More Eric Carle Artwork/Books

Hello All,

We are continuing our adventure with Eric Carle books and artwork. Today we made our own version of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by gluing our green circles in any configuration that our friends would like. Oh, they look great, complete with red head...more to come! In the afternoon, we will make our butterflies who have hatched out of their cocoon after 2 weeks. 

We have lots of fun here at school...here is a photo of children looking down through the floor of the climbing structure, checking out the shadows below. Another Princess is riding a scooter around the yard in her tutu. And, a glimpse at our version of a "Lunchable".....lean ham, jack cheese, ritz crackers, carrots, broccoli, fresh strawberries...healthy and oh so yummmmmm-o!

Come join us in our fun!

Enjoy!
Miss Sue

It's E Week!

Hello All,

It's E week! We're talking about all things e...elephants, eagles, eating (my personal favorite) and more! Plus an "e"xploration of Eric Carle, the prolific author and illustrator! Today we talked about several of the books he wrote...including "Today is Monday", "The Very Busy Spider" and many more. This discussion and reading of the books lead to a discussion of how he created his artwork for his book....collage, cut outs and more. We used pink/orange paint and used a fork, fingers and our hands to create some of the same effects we saw in Eric Carle's books. That's why we have pink hands....that makes us real artists!

Have a great evening!
Hugs,
Miss Sue

Dress Up Day

Hello Friends,

This brings us to the end of our "D" week. We've danced to retro music...from Saturday Night Fever with our Boogie Shoes, learned many things about dinosaurs and the finer points of dressing up and having a fancy table to eat your snack at.

It has been soooooooo fun! Today, to set up for Dress Up Day, our 3 and 4 year olds helped put the table cloth, set the table, arrange the flowers, help serve our brownie bites, juice etc.

We had so much fun, we had tutus, fire hats, necklaces, ties, hats, bracelets, baseball shirt, earrings and more! We hope to do this again soon!

Happy Weekend!

*I found this on our fence today! How cool is that! Love is all around us!

Miss Sue

Dino Pictures

Hello Again,

Due to persnickity-ness of the blog...here are the pictures:

Enjoy!

Dinosaurs, dinosaurs, DINOSAURS!

Hello Friends,

We have been working hard all week learning about all we can about dinosaurs...today we learned about what "fossil fuel" is. Wow! Dinosaurs died and went into the earth and became oil/gas through the magic of technology.

Plus...have you ever seen a "fill in your child's name-a-saurus"? Wowee! We loosely traced each child....and cut them out and added embellishments of the dinosaur kind to make these one of a kind creations! We put them on the fence to paint them...we sprayed them with lots of different colors and let them dry. Come see our wild kingdom of dinos all around our school.

And we used bubble wrap to make some other dinos...it makes them look like they have some textured skin and are multicolored. Check them out!

Have a dino-rific kind of day!
Miss Sue

Dino-mite!

Hello All,

Thanks for your "follow" and for your interest in our school. Please give us a call if you would like to come by to visit.

Day 2 of  Dinosaur Week....oooh and ahhh! First, we talked about the ice age and the effect on dinosaurs...I had frozen some small dinosaurs in water and our friends checked them out, how quick the ice is melting, what is going on. Jurassic Park it is not, but cool and fun to preschoolers!

Then we completed our paper plate dinos and they are up on the bulletin board with a great background to make it look realistic. This afternoon, we will be decorating our child-a-sauruses and those will be hanging also. We have an A/B bulletin board (Arctic and Bears) C Bulletin Board (cats and cars) and our huge D bulletin board in the big room!

Enjoy your day!
Miss Sue

Painting with Dinosaurs

Hello!

It's Dinosaurs week! Wow! Did you know they lived before your grandparents did? Just by a few years...a few million years. One child asked: Did they live when my grandparents were born? Some walked on two legs, some on four legs, some swam, crawled and flew! Some ate meat (carnivores), some ate plants (herbivores) and some ate both (omnivores).

Painting is fun when you can decide what color your dinosaur will be...check out the pics. Thanks to our wonderful volunteer, Teresa, who prepped our dinosaurs for us to paint today....we can't live without her. XXOO to Teresa!

