Off to the Races!

Hello friends!

I can truly say that I miss everyone more by the day. Every week, when I sit down to write this and think about the things that we would have done together, I would be lying if I said that I didn't feel a wave of sadness come over me. I treasure all of the days I was able to spend with these sweet kiddos and truly wish we could have had more time together. 

I do hope all of you are continuing to do well at home. For me, it has been interesting how some days I feel like we're doing great, thriving even. Then the next day, I feel like a disaster! However, each day I have been trying to literally mentally count my blessings. One of the blessings of each week is definitely getting sweet pictures from you all, so keep those coming! :) 

Anyway, it is crazy that we would actually be nearing the end of our year. We usually have some Derby/horse fun the week before Derby, so Anna and I will be doing fun horse activities! Here are some ideas that we would have done this week together. I have also included a challenge I thought might be fun for this week if your family is up for it!!

1. The Challenge: We always do a horse race as a class the week of Derby! I thought maybe it would be fun if any of you want to help your kiddo make a pool noodle horse (or a "stick horse" out of any materials). We just always use pool noodles because they are easy and cheap... There are tons of ideas on Pinterest. Maybe you could hold your own "race" at your house and share a picture of your horse! Then I could post all of the pictures (and maybe even let everyone vote for the favorite horse to have a WINNER)!!

2. Numbers: I am sending a file by email of this fun horse fence number ordering activity. I did this with Anna (1-10 version) this morning to build a fence for her horse out of Popsicle sticks, and she enjoyed it! If you want to extend beyond matching, you can always have them write the numbers themselves as well! If you don't want to print the template, you could also practice outlining by making their own (which is excellent fine motor practice and much harder than you might expect)!

3. Letter Work: This is just something fun that I had Anna do a couple of weeks ago... We took plastic letter squares, put them in ice cube trays with ice, and then took salt water and droppers to let her rescue the letters. I also am emailing you a letter U 4-square from Mrs. Laura. She does these with her class lots, and they are great for practicing any letter! This week, we would have practiced letter Uu!

4. Poetry/Sight Word Work: This is a poem I have used in the past. Obviously, you can fill in the "said" on each line. I like it because it is a great one to have your child help you read (as you track with your finger). Choral reading always brings a great sense of accomplishment for your child and helps them to begin to read with expression!

5. Writing: If you do make any sort of horse (or even just color in a horse), these questions would be great to have your child answer. You can always write out the word with a highlighter to let them trace or write it on another paper for them to copy if they are ready for that. I stole this from Mrs. Laura also and thought it was fun! It even throws in some color words!

If I had a horse its name would be _______________________

The color of my horse would be _________________________

My horse would live ____________________________________

My horse would love to eat ______________________________

6. Artwork: We always have fun making a clothespin horse... It usually turns out something like this (or at least this is the goal)! Anna and I are going to try one tomorrow! I also usually send home a piece of paper with a shirt outline on it (which can just be hand drawn) to let everyone design their own jockey silk. This is always fun! We look up pictures of jockey silk patterns and designs and talk about the job of a jockey in horse racing. This might be fun to try! If your kiddo draws one, make sure to send me a pic!

 

7. Sensory:  Our sensory bin in our classroom is usually full of dry oats this week! I am going to get a tub of oats for Anna, use small baskets (or something of the like) as fences, and let her play with her plastic horses in it! 

And now for a peek at what some of your friends did last week! 

My Anna loved digging for worms and playing with these bugs Mrs. Laura

let her borrow for a few days!

Apparently someone has a pet snake!! :)

Beauty and sunshine!

Playing, working, and hiking!!

Working on a butterfly!!

Look at those scooter skills! And artwork!

Buzzing Into Insect Week!

Wow, another week in the books!

I hope all of you survived the week of cold weather. It was tough here not being able to take the kids outside as much. We had been basically living outside the week before. I know my patience was tested some, and many prayers were prayed! I am learning now more than ever the importance and the power of continual prayer... We are invited to be in constant communication with the Creator of all things, the Prince of Peace, the All-Knowing, the Provider and Sustainer... I don't know about you, but I sometimes forget this. While I may not feel thankful for these trying times, I am thankful that we can all call upon our God and that He will sustain us. 

As far as this week at preschool, it would have been INSECT week, which is always buzzing with lots of fun! :) I hope you can enjoy a few of these ideas and come up with some of your own! My biggest project is simply getting Anna to even touch a bug! Haha. Hopefully I'm not the only one... We are making progress though! There really is so much to be learned and so many fascinating things about insects! If any of you have neat books that you want to share titles of, that would be awesome! I usually try to have tons of books available in the classroom (from the library) just to look at pictures, but online books will have to do this year!

