What is That Crazy Machine?

We came into preschool today and after we washed our hands we went into the Circle Time Room.  Some of us sat on the floor and played with toys like plastic bugs and puzzles.  Some of the rest of us played with the buttons on the table.  When we came into school on Thursday, we had to take off our things and sit on the benches.  Why?  Well, we had something new that we had to learn about.  We have new soap dispensers.  We can just put our hand under the dispenser and out comes the foamy soap.  So this is what we do:  1.  Put our hand under the dispenser.  2.  Rub the soap all over our hands to clean them.  3.  Turn on the water.  4.  Rinse off our hands.  5.  Dry them with a paper towel.  It was fun to try the new machine.

After all of that it was time to play in little groups.  Some of us played with a machine.  It blew out air.  It was a little vacuum cleaner!  We couldn't believe it.  There were plastic pipes that Mrs. Meyers attached to one end.  We put a cotton ball into the pipe and guess what happened when she turned on the vacuum cleaner?  It blew the cotton ball up into the air.  The cotton ball even almost touched the ceiling.  We also played a marble game.  We had lots of marbles in hoola hoops.

Our songs today were "5 Little Monkeys", "Inky Dinky Doo" and "The More We Get Together".  We had a super good story, too.  It was called "The Mitten".  It was all about a boy named Nicki.  His grandmother knitted him a pair of white mittens.  She was worried that he would lose one in the snow and he did.  A mole found his mitten and went inside.  Then a snowshoe rabbit went inside of it, too.  A lot of different animals kept trying to fit inside Nicki's mitten.  What happened next?

We had a super snack today.  Yummy in our tummies.  We had little plain and raisin bagels and cream cheese.  We loved it.  Thank you, Lucie.  Then after our snack was all gone, we went over to the Art Table.  We put red, green and gold paint on a yellow piece of paper.  Then we folded the paper over and pressed down.  It made a cool design on both halves.  On Thursday we had a snack of cheese sticks and granola bars from Parker.  Thank you!  We also had Maxwell's mommy here to play with us today.  Thank you!

Pop the Bubbles

We came back to school today.  Yeah.  We miss being here and playing with our friends.  We got to look at a lot of buttons when we first arrived.  There were a lot of different shapes and colors.  We even used the magnifying glasses.  Then we played on the obstacle course and drew pictures on the table top easels.  Mrs. Whiteman also had a whole bunch of bubble wrap that she had taped to a table.  We got to pop the bubbles!  On Tuesday, our bubble wrap was red!

We had a very cool story called "The Mine-O-Saur".  It was all about some dinosaurs at school.  One little dinosaur had a very hard time sharing and the others called him the Mine-O-Saur.  First he took away all the toys and yelled, "Mine!  Mine!  Mine!"  Then he took some other things from the children and yelled, "Mine!  Mine!  Mine!"  What happened to the Mine-O-Saur?

Our songs today were "5 Little Monkeys" and "Inky Dinky Doo".  After we washed our hands we had a snack of little pretzel sticks and cheese.  Thank you, Evie.  On Tuesday our snack was cheese sticks and yummy grapes.  Thank you, Carter.  We also had Landon's Daddy help today.  Thank you.  Then we went and played.  For our Art today we colored with oil pastels.  They got on our hands, but we wiped them off with wipes.  The colors were very pretty. 

Thanksgiving's Coming!

Today we were a little excited because we only have one day of school this week.  Why?  Because it is Thanksgiving!  Some of us will eat a lot of turkey and pie.  Some of us will have special people come to our house.  Some of us will go visit our relatives.  This is going to be fun.

When we came into school today we left on our coats.  What?  Yes, we went right outside and played in our play yard.  We just love the sand and those big trucks.  They are so much fun.  On Tuesday, we stayed inside and played when we first arrived because the Kindergarten Readiness kids were already outside.  We played Musical Hugs and Leaf Fishing.  In Musical Hugs we got to walk around a circle of hula hoops.  When the music stopped, Mrs. Meyers would have us get inside the hoops.  Each time she would take a hoop away until there was only one left.  There is one way to fit a bunch of preschoolers inside a hoop.  You all have to hug! 

Mrs. Whiteman had a bag of little leaves and she shook them over a table for us.  Then we took our magnets and cleaned up all of the leaves.  They stuck to the magnets because there was a paper clip on the leaves.  That made us laugh. 

