Graduation Day

The time finally came for our little ones to graduate! There were no speeches or valedictorians but there were hats and diplomas!  The kids were totally cute and Lindsay had them sing the ABC's song which they somewhat participated in.  It was a perfect conclusion to a great school year!

Then - January

Graduation Day

20th and 21st

Finally I am getting around to blogging about BUG WEEK! Woohoo. I was really excited about this because there was so much to talk about and who doesn't get excited about bugs. Well currently I am dealing with some issues in my backyard with bugs but that is another story!
Thanks to the mom's who let me do it on Tuesday and Wednesday. Having that extra day to get my brain settled did a ton of good.

TUESDAY we started with the question of the day. What is a bug? Then we went over different bigs and I showed them different plastic ones I found at the dollar bin at Target (yeah Target!). I even brought in some snails that I found trying to get ran over in my driveway. It was funny cause I took them out and let them crawl on my hands. I was telling the kids about their shell and their eyeballs and I let the kids touch their shells if they wanted. All but one of the boys touched the snail shell. The girls had no problem.
We did reading time which went a little long and I could tell they were getting wiggly. Then we did some short singing time. I taught them a couple new songs which they just stared at me. I'm hoping they are learning them.

Then we went over The Very Hungry Caterpillar Book. Alex's mom got me some flannel board shapes that go along with the book so while I am reading I can also show them on the board. They really seemed to like that. Then we went over a Caterpillars life cycle. I had them pretend to be caterpillars which was funny and then, with Samara's help, we wrapped them up in toilet paper and made them stand against a wall. Surprisingly they did. Then I told them to break free of their cocoons and they did! It was so darn cute. Apparently the kids liked it cause a couple of you mom's said that the kids were talking about it. Aidan, when I asked him about it later told me, "Remember when you wrapped us up in toilet paper?" Then I had them be Butterflies and let them run free in the gym for a little while to work some more of those wiggles out.
Snack time and then we were going to do a craft but I think we ran out of time. I have forgotten already. Sad!

WEDNESDAY I asked Who's Afraid of Spiders? I asked the kids if they wanted to make a giant spider and they said yes. So I took a giant black trash bag, tied it off at the bottom and gave the kids each some newspaper to wad up into a ball. My favorite part was when Noah was wadding up a piece of newspaper and stopped to show me the ad for Avatar that was coming out on DVD. I love how random kids are. They each enjoy bunching up the paper and throwing it in and we did this over and over until our spider was nice and big and then I tied off the bottom and cut the ties to make legs. I got this off Preschool Playbook and the kids had a ton of fun!  This is the spider that Preschool Playbook did and ours looked pretty close.

After this was done and we cleaned off their hands, we did a much shorter reading time with just the Hungry Caterpillar book and flannel board and instead of singing time we rewrapped them in their cocoons and had them break free one more time.  Too cute. I found that one on Perpetual Preschool.  There was some more pretending to be butterflies again at that point, I think. Brain not working.  

Then snack and when they were finished we did a craft. First I was going to have the kids paint a rock bug like this one that I did...but it was raining and we were supposed to start on Tuesday and we didn't. So then we were going to do a glitter web but I was still worried about dry time so I had an idea. If we could make a giant trash bag spider, why couldn't we make a baby trash bag spider? Of course I had this idea during Aidan's nap so there was no where I could run. Then I had another idea.  You know how when you take your dog for walks and they go #2 and you have to clean it up with the Mutt Mitt? Well lucky for me, we have one across the street. I went and grabbed 7 and tada...we made baby trash bag spiders. Aside from it being total chaos as Lindsay and I were trying to tie and glue and stuff the bags with the kids, it was also fun. Thank goodness I had super crafty Lindsay there to help! This is my prototype and I think it turned out pretty darn cute!

Once the kids were done, we did a quick game of Pin the Dots on the Lady Bug...

we did the big finale...a bug hunt!  I had the kids go to the YW room where I hid a bunch a fake bugs.  I gave them little strawberry baskets and they all did so good. I was impressed and all the bugs were accounted for. Then we went back and matched them up into rows and by that time, we were all out of time again.  I am really sad that we are all done and I really am hoping that we will do this again come fall. I feel like we were just hitting our stride, of course I am the only one who only has one kid to deal with too but I have to say that this was really fun and I'm glad we did it!!!

