Mother's Day - Tot School Tuesday

How lovely was the weather today?  Just perfect for a day outside in my opinion.  We enjoyed talking about mothers and Mother's Day today.  We strung necklaces with chunky beads and played with the bugs as well because the beads and bugs were all mixed together when I pulled out the buckets this morning :)

 We also got to play dress up.  Lil'GalBR was the first to jump in and get all fancy.

 We spent a lot of time working on our Mother's Day presents (if you don't want to know what it is until you open it STOP reading here!).

 Everyone was asked to take off shoes and socks.  We were going to be painting our feet.

 We did a trial run in our art notebooks first before making the ones for our moms.  They turned out so cute!

 After each painting of toes they were given a baby wipe to wipe off their feet.  You may find very painted toes when you take off their shoes and socks tonight.

 Snack time of peppers and pears.  Yum!

 All our finished art hanging on the fence to dry.  This hanging rack from Ikea is the best investment I've ever made.  I like the one inside in the preschool room, but the one outside makes outside school days that much easier!

 Cheese!

 BR and EH were playing with the Mother's Day tot pack. They were taking off the flowers and matching them back to the correct color.

 AD's sock was missing and I loved how VB looked for it.  It was almost like doing yoga :)

 After our art project was done we got to wrap our presents.  I cut out a large piece of wrapping paper and then the girls made it fancy by cutting all around the edges.  They were very focused and LOVED this activity.

I can't believe I didn't think to snap any pictures of the taping of the presents.  I helped with 3 key pieces of tape, but then was handing out tape like crazy for everyone to finish taping their own.  They were so cute and very excited about their gifts for their moms.  I hope the moms enjoy them as well!

Animals in Spring - Tot School Tuesday

We had so much fun talking about the coming springtime on Tuesday.  We had a sensory bin of green rice (like the green that will be growing soon).  In the sensory bin there was also Easter grass, erasers with baby animals on them, and bunny rabbit toys. We scooped and dumped almost all day! 

 We also played with spring eggs trying to match tops and bottoms, colors and snap them together (quite difficult even for my 4 year old).

 It was great fun to pretend we were animals waking up from hibernation or returning from migrating south.

 Snapping together a ladybug egg.

 We did lots of reading about spring and baby animals.

 Our art today was stamping with pre-inked stamps of baby chicks and eggs.  The kids loved them!

 We also started talking a little bit about money.  They got to play with our large laminated coins.

 We learned a song called "Popcorn Popping".  Find the music here.

 We glued the popcorn on our apricot tree pictures and then they got to snack on them, but only after I took the glue away :).

 Pretending to be a tiger.

 Here comes mommy cat!

Moms - Tot School Tuesday

As we learn the letter O this week our theme is "Moms".  Today we talked about all the many different things that moms do for us.  We read a silly book, "I Love You, Stinky Face" where a mom loves her little boy even if he's a dinosaur or a stinky skunk.  Moms love us no matter what.  

I had a  few different centers set out at the beginning of school but it seemed that the table full of kitchen things was the biggest hit. 

 The babies were a part of almost every activity, we dressed them (and undressed them) and fed them and carried them all around.

 The peg board didn't get a whole lot of action today, which is highly different from most days that I pull it out, either the other activities were just more engaging or they've mastered the art of playing with peg boards and moved on, I'd like to think it was the former.

 EMan wore this fabric picnic basket as a hat all morning, I think it was his chef hat.

 LilGalA and LilGalE had fun sorting the mommies and the daddies.  Toddlers are starting to understand gender differences and this is a great activity for them.  You'll find it and other great activities in the Moms Tot Pack.

 We played dress up and EMan looks great in my red shirt and black church shoes.

 We're so excited to have LilGalBR join us for our Tuesday Tot School class, it's so much fun to have a new friend!

 So fancy!

 We had a lot of fun making pipe cleaner flowers for our moms.  Everyone picked out their own colors and we twisted them together.

 There is a coloring page at the back of the Moms Tot Pack that has penguins holding flowers.  Everyone colored one for their mom.

 We're still using our gingerbread shaped crayons and they still smell so yummy every time we pull them out.

Camping

One of C's favorite games to play is "Camping".  It's a great dramatic play game that continues day in and day out.  On Saturday evening we decided it was warm enough to make a real camp fire out in our little pit in the backyard and cook dinner in it.

 EMan was confined to his high chair since he was getting too close for comfort to the fire.

 C really wanted to put up the tent, which started a good conversation about the changing season and how it gets cold at night.  We compromised and put up the kid tent in his bedroom.  He then was given the option to sleep in the tent or in his bed.  He chose the tent :)

 Before going to bed though we try and have a mom/daddy read story and a C read story.  Right now he reads us the books from the Amazing Action Alphabet.  He's learned 6 letters and is therefore reading the first 6 books in their series.  I'd highly recommend checking out the company.  Go to their web page by clicking here: Amazing Action Alphabet.

C had a high fever on Sunday, so we canceled regular preschool for Monday (again).  I hate canceling.  There are so many fun activities that I love doing with our whole preschool class.  I've found that teaching is the job for me simply because even if there is a particularly hard day, I am still excited to wake up the next morning and greet kids again.  How many people can say that about their job?