Hope you are enjoying your winter break!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and I hope you are enjoying your winter break. can you believe we are close to half way through this school year?! So crazy! It's been a great year so far. we have had some fun fieldtrips, and some great class parties. most of all the kids have been learning so much!

i think the books are going great. I know the kids like to read them to me at school and tell me all about them. Please remember that they do not have to be reading the books great by the end of the week, the idea is to just get them reviewing it each night. Actual reading is a kindergarten thing, so don't stress if your child is not ready. and please remember to return your book every monday so that the other kids will not be held up in their weekly reading since we are sharing the book sets. if you have any questions, please feel free to call me.

January will be a fun month, we will be learning about transportation! always a hit. and february will be all about our community helpers. should be lots of great learning!

thanks for all you do as parents. this is a great group of kids!
-Hanah

christmas is coming!

i know it is a little ways out, but i wanted to let you know that we will be having our preschool Christmas party on december 19th. for the party we will be having a book exchange. please bring a wrapped, like new, book that you are willing to exchange.  every child will bring one and then we will play a game and they will each end up with a new book! the kids love it every year! i'm giving you a heads up now so that you can keep your eyes open for a deal this shopping season :)

(for the party we will also be wearing our jammies and boarding the polar express!)

black

today we learned about the color black. we made elephants and got to PAINT! oh they were so excited! and they were so good with the paint.

hope you all have a good weekend!

where did the week go?

sorry i haven't been updating every day! i have no idea what happened to the week! we learned about the color blue and the shape of a diamond on thursday by making kites. on monday we learned about the color purple and the shape was a star, we made shooting stars. today we learned about the color pink. and we didn't have a shape to go with it. we made turkey hats instead! they were so funny running around being turkeys and gobbling. it was cute! they were all so specific about the color of feathers they wanted.

we will be having a thanksgiving feast next monday for thanksgiving. i am asking that each student bring one of their favorite foods to share with the class. it doesn't have to be thanksgiving related. just something that they love. it is so fun to see what they decide to bring! in the years past we have had crasins, breadsticks, corn nuts, mashed potatoes, and even beef jerky. lots of fun! if you have any questions please let me know!

i will be sending home a reminder tomorrow so you have all weekend to figure it out. :) as well as the december calendar.

yellow and green

Monday we learned about the color yellow. and the letter x. we made yellow sunshine's, arranging them from smallest to biggest. we worked circles as out shape. they did really good putting them in size order!

Wednesday we learned about green and all the things that are green. we made a forest of trees. the trees were various triangle shapes. they like seeing what the colored shapes will become.

we have been coloring a fish every day with the color of the day and adding it to our fishing boats. we say the rhyme "fishy, fishy in the sea. jump into my boat with me. fishy, fishy in the sea. what color will you be?" then we say a color and put it in the boat. and then repeat until we have all the colors in. they really really like it!

we also started star students this week. it's been a lot of fun! they really like learning something about their friend each day.

tomorrow is blue day. :)

red and orange

Wednesday we learned about the color red, and the letter w. we made red wagons out of rectangles big and little. they got to cut, scrunch, tear and glue the red paper on their wagons. we also enjoyed show and tell.

then when we learned about orange we made creatures out of pipe cleaners and toilet paper rolls. some kids made bugs, others made monsters, some made people. it was cute to see them get creative. today (Thursday) we also had so much energy that we had PE. it was so cute to see them doing fun (easy) activities! they crack me up!

they all look so cute dressed up in the color of the day! thanks for participating. i just love your kids!

colors and our party

Thursday we learned about our colors. we made some fun little Halloween books with all the colors. they did such a great job! then we got out our rice buckets, and got to dig for treasures. they enjoyed that!

we had lots of fun at our Halloween party too! played Halloween bingo, and pin the eye on the monster. we made ghosts, and acorn people. we sang silly Halloween songs, trick or treated to each other, and ate spider snacks. it was really fun. they looked so cute in their costumes!

just a reminder that we do not have school on Monday Oct 31. I will see you all on Wednesday November 2nd. have a happy Halloween!!

your address, my address

Yesterday we learned about our address' we drew pictures and then put them in an envelope with our address on them and took a walk to the mailbox where we put them in and sent them off! so watch your mailbox for a letter! they were so excited about it. a few of them even knew their address!

we are learning about the letter Vv this week. as in Vampire! :) speaking of... our Halloween party is tomorrow! (Wednesday the 26th) make sure your little cutie comes dressed in their Halloween costume. we will also be trick or treating to each other so please send something to share. it doesn't have to be a big thing, regular Halloween candy works great! there are 7 kids total in class. I'm excited it should be fun!!