End of Year Party and Class Pictures

With the end of the school year coming to a close so soon it got me thinking about our end of year party and also our class pictures.
I know Lindsay was talking today about doing the pictures next week but Samara said she might be out of town. We have no plans in the next coming weeks unless something new comes up so I thought I would check with everyone else. I would really love to do pictures with the kids and also the moms since we are also involved. I was thinking if anyone knows anyone that would take some maybe? I have a friend in SLO but I don't know if she would come down.
As for the class party, that would be awesome too! Enough learning! We can do a potluck. I am so sad that we are ending but I am so impressed at what we have accomplished. If I haven't said it before I think we have some amazing kids!

BTW Today went really great. I had to cut a ton of stuff and take a break in the middle but the kids did GREAT. My favorite was when I pulled the snails out of the contained and let the kids touch the shell. Funny stuff! I will have one for everyone to take home tomorrow. Thank me tomorrow!

Congratulations... to me...

I'm Graduated from preschool... well teaching it :)
I say I'm graduated because I feel accomplished. I really enjoyed doing this co-op preschool thing. I learned a lot and had fun.
Anyway my Relief Society lesson is at the end of this week. So having to divide my extra time, I was forced to cut back on my overdoing and over preparing. Surprisingly it worked and I was definitely less stressed.

So I'm kinda bummed I didn't have the full group for a final time, but I enjoyed the 4 that were there. I wouldn't have thought being down 2 would make a difference, but it was really a different experience. Thanks to Jen, even though I could have made it along without her, I enjoyed her company.
We did a lot of Animal stuff cause we have a ton of those kind of materials at home. We read animal books, did puzzles, read animal fact cards and played with plastic animals. I gave the kids a blank sheet of paper and asked them to draw their favorite animal and it actually seemed like they colored longer. It was like they were using their imaginations more while playing and coloring. Not to say coloring pages and art projects aren't important. I just think maybe a free draw thrown in seemed to be beneficial to them.
We did play-doh and instead of play-doh toys, I just gave them a bunch of plastic silverware and they seemed to enjoy pretending it was food.
I suppose we didn't do anything spectacularly academic but I hope they had fun.
All in all it was a good ending to my teaching term. I am appreciative to have been involved and I hope it goes well for the last couple weeks for everyone.

Thank you Sunshine!

First off, I am so glad that I had sunshine on my days!!!!!

Tuesday- We did an I-Spy activity, talked about shadows, read books, did a little dancing, and played outside. We played duck-duck-goose, red light/green light, and shadow tag.

Wednesday-I had to do a crafty activity with glue today. So we made ourselves some cute little alligators. Then they traced a doodle on a page. Supposed to help with hand/eye/fine motor skills. We drew on our block wall outside with sidewalk chalk. Then my gardener came and ruined our fun. During book time I didn't feel that were that into me reading today. So part way through I had them "read" their book to the other kids. Some kids rocked this and some weren't into it.

Stuff to remember-

I need to put up gates. They do better in confined spaces. It really is true that kids need boundaries. I noticed a big difference between when I used gates and when I didn't.

We had snack outside today. Loved it! Couldn't beat today's weather.

Have my crafty project stuff more ready to go. I have been better about this in the past. Not so good today.

Always be flexible. I know that Julia loves doing certain activities and I try it on the kids and there are some that would rather not do them. That's okay. It's just a bummer for me if I don't have something else up my sleeve.

Aiden was singing following the leader so that might be a fun thing to try as an organized activity someday.

Conflicts

Hello Ladies! I was looking at the upcoming schedule and I think I'm going to have to bow out gracefully of preschool for May and June. My sister-in-law and her family are moving to the coast in late April, we are going to Sea World the first week in May, Disneyland the second week in May, and then more family visits. I'll chat with you all more about it tomorrow.

Motivation

Hello Mamas! I am having a hard time getting motivated! Does anyone else have this problem? I think it is the weather combined with a sore throat that I have. Anyway, I am having fun making a few worksheets using photoshop! I made an I-Spy page for tomorrow just using simple clipart images. Just thought I would share that with you. I'll see you all tomorrow, Tuesday, April 6th at 10 am at my place. We will be going outside for a shadow activity so have them dress warmly just in case. :)

The Letter P & Plants

Mon:

Books

Reviewed of all the letters and their sounds/find the letter P in ads cut out/Made P with arms

Pasta P project from here

Talked about plants, what they need to grow, etc.

