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.

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.