Miss Ari's Class

November 2011

2011-11-22T16:17:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from this past week. Enjoy!

Letter toss practice.
The kids had to roll the die, and whichever letter it landed on, they needed to write it in the corresponding spot on their paper. They just love playing this "game!"

One of the most important things we do here, is develop fine motor skills. One of the best ways to do that is to cut! I put out salad bowls, give them scraps of paper, and they make "paper salads." One of our favorite activities!

Here are the kids from the older class demonstrating their awesome cutting skills, while cutting out "Tommy the Turkey".

Speaking of Tommy the Turkey, we sang a song about him, which was a great way to teach the letter 'T....
(Sung to On Top of Old Smokey)
Tommy the Turkey
He starts words with T's.
If he asks for a tapple,
give him an apple, please.
If he asks for some toup,
give him some soup, please.
If he asks for a tarrot,
give him a carrot, please!

I had a Tommy puppet, and I gave them each a piece of play food, and I would have "Tommy" ask for the item (totdog, tookie, tilk), then they would have to give it to him. They were laughing so hard! It was a lot of fun!

So, here is the night before the big feast. I think I love having a chalkboard wall more than the kids do!

All of the projects and hats ready to go!

The turkey slow cooking away...
Here is the recipe for, what I think is the easiest, best way to cook turkey so that it is easy for kids to eat, and absolutely DELICIOUS...

1. Mix together the juice from 2 citrus fruits of your choice (I used an ora blanko grapefruit), 2 T olive oil, 1 tsp salt, 1tsp pepper, 1 T honey, 1.5 tsp thyme.
2. rub mixture all over the turkey, and even under the skin
3. Top with some zest from the citrus
... Cover the wing tips with foil, and make a "tent with foil over the turkey.
4. put in the oven, and follow the baking instructions on your turkey.
5.After it is cooked, get all of the meat off, and put it in the slow cooker, along with the juices from the turkey, and another 1/2c to 1 c of chicken stalk.
6. Leave it in there for a few more hours, and just let it shred away!
7. The turkey is juicy and delicious, and best of all, there is no cutting required!
Enjoy!

I had the kids pass around the Thankful Teddy, and say something they were thankful for and why.

Before the big feast, I thought it was important that I tell them the Thanksgiving story. And, as luck would have it, I don't have any good books that don't bore the kids. So I told them the story, and had them imagine it.
We will often "imagine" our stories, and the kids just love this! Before we do this, we warm up our imaginations. First, I give the kids a noun, for example, a pumpkin. I will then tell them to close their eyes, and see if they can "see" the pumpkin. Once they have, they will raise their hands. I will do a couple more words, then I will give them a silly one. Like today, I had them imagine a dog with cat ears and a lizard tail. They all got a good giggle, but they were all able to imagine it!
After the warm-up, they were ready to "imagine" the Thanksgiving story!

Now, the feast!
One child suggested that all of the girls be Pocahontas, and all the boys be John Smith. It was a great idea, as in the past, deciding who would be which, has been a difficult task.

Thank you to all the parents who brought side dishes and deserts! I couldn't have done it without you!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I will see you next week!

Last weeks of school 2011...

2011-05-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

Here we are during our unit on bedtime stories...What goes along with bedtime stories better than pajama day?! I had the kids bring their favorite bedtime story to share. I thought it would be neat to take a picture of them all behind their favorite bedtime story...

Azure crawled behind her big brother, Ace...(he's not sitting on her, I promise :) )

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Here are my (8) little monkeys jumping on the bed...

We also did "Ten in a Bed"

The last two years, I have had the kids stuff their own pillow. I just go to Wallyworld and buy their fleece scraps; cut them up and tie them, so that they are all ready to stuff. It is one of my favorite things to have the kids do...

And, what goes better with pajama day, then pigs in a blanket?! Each child got to roll their own pig in a blanket. The kids LOVED them! I even had a few who asked me for the recipe! FYI, all it is a hot dog rolled in pastry dough :) so easy!

For the summer birthday party, we of course had to play pin the tail on the donkey...among other things....

No peeking...

Azure even had to try it. She wouldn't keep the eye cover on, but she did do her own spin, right before!

Here's the kids from the older class who have summer birthdays....quite a few...

