Nn - Nursery Rhymes

We had a busy week! Quite a few of us that were hit with high fevers and that was NO FUN. Once things got back to normal, we had a lot of catching up to do.  In fact, we were so busy that I forgot to take pictures - and come to find out, the few times I did remember to take pictures I didn't have the memory card in the camera and I can't figure out if this camera has internal memory space or not. :(  BOO.  So after I re-cap our week, I'll post some pictures of us playing outside that I found on my phone.

This week was the letter Nn and Nursery Rhymes!  Nursery Rhymes are a lot of fun because they can be so silly sometimes. When learning Hey Diddle, Diddle we talked about how some things are real and some things are not real such as a cow jumping over the moon. We then played a game where I'd ask a question and if it was real, the kids would stand up! If it was not real, they sat down. Even the kids themselves were coming up with some pretty off the wall questions and then of course backing it up with something that WAS real. Lots of fun!

Our "walking spiders" that we made for Little Miss Muffet might have been our favorite craft. The spiders were as big as paper plates and each had a string attached to the center so they could be "walked" around the room. Of course, the one day we made them it was pretty darn windy and the legs were not completely dry and I think a few spiders lost a leg or two.

This was our last week learning about the color BLUE and CIRCLES. To incorporate them both into one craft, we taped down a piece of bubble wrap, covered it with blue paint and pressed a circle cut-out onto it. It was so cool seeing all of the little circles that were transferred onto our cut-out!

Finally, we also worked this week on sharing as well as being patient and waiting our turn which can be so hard to do! The kids each colored their own "Share Bear". Then they were divided into two groups. One child from each group would walk towards the center, trade Share Bear's and then walk back to the end of their line. After doing this two times each, we all learned that it makes everyone happy to share and when we're done playing with the toy that was shared with us, we need to make sure to return it.

We also sat in a circle and took turns turning over rocks trying to find the one with the bug sticker underneath it. Whoever found the sticker was then my helper to help me hide another bug sticker under a different rock while the rest of the group patiently waited with their eyes closed. This was tough for some!

Oh and our friend this week was Noah the newt! The kids LOVE our weekly friends and their silly songs!!

Noah the newt, newt, newt
Had a cool house, house, house
Inside a boot, boot, boot
He shared with a mouse, mouse, mouse

Caleb the Cat was the first friend we met:
Caleb the cat, cat, cat
Was a good cook, cook, cook
He cooked a rat, rat, rat
Inside a book, book, book

Larry the Lion was our second friend we met:
Larry the lion, lion, lion
Just couldn't sleep, sleep, sleep
He kept on tryin', tryin', tryin'
To count the sheep, sheep, sheep

We sing these songs over and over again!!

L l - Luau

Our theme this week for the letter "Ll" was Luau! We learned all about the kind of food that is eaten at a Hawaiian Luau such as pineapple, coconuts and pigs roasted over a big open fire. Some of the classes even made their own Lei's and grass skirts to take home (of course we had to practice our hula dancing too!). At the end of the week we had our own Luau where we pretended to roast our pigs that we made and we tasted some fresh pineapple. It was yummy!!

We also took some time to get to know each other a little better by catching the rolling ball and answering questions such as, "What is your favorite color?" or "Do you have any pets at home?"

Our crafts this week included making Lei's:

 



And of course Hula Skirts which turned out SO CUTE:

We are still learning about the color blue and this week we glued pieces of blue jeans onto paper jeans. We looove using glue!

We are also still focusing on circles - my younger group (who loves stickers!) put circle stickers onto a circle cut-out!

The older group stamped blue circles onto a paper plate (which of course is also a circle)!

We started our Science units this week! We learned about magnets and what they are attracted to. We sat around in a big circle, each with our own magnet. As I pulled items out of my paper sack, we each took turns testing them to see if they would "stick" to our magnets. We divided the items between two baskets: a basket for items that were metal and a basket for items which were not metal. I think the kids could have done this the entire class time! I also made some magnet fishing poles for the rice table and put some fish cut-outs with paperclip noses in so the kids could go "fishing". This was the most popular spot during free play!

During our first week of Math, we were busy! We used push-pins to trace numbers - the kids loved holding their papers up to the window to see the sun shining through all the little holes. They did a great job following the safety rules when using the sharp push-pins.

We also used playdoh to make patterns using different items such as screws, toy cars, cardboard tube, etc.

Finally, we used different sizes of squares and rectangles to create our very own piece of artwork!

Next week we will learn about the letter Nn - Nursery Rhymes! Stay tuned to see all of our hard work!

Our first week of preschool!

We did it!!  We made it through our first week of preschool! Things were just a touch hectic here and there as we all adjusted to a new routine, but overall the week couldn't have gone any better. I am so proud of all the kids!

A big part of our first week was learning our classroom rules, but we also jumped right into learning! Our theme for the week was "Caterpillars" and guess what? We have real...live....caterpillars in our classroom! They are going to be so surprised when they come to school this week to see that they've already started forming cocoons. They are so much fun to watch!

Our mornings always start with Circle Time. This is where we talk about the days of the week, the date, and the weather. As well as the color, shape, and letter that we're focusing on. This week was the letter "C" - they all love coming up to my little white board to practice writing their letter!

