Day 323: Gratitude at Preschool

Today at preschool we learned all about gratitude and Thanksgiving.   We reviewed the story of the Pilgrims and how the first Thanksgiving came to be.  They seemed to remember it perfectly!  

Then we went outside and gathered our own bountiful harvest---these carrots from our garden.  Once again the kids were thrilled!  

They were completely enraptured by this Thanksgiving sticker scenes from OTC and spent a good 20-25 minutes laboring over them.  I actually ended up having to pry them away after a while. 

Then we made this harvest blessing mix where each child contributed their own part.

Then we made these little gratitude trees.  The kids were so cute and loved talking about what gratitude was and what they were grateful for.

Another fun day at preschool and now I'm done until February!

Day 321: Pilgrims at Preschool

Today at preschool we learned all about Pilgrims.  I was amazed at how much the kids just "ate" up all this information.  As I was telling them a little flannel board story about the Pilgrims they were completely enraptured and were later easily able to retell the story back to me. 

We went on a ride on the Mayflower and went searching for a land where we could worship God they way we wanted. 

We painted little turkeys starting with their own footprints

and later made little turkeys out of apples. 

Once again, it was days like today that remind me why I do this preschool thing year after year after year. 

Day 317: Rhythm and Drums

Today we had a rhythm and drum day at our house with Ellie's preschool group.  I collected a bunch of coffee cans from Freecycle and helped the kids to make their own drums.

  The kids had a fun time repeating rhythms and discovering all the different sounds their drums could make (marshmallows make cool sounds and taste good afterward). 

Then we made little Indian vests since they had just learned about Native Americans the day before.  They were cute as whooped and hollered and beat on their drums. 

It's fun days like today that remind me why I like doing home preschool so much!

Day 288--Maps and Geography at Preschool

It was my turn to teach preschool again and I must say today was a lot more smooth running than last time. The kids had a great time learning all about maps and people living around the world. They loved these little globe balls and by the end could even point out where the USA was on them.
They had fun playing with earth colored play dough and tried to make their own little globes. In reality though they mostly just squashed it, poked it, and rolled it around.


And me?
Well, my hands look like this now and I'll sleep like a log tonight!

Day 275--Healthy Bodies

This week at preschool the kids have been learning about taking care of their bodies. On Tuesday they made these body part vests and learned about some of the marvelous wonders of how our bodies work. On Thursday they learned healthy habits, like washing their hands, eating healthy, covering your cough, etc. (Thanks Alex for a fun week at preschool!)

Then on Friday (today) we met at Mina's house and had a healthy bodies party where everyone brought healthy foods to share, played active games, and modeled their body part vests for the camera.

Ellie had a fun time with the hula hoop and jump rope, which she actually couldn't do exactly right yet, but it didn't stop her from having fun trying.

I love our preschool group!!!

Day 258--Back to Preschool!!!

Today is a happy day at our house. After almost a week without any siblings to play with all day, Ellie finally started preschool today!!


She was as eager as can be about going and I won't lie. I was probably even more excited than she was.

I finally got some exercise, got this 365 blog all caught back up so Glen can stop calling me a slacker, and Ellie isn't begging me for food and friends all day! Woohoo!

Day 253--Relief at Last!

Finally! Two huge things checked off my list.

My cousins arrived from Utah last night (and all of the accompanying scrubbing and straightening was done) and today we had our preschool planning meeting (which meant that I finally finished making the curriculum and making the final decisions on grouping {which was much more stressful than usual this year} ).
We met together at Alex's house and scheduled out the whole year. It was a huge, huge burden off my shoulders to finally have the meeting (and have it go well) and be all set to start preschool next week! I was equally relieved to learn that the other group's meeting went well too. Finally I can sleep soundly again, which is a good thing now that I'm waking up at 5:30am.
It's going to be a fun year!