Hurry, Hurry, Comes the Firetruck

It was our turn to have the firemen come for a visit today.  They brought their greenish yellow truck.  We got to look inside and see where everybody sits and we saw all of their equipment.  Because it was so nice outside, we got to stay out the whole time that they were talking to us.  They told us all about being safe and not to be afraid of the firemen because they are there to help us.  We also learned about doing a fire drill.  We should have them at school and at home.  Do you have a place for your family to meet?  At the very end of their visit they showed us the lights on their truck and let us hear the sirens.  Whoa.  The firemen left us a little present.  We each got a badge sticker and a fireman's hat.  It was a little windy outside, so we had to hold onto our hats.

Our story was about a little dog named Biscuit.  He is small and yellow.  When it is time for bed, Biscuit is just like us; he doesn't want to go!  He wants to play and he wants a snack and he wants a drink.  He wants a lot of things before he goes to bed!

Our snack was grapes and some special graham cracker sandwiches.  Thank you, Ryan.  On Tuesday, we had animal crackers and bananas from Parker.  Thank you, Parker.  Right after we were finished with snack we went to the easel for our art project.  We have never used the easel before.  On each side was a big piece of clear, sticky paper called ConTac paper.  We had lots and lots of strips of another special paper called tissue paper.  Those pieces were all different colors.  We took the strips and tore small pieces off and stuck them on the ConTac paper.  That tissue stayed wherever we put it.  It makes a very pretty and colorful wall hanging.  Our teachers will hang them up for everyone to see.

Dirty, Dirt, Dirt, Dirt

See you at the Art Show on Thursday!

We love dirt.  That's because we're kids.  Today we played in some dirt.  Mrs. Whiteman had a great big tub of it and we used cups and spoons to dig.  Guess what?  There were things hidden in that dirt.

Mrs. Myers had the nerf balls out and we used our feet and hands to play with them.  We threw them and we kicked them and just had a good time.  We also had our special crayons and we used those to color flower pictures.

Today our story was called, "Dirt Boy".  The boy in the story was named Fister Farnello and he loved to get dirty.  He had a mean and clean mother who made him take a bath.  There was only one problem.  Fister ran off after his dirty, dusty clothes were on the floor.  He climbed a soft hill and fell asleep.  He discovered the next morning that he had been sleeping in the belly button of a giant named Dirt Man.  Dirt Man hadn't had a bath in a thousand years.  The two instantly became friends.  I wonder what they did? 

Our snack was from Jordyn.  She brought us Rice Krispie Treats and muffins.  Yummy.  Thank you, Jordyn.  Thursday's snack was from Carter.  We had cheese sticks and seedless watermelon.  Wowee!  Thank you, Carter.

At the Art Table we painted.  But we didn't use paintbrushes.  Nope.  We used Q-tips.  Mrs. Myers squirted some paint onto our paper plates and we use the Q-tips to paint on our paper.  Who knew that Q-tips could do that?  On Thursday, after we were all finished with our art, we got to go outside and play.  Thank goodness it is finally getting warmer.  We were very excited.

What Is That Big Noise?

Parents:  Don't forget about the Art Show on Thursday, April 25 from 5:30-6:30 p.m.  We hope to see you there.

Today was a very special day here at preschool.  It was so special that we had to do our day differently.  Instead of playing for the first part, we did our Circle Time things.  We did our attendance, we sang our songs and we had our story. 

Our story was called, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".  It was just the same as the song.  Have you heard that song?  We heard it today.  Some of us have been to a baseball game. 

The reason that we had a mixed up day was ... the firemen came!  We had three firemen visit preschool and they brought their truck!  It wasn't a red truck, it was a yellowish green truck.  We got to see where they keep every thing and where they sit.  Then the firemen came in and talked to us.  They told us not to be afraid of them when they have on all of their special equipment. 

They also told us that we need to have a plan at school and at home.  We had just practiced our fire drill here at school, but the firemen said that we should also practice one at home and have a meeting place for the family.

At the very end of their visit, the firemen climbed into the truck and showed us how all of the lights worked.  Then they let the siren go and gave us a funny honk.  We laughed at that.

Snack was from Hudson.  He brought us cheese sticks and crackers.  Thank you, Hudson.  Right after we finished eating we played with the Magic Nuudles.  We dipped them into water and then they stuck to a paper plate.  We could even build towers of Nuudles with them.