Enjoy!

Miss Sue

Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

Hello All,
It's all about cars today...we talked about parts of the car, painted with cars and even saw pictures of some of the first cars that came out over 100 years ago. We painted with our car wheels and saw that they make a fun texture on the paper....this is an oldies but a goodie by our friends...they painted and painted for about 1/2 hour making all sorts of mixtures of paint, tread marks etc. We donned our painting tee shirts...we have one that is a favorite...the Vincent Van Gogh tee shirt. I have a sign up list to wear it! One friend stated, "I wear it so that I can learn to paint, just like Vincent Van Gogh." WOW!

This afternoon, fresh fruit smoothies again, lots of games and puzzles because it is drizzily and wet outside. Enjoy your weekend...make it great!

Hugs all around,
Miss Sue

Cooking 101

Hello Friends!

Today, in continuation of our "C" week, we did our exploration of cooking today! We made our own pizzas for lunch, took a tour of the kitchen and watched them bake through the oven door! What fun!

We have found that if children are involved with the preparation of the food they are going to eat, they are much more likely to eat it! We had children ask for 2nds, 3rds and more at lunch. We had some just cheese and some with pepperoni! It was all a hit with carrots, fruit and milk to round out our lunch.

This afternoon, we'll make our own fruit salad....pick and choose which fruits you like! Lots of fun ahead....

Have a great day!
Hugs,

Miss Sue

Container Painting

Hello Followers!

Have you ever thought about the number of things in our world that are containers or need containers to hold them? Today we talked about what a container is; something that holds something else. It could be a grocery bag, a purse, a glasses case etc. Then we talked about what types of containers work for different things: a collander works well for fruit and veggies, but not a cup of coffee. A cardboard box works well for storing dry things, but not so good for storing something wet.

We talked about painting with some of these objects and how we think it might come out! Check out our berry basket paintings!

We also have an art gallery being displayed on the big bulletin board...these are some of the paintings from our easel painters! Enjoy!

All Things "C"

Hello Followers,

As we move down the alphabet, this week is "C" week...today we began our study of things starting with "C" with discussing and learning more about cats! We read 3 books about cats and found out that they have rough tongues to clean themselves, long tails to keep them balanced when the walk on fences.

Plus we broke out our wonderful easels that were donated by a fantastic family! Check out the photos!

See you tomorrow!

Miss Sue

Fun Friday!

Hello Friends,

We have been busy this week studying about bears....today we even got to sleep with our bears and are eating some bear friendly foods today...fish sticks and fresh fruit! It's a beautiful day to be outside and enjoying the sun and the warmth. I'm going to remember today when we are swamped with rain!

Hope everyone has a great 3 day weekend!

Miss Sue

Those Wild and Crazy Bears!

Wow! Those silly bears....we found photos of what they did last night while we were away....Two bears were standing on their heads, one was playing in our red barn, one was reading books, another on the changing table wanting to get a diaper change! How funny is that?

We learned more about where bears live, how the find food and how many cubs are usually with their mom and for how long. We also did lots of singing and dancing today...we sang lots of our old favorites...like: "Sally the Camel", "Farmer in the Dell" and "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?" Plus sang our two new songs, "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around" and "Going on a Bear Hunt". Ask your children about both of those.

Have a great day and enjoy our mischevious bear photos!

Miss Sue

Bears in the House

Hello Followers,

Word is out that the bears have something planned for tonight when we are gone...I wonder what it will be? Will it be some mad mischeivious behavior or ? You never know what might be up for these bears when we go home for the night.

Tonight we made our own version of bears...children got to choose what color they would like for a tee shirt for their bear and what color and decoration their bear would have. Lots of choices...lots of fun!

This afternoon for snack, our fur-less friends will be having blueberry muffins for snack, since bears love blueberries as we know from our book called, "Blueberries for Sal".

Enjoy the bear pictures and your day.

