This week our theme continued to be Sand and Sea. We had lots of fun activities and crafts to decorate for graduation!

Our group activities this week were packed full of excitement! Throughout the week we made bubble paper (you can see how much fun it was from the pictures!) Then using that bubble paper we made jelly fish. We got to pick twelve items to use as their tentacles and hung them up in the classroom where you can see them at graduation! We also practiced our songs throughout the week and made another special surprise for graduation!

Tuesday at the science table we guessed if different objects would sink or float and then tested our hypothesis (science). Throughout the week we also had a catching and throwing assessment to see how our gross motor skills have improved over the year. At the language table we looked at different ocean pictures and put the objects in alphabetical order, and then we practiced writing our letters!
On Wednesday at the art table, we water colored both a shell and a crab. And at the language table on Wednesday and Thursday we used glue and sand to create our name to display at graduation!
​Thursday at the science table, each preschooler got to pick a number, and then counted out the number of shells that was one more, and one less than their number. For story time, we read a special book that Teacher Sam made for us!

Congrats to our seniors who completed their senior projects this week. They got to display them to the whole school, and we are so proud of them!

As we are coming to the close of our preschool year, we are just trying to pack in all the fun. This week's theme was Sand and Sea (everything beach and ocean related!) and we were able to develop our weekly skill of self-portraits. 

On Tuesday, for our group activity, we did a self portrait. At the beginning of the year we made our VERY FIRST self portrait, and this week we got to make our very last. It was so fun to see how far we've come and how much better our drawing skills have become. Sadly, we didn't get any pictures of it, but the preschoolers can show you their beautiful artwork at home. On Wednesday, we made sand pails. We dipped our fingers in colorful paints and used them to make patterns on a sand pail shaped paper (that we cut out our selves!). We made dots, lines, zig zags, and more. They turned out very cute. On Thursday, played outside on the playground! We played tag, rode bikes, and had a blast with all our friends.This warm weather is getting us excited for summer!

On Tuesday, we had a great time playing games and doing table activities. At the language table, we had to figure out what letter comes at the beginning of ocean themed words (like "W" comes at the beginning of "whale"). At the science table, we did a sensory exploration activity, where we got to touch gooey blue orbeez (the ocean) and nice white sand (the beach). At the art table, we made colorful fish skeletons out of yarn, paints, and construction paper. In the hallway, we practiced our gross motor skills by throwing beanbags at jugs and trying to knock them down.
On Wednesday, we got to play a cool game, with the sand and orbeez, where we had to dig to find animals in the "beach" (sand) and move them to the "ocean" (orbeez). At the language table, we practiced forming letters with SEASHELLS! We had to pick a mystery letter from a bag and then make that letter with shells in play dough. At the art table, we made mosaic seahorses, by gluing colorful tissue paper to a paper seahorse silhouette. They turned out so pretty! 
On Thursday, we had so much fun that we DIDN'T TAKE ANY PICTURES!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to all our Summer Birthdays! Amia and Andrew have their birthdays in June, while Millie, Sara, and Jacob have their birthdays in July! 

We are so excited to move into our new building next year! This week they poured the concrete for the foundation and we could finally imagine what the preschool would look like. We are so excited for it to be finished this summer! 

This week we discovered and explored the great outdoors!

For our group activity on Tuesday, we used toilet paper tubes to make binoculars! We got to use them again on Wednesday on our animal track hunt. In each of our groups we had to solve a puzzle to know which animal we were looking for, and then received a picture of what their tracks look like. Then we started our hunt! We search all around the hallways of the high school, looking for and following the tracks we saw until we discovered our animal! We had so much fun!
On Thursday, we learned about birds, and the nests that they make. We even got to see a real birds nest! Then, each preschooler got to pick an item that they would use to make a nest, and as a table group they made their own nest. Once all four nests were completed, we all tested the nests and voted which one we though was the most comfortable. Once we had our winner, we talked about which things in that nest made it so comfy. They loved playing in the nests all throughout free time!

