E is for Emotions

Today we:

Did a science experiment with a balloon, baking soda and vinegar!

Crack a hard-boiled egg, sliced it, and ate it up! Yum!

Sang songs about smiles

Today we had lots of educational fun! Here's how it went:

At circle time we practiced our sign language for a, b, c, d, and now e. To teach the kids I told them to pretend that their little hands were making a monster mouth. They had fun munching their hands around. I think they successfully got it down, now we need to repeat it so they can remember it!

They really enjoy the worksheets from sparklebox.com so we did four of those today. One of the boys might actually be ambidextrous! He switches from left to right hand frequently and I can't tell which one is dominant. We also colored on the sliding glass door with dry erase markers. They loved that!

I gave each child a hard-boiled egg to crack, peel and slice in my cool egg slicer. This was a hit for snack time. We paired it with crackers, bananas and apple juice.

I put on a crazy science party this weekend for my older son so I thought since it was E week, we could do a few Experiments. Today we experimented to see if we could get a balloon to blow up over a water bottle filled with vinegar.

Here's what you need to do it: Vinegar, small water bottles, baking soda, balloons.

1. Fill the water bottles half way full of vinegar 2. fill the balloons with baking soda 3. carefully place the mouth of the balloon over the water bottle mouth with out dropping any baking soda in the bottle. 4. you are ready to experiment. Lift the balloon up and let the baking soda fall into the vinegar. 5. watch the balloon expand.

The kids loved this. Their faces were so cute. One of the boys was afraid of it and ran from the room. He is the youngest of the crew and I explained that it wasn't going to explode. He remained leery of the balloons for the rest of preschool. :)

We also did Spaghetti art. They boys loved running their fingers through the slimy spaghetti.

We ended with singing time, sharing and piano time. I am trying something new with the piano. I always write the letter on the note so as they press it they can see where each and ever e is on the keys. Today after they had each taken turns going up and down the key board finding all the e's, I had them close their eyes. I would play an e and ask if it was an e. After a few times doing that, I then would play a different note and ask. I was surprised to find that they were being to tell a difference in the tones. At first they got them all wrong, they got stuck in saying yes. Then they really began to listen and could tell. It was a success, so I think we will play that game each piano day!

♥ Miss Mandy

Day 2 D is for Dinosaur

Time flies when you're having fun! Today we must of had lots of fun because preschool has come and gone and I feel like we just started!

Calendar time went really well today. I started teaching them the sign language for the month September and they seemed to really like that, so today we did a little more. We learned October, a, b, c, and d. It is so sweet to see their tiny hands trying so hard to make each sign. I have been using a chart book that was given to me by one of our great moms. The kids love having a visual to look at and study. They are really starting to belt out the Pledge of Allegiance! I can't wait for their parents to hear them at the end of the year. They wave their flags with pride and honor!

After our circle time and some free play we went to the table and made animal shaped biscuits. While they were in the oven we colored our Happy Dino books, then had snack time.

After that they have been requesting See me Run, so we did that for singing time. It is perfect for a group of active boys... although we do always skip the ballet song. They just look at me like what in the world?? as Rachel gracefully dances around the room. It's kind of funny.

We ended with sharing time and a story. Over all a great day!

Week 4 - D is for Dinosaur

Well our second month of preschool has begun! We are all loving it! I have the best group of kids. Today we did a review on our previous letters of the week. The cutie pies are really starting to get the Pledge of Allegiance song down. I was totally impressed as they waved there flags today and sang loud and proud. After circle/calendar time we headed into the kitchen and did some coloring letter time. I found a really great resource online at a website called Sparklebox. The kids really enjoy their worksheets. They seem to keep their attention well.

Snacks, then our Dinosaur fossils! This was the best part of the day. I made up some salt dough then gave them a small dinosaur to press into the dough. Then we cooked them and we will paint them on Friday. I used this salt dough recipe:
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water
cook for 45 mins in the oven at 350
mix together, adding more water if needed. The kids each had their own rolling pins and rolled them out and began making their fossils. We did one dino and one foot. I got the play-dough toys out and they played with the left overs while I prepped the fossils for the oven.

Singing time we made a train and danced around the house. The kids are asking for See Me Run so on Thursday I will bring that out again.

I read them a few books:
The Snappy Dinosaur (one of my favorites this time of year)
Five little Ducks
Pumpkin Jack (one of my favorites this time of year)

♥ Miss Mandy