Thank you for all of your support with graduation! I am kind of...well maybe not "kind of""--I AM a one woman show, and I know sometimes things don't go as smoothly when that is the case...but, I thought your kids did a FANTASTIC job! I was so proud of them! Thank you to all the parents who helped out with and who performed in the program! I wasn't able to take any pictures from the program, so if you have any, please email them to me at abrunners@aol.com. Also, here is a link to the pictures of the cupcakes:

http://sweetenyourday.com/sograduation.html

Thanks, again for a wonderful year! And, thanks for letting me do what I love :) You are all wonderful!

Easter and Community Helpers Unit

2011-05-12T12:36:00.000-07:00

I love the Spring! It really makes all the "happy" come back...if that makes sense :)

For our Easter/Spring unit, I always love to have the kids make nests. We, first talk about birds and how they gather different things to build their nests. We actually had a little nest up in our tree, that I was planning on letting the kids go look at, but that morning, the wind had blown it down, and pieces of it were all over the front yard. It worked out well, because I found the biggest piece, and was able to have the kids look at it close up! We saw a bunch of grass, cat hair, and even some little plastic ribbing woven through it! It was really cool!

For the nest, I take a brown paper bag, an roll it down. The kids, then gather things to make a soft bed for their nest...
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We colored Easter eggs, and voila!

Aren't they cute?!!

We walked over to the park to have an egg hunt. Thank you Marianne and Andy for hiding them for us!!!

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On the walk back...

Sweet...

Okay, so I noticed, that on the walk both to and from the park, both classes were mesmerized by the worms. It took us so long to walk because of it. Soooo, I thought that I would take some time in class the next week to talk about worms, and how they help us. And, of course....we HAD to EAT some!!!

Yumm-O!

The past couple of weeks, we have been talking about community helpers and safety. This is one of my very favorite units! I actually chose this topic to teach in my student teach, and I covered it extensively when I taught kindergarten. Needless to say, I look forward to this unit!

First we talked about police officers. Luckily, my husband used to work as a police officer in St. George, so I had these nifty little shirts. Cyden's dad is also a police officer in Saratoga Springs, so he was all smiles when I let him dress up :)

I don't know about you, but one of my favorite games to play is red light-green light. The safety unit is always a good excuse to play it! I add a few more little things, though...

Wrong way = go backwards
Yield = stop and look
Speed limit (10) = take 10 steps
...the rest is pretty explanatory :)

Check out those awesome hats!

We talked about how detectives and police officers take fingerprints to help find clues. For this I had the kids trace their hands, and dip their fingers in the watercolor paints, and then print them on the corresponding fingers. They didn't quite turn out as "fingerprinty" as I wanted, but a lot of learning and fun happened in the process!

Every year, I invite the EM City Fire Department to meet us at the park to do a demonstration. This year, they were only able to make it to the younger class...they actually called me on the walk to the park with the older class, and let me know that they had a call, and couldn't make it. This was good, because we were able to have a talk about how important their jobs were. After I told them about it, they were all trying to guess what it was they were doing....they all came to the conclusion that whatever it was they were doing, they were helping someone :)

Here is the 3-4 class in the ambulance...
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The firefighter telling us about all his cool tools...

The coolest water gun EVER!!

Taking turns in the fire truck...

A class pic in front of the fire truck...:)

Here's a fun art activity we did...
As much as I do love to let the kids paint, I DO NOT like to clean up the mess! Sooo, I devised a plan...I gave each child a piece of black paper, and put a blob of red, yellow and orange paint on it.

Then I gave them each a plastic baggie to put over the paint (Reynold's wrap would work just fine, too). They, then moved the paint around, without making a mess!!!!

Then, they put the house and fire truck that they had already colored and cut out, on top of the "fire" they had just painted. Pretty cool, huh?

Here we are when we learned about doctors. I had each child talk about a time when they went to the doctor, and how they helped them. I loved to hear their little stories.

Then, I taught them a poem that I wrote about doctors...

Every year, or on days I'm sick
There is one place that I'll go.
A doctor makes me feel my best!
And he loves to see me grow!

Then I gave them a band-aid I had cut out, and pasted the poem on, and had them put band-aids on it. It was a great fine motor activity!

This has been a really fun month! Thanks for having awesome kids

2011-04-29T13:52:00.000-07:00

We got class pictures taken this week! They turned out sooooo cute! To view them, go to

http://mikkigrimleyphotography.blogspot.com/

Order forms and money are due by May 5th. There are some really cute options to purchase on her site. She has also had a few ask about grandparents ordering pictures, so she added a link for them to do that! Thanks so much for all those who helped out, and for having such ADORABLE kids!!!

