Merry Christmas!

Here are a few pictures from this past week. Enjoy!

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas. See you in 2008!

Halei's Birthday & Santa Visits

Happy Birthday Halei! Halei celebrated her 5th birthday yesterday. We were treated to cupcakes made by Halei, herself! What a treat!Santa and Mrs. Claus made an appearance today. Some of the children even got to ride on Santa's ATV!

We have one more week of ornament making. This has been a fun activity for all of us. I love seeing the creations that the children come up with. Each ornament has been unique just like each child.

We will find out next week what God wants for Christmas when we open boxes 5-7. Also, our hot cocoa party will begin at 1:00 on Wednesday. Please send your child with a mug that day and bring one of your own if you plan to join us. See you next week!

P.S. Andrew is a big brother now. Rachel Cole was born on Wednesday evening. Andrew seemed to like the baby but was most excited about spending the night with Grandaddy!

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

We had another great day! I enjoyed having a little more time to work with the children this week. The children especially enjoyed playing in the woods this week. We were able to stay out longer than usual. Did they tell you what we saw while we were together? We saw a few snowflakes fall! We have lots of birthdays this month to celebrate. Andrew is turning "3" next week so Ms. Laura brought in a cookie cake for us to share. It was delicious! I've posted a picture of Andrew in the birthday crown. The birthday child always looks forward to wearing the crown. Also, each child gets a paper candle to blow out while the birthday child gets to blow out the number of candles on his/her cake (as you can see in the posted picture). This is fun and I usually turn it into a math lesson for the children. Did you see the beautiful ornaments that we made? I know that the children enjoyed creating such wonderful works of art. We have two more weeks before our Christmas break so the children will make at least two more ornaments, if not more. We read a Christmas book about the very first Christmas. We had some wonderful discussions about the book. We also learned a new finger play rhyme about the first Christmas. I'll try to print those and send them home so that you can work on them as a family. We did not get to view the Christmas movie this past week due to problems with the audio. I told the class that I would work on getting it fixed so that we can see the movie next week. Also, Santa and Mrs. Claus will be making a visit next Wednesday. They will be arriving around 1:45 so plan on staying around on Wednesday if you are interested in seeing them. See you next week!

We missed Michaela today. We prayed for her and hope that she and her sister feel better soon. We finished our apple unit today and we completed several fun math activities. After the children enjoyed "apple rolling art" we got a jump start on our ornament making activities. The children are looking forward to making lots of beautiful ornaments for our Christmas trees. Next week we will meet from 9:30-3:00. I hope that you all can get some Christmas shopping done! See you next week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I have a lot to be thankful for today. I just found my camera that I have prayed for over a week to find! I felt lost this week without it because I was not able to take pictures of the children or our field trip. I do think that God cares about the things that we consider "small". Now, I'll be able to take pictures this Thanksgiving and I'll be able to post pictures when we get back after Thanksgiving. Speaking of being thankful, thank you all for coming out to the farmer's market for our field trip. I had a wonderful time. It was nice to be able to enjoy a meal together. I was thinking ahead to next year (which I should not do) and it made me sad to think about the fact that we won't all be together. Your children are so dear to my heart. I feel blessed each Wednesday when I get to be with them. They are a lot of fun and while they are busy learning and exploring, they teach me so much about life! So, this Thanksgiving, I am adding you all to my "thankful for" list. Last week, we got to discuss things that we were thankful for. I enjoyed helping the children write down what they were thankful for. I hope that you were also blessed as your read the leaves on the "thankful tree". We talked more about apples and we made little books about Johnny Appleseed. We also read a short story about him. We'll spend one more day learning about apples and then we will move on to our Christmas unit. If you have pictures of the field trip, please send them to me and I will post them online. Again, I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Apples

This past week, we spent most of the day talking and learning about apples. We tasted three varieties of apples (red, green, and yellow ones). The children used their math skills to count and graph our favorites on two apple graphs. We also learned that there is a star inside of the apple which holds the seeds. We all enjoyed the "Apple Star" flannel board story. Ask your child and see if she can retell the story. There was a star that was looking for a house with no windows, no doors, and a little brown chimney. At the end of the story, the star found an apple. We then sliced an apple in half and found the star. We are learning new finger plays also. The finger plays that we work on encourage fine motor development. They are fun for the children because they involve repetition, rhyme, and movement. Some of our finger plays include numbers and math. See, we are learning new skills all of the time! Thanks for sharing your delightful children with me. I am enjoying watching them learn and grow. Oh, no pictures this week because I forgot my camera but I will post a picture of our apple graph. See you on Wednesday.

Hayride

Comments about the Hayride:

Syan: "I saw Rooney going beside me. I liked the hayride."

Michaela: "I liked finding leaves on the hayride."

Halei: "I liked when we were picking the leaves and picking the nuts (acorns) and I liked when we were riding on the hayride."

Allyson: "I liked when we were singing and picking leaves. And I liked when we were sitting on the cushions."

Wednesday, October 24

We had a wonderful day last week! We rejoiced and gave thanks for the rain even though it kept us inside for most of the day. We managed to sneak out for a few minutes to decorate the driveway with sidewalk chalk.

Stay tuned this week for pictures of our upcoming hayride.

