Preschool Graduation

We had a little preschool graduation at Kristen's house a few weeks ago. We had it in the evening so all the families could be there. First we had dinner (we all brought various dinner salads and rolls) and then we had a little program.

Emily Z. started it out like we did every time - with the Pledge of Allegience, weather of the day, days of the week and months of the year.

They wore the caps they made at Heather's house.

Then Hilary W. helped them sing a couple of songs (like If You're Happy and You Know It), and they each said what they wanted to be when they grew up. Brennan said he wanted to be a firefighter. Eric wants to be a knight.

Instead of diplomas, I handed out scrapbooks I made of their preschool year.
But I made them give them back to me because I still need to finish them. It's high up on my to-do list.
Then Heather and Kimber handed out sunflowers to each of the kids to give to their moms for teaching them all year.
Afterwards we ate cake and visited while the kids played 'till late into the night. It was such a lovely evening. We're going to miss our preschool friends.

W is for Window

I had the letter W for preschool last month. We made windows by cutting out pieces of different colored tissue paper and gluing them onto the back of black paper frames -very pretty.

We made wheat flour (our wheat grinder is very loud, as you can see).

And made whole wheat waffles. They were a big hit.

Then we went on a walk. It was a hot day, and they had to rest in the shade every chance they got.

We found a cute yard with old antique wheels and farm equipment, perfect for pictures.

Brennan was a little nervous, since there were bees buzzing all around the bushes on either side of him.


Notice we were missing Brennen W. His family was on vacation in San Diego that week.

Thursday was wet and chilly, a complete change from our hot walk on Tuesday. For snack I told them, in all seriousness, that we were going outside to dig for worms. They thought I was crazy.

Eric was especially concerned. He kept saying, "They're just gummy worms, right? We're not going to eat real worms, right? I can't even eat gummy worms if they've been in the dirt." It's like he knew I must be kidding, but he had to be sure.

After we finally found a worm we went inside, where they found bowls of chocolate pudding with gummy worms at the bottom and Oreo crumbs on top. Brennan & Levi dug right in, but the other kids were still very cautious. They had to wait until someone else ate it before they'd even touch it.

The girls were very concerned about the mess Levi was making.. "Look at your baby! You need to clean him!"

Yum!

J K L M N O P Q R S

We had a review week in preschool a couple weeks ago. We played games, read little words, added numbers, and made letter-shaped pretzels.

Kimber had lots of fun playing with the pretzel dough. She was the last one to decide on a letter.

After they came out of the oven we brushed on melted butter and sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top. They were so easy and yummy. I should make them more often.

Brennen W. was the birthday boy. He was so excited about his upcoming super hero party, it was all he talked about the whole week. And it was an awesome party. They were all in the backyard when his dad showed up on top of his roof, dressed as Batman. He jumped off the roof onto a trampoline to save someone. I wasn't there, but Brennan told me all about it on the way home.

K is for Kejia.

Then they took turns popping balloons. Inside each one was the name of an animal that began with one of our review letters.


The girls didn't like the loud pop.

Then they acted out the animals. Here they are being penguins.

O is for Octopus!

I taught Brennan's preschool this week. For science we read an octopus book and made these cute octopuses. Notice their little "o" suckers.

First they cut out the tentacles. They all got about halfway done before their hands got too tired and I had to finish for them.

Then they put the stickers on one side and the face with googly eyes on the other side.

I stapled them together, attached yarn handles (which all fell off by the time they went home) and curled the tentacles with a pen. Super easy and cute, and the kids had a lot of fun playing with them.

For snack we had orange slices one day and olives the other day. They're even shaped like O's.

For math we learned about octagons and ovals, and they made popsicle stick signs with a red octagon on one side and a green oval on the other. Then they played red light/green light with their signs. We also had an obstacle course in the living room, read small "o" words, colored a little "o" book, watched a Sesame Street skit about opposites and talked about the importance of being optimistic.

But everyone's absolute favorite part of preschool is always lunch. They have these routines they do every single time, and they laugh so hard they can hardly eat. They start out saying, "You can't guess what's in my lunch." One by one they guess and take out each thing in their lunch. This takes awhile, as you can imagine.

They tell each other they have spiders in their hair/on their food. "Ahh!" they all scream and laugh.

Then there's lots of phone calling. "Calling Eric, calling Eric!" Followed by quick conversations, setting up play dates and telling knock knock jokes.

More screams and laughter.

It never gets old, and it's a riot to watch. I've learned to leave plenty of time for lunch.

K is for King!

I taught preschool a couple weeks ago. The timing wasn't great because it was my last week to get things done before the big kids were off for Christmas. But we had so much fun that I was glad I got to do the Christmas week. We made & wrapped ornaments with their pictures on them, dressed up and acted out the Christmas story, and had a gift exchange.

I borrowed all these awesome costumes from my friend, Cheyenne. I seriously need to start building up a similar collection. They all loved dressing up.

Then they all wanted to take turns holding baby Jesus.

It was so cute to see how excited they were about the gifts they brought, watching with eager anticipation as they were opened. That was almost more fun for them than getting their own present.




Merry Christmas everyone!