On Tuesday at the art table, we painted campfires using our hand prints. We topped it off with a  cotton ball for our marshmallows to roast over our fire! At the science table, we practiced our numbers as we counted fish spots and found that number. For our Gross Motor activity, we went fishing to practice numbers, colors, and following directions. Since last week was a shorter one, we finished up some dinosaur activities this week.  We had a gross motor activity where we made dinosaur prints with paint. Once we put on some special dinosaur shoes, we'd step in some paint, and have some fun! We also made dinosaur rubbings with crayons to learn about a couple different types of dinosaurs.
On Wednesday at the art table we made s'mores by painting popsicle white or brown to represent marshmallows and chocolate. At the language table we practiced our camping words, and decided which items we would want to take camping. At the science table we talked about our five senses using items from the outdoors! For our Gross Motor activities we had a forest beanbag toss!
On Thursday at the art table we used popsicle sticks and paper to make tents, and then got to watercolor them. At the language table, we spelling outdoor words using Play-Doh. At science table, we made bird feeders using seeds, cornstarch, and rice cakes. We got super sticky, but we can't wait to hand them outside for the birds to enjoy!

We all loved playing inside the tent during free time.
Some of us may even want to go camping with our families now!

On Thursday we had a surprise fire drill! Out of all the ones we have had this year,
​I'd definitely say this one was our favorite! 

This week we learned all about dinosaurs (how big they were, what they ate, how long ago they lived, etc.) and used our weekly skill of "measuring" to learn so much. 

It was a sort of short week at preschool, because we had no school on Wednesday, but it was still so, so fun! On Tuesday, we learned about different types of dinosaurs and had to make a hypothesis about how long some of them where... IN PRESCHOOLERS! After we made our guesses,  we laid down in a big line and counted how many people it took to be the same length as the big dinosaurs. On Thursday, we made volcanoes. We cut out pieces of paper to make it look like a volcano and trees. We then put paint on our paper and used a special technique (AKA blowing through a straw) to blow the paint around, so that it looked like lava. It was a very fun craft! 

Because of the short week, we had to cram a TON of activities into our two free play days, but it was so worth it. On Tuesday, at the language table, we became paleontologists and had to uncover puzzle pieces in a bowl of sand to make a word (for example, we had to find the letters H-O-R-N to spell Horn). At the science table, we did  Dino Egg letter matching. We had to match the lower-case letter in the egg to the upper-case letter on the paw print. At the art table, we made spotted dinos by putting paint on big Lego bricks; and dotting a piece of dinosaur shaped paper. Outside, we had to carefully crack ice balls to get the dinosaur out (kind of like being a paleontologist again!), and then in the hallway we did a dino walk/ring toss. At the creation table, we made salt dough creations, which was a blast! On Thursday, we made our own dinosaur skeleton at the science table (out of q-tips), and  at the language table we matched baby dinos to their mothers by finding the correct beginning letter sounds. At the art table, we decorated dinosaur eggs with colorful paints. At the creation table we made water colored dinosaurs, and out in the hallway we did a dinosaur track activity. 

Our teachers are hard at work on our end of year scrapbooks! We can't wait to see them at preschool graduation (which is coming up all too soon!)

This week we continued learning about habitats!
The highlight of this week was when Reptile Man came to our preschool!

This week we learned about camouflage. Mrs. Anne had a newspaper and asked us how many squares were on top of it. Right away, we all saw two red squares. But she had tricked us! There were four squares, but two of them looked just like the newspaper. Just like how camouflage hid those squares from us, animals use camouflage to help them to blend in and hide in their habitat. Then, we went outside and looked for animals that were camouflaged on the playground.
For another group activity, we made snake mobiles! We cut out a spiral shape from our paper, painted unique patterns, and gave our snake eyes and a tongue. They all did a fabulous job!

We had a lot of exciting table activities during free time this week! We got to build habitats for different animals using blocks. We made sure that the habitat matched what the animals would need, like a fish would need places to hide from sharks! We did puzzles of different habitats and learned what animals live in those places as we practiced writing the names of those animals. We played a matching game of which animals live in what type of landscape. We also got to make a tiger in a very creative way- we got a tray of shaving cream, and then mixed orange dye into it. Then, we rubbed our tiger onto it so that it turned orange!
For another activity, we learned about cacti and how they are found in the desert. Then we made a super cute craft to show what they look like using some tissue paper, paint, and glue. We practiced both our counting skills as we counted how many animals we saw in each habitat. In another fun activity we had, we had to balance, dunk, and crawl to help our animals to the right habitat. Overall, it was a super fun week!

