We're Back!

 It's been a LONNNNNGGGG time since I've added any posts to our blog.  A lot has changed since then.  

A little over a year ago we moved from M ST. location to a commercial building.  We increased our capacity from 40 to 165! (We have about doubled our enrollment.  In terms of capacity. we are not full.) 

We also started a new adventure of caring for infants.   We have more than doubled our staff as well.  As with any new adventure there are hiccups.  We have some awesome teachers and staff that give their all and then some! 

My goal is to add posts more frequently.  I just don't know how regularly that will happen. 

While you're here be sure to read the post on our Christmas activity using Star from Afar. 

Thanks for reading!

Linda

Christmas Star from Afar Ideas for Preschoolers

For a few years we participated in the Elf on the Shelf craze with our Preschoolers.  It was fun, but it was also a lot of work.  Since I opened at 5:30 am and closed at 6 PM the responsibility usually fell on me to move the elf (we named him Jingle), and come up with new exciting antics for him.  

A couple years ago we were introduced to A Christmas Star From Afar.  This was a nativity set with a book and some ideas to go with it.  It is probably most suited for a family rather than a classroom. The book tells the Christmas story and how the wisemen/kings follow the star to find Baby Jesus. The idea behind it is that the star from the nativity sets gets hidden/moved every night.  The child/children then move the 3 wise men/kings to where they find the star.  Each day the star moves closer to the Nativity set.

The first couple years I struggled finding meaningful lessons that my Pre-K kids would understand.  It was also hard to make sure all 20 kids got a turn to find the star and move a king.    This year (2023) last minute inspiration hit me and I came up with an interactive way to use Star from Afar in my Pre-K classroom.  I wanted to share it in hopes that may help someone searching for ideas. 

To begin we read the book to the children. Throughout the season we read different versions of the Christmas Story.   As we set up the Nativity set we talked about about piece--Mary, Joseph, Jesus, shepherds, animals, angel, star and kings.   We decided to display our Nativity set on the piano out in our activity room at the front of our building.  Rather than moving the star and kings from the  Star From Afar set we laminated a bigger star and each child made their own king.  To make the king we used a paper tube and covered it with silver or gold wrapping paper. The children added eyes, faces, and crowns.  

Each day I moved the star to different areas of our building outside of our classroom.   We took small groups of our Pre-Kers out of the room to look for the star. When they found it, they placed their kings by it. Each day I moved the star closer to the Nativity set.  

On our last day of Preschool before Christmas Break we 'repaired' all our kings (gluing eyes and crowns back on).  One of our games we played at our party was "Follow the Star."  We put rows of stars on the tables.  Each child rolled a die and moved their king along the stars to make it to the end.  After completing the game we moved the kings to the star which was over the Nativity set. 

Next year maybe I can incorporate some kind of a treat or activity for them each time they find the Star.     

Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!    

Merry Christmas! 

The Marker Doesn't Have a Lid by Dustin

This had to be the most unique title I've ever heard of.  Dustin's book is a series of pictures. He didn't dictate a story for me to write down. It wasn't until I was taking the pictures that I realized he hadn't shared his story with me. I think I can make out the word 'markers' on the last page. I would guess this story changes each time he 'reads' it.  Love the creativity!  

The Potato Monster Runs Away by Hudson

This is a cute story. Hudson drew the pictures and then dictated to me what was happening in the story. Towards the end I'm not sure if he ran out of ideas or if he was just ready to  move on to something else.  Either way he created a great story! 

Kitty Princess is Mean to Pete the Cat by Ava

Here is the first of the Authors and Illustrators books the children worked on today.  Ava is an awesome artist. I think I need to frame some of her art work!  Her story is just as impressive!

Authors and Illustrators

It's a cold cold Tuesday. Normally we go to the local Library on Tuesdays but with staff out sick and the cold Temps we chose to stay put.
After talking about where the library gets their books we thought about WHO makes the books to begin with.
We already know that Authors write the words and Illustrators draw the pictures. Today it was our turn to be Authors and Illustrators.  After choosing the paper they wanted, the preschoolers quickly got to work. Surprisingly everyone had a unique idea for a story.
Everyone chose a title (name) for their story. Some children drew all the pictures first then dictated their story page by page. Others dictated each page and then drew the pictures to go with it.
No matter how they did it, the all ended up with great stories! I normally put pictures of such activities on Facebook but these were so neat I felt the whole stories should be shared.
I wrote what the children dictated to me with very little prompting. I asked leading questions to help them along such as "What happened next?"   I helped one little boy in drawing his picture but he was very specific about how he wanted it drawn.

