Today.

The windows are open and a fresh breeze is blowing fiercely through the house.

The kids are caked in mud, leaves, lunch, and grossness.

There are cookies (yeah, the break and bake kind. we're fancy.) on the counter.

I had lunch with a friend while our children ran wild.
We just sat at the table, stuffed ourselves with chips and hummus, and narrated what we saw the children doing through the window.
We are quite funny, and our kids are awesome.
Then, we went outside and played some more until it started raining.

I talked to my Mom, today.

I scored some books at the Borders liquidation sale.

I babysat sweet little Claire, this morning. She makes me so happy.

I drove Reese to school an hour late.

Another friend called about an hour ago and we had some good laughs about ordinary things.

I got a pedicure a week ago and my toes still look fab.

Aaron and I have a date tonight.

It's 4:30 and the kids are dressed and ready for bed.

Aaron dropped in for lunch.

I read for awhile and did some laundry.

I made running plans for tomorrow. At least 7 of us are meeting for a training run on the course for the Bentonville Half. Go runner girls of Bella Vista! We really need a name for ourselves.
I heart that my "short" run is 13 miles. But I'm also feeling the toll of the longer runs and I've already burned through the running shoes I bought in September.

Corbin didn't take a nap, is cutting teeth, and has a wicked diaper rash, but is still the happiest baby guy ever. And the cutest ever. Especially right now, with dried mud on his nose, sunkissed cheeks, sweaty hairline and sticky everything.

I showered, but put on the same outfit I wore last night. (it was cute, alright? Don't act like you never do that. Plus, I rock at being gross, remember?)

One of my potted plants from last year had tulip bulbs in it that never sprouted, but i discovered 4 little 1 inch sprouts today.

It smells really good outside. Like rain and fabric softener.



Today was a perfect mix of events that were totally ordinary and not so ordinary at all.

I love a day when I can just hang around and enjoy sweet kids and good company. Nothing spectacular or miraculous needs to happen.

My life is a miracle that I choose to see.

Friendly Frogs: Transportation Week

It's March!
Letter: R
Shape: Clover
Number: 4
Color: Dark Green and Light Green

Literature:

Book: Go! Go! Go! by Roxie Munro
Book: Cars by Ann Rockwell
Book: Down by the Station by Jennifer Riggs Vetter
Book: I Love Trucks by Philemon Sturges
Book: That’s Not My Tractor by Fiona Watt
Book: I am a Backhoe by Anna Grossnickle Hines







Share: Bring a toy car, bike, helicopter, train, or airplane, etc

Cognitive: Transportation Memory Match Provide 8 x 10 photos of various forms of transportation for a memory match game!

Gross Motor: Cozy Coupe Cars, Bikes, and Scooters
Encourage the children to draw a road using sidewalk chalk, for the cars to drive on.

Dramatic Play: Carwash!
Add suds and wash rags to the science buckets and sponges and encourage the children to give their cars a good scrub. I was amazed at how well the kids kept themselves dry during this actvity...especially since it was at the end of our school day. I was not surprised by how soaked corbin got, though! he was drenched within minutes.

Fine Motor: Train Set and Cars for open centers. Make a clover with the railroad tracks.

Phonics: R is for Railroad!


We created a list of R words while the children colored a letter R and glued a railroad sign to it

Art: Green Car Art
Science: Color Mixing
Put drops of paint on a paper in a box and encourage the children to drive their cars through the tracks to create a new color
Yellow + Blue = Green!


Question: What is transportation?

Handwriting/Fine Motor: Create Letter R shaped roads for the children to trace by driving small, toy cars on.

Practical Life: Street Safety

Sensory: Magic Beans!
I bought a pack of those water-soluble capsules that have the tiny sponges in them. The children picked out capsules, looked at the photo on the package, and guessed which shape/form of transportation their sponge would be. They had to wait a few minutes and massage the capsules in their hands to get them to dissolve, but it was worth the wait. They were pretty excited. Sometimes, it's the simplest little treasures that bring complete joy to a group of kids.