see you all tomorrow!

what's your phone number?

today we learned about our phone numbers. It was fun to see that a few of the kids already know their phone numbers! we pasted the numbers of our phone number in the correct order. the kids did really great! a few of them even wrote the numbers on the paper too. make sure you practice this over and over with them at home. it is one of those things the will need to know for kindergarten (and their address too)

our letter of the week was Tt. they did really great at writing these. then we tip-toed around the room. we have been working on pencil holding. please make sure when they draw or color at home they are understanding how to hold a pencil/crayon/marker. there in no right or wrong way, however is most comfortable to them, but they need to have control of the pencil. i tell them in class that they are in charge of the pencil and if they aren't holding on it won't ever do what they tell it to!

we also made spider hats today! Halloween is such a fun holiday!

i hope you all had fun at the pumpkin patch (and hopefully you have all defrosted!) it was fun to see you all there!

we DO NOT have school tomorrow for UEA weekend! so go out and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts!
next Wednesday is the Halloween costume party! have your child come all dressed up! and please bring a treat to share as we will be trick or treating to each other. we will play games and make a craft and have a great time!

Home and Family

We finished this week by learning about our houses on Wednesday and our families on Thursday.

We listened to the story the Three Little Pigs and then talked about what house was the strongest. we then talked about our houses and what they look like. then we took paper bricks and talked about how they are rectangle shaped. then we made patterns out of them. ab ab (black, red black, red) patterns and aab, aab (red, red, black, red, red black) they did great learning patterns. i will keep working on it with them though. then we used the bricks to make a house.

on Thursday we talked about families and how they are all different. they told me all about their aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents, and sisters and brothers, and moms and dads, and pets (you get the idea here?) there was a lot of talking! these kids love their families. it was really cute! we family bowled! we wrote family members on bowling pins and they got to knock them all down. they had a blast! we also did the bean sorting station.

don't forget the field trip to the pumpkin patch is on Monday! those of you who haven't gotten me the money please make sure to drop it off this weekend or make sure to bring it on Monday morning. (they only take one payment from the school) it starts at 930, see you all there!

-hanah

my neighborhood!

We learned about our neighborhoods today. We talked about the city they live in and all the things that make a city, a hospital, a library, a grocery store, houses, roads. then we made a book about our city.

we worked on our math, colors, cooperation and fine motor skills and sorted beans from a large bowl into piles of correct colors. they had so much fun and i don't think i have seen them more concentrated on something! it was great to see them work at it.

I sent homework home in their backpacks. as i said before, have them bring it back when they are ready. I will send home a new worksheet every week.

The pumpkin patch field trip is next Monday the 17th. please let me know if you are able to come, if you haven't already. it is $4.00 per child (any child) and $2.00 per every adult coming. make sure to get the money to me before the field trip as they will only take one payment on the day of the field trip. and that way i know who is coming.

and lastly, don't forget that Wednesday is show and tell!

-Hanah

State.

Sorry about the late post, it completely slipped my mind yesterday. We learned about the state of Utah. talked about where it is on the map and the kids got to put together a puzzle of the united states. it was simple, and fun.

We started learning our letters this week!  If you are wondering why we started on letter K, we don't learn the alphabet a to z we learn it a little differently here. Our way teaches them to read and write it in a more comprehensive way than trying to master all the letters at once. They already know the alphabet, so they can put the letters in order. But to help them learn to write them we start with our straight letters (k, l, y), circle letters (o and c), then our straight and circle letters (p, b, i), then our hump letters (like h, n, m) and end with the squiggle letters (like s and z). that way they get to learn the letters as their writing abilities improve, straight lines first, then only circle lines, then combining those skills, and then the squiggly lines (those are pretty hard!) so that hopefully when they get to the harder letters, they will have better control of the pencil.

I'm excited to start on letters, they did great with their numbers. it was fun to see them enjoy that! since starting letters, we will also start homework. keeps your eyes open for homework to be sent home. please have them do the home work, and bring it back by Thursday (or earlier) that week. even if they don't understand the homework, you can let them color it. but i know in the past that they really enjoy doing the homework and returning it. they will get a sticker and a stamp on their homework from me. hope fully doing homework and bringing it back will teach them responsibility that will help them know what is expected in Kindergarten, and it will reinforce what we do in class. working with them at home is just as important as learning in class. hopefully together we can help them excel!

i love teaching your kids! have a good weekend!
-miss hanah

Our Country

At preschool today we learned about our country. We found America on our globe and then talked all about it. We talked about the Pledged of Allegiance that we have been working on learning (oh they are so cute when they say it!) and counted all the stars on the flag. The kids got to make their very own flags out of scrap paper. They got to make them how ever they wanted. some made them just like the American flag and some came up with different ideas. then they showed them off to each other. we talked about where we live in America.

