GiddyUp, Partner!

At the end of preschool today, seven boys were transformed into cowboys complete with a hat, bandana, and stick horse to take home...

We enjoyed learning about horses by playing "Book Swap." I had seven different books about horses. I set the timer and told each person to look through their book (to see different kinds of horses, what they look like, what they eat, how to take care of them) for two minutes.

When I rang the bell, everyone froze, and they passed the book to the next person in the circle. Each kid saw each book and as they looked through them, we talked about what they saw. And I learned something too -- I found out a pony is NOT a baby horse (which is a foal). A pony has shorter legs so it's a small horse.

Then we played "Pin the Tail on the Pony."

(They liked comparing the distance of where the tails ended up.)

While boys waiting for their turns to get blindfolded, they cut out "ay" (such as hay) word wheels to practice reading and saying the "ay" chunk...


And instead of "Duck, Duck Goose" we played "Horse, Horse Pony!"...

... and we practiced writing on our "H" sheets and did a dot-to-dot horse picture.

After many horse activities and much "horsing" around... the cowboys enjoyed a hearty lunch.

Goals for the new year

On Tues (5th) we talked about goals. The boys probably thought there was a lot of talking and not nearly enough goofing around, but I think they still had fun. There was, of course, plenty of goofing around.

The goofing around started when we were doing singing time during circle time. The song was "if you're happy and you know it". Well, when you have 6 boys, there will be no clapping. They jumped around like monkeys and shook their bums. Then during "Old MacDonald's Farm", we had llamas, aliens, frogs, and the usual dogs and ducks.

This year we have a goal to focus more on writing our letters and our names. We read a treasure hunt book about finding the letters within the pictures. The boys really liked that, but soon grew weary of taking turns so we only made it as far as the letter "N". We all practiced our ABC's and had Alpha-Bit cereal for a snack. We all worked on writing our names. During our snack we talked about goals and what they are, how to do them, and why they're important. We each made our own goals for the year including how to take care of my body, helping my family, and what do I want to learn before Kindergarten starts. I also made goals, so remind me to exercise daily!

We watched a video about Heber J. Grant and talked about how he worked hard to learn how to do things. I forgot to prepare a magnet with his favorite quote, so that will happen on Thurs.

The boys put together some puzzles because doing a puzzle is an example of a good goal. We will do the harder ones on Thurs.

The boys were getting restless by this time to go play and eat lunch, so our last activity of the morning was making a person that's all about things that I'm good at and things I want to learn how to do. Most of the boys said they were really good at playing video games. The boys did come up with some really good goals however, and I hope they all accomplish them. I forgot to take pictures, but here is one of the finished goal people.

New Schedule and Some Concert Pics

I just wanted to let everyone know that I've just added the second half of the year for both groups  to the online schedule.

Since announcing a new schedule makes for a boring blog post I thought I'd throw in my pictures from the Christmas concert too.  

How cool was that to see an entire 6 rows dedicated to Our Cool Preschool?

Christmas around the world

The kids were a bit reluctant on Tuesday to *work*, but they were right on task today. Look how many ways we can show 5! 4 and 1, 2 and 3

2 and 3, 3 and 2, 4 and 1...

We also spent some time on December's skills. We practiced writing 5 on Gavin's back (he's a bit ticklish!). We practiced cutting *straw* for Jesus' manger. We practiced putting our thumbs on top (in the little hole) and our other fingers on bottom in the big hole. Cutting takes some serious concentration.

It made me smile to hear how many pieces of hay the children cut in an effort to help baby Jesus be snuggly.

We also practiced "dot, dot, dot" with the glue. My gluing suggestions were not heeded, as it turns out, and we're out of glue now :). I'll try to remember to get some more...


We talked about our Christmas traditions. Gavin asked if some friends' traditions were "fiction"; some of them were pretty extravagant!

And we talked about traditions in other countries.

Mexico:

In Mexico, children often celebrate Christmas with a pinata. Those lucky ducks: no celebration is complete without a pinata!

Whack it, Simone!

Ireland:

In Ireland, people put candles in their windows to show that they would have welcomed Mary and Joseph as they were looking for a place for Mary to give birth to baby Jesus. I wish you could have seen the tender expression on Ellie's face as she talked about how she would have made room for Mary and Joseph.

India:

The Christian people in India remember that Jesus is the Light of the World by lighting clay lamps filled with oil and placing them around the walls and roof. Here's Ellie, working hard at her pinch pot:

With the left-over clay, she made a rollie-polly and a rollie-polly baby (that's what this is, can't you tell?):

And here's Gavin with his lighted lamp after we baked it in the oven.

I talked to them a little bit about what "Jesus is the Light" means, but probably the more meaningful conversation came while they were shaping the dough. The kids asked questions such as, "Why did Jesus have to die?" and "Did it hurt?" and "How did Jesus dying make it so we can live with Heavenly Father again?" These kids are so thoughtful. Such sweet spirits.


It was a really fun preschool day to teach. Hearing the children speak lovingly of Jesus, and then seeing them compliment each other so much on their projects (especially Matthew, he was really dishing it out!), make a fort together, sing those sweet primary Christmas carols, and then work to solve a MAJOR sitting problem at the table until everyone was satisfied, just warmed my heart!

We missed you, Rachel and Maylie. Feel better, Rachel!

Christmas in France

In honor of Thomas, we learned how children in France celebrate Christmas.

First, the kids looked at a picture of the Eiffel tower

and tried to build one out of Magnetix.

We learned that in cathedral squares, the story of Christ's birth is re-enacted.

Some of the boys put on costumes to play the parts of

the shepherd, a wise man, and Joseph.

Nearly every French home displays a Nativity scene or creche at Christmastime.

The boys colored their own nativity scenes.


In France, families once had a Three Kings Cake with a bean hidden inside it.
Whoever found the bean in their slice was made King for the day.

Seth found the bean today--yeah!

Finally, on Christmas Eve, French children leave their shoes by the fireplace

to be filled with treats by Pere Noel.

(Thomas thought this tradition was "disgusting.")

Father Christmas did find their shoes by the fireplace and left them some gold coins!

Joyeux Noel!

S is for snow

We talked a lot about the letter S today. We noticed that two of the days of the week start with S - S is everywhere!


S is for Stories, some were fiction and some non-fiction:

This book was one of the best non-fiction books I could find related to the topic. We practiced breathing as slowly as the hibernating bat and woodchuck in the book.


This one comes as a kit in the library with a CD. Very cute, worth checking out.


And this was one of the favorites. There were transparency pages inside and a little musical button we each got to push at the end.


And of course, you can't read books about snow without reading this classic. Gavin thought this story was believable until we got to the part where the bear crawled in the mitten, and then he decided it must be pretend.

S is for snow.
Then we made some snow. We scooped and measured and experimented with making snow starting with blue water.



S is for subtraction.

Seven little snowmen fat
Each with a funny hat
The sun came out and melted one
What a sad thing was that!

Rachel knows her facts; she could figure out the difference each time without even counting the remaining snowmen!


Then we made our gift snowballs. The kids chose to put gems inside the soapballs. Here's Gavin counting his. He needed lots because "my mom REALLY likes diamonds!". A few kids chose to practice printing S instead of playing with the goopy soap.



Preschool can be SO educational! Just ask Daniel what he learned J/K :)