Hello, again!  We are at the end of March and will be starting the month of April on Wednesday.  At preschool, April is Book Month.  So starting today, I will be sharing my favorite authors and books with you.

To get your body and brain moving, try this action video from Jack Hartmann about Spring https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udrIY0nts-E  I hope you can go outside and look for some of the signs of spring.  My trees are starting to get the little buds that will grow into leaves.  My lilies are starting to grow too.  I went for a walk last week and found something that I had not seen before.  I live in the country and we see lots of deer walking in the field behind our house.  I decided to take a hike into that field.  I discovered a deer path where all of the deer walk.  I took a few pictures to show you.

The dark line  is the deer trail where they follow each other one at a time just like preschoolers.

Deer tracks in the mud.

Story: The first favorite author/illustrator that I want to tell you about is Mo Willems.  Mo Willems has created some very funny and cute characters such as Pigeon, Duckling, Knuffle Bunny, Piggie, and Elephant.  Maybe some of you are familiar with the Pigeon books.  The book that I would like you to read today is Don't Let Pigeon Drive the Bus.  Here is a link to the book https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-dHeNfXtgc.

Fine Motor/Writing Activity:  You can draw Pigeon  It's not hard to do.  Try these instructions http://pigeonpresents.com/content/uploads/2017/08/pigeon_draw02.pdf  Remember how we have used straight lines, curves, and diagonal lines to draw.   After you draw Pigeon, think of something else that Pigeon should not drive.  Draw that next to Pigeon.  See if you can write the name of the item that you drew on your paper.  You parents can write "Pigeon should not drive the".  I drew pigeon and will share a picture of that on Wednesday.  I'd like to see your drawing, too.
The picture below is my rain picture from last week.  I had my paper all ready to go.  I saw that it was raining.  I ran outside and put it on the sidewalk.  After I went back inside, it rained very, very hard.  By the time I got back outside to get it, it had washed almost all of the marker off of my paper but the swirling colors were very pretty to see.  You can see a little of the color.

Before

After...woops!

Mo Willems has a wonderful website of things for children to do. You can find it at MoWillems.com

Math Activity:  For this activity, you will need 10 post it notes or 10 squares of paper.  Print the numbers 1-10 putting one number on each square.  Your grown-ups can help you do this.  Now, mix up the papers.  When your grown-up says go, see how quickly you can put them in the correct order.  Have your grown-up time you.  Now try it again and see if you can beat that time.  If you need another challenge, see if you can do it in reverse order.  (Grown-ups, this may be challenging for some children.  Do it as an activity together, maybe starting with just 1-5)

I loved the pictures that I received last week.  I am sharing them with you.  Some of them are childen counting to 20 and some are of art projects. 

It's so good to see everyone!  Check back on Wednesday.  I'll have more to share!  I miss you all!!

Happy Wednesday!

I enjoyed the sunshine yesterday afternoon.  I went outside for a little bit to get some fresh air and exercise.   Today, we are supposed to be back to cloudy skies and perhaps some for tomorrow.  In March, we usually receive a lot of rain.  We need the rain for the green grass to grow.  The rain will help the spring flowers grow.  My activities for you for today and tomorrow are about rain.

Story:  The story that I had planned to read to you today is The Rain Came Down by David Shannon.  You can see the story here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV8snbVhXKU  How do the people in the story feel when the rain is coming down?  Do they act differently when the sun shines?  How?

Science Activity:  You can use items that you have in your house to make rain in a jar.  You will need a jar or clear glass, a plate, ice cubes and hot water.  Have your grown-up put some hot water in the jar about half full.  You can put the ice cubes on the plate and carefully put the plate on top of the jar.  Now watch as the warm air in the jar mixes with the cool air from the ice cubes on the plate.  It will take a little while.  Do you see rain drops on the glass?  You might be able to see a little cloud in the jar as well.

Art Activity:  If it is raining outside today or tomorrow, you can let the rain help you make a pretty picture.  You will need paper and markers.  Draw a picture or scribble (yes, I said scribble) using markers.  When you are finished, put the paper on a tray or cookie sheet.   Place the tray outside in the rain.  Check on it in a few minutes.  What happened to the colors? Here's my picture.  I'll put it in the rain and show you what happens.

Name Printing:  Don't forget to keep printing your name.  Start with an uppercase letter and make the rest with lower case letters.  

Counting Challenge:  Find 20 of something in your house.  Lay them out and count them.  Ask your grown-up to take a picture of it and send it to my email or post it in the comment section.  Let's see how many different things we can find to count.

I will have more stories and activities next week.  Check in on Monday.  April is book month at Redeemer.  I will be sharing my favorite books and authors.  Have a great day!