 



We listened to a story about a little girl who was also going to her first day of preschool and was feeling a little bit scared. Everyone had a turn putting up a picture on my flannel board of all the fun things her teacher said she would be doing such as painting, dancing, playing with blocks, etc.

Here we are taking a tour of our new classroom! It is very important that we learn all about the different areas of our room as well as what the rules are. I had my box of "stuff" and as I pulled an item out, we talked about the rules associated with it (i.e. - scissors: we only cut paper, no running, etc.).

Then it's Lesson Time! Being the first week of school, there were a few things to take care of such as decorating their take-home folders. These are their special folders that will be used throughout the entire year so they were free to decorate them any way they wanted. Stickers were probably the most popular!

This is a great picture of the afternoon 3-day class working hard in their journals. This is a special learning time just for the older classes where they can practice tracing their names, the letter of the week (capital and lowercase), as well as the shape we're studying. They all concentrate so hard during this time!

Arts & Crafts time!  Who doesn't love making artwork?!  Pull out the paint bottles and everybody wants to join in!

 

 

Of course after all of our talk about caterpillars, cocoons, and butterflies - we had to make our own beautiful paintings!

 

 

Free Play time is the best!  This is when the kiddo's are free to play with the toys in the toy room, the rice table, or some of the fun things placed out on the school table.

 The weather has been so awesome that we've made sure to save time for playing outside! My goats are LOVING all of the attention and yummy grass that's being fed to them. :)

 After all that playing, sometimes it's nice to just relax in the reading corner with a blanket and a good book.

 What a great and busy first week we had!

Open House time!!

It's finally here! On Saturday, May 12th, I will be holding my very first Open House and needless to say I am EXCITED!! I've had quite a few people contact me about the preschool and it looks like I only have a few more seats left to fill in each of the four classes which is so awesome. Hopefully I have a great turn-out on Saturday!

Since my last blog, we have received boxes upon boxes of fun learning tools and manipulatives!

Here's a picture of the stack of boxes that were delivered:

After going through all the boxes and taking everything out, we had quite a mess of awesome-ness!!

Here are just a few of the things we received:

• Washable Dress-up Animal Masks
• Sensory Balls
• Alphabet Stamps and Ink Pads
• Playdoh Stamps and Rollers
• TONS of different craft items - feathers, crinkle strips, pom poms, etc.
• Construction Blocks
• Scoop-a-bug Sorting Kit
• Wipe-off Letter and Number Tracers
• 24 Theme Boxes (my favorite) - five senses, farms, sea life, growing things, just to name a few!
• and much, much more!!

Every single item goes along with my "learn through play" or hands-on curriculum. I will be spending my summer making sure to incorporate all of these great items into our curriculum. (Have I mentioned yet how much fun I have planning our daily preschool curriculum? LOVE IT!)

It's official!

It finally happened!  My DCFS rep, Julie, stopped by Wednesday morning to do the home-visit portion of my licensing. She made the visit completely pain-free which I appreciated and I did my best to make sure that I had everything available to her that I knew she would need to see. As soon as she got back into the preschool room the first words out of her mouth were, "Wow! This is impressive!" I can't tell you what a relief it was to hear her say that!!  She asked some general questions about how I planned to run my day, what curriculum I was using, etc. and before she left she said, "If I had preschool-aged kids of my own, I'd definitely send them here." Awesome!!  That's quite the compliment from a DCFS rep! So even though she was here for almost two hours, it went by very quickly and she told me to consider myself licensed and to start advertising. Yes m'am!!  I was SO excited and relieved, needless to say.

Since Wednesday, I've sent my handbook off to be photocopied and have begun putting together my enrollment folders. As tedious as it is, I am LOVING it! My next step is to pick a couple of dates to hold an open house. I know the families that are already on my waiting list are anxious and excited to see the school room and I'm hoping there are others that are simply curious and would like to see what I've been working so hard on. I can't wait to show off everything I've done so far! I'm also looking into a new program that the post office has that will help my advertising to reach all mailboxes for a fairly affordable price. Letting them mail my fliers out would be so much easier than walking them around and hanging them on mailboxes!

So to those of you already on my waiting list, you will all be the first to receive an enrollment folder and will have first choice on which days/times you would prefer. If you know of other families looking for preschool this fall, please pass my information on - whether it's my Facebook page or my website (www.countrycharmpreschool.com). I have enough students to almost fill two classes already; so I have a feeling once I start advertising that it won't take long at all to fill the rest of the spots. Keep your eyes and ears open for my upcoming open house(s)! I'll be able to answer questions, give a tour and meet everyone. If anyone has questions they need answered before then, don't hesitate to contact me!

There's no better feeling than following your dream and watching it come true right before your eyes.I am so proud of what I've accomplished so far and can only hope to have the fantastic reputation that the other preschools in the area have. Thank you to everyone for ALL of your amazing support!

Welcome!

Welcome to my first post on the Country Charm Preschool, LLC blog!

My intentions with this blog are to keep parents of current and future students up-to-date with what we've been busy learning.  I have the kids for only a few short hours a day and I have lots of fun things planned during that time. The best part? The kids won't even know they're learning!!  Everything I have planned is interactive and hands-on. In fact, we may be having so much fun doing something in particular that we'll spend some extra time on it and not get to some of the other things I have planned - and that's OK!!

So stay tuned because good things are headed this way!