On Thursday, the Reptile Man came to preschool! It was so much fun to learn about different snakes, turtles, crocodiles, and more. We talked about which reptiles are friendly, and got to hold lots of animals! It was fun to watch reactions from fearing for their lives, to not being able to wait for their turn! We had a lot of laughs and loved learning about 

We had one May birthday that we celebrated this week! 
​Happy Birthday Aiden!

Happy Habitat Week! We had a ton of fun this week learning about the different habitats that animals live in, as well as developed our weekly skill of distinguishing between "same and different". 

My oh my, it's been another wonderful week doing our group activities. On Tuesday, we separated into small groups, where we each received a picture of an animal in a habitat, and a big piece of white paper. Our task was to recreate the picture, by drawing it on the big piece of paper. Each preschooler was in charge of drawing one part of the animals body.  It was truly a collaborative task, as we had to decide as a team how to draw it and take turns adding our own pieces.  Then our teachers helped make the rest of the habitat.  We did a great job and all our pictures turned out so cute! They are now hanging on the wall in the hallway, and you can see them at pick up time! On Wednesday and Thursday, it was just so sunny outside that we HAD to go play outside. We had a blast playing on the play structure, riding our bikes, playing catch with the balls, planting "flowers", and just having a great time with our friends. We love the sunny weather!

Oh my goodness, our free time stations were so fun this week! We started off this week, on Tuesday, by writing "habitat" themed words in sand (at the Language Table), painting our own habitats (at the Art Table), and doing an animal eye spy / counting activity (at the Science Table). On Wednesday, we matched beginning letter sounds and letters to animals we saw in pictures (at the Language Table), made super cute toucans (at the art table), and made our very own habitats- out of fabric, animals, rocks, and other creative items (at the science table). Out in the hallway, we did a bean bag toss gross motor activity. On Thursday, at the language table, we sorted letters based on their characteristics (loops, tails, etc), while at the art table we made a desert sunset landscape by rubbing chalk and adding silhouette shapes. pictures. At the science table, we used dot painters to practice our numbers and counting. For our gross motor activity, we did a challenging, but exciting, obstacle course that involved balancing, crawling through a tunnel, hopping and other fun ways to get our animal to the correct habitat.

3 baby chicks hatched this week! Preschoolers and High Schoolers alike enjoyed playing and holding the adorable puff balls. We are still deciding on a name for our cute new friends, but some class favorites provided by our preschoolers are: John, Chelsea, Susie, and Glimmer Sparkle. 

Happy Birthday to all our April Birthdays... Ethan and Ira!

We had tons of fun learning about keeping our earth clean,
taking care of a garden, and so much more! 

On Tuesday for our group activity, we learned to reduce, reuse, and recycle. We sorted different pieces of trash and talked about if our item was plastic, paper, glass, metal, etc. Now we know why it is important to recycle!
On Wednesday, the FAME class showed us all the different cool things they have been doing! Sadly, we didn't get any pictures, but we looked at lots of different types of art, and listened to music. It was so cool to see all the different talents showcased there!
On Thursday we all got to make a craft to show the parts of a flower. We used paper + string to show the leaves, stem, flower petals, and roots. We also talked about how not only do we plant and grow flowers, but also fruits and vegetables.

We had some awesome table activities at free time this week! We got our hands dirty when learning about gardening and planting seeds. We learned about how we put the seed under some good soil, and then have to water it each day. We are already noticing some sprouts from the seeds that we planted. We also got pretty dirty when we used pudding, Oreos, and gummy worms to make a garden that we then got to eat! 
We learned about keeping our earth clean and how important it is- We made a collage of our earth with different colored pieces of paper, and then wrote what we will do to keep our earth clean. We made another collage- this time with different scraps (Like wrappers and bottle caps) to decorate the first letter of our name.  Recyclables can make great art materials! Using different cereal and food box labels, (Pop-tarts, Ritz Crackers) we put together the pieces to solve the mystery of which food it was. We made a sunflower craft plan label for our growing plants, were we practiced writing the word sunflower and used paint to decorate.
We also practiced raking plants into different piles, practiced how to hula hoop + jump rope, and practiced spelling color words by finding letter tiles in a pot of soil. We also made a flower craft by cutting out green paper, and then using finger corks in paint to stamp the flower petals.

