"C", Triangle and Yellow Week

"B" week was going to be hard to follow. But, I think we did a great job trying! This week it is all about the letter "C", the color yellow, triangles and the number 3! Oh, and don't forget our topic of the week - transportation. WOW, that is a lot to squeeze into one week.


Let's start out with Mrs. Karen's surprise! I found my son's old catching gear and brought it to school. It was still a little stinky, but no one seemed to care!


One of our fun projects this week was a cool looking car. Check it out and please notice that we used all of the shapes and colors that we studied, red circles, blue squares and yellow triangles!
Our special snack this week was a wonderful car cookie! I guess we could have just bought some cookie dough and cut a car shape but that's just not us. We made our from graham crackers, round vanilla wafers and yellow icing. They were a big hit!


Our two science experiments this week were a lot of fun. The first was ISO/THIXOTROPY. huh? Corn starch and water! :)

Here are my instructions -

Procedure: Place about a cup of cornstarch (aka corn flour) in a large bowl and add about a ¼ cup of water to the cornstarch. Keep adding water until the mixture appears somewhat thicker than pancake batter. With your hands, take a handful and knead the mixture, like you would bread dough. As the mixture is agitated or squeezed, it will become firm as long as continuous kneading or pressure is exerted. As soon as the pressure stops, the ‘batter’ will revert to its original form and ‘pour’ through your fingers. Even though the cornstarch and water is a liquid, you can form the stuff into a ball if you can squeeze and knead it quickly enough. The sensation of this in the hands is unique and must be experienced to be believed. It feels great!

What’s going on? This experiment demonstrates iso- and thixo-tropy properties of certain emulsions (fluid mixtures).
Isotropy is the property of a fluid to become firm when agitated. This is what you’re experiencing with the cornstarch and water. You can also see this while walking on wet sand at a beach. The sand firms up below your feet as you first touch the sand and then becomes more fluid, as your feet sink into the sand, just a moment later. If you run over the sand, the sand will feel very firm. If you walk slowly, your feet will sink below the surface with every step.
Thixotropy is the opposite of isotropy in that the fluid mixture becomes more fluid (less firm) as it is agitated. An example of this is where you strike the end of a ketchup bottle to get ketchup to come out of the bottle. The striking force temporarily causes the ketchup become ‘runny’ and it flows more easily from the bottle (and on to your new clothes - white ones). Another example is the infamous “quicksand”. If you thrash around in the quicksand, you will sink “quicker” because all that wiggling causes the sand to liquefy.

Mess Factor - Cornstarch is an edible, non-staining, harmless substance (probably one of the cheapest food stuffs you can buy), but this experiment tends to get cornstarch on clothing and the floor. The other thing about this experiment is that once you’ve put your hands into the cornstarch & water mixture (aka ‘glop’), you won’t want to take your hands out. It is quite a unique experience!

Things to Remember - Isotropic = cornstarch & water or beach sand Thixotropic = ketchup or “quicksand” [think of ‘thick ketchup’ for Thixo]

Think this is too hard for a group of three year olds? Think again, they loved it and tried to say every word!

The next experiment was just as simple but it had a WOW factor that even shocked me! I call it the Colorful Mixtures Science Experiment

What You Need:
Milk
Food coloring
Liquid dish soap
Dish- wide rim
What To Do:
1) Pour milk into a wide rimmed dish, and let sit until it warms to room temperature (THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT STEP, the milk must be room temperature!)
2) Place drops of different food coloring in the milk
3) Place two drops of liquid dish soap into the mixture

Now stand back and watch!
Sorry there are no pictures, it is hard to coordinate photos with mess! :)
It was a great week! Next week we will be reviewing our shapes, colors and numbers while we study the letter "D" and talk about autumn! I can't wait!

"B", Blue and Squares Week

Last weekend was spent seeing my sweet son and Bill's family reunion, so there was blog time! So let's catch up!

"B" week is my all time favorite week. I know I say that all the time, but I mean it this time ;) There are so many wonderful ways to explore the letter "B". Let's start with some of our amazing art . . . .

Here we are spooning on big blobs of blue paint! Next we covered it is clear plastic wrap and rolled over it with a BOWING PIN! Yes, I was lucky enough to get my fat little hands on a real bowling pin! The children could not believe how heavy it was. They loved it!

Early in the week we made Square Sally and Square Sam. Everyone loved seeing and all the squares!

Everyone knows you can't have "B" week with a bumble bee! Here is ours

Yes, I know the bee's stinger goes on the back of the bee, but my students wanted his stinger on his nose. It is their art work after all!