Outside Is Good

Parents:  Don't forget that the Art Show is this Thursday, April, 25th from 5:30-6:30 p.m.  We hope to see you there!

We got to go outside!  Hip hip hooray!

The very first thing that we did when we got to preschool today was go outside to the outdoor classroom.  We have been waiting for so long to get out there.  Finally, it was warm enough.  We had so much fun in the bright sunshine.  We gathered pine tree branches from the ground and made them into a big circle.  We played in the sand and it was perfect; just wet enough to make sand castles.  We made a house and we ran around.  Yippee.

Our story today was called, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".  It is the same story as the song.  Have you ever sung that song before?  We did today.  Some of us have been to baseball games before. 

Today for snack we had cheese crackers and strawberries.  Yum.  We are happy that it is strawberry time.  Thank you, Reese.  Right after that we got to play in all of the centers.  Mrs. Whiteman let us get out the marbles so that we could play with the connecting tubes.  We like sending the marbles down those tubes.

Our art was super cool.  We each got a paper plate, a little container of water and some Magic Nuudles.  Boy, are they magic.  You can dip them into the water and they will stick to the paper plates.  You can stack them that way.  If you leave them in the water for too long, then they kind of get really goopy and then poof! they disappear.  Wait until you see what we made.

Yes Day!

We did some activities today that related to our cool story.  We practiced using our scissors and cut up strips of colored paper.  We also got to do Play Doh.  We had all of the tools and the rolling pins and everything.  Play Doh is cool.

We also played the great game, Jump the River.  Only this time because of the story we did everything backwards!  We walked backwards, we ran backwards and we jumped backwards.

Our story was called, "Yes Day".  Yes Day is a little boy's favorite day ever because on that day, his parents tell him yes to everything.
"Can I have pizza for breakfast?"  "Yes."
"Can I pick the groceries?"  "Yes."
"Can we have a food fight?"  "Yes."
"Can I stay up late?"  "Yes."
We loved this story.

Our snack today was cheese sticks and graham crackers.  They were from Mason, but he was out sick.  Thank you for still bringing in our snack, Mason.  On Thursday we had graham cracker bites!  Thank you, Gavin.

Since it was kind of a backwards day because of our story, we did something very silly for art.  Mrs. Myers had a big piece of paper taped to the underneath side of the Art Table.  We went down on the floor and drew on the paper while we were on our backs.  How great is that?

We had sunshine.  Yeah.  It was too wet to go outside, but it sure was great to see the sun.  Yahoo.

Our activities today were really fun.  We did a lot of things that related to our story, "Mrs. Wishy-Washy's Farm".  Mrs. Wishy-Washy always kept things neat, including the animals.  She would give the cow and the pig and the duck a bath and clean them up.  They did not like the baths so they ran away.  Then they discovered that maybe home wasn't such a bad place after all.

Well, since Mrs. Wishy-Washy liked to clean, that's what we did.  We cleaned the stepping stones with water and cloths.  We wiped them up so that they looked very shiny.  Then Mrs. Meyers had a big tablecloth and lots of newspaper trash.  We crumpled the newspaper into balls and put it on the tablecloth.  Then we all grabbed the tablecloth and made it go up and down until all of the newspaper balls fell to the floor.  Then we did it all over again.  We also had great big pieces of cardboard that we painted with water.  It is always easier to clean up at school than at home.  I wonder why?

Today we did not have a snack leader.  It was Birthday Day.  The teachers gave us cut up pieces of pineapple, watermelon and strawberries.  We each got a cool stick.  We put all of our fruit on the stick and we called it a fruit kabob.  Yum.  We liked it a lot.  Of course, it was also the day the we sang the "Happy Birthday Song" to our friends with birthdays this month.  After they blew out the candles, we each got a brownie.  Double yum!

There were new toys in the Block Center!  They are all wooden toys.  There is an airplane, a bus, a subway train and a very neat stable with some horses.  In fact, there are even more new toys, but we can't remember them all.

We Apologize for the Interruption

It has been a very interesting week here at Preschool.  We had school cancelled on one day and then we were not able to blog until today.  We will try and catch up and let you know all of the cool things that we have been doing this past week.

On Monday we gathered in the Circle Time Room like we normally do.  Mrs. Whiteman had some Q-Tips and some baskets with holes in them which she turned upside down.  We practiced poking the Q-Tips through the holes.  It was fun to do that.  Later we blew streamers of crepe paper around.  Mrs. Whiteman had a fan and we were able to see that the fan created wind and blew our streamers all over.  There was also a really fun obstacle course and some great coloring pages that we could color in with our special crayons.

