New Year's Eve

Happy New Year!

 Preschool on Wednesday was full of learning about the what a new year was.

 We sequenced the months of the year.

 We wrote in our journals after talking about New Year's resolutions and how people like to keep track of the important things in their lives.

 We made paper plate noisemakers by coloring on a plate, folding it in half, adding 1/4 cup beans and stapling it closed.  We also made party hats.  I used a cheap blue party hat to trace the outline onto large construction paper and then they colored their own and added glitter.

I love how "I" and "M" hold hands when they go down the stairs.  They are so fun!

 The girls checking out their party hats.

 We talked about how one year is one rotation of the earth around the sun.  We rolled the "Earth" ball around the "Sun" ball and every time it got back to the beginning we yelled, "Happy New Year!" And shook our noisemakers.

Then I had this printable (click on the picture to download it).  I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of the kids using it, but basically cut out both circles and attach the sun to the center of the Earth circle with a brad and then teach them to hold the sun still while they rotate the Earth around the sun.  When the Earth gets back to the beginning they can yell, "Happy New Year!" and make lots of noise!

 During our noisy play with the printable and all out music fest I turned on the CD from the Amazing Action Alphabet.  I sat on the floor with the flip chart and followed along.  "I" was completely adorable and came and snuggled next to me while the other kids ran around continuing their party.  She was tracing the letters with me.

 And doing all the actions (T the tiger taps his tooth).

 We also printed out the large motor Hop Along the Path game from my New Year's Printable.  The kids always love this game, though in my classroom we haven't learned how to associate it with counting a number of spaces to move with a dice, they just jump and count, which is perfectly reasonable - they are just a 3 year old class and have a year and a half before they start kindergarten anyway :)

New Year's Pack

There isn't a bunch in this pack, I hope to update it soon, but I thought I'd share what I currently have done so you can get to using it if you like.

Let me know what you like and what you'd like more of so my packs can continue to interest you. Happy playing!

 

 

In this Pack:

You'll explore:

• 5 Piece Puzzles
• Grid Games
• Hop Along the Path Large Motor
• New Year Facts Page
• Short Path Game
• Safari Animal New Year Game ideas for the littlest toddlers

Enjoy playing with the New Year's Pack, and as always - please let me know if there are any typos. To download: just click on the image of the pack above. Please leave a comment here if you download, I'd love to know who's using it! And, if you blog about the pack let me know! I'll add a link to your blog under the printables section of mine.

The Snowy Day

Steve was a fantastic sport and got us (aka: me) a SmartBoard for Christmas.  We've been working on setting it up and are still waiting for one cable to arrive, but because today's preschool was only R, C and EMan I decided to set it up so we could use it.  All the cables were out in the open and hanging everywhere since we don't have the right one to run them all into the computer room yet, but with only 2 kids and occasionally EMan I could keep my eyes on them.

 We started preschool by watching the Scholastic production of One Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  Then we read the book to see the story in a different form.

 I had lapbooks prepared for all the kids about the book.  I used the printables from HomeschoolShare for these.

 We sequenced the story, made a book about the color white,

 circled all the S's that we found (S if for Snow),

 and we cut out and put together our own snowmen.

 After snack time I introduced the boys to using the board.  If you ever have the opportunity to use one, having the younger kids hold a tennis ball to manipulate the objects is very helpful.

  These pages are from our Touch Math PreK curriculum. We've been working on one-to-one correspondence. 

 I love this sequence of pictures.  First C is taking his turn coloring one apple green.

 Then he says, "Here R, you can finish coloring it."

They had both completed coloring one apple green together.  I love that they did that unprompted!

It was a quiet day in preschool having so many kids taking a holiday and though we had fun, I look forward to more students returning on Wednesday and even more making it back next Monday!

A Little Catch Up from the Holiday Weekend

Friday morning we played whatever the boys wanted to do.  We started with water color painting.

 Then they decided that we should play with play dough, which led to making dough to make ornaments.

 We did a hand print ornament for each boy and they got to use the cookie cutters to make the rest of them, of course the chose to mostly do construction tools.

 EMan has determined that if he's done being in his seat he's just going to get down himself.  It's been the cause of a number of bruises to his head lately, I guess I should just be more proactive about buckling him in, but I also think he should eventually learn...right?

 We painted our hand prints with a mixture of flour, salt and water.

 Sunday morning the boys got into their stocking before going to church.  Santa had brought toothbrushes for each of the boys, they were SO excited!  Check out that expression on EMan's face.

 After church we proceeded with the unwrapping of gifts.  EMan is so interested in this peg board Santa brought!

 C got the Vtech InnoTab and is in love with it.  He turns three next week so he's a bit young for its intended age (4-9) but caught right on to a penguin puzzle game and played it for almost an hour!  I'd call that a successful learning toy.

I hope everyone had a happy and wonderful holiday!

Polar Express Day

Don't you just love this adorable Santa snack that we had today in preschool?  Thanks Miss K for making them for us!

 As we continued to work on the letter F we got out the flour and had some fun!

 We practiced our other letters as well.

 Today we started talking about the number 5.  Our 5 books were decorated with the do-a-dot markers since we already had them out from doing our Polar Express Pack do-a-dot train.

 Then we made these fun trains.  I had already prepared a number of cardboard boxes with construction paper and then clear contact over the top (for durability).  Crayons work great on contact paper.  Everyone decorated their own  (some even wrote their names or "Polar Express" by asking what letter to draw next, others asked for me to write their names).

 Then we RAN!  and ran, and ran, and ran - or shall I say chugged around the house.

 We continued working on our numbers by placing the correct number of bells on a numeral and then shaking our silver bells that many times.

 We also had a quick practice of our program that will be tomorrow night for the parents.

 Happy Holidays everyone!