Pajama Day

Group Meeting:  When the children arrived, they discovered a large comforter laid out on the rug.  Books were scattered around the outside of the comforter.  The children tucked their feet under and looked at books until everyone arrived.  I tried to talk them into taking naps, but it didn't work!

I brought some blankets from home so that they children could build blanket forts if they wanted.  The engineering aspect of a blanket fort is interesting.  The children tired several ways to keep the blankets up.  I managed to get a few pictures. 

Story:  Our story for today was Owen by Kevin Henkes.  Owen has a yellow blanket that he loves.  He takes it with him everywhere.  The neighbor lady tells his parents that he needs to give up the blanket.  They try various ways to make him give up the blanket.  Now it's time for Owen to start school.  Will he take his blanket to school?  Ask your child to tell you what Owen's mother does with his blanket.

Small Groups:  The children weighed various school items using a balance scale (lever).  They took turns putting things on one side and used little bear manipulative to be the counter weight.  They counted how many bears it took to make the balance level.  They recorded their answers on paper.

Large Group:  The children watched a video about polar bears.  We didn't have time to look at the Let's Find Out magazine that coincides with the video.  I put it in their bags to finish at home.

Snacks:  The morning snack was crackers, cherry tomatoes, and milk brought by Lucy.  The afternoon snack was yogurt and Cherrios brought by Rory.  Thank you, Lucy and Rory!

Group Meeting:  We have been talking about levers this week.  Today, we will use levers to make something delicious to drink.

Story:  The story for today was The Fort on Fourth Street by Lois Spangler.  The children want to build a fort in the backyard.  Grandpa has a plan and is going to help.  They build the fort using several simple machines.  A wagon with wheels and an axle carry the wood.  A saw (wedge) cuts the wood.  A screw and screwdriver fasten the wood together.  A pulley lifts things into the fort.  A ramp (inclined plane) helps the pets get into the fort. 

Small Groups:  The children used lemon squeezers to make lemonade.  A lemon squeezer is a type of lever.  I cut the lemons and the children squeezed the juice into a bowl.  We added water and a little sugar to make a tasty treat.

Large Group:  The children from the Green Group brought items for Show and Tell.

Snacks:  The morning snack was cheese, crackers, and grapes brought by Nora.  The afternoon snack was blackberries and Cherrios brought by Rory.  Thank you, Nora and Rory!

Tomorrow is Pajama Day!

Group Meeting:   Every day, I read the message board which is a list of things that we need to know about our preschool day.  As the year progresses, many of the children have figured out how to "read" most of the items on the board.  It's fun to watch them try to decipher what I have written while we are waiting for everyone to arrive.

Story:  The book that we used at story time today was Levers by Martha Rustad.  This non-fiction book had several examples of levers that many people use in their daily lives.  Some examples were shovels, a pliers, and a scissors.

Small Groups:  We had two activities in the small groups today.  The first was using a scissors (lever) to cut paper.  The children found the fulcrum of the scissors and then cut straight lines on a paper.  The second was using a large tweezers (lever) to pick up items on the table.  Some of the items were cotton balls, buttons, glass beads, and plastic bugs.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Ww.

Snacks:  The morning snack was cheese, apples, and juice brought by Ram.  The afternoon snack was yogurt, bananas, and chocolate chips brought by Ryan.  Thank you, Ram and Ryan!

Levers

Group Meeting:  This week, the simple machine that we will study is the lever.  We watched a very short video about how a lever works.  We learned the word fulcrum. Children have brought in several examples of levers such as a lemon squeezer, tongs, wrenches, and a garlic press.

Story:  The story for today was How Do You Lift a Lion? by Robert E. Wells.  This book is a simple explanation of how a lever, a wheel, and a pulley work.  Children use a level to lift a lion, a wheel to pull a panda, and a pulley to deliver a basket of bananas to baboons. 

Large Group:  The children got into pairs to experiment with a stomp board which is a basic lever.  The children placed a bean bag on one end of the lever and stomped on the other.  Ask your child to tell you what happened to the bean bag.  I managed to get a few pictures of the children in action.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Vv.

Snacks:  The morning snack was Belvita bars and milk brought by Sawyer.  The afternoon snack was apples and cheese sticks brought by Silas.  Thank you, Sawyer and Silas!

Group Meeting:  The fresh fallen snow was perfect for some experiments that we wanted to do at school.  I filled a jar with snow and asked the children to predict what would happen.  They all guessed that it would melt.  I asked them to predict how much water would be in the jar when the snow was all melted.  We marked the jar and let it sit in the warm classroom until the end of the day.  At dismissal time, we observed that there was only a small amount of water in the jar.

During play time, we placed two tubs of snow onto the tables.  We provided small spray bottles of colored water for them to spray on the snow.  As the snow melted, the colors mixed making beautiful patterns.

