Pond Life!

Hello quarantined friends! I hope and pray that all of you are doing well. In some ways, it seems crazy that another week has passed, and in some ways, this past week seemed very long at our house. We kept busy at our house watching my sweet nephew whose daycare closed. 

This coming week would have been pond week in our class... A perfect time for you to find a pond with your sweet one and see what you can see! Go on a pond adventure. :)

Here are a few things that would have been in the plans! As I said before, feel no pressure to try to do any of these things... They are just here if you are looking for activities and want to work on some of the skills we would have in class. Please don't feel like anyone (including me) is doing all of these things! Trust me, some days last week, all I accomplished was keeping two rambunctious one-year-olds safe and fed while Anna played independently. I had to tell myself that this was okay too! This time at home is so valuable in so many more ways than what "educational" activities you do...

If you do want to jump into some fun pond life activities, here are a few we would have done. Also, I am putting portfolios together... and I have LOTS of pictures that need glued on to pages! If any of you would like to make that a family activity, that would be a HUGE help to me! I could come and deliver all the supplies (pre-cut pictures, glue sticks, and paper to put them on) to your mailbox. Just let me know! Thank you in advance!

1. Metamorphosis: Take a paper plate and either color printed pics or draw pictures of the life cycle of a frog! Here's a fun song... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrXww4oZrsI

2. Compare and contrast: Talk about how frogs and toads are alike and different. There a number of fun videos. Here is one I have used before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVAjUSLkDLo. 

3. Cutting: Work on cutting "pond waves" on paper... Simply draw some waves to be cut. This takes quite a bit of scissor control to cut accurately. 

4. Tracing: Work on pencil grip as your child traces these lines (or simply your own lines you draw)! Maybe even just work on grip and tracing with chalk outside! 

5. Poetry: Count down with the song "Five Green and Speckled Frogs"! We have always used little frog cutouts on Popsicle sticks just for fun! Here is the poem if you want to print it and look for known letters: 

6. Numbers: Print and cut this number puzzle (or make your own) to work on putting the numbers in order and identifying each one. 

7. Name: Use something found at a pond to build your child's name! I think Anna and I might try some dandelions!

Quarantine: Week 2 :)

Hello all! I sure am missing everyone already!

I will start off by saying if there are any specific ways I can be praying for you, please feel free to message me individually and let me know. I am trying to devote specific time for praying each day and would love to know how to pray for your families. 

Secondly, I think it is supposed to be warmer this week! I hope everyone can get outside, exercise, and explore as much as possible. That honestly is my biggest tip of the week. I will wait until next week (after the end of "spring break") to send any official activities that go along with the theme we would have done in class, but I will share a few things today!

1. There are so many ways to use outside time for learning... Get creative! Anna and I spent time hiking last week and counted acorns, counted how many jumps she did in puddles, etc. You could try making letters and numbers out of sticks or making patterns with plants!

2. Use letters and walk around outside looking for things that start with that letter and lay the letter on it.

3. Work together to make towers as tall as possible and count the items in the towers! Have fun destroying them as well, of course. 

4. Check out this AWESOME resource: Anna and I really like these because they involve a book, a video, and an activity. Make sure to do the activity together! https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome/grades-prek-k.html (There are also options for all other ages for older kiddos in your family!)

5. Continue to challenge yourself to read at least 3 books together each day... Or the same book a thousand times, as Anna has been asking for this week! :) 

6. Find something to build with shapes... We love these puzzles. You also can cut out your own shapes and work on shape ID and shape configuration that way!

7. My mom sent me this link... www.playtolearnpreschool.us/virtual-preschool. Maybe not as great as an in-person story hour but a great option right now! Each day is also followed by a list of activity ideas like the one pictured below: 

Announcement

I am sure that all of you have heard by now that Indiana schools will be closed through May 1. I will make sure to keep you updated on anything I hear that pertains to LAP. My heart is breaking a bit (actually a lot) tonight to think of not seeing all of your kiddos' sweet smiles for that long. 

As I said in my last post, please reach out with ANYTHING that any of you may need. I am continuing to pray for each of your families, and we want you to know that we are here as your LAP family. I am available to help with absolutely anything that comes up. Please don't hesitate to ask. 

Also as stated, I will make sure to post ideas weekly of things you can be doing with your kiddos. With it being more of an extended time off than hoped, I will try to make these a little more detailed after spring break. I will post pictures and links to some of the things I had planned to do in class. 

Hoping all of you are getting lots of sweet snuggles and laughs with your kids. Give them a hug for me! I miss them all greatly. 

St. Patrick's Day (and more)!

I am already missing these sweet friends. While the weeks/months ahead are uncertain for everyone, I pray that all of you are staying well, getting some time together, and feeling God's peace. I myself am praying for each of your families. If there is absolutely anything that Mrs. Katie or I can do to be there for your families, please know we are here. Also, with uncertainty of when school will return, I will be making a blog post each week that we are out with some activities and ideas that you can do at home if you are able and are looking for things to keep your sweet one learning! The first list of ideas will be at the end of this post. :) 

As far as last week, we enjoyed another fun week in our class! We combined a few themes this week, focusing on how God wants us to all show kindness to one another as friends and also doing some fun St. Patrick's Day activities. We truly have so many sweet friends in our class! 

We read a variety of books this week, both St. Patrick's Day and friendship-themed. We played several fun shamrock games to practice/write our numbers and letters. We also did a fun Skittle color sort. Everyone is really progressing with all of those skills! To go along with our St. Patrick's Day theme, we made Fruit Loop rainbows and even Skittle rainbows! 

We learned through several crafts this week as well! Everyone made a shamrock mosaic independently, as well as dotted their own pot of gold... "If I found a leprechaun's pot of gold, I would buy a ____." (Some of these were quite funny and were saved for portfolios!) We also had a lot of fun making our own leprechaun puppet to take home!

We continue to do a great job in the green room! This week, we added in a little fun with our letter rainbow! We stomped and jumped on each colored letter, focusing on the color pattern of the rainbow. One of the highlights of our week was going on our leprechaun scavenger hunt... He sure was a sneaky little guy! 

I sure hope to see these sweet smiles again soon. 

Make sure to enjoy some time together with this week officially being "spring break". However, here are some ideas for this week you might could do at home!

1. Go on a letter or number search in your yard. (I am doing this with my daughter using Easter eggs for early egg hunting!)

2. Make a rainbow using chalk together and see if your child can remember the order of the colors of the rainbow. Maybe add in jumping on the colors, writing the letter each color starts with, and writing each number as you count the colors.  

3. Challenge yourself to read 3 books together each day! In your book bag from our class, you will find a great list of activities that you can do while reading these books. 

4. Make a note/card to send to a friend you know and have your child write their name by himself (herself). If support is needed, we like to use a highlighter and them let them trace over that. 

5. Continue the "Follow Jesus" theme together, choosing another character in the New Testament who Jesus called. Here is a link to the fantastic website that the preschool follows: https://www.nhckidstime.com/copy-of-sprouts-parent-resources We didn't do the stories for the last two weeks of March. 

Such hard workers!

We matched the number of dots on the 

gold to the number on the paper.

Easy peasy!

Beautiful shamrocks 

We love working together!

We had fun rolling and covering numbers with gold coins!

We had fun with our shamrock puppets!

Look at these good writers!

Pattern blocks are good for working on

so many skills!

Hopping on our rainbow!

We LOVED our leprechaun hunt!

Skittle rainbow! Thanks to Mrs. Laura!

Freddie's next fun adventure!

We got to go outside and play!

Making our felt rainbow