One of my favorites this week was our "Butter Bean Blue Square". I drew out a large square on a piece of blue construction paper and then the children used blue glue to glue down butter beans. (the blue glue is made by simply putting blue paint in the bottom of a cup and adding glue. Then let the children stir. I love watching their faces when the glue changes color!

This was a very simple and inexpensive craft. But it allowed the children to use their fine-motor skills, which I think is very important.

Next was snack time! We ate a bowling alley of course! We used a graham cracker for the base and carefully added the marshmellow "pins".
AND the bowling ball was chocolate malted milk ball! YUMMY FUN!

Next thing you know we headed outside for a little baseball painting! Being the Mom of a former baseball player, I just HAD to find a way to use some baseballs for "B" week, so we headed outside! Here are our baseballs soaking up some lovely blue paint!

We used three different colors of blue paint! My "partner-in-crime", Mrs. Christi, patiently put disposable gloves on each child and then we rolled the baseball onto a large piece of blue butcher paper.

(Sorry for the bad picture, we were rolling on our carpool area and it is covered.) A little note for anyone wanting to do this - try to NOT do this on a windy day! We had to tape the paper down. The paper turned out so pretty that we have decided to use it for a special background during our end of the year art show!
We had one more surprise left - bottle bowling! I sent an e-mail out to my fellow teachers the weekend before asking everyone to bring in their empty 2-liter bottles. WOW, we got a bunch! So we went bowling!

One of things that truly surprised me during this activity was how everyone cheered and congratulated each other. It didn't matter if someone knocked down 1 bottle or 9 bottles, everyone yelled and high-fived each other. GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP!

"B" week was wonderful! I hated to see it end. But after "B" comes "C" hmmmmmm wonder what we will do. . . . . . .

"A" Week

We FINALLY started working on our alphabets this week at school. Two weeks are really a long time for us to have to ssstttrrrreeeettttcccchhhh. But, it was better than then usual 3 or 4 weeks. This week we started studying the letter "A", circles, red and the number 1. To some it seems like a lot to put into 7 short days. We manage by incorporating the color and shape. For some reason the words "ants" and "apple" got everybodies attention, so I ran with it. First we glued ants onto a large "A". I didn't think that would be very much fun, but the children had great fun with the giant ants. We also ate some ants! Actually the were raisins (wheew!) that the students stuck on top of their iced oatmeal cookies. Oh, and the oatmeal cookies were CIRCLES of course.

We also made "Annie the Apple" and "Adam the Apple". I really think this class loves glue! It makes them so happy.

But the most fun day this week was friday. We headed to the kitchen and made apple scented playdough. It looked like plain, old white dough but it smell delicious! Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt (use iodized, not kosher for smoother dough)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon cream of tartar
1 cup water
Red food coloring (I use the Wilton gel colors)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
Stir ingredients together well in pot. Over medium heat cook the dough, stirring constantly until it forms a ball. Turn dough onto a board (or the countertop) and knead until very smooth. Cool. Store in a covered plastic container.

Very simple to make and the children loved it. One parent actually e-mailed me to make sure it WAS playdough. She said it smelled too good and she wanted to bake it! What fun we had!

Of course playdough would not be fun without the snake!

Next week "B" week, my favorite!

Week TWO - Starting Preschool

This week theme was "Starting Preschool". We don't have any of our special classes (Spanish, Music, Computers, etc.) until next week so it can get kinda boring. All the 3 year old teachers got together and decided that this year we would get together at least once a week for a story time or special music. So far, it has been a good experience. The children seem to love the music and I try very hard to make our story one that is exciting and funny.

Our school has two 3 year old classes that come 5 days a week. I'm one of them and this year my sweet friend, Mrs. Christi, has joined me. Mrs. Christi and I decided that each week we would have "Munchie Mondays". It seemed like the perfect day to cook. Of course we will always have our "Fabulous Fun Friday's" where anything can happen. Since we haven't actually been at school for an entire week yet, we have joined our cooking and science experiments together on friday. This week, we made some very yummy icing cookies. Everyone got to pick their favorite color to make for their icing of course.

As you can see, Caleb likes pink!

We also had our first science experiment this week. We took some old crayons that someone had donated to me and we melted them down to make large ones. The classes had so much fun peeling the paper off the crayons and deciding which colors to melt together.

Some got a little frustrated but I loved when others would rush to their side to help. Good lesson today in sharing! Messy but good!

Next week's lesson is "All About Me". Check back for more fun ideas!

2010 School Year!

Our new year has officially begun! YEAH! Since we are a private school, our school year does not begin until Sepember 1st. It has been a great start, so far (she says crossing her fingers AND knocking on wood). I was really worried after "Meet the Teacher Day". I had 2 cries, no make that SCREAMERS and 2 that were latched on to their Moms. All I could think of was "I knew it!" I have had several years of wonderful students and to be honest, I have been wondering when I would get "that class". Turns out it won't be this year!!!! My screamers came in ready to have fun and the other 2 did just as good, as soon as I pried them off their Mom's legs. Seriously though, we are off to a good year.