I will post each child's book as a separate blog so you can easily access each one. If you look on the right hand side of the page you should see links to the other stories.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.  I kind of wondered if I should have made copies of these stories in  case one of them becomes a world famous author someday and I can say "I knew him/her at the very beginning of his/her career!"
ENJOY!

What's your Super Power?

It's Super Hero Week at Preschool.  Each of the children decorated a cape.

 and chose a Super Hero name:

Lightening Man

Lightening Boy

Batman 

Batman (black)

Batman (green)

Cheetah Girl

Capt. Kaboom

Super Cooper

Super Girl

Super Girl

Super Girl

(Yes, there are 3 of them)

Super Cinderella

Pink Princess

Spiderman

The Hulk

Super Cat

Caterpillar Girl

We had a couple special missions. Capt. Chaos hid a bunch of our toys outside which we were able to rescue.  He also hid some of our ingredients to make our pizzas, but we followed the clues and found all of them. 

Finally we talked about the Super Powers our Heroes have. We had the usual flying, strength, running fast and shooting out spider webs.
Then we learned about the most famous hero of all...JESUS! We learned about his Super Power---performing "miracles" (a new word for us).  We learned how he made 2 fish and 5 loaves enough for lots of people to eat.  We thought is was cool that he could walk on water, calm a storm, and help his friends catch lots of fish, and healing people who were hurt or sick.  When learning about the wedding where he turned water into wine.   (We discussed that it would be like if we ran out of punch at our birthday party and Jesus changed water into punch. )

The greatest Super Power Jesus had was rising from the dead.

Syrup anyone?

  We have three huge trees in our back yard.

They provide awesome shade!   Yesterday they provided an avenue for imagination and learning.


 Now I can't say I know exactly when or how the idea came to be.  I looked over to find two of the kids pushing a broom into the side of the tree. 

 My first thought is that they should not be doing this and I started to make my way over towards them.    Before I intervened I listened to the conversation between Big "A" and "D."  Big "A" was explaining to "D" that they were making a hole in the tree to get to the sap. From the sap they would make syrup and then sell it in the front yard. (Who needs a lemonade when you can get fresh syrup? :) )  

They hung a bucket under the hole to catch the sap. 

Later they nailed a piece of wood so the sap would run down into the bucket.

The gathered containers to hold the sap.

As they are working on it they were discussing how to make the sap into syrup.  One girl, "A", told them they would have to add sugar to it.  Big A said you had to boil it for a minute.

When "D's" mom arrived Big "A" told her what they were doing. She asked what kind of tree it was.  They decided it wasn't maple. After further discussion they decided it was an Oak tree and they were making Oak syrup.

I told them I didn't think it was an Oak tree.  "A" asked me to Google on my phone to find out what kind of tree it was. We are pretty sure it is a Linden tree.  So then they wondered if syrup can be made from the sap of a Linden tree.  We learned that the flowers from the Linden tree are used to make a syrup. We couldn't find anything about tapping the tree to use the sap for syrup.

Our day came to an end but the boys didn't get to sell syrup as they hoped.  They enjoyed trying and experimenting as they tried to complete their plan.  Everyone learned a little something about trees and sap as well. 

Random Acts of Kindness & Valentine's Day

I'm slow at getting posts made of all the things we are doing in Preschool.  During Valentine's Week we focused on ways to be kind to one another. We talked about how something as simple as a smile can make someone happy.

PROJECT 1- KINDNESS HEARTS

Our first project was Kindness badges.  Each child decorated a heart which said 'I Am Kind."

We pinned these on their shirt to wear home. 

We put their pictures on doily hearts called our Kindness Hearts.  

Each day when we saw a child do something nice we gave them a sticker to put on their heart. Their nice gestures included things like comforting someone who got hurt, helping someone put on their coat, pick up the circle time mats for me without being asked, picking up toys they weren't playing with, etc.  As soon as they saw someone do a good deed they quickly started doing the same thing.  We told them we didn't want them to come tell us when they did something good. We suggested they tell us when they saw SOMEONE ELSE do something good.--kind of a reverse tattling.  It certainly made them more aware of doing nice things for others.

