We are Writing!!

I know, Christmas vacation has started for everyone but, I just wanted to share one more cute and rather amazing activity that my class did during our last week of school.  These are a few of our name trees.

I still am amazed at how much fun everyone had making these trees.  First we counted out the number of letters in our names.  Then we picked out the correct number of triangles.  Next, we wrote each letter of our name on the triangles.  Finally, we assembled the trees and of course, added our star on top!  What a fabulous keepsake.  I sure hope our parents enjoy these as much as I do!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

& a very Happy New Year

from

Mrs. Karen's Class

Christmas Crafts for Children

This is going to be a short little post to show you all some of the amazing things my class has been making for Christmas.  I'm WAY behind on my Christmas shopping AND decorating AND crafting so I'll just post a few pictures for you to enjoy.

All you need is varied sizes of paper 

(I used some leftover scrapbooking paper)

and let the children have fun making their very own tree.

Hand prints and fingerprints make the most wonderful pictures.

This one is especially nice for Christmas!

I cut out a candy cane and the children painted on the stripes. 

This was a great way to work on our fine motor skills!!

I taped off a Christmas tree design with some painters tape and

let the children go wild with red and green paint.

To make it a little more fun, we added rubbing alcohol to the paint.

The alcohol smelled funny and made the paint dried really fast.

(NOTE:  Use a hair dryer and heat up the tape, it releases easier!)

More hand prints!

The stripes on the candy were cut by the children.

Isn't it wonderful?!?!?

Last, but certainly not least is this precious hand print angel.

The body was made from leftover wallpaper!

Thanks for stopping by to visit with us.  I'll be posting more during our Christmas break so I hope you stop back again.

Let's Talk Turkey (and Pilgrims & Indians)!

I know it is only a few days until Thanksgiving but, I just had to share some of the cutest turkeys EVER!  I mean come on . . . LOOK AT THESE!

I'm starting with my new favorite.  I have jumped on the burlap bandwagon (heck, my husband thinks I am leading the parade!) so when our newest teacher at the ELC, Emily Haynes, told me about this, I knew I had to try it!  Her mom, Laura Sutter, made them at her school in Georgia.  Thanks Emily and Laura!!!!

These were a perfect way to work on our fine motor skills and everyone loved picking out their own "Indian" beads.  I love this!!!  Do you think my 25 year old son will let me make one with his hand print?????

Next up is our "fun feather" turkey.

I have the prettiest leaves in my yard and I pressed them overnight using newspaper and books.  I would have let the children pick up leaves at the school but the weather has not cooperated.  They were very happy just picking out their leaves from the pile.

This next little fellow just can't be beat!  We used a toilet paper roll for his body and 1/2 of one for his head. We traced the child's hand onto a sheet of cardstock (to make it sturdier).  The children used dot paint to decorate their hands.  It made for perfect turkey feathers.  The feet are my favorite part.  We used cereal boxes and let the children paint them.  Everyone got to mix some yellow and orange paint to make "their perfect feet color".  FUN!

Last but not least we made our Pilgrim and Indian.

This year we changed it up a little.  We let the children use actual beads to make the necklace.  After the beads were on the necklace I cheated a little and use some hot glue to attached them to our Indian.  Oh, and I know the Pilgrims did not have button, but we added them just for fun!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!