Hello from DeWitt!

Hello!  I am at home like all of you.  I hope that you are finding plenty of things to do.  I am going to give you a few ideas of things to do at home.  These are things that we would be doing at school if we were able to do so.

Try this video from Koo Koo Kangaroo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpD9kRyBn8o  It will get your body and brain moving.  All of their videos are so much fun!

This week, we were going to be talking about March weather.   Typically, March is a very windy month.  I realize that we got a little snow last night.  Hopefully, that will be gone soon!

Story:  Our story for today would have been The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins.  You can find this book on YouTube  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOGegRlO79o  When you are finished watching, see if you can remember all of the things that blew away in the story.  Perhaps you can try to remember them in the story's order.  You may notice some things in this story that are a little different.  That's because this story was written by an author from England.

Science Activity:  Make a fan by taking a piece of paper and folding it back and forth.  A grown-up or older brother or sister can help you with this.  Once your fan is finished, make some wind by waving it back and forth.  Now, find things in your house that you can move by waving your fan.

Art Activity:  If you have some paint at home, put some drops of it on a paper.  Take a straw and see if you can blow the paint across the paper.   You may need to have your grown up add a little water to the paint.  If you don't have a straw, take the insides out of an ink pen and use it as a straw.  What would happen if you use a hair dryer to blow the paint?

Letter Learning:  This week, we would have worked on the letters Xx, Hh, Qq and Ww.  Try printing these at home.    Remember, when you are printing, to start at the top.  Sing the song "Where Do You Start Your Letters?" if that helps! See if you can find these letters around your house on wall hangings, books, magazines or newspapers.

Math Journals:  The author of the math journal that we are using is offering the month of March to parents for free.  Go to prekinders.com to find this along with some other ideas.

Check back on Wednesday.  I will have some more ideas for you.  I would love to hear from you!  Even though we've only been out of school for a week, I miss you very much!  I will try to post some pictures of things that I am doing at home.  Perhaps you can do the same.  Your parents can add comments to this blog or email me.
Have a great day!

Group Meeting:  We talked a little bit about St. Patrick's Day today, mainly the color green, shamrocks, and leprechauns.  Our Let's Find Out Magazine had a video about chasing and catching leprechauns. 

Story:  The story for today was Skyfire by Frank Asch.  Little Bear sees a rainbow for the first time.  He tells his friend Little Bird that the sky is on fire.  Little Bird thinks that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  Who is right?  Little Bear or Little Bird?  Ask your child to tell you what happens next.

Small Groups:  The children made rainbow toast for their snack.  Rainbow toast is made by putting food coloring in milk and "painting" the milk onto a piece of bread.  We put the bread in the oven to toast it and added a little butter. 

Large Group:  We watched the video with our Let's Find Out magazine.  We cut the magazine into two pieces to make a book.

Snacks:  The children ate the rainbow toast with milk to drink and birthday brownies.  

Spring Break is next week.  There has been some talk about schools shutting down after Spring Break.  I don't know if this is true or just a rumor, but I will be keeping in touch with Bettendorf Schools to determine what our steps will be should something happen.   

Group Meeting:  For today and tomorrow, we will be learning about rainbows.  With St. Patrick's Day coming and Spring weather, we wanted to take some time to learn about this weather event.

Story:  The story for today was Ava and the Rainbow Who Stayed by Geb Adamson.  In this story, it is raining and the sun is coming out.  Ava knows that a rainbow will appear in the sky.  She hurries to find it before it disappears.  However, the rainbow doesn't disappear.  It decides to stay.  For a while, the rainbow is very special.  People come from far away to see the rainbow.  Souvenirs are made for people who come to see the rainbow.  Gradually, the people are so used to seeing the rainbow that it is no longer special.  This makes the rainbow sad.  It goes away.  Ask your child to tell you what brings the rainbow back. 

Small Groups:  The children did an experiment with milk, liquid watercolor, and dish soap.  I poured milk into pie tins.  The children used eye droppers to drop color onto the milk.  Then, one child put dish soap onto the end of a Q-tip and touched the milk.  Ask your child to tell you what happened next.  This is a great experiment to do at home.  You can use food coloring instead of the liquid watercolor.

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

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Rr (for rainbows, just a coincidence).

Snacks:  The morning snack was blueberries and cheese cubes brought by Laurel.  The afternoon snack was blackberries and Cheerios brought by Rory.  Thank you, Laurel and Rory!

Group Meeting:  The children talked about the field trip and things that they saw at the fire station.  We made a list of everything that we saw.