Our story today was called "Like a Windy Day".  A little girl wants to play like a windy day.  She wants to make the leaves come off of the trees and snatch peoples hats off of their heads.  She wants to play like a windy day and do all of the things that the wind would do.  We thought maybe that would be a fun way to play.

Logan brought our snack today and it was one of our favorites:  crackers and cheese.  Thank you, Logan.  Right after we were finished with our snack, we went to play and to do our art.  Mrs. Myers had some coffee filters for us.  We got to color on them with Magic Markers and then we did something kind of strange.  We sprayed water onto the colored coffee filters.  Do you know what happened?  The colors melted!  Yup.  They did.  They melted into each other all over the coffee filters.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we played with the race cars and tracks in the Circle Time Room.  We just love those.  We also did a different obstacle course!  Those are really fun and we love to run and jump when we go through the course.

Our story today was called "Alphabet Under Construction".  It was all about a little mouse who was building the alphabet.  Each letter had something being done to it that started with the letter.  For example, he was folding the F.  The pictures in this book were really neat.

Our snack today was cheese sticks and graham crackers from Maddie.  Yum.  We sure do like those cheese sticks.  On Thursday we had two snack helpers since we didn't have school on Tuesday.  Evelyn brought carrots and Luca brought bunny snack mix and oranges.  Thank you, everyone for the wonderful snacks.

We made a big mural with roller painters, paint and cars.  What?  We had different shapes on the rollers and then we ran the little cars' wheels into the paint and rolled the cars around and around the paper.  Whee.  Our teachers will put our murals up on the wall.

Hello, Sergeant Nelson

We had a very special visitor at preschool today.  His name was Sergeant Jeff Nelson and he is a police officer with the Bettendorf Police Department.  He came and talked to us today.  He told us all about staying safe.  We learned about 9-1-1 and that police officers are here to help us and we should not be afraid of them.  This is good information for us to know.  He gave us a coloring book, a pencil, a Junior Officer Badge and an Officer Trading Card that had his picture on it.  This was so cool we could hardly stand it.

Our story today was called, "Little Pink Pup".  This book had real photographs in it and it was all about a tiny little pig name Pink.  Pink was too tiny to stay with his mommy so his owners brought him into the house.  There was a brand new dachshund mom name Tink in the house.  She took care of Pink like he was her very own.  He was pink and her other puppies were brown, but Tink didn't care.  Pink grew healthy and strong with his new family!

Our snack today was from Lucy S.  We had bananas and granola bars.  Thank you, Lucy.  Our snack for Thursday was Goldfish and raisins.  Thank you, Olivia.  We had a special Art project that used paint and a hair dryer.  What?  That's right.  We squirted different colors of paint on some finger paint paper and then we held a hair dryer on the paint.  Do you know what happened?  The paint blew all over the paper and it made skinny lines of color.  It looked really neat.

Spring Break is Over

We're back!  Our Spring Break is all over and we are at school again.  We are happy to see all of our Preschool friends.  Now if the weather would just warm up we would be even happier!

Today we played a game with Mrs. Myers.  There were plastic colored squares all in a circle.  We walked around the circle and when Mrs. Myers called out stop, we stood on a square.  Then someone was chosen to turn theirs over and on it was an action prompt like "Do the crab walk" or "Run".  Then we all did that and started over again.

Mrs. Whiteman had some looms at a table.  She showed us how to weave fabric strips in and out of the loom.  It was a little hard at first, but then we got it.  We made the fabric look very cool.

Our story today was called "Wake Up, It's Spring!"  After a long, cold winter the sun came out and began to warm the earth saying, "Wake up, it's Spring!"  Then the warmed earth woke up the earthworm by saying, "Wake up, it's Spring!".  The earthworm woke up a seed by saying, "Wake up, it's Spring!"  There were more and more things that needed to be awake.  Who woke up at the very end of our story?

Our snack today was from Robert and he brought granola bars.  Thank you, Robert.  On Tuesday our snack was fish crackers from Maxwell.  Thank you, Max.  We also want to say thank you to Carter's mommy.  She stayed and played with us today.

We got to use the paint daubers for Art.  We could pick our own color of paper and whichever daubers we wanted to use.  Then we just stamped those paint daubers all over the place on the paper.  Our teachers are going to hang our pictures up in the hallway.  Yay!