PROJECT 2--SMILE GRAMS

Last year we asked each child to choose someone to send a balloon and special note (a Smile Gram). This year we decided to literally send a smile. We took a picture of each child with their biggest smile.  We enlarged the pictures and cut out only the child's smile and glued them on red lips the children decorated with stickers.  

Once again the children chose someone to write a special note to (a SMILE GRAM) but we asked them not to sign their name.  We put the smile, Smile Gram and a couple poems in an envelope and mailed them to the recipients.  The first poem was printed on the back of the Smile Gram:

'Smiles are Infectious'

Smiling is infectious,
You catch it like the flu,
When someone smiled at me today,
I started smiling too

I passed around the corner,
And someone saw my grin.
When he smiled I realized
I'd passed it on to him

I thought about that smile
then I realized its worth,
A single smile, just like mine
could travel round the earth

So, if you feel a smile begin,
don't leave it undetected
Let's start an epidemic quick,
and get the world infected!

[Author Unknown] 

The other poem I made up myself:

When I thought of you today

My mouth begin to smile

We took a picture real quick

To save it for a while

I put it in an envelope

To mail it right to you

I may not have signed my name

But can you guess who???

I am learning about being kind

I hope this brightens up your day

Please pass this along

It’s the Random Act of Kindness way!

It would be so neat if everyone who received a 'smile' passed it on to someone else.

We are planning to continue the Kindness Heart idea into March by giving each child a Pot. They will fill their pot with Gold with each kind deed. 

Floor Maze- taking it to the next level!

The Internet has to be one of the greatest resources early childhood teachers have.  I am amazed at the wonderful ideas I have found!  The original floor maze I found at the blog:   Hands on: How we Grow   http://www.handsonaswegrow.com/2012/01/counting-activity-maze-of-numbers.html  .)
I recently found another similar idea using tape on the floor at : http://www.teachpreschool.org/2012/02/everyday-math-in-preschool/

After seeing this I immediately thought it would be fun to make this into a life size board game.  I got my chance this week.

Today as we began our Dr. Seuss Week and the reading of The Foot Book, I thought what a great use of our feet!  I brought out the tape and started making tape lines across the floor.

 I extended this between two rooms. The picture above is in our Truck/Block center. 

  I added lines in between to make boxes.

These are the boxes in the House area.

As the boxes reach the doorway between the two rooms the children find an orange and green arrow. At this box the children will roll a die with green and orange arrows on it.  The arrow they roll will determine if they have to take the long route or the short cut to 'HOME.'  ( Another die with the numbers 1 to 6 will tell them how many spaces they go on each turn. )  

 You will notice the green route is the longest one. The orange route is the shortcut.

Now we haven't actually played a game on this yet.  The kids had fun jumping from box to box as I taped them down. Some rolled from box to box, others took giant steps being careful not to step on the tape lines, and some others just ran along the path.  A few children brought out the trucks and buses and drove them down the 'roads.'  They were just enjoying having something different.  The ideas are endless!!  

Since it's supposed to be cold and rainy tomorrow we should have time to try this out.  I will have to post a follow up blog with the new ideas the kids come up. 

Floor Maze

(This was originally an idea I found on another blog:  Hands on: How we Grow   http://www.handsonaswegrow.com/2012/01/counting-activity-maze-of-numbers.html  .)

After last weekend's snow storm we found ourselves inside looking for something new to keep the kids busy so they wouldn't just run from room to room.  I had just 'pinned' this idea a night or two earlier and decided to try it.  I grabbed whatever kind of tape I could find and just started putting it down on the carpet. In my mind I was making a maze for them to drive cars in.

  The kids soon had different ideas. The red tape is the race track.

They added blocks for ramps for their monster trucks to jump. ( A couple boys had just been to a Monster Truck Rally that weekend)

They decided this table was McDonalds so we had to put the tape around it to be the drive thru.

These girls were taking orders.

Of course we had to make parking stalls too!

Some of the tape has gotten pulled up.  As they play they come up with more ideas and need tape put in different places.   It never seems to be the same game twice.  

I LOVE to see the kids use their imagination this way!