Welcome

A big Welcome to Ms. Sedeane and Mr. Trey. It has been so wonderful having them as assistant teachers in Funtime. They are working on learning the kids names and figuring out which parent belongs to what child. If you have a minute when dropping off or picking up, introduce yourself and let them know who your child is. 

Welcome to our new students, it's been fun getting to know you this week!

A few reminders:

Please have your child go potty before entering the classroom.

Please have your child wash his/her hands with soap and water before entering the classroom - there are a lot of illnesses going around this time of year and a little prevention goes a long way!

No Funtime Thursday 10-20 or Friday 10-21

We will be having our Halloween parties this year on Thurs. 10-27 & Fri. 10-28 More details to come...

We did a lot of fun fall activities and crafts this week.  We also took advantage of this beautiful Indian summer and spent some time outside. 

Monday, the Dragonfly (9:30 am MWF) class spent time collecting leaves to make leaf rubbings, but we were having so much fun collecting the leaves, we ran out of time to do the actual craft.  I think after all the fun we had collecting leaves, the craft would have been a little bit of a downer anyway. :-)

For Monday math, the kids used different shapes to make a cute Halloween witch. We talked about each shape and where to place it. This was a really fun and cute way to do some shape recognition.

 

The good news is, the caterpillars (9am T, TH) and butterflies (10:15am T,TH) got to use the leaves the Dragonfly class collected to make a leaf collage.  We glued the leaves onto paper to make a beautiful fall collage on Tuesday.

Wednesday I read a story called The Leaf Man. It's about a leaf man who used to live in one place, but when the wind blew, it picked him up and now we don't know where he is. It talks about where he might be flying. It's a great book and all the illustrations are made out of leaves, so when it talks about how he might be flying over the spotted cow, the spotted cow is made out of leaves. After I read the story, we used our collected leaves to make leaf people. It's really fun to see what the kids create out of leaves, some had skirts, some had feathers, some were people like us with arms, legs and a head. They had a good time looking at the different leaves and deciding what to create. We just let them do whatever they wanted, my philosophy is: it's not about the product, it's about the process. So, you will see a lot of things coming home that are far from 'perfect'. I don't believe in making samples, because I don't want the kids to make something exactly like I made it, I want them to use their own creative visions. Sometimes we will complete projects as a group, where we do each step together, these projects will come home looking a little more 'perfect' or at least looking more uniform.

For Wednesday writing, the kids traced lines using dry erase markers. We wrote on page protectors and erased with toothbrushes.  If they wanted, I also had them write different letters , I called out a letter for them to write, then erase.

Thursday and Friday were gym days. The caterpillars and I ran back and forth across the gym. I asked if they wanted to get something out, I gave them a few choices, bouncy balls, big fit balls, basket balls and a basket. They said no to all of it - "let's just run" a couple little cuties said. So that is what we did, back and forth, back and forth, we got a lot of exercise and also got the giggles! :-)

Because I had a couple of requests last week for the big balls from the butterflies (and we didn't end up honoring those requests) we got them out this week. The kids have so much fun rolling on them, kicking them, rolling them and running behind. It's really a delight to watch! 

The dragonflies also did some fun 'science' today. We again collected leaves and when we got back into the classroom, we crumbled them up. We made sure to get the driest leaves we could find. After we crumbled the leaves, we sprinkled them onto wet paint on a piece of paper. Natures confetti or natures glitter is what we called it. When we crumbled the leaves, they had a different smell then when they were whole - interesting....

Next Week we will continue our Fall theme.

Have a great weekend!

Amy's final week

While we've had a lot of fun this week, talking about fall, taking walks to see the different colors on the leaves and playing apple games, as the week comes to an end, the reality sets in... Ms. Amy will no longer be with us at Funtime. It's a little bittersweet... She is a great assistant teacher and really keeps me on task. So if I seem a little off in the coming weeks, you'll all know why! :-) We will Miss you Amy- words cannot express how much!!!
We have 2 new assistant teachers starting next week, Sedeane and Trey. Sedeane will be with us everyday in the Butterfly and Dragonfly classes. Trey will be helping out on Tues., Thurs. in the Butterfly class and on Wed. in the Dragonfly class.
On Monday, the dragonfly class painted with worms! Yep, that's right, worms... gummy worms! This is one of my favorite crafts and I do it every year - the kids have so much fun dragging the gummy worm the paint to make worm tracks, but I think the best part is when they get to tell you they painted with worms! :-) The Butterfly class also did this project on Tuesday, I thought they would be a little apprehensive about painting with the gummy worm, but they surprised me and just went to town - I love it!
The caterpillar class helped paint the tree trunk that is now hanging up in the hall. We used brown, green and black (the bottle said black, but it was more of a reddish brown) finger paint and had a ton of fun getting messy up to our elbows! These little cuties did such a good job painting the tree trunk, it puts a smile on my face every time I walk by it in the hallway.

