5 things I love about my job

1. prayer time every morning.  2. devotions that hit the spot like a healthy breakfast for the soul 3. the children's faces when they "get it" 4. their giggles 5. my assistant

Pp is for PUMPKINS is over and so isOctober.....

We had so much fun harvesting plastic pumpkins and apples and pretending to haul the to market.  We had scare crow dress up clothes and a crow puppet to play with in our home living center along with the crops to harvest.   Lots of fun!!!!! 

We patterned the paper clips that I said earlier that I got from Staples office supply dollar bins. 

We made really cute scarecrow cookies for a treat at the end of our special Pp party day.  I saw the idea in a Family Fun magazine a couple of years ago and the children really enjoyed making them and eating them.  If you have never checked that magazine out go to their website http://www.familyfun.com/  and you can get back ideas from their old magazines.

We traced our whole bodies and posed so that we could be scarecrows.  the children gave themselves faces and clothes and then we had them glue some patches and hats on the their heads.  We used them to decorate our walls today. 
We also had a scarecrow dressup relay during our Letter Pp celebration.  I had parents help me get 3 sets of shoes, shirts, pants or adult jean shorts, gloves, and hats and the kids got in teams.  Of course at their age we had an adult helper on each team.  It is so fun to watch the kids try to help dress each other fast.  The first round is the slowest, but once they get the hang of it they go faster and faster.  Everyone is a winner.   Thanks to Chick- fil-a  donating 16 If you give a Pig a Party books we had prizes for all. 
I have to share a book that was the hit of the week and read over and over.  The book is called Pickle Things by Marc Brown.  It is so silly and the kids totally enjoyed it. Ohhh...... as I write this I am thinking make a pickle person next year.  I will have to remember and try it.  Read the book and you will see why. 

KNUCKLE PUMPKINS

Continuing the Pp is for Pumpkins what a fun art activity yesterday.  We made knuckle pumpkins. My assistant painted orange paint on the front part of the knuckles, and then the children pressed them on to paper.  They were allowed to make as many as they wanted.  Then the used green thumbprints for the leaves. 

Mommys of little guys seem to like to make hand print t-shirts and things knuckle pumpkin patches would be a cute t shirt addition.  On that note, a few quilting Mommies should save their little hand print t shirt collection and make a little quilt.  So cute!!!!!!

Letter Pp- so many ideas

Of course the main letter Pp idea this week is PUMPKINS.  We started off the week harvesting plastic pumpkins to take to our farmers market ( pretend of course)  Tomorrow our school holds a pumpkin patch for the kids and it is alot of fun.  We will be doing many activities incorporating pumpkins.  One of my favorite is a math activity that I got from a friend a couple of years ago.  We will have two die cut pumpkins for our paper.  We will roll dice and glue ___ number of seeds on our first pumpkin.  We will roll the dice again for the  second pumpkin.  Then we will add the 2  sets of seeds and write the number.  Yes my 4 year old class is quite capable of counting seeds for addition.  In fact they really like adding numbers together. 

We also will be doing things with pizza ( like having a pizza party on Thursday).  I made a math game a few years ago by cutting 4 brown circles for the pizza pie, strips of yellow for cheese, white little mushroom shapes, green strips for pepper, and red circles for pepperonis.  ;( sadly I lost my original which was not a dice game but just a recognition of numbers game.  They had to put 1 mushroom, 2 bell pepper, 3 cheese strips and 4 pepperonis.  Since I lost my original we will be rolling the dice to find out how many of each topping and writing that number on a piece of paper.



Also I found some very cute pumpkin poems on a website last week.  I will post the website later along with some more and pictures of the week.  LOT'S OF FUN AHEAD!!!!!  The website for the pumpkin and fall poems is www.teachers.net.  I did not see the cutest poem that I found on that sight and cannot find it to post the resource but have included the poem below.
One day I found two pumpkin seeds.I planted one and pulled the weeds.

It sprouted roots and a big, long vine.

A pumpkin grew; I called it mine.
The pumpkin was quite round and fat
(I really am quite proud of that.)

But there is something I'll admit

That has me worried just a bit.

I ate the other seed, you see.

Now will it grow inside of me? (I'm so relieved since I have foundThat pumpkins only grow in the ground!)