Put cards in order of how a plant goes from seed to a plant

Acted out growing like a seed to a full flower

Used magnifying glasses in backyard to look at plants and spiderwebs (some kids really loved this and others just wanted to run around, which was fine)

Planted bean sprout

Wed:
Books
Bunny sponge painting
Sink or Float activity from here (put things in the water to see if they would sink or float, then put them in an egg to see if they'd float, blew on the eggs to make them move, some sunk a lot, some sunk a little, some moved quickly, others didn't. I'm not sure if all the kids grasped this one, but they still seemed to have fun. Thacks and I did this yesterday and he was experimenting all afternoon what would sink and what wouldn't, so hopefully your kids get into at home too? Maybe w/o making a big mess like I had this morning before everyone got here and he was experiencing more. :)
Talked about plants (put cards in order of their parts [roots, stem. etc], looked at them through magnifying glasses, went in backyard and looked at the different parts
Sang Little Bunny Foo Foo (the kids really loved this one particularly), Old MacDonald, and 5 Little Jelly Beans from here
Easter egg hunt

I used Lindsay and Jen's idea and would have small breaks in between things, which turned out pretty good. It's great to prep for each activity during that break without them waiting on me! I think overall the days worked out pretty good. Also, the kids sat sooooo well today during storytime, I'm really proud of everyone! And a big thanks to Rach and Jen for helping me! I think I'm lost w/o help! :) See ya guys next week!

Houdini Day

Or a day of Magic...three year old magic. Kainoa said that we should do a magic trick that would make Julia and Aidan get better. We missed you guys again! I'm getting a skewed perception of this preschool thing! It seems too easy with just 4 kiddos!

Back to the magic, they thought the food coloring in the water was pretty magical! And those little capsules that grow into foam shapes? Yeah, magic. Abracadabra is kind of a hard word to say. We practiced saying it, and I think they are all experts! We had magic wands and "changed" Thacker and Noah into things. Macie and Kainoa wanted to be doing the magic, and Thacker and Noah are pretty imaginative and make good bears and frogs!

The frequent short playtimes really do work wonders for attention spans and participation. I love them. Maybe it's the ADD in myself, but it works out very well for all of us. And, I think I might be sold on just doing it all myself without a helper. Crazy, I know, but I liked being the only adult. It could be that I feel like I can be a bigger dork with the kids, though. I want to try it again the next time around. I did only have 4, but I think it would work with all 6.

I am spoiled that I have always had the luxury of going outside to play. Sidewalk chalk is heaven. They loved it. We probably been fine with just that all day long.

We talked about magic, and even learned a few tricks. We made floating things jars, and attempted the disappearing thumb trick. {ask them about this one.}

After my second go around, I have learned:

Snacktime is the best time, as long as you have fruit loops and fruit snacks. It appeases everyone.

Dancing Time gets out a lot of wiggles.

Frequently stopping for a short 5 minute free play keeps their attention longer.

Having their letter squares or letters taped on their chairs is CRUCIAL.

Constant praise prevents outbursts and reduces bad behavior

Kids love to play.

They really do know their letters

Attention spans are a lot less than I thought. Having MANY activities is the best way to go

They REALLY like playdoh. Just the dough. No tools or anything.

When the parent of a child is the teacher, they always act up.

And the BEST lesson I have learned, SIMPLE IS BETTER.

Making H!

I don't want to steal Lindsay's thunder, so if you haven't read the below post, hop to it. I forgot to post these two pics before with my last post, and had to take advantage of my free time right now while Thack's is away and put them up before I forgot again. :)

I hope no one wants to kill me for lying their kid on the floor, but I thought it would be fun to spell out the letter all together.

This was our first attempt

And our second attempt, which I'd say was pretty successful! 

S is for...

Stars and space.

We missed Miss Julia and Aidan today. Having only 4 was a completely different experience!

Do you really want a play by play of everyhing?

If not, deal with it. And if you do, you are in luck! We really did the usual things: read stories, talked about Space and Astronauts, and then we went outside. The break right after sitting down time was very much needed. These kids are little still, so only sitting through storytime and then letting them play a little bit made a WORLD of difference. We didn't have ANY misbehavior today, I think the paying attention for 10 minutes, playing for 5 minutes works very well. We did attempt the parachute, we may have to work on this a little more!

And then, of course, snacktime was the biggest hit.

We danced around a little "on the moon" or on the couch cushions, whichever you prefer! And made rockets and spaceships. Stickers seemed like a good idea. And clean, too. But those little fingers had a hard time getting the stickers off the sheet, dangit.

Everyone always seems to enjoy digging for treasures in the beans. We looked for foam stars to complete our art project. It was fun to have that activity lead to another one.

And then it was playdoh time. They seriously played with the playdoah for like 20 minutes. We completely skipped free play with toys because they were loving that dough. The didn't have any tools, just come plastic kid utensils. They just made the letter S out of the snakes and just squished the crap out of it. It was fun. They were very much entertained.

