Only 1 week left....

Can you believe it? This year has gone by so incredibly fast!

We are still hard at work here in Funtime. This week, the caterpillars worked on colors, talked about shapes, bugs and enjoyed some time in the gym. They have all come so far developmentally this year. I love to hear all their stories and it's been so fun to watch them blossom! For craft this week, the kids made 'bugs' on a piece of paper with materials we provided, they had a lot of fun making up their own bug.

The butterflies continued to work on letter recognition and number recognition. We played alphabet bingo and color/shape bingo. I love bingo because it's fun to play, but it also gives the kids the opportunity to recognize letters, numbers, shape and colors. Plus - it's very rewarding because they get to eat their bingo markers afterward (usually gold fish crackers)! We also talked about bugs and they got to make their own 'bug' out of the materials we provided. Some kids made their bugs look like real bugs, other kids made up their own bugs.

The dragonflies are hard at work practicing their play, making props and scenery for their graduation. I'm so proud of them, they continue to amaze me everyday. I will miss them SO much next year when they are big kindergarteners....

Our big graduation ceremony is next Friday 10am Club Tico. Family and friends of the dragonfly class are invited to attend. After the graduation we will enjoy cake and then head over to City Park for a picnic with all the Funtime classes. Charge up those camera batteries and bring your tissues (bring some extra's for me... I'm tearing up just writing this!)

Only 2 weeks left...

Yikes! I cannot believe how fast this semester has gone by. I am enjoying these kiddos so much, I can't believe we only have 2 more weeks of Funtime until summer... the thought makes me heart hurt a little bit.
I hope all you moms had a wonderful mother's day today! I just returned from a fabulous weekend in Frisco (thanks to some amazing friends who lent my family their townhouse!) We encountered every kind of weather imaginable. Today while walking main street Breckenridge, it was thundering and snowing (huge flakes), pretty cool! :-)

We had a lot of fun last week creating gifts for mom for Mother's Day. The kiddos were so good at keeping it a secret and were super excited to give you their creations!

Of course we worked on the academic stuff too...
The caterpillars worked on some color and shape recognition. The butterflies played alphabet bingo to help them with letter recognition and the dragonflies finished their alphabet books.

And, we had our gym days or should I say gym day...
The caterpillars attempted to play 'what time is it Mr. Fox' they did great the first time through, but sort of fell apart the second time - they just wanted to run! The butterflies also played 'what time is it Mr.fox'. They have been playing it all year, so they got through several rounds. ;-)
Because there was no school on Friday, the dragonflies did not get a gym day this week. :-(


This coming week will be back to normal with school everyday!
See you tomorrow.

 

Moving right along

Wow - just 3 more weeks of Funtime - can you believe it?

The dragonfly class has learned to write each individual letter of the alphabet (both upper and lower case) and now we are working on a review booklet. I finished end of the year assessments with them this week - I am so proud of their growth! I will share these with the parents during the last week of school.

We had a lot of fun celebrating Cinco de Mayo this week. Early in the week, we made cool suns. First we crinkled the paper to make it look old and worn, then the kids used brightly colored pain to decorate their sun. We hung the dragonflies suns up around the room as decoration for our Cinco de Mayo party on Friday.

We also made fun Morocca's out of paper plates. The kids decorated the paper plates with fun foam stickers and then we filled them with pinto beans to make morocca's. The kids had a ton of fun shaking them to make 'music'. :-)

Friday the dragonfly class had a Cinco de Mayo celebration complete with a pinata, homemade salsa, chips and cheese dip. Catillions restaurant donated a yummy dessert to us- fired tortilla's coated in sugar! Super Yummy!! This dish has a name, but I can't remember it... Ms. Sedeane knows!

Next week our theme is Mother's Day.

We had a wonderful week talking about space, making rockets and reading space stories. As the end of the year approaches, we are beginning to wrap things up. Can you believe there are only 5 weeks left of Funtime for this year? Time has gone so quickly...
As I was observing the kids in the dragonfly class play this morning, I was on the verge of tears remembering how much smaller they were at the beginning of the year. It's always amazing to me to see how much these little monkeys grow and change in 9 months. Of course, some of these kiddos have been with me since they were 2 and I cannot believe they will be in kindergarten in the fall!
One of their favorite questions to ask during circle time right now is "Ms. Lisa, when is graduation?" or "Ms. Lisa, when do we graduate?" I always politely answer the question, but each time my heart breaks just a little... it's such a bittersweet time for me. I get so much joy out of seeing these kiddos grow and I am so proud of them! But at the same time, I sure will miss their sweet smiling faces at Funtime in the fall! -SIGH-

At least I will have my wonderful little caterpillars and butterflies for one more year! It truly fills my bucket to watch these kiddos learn and enjoy preschool!