Earth!

Today we started our unit on Our Big World! We started out by learning about the planets and will end up all the way to our houses and our families. It should be a fun month!

We learned about our planet today. They told me things they already knew about Earth like why it's green and blue. and then learned new things. They had a ton of questions and it was so fun to help answer them. Some of the things we talked about were: if the sun goes down where we live does it stay "sunny" or does it go to sleep too? why does the earth not fall out of the sky? (this sparked a great conversation about gravity. we had fun experimenting if things would respond to gravity or not. and of course jumping up and down to see that we will just fall right back down because of gravity! who doesn't love to jump?!) is the earth bigger or smaller than the sun? what about the moon? Then we talked about how there are many other planets out there, and how you wouldn't want to live on them! But how they are so different from our planet.

We talked and talked and had so much fun learning. Then we practiced our scissor skills with our project. We made our very own 'Earths". they had a ball just cutting away at the paper. (And no one cut themselves! Always makes for a great day! Yeah!) we talked about land and water and where we live and how there are a ton of people who live on earth and where they could live.

We got the globe out and they all had a chance to look at it and try to find land or water. (everyone was very curious about where Santa lives... they must be excited for Christmas!)

***We are going to the Pumpkin Patch on Thursday! We are so excited! Black Island farms is located at 3178 S. 3000 W, Syracuse, UT 84075. Field trip starts at 9:30 and we are going on a hay ride to begin with so don't be late! The cost is $4.00 per child (any child, siblings included, that is coming and will be getting a pumpkin.) and $2.00 per adult. I need a count by Wednesday of who is coming and how many kids you are bringing with you. They only accept one payment for the whole group so all money needs to be paid to me before the field trip. i will email out more details, but it is super fun! one of my favorite field trips of the year! lots for the kids to do. send me an email or a text saying if you are coming and how many kiddos you are bringing with you. ***

 if you have any questions please let me know!!

-hanah


EDIT!! Field trip has been moved to MONDAY THE 17TH!! apparently it is supposed to rain buckets on Thursday, so it was canceled (yes they called 2 seconds after i posted here) but I snagged a spot on MONDAY THE 10TH! same instructions, same time, just new date. :)

5 Senses

Today we learned about our 5 senses. They made a book and got to draw pictures on each page. They came up with some pretty fun things to draw that they liked. Made me laugh! We put our 5 senses to test to see how hard it would be with out them. They had fun with that hands on experience. We read More Parts again and a few other books. and sang some fun songs. they are really liking the song Do Your Ears Hang Low. We have started reading Halloween/fall books lately.

 

If you ever have a book at home that goes along with the theme, please send it along we would love to read it in class. and from past experience i know they think it's fun to have their book read in class. Also we are low on Halloween books this year, if you have any that you can send with your child we would love to read them in class and will send them home with your child that day. it would be fun to have others to read!

Thanks for letting me teach your children! Hope you have a good weekend.

Nose!

We learned about our noses today. We made "fruit" trees that smell like lemons. We talked about what our noses do for us like smelling things and breathing. Some of the kids came up with fun answers! Someone mentioned that the job of a nose was to make boogers. So then we talked about how boogers keep germs and other things from going into our bodies. The kids were pretty interested in talking about boogers. :) So I thought it was a good time to reinforce the idea that picking our noses is not a good thing! :) We talked about what we like to smell with our noses. some of them said when their mom cooks, someone said the flowers.
It was a funny day at preschool that's for sure! they got to practice with glue again, and I think they are getting pretty good at it! their handwriting is getting really good too!

ears!

We learned about our ears today. We talked about the things our ears like to hear. e played with sounds on the table. We tapped our fingers soft for light rain, and continued faster and harder until it sounded like a big rainstorm. Then we tapped out beats with our hands. It was a lot of fun and they seemed to really enjoy it. we talked about what kinds of animals have ears. then colored pictures of a few of them, and drew on of ourselves! they are pretty good artists! and finished it off by singing "do your ears hang low"  a bunch of times!