We had a very small group, but it worked out okay. I am so in love with the idea of playtime whenever they seem ready for it. Just for a few minutes. That few minutes gets a lot of wiggles out. I have a hard time sitting for long periods of time, even when there are activities for me to do. Sometimes just moving and doing whatever you want to is good, even for 5 minutes.

I look forward to tomorrow. Did you know tomorrow is Houdini day?

Day 1 of Our Unbirthday Party

I'm only going to write a short bit because I will be blogging tomorrow also. I am so glad that it worked out so well that we could have a sick day and still get my 2 days in.
Let me just say I had such a better time this time and all the kids did amazing. I actually ran out of time and the kids were totally well behaved. I was actually still setting up (cause I was running so on time in the first place) when the kids plopped themselves down on their chairs and were ready to go. I am so impressed, no IMPRESSED how great the kids are doing and I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow.
Today we learned what makes the kids special. Tomorrow we will do more birthdays or unbirthdays complete with cupcakes if I can ever get to making them. Ok so rundown of today.
We did the most important person in the bag. I called each of the kids to come up and look into this bag that I had. Inside was a mirror so they saw themselves. Too cute. They look confused and excited all at the same time. Before hand I asked who the most important person was and Noah said, you are going to be shocked on this one, "Julia!" If Noah is supposidly engaged to Kendall, then there is some cheating going on. Kristyn will back me up on this one.
Then we went thru their baby pics and amazingly Kainoa got pretty much every baby picture. I will impressed. The kids got so excited when I revealed who the baby was. I will send home those tomorrow. Then we also went thru our family pictures and I had each of the kids tell me who was in their family. They loved it.
By the time we were done with that it was close to 11am so we did a little bit of reading time which I call lets look at the pictures quickly so we all still pay attention. And only a couple songs which I was a little sad about that I rushed because I know how everyone's fav time is singing time. They were not in the mood for singing today.
After snack we did name that person and roll the ball to them which worked well for a short while and then we went onto our craft Paper Doll and coloring time. I hope all the mom's got to see their little doll children and the houses they colored. They did so good. By the time we got done with all that, it was almost noon and the moms were here. I didn't even get to the balloons but there is always tomorrow.
Only thing I ran out of tape and I forgot their names for their seats so I'm bringing them tomorrow! Just having the letters for the kids to find helps them so much!
I cannot say how much our kids have grown and learned and I am so glad we are doing this. We have some smart, amazing, funny, random kids. Ok that is all. Keeping it short. See ya tomorrow...slightly more prepared!

Letter H & Magnets part dos

I can't remember exactly how it all went, but this at least was what I had planned:

Stories

Fishing with magnets

Find H's on posterboard/make H's with hands/all together lie on the floor/use fingers to trace it with wood chips and different textures (I'm really into textures right now for some reason)

story, find the H's

wheels on the bus/popcorn popping

story

coloring

outline game. This was fun, and surprisingly kept their attention for doing it at the end. I traced a bunch of objects on a piece of paper to make a sort of puzzle then had the kids pick a piece out of my bag and place it where it belongs. Then they closed their eyes and I removed a piece and they had to tell me which one it was, yada yada yada, and then five or so minutes later it was time to play!

Somewhere in there was a walk and snack time too. I think I'm forgetting something b/c this doesn't seem like much, but oh well, this is all I've got.

Rachel was a fantastic help (and when I had to change Bennett's diaper, I found out how good she is at improvising! :) The day was overall not too bad. Kind of crazy at times (that's why we went on a walk - by the way, I highly recommend them, I loved it) but in the end the day was not too bad!

Next week

Next week I am teaching about birthdays, About Me and what makes the kids special. I am going to need pics of the kids when they were babies, when they were first born. Also a picture of your family. If you already have one printed out, could you bring it to class on Monday. Otherwise if you can email me a picture, I will print it out. Preferable one that is big enough for the kids to see.
Lastly, I am going to do a little information about the kids. The questions I would like to know are:

Name:
Nickname:
Brothers or Sisters:
Grandpa & Grandma (any special names):
Pets:
Favorite food:
Favorite thing (ie trucks, dogs, pirates):
Favorite color:
Favorite movie:
Any thing else you can think of that makes your kid special.

I think that is it for homework. If you can copy and paste the questions and email me or leave it in the comments, that would be great. I'm excited about teaching and much less terrified this time around.
Also if Jennifer has a cartridge for the Cricut on paper dolls, I would love to borrow that and give you back your old ones that I borrowed a long time ago. Thanks Ladies!

