LaLaLaLaLa It is the Letter "L"

Since Valentine's Day was on Tuesday this year we had 3 glorious day to spend talking about the lovely letter "L"!  Our Wednesday art activity took a lot of patience and fine motor skills, but it turned out to be amazing.  First we needed to cut some strips of brown paper for the lion's mane.

I drew a large circle on piece of yellow paper and each child added the eyes and a nose.  Next, the children glued on the lion's mane.

The end results were unique and so very cute!

We also spend the ENTIRE day roaring like a lion and talking about this fascinating creature.  I found some very interesting facts at Zoo Ville USA and Lions  These are two terrific websites!

Thursday is ALWAYS jammed packed with "extra" activities (we have Chapel and Spanish classes each Thursday) so our art activity usually has to be quick AND fun (it always has to be fun!).  This week we talked about lizards!  I found some very interesting lizards facts over at Lizards .  Be careful if you click the link, you could be there for HOURS!  Our lizards were not exactly anatomically correct, but they were a huge hit with the entire class!

We just some very small lids to make the dots on the lizards.  It was fun!

Since the beginning of the week was filled with talk of Valentine's and parties, I knew I had to do something VERY special for our "Fabulous Fun Friday".  I sent a note home asking everyone to bring a flashlight to school on Friday.  Hmmmm . . . let the fun begin!  For our art project, we each made a small square with clear contact paper and tissue paper.

Of course it was great fun shining our flashlights through the tissue paper and looking at all the different colors.

We headed to the kitchen for our weekly cooking unit.  This week we were a little more simple than usual, we made an "L" cookie.

Cute, fun, simple and VERY yummy!

It was a good thing that it didn't take very long to make and eat our cookies because our science experiments lasted a LOT longer than I had expected!  Our first experiment started with everyone grabbing a partner and  filling a big clear plastic container with water.  (NOTE:  Our containers are actually the lids from old CD containers.)  Next, we added a little food coloring - 

BUT, we did NOT stir them!  Ahhhhhhh!  Now, let's turn off the lights and look at them with our flashlights!

Cool, huh?  We can't stop now!  Let's add another drop, or two, of a different color food coloring!

I loved hearing everyone talk about what they were seeing.  My favorite was, "It looks like a jelly fish!".  I  do believe it does!

Next we headed to our BIG Spanish/Music room for some light games.  First we played our "Color Game".  This time however, we turned the lights out and everyone had to find the color with their flashlights!  FUN!!!! After a while everyone was getting a little TOO wild so we had to take a quick break.  We all laid down on the floor and pointed our flightlights straight UP!

We all just laid there for a while making shapes and letters with the lights.  It was an amazing day!

Thanks for visiting with us!  I hope you come back soon!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Let me start my post by saying upfront that I am married to the most understanding man in the universe (and NO, I'm not saying this because he might read my blog).  I think every husband of a preschool teacher must be part saint.  My sweet Bill has not thrown away a bottle cap or empty toilet tissue/paper towel roll in years.  He has actually brought GIANT leaves home from family reunions just so I could take them to school.  During the summer months he patiently puts up with my "piles of treasures" that I am saving to take to school in September.  After all these years I do believe he looks at the world a little differently.  But, during the month of  February, I feel very sorry for him.  We aren't one of those "valentine" couples.  It is not that we don't love and adore each other, but come on, I don't need him to buy me candy (which I can't/shouldn't eat) or flowers (I'm not a cut flower girl, they just die) just because it is February 14th.  I feel sorry for him because even if we WERE "that" couple, how in the world could he compete with all we do at school?  Come on now, my class has been talking about Valentine's Day and making hearts and valentines for the last week like crazy.  I literally sat in the floor last week and cut out over 100 hearts in different shapes and colors!  And the gifts, OH MY!  Preschool teachers are truly the most loved people in the world. I am always showered with the sweetest gifts and notes on Valentine's Day.  I do believe that Valentine's Day is the best day to be a preschool teacher.  So, to my sweet Bill, I love you and I know you love me!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine Boxes

I can't believe that the day BEFORE Valentine's Day I had HALF of my class out!  Of course I don't want anyone to be sick but we had super fun stuff planned for today and so many people missed it :(
Hopefully, everyone can get their Valentine boxes finished before our party tomorrow but I could not wait to share a few of them today!

Our Snake!

Our University of Alabama "Elephant"

Our University of Florida "Gator"

Our Pink Princess Pig

Our Auburn University "Tiger"

 Aren't they wonderful!!!  I hope to add some more tomorrow (she types keeping her fingers crossed!).

You Know You're a Teacher When . . .