When we got back inside we had a story called "Who Will Carve the Turkey this Thanksgiving?".  It asked all sorts of crazy questions like "Will a shark carve the turkey?"  or "Will a dinosaur carve the turkey?"  I wonder who really will carve that turkey?  We had the same story on Tuesday!

Our songs were "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush", "I Had a Little Turtle", "Mr. Turkey Went for a Walk" and "The More We Get Together".  We are having a lot of fun with our songs.  Sometimes we sing different ones while we are waiting to wash our hands or go home and those are fun, too.

Our snack was yogurt covered raisins.  Yum.  Thank you, Leah.  We had a special helper. It was Reese's mommy. Thank you!  After we were all finished we went to the Art Table and there was cinnamon playdough for us to use.  It smelled so good.  We made a turkey with the playdough and some colored popsicle sticks.  We even got to take our turkeys home.  Yeah!  For Tuesday's snack there were yummy granola bars from Hudson.  Thank you.

After we were all done with our playdough turkeys on Tuesday, Mrs. Meyers and Mrs. Whiteman decided it was so nice outside that we should go out and play.  We love that!  Then it was time to go home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Who Is in That Picture?

Today when we got to school, we were very excited.  We had something to give to our teachers.  Most of us brought in a picture of ourselves with our families.  It was Show and Share Day.  We talked about who was in the picture.  Some of us were little babies when our pictures were taken with the rest of our family.  It was fun to see all of the pictures.  Mrs. Whiteman said that she is going to save them for our classroom.  I wonder what she will do with them.

After we shared our pictures it was time to play a little bit.  Mrs. Meyers had the tumbling mat out and we liked it so much there was a line clear out of the door to take turns.  We sure do like that mat.  We also played with the table top easels.

Our story was called "Thank You, Thanksgiving".  In the story was a little girl.  She went to the corner store to get something for Thanksgiving for her mommy.  On the way to the store she said, "Thank you." to everything.  "Thank you, rabbits."  "Thank you, hill."  What else did she thank on her way to the store and back?

We made turkey feathers today.  Actually, we put dots on a coffee filter with special dot paint.  Then Mrs. Meyers squirted the filters with water and the colors all ran together.  They will make the feathers for our turkeys.  It was sure noisy in our room while we were making the dots. 

Ryan brought our snack today.  We had very yummy grapes and some cookies to share.  Thank you, Ryan.  On Thursday we had bananas and animal crackers from Gavin.  Thank you, Gavin.

Turn the Handle

When we got to school today we noticed that there were some Hot Wheels cars and tracks set up for us to use.  That was fun.  The track started at the table and went down to the floor so our cars did a big jump!  We enjoyed that.  We also played with the table top easels and a grocery store memory game.  Some of us tried to move pretty macaroni noodles from one container to another using those big tweezers.  It was fun to try and pick them up.  I wonder if we would be able to use chopsticks now?

We sang some new songs today.  They were called "I Had a Little Turkey", "Mr. Turkey Went for a Walk One Day", " The More We Get Together", and "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush".  We love learning new songs.

Our story was really funny and the pictures just cracked us up.  It was called "How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?".  Do they slurp?  Do they use their toes?  Do they stomp on their food?  Do they blow bubbles?  How do YOU think they eat?

While we were waiting to wash our hands, we sang the "Roly Poly Pumpkin" song only we changed the pumpkin into a turkey.  That was funny.  Then we went in to eat our snack.  We got to do something pretty neat for that.  We had some apples and they weren't even cut up.  Then there was a very strange looking tool on each table.  It was called an apple peeler.  The teachers stuck them to the tables and then they put an apple onto one end.  When you turned the handle, the apple was peeled and the middle was pushed out.  You could see through the middle of the apple when it was finished.  What?  We each got to turn the handle a few times.  We thought that was fun.  We had a helper on Tuesday.  Kadence's mommy came and played with us.  Thank you.

We have a new center that the Kindergarten Readiness class is getting set up.  It is called Grocery Store.  There are lots of boxes and containers of food and even some grocery carts and a cash register.  We had a lot of fun playing there.

For Art today we used vegetables.  That's right.  We thought that it would be weird, but it was pretty cool.  We had some carrots, potatoes and a big thing of celery.  Mrs. Meyers cut them all in half.  The we dipped them into paint and pressed them on our papers.  Whoa.