Magnets & the letter H

Today was a million and one times better than my first week. We still had some wandering bottoms and arms, but for the most part I can tell such a difference! Hallelujah! :)

-This week's theme is magnets. I had them find things that would stick to their little magnets on a stick (which they'll be taking home on Wed). First I passed out items to try their magnets on and then I had them go around the room. In my opinion I think the kids really loved finding things around the room. Their faces lit up when they realized things stuck to their magnets! Figuring out on their own was really, really fun for them. We also went fishing (they'll take their fishing poles home with them on Wed) and I mixed in a little sorting with it as well (pick up only blue shapes, now a circle, then we did a little review on the letters we've learned and had them pick up fishes with letters on them) since sorting is so good for this age. There were quite a few kinks that I'll try to prep for on Wed when we do it again.

-Today we focused on the letter H. We made the shape with our bodies, identified H's from cut outs of titles on boxes and magazines, and we made those awesome H's you all took home. And by awesome, I mean that activity was crazy! This was totally one of those ideas that went way better in my head. It's all about hindsight. I thought it would be fun for them to feel the textures of the pom poms and the feathers after what a hit the foam stickers were for Rachel and Samara. I guess it went pretty good. Messy, but good.

-Other than that we sang songs, read a lot of Dr. Seuss books, and ate snacks. We ended almost at 11:30, which is a far shot from where I ended my first week (um, 10:50 or something?). Things I would do differently: Bring my schedule. Forgot that completely vital piece of paper on my way out the door. Which is why I skipped the coloring part. Oh well. Also, put all the pom poms and feathers in individual containers for them rather than just out on the table. Individual containers for each kid always work better I'm finding out. And I forgot to tell them at the beginning what I expected of them and how I wanted them to be quiet, stay in their seats, etc. I'm kind of a big believer in that. So instead we spent maybe more time telling kids to sit down, etc. than maybe we would have if I would have started out with that.

-Also, I copied Samara's idea and taped their letters on their seats (and we've done ideas like this already with Jen's material squares) but I think it makes a WORLD of difference. They knew right where to sit, and like Rachel said, it helps with their letter recognition. (Julia said, "That's a J. For Julia. juh, juh, juh! J!) Today Samara even put the letters on the table for craft time - even better. But the thing with the paper letters is they're only one time use. I was thinking maybe we could make those chair covers like they have in primary and put their letter on it. I think this idea was tossed around before, and I can't tell you how brilliant I think it is! Maybe we could even make some for the semi-circle/storytime and another set for the craft table. I don't have any material here, but I could go and get some. I just don't sew. So, um, if anyone wants take that one on, let me know.

Kay, signing out till Wed. It was fun today! And thanks to Samara for being such a big help - I loved having you there! You were fantastic!

Did you know?

That we can set the blog up so that comments are sent to our email addresses? I went ahead and set up my email so that I will get whatever comments you guys write directly to my email. Just in case I forget to check the blog. It's under Customize, Settings, Comments, and then scroll down to add your email address.

Ni Hao...Hola...

Or in other words: Hello! Language week was a success. Yes it's wednesday but I can't live up to 12:17 Jen :) It's about 3:30 and I'm not even sure I have all my thoughts collected for this entry, but here I am. And like I said, my week was a success; at least in my book. I accomplished the things I set out to do with no major outbursts or meltdowns. So overall, a good week for me and all the kids. I appreciate Jen's help on Monday and Kristin's help today. I really would lose my mind if it was just me with 6 kids and a toddler to wrangle on top of it. So thankyou.

Well, the church really seems to be working for me on my turn. Although the room is on the smaller end of things, the 'contained' space seems to contain the energy that sometimes can get out of hand. After reading about how one of Jen's activities ran shorter than she thought, I realized that that had probably happened to me too. So I tried to come up with a lot of activities just incase some ran short. I actually had over 20 songs, books, activities and art projects planned for each day. I know, "WHAT?!" that sounds crazy but I just started to write things down and came up with that many. I focused not only the theme, but a lot on the letters, as well. I didn't relate everything to either one, like we did the felt pizza thing, which was just fun. Having that many things planned was just a back up. I ended up skipping about 3 or 4 things each day. My goal was to plan things in 5 minute incriments. If something ran under by a few minutes or ran over by a few, it all equaled itself out. All and all it worked out well.