Our Mouths

Today we learned about our mouths and the many things they do for us! We worked on our hand eye coordination with scissor cutting. They had fun, made a huge mess. that's when you know they are having fun though. I let them cut and try for a while then helped them all finish cutting their foods out. Then we talked about what we put into our bodies and what we should not. Then we got to feed our "mouths" with all the food they worked hard on cutting out. we also had show and tell, since it is Wednesday. They had fun today!

**don't forget that tomorrow is the Aerospace museum field trip! Meet in the lobby inside the field trip will start at 9:30. (it's located just east of the freeway right off the Roy exit) hope to see your little ones and you there!

eyes

Happy Monday to you! today we learned about our eyes. we talked about all the things we can see with our eyes. then they bumped and bonked around and with their eyes closed. we made binoculars and then went on a nature walk and they shouted out fun things they saw with their binoculars. they spotted an airplane, a rolly-polly bug, a crab apple tree, and a stop sign.

at stations today they played with the puppets and put on a really great show! it was fun to watch!

hands

We learned about hour hands. We traced our hands in red for our right hand and green for the left hand. We talked about all the things we can do with our hands. And how our left hands can make the uppercase letter L. They all enjoyed talking about what our hands are used for. And someone even said we can use our hands for picking our nose!  So very true, it made us all laugh!

we made red and green streamers and then we sang the Hokey-Pokey with red and green streamers in our hands. I think it helped them to learn right hands and left hands when they could see the colors. And singing and dancing is always fun!

We sang the funny colored monster song, and learned the finger play I'm a Nut as well as the finger play I'm a Mean old Witch. words are at the end.


* i sent home the October calendar. so make sure to check their backpacks today

As always thanks for letting me teach your little ones! have a good weekend.

MEAN Old Witch

I'm a MEAN old witch with a hat!   (hands pointed together over head)

I fly on my broom with my cat!      (make hands “fly” in the air)

My nose is pointed and my chin is too!    (draw Pinocchio nose, and pointy chin with hands)

You better watch out or I might scare you! (make “claw” hands)

Boo!

ACORN ROUND

I’m a little acorn round                   (hold hands out in a circle)

Sitting on the cold, hard ground,  (rub your arms like you are cold)

Everybody steps on me,             (pretend to stomp on something)

That is why I’m cracked you see. (Open arms in air)

I’m a nut,                                (knock on your head 2 times)

I’m a nut,                                (knock on your head 2 times)

I’m a nut, I’m a nut, I’m a nut.    (knock on your head 2 times after you say all 3)

feet!

Sorry about the late post today. We learned about our feet today. And we had a blast learning about them!

We talked about different kinds of shoes and what we can do in each of them. Then we talked about what kinds of things our feet can do. They all laughed when I told them that my feet can paint. So we went outside and painted with our feet! they thought it was silly had had a lot of fun! I have to say that their pictures looked really good. They have some talented feet!

I am happy to say that I don't think anyone got paint on their clothes. Can you believe it?? Despite the fact that the blue paint says it's washable... it doesn't appear to be. All of your children went home happy, full of knowledge, with a great art project and some with smurf feet! Sorry about that! Hopefully with some soap and a good scrub they'll be a little less smurf-ish.

My amazing body!

today we learned about our really cool, amazing bodies! they got to run, jump, skip, and dance with their bodies. we sang some silly songs. and then we headed outside to trace our bodies. they colored and decorated their body outlines. the kids came up with some fun ways to decorate them! some even drew their bones inside their bodies. we talked about their bones, their blood, their heart and lungs and brains. it was fun to hear what they had to say.

*the field trip to the aerospace museum is coming up. mark your calendars for Thursday the 22nd. meet at the aerospace museum at 9:30. they do not charge to go there, but they do take donations to keep it running.

*watch your child's backpack for snack reminders. i will hopefully remember to send them home! :)

thanks for all you do! preschool is so much fun!

MONSTERS!?

Monsters?! the only monsters in our class are funny colored ones! we learned about our colors today with the help of fun monsters. we made a monster color book. they did great at listening to directions on what to color each one. they are all really good at their colors! then we learned a song about funny colored monsters! we also learned about the number one. they found the number hidden around the room. And we enjoyed show and tell again this week. they shared their toys great at stations!


the words to Funny colored monsters: sung to the tune of skip to the loo my darling
Red, red, forgot his head, (put hands on head like you can’t find your head)
Red, red, forgot his head,
Red, red, forgot his head,
Funny colored monster!