Teaching with Tears

Sometimes teaching preschool isn't easy.  No, I don't mean the job itself, I mean "doing" the job.  Preschool teacher have to be happy.  You just cannot have an unhappy preschool teacher.  Now, this is usually not a problem for me. How can I be unhappy???  I mean I love my job.  I adore my class, my co-workers and no one could have a more pleasant director.  But late last week things changed.  Not with school, but with life.  Early Thursday morning I got the call to say my sweet friend Lottie had lost her battle with cancer.   School started in only a couple of hours, I had to put on my "happy face".  I knew it wouldn't be easy but I washed my face, reapplied my make-up and headed out the door.  I wasn't sure I could do it, but the first person I saw was my precious friend Christi (I usually call her my "partner-in-crime").  No two people could possibly be more different.  Yet, I'm pretty sure she is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.  Sure enough I heard, "you didn't have to come in, I've got this",  I knew she meant it, but I knew I had to be there.  As soon as children started coming in the door, I knew I was in the right place.  Christi never left my side.  We joined our classes and had an amazing day.  We gobbled like turkeys and laughed more than usual.  Soon it was time for our day to end.  The sadness and the tears came back but they quickly left again on Friday morning when once again school began.  Today I said good-bye to my friend Lottie.  There is a big hole in my heart and I will miss her more than I can say.  But at least I have a sweet group of 3 & 4 years olds and great friends, who will help me make it through.

My sweet friend Lottie

Veteran's Day 2012

Veteran's Day is never to be forgotten and it is never too early to talk about it with children.  Friday we spent the entire day playing patriotic music and talking about what people who serve or have served our country.  My favorite comment of the day was from sweet "M".  At the end of the day he said, "WOW Mrs. Karen, we would be in a lot of trouble if we didn't have veterans!".  No more words are needed, I'll just show you how our class honored veterans on Friday.

Everyone had their photo taken holding our flag and the little poem reads -

History

I read of patriots long ago
Who fought to buy the peace I know.
They gave all that they had
So that I could be glad,
Living in a country free
Enjoy peace and prosperity.

Men and women once like me,
Wanted their country to be free.
They fought hard, they fought long,
Some gave their lives to conquer wrong.
That we might live in liberty,
Enjoying peace and prosperity.

Thank you to our veterans who have 

served our country!

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!

Ice cream makes me happy!  I don't think it is just me - everyone likes ice cream.  This week's letter was the letter "I" so we made a yummy looking ice cream cone.  I guess you can tell by the picture that the ice cream is our hand print, BUT look closer . . . the children actually cut out the cones themselves and added detailing with a ruler!!!

These were a great way to practice our fine motor skills and we had so much fun using scissors & rulers!  The "sprinkles" were tiny shapes and everyone loved picking out their favorites to go on top their cones.  Now, please excuse me because I just had to share this next picture . . .

Look at his "sprinkles" on top, he said they were "Christmas tree" sprinkles!  FUN!!!

Positively Perfect P Week

I know, I know, I say this all the time - this was my favorite week!  We managed to have so much fun packed into 5 short day!  Let's just jump right into our week -

On Monday we decided to introduced the letter "P" by making our Pink and Purple Penguin with Polka-dots.  (OH MY, that is a mouthful for sure.)  These were such a fun way to work on our imagination and fine motor skills.  

These two were macaroni penguins and I hope you can see that the penguin on the left has a fish in her mouth.  I love that!  What an imagination!  Of course we spent the entire day waddling like penguins and giggling because we could not fly.

Tuesday was spend making our very own personalized pumpkins.  Everyone had their choice of colors.  They were very interesting to say the least.  I cut out a variety of different size pumpkins.  Some were tall and thin, some were short and fat, and others were tall and fat.  Everyone got a choice (NOTE: I always cut out way too many of each type.  That way everyone never has to settle for what is left-over.).  Next, deciding on a color.  For some it was very difficult "thinking outside the box".  "Pumpkins are orange" I was told several different times.  Finally, my message was received - it is YOUR pumpkin, what color do YOU want it to be.  AHHHHHH success!

I also had different size stems.  Everyone choose their stems and painted them their own special color.  The pumpkin leaves were our hand prints in (of course) any color they wanted.  Now, here comes the sad part . . .  I forgot to take a picture of our final product.  But trust me - you really need to do this.  It was a lot of fun and everyone had a great time taking their imagination to a new level.

No really fun "P" week would be complete without a Pajama Party!  And what a Pajama Party we had!!!  Everyone came to school dressed in their P.J.'s and brought their pillows.  We ate popcorn and watch a movie (Mary Poppins, of course!).