I, thoughtfully, made a seating arrangement by taping letters to chairs (same idea as the mats). After near meltdowns on Monday over Little Miss Popular (Julia)... Anyway I worked it out so that everyone was appeased by their seating assaignment and I was satisfied as well. So today I didn't have to deal with the "I want to sit next to..." whine. That made for a much calmer me :)

I really do love Jen's idea of a play break in the middle, but I tried to do without. Only to see if we could make it and we did. Although I did loose track of time today and as that hour and a half ran up, I noticed them all coming unglued. So next time, if I skip play break again, I'll definitely make sure to end a bit before the 11:30 mark as to keep the peace.

The running around in the cultural hall worked amazingly. With 20 balloons and 8 or so balls everyone was entertained and there was no fighting over anything. I loved it. They just ran themsleves silly each day, which is what they need after a lot of sitting. I hope they had fun!

I read the kids a book with mandarin (chinese) words on Monday and Dora and Diego book with Spanish words today. The kids seemed intrigued. I wasn't expecting them to learn a bunch of words in a foreign language. I just think it's beneficial to introduce other cultures and languages to kids even at a young age. Maybe that's just my thinking with my crazy mix raced kids. We sang the welcome song from primary, that goes "Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, we're glad you're here today, Hello" or however the words go. So we sang that but subsituted "Ni hao" for Hello. We counted to 5 today in spanish. We sang a song that I learned from spanish class that goes "Uno, dos, tres Cho. Uno, dos, tres, Co. Uno, dos, tres, La. Uno, dos, tres, Te. Bate (BAH-tay) Bate, Chocolate. Bate, bate chocolate" Anyway it's a fun little song that they pretend to be stirring up chocolate.

I had another enjoyable two days with the kids. I'm always excited to get things together and show them to the kids. It's always a challenge to find activities that will keep their attention but not get out of hand. But that's the fun of it and all of their personalities mixed together is what makes it interesting. Their collective smiles and enthusiasm make me happy. I'm glad this preschool thing is going so well and everyone is adjusting pleasantly. Thanks for reading another long post of mine!

Next week is...

Samara at the church building. Yeah! I'm working on updating the schedule but Aidan decided to take a nap on my lap so I'm typing a little slow. Kristyn I will try to make it fancy for you again!

Old Hat

That's right. I'm an old hat at this now because I have finished two complete weeks! Woo Hoo! Ya right! I'm still learning. I think the biggest lesson learned for me is flexibility. Be ready to change things up if needed. Also, so grateful for the helper (Lindsay). Couldn't have made it without her. Rain really brings out the best in kids, no? I think they are really going to enjoy having the cultural hall to run around in. I was hoping there wouldn't be rain so we could go outside and enjoy a game of "red light green light" 0r just kicking around some balls.

So I changed things up a bit for myself this week. Here is a sketch of how my days went.

1. Question of the day
2. Reading time
3. Song time
4. Craft time
5. Play time
6. Snack time
7. Craft time
8. Play time

I stuck a play time in the middle to give them a chance to get the wiggles out. Then I used snack time to bring them back in. I find food is a great bribe and my kids will probably be obese because of it. On Monday I gave them popsicles. Tiny ones. Big hit. Today I used them as a bribe to get them to clean up before leaving. Again. Big hit. I don't care if that box of popsicles costs 20 bucks. So worth it. They don't really. They are Mighty Mini melts or something like that. We could probably eat them in one bite but they are great for the kiddos.

Today I also did a color sort game. Got the idea from Lindsay who did it with conversation hearts. Worked for about two minutes. :) Good thing it wasn't my only activity. And if it was that's okay too, right, because children learn through play.

The letters I reviewed were V and T. V for Vase and T for Tree.

We sang "If you're Happy and you know it" and "Wheels on the Bus"

I totally forgot about my question of the day today.

Behavior-the kids were way better than the first time I had them when it rained. Of course, they are kids so we did have a few bumps. But that is what this is all about. Learning how to interact and play with others. If they learn a few colors, letters and numbers along the way-Hooray!

But I won't lie.....I'm really looking forward to just being a helper next week. :)

Needed

Hi All!!

Can you please save your egg cartons no matter the size? I have been saving for a bit but I'm about to use almost my entire stash which isn't a problem. I just want to make sure to replenish for future projects. Same with toilet paper and paper towel tubes. I have a drawer to stash it all away.

Also, I'm planning on some serious painting for Monday. Can you dress them in something you don't care about or send them with a smock? I will be putting trash bags on them as well. :)

Pics from our Guest Teacher Day

For all the pics to download...click here.