SPACE! What a fun theme! We started it last week with our earth day project where we made a picture of the earth from space. This week, we talked about what space meant, what was in space and how people got to space.

Monday, the dragonflies worked so hard on math and writing that we did not have time for our craft. I am so proud of how hard they are working to learn to write their names, alphabet letters and numbers.

Tuesday the caterpillars and butterflies made a rocket ship blasting off into space or sideways into space. :-) (remember, it's about the process - not the product) The kids had a great time gluing the rocket ship on their piece of space and then decorating the space with stickers. The butterflies were making theirs blast off once they were done decorating them. The butterflies worked some more on letter recognition. We have implemented a new folder system with them, when they are done with a project or worksheet, they file it in their folder. I implemented this for a number of reasons, a) we do not have enough cubbies for all the children, b) it helps with name recognition and c) it sets the framework for next year when they are in the dragonfly class, where we use this system all year.  The kiddos really took to it and some of them have started coloring pictures during free play just so they can file it!

Wednesday I began our end of the year assessments with the dragonfly class. We had 3 different learning centers, writing, math and art. The writing and math center were teacher centered, with Ms. Sedeane working on handwriting with the kids and Ms. Holly playing number bingo with them. The art center was child centered, the kids were all given instructions before we began. I was working with kiddos one on one doing assessments. I was so proud of the kids! We broke them up into 3 groups and spent 10 or so minutes at each station. They all did a great job and I was especially proud of how they handled themselves at the art center with no teacher. They did exactly what they were instructed to do and they even helped each other out and worked together.

Thursday was gym day. The caterpillars said they wanted to play red light, green light, but when it came down to it, they just wanted to run! We tried red light, green light... when they light turned red, there was no stopping them. So we just raced back and forth.
The butterflies were much the same way. I don't know if it was the hot weather, the phase of the moon or what... but all they wanted to do was run. We talked about a few games to play before we hit the gym, once there though, the  kids just ran and ran and ran. Ms. Sedeane decided to get the tunnels out for the kids to crawl through, they enjoyed that, but after a while the kids began to run and run. If only I had a speck of their energy.... :-)

Friday the dragonflies worked hard on a review of the letters X, Z and K. Then we had fun doing a circuit in the gym. Ms. Sedeane got out the basketballs for a dribbling station, soccer balls and a goal for a soccer station, hockey sticks and balls to practice shooting into the goal, field goal posts and footballs to practice throwing and a wiffle ball game. The kids had a lot of fun moving from station to station and practicing the skills.

First week of a new session

We have some new faces at Funtime - Welcome!

We managed to squeeze in a ton of fun into this short week!

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we planted sweet pea and marigold seeds into small pots. With regular water and a little sunshine, the kids should soon see sprouts poking out of the top of the soil. The dragonfly class (MWF 9:30-12) worked on writing the letter W and the butterflies (T, TH 10:15-12:15) worked on letter recognition.

Thursday was gym day and the caterpillars (T, TH 9-10) had a great time playing duck duck goose and red light, green light! The butterflies ran out some energy and then we played a quick game of 4 corners. The butterflies worked on recognizing the letter Bb and had time to paint an earth for earth day. We squirted some green and blue paint onto the back of a paper plate, the kids turned it over onto the paper and spun the plate to mix the paint together. The effect was a green and blue circle that looked like the earth from space. What fun!

Friday was gym day for the dragonflies and they had fun running races with Ms. Sedeane! Man, they are fast little monkeys... They practiced writing the letter Xx and worked on number recognition. The dragonflies also made the earth from space pictures using the same technique.

A little late... session wrap up!

As a new session begins today... I realize I have not updated the blog in a couple of weeks. With the onset of lacrosse season and my in grad school - time seems to fly by that much faster! My apologies for not getting this updated!

