Air and Space Museum

Everyone had a good time in the "How Things Fly" exhibit. Air is a cool thing!

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Hmm. What should I say about preschool on Thursday? Well, we read some fun books about babies. This one was super funny:

But it's told from the perspective of Sophie, who's not thrilled about every aspect of being a big sister. So, we talked about how you can't believe EVERYTHING you read (or hear).

When I read this page, Matthew (our newest big brother) said, "Why? Why don't you want to watch?" You're right, we Americans can be kind of stuffy sometimes, Matthew.

This page was the reason why Simone insisted I read it at preschool. Any book that mentions "underwear" is a winner!

And I just loved this book, especially because of the illustrations:

How many books about babies show babies looking like this? Like they really do when they're first born?

Simone said, "That baby looks mad!" And Maylie said that the baby looks like a monkey. Rachel promised her new babies didn't look like that when they were born. Those are some pretty cute, chunky little ones Adelia has; maybe Rachel knows what she's talking about!

And we listened to this book on CD:

Ellie also shared a book about McDuff getting used to a new baby in the family. It was fun to read about how a new baby is an adjustment for a pet as well.

We also ate baby food for a snack. The kids liked the cheerios, of course, but actually were not excited about eating the pureed fruit that Gerber makes. Perhaps they were hungry having skipped snack, and that could help explain their behavior.

We colored some emergent reader books about what babies and big boys/girls can do.

Matthew colored the face of the baby in his book red because he says that new babies have red faces.

We learned how to sign "baby" and some other family words.

And we compared dry and wet diapers. The Kirkland brand diapers hold just over 3 cups. The full ones are very squooshy and heavy, we noticed.


Now, there were some other things we talked about that I hadn't planned for:

1. We talked about how sometimes friends say unkind words (this happened quite a bit on Thursday). But then the next day they've forgotten all about being mad. So, we just have to forgive and forget.

2. We talked about patiently waiting. There was quite a bit of demanding around snack and lunchtime.

3. We also talked about how people need (and therefore get) different things. For example, you might not always like what your mommy or the host provide for lunch or snack, but you are not entitled to juice boxes, blueberries, bread, string cheese etc. Even if the person next to you (in our case, the baby) has them.

4. We talked about choices and consequences. Like, if you don't want to do the project or even join in the conversation while others are working, you may not just go play. even if you want to really, really badly.

5. And we talked about treating your friends' toys kindly.

It was actually quite a difficult day, and I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions you may have. This group of kids is just delightful, and it seriously seemed like some life form from another planet came and took over their bodies Wednesday night. Because they're never like this. And even on Thursday there were a few sweet moments. Like when Matthew leaned over and said to Simone, "Simone, I really love you." And then he turned to me and exclaimed, "Whew! That was hard to say. I was really nervous!" Or how Gavin started taking a lot of interest in Haven for the first time, probably because of our focus on babies. When she started crying at one point, he told me, "You should nurse that baby!" Being that she's 18 months old, she'd probably prefer an oreo McFlurry to breastmilk, but it was nice of him to look out for her!

Any suggestions? What works at your house?

Color Mixing

We had fun learning all about colors today.  First we learned about the primary colors and sang the primary color song to help us remember them.  Next we got out three glasses of milk and discovered that you can make lots of different colors with just red, yellow, and blue.  Despite the facial expressions exhibited below, the kids were fascinated.

Next we worked on creating our very own color wheels.   I printed out the template from here, and cut them out and mounted them onto heavy paper plates.   Then we divided into groups of two (or three) and  I gave them each a squirt of yellow, red, and blue.   I had prelabeled the correct places on the wheel, so they just needed to "read" the right color (with a lot of prompts about which letter it started with).

Next we picked one of the primary colors to start with and went around the color wheel, mixing colors as we went.  I would squirt the new color onto the plates and they would mix them using their Q-tips.  Although it took about a half an hour before we finished, it was a smooth process and their enthusiasm remained high the whole way through.

They were quite proud of their finished color wheels and were starting to get the different color combinations.

 

Next we went to work creating our own edible color wheels with sugar cookies and brightly colored frosting.  We basically did it the same way as with the color wheels, except simplified to only three color mixes.

 

Don't mind the off the shoulder look here, she really didn't want to take her paint shirt off.

We finished up with some good old-fashioned running and jumping.

My favorite quote of the day from Gavin (a youngest child):  "I like Q-tips, because they're really CUTE and I'm the cutest one in my family."    Ellie (the other youngest child) eagerly chimed in that she, too, was the cutest in her family.   For some reason, no one else seemed to have the same notion.

I Am a Child of God

While we missed Ellie, we had a good day at preschool, talking about who we are. We read from Old Testament Stories about our pre-earth life, but of course these kids already knew all that. They are super smart, and have been paying attention in primary the past couple weeks :)


We also talked about January's shape and number. We added dots on multiple number cubes to make six.


Spotlights. My goal was to have each child walk away from preschool having been reminded once again of how special he/she is. But after listening to their conversations, I realized that each one of these kids had a healthy self-esteem already. It was sure fun for me though, to learn of talents and stories about these kids. Like who would have guessed that Daniel is a cook? Or that Matthew is so protective of his younger brothers? That Maylie was born a month early, or that Simone likes to tell jokes? That Rachel is such a good little mother hen to her *babies*, or that Gavin is a snuggler?

