Preschool Update—Week 18

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 . . . BLAST OFF!!!
We (okay, the 3 year olds- the 4 year olds will do this on Mon. since we had another snow day) have been learning how to count backwards from 10 with our COOL toilet paper rocket ships and with our bodies.
Oh, the kids were so excited to get these!

We talked about space, rockets, the moon, the sun, the stars, and planets with their very own SPACE mobile to take home.
They made Saturn out of 2 paper plates- one with paint and the other one with dots and stars. I think it turned out pretty cool!

They picked out the stickers to put on their paper for their space mobile.

We read space books and talked about what it's like to go into outer space. We also watched (meaning while they play in the bonus room) the Baby Einstein movie called "Galileo" which just shows different pictures of the planets, moon, sun, and stars. It's nice background music and images to show them as they play.

We've talked about how we live on planet earth and how it's different than the other planets.

They each got a moon rock to take home! (or they will!) (It's funny that I'm writing this before it actually happens!)

We took a field trip to Tyler's bedroom to see the planets hanging in his room and learned each of their names while I pointed them out by flashlight.
MARS, Jupiter, & Neptune

Mercury, Saturn, and Uranus

Earth, the SUN, and Venus

I've been meaning to post about this- this is a horrible picture, but I got a line of string to hang the letters of the week on.
I wanted to give you some ideas of ways you can display your kids work at home, because I know we can't hang on to stuff forever, especially as they grow older and they will continue to get more and more and more. But, I do want to stress that kids like seeing their work and when I hang stuff that Tyler has made on the fridge at his eye level, he re-visits it and talks about it when we're in the kitchen making food. It gives him something to do and something for us to talk about when I'm trying to get dinner ready and we're all hungry. It's a nice distraction!

I think learning should be natural and if we provide things for our kids to look at and re-visit, then our kids will talk about them more and know that we care.
Another idea is to tape each letter, picture, the numbers, or letters to the inside door of low cabinets in the kitchen or behind pantry doors, so that when your child opens it, they can see their work and you don't have to see it all the time, but it's there. They like the idea of opening things and seeing what they've accomplished.
Also, taping each one on the bathroom mirror every week can also help.
Just remember that your kids are only little once and their cute pictures from pre-school will no longer be important a year or two down the road. So, celebrate what they are doing today and make them feel important with what they bring home. I try to remind myself all the time when I get sick of all this kid stuff in my house that I'm cleaning up everyday, "my child is only little once. I need to enjoy and celebrate it now, because one day I will miss this!"

We learned the letter O this week. I couldn't think of anything great this week (brain fart), so we just did orange paper, orange stickers, and talked about how the letter O is in the shape of an oval. Oh, and we celebrated O for Owen!

Since I didn't have much time with the 4 year olds this week, I just took some pictures of the 3 year olds playing so nicely:

Since it snowed again this week, the 3 year olds made SNOW this week (the 4 year olds will do this too!), but it was messy, messy fun!
What's pre-school without a mess???

We went and saw the 'Cat in the Hat' at Barnes & Noble for story time.

It was crowded- good thing it was only Zac & Tyler!