HyVee is a Grocery Store

We had a field trip today.  Most of us came to school with a grown up and the grown ups stayed!  Why did they stay at school?  Well, today was our trip to HyVee.  HyVee is a grocery store.  We have all been there with our parents, but we got to see things that we have never seen before.

The first thing that we got to do was go back in the back room where they store the groceries.  Our tour guide, Kristin, showed us back behind the swinging doors.  Then we went to see the lobsters in the water tank.  They are so cool because they are alive.  They moved all around while we were watching them.  We also got to see all of the meat in the meat case.  Did you know that there are great big fish in there?  They are dead, but you can buy them and cook them and eat them.

We also got to go to the bakery.  We even went behind the counter and saw where the big mixing machines and ovens were.  There was a cookie decorator there and guess what?  We got to see a cookie being decorated.  And it was for us!

After we saw the bakery we went over by the deli and we saw all of the cheeses that they sell.  We got a piece of cheese to eat.  Yum.  Then we got a fortune cookie too.  We love the grocery store.

On Thursday we saw most of the same things that the other class got to see, except we did some extra stuff.  We got to go into the dairy cooler.  Brrr.  It was cold in there.  We also got to go into the big semi truck!  What?  Yes.  That was so neat.  Did you know that those trucks bring food to the HyVee stores?  Sometimes they use a special motorized cart called a pallet mover to move all of the food around.  Guess what?  We got to beep the horn of the pallet mover!  Now that was fun.

When we got back to school it was time to hang up our coats and get ready for snack.  Jordan brought applesauce for us.  Thank you, Jordan.  On Thursday we brought our cookies back to school and enjoyed cookies and string cheese for our snack.  Thank you, Evelyn.  We also got to eat the great big, decorated cookie that HyVee made for us.  A lot of the parents stayed and watched us play.  Then it was time to go home.  We will see you next week.

Pick a Bean

We're back!  Today at school some of us had our eyes tested.  We went to a special room with Mrs. Lehenbauer and a man took pictures of just our eyes.  We had to look into a camera with a special light.  Then there was a big flash and ta dah!  We had pictures of our eyes.  After we were finished, we got a lion sticker.  That is because the Lion's Club did this for us.  Thank you.

When we got to school, we did something pretty fun.  There were tubs of beans and great big things called tweezers.  We had to try and pick up the beans with the tweezers and put them into cups.  It was hard at first, but we did it.  We also played with bean bags to the music, played Feed the Little Old Lady Card game and did the table top easels.

Today we learned some new songs.  They were called "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush", "The More We Get Together", "Mr. Turkey Went for a Walk" and "I Had a Little Turkey".  Whew.  We like learning new songs.

Our story was a really good one.  It was called "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie".  This little old lady could eat a lot of Thanksgiving dinner, that's for sure.  She kept eating and eating.  Just when you thought she couldn't eat any more, she ate some more until finally she ...

After a yummy snack of grapes and crackers from Reese, it was play time.  On Tuesday we had bananas from Landon.  Thank you, Landon.  Yeah.  For our art projects today we did plastic wrap paintings.  It isn't too hard.  First you squirt some paint onto the paper.  Then you lay the plastic wrap on top of the paint and squish it all around the paper.  Oh wow!

New Things in the Play Yard

We had a very nice change in our day.  At the very end, we went into the hall and got our coats.  Then we went into the Circle Time room and we put on our coats and gloves.  But we weren't going home.  Nope.  We were going out to the play yard to play.  There are new easels, chalkboards, mulch, trucks, stepping stones, a sand table and picnic tables.  We had so much fun.  Then when we got back inside, we were ready to go home.

At the start of our day we played with the tabletop easels, the picture and language cards and balloons.  Balloons are way fun to try and keep up in the air.  Whew.  We sure did get tired.  After all of that moving around, we took a break and had our story.  It was called "Feast for 10".  This story was all about a family going to the grocery store.  It was a counting book, too.  First we counted things in the story up to 10 and then we counted more things again.

We learned a new song today.  It was called "I Had a Little Turtle".  We have fun learning new songs.  Our favorite one now is all about a little peanut on a railroad track.  Along comes a choo choo train and ...

After we washed our hands, we went into the play room and had a great snack of apples, animal crackers and juice.  Thank you, Luca.  At the art table we took red, orange and yellow chalk and got it wet.  Then we drew things on a piece of paper.  It will be a bit before that dries, so we will bring it home another day.