Wouldn't you feel pretty special, sitting in our fanciest chair decorated with Christmas lights, being applauded by your preschool friends?!


We traced

and colored our bodies and talked about how we are created in Heavenly Father's image. Daniel worked really hard on his for about 45 minutes and wouldn't let me see it because it was a *surprise*.

And we looked for rectangles around the house. We found light switches, computer screens, paper, windows, drawers and so many other rectangular things. We colored rectangle pictures and brainstormed r-r-r words.

Here's a slide show the kids watched. Hopefully the truths from this song sunk deep into their minds and hearts.

Aren't these just the cutest kids ever?!

our teeth

Preschool today started out with a movie segment: Big Bird was teaching a horse about brushing his teeth. (The boys found that funny because we talked about horses on Tuesday.) Then Elmo talked about what he would do if he HAD teeth and how to take care of them.

I read the story The Crocodile and the Dentist, which is a book about the crocodile not wanting to go to the dentist and the dentist not wanting the crocodile to come to his office. The boys laughed and thought it was hilarious.

After a story we played "Book Swap" and they took turns looking through different books about dentists and teeth.

I showed them a teeth model and how to brush each side of the tooth. We talked about singing a song to remember the technique: "Up like a rocket (brush up with sweeping motions), Down like the rain (brush down with sweeping motions), Back and forth like a choo-choo train." We also sang, "Brush Your Teeth" song. (Note: I sent home a sheet filled with other silly teeth songs that we didn't get a chance to sing. If you want a copy, email me).

We had 5 different table activities: T writing page, tooth dot-to-dot sheet, painting "yellow" teeth white with old toothbrushes (and using the back and forth brushing motion), cutting out the "in" (such as grin) word wheel, and cutting out pieces for a tooth sack puppet.

At the end of preschool each boy got to take home a new toothbrush, a flosser, and a tube of toothpaste. Dr. Stringham's office was nice enough to give so many free samples for our group to have.

Teeth!

Our day started out with talking about what teeth are - what makes them hard, what's inside of them, why they fall out, and so on. We chatted about "bacteria bugs" that could eat holes in their teeth, and that's why we brush them. We reviewed a few of these things in the following book:

After talking about "bacteria bugs" and how some foods stick to your teeth less (apples) and some stick to your teeth more (granola bars, etc.), we decided we should put it to the test.

We got out the Oreos first and got our teeth nice and dirty. The kids liked looking in the mirror to see how black their teeth were. Then we got out the apples and chowed down to see how they didn't stick as much to teeth, but actually helped clean the teeth off.

I reminded them that horses can't brush their teeth, but that they eat apples and carrots to help keep their teeth clean.

Next we did a little project where we ripped out pictures from ads and magazines and put them in different piles according to which ones were good for our teeth and which ones weren't. I forgot to take pictures of that.

Our next activity was to take some very yellow teeth and brush them with paint toothpaste to make them white again. Unfortunately, I had used a pen that bled when the white paint was put on the teeth, so the teeth ended up a little gray...

Not exactly the outcome I was hoping for.

We also sang "Up like a rocket, down like the rain, back and forth like a choo-choo train" while we brushed.

And, I forgot again to take a picture of the finished product. The kids pasted the teeth to a piece of paper, drew a head around them, and then pasted on some red lips I had cut out for them. Then they decorated them to look like themselves.

For a break, we watched a short video of the book we briefly looked at at the beginning.

The kids laughed and laughed and some wanted to borrow the show (I got it from the library).

We finished up the day by practicing writing the letter "T" and circling pictures that start with the letter T sound. They're getting better with their handwriting!

Oh yes, and we also read a book called "Going to the Dentist" to prepare the kids for our upcoming field trip. Hopefully we all see better brushing in the future! Just remind them of the "bacteria bugs" and they'll go running for the toothpaste!

Horses

HORSES!

We started the day by looking at a book that was all about horses and discussing why horses were important in the past and what we use them for now. The kids liked finding out what all the horse parts were called: mane, tail, frog, hoof, forelock, etc.

We talked also about what horses eat - hay, grains, apples, carrots. We then made a treat for ourselves out of some "horse food" - oatmeal! The kids love cooking and everyone wanted to help stir and put in ingredients. Thankfully I'd premeasured them!

While the Oatmeal Bars (cut in the shape of rectangles) cooked, we did a book swap with the horse books. The kids seemed to really like this and it focused them on looking at the book they had instead of all clamoring for the same book.

Next we read a book about a little girl who has a horse (I returned it to the library and can't remember the title...) and how she takes care of it. That led us to practicing our cutting skills by making a barn for a horse. Dan and Gavin really got into this craft and wanted to get it all perfect before they'd move on to the next activity.

We discussed horse teeth and how they need to be taken care of. The kids were surprised that horses need to see the dentist too! We looked up some pretty hilarious horse teeth pictures on google images, which made the kids crack up.

We then made horse masks, attached some yarn tails and galloped around the room to some fun music! I would call out "giddyup!" to go, and "whoa!" for them to stop. If I wanted them to go really fast, I'd call out "gee!"

Ellie really got into it and wouldn't take off her mask or tail for the rest of preschool. :)

We also read "What is a horse?", which the kids thought was hilarious.