Story:  The story for today was Shh, Bears Sleeping by David Martin.  This story follows a family of bears through the four seasons.  The bears eat lots of food in the summer and fall and then hibernate in the winter.  Ask your child to tell you how the cubs changed after the long winter.

Large Group:  The children watched a video about snow which corresponded with our Let's Find Out Magazine.  They cut the magazine into two pieces and created a book about snowmen.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Uu.

Snacks:  The morning snack was Belvita bars and orange juice provided by the preschool.  The afternoon snack was apples and granola bars brought by Tate.  Thank you, Tate!

Group Meeting:  Our opening song for today was "Fred The Moose" by the Learning Station.  The children moved to the movements and picked out the rhyming words in the song.

Story:  The story for today was Building a House by Byron Barton.  This book gives a very simple explanation of how a house is built starting with a hole in the ground and ending with the family moving in.  Throughout the story, the children looked for inclined planes that were used during the building of the house.  The cement goes down a ramp to be poured into the frames.  The electrician uses a ladder to install the lights.  The moving van has a ramp to help unload the furniture.

Small Groups:  The Yellow Group brought items for Show and Tell.

Large Group:  The children moved to the song "The Elephant" by Hap Palmer.  This song involves moving slowly and quickly as the children listen to the music.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Tt.

Snacks:  The morning snack was applesauce and crackers brought by Tristan.  The afternoon snack was applesauce and cheese sticks brought by Vivienne.  Thank you, Tristan and Vivienne!

Inclined Planes

Group Meeting:  The simple machine that we will be learning about this week is the inclined plane. An inclined plane is any slanting surface that is higher on one end.  It connects a lower level to a higher level.  We watched a very short video of a person trying to lift a container onto a truck.  When he used a ramp (inclined plane), he could easily get the container to the truck.

Story:  The story for today was Dinosaur Woods by George McClements.  Seven forest animals are trying to save their forest home from people who want to cut down the trees and build buildings.  The animals build a dinosaur that they can operate from inside and try to scare the people away.  However, the dinosaur draws more people to the forest.  A scientist notices that the animals are endangered animals and now the forest is protected.  Ask your child to tell you what inclined plane the animals used to get into the dinosaur that they built.

Small Groups:  Each group created an inclined plane using a long wooden block supported by a shorter block.  They were given a box of items from around the preschool to place on the inclined plane to see if they would go down on their own.  They documented their results by drawing the items.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Ss.

Snacks:  The snack for the morning class was bread,  peanut butter, and juice brought by Weston.  The afternoon snack was cheese and Wheat Thins brought by Cade.  Thank you, Weston and Cade!

Because of the ice storm yesterday, we had to play a little catch up with the morning class. 

Story:  The story for the morning class was The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philemon Sturges.  This story is very similar to The Little Red Hen that we read on Tuesday, but this time, The Little Red Hen is making a pizza.  This story ends differently as well.  Ask your child to tell you how it was different.
For the afternoon class, we listened a video about Martin Luther King Jr.   This video told about his life growing up in Alabama.  The video shared information about Martin's dream that one day all people would be treated with kindness and respect. 

Small Groups:  The children made pizza for their snack.  They used whole wheat English Muffins for the crust.  They spread on sauce and added mozzarella cheese.  They could put on pepperoni if they liked it or wanted to try it.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Rr.

Snacks:  The children ate the pizzas that they made along with milk and water.  They also had Birthday Brownies.

Monday is Martin Luther King Jr.  The preschool will be closed on that day.

Group Meeting:  We have received quite an assortment of simple machines.  The children enjoyed looking at them as they arrived at school today.

Story:  The story for today was The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philemon Sturges.  This story is very similar to The Little Red Hen that we read yesterday, but this time, The Little Red Hen is making a pizza.  This story ends differently as well.  Ask your child to tell you how it was different.

Small Groups:  The children did a "push pin" project today.  They were given a paper with a shape printed on it in dots.  The paper was taped to a piece of corrugated cardboard.  They used a push pin to punch the dots.  When they were finished, they held them up to the window to see the shapes.

Large Group:  The Red Group brought items for show and tell.

Letter Learning:  We did not do a letter today.  We didn't want the morning class to fall behind.  We will start again tomorrow.

Snacks:  The snack for the afternoon was peaches and blackberries brought by Caroline.  Thank you, Caroline!

No AM Preschool today

Due to bad weather, Bettendorf Schools has issued a late start for today.  That means that we will not have morning classes today.  Afternoon class will meet.

Group Meeting:  A few children brought in items for our simple machines study.  We looked at a few, but ran out of time to look at all of them.  So, we will look at some more tomorrow.  Thank you very much for sharing them with us.

Story:  The story for today was The Little Red Hen retold by Bonnie Dobkin.   When the hen asks a cat, dog, and goose for help planting some wheat, she gets no takers: "‘Not I!’ said the cat. ‘Not I!’ said the dog. ‘Not I!’ said the goose." They won’t water, cut, or grind the wheat . . . or help bake bread with it, either. Ask your child to tell you who eats the bread by herself in the end. 