Story:  The story for today was I Drive a Fire Engine by Sarah Bridges.  This book was a great review of things that we learned yesterday.  Following the story, we talked about fire safety at home and at school.

Small Groups:  The children drew pictures in their writing journals of things that we saw at the fire station.  We included the simple machines that we saw as well.

Large Group:  The children learned a song that we had not sung at school yet, "Five Green and Speckled Frogs".

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Nn.

Snacks:  The morning snack was apples and peanut butter by Sawyer.  The afternoon snack was yogurt, mini chocolate chips, and bananas brought by Ryan.  Thank you, Sawyer and Ryan.

A note went home today about Parent/Teacher Conferences.  An email will be sent out tomorrow linking you to the sign up site.

We had a great time at the fire station today.  Thank you, grown-ups, for taking the time to get us there in the rain!!  I managed to take a few pictures.

Group Meeting:  Our field trip will take place on Monday.  We talked about where we are going and what we will be looking for at the fire station.

Story:  The story for today was Moving Day by Robert Munsch.  A family is packing boxes because the moving truck is coming to move them to a new house.  Danielle wants to know how she can help her parents.  Her mother tells her to grab something and put it in a box.  Ask your child to tell you what she puts in the box and where the boxes go before they open them.

Large Group:  The children watched a video explaining the life cycle of a frog.  This went along with our Let's Find Out magazine.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Mm.

Snacks:  The morning snack was Belvita bars, mandarin oranges, and milk brought by Nora.  The afternoon snack was granola bars and cheese sticks brought by Tate.  Thank you, Nora and Tate!

A note went home with your child today concerning the field trip.  Please let me know if you have any questions. 

Group Meeting:  The children have been adding glass beads into a jar as we add numbers to our coconut tree.  Today, we reached number 10.  So, we wanted to know how many glass beads would be in the jar all together.  We dumped the beads onto the floor and put them into groups of 10.  We counted by 10's and had 5 left over for a total of 55 beads.

Story:  The story for today was A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams.  Rosa and her mother are saving money.  They put coins into a jar every day to save up to buy a chair.  When the jar becomes full, they take the money to the bank to convert it into paper money.  They take the money to the furniture store and buy a new chair.  Ask your child to tell you why they needed to buy a new chair.

Small Groups:  The children in the Yellow Group brought items for show and tell.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Ll.

Snacks:  The morning snack was apples, cheese and juice brought by Ram.  The afternoon snack was applesauce and Goldfish brought by Vivienne.  Thank you, Ram and Vivienne!

Special Visitor:  The afternoon class had a special visitor today.  Ian's dad, Mr. Fah owns a moving company.   He showed us how levers, wheels, and axles make his job easier especially when moving heavy things like furniture and pianos.  Thank you very much Mr. Fah!

Story:  Yesterday, I read The Three Little Pigs.  Today, I read The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas.  This story is a twist on the classic.  This time, it is three little wolves who leave their home to build their own houses.  The villain is the big bad pig who wants to destroy their homes.  Ask your child to tell you how this one ends.  Following the story, we did a comparison.  We made a list of things that were the same in both stories and things that were different. 

Small Groups:  The children got into their groups to try to build a home for a pig.  One group had straws (I didn't have access to real straw, so we improvised),  one group used sticks (popsicle sticks) and one group used Duplo blocks.   After looking at each other's houses, we tried blowing them down.

Afternoon stick house

Afternoon brick house

Afternoon straw house

Morning brick house

Morning straw house

Morning stick house

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Ff.

Snacks:  The morning snack was apples and cheese sticks brought by Tristan.  The afternoon snack was Cheerios and juice brought by Cade.  Thank you, Tristan and Cade!

I want to thank all of the grown-ups who attended preschool with their children on Thursday.  We had a great time.  I was very happy to see how much the grown-ups liked to play!

Group Meeting:  Starting a new month means putting new stickers on the 10 frame and starting new math journals.  I can't believe that we have only three months left.

Story:  The story for today was The Three Little Pigs retold by Bonnie Dobkin.  This is the classic tale of the three pigs who build homes of straw, sticks, and bricks.  The big bad wolf comes to their house to "huff and puff and blow it down".  Ask your child to tell you how the story ends.

Large Group:  The children re-enacted the story using puppets and cardboard cut-outs of the three houses.  Every child had a turn to be a pig or the wolf.  Tomorrow, I will put the props in the story area for them to use if they would like to be a different character. 

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Zz.

Snacks:  The morning snack was Belvita bars, grapes, and juice brought by Weston.  The afternoon snack was mixed fruit and bunny grahams brought by Caroline.  Thank you, Weston and Caroline!