Happy Mother's Day!

Today was such a busy fun day.  We had tons of fun making our surprises for Mother's Day.  If you're a mom and don't want a sneak peak you shouldn't read any further until after you've opened your gift.

We started the day in story time reading stories about moms and talking about how our moms are different from each other and perfect for each of us.  We talked about all the things they do for us and how grateful we are to them.  Then we headed to the table to make them some special art.  It was a painting fun mess and they turned out SO cute!

 We also worked on our letter Q activity page from the Amazing Action Alphabet and after our art work was done we wrapped our presents for our moms.  It's fun to use tape and wrapping paper in preschool :).  We also chatted about numerals 0-9 in math time.

 This afternoon was so much fun.  We reviewed the sounds of /ch/ and /th/ and introduced /sh/.  I love the Moffatt Girls Digraph Word Work!  Simple pages to work on a variety of skills.  We talked more about digraphs as well as long vowels and reading strategies in our guided reading groups.

 Math was hilarious today.  I don't even have any pictures.  I start the lesson about basic addition and they look at me like I'm crazy.  One kiddo pipes up: "5+5=10 and 10+10=20."  Well, needless to say my 1+1=2 basic intro wasn't quite on the right level so math was over and we'll hop into more interesting math on Monday.  Boy these kids get smart fast!  We also made lovely painting art for our Mother's Day gifts.  Don't scroll down if you don't want to see it :).

And the completed Mother's Day project:
"You are my sunshine"

Quilts, /TH/, and Greater Than/Less Than Alligators

Today was a super awesome day.  It was chalk full of learning and was very energizing.  We learned all about quilts and the letter Q in our morning class.  We read our Q/counting book from the Amazing Action Alphabet and read a book called "A Boy and His Quilt".  I love reading that story because it walks through quilt making from a child's perspective.  I grew up around quilts though my boys have never had that experience I feel like sharing this book helps them a little.  We then made a class quilt with quilt squares that we each colored.

 We worked on what the number zero is and means during math.  We practiced counting numerals on our TouchMath number strips as well.  We also did a shared reading of one of my favorite books, "Rhyming Dust Bunnies".  It is such a fun book and most of the words that I wanted the kids to try and read for me are bold and in red print so it was easy to point them out. Be sure to read it at home and have them read all the parts that they can!

This afternoon we reviewed what /ch/ says and talked about /th/.  Did you know /th/ has a spoken sound (like in "the") and a quiet sound (like in "think")?  Learning to try the two different sounds to determine what the word is can be a bit tricky, but since we already know the word "the" we're already half way there!

 Our guided reading groups explored long vowels and what to do when /ck/ appears in words.  We had a super awesome math lesson where the "alligator wants to eat the biggest number" was explained to start using the signs for greater than and less than.

We had an awesome day of learning!  Keep up the hard work!

Preschool Mother's Day

We had a fantastic time in preschool talking about Mother's Day.  We enjoyed working on our Mother's Day art project for most of the morning.  They turned out so cute!  We ate snack surrounding the tomato plants that have now taken over my kitchen table since we've got a bit of a cold snap going on outside.  Snow in May?  You've gotta love Colorado to be able to endure this crazy weather.  

We're also working on letter Q this week in our beginning reader series.  Be sure to enter to win the beginning reader books by Saturday night!  We have a great 2 weeks of preschool review coming up as we prepare for our end of year celebration and summer!

Q is for Quilts

We had so much fun today with our Q is for Quilts theme!  We've now officially learned all 26 letters of the alphabet!  We had tons of fun reading a story about a boy who makes his own quilt.  Then we followed the directions and made our very own quilts.  They aren't quite big enough to cover preschooler's bodies but they are big enough to snuggle with and both my boys went to bed with theirs tonight :).  We used a square template, drew the squares onto the fabric and then cut them out.  Cutting out fabric is quite difficult so they each cut between 1-4 of their 9 squares by themselves.  I then sewed them together on the sewing maching. 

 After the quilts were done they got to color on them with fabric markers (if you iron the drawings before washing them it will help them stay more permanently).  We also worked on our Q the Queen Bee art from the Amazing Action Alphabet Activity books, super fun!  We did our reading lessons all snuggled up in our quilts today and ended the day "resting" while we waited for moms to come.  We had a blast!