This week, the dragonfly class worked on shape recognition and patterning on Monday and name writing on Wednesday. We made shape rubbings using shapes cut out of sandpaper and played with pattern blocks to make different AB patterns. For name writing, I printed out each child's name and put it in a page protector, then the kids used dry erase markers to trace their names.

On Wednesday, the Dragonfly class made stained glass apples, this is another one of my favorites. We used the cutout of an apple, cut a circle in the middle and covered it with clear contact paper, the kiddos stuck colored tissue paper on it to make a beautiful stained glass!

Thurs and Friday are gym days. The caterpillars love to accompany us into the storage closet to choose which ball they want to play with. We always have a look around and talk about the other choices, but somehow they always come out with the balls. :-) A few of the kids in the butterfly class had requested we play with the big balls, but once we got in there, they all started running around and grouping up to play various games, so we just went with it and a good time was had by all. The dragonflies always seem to have a game in mind before their feet hit the gym floor... and today was no different, it seemed like there were 6 or so groups playing different games, but somehow all of their games were part of 1 big game it was pretty cool to watch!

The Caterpillar class paining the tree trunk

Amy reading to some of the butterflies during free play

Amy's goodbye breakfast celebration - she has to wear a hair net at her new job, so we thought we'd start her off on the right foot...

Group hug for Amy from the dragonflies - I wasn't quick enough with the camera -so I caught the end of it.

Important information:
New 6 week session begins Monday 10/10 and Tuesday 10/11.
Please help your child go potty and wash hands with soap and water before class!

Good Luck in your new job Amy, we wish you all the best! We will miss you!!

Wow - this session has gone by so fast, next week is the last week of the session for both Funtime and Lunch Bunch. We begin a new 6 week session of Funtime on Oct. 10th and a new 3 week session of Lunch Bunch on that same Monday.

It sure was great to have Ms. Amy back this week! While I had a lot of wonderful helpers when she was out sick, I am glad to have her healthy and back keeping me on track!

Monday the Dragonflies painted with apples. We did not get this craft done last week as planned, so I rolled it over to Monday. They had a lot of fun stamping the apples in the paint and then again on their paper. The apples had been in the fridge, so they were cold... it was fun to see how they reacted when they first touched them. It also made it a little harder to grip, so we had a few paint splatters!

Tuesday and Wednesday, we made one of the cutest crafts I think I have made in my whole teaching career. I have always wanted to do it, but with my classes being so full, I just couldn't envision how we would get it done. The original craft was to paint the kids' hands and forearms and stamp them onto a piece of paper. Then the kids were to dip their fingers in fall paint colors and make fingerprint leaves... with 18 kids, I just didn't see how this would get accomplished and how we would get them all cleaned up after! Amy and I painted the kids hands and forearms for the tree trunks during free play, this allowed us to call them over individually, get their trunk made and get them cleaned up. Then, instead of more paint for the leaves, we used torn paper and had the kids glue it on. All of the fall 'trees' turned out so cute! I loved hearing some of the kids say "that's my hand under there, the branches".

For gym day this week, the Caterpillar class wanted to get the balls out. They sure do love to play ball. We got out the smaller play-ground balls, but also the big fitness balls. They had a lot of fun rolling on the fitness balls, kicking them and trying to pick them up and throw them.
The Butterflies also made the choice to get the balls out. I gave them the choice of getting the balls out or playing a game. They had so much fun and even came up with a couple of different games using the balls. 
The Dragonflies had a fun obstacle course in the gym today. There was a lot of over, under and through as well as ring toss, tumbling and basketball. I think we really wore them out for you! :-) They really seemed to be having a great time and did a good job waiting their turn.

 Have a great weekend!

Another busy week at Funtime

Even with no Funtime on Monday - we managed to fit a lot of fun stuff into this week.

Reminders:
Please have your child go potty before coming to class.
Please wash hands prior to entering the classroom.

Tuesday, the caterpillars helped me switch out our sensory table. I emptied the beans out and the kids helped me pour oatmeal, cinnamon and dried apples into the table. I gave them each a piece of dried apple to taste and we talked about how we don't eat the things in the sensory table. All the classes had a really good time playing with it this week and it makes our room smell really yummy! For craft, we painted with apples. We used red delicious and granny smith, as we painted, we discussed the differences in the 2 kinds of apples. We also talked about many different kinds of apples and all the things you can do with apples. The kids thought it was pretty funny when I asked them if they could eat the apples with the paint on them - I got a few looks that said "what are you kidding?" and a few kids said "No Miss Lisa, you can't eat paint!" Of course I knew that....

