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! 

Plant exploration week!

This week we took a look at plants, plant parts and needs.  We created some beautiful art! The one to one correspondence carrot activity was a fun one, it explored number writing, cutting, pasting, direction following as well. I found the idea on Pinterest.  We planted various flowers plants and fruits to monitor their growth in the science center. Overall the children enjoyed everything we learned and explored this week. 

All about our bodies

We are having a fun week learning about our body! The children did some great work on their projects.  They really enjoyed viewing the 3D body model we had and learning where the organs are located.  They were very inquisitive and really intrigued.  Tomorrow we are using sensory paint to make a brain, I just know they will love it! They were able to recall some information from our study of the senses and put it all together! Yay love to see those little minds at work...hope everyone is having a great week! 

Its been awhile! Just wanted to share some graduation ideas...

The backdrop of our graduation presentation....all projects were made by the graduates

Graduates pictures

A simple refreshment table to coincide with our Seustastic Celebration

Hop on Pop popcorn

Seuss inspired drinks

Just a simple arrangement of cupcakes to look like the cats hat!

One fish, two fish, red fish, GOLDFISH!

 

Well last year we had a Seustastic Graduation!  We sang all things Seuss,  many of the songs and poems I created to go with the theme.  I am a theme queen! Our invitations, programs, shirts, gift bags (and gift items) were all Seuss themed.  The children enjoyed Dr. Seuss so much throughout the year that it seemed like a perfect fit for this group.  Many ideas were found from fellow bloggers or pinners on Pinterest.  I loved the truffula trees made from plungers from the dollar store and tulle!  They are lined up on top of my bookshelf in my office now and everyone loves them.  You can see them in the top picture, they line the ledges above our backdrop.  It was really fun to explore the different characters and story lines to inspire our decor.  We try to keep our refreshments simple and portable to help the families who have other obligations on that day make a quick exit. Overall graduation is a fun time for the families and children.  It can however be stressful on the staff!  We try to keep it simple and fun, and remember they are just children!! Their families will love them if they stand their and do nothing at all.  We are well underway for this years graduation which is "Swimming off to Kindergarten"  I will post some of our projects and song ideas once they are ready. 

A lot of hand print crafts ( Horton, Lorax, Thing 1 and 2, Red Fish Blue Fish)