Beetles, and Caterpillars, and Flies, OH MY! This week, we spent a lot of time studying insects and their characteristics, as well as practiced our weekly skill of learning to sequence events! 

We learned so much this week during our group activities. On Tuesday, we were each given a slip of paper with a type of insect on it, and then we shared our insect with the class and talked about whether it was a good bug or a bad bug.  We then placed it on our class chart. We agreed that ladybugs, butterflies, and others, were good insects, while wasps, dung beetles, earwigs, etc. were bad. On Wednesday, we did a super cute craft. We made lightning bug (firefly) sun catchers. We took pieces of yellow tissue paper and stuck them to contact paper. We cut out and added black wings and a head, and viola! We had an adorable bug to put in our window. On Thursday, we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar (By Eric Carl) at circle time. We then had to work with our high school buddies to sequence the story, by putting what he ate in order by day (For example, FIRST on Monday, he ate 1 apple. THEN on Tuesday, he ate 2 pears). After that, we had to retell the story using our paper. to see if we put the story in the right order.

We had a great time during free time! On Tuesday, we learned about the life cycle of butterfly at the science table, by doing a cute activity with pasta. At the language table, we played a game that involved slapping certain letters with a fly swatter. We also made a cute lady bug at the art table, and tried to make it through a spider web (made of rope) obstacle course in the hallway. On Wednesday, we learned about the characteristics of an insect (they have 6 legs, 3 body parts, etc.) at the Science Table and then had to be able to identify which bug was an insect. At the language table, we did an insect scavenger hunt, and at the art table we painted cups for the seeds that we're going to plant next week. In the hallway, we did a fun beanbag toss activity. On Thursday, we worked a lot with patterns and sequences. We decorated a bug by making a pattern with paper shapes at the art table, and did an assessment with colors at the language table. At the science table, we observed REAL insects (under glass) with magnifying glasses (just like a scientist!). In the hallway, we did a maze that involved carrying balls, using our hands and even our legs! It was hard, but lots of fun! 

We had a fabulous week full of fun activities & lessons to teach us all about life on a farm!

On Tuesday we found out that we are incubating chicken eggs in our preschool! So we will have baby chicks in a few weeks! We loved learning about chicks- how they grow and hatch out of their eggs. Then we got to glue lots of feathers on our paper and a chick face, then closed out egg, then reopened it like how a chick breaks out of their egg. You can see these cute crafts in the hallway!
​Wednesday we had some fun dancing time, then moved on to a couple exciting rotations! At one rotation, we had a horse maze. We practiced galloping and even had a horse to ride as we raced to put all the beanbags in the bucket. We also got to roll like a pig in mud (including somersaults!) We experimented with weight by filling eggs with different substances and tested to see which ones rolled down the ramp the fastest! Then we had a Farm Roll Round-Up. We rolled cows right back into their farm stalls.
On Thursday we had an assessment with letters- we drew our uppercase and lowercase letters on white boards. We also practiced our numbers by rolling a dice to try to win!

What an exciting week! We had so many fun crafts and activities during free time! At the art table, we got to make sheep by stretching cotton balls to represent the soft wool on a lamb. We also learned how to sew pillows! Another day we made chicks using shaving cream, glue, and feathers. So cute!
At our other tables, we got to dig through dirt to find different farm animals, identify the type of animal, and clean them using sponges and toothbrushes. We experimented with milk and dish soap to see how they interacted with food coloring. We also practiced writing our name, and counting the number of items we found in different colored eggs. To practice our alphabet, we glued all different kinds of farm words on our paper in alphabetical order! Another exciting activity helped us practice our letters by writing farm words in mud! (Chocolate Pudding)
Our gross motor activities were a blast! One game we played, we'd roll two dice, and it would tell us an animal and an action. From galloping like horses, to sounding like a pig, they had a great time! We used fly swatters to get our sheep balloons all back in their pen, and we found different farm animals in their pins with a hallway farm maze!