Reese is Hosting Preschool Group Today

The time is upon us again to host seven kids for 3 hours of Preschool Group this morning!

Reese is very excited.

Since both Earth Day and Arbor Day are this week, our theme is Letter "T" for Trees!
Here's what we have planned for the day:

Sensory:
Earthworms!
Really. We bought a container of night crawlers and let them loose in a bucket of dirt for the kids to dig for them using shovels and sifters.
We are also going to plant cherry Trees and early girl Tomatoes. Remember when I made all that jam? I saved the strawberry containers. I think they will make perfect mini greenhouses for the kids to plant in. They have slots in the bottom for drainage and a cover to keep the plants warm and moist. Plus, each is the perfect size for the kids to take home with them!
I think the kids will have fun digging in the dirt.

Music:
Popcorn Popping!

Art:
Popcorn Trees! Spring is kicking into high gear and all the Dogwoods are blooming beautifully.
Each child will "stamp" their hand with brown paint to make a tree trunk, and I've popped some popcorn for the kids to glue down for flowers on their popcorn trees.

Literacy:
Making the Letter T with Tape and Twigs!
I have rolls of colored tape for the kids to cut into strips an make letter T with on colored paper.
We'll also collect some twigs on a Nature Walk to make letter T with on the ground.

Circle Time:
Calendar, Weather, Share Day (bring letter T items)

Math and Science:
Telling Time-it is still pretty early for most of these guys to learn how to tell time on a clock, since time telling requires the ability to count by 5's.
Instead, will work on identifying what time it is when it is on the hour (ie: 12 o' clock, 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock) and talk about what we do at certain times of day.
What time is lunch?
What time does Dad get home from work?
What time is bedtime?
This will help them grasp a better concept of time and help them understand why we can't go play at so and so's at 6am, why we shouldn't put on pajamas at 2pm, and why we need to start cleaning up toys at 5pm and get ready for dinner and baths.

Snack/Cooking: Teeny Weenies:
1 tube pillsbury biscuits
20 lil' smokies
ketchup, mustard, or BBQ sauce for dip

These are so much better than hot dogs and crescent rolls!
Cut each biscuit in half and wrap it around a lil' smoky.
Bake on a cookie sheet at 350 for about 10 minutes.
Let cool before serving to the kids!

Tropical Fruit Smoothies:

1 c OJ (simply orange...only the best)
1 c milk
1/2 c vanilla yogurt
1 mango
1/2 c fresh pineapple
1 banana (if fresh, add more ice, if frozen add less ice)
1-1 1/2 cups ice
I've been making this almost daily for the past week as an alternative to the strawberry smoothie I'd previously been addicted to.

It is just so Yummy!

"B-A-N-A-N-A-S!"

Took the kids on a field trip with Reese's little home preschool group this week. Destination?
The grocery store!
Yes. She wore swimming goggles for security. Produce can be terrifying.
We checked out the Deli.
Got a banana from the produce guy.
Reese decided that the giant walk-in refrigerators looked a little too much like the dungeons in her Barbie movies and refused to go inside to check it out. She clung nervously to my side for this half the tour, but was miraculously healed when we toured the bakery and she discovered that the workers were handing out cookies at the end.
After the grocery store, we took a picnic lunch and headed to the park.
Success! Our next field trip is to fly kites at the lake. Hopefully, Barbie will stay in the sky a little longer this time without all the trees and power lines to get tangled up in.

Reese Is Hosting Preschool Group This Week II

Things were pretty wild at this point. We had just started cooking time and not everyone had a job yet, and therefore spoons became swords and everyone got a little antsy. My voice keeps getting higher and higher...did I always sound like that when I taught a big group? It's about 1 minute long.

The second video is shorter and practically silent. Had I known how calm everyone would be once I gave them snack, I might have rushed the cooking process. Man give a kid some chocolate and they are putty in your hands! I think they all had a great time.


Preschool Group was a huge success! The kids had fun, I had a blast, and after 3 semi-chaotic hours, everyone went home happy, stuffed with grapes, chocolate pudding, cool whip, oreos, green jell-o, and gummy worms.

Look how cute the Groundhog Den snack turned out? I love the one tree that is "sideways because trees fall down in the forest and then animals live under them."




The playdough mats were a hit, and one little girl brought homemade green "Gak" to share for her show and tell.
We'll host again in 6 weeks, and the Valentine Party will be here on wednesday. I love Preschool Group holiday parties. They are just as much a party for the moms as it is for the kids because we always have a potluck lunch and all the moms are really fun to get together with.

Reese is hosting Preschool Group this week

I joined a preschool/playgroup coop with 5 other moms from church. The kids meet for 3 hrs once a week and we take turns hosting preschool group at our house. It's been great for Reese since she missed the birthday cutoff for the school year and can only go to preschool 2 mornings a week, instead of 3, like many of her friends. This gives her (and me) something to look forward to once a week, and she really has a great time!
I love that it's free.
I love having a chance to play "teacher".
And I also love that I only have 7 preschoolers running around the house once every 6 weeks, and time alone with Quincy the other 5 weeks.

Preschool Group is at our house on Groundhog Day...so that's our theme. The color is Green and the letter is G.

Here's what I've come up with for tomorrow:
Circle Time: What is Groundhog Day? What is a Groundhog? Letter G. Listing G words.
Share Items: Items that begin with letter G. Wear Green.

Art: Groundhog puppets
The kids can color a groundhog and tape him to a stick. Then they can paint a TP tube green to make a "hole" for the groundhog to poke his head out of. Cute, right?

Cooking: Groundhogs live in the ground. We're going to make our own little Groundhog Dens using instant chocolate pudding, Oreo crumbs, and cool whip. The Gummy Worms were too cute to pass up for an added treat...plus "gummy" starts with G.
We also made these cute little green jell-o jiggler Trees for the kids to eat, or just decorate their Groundhog Den snack with.

Sensory: Green Playdough!
We made two batches of playdough tonight. I'm sure every mom of a preschooler has made this at some point, but I thought I'd share my favorite playdough recipe (there are dozens out there). If kept in a sealed ziplock bag or tupperware, this stuff will keep for months without drying out. You can also add 1pkg unsweetened Kool Aid to make it scented...but that usually entices my children to eat the dough. We opt to avoid that temptation, since Quincy has usually met her quota of "questionable non-toxic items children probably shouldn't eat" by about 10 am every day.
Here's the recipe:
2 cups flour
2 cups warm water
1 cup salt
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon cream of tartar (optional for improved elasticity)
food coloring (add to water to avoid having to "knead" the color in later)

Mix ingredients in a large sauce pan and stir continually over low heat until it thickens into playdough. (about 7 minutes) It starts out in liquid state and slowly sets up into a mashed potato consistency, and finally become playdough.

I made (using my awesome new laminater that I'm in love with) playdough activity mats for each of the kids. On one side there is a letter G for them to form using rolled playdough "snakes" and grapes they can make little balls to cover the picture and make green grapes of their own. On the backside there is a gumball machine (same idea as the grapes) and a list "G" sight-words to practice with Mom and Dad.

Science: making Shadows with flashlights and Weather.
Literature: Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley
I love this book so much that my sister even gave me the velcro hand puppets that go with it from Lakeshore. I love how excited kids get when they read this book, and watching their little faces as they "bloooow" away the parts of the monster's face and they disappear as you turn each page until he's gone forever. I highly recommend it to EVERY parent out there. Great book.

SEVEN 3-5 year olds. SEVEN. Plus Quincy. I've had a classroom of 12 before, but that was a classroom. This is my house. It is going to be so fun...put probably chaotic and I am so taking a nap tomorrow.