Our first day was spent seeing all the fun new toys that were in my room. My sweet hubby decided to clean out our downstairs den during the last of August while I was setting up my classroom. He finally decided to let go of some "junk". But, you know how pre-school teachers are, someone else's junk is our treasure. And a treasure it is! Look at the great guitar we had stuck in a corner. Now it is a wonderful source of music in my class.

Other fun finds over the summer included new dress up clothes. It was fun seeing the students dressing up in my family's old cast-offs, especially the old Mardi-Gras beads and caps.

I also write a little note to my parents about making donations to my classroom. I never ask for anything that they need to buy, instead it is things that they would normally recycle. Our class always likes to use real food boxes in our kitchen. This year's parents have been great about sending them.

I just hope the rest of the year goes as smoothly as week 1!

Fun Summer Recycling Ideas

Well, it is only the middle of June and I am missing my class very much. I am busily finding new ideas and looking for things that will make my class more exciting next year. One of the things that dawned on me the other day was our Sunday newspaper. I use the comic section to put on our tables, just to help a little with out painting/gluing messes. It is ssssoooo colorful and happy looking. I always keep the comics and any toy store ads (i.e., ToysRUs or Walmart) during the year but why not start during the summer. This way when school starts in a few months I'll have a big supply. My class loves to "read the newspaper" and look at the toy ads. One of my little boys even took his newspaper to read it, "just like his Dad"!!! ;) I have a couple of older neighbor so I've asked them to save their papers for me too. People love to help out, they just need to be asked.

Another thing I like to keep are the little plastic pudding and fruit cups. My Mom is always buying these since she's by herself now. These small container are perfect for her. It cuts down on her opening big cans and wasting food. She will rinse them out and keep them for me. Since our school buys glue in those HUGE contains, I use the plastic cups to put glue in. We use either paint brushes or Q-tips to spread our glue. Okay, we've been know to use our fingers too. But either way, we are fine-tuning our fine motor skills.

I also collect plastic bottle tops. They come in all different colors now and my class loves to separate and count them. I just dump them in a big box and let my class divide them up anyway they like. Some days it is by color, some days it is by size. You just never know!

Don't forget to save your paper towel rolls. I like them better than toilet paper rolls because well, they are bigger and hey, bigger is better! Paper towel rolls are good not only to make things with but, they are fun to roll over paint. My classes have always loved watching the paint squish around!

Don't forget about your old clothes. My class loves my "dress-up box". It is nothing but old clothes, scarves, hats and belts. I've found a few pairs of girlie pumps too for next year. Thrift stores are great, but if you ask your neighbors and friends, I'll bet you will get a bunch of goodies.

My last "got to save" item is fun boxes. WHAT?? You know really unique shaped boxes. I like to use real food boxes and containers in our kitchen center and during the school year I am always bringing them from home. BUT, sometimes I find really unique shaped boxes. I'll just have to store them until school starts.

My Gift

I've been teaching pre-school for many, many years. I'll be starting my 15th year soon, I think :) ! I have received a lot of gifts from students/parents in those years. Some of course, were sweet and very sentimental, like all the lovely pictures with sweet notes and the donations made to charities in my name. Some were absolutely hysterical, like the time one of my students brought me a refrigerator magnet - straight off her Mom's fridge! Some seemed a little strange to "ordinary people", like the patriotic dishtowel. But I understood it because this particular student LOVED talking about our country. But this year I received by far the sweetest most treasured gift. It was a scrapbook filled with pictures and quotes from my students! Oh my, there are no words in my vocabulary (and I talk a lot!) that are special enough to describe this gift. The creator of this book is a friend, co-worker and parent of one of my students. I often thought that she "got me" and my crazy, unorthodox teaching style. Now I know she truly understands me better than anyone I have ever know. She took the time to send home a questionnaire to each of my students and ask the parents to fill them out with the child's own words. The results are priceless. One of my favorites (and there are many, many) is "what does Mrs. Karen do when she isn't at school?" One of the answers, "she goes to New York." Hmmm, I've never actually been to New York but we did talk about it at school. It always seems that one student "likes my head, it always changes". I finally realized that she was referring to my hair, it does always change!

This gift is special to me in so many ways. Of course it helps me remember my students but it also reminds me of their joy and zest for learning. I will treasure this book for years to come. It is one of my most prized possessions. Oh, before I forget, I wanted to post pictures, but I can't. There are too many sweet faces and I don't want them posted on the internet. But trust me, the book is amazing!