The sponges were a big hit. The kids are going to die with excitement in a few weeks when they find out I bought a pack of sea creature sponges for Under the Sea week, coming up! I think the tiny shapes would be great for stamping with paint, or just gluing to a collage.

Music and Movement: Transportation songs
Wheels on the Bus, Driving in the Car, This is a Song About Sammy, Down By the Station

Friendly Frogs I Love My Family

I'm playing catchup with preschool posts, again.
Here's what we did last week

Attention Activity: Grandma's Glasses (do actions)
These are grandma's glasses (make binoculars with two hands)
This is Grandpas hat (put hands on top of head)
This is how I rest my arms folded in my lap (whisper this line and fold arms)

Literature:
Book: All Together Now by Anita Jeram

Book: I Already Know I Love You by Billy Crystal
I really like the conversation that this book sparks. Every time I read it, the kids can't wait to tell me about all the things they have done with their grandparents. It also explains how the Grandpa in the story is Mommy's father.

Book: The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

Share: Bring something pink!

Handwriting: Letter V
I pulled out the Aquadoodle Mat and the children covered it in V's

Dramatic Play: Family Living Center: set up a mini kitchen, nursery, office, laundry room. Observing a group of preschoolers while "playing house" can be one of my favorite favorite things to do when I teach.
a little background:
In the 6 years and multiple facilities where I have taught, I have taught many children where their home life was a disturbing mess.
I have had to call Child Protective Services several times.
I have been interviewed by Health Dept. and Child Services Employees.
I have participated and given written and verbal testimony in a few custody battles.
I have taught children that had been physically and sexually abused.
I have refused to let children out of my care and/or out of the care of a preschool because parents arrived to pick up their children without carseats, or while under the influence of alcohol or narcotics.
I have turned in a parent that had a warrant out for her arrest.
Twice, I had to physically to put myself between parent and child until assistance arrived.

These were sad and difficult situations, and you might be wondering why I bring them up.

Each experience has given me appreciation for my happy life, my role as an educator, and infinite reasons to love the children in my care just a little bit extra.

It brings me peace to provide the children in my care with a safe and loving environment every time they come to school. My classroom is a place where love is felt and children are listened to and appreciated.

So now, when I set up a Family Living dramatic play center, and I see the children mimic their parents (which they often do), it makes me VERY happy when they display loving behavior and are kind to one another. This year, in particular, is special because when these children "play house" I can honestly feel how much love is in some of their homes..

In past circumstances, I know that the few hours in my care every day were the only hours that some of the chidren experienced consistent peace. It is a heavy responsibility that I took very seriously, but gladly embraced because I have seen the positive effect that a dedicated teacher can make in a child's well being.

But recently, I have been blessed to just enjoy the relief and happiness that come from knowing that for these children, my classroom is not the only place they feel loved. Their parents should be proud to know that their children mimic kindness, respect, love, innocence, service, and laughter in the family living center. Well done, parents, and thank you.

Sensory: Elbow Noodles with colored hearts

Fine Motor: pinching for hearts

Science: I gave each child a mirror and asked them who they look like.
The purpose of the exercise was to help the children recognize that their physical characteristics are genetic, and were given to them biologically from from their parents. They began to understand and point out things like, "I have brown hair like Mommy’s" and "my nose is pointy nose like daddy’s", and "My sister has teeth just like me!" (note* I currently do not have any adopted children in my class but if I did, curriculum would be adapted and approached individually, based on each family's sensitivity and the child's knowledge of the situation)

Interview: Tell me about your family.
Question: Who do you love? Why do you love them?
Record responses

Art: V Collage
V is for vase, vitamin, vacation, vulture, violin, valentine, volcano, vampire, and violet


Math: Heart Chart and Tally Marks. Seated at the table (we did this as a group activity), the children took turns counting out the hearts from the sorted color bowls. As they counted them out, I made a tally mark for each one onto the chart next to the heart with the corresponding color. When we finished, everyone got a purple candy heart, because that's the color that "won" for having the most.