I'm loving this linky party!  I can relate with every single one of them!  Here is my contribution -

Head on over Kindergarten Lifestyle and link up!

Valentine's Week!

Oh the madness has begun!  Yes, it is the week before Valentine's Day and we are SO busy at school.  We have been working on the most amazing present for our parents.  Our present includes a big surprise - we are writing and more than just our names!  Yes, for months now we have been working on our writing skills.  We have all different kinds of "pre"-writing activities that the children do everyday.  Most are so much fun they don't even realize they are learning to write.  I have page after page of laminated sheets that we write on each day (thanks to some wonderful dry-erase crayons!!!).  We also use our chalk box to write and draw on every day.

This HUGE box was given to me by one of my sweet parents.

 With a little contact paper our class now has a chalk board box.  

We love writing on it especially with the colored chalk.

OH NO!  I'm off topic again!  Let's get back to our Valentine presents.  Here they are . . . .

Let me tell you how we did this.  First we started by taking our pictures.  Look closely at our background.  My friend, Mrs. Christi found an old table cloth with hearts on it!  Isn't it perfect?!?!?!? AND thanks to my local Walgreens Store and all their fun editing choices, we made our present extra special by adding a HEART shaped photo.  The fun continued when we made our photo mat.  We used marbles and rolled the colors on!

My class loves to do marble rolling!  

It is a great fine motor skill activity 

and they love "reminding" me that we are using my Daddy's old marbles!

Now, let's talk about the "FABULOUS" part!  Look at our writing . . . 

YES, WE WROTE BY OURSELVES!!!!!!  Can you tell I'm proud?  I can hardly wait until Tuesday!!!

We also worked on some artwork that my class called the "Eric Carle Heart".  I guess I've read enough Eric Carle books to make a serious impression on them :0)  We started by painting our paper.  Now, we can't just "paint paper" that would be boring so we PAINTED the paper using all kinds of different objects.  We used a toothbrush - 

We used a make-up brush - 

We also used a plain 'ole paintbrush too!  Then we smeared all the paint together with a scrapper that I found.

The end results were awesome!

But we weren't finished yet!  We cut and tore the paper into strips and pieces (more fine motor skills!).

and glued them on a giant heart.

I added a little glitter glue around the edges and WOW!

These are proudly displayed on my bulletin board wall now and will be kept for our end of the year art show.

Since it was "H" week we wanted to incorporate something with our hands.  I love what we came up with.  This is our first very simple hand project -

 Here is a close-up of our poem.

I loved when the children realized they had made a heart with their hands!

Our second hand project was a little more fun and a lot more yummy!  We made our hand print with some red glitter paint.  

Next, we stamped on some hearts and added the yummy part - Sweet Tart Hearts!

Of course we had to eat some too!  The end results were pretty, fun and tasty!  We called it our "Tree of Love".

I think this year's class loves our weekly science experiments as much as I do.  This week we used the left over "Sweet Tart Hearts" as our experiment.  First, we dissolved them in a small amount of warm water.

The purple and green made a strange combination!

Then we added a small amount of baking soda.  

The acid in the candy and the baking soda made bubbles!

I love doing science experiments with everyday items.  You can find this experiment and others at Candy Experiments .  It is one of our favorite sites!

Thanks for checking on us this week.  I hope you come back and visit us again.  Next week we will have our annual Valentine's Party and talk about the letter "L".  After all, "February is the month of LOVE"!

Groundhog's Day 2012

Isn't he just the cutest thing?  We made these on Thursday for Groundhog's Day!  Let me show you how EASY they were to make.

First, the children glued on our poem and cut our grass -

Next, we glued our little groundhog to our craft stick -

I cut a small slit right below the poem.  Now our groundhog is in his burrow -

Now he has popped up and is looking for his shadow -

We also read the most wonderful book!  It was called Groundhog Gets A Say by Pamela Curtis Swallow and Illustrated by Denise Brunkus.

We loved it!

Did Mr. Groundhog see his shadow where YOU live?  Birmingham Bill saw his so it looks like we will have 6 more weeks of winter! :0(

Q is for Quilt

The letter "Q" is always a difficult letter for me to teach.  Let's be honest, there aren't a lot of fun "Q" words.  I know, I know, "queen", "quick", "quack", but come on . . . how many times can you you be "quick" while you are "quacking"?  This year besides the girls being "quacking queens" and the boys being "quick quarterbacks" we made a "quilt!  Everyone made their own "square" and we joined them together!  This turned out to be a keeper!  I am sure it will be a hit at our art show!  "Quick" and Fun, you have to love it!