Miss Sue

Teddy Bear's Picnic Day

Hello Followers,

I am trying to get blogging earlier in the day, but it all depends on how the day is going....Today we learned another new bear song..."Going on a Bear Hunt"...ask your child about it. And what things that start with "b" that bears like to eat...how about bees? Yep, they don't mind the bees when they are trying to get at some honey...how about baskets? Well, some pretend bears, like Yogi Bear, doesn't mind a picnic basket or two when he is hungry. We had a picnic this morning with our bears for morning snack. We had lots of fun helping our bears eat some delicious "bear friendly" snacks like bugs (raisins), peanut butter crackers and animal crackers.

We are working on developing our find motor muscles too, check out the seemingly easy task to you or I...however for a 2-3 year old and some 4 year olds, picking up pompoms with tweezers and putting them in a large egg carton is very difficult. This is one example of how we work with children to develop fine motor muscles in their fingers/hands so that they will be ready to hold a pencil someday when the time comes!

Have a great day, enjoy the photos!

Hugs,
Miss Sue

Welcome to Bears Week!

Hello Followers,

This week is "B" week and the study of bears. Everyone has a bear that they brought from home to spend the week with us. Oh my, wonder what those bears will do after we are gone at night?

Today we learned a Teddy Bear song, ask you child about it....different kinds of bears; grizzly, black, brown, what baby bears are called and what they like to eat. We'll have some great art going up on the bulletin boards and eating some tasty bear friendly snacks this week.

We also have discovered dirt in the yard. We have a group of children who love, love, love to dig....so we have buckets and shovels...we call them our "dirty friends".

Enjoy the photos and your day....wait 'till you see what we have planned for the week!

Miss Sue

Brrrrr....more about Arctic Week...

Hello Faithful Followers,

Today we had a "chilly" snack this afternoon...we made homemade smoothies with ice, bananas, strawberries, yogurt and a splash of apple juice. Yumm-o! It was chilly and cold, but delicious...perfect to fit in with our Arctic week.

Today we talked about arctic homes...where and how do people live in the extreme cold temperatures. And a final review of what snow and ice are made out of and more. Next week, onto bears....

Also, on the flip side, it was still warm enought to run and play outside with just a sweatshirt or a light jacket on. Yeah! Miss Johanna blew bubbles this afternoon until she had to take a rest before hyperventlating! But it was a bubble storm outside for quite some time. If you heard shrieks and screams...they were of delight while the children enjoyed hundreds of bubbles everywhere in the back yard!

Have a great weekend and make a memory with your family...the days are long but the years are short! I speak from experience...I can hardly believe I have a 25 year old son myself!

Hugs all around,
Miss Sue

*This picture is of our "bubble storm". It's hard to see, but there were bubbles everywhere and everyone had a screaming good time!

Penguins, polar bears, seals-a-mania

Hello to our Friends out there in Cyberspace,

As I can tell from our statistics, we are getting visitors from all over the planet...from Austrailia to the Ukraine, thank you for visiting!

We are studying the arctic this week and have learned lots of interesting facts about animals and people who live in a very cold environment 365! Did you know it is the Dad penguin that sits on the egg waiting for it to hatch while Mom goes off to fish and find food? And, penguins are not just found in Antartica, but the North Pole too!

We made these penguins today from all heart shapes....they could glue them to there "hearts" desire to get them to look the way they wanted.

Many thanks to our volunteer named Teresa, who helps us so much with the cutting out of things, prepping for a project and general help all around. We could not do it without her! She has been with us since October and were thrilled to find someone who met all the qualifications of what we needed in a volunteer. She went and got fingerprinted and certified to be our dedicated helper. Next time you see her, please say hello and thanks for all her help.

Enjoy the photo...we sure are having fun. Please come join us soon!

Miss Sue

Welcome to the Arctic!

OOOOh, it's cold outside! We learned about what snow is...just frozen rain, how ice is made and melted and quick ways to get ice to melt...by adding salt. We also added food coloring to areas of the ice and watched them mix and melt together. Good stuff. Then we watched and compared hour by hour how much ice had melted and what caused it! It was magical!

Cherub is growing! Thanks and welcome to our new friends who joined us for the first time today. Welcome to the Cherub family! We talked about "A" and things that begin with it....hmmmmm....apricot, apple, ape, arctic, animals and more.

See you tomorrow!

Miss Sue