Wednesday, the dragonflies worked on pre-writing skills and holding the pencil correctly. They all worked really hard and I am so proud of them. Again, I asked them to try and write their name on their paper and I see a lot of them making great progress in this area. We were so busy working so hard on our handwriting, that we ran out of time for our craft. We did make it to the gym for a little recess time. Gave our fine motor muscles and brains a break and used our gross motor muscles instead. During recess, I tend to not have structured activities, I feel like the kids need this time to decompress, use their imaginations and just play.

Thursday is gym day for the caterpillars and butterflies, however, we ran a little short of time during the caterpillar's class, so we opted to have a dance party instead. It was so fun to watch those little guys 'get down'. The butterflies did make it to the gym and we had fun running back and forth from purple wall to purple wall - I was worn out! :-)

Friday is science day and gym day for the Dragonflies. We made applesauce cinnamon dough by combining equal parts applesauce and cinnamon in a zip lock baggie, then squishing it like crazy. The kids were having so much fun doing this that we almost ran out of time for gym, I looked up at the clock and we only had 10 minutes left until class ended. We quickly finished cleaning up and high tailed it to the gym. The kids played with big balls and little balls, I just love to watch them. They are so clever and come up with some pretty cool games.

Next week our theme is: Fall

So much fun at Funtime

An impressive number of you attended our back to school night last night - thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to come learn a little more about Funtime! Thank you for completing the homework with your child and helping to make our Funtime Garden so beautiful!

REMINDERS:
No school Monday 9/19
Please have your child go potty before coming into the classroom
Please wash your child's hands at the YAC before entering the classroom

This week our theme was "all about me". We spent Monday working on our self portraits for back to school night. The kids colored clothes and glued yarn for hair onto paper dolls. This was a top secret craft, because we wanted to see if you could guess which one was your child during back to school night.  The Dragonflies also worked on number and shape recognition.

Wednesday's craft was all about family, we made a family tree and read the story The Kissing Hand, one of my favorites! I get a little teary eyed every time I read it. If you haven't ever read that story, I highly recommend it. For the family trees, we gave each student the same family members and asked them to choose the one's that they had in their family. They each got a mother, father, boy, girl and baby. We then told them to ask if they needed additional or different people, for example, some kids have more siblings or 2 sisters and no brothers, and some kids live with their grandparents, but of course still have a mom and dad. Some kids sat down and glued on everything we gave them, even though they don't have a baby in the family or a sister etc., so if some of your family trees aren't quite representative of your family, you now know why. :-)
The dragonfly class worked on pre writing skills by tracing straight lines and learning how to properly hold a pencil. We are also working on letter recognition and name recognition. I always encourage them to try to write their names on anything we do, even if they only know how to write one letter of their name. I don't expect all of them to know how to write their names, but I want to start establishing the habit of putting their names on their papers. We have a little chant we do - Name on your paper, first thing. Ask your child about it. Some kids can write their names, others are not there yet, but all of the kids know how to spell their names. So, Amy and I will take their hand in ours and help them write the letters as they spell their names aloud.

Thursday and Friday are always gym day. The caterpillar class played with the bouncy playground balls in the gym. They love to kick, throw, roll and bounce the balls. We like to see how high we can get them to bounce, by throwing them at the ground really hard. They also think it's really fun to watch Ms. Lisa try to make a basket... don't know why they think it's so comical when I miss (almost every time). Little cuties!
The Butterfly class played with all different kinds of balls in the gym, we had the bouncy playground balls out, some soccer balls, a few basket balls and even some of the little soft dodge ball balls. They had fun kicking, throwing and playing catch with each other.
The dragonfly class did a fun science project. We did this same project in the Lunch Bunch/Enrichment class on Monday and that group had so much fun, they wondered when we could do it again. So, since Friday is science for the dragonflies (Monday - math, Wednesday - writing, Friday- science) we thought it would be fun for the whole class. Ms. Amy mixed food coloring with light corn syrup and the kids painted with it. We left them to dry, but on Wednesday when they come back to class, you will see that it dries hard like glass or rock candy (that's what it reminds me of anyway). They were so into this science project that we had very little time in the gym. During recess all week, they have been playing a game they made up called the family game and they asked if they could play it in the gym today. Some of the kids are the parents, some brothers/sisters, some are pets (cats, dogs and a pony or 2) and there are even a few aunts/uncles. Because we were short on time today, we just let them run like crazy and play their family game.

Next week our theme is Apples.

Have a great weekend!

