I am a Child of God

Thursday, January 22 was a day to talk about how special each of us are. We made crowns and talked about how all of Heavenly Father's children are princes and princesses in His Kingdom.

We also had a fun time displaying some of our talents! We sat in a circle and passed a beanbag around. If you were holding the beanbag you showed one of your talents. There was a lot of jumping, spinning, dancing, and bouncing that came out of this.

We learned that even when we are having a bad day. . . we can remember that we are all children of God and that he loves us. That can help us feel better-- especially if we sing "I am a Child of God." The kids were great and we all had a fun time!

Rhyming Preschool Lesson

By Andrea: Today we started with free play and the kids played really well together. Different groups interchanged to play our Fishing game, dinosaurs, a remote control airplane, and our new Hyperdash game.

For circle time we talked about the letter "R" and words that rhyme. We played a game standing if two words I said rhymed and sitting if they did not. We tried to think of a rhyming word for everyone's name and then we went through the six nursery rhymes I sent home and listening for the rhyming words in each nursery rhyme. We then proceeded to make a nursery rhyme bag to as a reminder of the verses that we practiced. The kids all did a good job working independently on each of the activities - gluing for the teddy bear, drawing a face on the Humpty Dumpty egg, stamping a fish, wrapping a foil rain drop, and pulling the cotton ball apart for their lamb. They were most fascinated with the stars and we went multiple times into our storage room to see them glow. Their should be enough adhesive to pull the stars apart and put them in your child's bedroom if you want to.

On Thursday we will be talking about the letter "G" and goals. I have a story about President Heber J. Grant and how he set goals when he was younger that we will talk about. I am going to have the kids set a group goal to learn "Families Can Be Together Forever" (CS 188) and then give the kids a sheet to set an individual goal at home and work on that with you independently. I will pass along the visual for the Families Can Be Together Song so we can work on that throughout the month.

Setting Goals Preschool Lesson

By Andrea: Today in preschool we talked about the letter, "G" and goals. We watched a reading of the story, "The Little Engine that Could" and then we talked about what goals area and how we need to work hard to achieve our goals--like the little engine that could.

We talked about President Heber J Grant and how he worked on his baseball skills, his handwriting, and his singing while he was young. Then we practiced the same skills by throwing a ball at a target on the wall, completing some tracing sheets, and practicing a new song, "Families Can Be Together Forever".

Each preschool session we will be working on this song until we master it. We have a big chart to mark off as we learn the song. Also, I have sent home an individual goal chart and some stickers you can use as parts o the goal are achieved. It is up to each individual family to pick a goal for their child to work on. Good luck!

Helen Keller Preschool Lesson

Today we learned about Helen Keller. We read a book ("Young Helen Keller: Woman of Courage ") all about her and the amazing things she did even though two of her senses didn’t work.

We played a cold/hot game with the blindfold on so they could get a tiny glimpse at what life is like without vision. We did a few of the favorite activities from last time (freeze dance and touching game). The kids finished up their five senses books (they worked really hard on these) and had a wonderful time!

Five Senses Preschool

Today at preschool we learned all about the five senses.

Seeing, tasting, smelling, hearing, and touching!

First we tried taste testing: Sweet

Sour

Bitter

Salty

Then we tried mixing sweet and sour together to try some lemonade...much better!

Then we did freeze dancing to use our sense of hearing (a very entertaining experience)!


Then we played, "I Spy With My Little Eye...." and tried to guess what everyone was thinking of while we used our sense of sight!


Then we tried our sense of smell by smelling cinnamon, vinegar, vanilla, and molasses.
To try out our sense of touch we closed our eyes and reached into a bag and tried to figure out some common objects were without looking at them. They were pretty good at it!

We also spent some time working on a project, which they will finish up next time to bring home.
We missed you Maylie and Bradford...hope to see you Thursday!

Learning about Native Americans at Preschool

I guess I should probably start off today's post with a confession. I know it's much more politically correct to say "Native Americans", but for simplicity's sake today I just called them Indians. Sorry, I hope no one is scarred or offended.

After circle time we started off by getting into our own "teepee" [you know the classic blankets draped over chairs].
Right there in the teepee we looked at a globe and reviewed Christopher Columbus' voyage to America. We talked about how he thought he'd found a way to India, so he called the people he met Indians. We looked through a couple of Thanksgiving/Columbus books and briefly talked about how the Indians helped the new people coming to America. How they helped them grow crops and learn to survive in America. I really emphasized the friendship and help they gave to the newcomers.

Then everyone got to color their own teepees (a cute kit from Oriental Trading Company).

Although everyone was quite convinced at first that they'd just made themselves some cool hats! [Gavin was smiling two seconds before I pressed 'click']

Then we talked about how they were actually supposed be like the tents that Indians lived in.

Then we had a little pow-wow, while they wore these cute Indian headbands...

eating popcorn (just like the Indians)...

and doing some good old fashioned Indian whooping and hollering!

I think everyone had a fun time learning all about Indians!

A is for Autumn

We had lots of fun with this subject. We talked about how the leaves feed the trees and how they all wanted to make a huge pill of leaves to jump into. We read a few books, "Why do leaves change color and Leaf Jumpers".The kids enjoyed putting the leaves on the paper trees or they loved to spread the glue everywhere. We tried to learn a peom. All in all they had a good time.
*Don't forget to wear you Halloween Costume on Thursday!!!!!!!!