April fool's trick...

2011-04-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

To hear it, you will have to pause the playlist...

April Fool's Day

2011-04-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, so April Fool's day is always a fun day. I'm not super good at playing tricks, but I thought that we'd do "silly" things, and talk about how, this is a day for joking and having fun.

So....first, I turned the chairs up-side-down, and had them stand on them, while they painted. They thought it was silly, and had a great time!

Then, I told them that we were going to finger paint...they love to do this! but when I told them they could eat the paint, they were so excited!....well, most of them...
(I made vanilla pudding, and colored it green.)

Finally, I did decide to play a little trick on them. I made strawberry jello, and poured them into individual cups. I passed them out with snack, and told them that it was juice. When they tried to drink it, nothing came out...it just stayed in the cup! Their reaction was so fun to watch!

They enjoyed eating the jello :)

Visitin the hens

2011-04-15T21:09:00.000-07:00

One of my friends, who lives just down the street from me, was so kind to let us see her hens for our unit on farms. The kids just loved it!
Afterward, we went to the park and played freeze tag, red-light, green light...you name it, we played it! It was definitely a day to remember; and something we will have to do more often...:)

Eating (pop)corn like chickens :)

Walking to the park, holding hands...well, most of them :)

Petting the hens...

2011-03-22T17:26:00.000-07:00

Here are a bunch of pictures. Enjoy!....

Acting out Rapunzel in the puppet show....
This was harder than I thought, because every time I would try to tell the "real" story of Rapunzel, I would be immediately corrected by what happened in the movie, "Tangled." It was still a lot of fun!

Silly faces...

Goldilocks and the Three Bears...
This chair was just right...

Tasting the porridge...

Somebody's been eating my porridge!

Painting!
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Outside play time!

Cute "Rapunzel's" posing for the camera...Check out those golden locks!

Always making silly faces

Jumping!

Sliding down the hill...

Through the tunnel...

A Leprechaun visited our preschool! Check out the footprints!

Put the gold in the pot!...They used their hats as blindfolds :)

Eating Lucky Charms, "gold" Oreo cookies, and rootbeer floats for snack...yumm-o!

Picking a favorite book to read, and share, with a partner...

2011-03-02T12:45:00.000-08:00

I finally got a new camera! Here are some pictures from this week, so far...

Playing in the puppet show, and taking turns being the audience.

While I read them The Princes and the Pea, I gave them each a pea to sit on. They all insisted that they could feel it, and that they were "real princesses" (and princes).

Interactive writing. we all took turns writing and being space holders. They are great little writers! (In case you can't tell, this is a reenactment--it was difficult to take a picture while I was instructing them :) ).

Yes!

No!

Green (scrambled) eggs and ham cake! Much more of a hit than actual eggs... And, I know, I know...the whole point of Green Eggs and Ham is to have them try new things, but I thought that it was a good excuse to have a birthday cake for Dr. Seuss' birthday. :)

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Letter Hop Scotch

2011-01-21T13:28:00.000-08:00

2011-01-21T11:43:00.000-08:00

2011-01-20T18:11:00.000-08:00

Another Great Week! Here are some pictures!...

Playing!

The girls!

Building sandcastles with brown sugar, as part of our weather unit. Too bad it we can't do the real thing, but brown sugar is a (very) close second! :)

Of course, "sugar," to most kids, means "eat!"...

...and make a mess :)

Letter hop scotch!

Show and tell!

Jan 2011

2011-01-15T14:45:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from preschool. Enjoy....

We did an experiment on how ice melts. I gave everyone a cup with an ice cube in it. I first, had them predict if they thought cold, warm, or hot water would melt the ice cube faster. Then, I poured cold in some, warm in some, and hot water in the others. As you can see, the ice did not melt in the one with cold water (1), the ice melted slowly with warm water (2), and quickly in the one with hot water (3).

We also put a cup of water outside to see if it would turn into ice....and it did! Yup, it was THAT cold outside!
They loved being scientists!

We did simple addition with beans. I wrote a number on the board, and they had to get that many beans out. Then I wrote another number on the board, and they added to their pile, then counted how many they had all together. They love doing this!! One of our favorite activities!

