PRE-SCHOOL UPDATE WEEK 3

Our big craft project for the week:
making our name with foam letters, tracing our hands & feet, counting them, learning left & right, and knowing how old we were
(This week it was Tyler's and Owen's birthday- it was the conversation of the week: "No, my birthday is coming up. MY birthday is coming up. No, my birthday is next." And yes, they are right- 8 out of the 11 birthdays are within Sept. & Oct., so yes, BIRTHDAY celebrations and excitement is in the air!!!)

We had class picture day on Monday & Tuesday.
Here are the cutest 4 year olds on the planet that I get the privilege of spending every Monday and Wednesday with. I love this class! They are so sweet, helpful, and play together very well! They are always willing to learn and do the crazy learning activities that I ask them to do! I love that they are so independent and imaginative! They teach me how to look at things in a different way and how to be creative.
Here are the sweet and cutest can be 3's! The 3's are what I like to call "temperamental and reactive". They are still trying to figure out how to communicate. Right now everything is screaming, crying, and hitting when they want something or someone takes a toy from them. They test each other & my patience, but you know what? Every week they are getting better and better as we talk about how to say thing nicely, how to share, how to say how we feel instead of crying and screaming. I love that they are so full of energy- I'm just going to call them "explosive, excited, and energetic" because that's exactly what they are and I love it!
Tyler gets so sad everyday when all of his pre-school friends leave and prays for them everyday. He says, "Where did all of my friends go?" "Thank you for pre-school friends." "Is tomorrow pre-school?"
We love our pre-school friends!
I had to include a funny picture only because every picture that Camille took for us the kids were all in a different pose. They move so fast & are so wiggly. But, aren't they the cutest 3 year olds? I love how they say, "Ms. Jenny" too. It's the sweetest, most sincere word they speak.
Funny Owen who always has some super hero or super powers to tell me about! His favorite color is gold, because it's the winning color. He gives me the hardest high fives with lots of power.

Here is sweet Henry, who is a great counter & is very good at puzzles and figuring out how things work. He's my little mathematician. He gives me hugs.

This week we did the letter Q- had to get a random letter out of the way. We talked about what Q-tips are for (not for up your nose) and bent them to make the letter Q. Each week I try to think of something they can glue on the letter that starts with that letter. Thank goodness for Q-tips!
We read "Little Quack's Hide and See" and "Little Quack's Bedtime" and talked about how ducks say "Quack." We sang the song "Five Little Ducks".

We also sorted money to find the quarters. I gave each of the 4 year olds a quarter to put in their pocket to take home. They were so, so excited! However, when I asked them later what they had in their pocket, their response was, "money", "coin"- not quarter. Oh, well- quarter is a hard word to say. Donovan says, "pwarter".

The theme for this week was hands and feet. We had fun counting our toes, counting our fingers, doing lots of marching and feet dancing, and lots of finger plays: "Where is Thumbkin, pointer, tall man, ring finger, and pinkie", "1 little, 2 little, 3 little fingers (or toes)" (all the way up to 10 and backwards), "This little piggie went to . . . "we did hand & feet puzzles, and did the hokey pokey with our right and left hands & feet. I got a kick out of watching them try to raise each finger- it's hard to get those fingers coordinated.

Here is superman Zac & Batman Henry. Zac is a really athletic kid who is a great soccer player! When I saw him kick the soccer ball one day outside and steal the ball from another kid with his foot, I thought, "that kid is really good and not afraid to attack the ball." He gets really into the sport that he's playing- he's great at baseball too!

Here is cute Corteney, except that I'm not allowed to call her "cute", because she doesn't want to be cute (that's what she tells her mom"). I love having one girl in each class- it's so nice to see some "cute colors", "cute hair", and have that mellow feminine touch in the room full of boys. She doesn't mind all the boys and can play the boy games just as well as the boys can. It's a good thing we have Corteney & Wynter, because someone has to sit on the pink circle or pink rectangle- the boys won't. Corteney loves doing anything and everything- she's very creative & quite the explorer.

Here is our calendar center where the leader (snack person) gets to do the date, weather, and number counting with us.

Every week I have a different activity for them to complete on the chalkboard- find your letter, trace your name, make your name with magnetic letters, etc. In just 3 weeks, they all can tell me who name starts with what letter and are starting to make associations with those letters like, "Hey, Cow starts with Corteney. Or I see D for Donovan or J for Jonny." I love how fast little kids can link things so quickly. It just takes someone to teach them and talk to them.

The reading corner had a tent in it this week.
I love to look over and see some of 3's sitting and pretending to "read" books together. They all try to out talk each other while "reading".

They love driving this school bus and pretty soon our classes will be going on a real bus to a Pumpkin Patch Farm. The kids will be ecstatic!

Circle time for the 3's!

Lining up to go upstairs. Oh, this line gets better every week. They are learning the routine so quickly and love to be the leader!

Wynter is a sweet, cuddly 3 year old who LOVES horses and swinging. Anytime she hears the word horse, she "neighs" . She loves to dress up like a cowgirl and play horsey!

It was 95 degree weather this week, so last minute I e-mailed all the parents and said, "We are doing water day, so dress in swimsuits!" It also gave us a good excuse to finger paint outside with water nearby for hands and feet week. Many of them were hesitant to finger paint. I had to convince them that it was washable and it would come off.

"Celebrating the last days of summer!" (hopefully)

There was lots for them to do- I had a water table, a tent, a bouncy ball castle to play in, lots of toys, and finger painting to do. We also had snack outside. Good-bye summer!

I spend most of my "teaching" time outside pushing the swings.

Here's the finger painting masterpieces!

This is Will who LOVES helicopters. It's the first toy he goes for every time. He tells me that he's rescuing people in the water. He LOVES playing with toys and always has something in his hand that he's attached to. He gives me hugs & makes me laugh!

Nicholas was so into outside time that he didn't finger paint nor eat a snack. He was so excited to try out all the toys and spent most of his time squirting a squirt bottle all around the yard. He is a sweet and gentle boy.