ON A SIDE NOTE:  Staples has some dollar bins I discovered today.  I bought several packs of plastic paper clips to use as a linking pattern activity.  Hey, Plastic Paperclips begins with Pp.  We have another math activity

5 things I love about my job week 3

I love 1. my co workers, and the way the minister to each childs needs, 2.  my assistant who makes my job easy  and fun, 3.  the families of each child,  4.  turning the I can't and I won't into I can,  5. the many ways my students say my name like Mrs. Manette, Mrs. Lanette, Mrs Manettey, Mrs. Banette, teacher, Mrs.(whoever there last teacher was).  I wonder if they ever learn how to really say it, though it brings a smile to hear all the 4 and 5 year old variations of Mrs. Nanette.

FALL the SEASON

It is fall and while there are not many colorful leaves yet were are learning about the season this week in our class room.  We did the most fun art ever, and I don't know where I saw the idea.  We covered our table in butcher paper, and I had gather leaves from my trees ( the biggest leaves I could find).  Each child picked 3 leaves and they were taped vein side up to the butcher paper.  The children were then allowed to paint the leaves, we used red, yellow and orange paint.  They then layed manilla paper on top and used playdough rollers ( the one with the one handle was best), and rolled over the paper to make sure they covered all of their leave territory.  The painting was a surprise to see after they lifted the paper.  Paint, rolling and surprises, all things that preschool children love.  It looked like so much fun I really wanted a turn, but wo is me I had to teach another group of children while my assistant had all the fun.  I highly recommend this for moms, teachers and anyone with a little creative spirit, even scrapbookers and cardmakers can get into the mix.  the vein detail was great and it was so much fun. 
Foot note:  don't wait until dark to hunt for leaves, because there are lots of spiders hanging around after dark. My clothes were covered in spider webs, but don't worry none got me :) 
Tomorrow more fun fall activities, I may post every day.......

The 5 things I love about my job this week are 1) the ladies I work along side 2) the little eyes scanning the classroom to see what each day brings 3) hugs from past students that I never forget 4) childrens interpretations of their surroundings whether shared in art or word 5) keeping my little friends safe and helping them learn.
Using a new classroom management technique that I love love love. Check out the book Conscious disipline by Becky Baily. Great ideas for classroom as well as home management with children. I also love the Love and Logic books, but for me in the classroom the Conscious disipline has been a blessing.
Resting up now for another fun week
If you are a mom or a teacher Family fun magazine is an awsome tool. There is a sight with even more things and old magazine ideas from the past.

Safety week

Another fun week of learning and playing. It's been a short week because of an extra day off but alot of fun. Today we did a craft. Anytime they don't have total freedom at art I call it a craft, though today while there were some guidelines there was also much freedom of expression as you can see.

The directions were to take 1 small and 1 large rectangle and 4 circles to make the fire truck.

They then took 2 long and 5 short pipe cleaners to make the ladder. Now, the glueing of the pipe cleaners with regular glue was a bust and as you can see some made pools of glue to try.

Next year we will use craft sticks and tooth picks for our ladders. I was able to get some information while they were allowed freedom in their very creative interpretations of fire trucks. I learned who knew the difference between short and long, and large and small. I also learned who was able to count to 4. Hopefully they learned those things in the process of direction following at craft time. LOTS OF FUN!!!!!

Safety week, and safety helpers

One of my all time favorite weeks in the fall is when the fire truck visits and they dress in their rescue clothes to show the children and help them know not to be afraid. What an awsome service it is to our children. We have alot of fun in the classroom as well, obstacle courses, a ladder out of masking tape on the floor makes great large motor activities for the children to play in homeliving. I always have stuffed animals to rescue at one end of the ladder.
We will look at shapes of different road signs and talk about them and how they help us stay safe. We will make our own stop signs and stop light cookies, which I have seen in many different curriculums. Take a fourth of a graham cracker, spread cream cheese or peanut butter and then have them place the correct color candies in the correct order of a stop light. EAT UP!!!!! Yummy and easy. Hey, you could continue and teach a math skill of patterns red, yellow, green, red, yellow green.
Whether a mom or teacher, extend fun to make it a learning activity. We also will be making a shape fire truck using squares, rectangles and circles. If you stay at home and need an activity for your little guys, maybe 2 or 3 year olds cut out red rectangles blue squares for truck windows and black circles for wheels. That would be a great beginning for little guys. If you stay at home, take your little guys to the firestation or call and check when they will be available to let your children look at our safety helpers.
Well---- off to have a great short week at school and will post a little more safety stuff at the end

5 things I love about teaching Preschool children

Along with ideas to share, I will be posting weekly the 5 things I love about teaching preschool children. If you are a teacher, maybe some of these will inspire you or refresh you in your own teaching experiences. I love 1. sharing God's love with them 2. listening to them as they share things they think are wonderful 3. their wiggles 4. their giggles 5. the look they get when they discover something for the first time. I love my job!!!!!