Updated teaching schedules

We decided to take last week off to make sure the flu is finally past so next week we will be starting up again! I've updated the schedule so we're good again. Let me know if you see any changes.  Just to let you know...I switched with Jennifer during Aidan's bday week and then I switched with Kristen the next week since my brain will still be buzzing with cake.  I brought this all on myself.
Hopefully everyone is feeling better and we can start anew next week.  I actually enjoyed our little spring break.
Also I still need to blog on my teaching day and I took some really cute pics too of the kids playing dress up that as soon as I find my camera I will post.  You know how that is.

Kristyn's Week

I think Samara's post below was really, really good (as is Jen's, but I'm guessing you've already read that one and saw how awesome it was). I don't know about you, but I am learning SO much. Read the notes below mine if you haven't had a chance yet.

Things I did/wished I had done differently:

1. Getting their attention. The second day I started off with an 1, 2, 3, eyes on me thing. I read about a kindergarten teacher who had amazing control of her class, and one big thing she stressed was a saying or whatever, and then practicing it a lot in the beginning of the year and at a time when she had their attention and everyone was happy. I think it was still kind of crazy on Wed, but I LOVED this idea and what it did for me, and I see a ton of potential in it. So, at the beginning of class I told them to look all over the place, and then I'd say 123, eyes on me, they would do it, and then I'd get all excited. We did this several times before the question of the day on Wed. All things considered, I think it worked really well.

2. Storytime. My books on Monday were a bad idea. Although I liked that I had picked things that had to do with the subject (starting school), they were way too wordy (Jen mentioned the same thing, live and learn, right?). On Wed I selected books - albeit things that had zero to do with our subject - that had very few words, and rhymed, since kids love rhythm. It was much better and I got through 3 books that day. I'll be sure to gt short books next time, or at least Cliffs Notes them.

3. Consistent reward system. Samara mentioned this, and I LOVE it. If the stickers work then I think we should run with it. Consistency is key with this age group and I'd love to have us all doing the same reward system!

4. Telling them things ahead of time. Samara mentioned this to me (I forget if she wrote it below) but one thing to do is to tell them exactly what we're doing, then have them do it, ie showing them a finished piece of artwork and say this is what we're making, rather than giving step by step instructions only. Also, saying things like we're going to read 3 books right now and I want all of you guys to show me how good you are and sit on your seats the entire time. I think if they know what we expect in every way then we'll get better results. Just like how below she said at the beginning of class she stressed what good kids they all were, etc. I really, really like this idea a lot. Maybe we could even tell them the rules, or what we expect, each time they come (keep hands to selves, sit on squares when I ask you to, etc.). At the beginning of my second day, after the 123 eyes on me bit, I told them that they could play in the backyard during free play time only, and not before, and the same with Thack's room. Then I quizzed them on it and asked a couple yes/no q's to make sure they got it. This worked. They didn't go in the yard or his room at all till play time. And that's obviously a lot less stressful than to tell them Don't do that! the whole time (and like was said, it's better to tell them what to do, not what not to do anyway).

5. Prep. I think next time I will try some of the activities with Thacks beforehand to get a better idea of how long things take. I waaaay underestimated my time frames. Also, some of the things I thought would be easy in my head, because that's what the woman on the website said she did, did not work for our age group (ie putting glue on a piece of paper). Jen put the glue on for them. Much better idea.

Kay that's all from me for now. :) Jen and Samara have both done a FANTASTIC job and I am so excited for how well this is turning out! It was a little crazy in the beginning, but I can already tell a difference in the kids. So great job you guys! And great job to our awesome kids!

Samara's Week of 5 Senses

My Monday

After a neccessary amount of planning and lists, my first day of preschool at the church was personally successful. I didn't forget or leave out anything super important. So here are my thoughts...

What went well:

• Sitting on the same level as the kids. Whether it be on chairs or the ground, I can see that how we've been sitting close to the kids is helping them be more attentive.


• Keeping a tentative seating arrangement; e.g. Placing the kids next to who can help them have the most success. I like the cloth mats Jen made, although I forgot them :/ I tried to put circles of pipe cleaners for them to sit in, but it seems like anything that can be folded or crumpled or that the kids can fiddle too much with is not ideal. But I definitely agree that the kids need a place that we can easily say, please sit in your [spot]; wherever or whatever that may be.


• Along with the question of the day or while introducing the kids to the subject theme, I tried to positively give expectations. Such as, "Okay I know everyone is going to do a really good job today", "I know we can all listen and pay attention", "Let's do our best to keep our hands to ourselves" I think telling the kids we know they can do a great job being nice, sharing, listening and sitting will be encouraging to them. I hope giving them overt praise the second they're doing even the smallest thing good or right will payoff for us, as they see more attention is awarded for behaving correctly.