"Waddling" like penguins with soccer balls between their legs. (One benefit of being the wife of a soccer coach, is the endless amounts of soccer balls we have around the house! :)

Doing the alphabet chart (again, striking that pose :) )

"A says, a-a-Apple, B says. b-b-bicycle...."

Reading!

Playing with toys! A must!

Waiting for snack, and striking a pose!

We "dressed" boy for winter, and are girl for summer. Then, we put smiley faces on our favorite season. 5 liked winter, and 10 liked summer (they insisted that Azure and I put up a smiley face!)...This is a good indicator, to me, that winter is getting old!! Bring on the sun!!!

More fun pictures

2010-02-15T15:17:00.001-08:00

Here are some cute pictures. More to come soon...

2010-02-06T08:44:00.000-08:00

Well, here are some pictures from December and January. We sure had a lot of fun!...

Gingerbread Houses!!!!

Snowball Fight with cotton balls. So much fun!

Bingo!

Silly Faces

Reading together. Cute :)

Cheese!

Mr. Potato Head...silly, silly ;)

Awe, so cute.

When we do graphing, I give them a sticky note so that they can draw their favorite food, thing to do, etc. on. They love it when I stick the notes on their faces when I'm passing them out.

Always hiding from the camera

Silly penguins...

2009-12-05T17:26:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally got a new camera! Here are some cute pictures to start with (in my sepia setting ;))

"Freezing" on the letters.

Playdoh!

"Coloring" with water on the Aquadoodle!

Scissor practice. I had the kids cut paper scraps into bowls on the table. This is a great way to practice cutting without having them destroy anything important. I often have my kids "clip coupons" with me by giving them the ones I'm not using. They thing they're helping, while getting the cutting practice they need!

I think he filled that whole bowl by himself!

Fun pictures

2009-10-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long. I promised myself that I would be better at this. So, here are some pictures from the last month in preschool...

Puzzles and Pictures

Show and Tell

Green apples make us have "sour faces!"

Making shapes with m&m's!

Painting circles with eggs, erasers, cups and marshmallows!

Just a cute picture of Aussie!

Searchng for circles with our "circle finders."

Making squares with our snack!

Sorting shapes

Sorting laundry on black and white day! (I'll admit, I needed it done...shhhh...)

Silly faces at snack time!

Making bracelets

2009-09-08T13:21:00.001-07:00

First Week of School

2009-08-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

This week was a great week! It was so nice to get back in the swing of things. Here are some pictures from this week:

If you're wondering why their hands were purple, this is why...(blue and red make purple!) Gotta' love finger paint!

A few reading pictures...

Last days of school 08-09

2009-06-24T17:18:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the last day(s) of school. Sorry it has taken me so long. They are in no particular order.

Again, thanks for the great year!

Pajamma Day!

2009-05-20T11:44:00.001-07:00

We had so much fun at pajama day!
Here we are having a morning stretch, and then reading our books.

Pigs in a blanket! Yummy!

There were ten in the bed and the little one said, "roll over, roll over!" So they all rolled over and one fell out!...

Week of March 23

2009-03-22T14:37:00.000-07:00

4-5 year olds

Monday: Unit Library: getting prepared for field trip to the city library

Wednesday: Field trip to the library

3-4 year olds

Unit: Plants

Our star of the week helping to write our daily sentence.

Cute Leprechaun!
Painting clovers. Blue and yellow make green!
Leprechaun footprints on the walls!

Silly leprechauns!

Week of March 2nd

2009-03-01T08:30:00.000-08:00

4-5 year olds

Unit: Fairytales
Literacy: Letter Gg, Little Books
Math: Sets of 8; counting to 60

3-4 year olds

Unit: Fairytales
Letter F
Number 6

Painting our Starfish

Dancing!

2009-02-20T15:54:00.000-08:00

4-5 year olds
Unit: Ocean
Math: Sets of 7, #s 1-20
Testing on letter names, sounds, and #s 1-20 (recognition)

3-4 year olds
Unit: Ocean
Letter F Number 6
"Feeding the penguins" beenbag toss.
Pin the legs on the octopus
A little too close, but what a cute result!

Making octopus puppets!

week of Februart 16th

2009-02-14T10:44:00.000-08:00

Monday: No School in observation of President's Day

4-5 yer olds:
Unit: Ocean Letter: Oo

3-4 year olds: Unit Ocean
Letter review A-D

Sort the mail.

Move, move....Freeze! What Letter? Sound?
Giving a "kiss" to the cookie!
Pizza Love!