We were so busy this past week that I forgot to take new pictures of the children. Here are some from the week prior. For those families that get time off from the routine of school, enjoy your vacation! I'll see you back in two weeks.

Baking Cookies

Here is a picture from today of the children measuring, stirring, and pouring to make peanut butter cookies. It was a wonderful learning experience and the cookies were delicious. You should have a copy in your child's journal. I've also included a copy in our class book which should be ready to take home soon.

September 12- Water Fun

Here are a few pictures from Wednesday's class. The kids had a great time in the water!

Last Wednesday was another fun day together. The children seem to already know the routine and schedule so well. They've been a lot of fun!

Our first day

Today was a delightful day! If today was any indication of how much fun we are going to have this year, we are in for a real treat! It was great to see the ones from last year and to have two new friends join us, Michaela and Andrew.

Preparing for August

Well, if you all stopped by the room today, you would not recognize it. It is an absolute mess! I am busy cleaning out cabinets, reorganizing all of toys and art supplies, and sanitizing everything! Thankfully, I have a few more weeks to get things ready. I mailed out letters today. You should be receiving that information by Thursday. If you have any questions, let me know. I look forward to seeing everyone next month. Ms. Anna

I miss you all!

This Wednesday was the first Wednesday of our summer break. It really did seem strange to wake up and not have to prepare for the children. I miss you already! If you have any pictures from the pool party, send them to me and I will post them on the blog. I probably won't post much over the summer since there will not be much to post. As soon as I have my date finalized for the fall, I will let you know via email. Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and I hope to see you soon! Let's plan a lunch date for June! Anna

Thanks!

Thanks again for helping to make today so much fun! I am going to miss each one of you this summer so please keep in touch with us. I love you all!

Pool Party Reminders

Hey! I just wanted to let ya'll know that I sent information home about our upcoming pool party. You should have received an invitation in your child's journal. Siblings and grandparents are welcome to attend. I need for you to let me know how many family members will be in attendance so that we will be sure to cook enough BBQ. Also, please bring at least one side to share and canned drinks (or juice boxes). I did not include that on the invitation but I wanted to mention it. I will have a cooler to keep the drinks cold. Today was a good day despite having to stay inside, away from the pollen. It seems that we are all fighting allergies and colds. We made apple pies today and they were delicious and easy to make! Let me know if you want to recipe. The children loved them! See you next week!

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Well, we only have one more week left in April after this which means May will be here very soon! I hope that the next three weeks go by very slow. I am sad that the school year is coming to an end. It must be true when people say "time flies when you are having fun" because this year has flown right by me! The next three weeks will be the last of a lot of things. One being Jackson's last three weeks of preschool with his mama! He has been with me in the school for over five years now (if I include the time he was in my womb and I was out there teaching:-) I look at the girls and I have noticed how much they have changed also over the year. They've not only grown physically, but emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I wish that I had a video camera that would record us throughout each Wednesday. I really could publish a best-seller with some of their quotes, words of wisdom, and insight. They are so much fun! I have three good daughter-in-law prospects to choose from! I am just kidding! They do mean a lot to me and so do their wonderful families. Today was "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" and boy did we have a good time with this story! The children acted out the story several times after we read it together. They even got to walk on the table which of course was fun. We also used finger puppets today which you may have seen inside your child's journal. Oh, and the artwork was wonderful. Each child drew their own bridge and troll and then we attached the goats (big, medium, and small). The illustrations were wonderful! Next week we will read about the three little kittens. We will also bake miniature apple pies next week. See you then!

We're making pizzas out of playdough!

Happy Spring!

Spring is officially here and it seems hard to believe that we have less than two months left to spend together. We've had so much fun this year! We will spend most of the month of April continuing reading fairy tales. We will be on spring break this upcoming week but when we return, we will read "The Little Red Hen Makes A Pizza" and we will bake pizzas for lunch. We read the story, "The Little Red Hen" this past week and we had wonderful discussions on being a good friend and being helpful to others. I hope that the children have been extra helpful to you this week! I will have updated calendars for you when we return after spring break. Happy Easter!

March 7, 2006

Ice Skating Art

We wrapped up our study of winter last week. It seemed that the timing of the start and ending of the study went right along with the weather outside. Now that the weather is warming up, we are moving along to a new unit. This upcoming week, we will read the story, Golidlocks & The Three Bears. We will be reading books in March that are about the "three's and the little's" in literature such as The Three Little Pigs, The Little Red Hen, The Three Little Kittens, and a few others.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Winter Fun

Well, I think this is the first year that we have studied winter and it has snowed. Normally, it seems that we have warmer than normal temperatures during our winter study. I am so excited that the children have had the opportunity to see the snow. We've learned a lot about winter and a few things that I did not even know! Recently, we read a book about how the snow is an insulator for the animals under the ground. I thought that was quite interesting! During our music times, the children have enjoyed pretending to be animals. We went hiding in a mitten a few weeks ago after we read The Mitten, by Jan Brett. The children loved the story and they enjoyed pretending to be animals climbing into the mitten to stay warm. We've talked a little about the Artic and animals that live in the Artic. Jackson and Syan said that the The Polar Express lives in the Artic also. We will conclude our study on winter this month. I will add pictures and comments from the children soon.