• I'm really stuck on this idea of instantly rewarding the kids. I tried to do like a reward system and my first thought was that they could put a marble in a cup with their name in it. I thought that would be fun, but then I realized that would be too distracting. So it never did quite come to fruition. My first idea really was small stickers we could give them on a chart, but maybe it would even work by just placing the stickers on their shirts. The main purpose would be rewarding each child immediately in front of the other kids. So they can see that the kids who are doing things right get attention not just the one's who are wandering and whacking eachother. It wouldn't be excluding anyone from the reward. It would be about drawing attention to whoever is sitting quietly and then hopefully, the others would follow and get rewarded as well. So I'm going to try the sticker idea and if anyone has any suggestions or ideas? I'd love to hear them :)


• Also something I really try to use all the time is positive instruction for curbing unwanted behavior. So instead of "Don't hit" or "Stop yelling... running"...Saying "Let's keep our hands to ourselves", "Can you speak a little softer?" "Hey let's sit down and do [this]". Telling them what to do, instead of just pointing out what they're doing wrong, will hopefully help them improve. It seemed so simple when I learned this technique, but it makes sense and works for us at home.


• During a Brown Bear activity of matching the colors to the the animals, I gave each child a color and they did well waiting their turns while still paying attention. Like how Jenn had each kid pick a book. Definitely keeping the kids hands-on and involved worked really well for us. Plus taking turns is always a good skill to practice.


• Having enough short activities and projects to accommodate the shorter attention spans seemed to work best for us. The schedule is nice to have as a planning guideline but I realized the importance of being flexible with it. Extending an activity that was going well and cutting another short when the kids seemed to be done with it.

What didn't work so well: Well I thank Kristyn and Jenn for going first and ironing out some of the wrinkles, so there was not that much to deal with. I can definitely see that as the kids get more used to eachother and used to participating in these activities, they are doing better.

• I ran out of staples that I needed to finish an activity. So obviously that was on me and being prepared.


• We had a few wandering hands and bottoms out of seats, a couple of "that's mine, mine" screams during play time. But all issues were minor and didn't take much to correct. I think that the "practice makes perfect" saying fits our situation. I feel the more the kids come and participate, the better it will be.

Okay, I didn't mean to write this much. I probably won't write this much again, but as my day is over, I had all these thoughts that I didn't want to forget. Well, I look forward to wednesday and I'm enjoying this preschool thing and so is Kainoa, so thanks to everyone!

Jen's First week

My first day of teaching....

Things I noticed

1. I liked the question of the day. I think I did okay at this part
2. My first story time book went well. The second book was way to wordy. Gotta mix that up better on Wednesday.
3. I didn't get to singing time. Will really have to do that on Wednesday.
4. Definitely need some active stuff but it was hard because it is raining. That will get better as the months go by.
5. I will get our mats done and that should also help keep the kiddos in place.
6. Gotta nurse Tyler just a little bit longer in the morning.
7. No trains out. Too many boys fighting over it just yet.
8. Snack time was the best! Watermelon (in the shape of W) and wheat thins. W week
9. Look over the schedule again to see if it will work better in another way.

I do know that once the kids can go outside to play things will also be better. We had quite a few timeouts today and I think that was mostly due to the rain. At least I hope it was because of the rain. :) I'm already looking forward to Wednesday because I think I can stuff better.

Wednesday....My second day of teaching.

I have to say that today went much better than the first day. I headed off melt downs by having more options for the kids when it came to play areas. I also didn't even bring out the trains. I disguised the train table with puzzles. Huge difference. I also got the kids involved more in choosing the books and such. The whole "if you get them to help you cook then they are more likely to eat it" bit. I think I will still be choosing books with less words and then gradually add in wordier/longer books as the months go on. I made mats for each of the kids to sit on. Then it was easy to say go find your letter or sit on your mat when I wanted their attention again. I think the kids did such a better job of listening ans sharing the second day. Pretty much just using all that classroom management stuff I paid big bucks for. haha. Kristyn was so right that the second day was easier.

Thank you Kristyn for going first and for all the great ideas you had. I put my thoughts on here so that I can refer back to them in future weeks. If you ladies have any suggestions for me, good or bad, let me know. Oh, if this isn't the place for me to write down my thoughts about my day let me know that too. I can keep a journal separately.

Pics from 1st week w/ Kristyn

Our Cute Kids

Our Little Co-Op preschool attendees!  Could they get any cuter!