We have done so many fun things over the last 2 weeks. We used popcorn to make the flowers on the trees - they looked just like the ones we have been seeing around town. We glued feathers onto chicks hatching out of eggs. We played games and had fun in the gym. And of course worked on handwriting, math, letter and number recognition.

Last week, we celebrated the end of a session with Pajama and movie day. The kids had so much fun showing off their PJ's! We snuggled up on the carpet and the Dragonflies and Butterflies watched Puss in Boots. The Caterpillars watched part of The Winnie the Pooh Heffalump movie. We had popcorn and treats while we watched. It was a great way to end the session.

The Dragonflies worked on Handwriting and math on Monday and the Butterflies worked on letter and number recoginition on Tuesday.

Funtime this week

Monday the dragonflies had so much making lady bugs. We read the story The Very Lazy Ladybug. The kids used their fingers to add spots to the ladybugs wings and Ms. Sedeane and I put a brad into the wings so they would move. Ask the kids about the Lazy ladybug. We practiced number recognition as a whole group and worked on the letter Rr. The kids are doing so well with their handwriting, I am so proud of them!

Tuesday, we read  The Very Lazy Ladybug to the caterpillars and butterflies. They  made the same ladybug craft, instead of painting spots on their ladybug, they used round stickers to create the spots. It was so fun to watch them, some kids put their stickers all in a row, some scattered them and still others only used on color of stickers.

Wednesday we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and made coffee filter butterflies, that we finished up on Friday. We continued to work on handwriting, letter, and number recognition.

Thursday was gym day. The caterpillars enjoyed playing duck, duck, goose. They are so fun to watch - they run in the biggest circle possible and forget to sit down - cracks me up! The butterflies attempted to play hot potato... but unfortunately we were having trouble using our listening ears and keeping our hands to ourselves, so gym time got cut a little short. We headed back to class, had some quiet time and a little chat about behavior.

Friday was gym day for the dragonflies. We had a ton of fun playing 4 corners and red light, green light. We had so much fun playing in the gym that we ran out of time for math. Luckily we had practiced hand writing before heading to the gym.
Please continue to work on letter and number recognition at home. We work on it everyday in class, but it is important that they practice at home as well, in order to be ready for kindergarten, they need to be able to recognize all the letters of the alphabet and their numbers up to 10!

Next week, our theme is Easter.

Spring!

This week seemed to fly right by and it wasn't even that windy....

Monday we made kites out of paper and decorated them with tissue paper. The kids did a great job cutting their kite (diamond) shapes out by them selves. During circle time, we learned a new song called I'm a little kite - sung to the tune of I'm a little tea pot. Of course we continued to work on handwriting and math skills.

Tuesday, the caterpillars made the same kite, only they painted them. They had a lot of fun with the paint! The butterflies also made the kites, they used tissue paper to decorate theirs too, but Sedeane and I cut them out. The butterflies continued to work on letter and number recognition.

Wednesday, Ms. Sedeane led the class, as I had a training in Denver, Ms. Holly subbed for me. Sedeane said they had a really good time! For craft they made flowers using paint and egg cartons.... it's amazing all the things you do with egg cartons.

Thursday was gym day. The caterpillars had fun playing with the balls. They just love to throw, kick and roll around on them. The butterflies learned a new game called 4 corners. We have played this game with the older kids and they love it. The butterflies have enjoyed playing the game what time is it Mr. Fox, so we thought we introduce a new game. They had a lot of fun and they seemed to pick it up pretty quickly. We had so much fun playing in the gym that we ran out of time for craft... we did however have time for letter recognition.

Friday was gym day for the dragonflies. We were having so much fun during circle time trying different yoga poses and talking about things that we ate up a lot of our day. We did manage to do a  review of the letters we have been working on, but did not have time for math or craft. I told them not to worry - we will just do double math on Monday. :-) We did have time to play in the gym and get some energy out!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Teeth cleaning and more

Check out the pictures from our Mardi Gras and Dentist unit below!

