Jeff Pre-K February

Week 20 (Feb. 4, 5, 6)

I saw these little seed kits and had to get them. They are supposed to grow flowers, and already they are starting to sprout, only a few days later, they are going to be so excited to see the growth on Wednesday! They loved painting the little pots.

The dirt starts out as this hard pellet, then you add water and watch it grow. Very fun!

Count out the tiny seeds, and plant them in the dirt. Great for fine motor skill development, those seeds were TINY!

Lots and lots and LOTS of dress up has been happening! Several times throughout the day, and even during other activities. Batman has joined us at several circle times...

We have been practicing lots of numbers and math lately. Getting numbers backward is pretty common for this age, but we are working on it. We use dry erase boards for practice mostly, but they love doing "worksheets" too.

Playing dress-up isn't limited to themselves. The boys played baby dolls for the (maybe) second time ever, and liked it. It was their choice, but they usually find other things to do.

Week 21 (Feb. 11, 12, 13)

Valentine's WEEK in preschool was very fun. We did lots of activities surrounding hearts and love. One table time activity was about estimation. First they all had guesses for how many candy hearts they could hold in one hand, then we tried it and recorded the results. Afterward, we talked about the differences and why we guessed lower or higher numbers than the results. It was fun to hear their reasons.

At snack, they ate heart shaped rice crispy treats and apple slices. Yum!

We made a few sticker heart Valentine's for some of our favorite people at home. They got to choose which person they wanted to send them to.

When (the day before) Valentine's Day came, the preschoolers brought the BEST Valentine boxes, ever.  They made them at home, so each were very different, and I LOVED each one! Good jobs guys!  You're SO creative!

Reading the labels and matching to the right boxes was a long process, but everyone was SUPER excited about it.

Once all the Valentines and prizes were delivered, each preschooler tore into their box like it was Christmas. Tasting the treats and oohing and aahing over each thing. They all said thank you for each note. It was so cute.

To end the day, we listened to music on the iPad (and later on the TV when the iPad speakers weren't cutting it) and blew up balloons and danced and had quite a par-tay!

Week 22 (Feb. 18, 19, 20)

Super heroes and bad guys continues to be a favorite toy when I bring them out for free choice play. They are so creative and elaborate with their story lines, I love listening to them deciding who will be good or bad and what their jobs are and what things they need to do and say… Hawken usually takes on the role of script writer and tells everyone what to say. This won't always work in play, but these guys are all okay with it.

Fine motor activities are always dual purposed and they love to play while building their fine motor skill set. Lacing works perfectly for this. Logan whips through these activities and is always ready for more.

We tried out some new (and a few old) patterning, sequencing, counting, and identifying numerals games - all math centered. These are some REALLY smart kids.

I bought some watercolor paper, which is supposed to make water color paintings more vibrant. We tried it out, and the kids LOVED their artwork. We made rainbows and they turned out so well.

Jeff is explaining that there are usually clouds when it rains and there are rainbows, so painting a rainbow without a cloud would be silly. Silly me, I forgot to tell the others about clouds before they painted… :)  Notice his two little clouds at the bottom edges of his rainbow.

Another highlight of the week was that Jeff turned 5! We celebrated at school by singing to him (lots of times), and asking him questions about his upcoming party during circle time. He loved all the special attention. Here he is picking out his birthday prizes.

Using some of the larger sized watercolor paper, I had each preschooler write their letters. Later on next week we will finish this activity and paint it too.

We celebrated Lunar New Year! We made paper lanterns and danced the dragon dance. While we waited for parents to pick-up, we watched a quick YouTube video of Disney's version of the dragon dance and tried it out ourselves. I should have filmed it, because it was adorable. One kid in front as the face and front legs, and one kid in the back as the body, back legs, and tail.

Week 23 (Feb. 26, 27)

Color Clix were a play choice this week, and I think I'll leave them out for a while. The kids sure love creating things, both from the instruction booklets and from their own imaginations. They are so clever!

Play food was used a lot this week too, but not in the traditional sense. Sometimes the fruit was really presents for the stuffed animals, sometimes it was cargo on their Color Clix airplanes, sometime it was treasure to be hidden from bad guys…

Our big paintings are coming along, and each preschooler is excited about the work they've done so far. I'm hoping these will be done this week and can be sent home, finally!

We celebrated "Go Texan Day" by dressing up as cowboys (and a cowgirl) and watching a video clip of the trail riders coming into town! So exciting! We also learned that some of them come from over 100 miles away, and it takes them a few weeks to get here! The kids were fascinated!

Our tiny seedlings were sent home after reading a few things about SPRING! The first day of Spring is in March, and we have a few more seed type activities coming up. We are making predictions about these little (will be) flowers, and guessing what colors they will be. So, try to keep them alive! They need to be watered each day, and get lots of sun. Send in a picture when you get a blossom! And transplant to a bigger pot with some plant food when they get a few inches tall.