Large Group:  The children did an activity called "Count the Room".  I posted pictures of the characters from our story around the room.  The children were given a paper that had the same pictures on it.  The children had to find all of the pictures, count how many of the characters were on the pictures and print that number on their paper.  

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Qq.

Snacks:  The morning snack was Belvita bars and bananas brought by Blake.  The afternoon snack was carrots and Wheat Thins brought by Charlotte.  Thank you, Blake and Charlotte!

Simple Machines

Group Meeting:  We are starting a new study about simple machines.  A note was sent home today to explain what we will be learning and how you can help!

Story:  The story for today was My Neighbors and Their Simple Machines.  This is a non-fiction book.  Ama is visiting the neighbors in her building and notices how many of them are using simple machines.  The window washer is using a pulley, a lady is using a knife (wedge) to cut bread, and a new neighbor moving in is using a ramp (inclined plane).  Ask your child to tell you what kind of simple machine Ama used to cut snowflakes.

Small Groups:  This week, the small groups will be taking turns at the Art Table making snowflakes with diffuser paper, glitter and liquid watercolor. 

Large Group:  Following the story, the children experimented with some simple machines that I have in the classroom.  I took a few pictures to share with you.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Pp.

Snacks:  The morning snack was apples and peanut butter brought by Brea.  The afternoon snack was Belvita bars and strawberries brought by Eleanor.  Thank you, Brea and Eleanor!

Group Meeting:  More snow people were returned today.  All of them are wonderful.  We enjoy looking at all of the different ideas.

Story:  The story for today was Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehler. A boy wakes up to find that his snowman looks a little droopy.  He wonders, "what do snowmen do at night?"  He imagines that the snowmen slide to the park to enjoy ice-cold cocoa, a baseball game, a snowball fight and sledding.  Then at the break of dawn, they return home. 

Small Groups:  After retelling the story that we had yesterday, the children glued a paper mitten to a paper bag.  They cut apart animal pictures from the story.  They retold the story and put the animals into the mitten one at a time.  Please ask them to retell the story for you.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Oo.

Snacks:  The morning class snack was Wheat Thins and milk brought by Callie.  The afternoon snack was almonds and strawberries brought by Eliza.  Thank you, Callie and Eliza!

Group Meeting:  We had a few children return their snow people from yesterday, so we took a few minutes to check them out.   Your child can bring their snow person back to school whenever it is finished.  We will display them in the hallway for the next few weeks.

Story:  The story for today was The Mitten by Jan Brett.  In this story, Nikki gets new mittens from his Grandmother, Baba.  They are white.  When Nikki goes out to play in the snow, he loses a mitten, and because it is white like the snow, he does not see it.  Animals discover the mitten and want to crawl inside of it to keep warm.  Will all of the animals fit?  Ask your child to tell you what happens. 

Large Group:  Our Let's Find Out magazine for this week is about the book The Mitten.    The inside helps the children discover that The Mitten is a fiction book.  We also watched a video about winter.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Nn.

Snacks:  The morning snack was bananas and yogurt brought by Charlie.  The afternoon snack was carrots and Wheat Thins brought by Elizabeth.  Thank you, Charlie and Elizabeth!

Snowballs!

Group Meeting:  This week, we are talking about snow, despite the fact that we don't have any and are not expected to receive much in near future.  Children always love to talk about snow.  Hopefully, we will get some soon.

Story:  The story for today was Snowballs by Lois Ehlert.  A family is waiting for it to snow so that they can build and decorate snow people.  They have collected items to use for the snow people's features.  They make a snow dad, mom, sister, brother, dog, and cat.  Ask your child to tell you what happens at the end of the story.

Small Groups:  The children created a snow person using three white circles.  They are bringing it home to decorate just as in our story today.  A note is attached to it with directions. 

Large Group:  The children played London Bridge.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Mm.

Snacks:  The morning snack was Belvita bars and milk brought by Cooper.  The afternoon snack was apples and peanut butter brought by Henry.  Thank you, Cooper and Henry!

It's good to be back!

Group Meeting:  We took a few minutes to discuss our holiday events and get reacquainted with everyone.  We put out a few new toys in various areas, so new instructions were given.

Story:  The story for today was The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  This is the story of Peter who goes out to play in the snow.  He makes tracks in the snow, joins a snowball fight, and makes a snowman and snow angels.  When he goes in for the day, he tucks a snowball into his pocket to save for tomorrow.  Ask your child to tell you what happens to that snowball.

Small Groups:  The children drew pictures of things that they did during their holiday break in their writing journals.

Large Group:  The children played a game in which we pretended that our small playground balls were snowballs.   Ask your child to explain how the game was played.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Ll.

Snacks:  The snack for the morning class was oranges, cheese sticks, and juice brought by Grace.  The snack for the afternoon was Belvita bars and bananas brought by Ian.  Thank you, Ian and Grace.