This week we had so much fun talking about the Dentist. I am impressed, most of the kids in Funtime have visited the dentist! I personally like going to the dentist and getting my teeth cleaned. It is relaxing to lay back in a chair - something I rarely get to do! I love the way my teeth feel after the hygienist is done. :-)

Monday and Tuesday we talked about what a dentist does, what their job is. We also talked about how many kiddos have visited the dentist and how they felt about it, all of the kids who have been to the dentist had good experiences and are excited to go again. Way to go parents and dentists! For craft the dragonflies painted clothes pins green - for a future math project. The caterpillars and butterflies  painted a white tooth with orange and pink paint... we teased that this tooth really needed to visit the dentist and get it's cavity fixed. :-) We used tooth brushes as paintbrushes - what fun! We continued to work on handwriting and math skills and letter/number recognition.

Wednesday we had so much fun brushing 'teeth'. We used Styrofoam egg cartons cut into smaller pieces, tooth paste, water and tooth brushes. Ms. Sedeane squeezed toothpaste onto every body's 'teeth', the kids dipped their tooth brushes into the water and spread the toothpaste with their tooth brush. It was so fun to watch them scrub those 'teeth'. The kids enjoyed it so much they asked if we could do it again. I told them I would get it out during free play after spring break.(check out the fun pictures below)


Thursday the caterpillars enjoyed time in the gym. My little creatures of habit - most of the wanted to play with the big balls and a few wanted to play duck, duck, goose. They are just too cute - of all the choices we give them, it's always the same couple things they choose. I love it!
The butterflies also had gym day, we played what time is it Mr. Fox. They love this game and it is always their first choice when we say we are going to play a game (creatures of habit). The butterflies also brushed the 'teeth'. They too had a lot of fun getting their Styrofoam teeth clean and shiny. Hopefully they will start brushing their teeth this well!

There is no school tomorrow (Friday 3/9) or All next week for spring break. I hope you enjoy a week off with your little cuties - it is supposed to be beautiful! Enjoy some time outside and don't forget the sunscreen!

   

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

What a fun week we had celebrating Dr. Seuss!

Monday, we read Horton Hears a Who. I love this book for so many reasons; it's a great way to talk about feelings and friendships as well as loyalty. We used pom poms to practice counting and sorting and made fun elephant or Horton ears. We continued to practice hand writing. This week we did the letters Gg, Jj, Qq and re-visited the letter Cc.

Tuesday the caterpillar class (9am) read the book , One Fish two fish red fish blue fish. Then we made our very own fish aquariums by painting 1/2 a paper plate with blue tinted Karo Syrup and sticking gold fish crackers on it. The kids had a lot of fun and were pretty sticky by the time we were done. :-)
The butterfly class (10:15) read the book The Cat in the Hat and made paper hats the same as the cats.
We are continuing to focus on letter recognition with the butterflies. They are working really hard on letter and number recognition. You can practice this with them at home as well.

Wednesday & Thursday we read Mr. Brown can Moo. The kids had so much fun making all the sounds along with the story. The dragonflies and the butterflies worked on hand writing and letter recognition. And the dragonflies did more pom pom math.

Thursday both classes spent time in the gym playing basketball and what time is it Mr. Fox.

Friday the dragonflies finished listening to The Chocolate Touch ask them what happened to John's mother and how John got rid of his chocolate touch. They loved listening to that story - everyday they were so excited when it was "chocolate touch time". I told them I would look for another read aloud book or chapter book on CD for them to listen too. Hopefully I'll have one by tomorrow... :-)
We played a game called 4 corners in the gym. Ask them what 'scramble' means in that game.

This week our theme is Dentist.

Happy Valentine's Day

What a fun filled week! Full of love, hugs, and lots of sweet treats.

On Monday the dragonfly class made 'hugs' using hearts and mittens cut out of paper. The kids always like to do this craft, because I tell them they can give it to somebody special and when that person misses them, they can just wrap the hug around their body. They had a good time talking about who they were going to give their hug to. A couple kids even talked about making more hugs and giving them out to lots of people! We continued working on handwriting, letter recognition and math.

Tuesday was our Valentine's party, we had a great time celebrating. Thank you all for contributing and coming to hang out with us. I really enjoyed celebrating and talking with you all.

Wednesday was the dragonfly classes Valentine's day party. Not only did we celebrate Valentine's Day but we also squeezed in some handwriting and practiced our letter recognition by playing alphabet bingo during the party.

