February mash up

We had a very busy February, haven't been able to post! Soo much snow, hiring new staff as well as prepping for one of my teachers to go out on maternity leave crazy! So here is a catch up of all the fun from February. 

We started off the month with the study of dinosaurs.  Preschoolers looovvveer dinosaurs! A few of our preschoolers prior knowledge of dinos was astounding! Definitely taught us a thing or two! We explored dinosaur traits and discussed carnivores, omnivores and herbivores. Our classroom was a prehistoric wonderland!  Take a peek...

(Dinosaur collages very creative children)

( Our little paleontologists digging for fossils)

(Dinosaur magnets they loved them by Melissa and Doug)

(Dinosaur sorting and patterning fun)

( Water table fun with dino eggs had stay with the winter theme with all the snow we have up north)

Next up in February was our 100th day celebration and Valentines Day party! We had a super hero 100th day celebration with capes and super treats! Each student was sent home with a portion of a Dollar Tree table cloth to decorate with 100 things.  They did an amazing job so creative some even made capes out of felt and fleece.  We staged an area in blocks to take superhero pictures.  I used blue wrapping paper and construction paper to create the scene.  The children laid down and pretended they were flying over the city! We made superhero trail mix while count sets of 10.  We also did 10 sets of 10 exercises.  We read 100th day books, counted to 100 by 2's, 5's and 10's and we made a coolnpinterest inspired hat with 10 stamps on 10 strips to creat a crazy hat. The children really enjoyed the day and so did we take a look...

Here are a few pictures from our Valentines Day party! All the children passed out cards to their friends, we played sweetheart bean bag toss, pin the heart on te bear and decorated hearts.  Many of our wonderful families brought in treats to share one of our children even made a Frozen collage to hang up for our party! Too cute! A fun day full of friendship and love

 

For the rest of February we explored dental health and community helpers.  We had an amazing dental presentation from ine of the childrens grandmothers.  She had a video, coloring sheets and talked to them about proper brushing and visiting the dentist.  She had adorable costumes and dresed them up as teeth and had long string for floss and cotton ball plaque, she put it in between them and showed proper flossing! Cutest! We made a tooth brush and tooth paste with puffy paint.  Te traditional glue, shaving cream and paint mix but we used blue glitter activity paint by Colorations from Discount School Supply.  It totally looked like toothpaste.  The kids loved it! We moved on and explored emergancy helpers, we made police cars and an ambulance.  We talked about mail and made mail bags to hang up in the writing center for children to create letters to their friends! Lastly we wrapped up with talking about doctors and nurses.  We created our own colorful band aids and talked about docors visits.  

Well thats what we have been up to! We are all prepped and ready for March and we will kick off author studies with the great Dr. Seuss! Have an amazing weekend! 

Hibernation wrap up!

The best gauge of a great week is when parents come in and tell us their children can't stop talking about a topic. Well hibernation literally hit home this week.  With a lot of extension activities through out the centers the children truly immersed themselves in the topic.  Here are a few pictures of the rest of the week: 

( creating nest for their squirrels)

(Hibernating in their den like bears)

(Blubber science experiment during our discussion of animals that adapt)

(Sleeping bears paintings)

(Hibernating hedgehog, great drawing of their burrows and environment with chalk and painted hedgehogs with toothbrushes for texture) 

Hope you enjoyed! We are blasting off to outer space next week I have some great activities planned! Check back to see! Enjoy  your weekend!

    

Animals in Winter

We are exploring animals in winter in preschool this week.  Today we made colaborative bear caves for our stuffed bears to hibernate in.  I just finished making an interactive board with velcro animals for circle time.  Super fun super easy and adds an additional piece to circle time this week.  Tons of fun hibernation games for gross motor play I will post some later this week.  I also have some winter inspired sensory activities I am freezing that I think they will love! We are going to try the blubber science experiment this week as well should be a fun filled week! Happy Monday! 

 

Plunging in with penguins!

This week we are having a blast exploring penguins with the preschoolers.  They are so engaged in the topic so we are extending it throughout the classroom.  They are doing such a good job identifying the species and we have two class favorites the fairy penguin and the macaroni penguin! Today we made macaroni penguin headbands.  We have a baby penguin friend named Patty who joins in on the fun! We played pass the penguin today, we tried to make Patty toboggan during parachute play and she even poses for us during journal time! Check out all the fun below! Hope everyone is staying warm it is a whopping 2 degrees here today with winds making it feel -15 brrrr! 

Summer wrap up!

What a fun summer we had at school! We explored so many new topics, enjoyed water play and had a blast with our friends! Here are a few things we did...hope you enjoy!

Swimming Off To Kindergarten

Well after much preparation and a lot of hard work graduation day has come and gone! I am happy to say it went smoothly and the children did amazing! I am sad to see them go but I am confident that they are prepared for whats ahead! Here are a few decor pictures from yesterdays event

The food table..."a goldfish bar" cupcakes and ocean jello with candy fish.

Backdrop of our stage with tons of the childrens crafts to create the scene.

Photo backdrop for familes to take pictures after the ceremony. 

Picture table for the parents keepsakes decorated with a yellow submarine of grad in the background. 

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our graduation day! 

 

Ocean Life in Science

It is June! The school year is coming to a close and we are ready for summer! I decided to explore Ocean Life this month in our science center as it is so much fun ( to pretend your at the beach during a crazy school day 😉) for the kids.  We have laminated flash cards which are used only to explore real life examples of sea life.  I purchased them at the Dollar Tree and laminated them.  The kids love to look up close at the different sea creatures and the photos are great.  We also include some sea life manipulatives from Lakeshore for them to play with.  Lastly different types of shells and coral for them to explore with magnifying glasses.  There is an ocean sensory bottle which I borrowed from the Toddler room which is fun.  Thats one of my big tasks this summer to prepare sensory bottles for every science concept we cover.  It will be a task but the children love to engage with the bottles and adds more hands on fun to science.  Luckily this year most of my children choose to go to science during their choice time. I want to keep it exciting so more children will choose to explore.  Each month I make science posters for the wall to go over different topics.  The teachers will read them to the children when we introduce the new topic and refer to them while they are facilitating play in the center. Hope you enjoy my science ideas!