This week in Funtime

This week, we continued with our back to school theme, focusing on the classroom rules and our daily schedule.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we made a school house with our classroom rules on it. The kids glued the clip art that represents each rule onto their school house. This is the same clip art that I used on the rules that hang on the wall. We focus a lot on the rules for the first session of Funtime. There are only a handful of simple rules in our classroom, but they help keep order and structure in our day. On Wednesday the dragonfly class practiced some pre-writing skills by learning how to correctly hold the pencil and trace straight lines.

Thursday and Friday was gym day, but each class also had time for a fun craft. We made a caterpillar with our daily schedule on it. Our daily schedule varies for each class, so if you have questions about your child's caterpillar schedule, please don't hesitate to ask.

Both of our crafts this week provide a great link between school and home.

Each class has homework this week which is due on your first day back next week (whether that is Monday or Tuesday). I apologize for the confusion caused when I got the notes mixed up... If your child is in the Pre-K class (dragonflies) they have a white dragonfly to decorate with you at home, if your child is in the Tuesday 9am class, they have a white caterpillar to decorate and if they are in the 10:15am Tues. class they have a white butterfly to decorate. If you  missed class, please see me for your homework.

A few announcements and reminders:

PLEASE have your child go potty before class.

PLEASE wash your childs hands with soap and water in the bathroom at the YAC prior to entering the classroom.

Back to school night is Thursday 9/15 from 6-8pm. This is an open house, however, I will be giving a brief talk about Funtime around 7PM.

Have a great weekend!

Welcome!

Welcome to Funtime! Amy and I were excited to see the smiling faces of our returning students as well as those of our new students! We have a great group of kids this semester and can't wait to help them learn and grow!

A few important things before I get started with all the fun stuff we did this week.

1. My apologies to the Pre-K class for running 15 minutes over on Wed. Amy and I had the schedules mixed up... guess that's what happens when we change things up! Won't happen again!!
2. Please help your child go to the bathroom before entering class, even if they went at home.
3. Please have your child wash his or her hands with soap and water before entering the classroom.
4. If you need to contact us about a planned absence, please email me at fcfuntime@gmail.com
5. If your child is sick on the day of class, we would appreciate a phone call at 970-219-2764 or email.
6. We have a back to school night scheduled for Thurs. Sept. 15th. More details to come.
7. No school Mon. 9/5 or Mon. 9/19

Now that we have that out of the way, let's get to the fun part of the blog!

This week was a busy one, we learned all about the rules in the classroom, the schedule for class, the classroom jobs, we met new friends and saw old ones too. We had a few bumps and bruises and even some tears - but all in all it was a GREAT first week.

Pre-K or Dragonflies

On Monday the kids had fun learning all about our classroom jobs and attendance. This is new this year, each child is responsible for taking their t-shirt off of the laundry line outside our classroom and putting it into the 'laundry' basket. This is our way of taking attendance, when there are t-shirts left on the line, we know those kids are absent. They were all really excited about it and I was SO proud of them on Wed. when they all remembered to put their t-shirts in the laundry basket! For craft on Monday, they painted their t-shirts with watercolors.
Wednesday we talked a little more about the class jobs. Each day, I will draw a flower out of the basket (which by the way was Wed. craft - the kids decorated their job flowers) and put it on one of our job bees. I will do this until all the jobs have a helper. Not every child will have a job to do each day, but all the children will do at least one job each week. I also had the kids write their names as best they could, this was just an assessment for me to see where everybody is. They gave it their all and did the best they could and I'm really proud of them.
Friday was gym day.

2.5 - 3.5 yr olds 9am or Caterpillars

What a fun little group of kiddos we have! Even though there are only 6 kiddos in class, they are very participatory! They tell Amy and I stories and help me sing the songs. They are all very attentive and such a joy. Tuesday they decorated t-shirts with crayons, the kids had fun making their t-shirts very colorful. 
Thursday was gym day for them and they really enjoyed playing with the big fitness balls, they were all running around with big smiles on their faces. It's so fun for to not only play with them, but to watch them play.

3-4 yr olds 10:15 or Butterflies

Tuesday the butterflies decorated their t-shirts with paint. Like the pre-k class, they will use their t-shirts for attendance. I will start this with them next week, so when they come to class on Thursday, please help them take their t-shirt off the laundry line and put it in the laundry basket. They were having so much fun painting their shirts, they didn't want to stop! I love that they enjoy art.
Thursday was gym day, but because we have more time in this class, we were also able to do a craft. We played with balls in the gym, the kids had a great time, rolling, bouncing, kicking and throwing the balls. We decorated flowers using foam stickers for a fun craft. It's good for their fine motor skills to have to peel the backs off of the stickers, of course they don't know that, they just have fun sticking the stickers on!

Have a great 3 day weekend!

Lisa