Valentine's Party

I was able to take a few pictures at the party. The kids played games, ran around, made valentine bags, exchanged valentine's cards, and made and ate pretzels.


Making pretzels was fun. The kids made all sorts of pretzel shapes - hearts, snakes, and some traditional pretzels too.

Time to exchange valentine's while the pretzels bake. The kids had a learning experience trying to match up the name on the card with the name on the bag.

Yay! The pretzels are done. Let's eat! Most kids enjoyed the pretzels and ALL the moms thought they were wonderful!

Thanks for having all of us over and for the fun time, Mina!

T is for Tasting and Tongues!

What better theme could you have for preschool than the sense of taste? We had loads of fun today learning about all the different kinds of flavors our tongues can taste.

We sampled the four basic tastes that our taste buds can discern by dipping our fingers into individual Dixie cups.

The kids had a fun time guessing the different flavors:

Bitter

Salty

Sweet

And sour.

We then talked about how the different flavors can be combined to make yummy tasting foods. We used, among other things, cocoa (bitter), sugar (sweet), and salt (salty) to make some hot cocoa. Each of the kids got to add an ingredient, and Gavin got to stir them together. All of the kids thought it tasted great, though Rachel informed me that her mom's is much better. :)

We then worked on our Five Senses books. The kids particularly got a kick out of the stinky baby diapers. Notice how they've all colored individual baby poops on the apparently see through diapers!

What a great group of kids!

Sense of Sight

Today we discussed the sense of sight. But before we got into the nitty-gritty of what eyes do, we did circle time and for one of the songs I had them sing "Do As I'm Doing". I thought it would be a good song to emphasize that they needed to use their eyes to see what to do. Well, it was crazy! The kids were hilarious - they had so much energy! Everyone had to have a turn at picking something to do, of course, and 6 out of the 7 kids picked SPINNING (or a combo with spinning included). They were like tops zipping around the room. I think it got out a few wiggles, so it was a good way to start out the day.

This photo doesn't do their spinning justice - they were really whipping around!

After we calmed down a bit, we talked about the parts of the eye and looked at some eyes on the internet. We had some good comments about what not to do with your eyes (Gavin - don't blow on cinnamon or it will get in your eye and sting; Don't flash bright lights in your eyes or you'll go blind - I can't remember who said that one). And we talked about what pupils do, how people have different colored eyes (but not purple, red or yellow), how we shouldn't touch our eyes, what eyelids and lashes are for, etc.

We read a good book called "The Look Book", where you see a small part of a picture, and try to guess what it is, and then on the next page you find out what you were looking at. The kids were so excited when they got it right.

Since the preschoolers are always ravenous, even if they got fed a 7 course breakfast 5 minutes before arrival, we worked in a snack. This snack used a number of senses (well, in fact, all of them). The most fun one used, though, was the sense of sight (with taste coming in a very close second - okay, maybe first). Here they are all just staring, sort of bored-like, at the popcorn machine turning it's arms around.
Then, POP! POP, POP, POP! They just laughed and laughed and thought watching the kernels pop was great fun.
There was a lot of shouting at the popcorn popper and squeals of delight.

Here everyone is very busy shoving handfuls of popcorn in their mouths. Ellie looks like she's contemplating the sublime taste of the melted butter on the popcorn, while Matthew just says "give me more!" (he didn't really say that - it just looks like he's enjoying it!). I know I enjoyed the real melted butter on it - I usually just make the microwave stuff which doesn't hold a candle to this.
This wasn't a planned activity, but I handed out wipes so that they could clean up their hands after the popcorn and before we worked on our craft. Well, they spontaneously started washing the table and really getting into it! They were laughing and scrubbing and I finally had to make them stop so we could go on with the activity. I was sorely tempted to have them start in on scrubbing the floor!
We experimented with magnifying glasses, colored glasses, binoculars...

and a microscope. We looked at cheek cells and the kids thought they looked really neat.

Gavin is looking for bargains.

We then did an activity where the kids colored around a picture of themselves that went into a frame. The other side of the frame held a mirror, so they could see themselves in two different ways.
I then got a fun call from my kids' school saying that my oldest child had a stomach ache and I needed to come and pick him up. Lara saved me by popping over and directing the gang in writing exercises while I dashed out for a few minutes. Life is never dull! Thanks Lara!

This is a shot during free play time. Some of the kids were playing "cat and dog". Ellie and Dan are the animals and Maylie and Simone are telling them what to do (roll over, wake up, come back!). It was so funny to watch that I had to take a picture.

