to our party on Friday)

1 package spice cake mix

1 (15 oz) can solid pack pumpkin

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the cake mix and pumpkin until well blended. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 min. Let cool for 2 min. until placing on cooling rack to cool completely.

We cut open a pumpkin and became "pumpkin scientists" by seeing what shape and color the pumpkin was, how it smelled (before and after cutting it open), measuring how big around it was, and then evaluating what the goop inside felt like. The boys were a little apprehensive at first to stick their hand inside to get the goop out, but they cringed and dove in. We toasted pumpkin seeds and the kids enjoyed them. We did counting, math, and pattern making with the pumpkin seeds and marshmallows.

We also made cute jack-o-lanturn luminaries by decoupaging orange tissue paper to some empty jars. I pre-cut some eyes, noses, and mouths in black to stick on as well. It was super easy and they turned out so cute.

Field Trip to National Aquarium

After a fun week at preschool learning about oceans and fish, we decided to go on a field trip to the National Aquarium in Washington, DC.

The kids had a great time exploring the aquarium...

playing with their friends...

and admiring the sea life...

Afterward we headed outside to enjoy a picnic lunch on a beautiful day!

Super Woman Adelia on her way to the picnic...

and the kids got to run, jump, and play hide and seek in amongst the red ant nests. :)

Fish

October 22, 2009

Today we talked about fish. We talked about different kinds of fish, where they live, what they eat, how they breathe, and how they swim. It was a very active day.

Once again we started out playing with play-do. During circle time we talked about the letter "F" and different words that start with "F". We also practiced writing the letter "F". We sang "Five little fish". The boys really liked that one because it was about 5 fish that tease Mr Shark and then Mr Shark chomps them. We all pretended to be fish. Here we are swimming like fish. And then we made fish faces. Sorry there is no sound on the video. In all honesty, it's probably better than way!



After pretending to be fish, we ate some fish. We did fish "subtraction" I gave the boys fish and asked them to count them. Then I would ask, "How many fish are left if you eat 2?" They all ate fish and then counted them again.
Then we sorted them according to color and made different lines and patterns.

After our much needed snack, we came back to the living room to read a book. We read The Rainbow Fish. It's a cute book about a beautiful fish with colorful and sparkly scales. The fish was very proud of his scales and wouldn't share them when asked. Then all the other fish wouldn't play with him because he was mean and wouldn't share. The wise octopus told him to share and it would make him happy. In the end, he shared his shiny scales with the other fish and they were all friends.Then we made our own rainbow fish. We practiced cutting pieces of tissue paper, and glued them onto our fish. The boys chose where they wanted the sparkly scale and where to glue their google eyeball.

Our rainbow fish!

Then we played a game called "Share-fish and Sel-fish" We went fishing and each fish had a scenario on its back of either being selfish or sharing. The boys had to tell me which was which. (This is actually a FHE lesson I got a while ago, so if anyone is interested in it, let me know and I'll share it with you) Here are the boys pulling out their "fish"

Allen got a fish.

Seth caught a fish.

Jack pulling in his fish.

Thomas got a fish. Truman is happy that he caught a fish.

Berkley caught one too!

After fishing, the boys played downstairs while I cleaned up the tissue paper mess. During lunch things got a little silly. The boys were putting their lunch boxes over their heads. They thought it was pretty funny. I had to put an end to that activity however, when one of the boys decided to put his plastic grocery bag over his head. Oh well. Better safe than sorry.

Sometimes I think the boys prefer paying with each other rather than listening to me talk about fish. The Foosball table is a big hit at our house.
We missed you David. Hope you feel better!

Oceans

Oct 20, 2009

Today we talked about oceans. We talked about where they are, what's in them, and what they're made out of. Here are some of our activities of the day.

We started out the day by playing with play-do. The boys were very creative with the cookie cutters and the play-do.

Then we had circle time. We talked about different words that begin with the letter "O", and we practiced writing our names and the number 3. We read a few books about oceans. The boys liked "10 Little Rubber Ducks" by Eric Carle. It's about 10 rubber ducks that get lost in the ocean. I learned from the boys that there is a quacking button at the end of the book. So we all took many turns pushing the button that quacked.

Then we played a game of what does and does not go in an ocean.
I had various thing in a bag for the boys to pull out and they all had to decide if it went in an ocean or not. Notice that Dora and Batman do NOT belong in an ocean!

After our game we went to the table for a snack of blue jello and Swedish fish. I made the jello and then when it was mostly set I pushed in the fish so it looked like it was swimming in blue water. It was a yummy, sugary snack.

Then we made our own aquariums. The boys had fun choosing their ocean stickers. Of course I had to make sure that I had enough sharks for everyone. Funny how no one was interested in the pink dolphins! After choosing their stickers, they glued on their blue celo wrap, and we stapled the plates together. I'm sorry that I didn't get a picture of the finished product, but you all know what they ended up looking like. Here they are in the middle of making their aquariums.

After our craft we had to go "Feed the shark"

The boys took turns throwing beanbags into the shark's mouth. I think they all enjoyed it.

After feeding the shark they all played downstairs until it was time for lunch. I think we all had fun today. And I hope that they learned something.

FISH!

Today we learned about fish. We discussed fish facts while looking at a book about hundreds of different kinds of fish. Again, the kids were hooting and hollering about all the grotesque or the funny-faced fish they saw in the book. Their enthusiasm was catchy!

We discussed what fish eat, where they live, how they breathe, etc. When I told them that fish have a backbone like the kids have, they all wanted to feel each other's backbones. Rachel volunteered to touch her toes so that everyone could run their finger up her backbone - thanks, Rachel!

After the factual lesson about fish, it was time for some fantasy. I read them "A Fish out of Water" by Helen Palmer. It's about a boy and his goldfish - he feeds the fish too much and it grows to gigantic proportions. It was a fun book and led to a discussion about pet fish. So then we showed them Mr. Pepper. Mr. Pepper (as Daniel named him) came to visit us for the week (he's now back at the pet store), and the kids had fun watching him swim.

No, you haven't forgotten your glasses. My photography skills and camera (it won't do close-ups) leave something to be desired.

The kids worked hard at copying the letter F and coloring in the fish on their papers.

Now it was time to get the wiggles out. I played "The Goldfish" song, by Laurie Berkner and the kids went crazy dancing! Really crazy! The song talked about fish brushing teeth and washing hair and was very silly, so the kids acted it out and danced and spazzed.

After all of that tiring dancing, it was time to fuel up my fish. We made little ponds with fish, by taking Ritz crackers, spreading on blue-tinted cream cheese and swimming the goldfish in the cream cheese. They all ate them up! (even the ones who seemed to think they might not like cream cheese)

Ellie was quite attached to the lobster.

We then read "The Rainbow Fish". It had a good moral about sharing and the kids even picked up on that. When it was time to share the silver scales for their own rainbow fish, everyone shared and didn't grab. It's nice to see the lessons getting through!

We also all took fishing poles and went fishing for fish with numbers and practiced counting (I forgot to take pictures).

It was sort of funny how much glue some of the kids got on their hands, until there was more tissue paper stuck to their fingers than the papers!

Finished product! They all did a great job.

They were all itching to go out to the trampoline, so I released them out into the wild. I actually had more fish activities planned, but they couldn't be caged inside any longer. Now, being caged outside wasn't a problem...