Green, green, is a dancing queen (dance around)
Orange, orange, bit an orange (pretend to bite an orange)
Yellow, yellow, sat in jello (point to your behind like you are showing off jello on it)
Blue, blue, is sick with the flu… achoo! (pretend to sneeze)
Purple, purple, had to burple (put hand over your mouth like you just burped)
Pink, pink, sat in the sink… oops! (pretend to sit, then pop up on the oops part)
Black, black, plays quarter back (pretend to throw a football)
Brown, brown, turn around (turn around, and around)
White, white, bites at night. (put up hands like you are going to get them)

feelings

Today was all about learning about feelings. we talked about different feelings, and then they made those faces. they couldn't keep from laughing! i had them make a face with an emotion on it. they were pretty creative. some of them were sad, or scared, or happy. we even had one that was whistling!

Next week we start on our numbers! And the unit on our amazing bodies! should be fun.

just a few reminders: *no school on Monday for Labor day! *show and tell will be held on Wednesdays and was a big hit yesterday! please try to keep all toys at home on the other days. *if your child is ready to walk into preschool by themselves, let them try. preschool is all about instilling confidence. and maybe that will cut down on the missing-mommy-moments some of the kids have.

thanks again for such a great start to the school year!! I love teaching your kiddos! as always if you need anything please let me know!

New friends

We talked about friends today. How to be a good friend, how we play nice with friends, and how to share with our friends.

They brought their show and tell today and had a great time showing the things they brought, and telling about some of their favorite things. it was fun to get to know each of our new friends a little better!

They drew a picture of the things they like to do with their friends. there were some really good pictures. and the kids were so excited to tell us all about it.

We read the books The New Bear at School, and Giraffes Can't Dance. To finish it all off we played a match game with pictures of our classmates. they loved it!

down by the bay where the watermelons grow...

we just finished up our watermelon unit today!

it was a fun one. today was math. we measured the watermelon with blocks, all the same size. our watermelon was 9 blocks long and 7 blocks tall. then everyone got to pick something in the room and we compared the items to the watermelon. some were taller, some were bigger, most were lighter. it was fun. then we ATE the watermelon! we cut into it and talked about it. and while we ate it we saved the seeds, and counted them after (i resisted the urge to have a seed spitting contest, i wasn't sure how many of you moms would like that. although it would have been fun!) but we had fun counting them :) then we finished the day coloring and cutting out (they were so excited to use scissors!) a watermelon match game. we worked on our numbers counting vs what the number looks like. they did really great!
on Thursday we had fun learning about the watermelon and how it grows. from seed, to plant to watermelon. we took guesses on if our watermelon would sink or float. then we put it in a big bucket of water to find out. It floated the kids thought that was so cool!

watermelons were a big hit in the class!

we will be doing show and tell on wednesdays. every child can bring one item to show the class. that day at stations they will have the option of playing with a toy if they bring a toy instead of playing at a station. all other days i ask that toys stay home (if they sneak into preschool we will just keep them in their backpacks) thanks!! if they don't want to bring a toy for show and tell they can always bring something else you approve of.

our first day!

today was our first day! it was a great day. we had fun and no one even cried! we played a game to get to know our new friends. and then learned about watermelons. we sang Down by The Bay, they loved it!

we went on a scavenger hunt to familiarize the kids with their new classroom. (they really liked the bathroom! i think they each went twice.) funny kiddos.

we will be learning about watermelons for the next week. learning math, science and art with them.

It's going to be a great year!

it's been a busy year already!

This year is in full swing and it's a fun one! we have such great kids this year, makes me love what i do! here are just a few of the things we have been up to.

SEPTEMBER:

we started out the year by learning about our feet with paint! they had a blast learning that our hands aren't the only things you can paint with!

OCTOBER:

we took our first field trip to black island farms! it was a BLAST. we had the whole place pretty much to ourselves. the weather was so nice. and the rain held out and gave us a chance to get to try out all of the fun things to do before it poured on us!! I bet we were a sight to see all running to our cars!

we had a fun Halloween party! the kids looked great!

NOVEMBER:

for thanksgiving we had a fun "favorites feast"! the kids got to bring their favorite thing to eat and share! it sure was yummy! :) we had pumpkin seeds, cheese, Pb&j sandwiches, bread sticks, dried cranberries, popcorn, and a few other things. it sure was fun to try everything out!

DECEMBER:

we had a fun pajama party and rode the polar express! and we had a book exchange where the kids got to take home a new book. it was fun!