Gross Motor: Heart Golf
The kids had fun hitting golf balls onto paper hearts placed around the house and yard. I didn't realize what a difficult task this was until I tried it myself! All I can say is WOW! I am glad that I chose a career where "golfing with clients" involves a blue plastic putter, because some of the kids are much more gifted golfers than I am.

Practical Life: Good Sportsmanship Everytime someone's ball hit a heart target, I encouraged the children to say "Heart in one!" and give each other a high five.

Music and Movement:
I pulled out the dancing ribbons today
I love mother, she loves me
Where is Thumbkin?
Do as I'm Doing

Like Mother Like Daughter

Me: I'm a little worried about Quincy. I think she needs glasses.

Aaron: Quincy doesn't need glasses.

Me: Did you see her just now when she walked into that wall? She does it all the time.

Aaron: Quincy doesn't need glasses.

Me: I think she might. You need glasses. Maybe she takes after you.

Aaron: No. She takes after YOU.

Meg: what?!

Aaron: Yah. Uh, Meg... you can see the walls before you walk into them, right?

ShakeShake ShakeShakeaShake It

We're under tornado watch tonight.
I just felt a 4.7 earthquake.

Luckily, the majority of this weather drama is happening south of us. Exciting day!

Half Full

Today was a rough one.

In an attempt to feel better about it, I've made a list of some of the good things that happened today

1) Like every Sunday, I slept in until 8:30
2) Like every Sunday, Aaron made chocolate chip waffles
3) We went to church
4) We took naps
5) Dinner was excellent
6) It is 6:30pm and all of the children are asleep in their beds
7) My hair looked cute
8) Reese was spotlight in Primary
9) I expected to wake up with sore muscles, but did not.
10) Quincy gave a talk...sort of
11) All of my children have dedicated teachers that nurture them, prepare lessons, and teach them with love
12) Rocky Road ice cream
13) everyone is healthy
14) apple tarts and a visit with friends

I feel better already.

Friendly Frogs: It's in the Mail

Literature:

Book: Yoko’s Paper Cranes by Rosmary Wells
Book: A Letter for Amy by Ezra Jack Keats
Book: We Need Mail Carriers by Scholastic Books
Share: Bring the address of someone you love, so we can mail them a letter! (Sammy, I need your's still, so I can send these off! I keep forgetting to take it out of your backpack)

My favorite photo of the day:

Check out that concentration! I picked up 2 sets of these unit blocks at HobLob last week for $11 each! The best thing about unit blocks? Endless opportunity for imagination and creativity! The worst part? The risk of owies when someone's tower comes crashing down.

These blocks are not wood, they're made of reeeeally heavy duty fun foam! No more owies, and no crash, bang, boom if they are thrown by Corbin :)

Dramatic Play: Post Office provide packages, envelopes, mailboxes (doors cut from cardboard boxes) mail bags, scale, cash register, and bins for l

Sensory: Feely Bag-things that are sticky (tape, stickers, jelly, glue stick, gum)

Handwriting/Fine Motor: Tracing Heart stencils

Learning to use a stencil is a difficult task for a 4 year old to grasp. I'm proud of how patient they were with the process.

Fine Motor: Flag Stamps

I set up a letter writing center where the children could decorate packages and stuff envelopes with "letters", and provided sheets of flag stickers, so they could put stamps on their letters.

Art: Decorating Postcards

Math: Big, Medium, Small , 1, 2, 3
Sort packages by size, shape, color, etc in canvas bins

Language/Phonics: add to our list of “V” words (vulture, vase, violin, Velcro, vacuum, volcano, vacation)

Reading Comprehension:

"A Letter to Amy" by Ezra Jack Keats is a great little story about a boy who only invites one girl to his birthday party. He makes a special invitation for her, but a storm rolls in when he tries to mail it.

After reading the story to the children, I asked the following questions:

1) Why did Peter send a special letter just for Amy?

2) What did the letter say?

3) What was the weather like when Peter mailed the letter?

4) Did Amy get the letter?

Practical Life: How do we mail a letter?

We read "We Need Mail Carriers" and talked about how a letter gets from one place to another"

Music and Movement:
We just got a letter (blue’s clues)
Three Valentines