Here are some things you might try... I am also going to see if I can get my mother-in-law to send us a short video later this week of her taking care of her beehives and give us some fun bee facts. We shall see what I come up with!

1. Poetry: This butterfly poem is one I always do! It is to the tune of "Up on the Housetop"... You could color the pictures and look for letters you know! We often do a life cycle of a butterfly craft to go with it! Here a simple one that can go on a paper plate!

2. Art Fun: I cut apart an egg carton last week into four pieces. I thought it would be perfect for making some insects with Anna this week to talk about the body segments of an insect (head, thorax, abdomen). Here are some examples if you want to give it a try! Anna tried a fire ant this morning. :) We plan to just watch a YouTube video about each insect she makes!

 

3. Math/Measuring: Last year, I printed these insect silhouettes and laid out different objects for the students to measure them with. You can use anything! These are also great for using comparative words (longest, shortest, wider, narrower) and putting in order from smallest to largest or largest to smallest. The other image is a dotting page that Mrs. Laura shared! You can use this to practice one-to-one counting together. 

Writing/Letter Sounds: The bug cards are fun to cut apart and scatter around inside or outside for a scavenger hunt! Depending on your child's readiness level, you could give them a clipboard and let them walk around to collect them and write down the first letter. You could also use the scavenger hunt to look for real bugs around the yard!

Here are some photos of some sweet friends last week!

Growing and Blooming

Happy Easter, everyone! Jesus is risen! As I said last week, I hope we all took a moment (or several) to remember and rejoice in the fact that Jesus has conquered death. Nothing can ever change that. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

Unfortunately, the weather doesn't look as great for this week, but I do hope you still get some time outside! This week would have been our plants/gardening week in our class. I always enjoy this week! Here are some ideas... Feel free to use if you'd like (or not)! :) I know with my own daughter, some days we do absolutely nothing considered "academic" and that's just fine! However, if you do want things to work on, here are some things we would have done in class! 

Names: One thing I always do is read the book The Tiny Seed. We make flowers built out of our names to go along with the book... A great chance to work on writing and ordering the letters of their name. Here is a read aloud link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls6wTeT2cKA

Science/Outdoor: I'm sure most of you already have, but take the time to plant some seeds or plants together!! Anna has loved playing in the dirt, shoveling, planting some seed starts, and more! 

Math: Incorporate one-to-one counting into whatever you're doing! Try separating seeds out, sorting seeds, making a pattern with seeds, counting a pile and then taking some away to find what's left, etc. Anything you find outdoors can be the perfect math manipulative!

Poetry/Color and Sight Words: Here is a poem you could print and color if you'd like! 

Letters: I emailed a neat roll and cover game we usually play... It has a variety of letter mats in the PDF, so just print what you want! They enjoy tracing the letters and covering up the pictures that start with that sound. Also, a parent in my kinder prep sent me a pic of her son writing letters in chalk and then erasing them with a water blaster... Super fun idea for a warmer day!!

Art: Read a book online or watch a video about parts of a plant! See if your child can remember any cool plant facts! We usually make some sort of parts of a plant craft. Here is an easy one using a muffin liner that includes cutting! You can help your child write the labels for each part. Side note, BookFlix has a ton of great interactive book options, including these: https://bookflix.digital.scholastic.com/pair/detail/bk0051pr/start?authCtx=U.794217314 

Bible: This week, I am going to try to focus with Anna on how we can grow in God by continuing to learn more about him. It's also a great week to talk about the Fruits of the Spirit! I usually have my class learn this awesome "Fruit of the Spirit": . We are planning to also do the story of the vine and the branches... discussing how a branch that is chopped off cannot grow or have fruit anymore, and if we don't love God, we cannot do the things that He wants us to do. 

Science: Last week, I did the colored water celery experiment with Anna. It's always a favorite. Just place the center stalks with leaves in different colors of water to watch the leaves change color... It is a great way for them to understand how water goes up the stem of a plant to its flowers/leaves. 

Extra: The flower template below is something that I usually include in portfolios. I know it's silly, but I am sad we are getting to add these fun things to portfolios. I have included it in case you would want to have your child color it and write down the info yourself as a keepsake that you can add to their portfolio when we finally get them out to you! :)

Hope these give you some ideas! Now for the much more exciting part.... Some sweet pictures of our friends from this week!

Wow! Such good work!

Someone has a new baby brother this week!!!

Look at that name building!!

Egg hunt!

Egg dyeing!

This guy went on a scavenger hunt!

So artistic!

Great work!