Thursday was gym day. The caterpillar class really wanted to play duck, duck goose. Or as they said "guck, guck, goose." Too cute! We had fun playing and chasing each other - they did a great job.
We decided to play duck, duck, goose with the butterflies as well. They had a lot of fun and man, they are fast little runners! The butterflies had time to do a fun craft for President's day. We made log cabins to celebrate President's day and Abraham Lincoln. I did tell them a little bit about Abe... so ask them if they know about him. A few kids knew who the current President of the U.S. is - I was impressed. :-)

Friday was gym day for the dragonfly class. We decided to run around for a bit and then get the parachute out. At first the kids were resistant because 'we did that last week', but they quickly warmed up to the idea and had fun with the parachute and balls. We also made the log cabin craft for President's day. Almost all the dragonflies knew that President Obama is the current President. Although, a couple kids had cute ways of saying his name... it wasn't quite Barrak Obama - I wish I could remember what they said. I need to start writing this stuff down. :-)
We also practiced our handwriting.

Next week our theme is penguins.

Here are some pictures from our Valentine's Day celebrations. Enjoy!

This week

This week went by so quickly! We packed a lot of learning and of course so big fun into this week.
Here is the video of the kids and I doing Michael Jackson Experience last Friday.

Monday the dragonfly class continued working on writing their letters. As well as number recognition. We also made a really fun craft using puzzle pieces. Some of the kids were so darned cute, I gave each child a heart, the word strip (I love you to Pieces), puzzle pieces and glue. I then gave the instructions to glue the word strip on first and then glue the puzzle pieces on the heart. As I went around the room, I saw a few kids who had glued the words on, but hadn't glued any puzzle pieces on. When got over the them and asked "what's up?" It was the cutest thing ever "Ms. Lisa, I don't know how to put this puzzle together." or "I'm trying, but I can't make the pieces fit together." or "theses pieces don't match" It made my heart sing - they are so awesome!!We also starting listening to a book called The Chocolate Touch on CD.
I honestly can't think of a better way to spend my days! (Unless maybe we move funtime to a beach somewhere... that might be better.)

Tuesday the caterpillars spent time decorating their Valentine's bags. I tried to explain to them that I was going to keep the bags until after our Valentine party when they could take them home filled with Valentine's. It's so hard at this age - they don't always understand... so we had a few tears and a few questions. In the end, it turned out ok and I know they will be thrilled on Valentine's Day when they get to take their bags home!
The butterflies did the same "I love you to pieces" craft that the dragonflies did on Monday. Except without trying to put the puzzle together. They also practiced writing their names.

Wednesday the dragonflies continued with handwriting. We played color and shape bingo for math. We listened to another chapter of The Chocolate Touch. Ask your child what happen the morning after he ate the single piece of chocolate.

On Thursday, during circle time, those cute little caterpillars were talking about gym, as we did our schedule for the day. Already, they were talking about going to the gym and playing with the balls. I said "balls again? Let's do something different."
"No, I like the balls." said a few kiddos.
"Really? you really want to get the balls out again?"
"yes"
"What if we play soccer or basketball?"
"No, let's play with the big balls."
"I was thinking we could do something different. What about the parachute?"
"YEAH" they all chorused
And so it was. We headed to the gym, ran around for a minute to warm up and then played with the parachute. We shook it fast, we shook it slow. We threw some balls on there and shook them back off. It was so much fun!!
The butterflies played with the parachute during gym as well. The kids had a blast - they were smiling and giggling the whole time. The butterflies also decorated their Valentine's Day bags on Thursday.

Today, the dragonfly class practiced the letter Cc. The class as a whole had a tougher day... we had some trouble listening and following directions. This happens every so often... it's not a big deal, but these little interruptions eat into our time. So, we did not have time for math today and our craft (decorating our Valentine's bags) was quite rushed. We did manage to get to the gym and play with the parachute. The kids even took me for a little ride on the parachute. It started as an experiment. Makaylyn said "I bet if somebody was on there, they would go way up and up." I said "Let's try it and see. I think that if somebody gets on there, we wouldn't be able to lift them." So I got sat down in the middle of the parachute and try as they might, they could not lift me. So I said "but, if you all walk in the same direction, you can spin me round and round." They got a kick out of spinning me and making me dizzy. We also had our snow ball fight that we didn't get to last week. We used giant marshmallows and threw them as far as we could. (just for fun, we put some of these marshmallows on the parachute too)
Here are some pictures from gym day today.