This is a Richard Scarry book about cars and trucks. There's this little character called "Goldbug" that you have to find on every page. Here Rachel and Gavin are searching him out.

It was a fun day learning about how important eyes are.

George Washington Preschool Lesson

When the kids arrived, I had them all gather at the table and start sorting coins. I have a big jar of coins that I dumped in a bowl and had them stack according to size/kind. Then they counted the coins they had in their stacks.

After circle time I asked them if they knew who is the current president of the United States. Several piped up with President Monson!!! At least their Church knowledge is strong :)

After I explained that I was asking about the president of the country or land we live in, they all gave me blank stares. They had no idea (not that I expected them to at this age). So, we went over to the U.S. map and talked about where we live (VA), and how all the states together is called the U.S.A., and that there's a president, named Pres. Obama, over this country. Then we proceeded to talk about the FIRST president - George Washington. They were happy to hear he was from our same state. I realized that I take for granted that they know more than they do (my son definitely included). When I was explaining that Washington was in the Army, none of them knew what the Army was or what it did. Gavin said that his dad is in the Army :)

So, it was a good learning experience for all of us. They were really good and paid close attention. I showed them a number of pictures on the internet of Colonial times and G.W. Crossing the Delaware, etc. After talking about the Colonial days, we thought we'd better have a treat - Corn Cakes!

Everyone got a chance to put in one of the ingredients for the corn cakes, and then mix it in. They're all very good helpers.
Gavin was very dismayed at the egg he cracked on the table by accident. He was trying to open up the crack in the egg, but put a bit too much pressure on the shell and it smashed in his hand - along with the egg. He wasn't too happy about me taking the picture, but he recovered quickly.
More mixing...
It was hard to wait turns, but they all waited very patiently.
I'm not sure how the batter stayed in the bowl when it was Daniel's turn, but it did!

Next we talked about ways we honor G. Washington (we looked up pictures on the internet and in a book called "Our Washington D.C.") - the Washington Monument, which they all recognized, Washington D.C., his picture on the dollar bill and quarter, Mount Rushmore, etc.

Then we all felt the need to wear cool hats like George did when he was in the Army (sort of like the hat in "George Washington Crossing the Delaware").
They started cutting stars - or the circle shape around the star - and it was too frustrating for Dan. He put his head down in defeat. His preconceived picture in his head of how perfect the circle should be didn't match the reality of how well he could cut it.
Busy cutters...
If you don't yet have a three-cornered hat, you should at least have a tiara.
The glitter mess at the end was truly amazing. Who knew two small jars of glitter could spread so fast? The kids still sometimes call them "germs". Everyone did a great job and worked very hard on their hats.

Some of the kids asked Simone how she got her circles so "round". She explained that you have to go very slowly and carefully. Good advice!

The favorite part of the day! They're always chomping at the bit to get to lunch - even after we ate corn cakes with honey butter!

Here are the kids with their George Washington hats...

Maylie wasn't so sure about getting in the shot, so I snapped one as she made a sneaky exit.

N is for Nose

We had a great time today at preschool learning about how our noses are good for smelling things and breathing.

I put 7 different Mr. Potato Head noses in the counting box and we talked about how noses come in all shapes and sizes.

We then got to use our noses while we mixed up Peppermint Play Dough. The kids had a great time mixing in the green color. (As a side note to all of you parents who let your kids play with play dough on the couch or on your shag carpets, just be careful to only let them play with it on the table because it does have highly staining green food coloring in it.)

The kids had several different methods of mixing their dough:

The Squisher

The Roller

The Mountain Maker

The Sculpter

The Plopper

The Smasher

Then we went on to a game called "Guess the Smells."

I have to admit that Ellie has a seriously good sniffer. She was able to pick out the majority of the mystery scents. Gavin was always the first to second Ellie's correct guesses. Maylie decided she was done with sniffing after a few rounds. And Daniel's response to every smell was, "Smells yummy!"

There were some good smells (like cinnamon, vanilla, perfume, and peanut butter):

(This was peppermint extract - a good smell. Check out the master sniffer at work!)

And some not so good smells, like rubbing alcohol.

It was funny to hear the kids describe vinegar as "It smells like easter eggs!"

I searched high and low for some scratch 'n sniff stickers but couldn't find any, so I got some scented markers and we colored our own pages of smelly items. However, I think our sniffers were a bit overloaded by the time we broke out the markers, so don't worry if your child comes home with a picture of a green apple that smells like a pine tree and vice versa!

And finally we ended off the day with an online reading of the Story of Ferdinand which is about a flower-sniffing peace-loving bull in Spain.