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)

 

Community Bulletin Boards

This is a fun idea we implemented last year to foster family engagement.  Each month we send home an object, usually on card stock, for each child to decorate as a family. Attached is a note telling them to decorate at home with their families and not to forget their name, also the date which we would like them back.  Normally I give a week for it to be returned, its ok if they come in after we love that they take the time to participate!   In the entry area we post both a preschool board and a toddler board with all of the creative art pieces that come back.  Displaying them in the entry area has proved to encourage all to participate and for the children to really look at everyone's art.  They love to find their piece and are always excited to tell you what they did at home to create it.  Here are a few examples of the boards are children created last year:

Most of the templates came from TheMailbox but any shape template can be used.  We have a lot of new ideas for this school year....we can't wait to see what they come up with!

Let's start where fairytales begin....

Once Upon a Time there was a teacher named Miss Nicole who decided to open up a preschool! So she wished upon a star and poof a bright and shiny school appeared stocked and ready just for her! All the most precious children of the land came to her and she taught amazing lessons to the perfect little children and they learned and lived happily ever after! Now wasn't that just the most adorably ridiculous story you ever did read?!

My name is Miss Nicole and I did open up a preschool  three years ago and while I wish some pixie dust could have sped up the process truth is a lot of hard work from many people made my dream come true!  I teach children everyday and I hope that I provide them with experiences they enjoy.  I get to learn, love and play each and everyday with the children I am lucky enough to teach (some days I do not feel that lucky though lol).  

So I decided to share my story and my ideas with all of you (eeks! hopefully someone will read this)...I get a lot of ideas and inspiration from fellow bloggers so I wanted to contribute too.  Hopefully you will be able to use some of my ideas and share yours with me!  Teaching is such a collaborative effort!  

Here is a picture from last years Preschoolers!  Our Community Bulletin Boards...stay tuned for the photos and explanation of what we do!

If you follow me you can expect lots of creative art projects (we love them) with lots of pictures to help and maybe some witty repertoire to get us through those days that do not end with Happily Ever After!