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.