What fun!

Now, FINALLY the most PERFECT day arrived!!! POLICEMAN DAY!  My sweet, sweet son, Officer Jay arrived to talk to us about being and police officer.  In his honor we made a police car out of shapes.

Forgive me please while I act like a proud mom and share some of the pictures from our Police Day 2012.

Yes, I'm really that proud!

Officer Jay!

Looking at Officer Jay's handcuffs.

Explaining his uniform.

Yes, he has a real gun!

GLOVES!

His bullet proof vest.

Two really great guys!

Yes, "P" week was PERFECT!

Friends!

"Friendship isn't a big thing – it’s a million little things."  I think this is one of the most true sayings I have ever read.  I am very thankful to work with a wonderful group of ladies each and everyday.  During the last few weeks I have had to rely on my friends a little more than usual.  So, to all my friends. . . THANKS!  I LOVE YOU ALL!

This is my sweet friend, Tiffany!  For our "T" week she came to school dressed in a teal shirt, tiara, tennis shoes, a tutu and brought her baton so she could twirl for us!!!!  The look on the children's faces were absolutely priceless.  She is really good too AND she let everyone take a turn twirling!  TONS OF FUN!

 

Next, my dear friend Lauren dropped by our classroom to play her tuba and her trombone!  This girl can play tons of instruments!  She even let us all have a turn pushing the buttons while she blew the notes!   Seriously, how cool is this!  Of course, the rest of day was spent with us making "ummmppaa" sounds!

My final thank-you goes to my true "partner-in-crime", my sweet friend Mrs. Christie!  You see, I did the dumbest thing two weeks ago.  I stepped out of my kitchen and twisted my ankle.  After a trip to emergency room and a set of crutches later, I decided that being at school was not a good idea.  For the first time in my teaching career, I missed an entire week of school!  It was okay, I knew my class was in good hands.  So, thanks Christie - you are the best!

"L" Week is Lovely!

When I think of all the different activities we do, I am pretty sure that "L" week is one of my favorites!  I know I say that a lot, but we always seem to have so much fun.  Let me show you some of the highlights of our week . . .

Our friend, Larry the Leaping Lizard, was a huge hit!  Besides being fun to put together, we used our fingerprints to make the little purple dots on his body.  The best part was getting to leap like a lizard all day long.

Another fun surprise for the week was our lollipops!  There are just too many "L's" in lollipops, so we had to make very large lollipops.  We started with a large round circle and added some paint.  Next, we cover the paint with some clear plastic wrap.  Now, here comes the fun part . . . squishing it!

As you can tell, there is no wrong way to squish paint!  

Some like to use one finger, 

while others enjoy squishing and slapping the paper.

After they dried we wrapped them in clear plastic wrap and added a stick!!!  

Everyone also went home with a special, sweet treat too - lollipops, of course!

 Cutting with scissors is always fun!  This week we practiced our scissor skills by making a lion!  First, we cut his mane.

Then we added some cute little eyes, a couple of ears, a nose and a mouth.

Isn't he adorable???  Of course, there was a lot of rooooaaarrring all day long.

Lots and lots of tissue paper helped make our next "L" project extra fun!  Everyone picked out their favorite color tissue paper and laid them on some very sticky clear contact paper.

Then we covered it with more contact paper.  

Now, let the fun begin!  Everyone was asked to bring a flashlight to school so we turned off the lights and ahhhhhhh . . . .

Our room came alive!  Everything looked so different with only our flashlights on.  No one wanted the lights to come back on so we laid on our backs and used our flashlights to make different shapes and letters on the ceiling.  We even tried reading a book -

Remember the tissue paper we stuck onto the contact paper???  Well, we borrowed my friend, Mrs. Tiffany's light box and ahhhhhhhh (again!)! -

 Now, see why I love "L" week?  Thanks for visiting with us, I hope you come back again soon!