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 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!

Day 174--Lazy Summer Days

Just chilling on the trampoline with their friends--popsicles in hand.  What could better epitomize a lazy summer day?  Too bad with 10 kids at my house at one time my day was anything but lazy.  :)  

Day 155--Preschool Party and We Haz Jazz

It was one of those days that I was hardly home the entire day.  We started off with some early morning panic getting ready for Cami's "We Haz Jazz" performance today, driving them to school, dropping Ellie off at Eve's house, and taking Spencer to the doctor for a check-up.  Then I went straight to Ellie's preschool end-of-year party where she had a fantastic time starting the summer off by playing with her friends.  Of course I didn't mind the opportunity that I got to "play" with my friends too.  :)   

After the party I had about an hour and a half at home before it was time to run to the school to help count the money from the PTA book fair, from which I went straight to pick up Ellie & Emma from the Tippets', and then to the bank to deposit the book fair money, then back to the school for Cami's performance.  

Cami made a stunning performance as Thelonius and then finally we came back home just in time to eat a bowl of cereal for dinner and put the kids to bed!    Now it's my turn for bed! 

Day 113--Take Your Child to Work

I thought it sounded like so much fun to take my kids to work with me that I kept all but one home from school to hang out with me, yet somehow I was still unchallenged. I needed something a little more.

Five extra kids and a big messy project. Sounds perfect.

Day 111--Mr. Tree

Preschool was at our house today. While learning about leaves and trees we took a walk around the neighborhood to "meet" some trees up close and personal. They were seriously waving and talking to our neighbor's friendly maple tree they dubbed, "Mr. Tree".

Day 76--Feeling Green

Preschool was at our house today. I felt like I cheated since I had the whole lesson handed to me on a silver platter, when the mom who was scheduled unexpectedly had to cancel. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed all the little tricks the leprechaun played on us today. Green toilet water, cupcakes, starbursts, little hats, shamrocks to decorate...he was a sneaky little green guy.