The money shot

Yesterday, I sat around soaking up every moment with a post-nap-and-still-snuggly Soren and some books, which he usually doesn't have time or interest to be still for. I heard a camera click and looked up to see Reese hiding in the basement stairway with my phone. "I'm sorry, I just had to get a picture of this. He's so cute and cuddly with you."  

I think my little paparazzi has a good eye for high value. This little moment was treasured. 

This week

Look mama, there's a baby in our oven and he kisses me back! 

Random things about this week: 

Quincy found she's taking a field trip to Concordia with her class and got very excited. She decided she needs to write a letter to Francis to let her know she'll be coming to see her again, and then said, "I hope she's still alive...100 is pretty close to dead after all". 

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In order to put out the little "three's a crowd fires" that seem to only happen between 5 and 6 o'clock, I've started removing a different child each night to come help me prepare dinner. Last night it was Quincy's turn. While she out the cheese on the chicken tetrazzini she said, "We're almost done here and I'm going to go back upstairs. I don't want to hurt your feelings by saying this, but I hope it's not my turn to help you in the kitchen again until hump day." ???? Hump day? Is she for real? Where does she come up with this stuff? 

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Corbin said the dinner prayer tonight. Tonight's addition was to ask Heavenly Father to "please bless Soren's face, that it will stop crying." 

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Valentine's Day for Young Learners

Catching up on preschool posts: 

Sensory: macaroni with heart shaped scoopers, measuring cups, cupcake and ice trays, and heart shapes  hiding in the pasta. 

Dramatic Play: Valentine treats prop box. Baker's hats, aprons, oven mitts, spatulas, mixers, and an assortment of heart shaped chocolate tins, valentine dishes, heart cupcake goody shopping bags, and play cookies and cupcakes.

Pre-reading: Giant Valentine letter matchup. I gave the children a giant valentine and they filled in the hearts with matching letters to spell "Be My Valentine"

Manipulative Mix-Mates: I made a couple sets of Olliblocks Valentine people on two sided tiles so the children could mix and match and create their own combinations of heads, bodies, and legs. Each person is holding a valentine or letter. 

On to the most exciting part: the Valentine exchange!  I made "I love Yoo-hoo!" and gave each child a little mailbox to hold their party spoils in.

Fine motor/shape: tracing and cutting out folded valentine hearts.

Math: following a pattern with heart shaped and non-heart shaped marshmallows. 

 

Happy Valentine's Day, Young Learners! Thanks for the valentines!
I sure do L-O-V-E being your teacher.

It's in the mail

Wednesday was one of my favorite study units.  The dramatic play center is just too much fun and I can't handle how cute these kids look all dressed up like mini adults with careers in postal service. 

The children delivered letters, postcards, and packages to the post office and mailboxes all over our classroom. 

In the fine motor center I set up a tiny town with 3 houses, a school, and two post offices and provided people and a set of die cast UPS and USPS service cars and trucks so they could take trips between the stops in the town delivering mail.

"I love the brown package truck! It brings my birthday presents!" -Gigi

No long lines at this post office!

We continued our heart and letter V themes for the month and traced hearts on pink paper and created a class list of words that begin with letter V. We learned a song about mail and valentines.

We made post cards with markers, card stock, and stickers and addressed them to friends and family members. Tell them to watch for a surprise in the mail!  Will it be like Tommy's Grandma in 7 Little Postmen? She gets a surprise letter with a secret: her grandson is coming to visit and bringing her a pet kitten to keep!  The children loved the story and were fascinated that it take so many people and types of transportation working together to get a letter from one place to another. We watched a reading rainbow clip with a behind-the-scenes visit to a real post office and the children got to hear the click-click-click of letters going through the machine that stamps them all with the date and location of the post office.  Mail rooms are a noisy place!

And last but not least, it was finally warm enough to go outside! We weren't out there for long, but the break was great for these little bodies.

Young Learners Five Senses: Smell

Every now and then, I have one of those days at my job that is just overloaded with moments when really feel like I'm making a difference in these kids' lives.  Today was one of them.  

These three are sweet friends to each other. I've known them all since they were babies, and it's so cute to see their little personalities blossom and their friendships continue to grow as their lives change and they grow up. 

We read 4 books about the sense of smell today, one of them being a scratch and sniff teddy bear tea party/picnic.  The girls had a picnic party of their own and I was served a donut, chicken drumstick, a tomato, a croissant, and a goblet of lemonade.   

  

We wrote letter V in scented play dough and with chalk and markers, drew a diagram of the nose and learned about parts of the respiratory system and also how our body recognizes smells.  The kids labeled lungs, nose, nasal cavity, nostrils, brain, and the microscopic hairs inside the nasal cavity.  They shared scented things brought from home in circle time (cinnamon, a scented baby doll, a strawberry shortcake doll, black licorice, gummy worms, soap, perfume, and a stinky shoe!), and put together puzzles about the body and the 5 senses.

I also did a scripted reading lesson with the kids and they loved it. I think I might add it to the curriculum for awhile and see how it goes. I usually stick to literature and phonics based curriculum in my classroom, but there's something special about this group of kids so I gave it a shot. They loved it! It was fun to do a distar lesson with a group.  I love teaching and these kids are my golden age for educating for sure.  Reagan went home and told her mom all about the tiny hairs inside her "nostrich" that help her smell. How cute is that? 

I made scented watercolors from koolaid and the children painted a crop of fruity scented pictures. 

A few of us used our lungs to blow up a balloon during open centers. I asked the children to tell me things that smell good to them and things that smell bad to them and recorded their answers.  It was a  wonderful day of learning.

Ready to Read.

I started the DISTAR program (the same one I used with Reese back when she was 4.) with Corbin this week. I had a feeling about 2 weeks ago that this program would be great for him and the feeling was right. He is thriving. Go Corbin! He is catching onto the sound games quickly. There is no battle to get him to participate and at the end of each lesson (which actually do only take 20 minutes with him) he begs for more. Excellent! 

A perfect day

We woke up to the sounds of birds chirping in the treetops outside my bedroom window for the second day in a row. Spring! Well, not yet, there is certainly still some winter ahead of us, but today was a 70 degree glimmer of hope. Corbin and I packed up a picnic lunch, went to Walmart and picked out kites and headed over to lake Bella Vista. 

The wind was perfect and Corbin flew kites for an hour with his friends Izzy, Annalise, and Karina and entertained babies Soren, Dean and Rachel, Sawyer, and Tommy.

My friend Jessica is an amazing photographer and snapped this one of my little guy. Thanks Jessica! 

We picnicked and played and finished with a walk along the lake trail. 

It's days like this that I feel especially bad that Aaron has to go to work at a boring old office all day. My job was nothing but good times. 

I picked up the girls from school and told them to go do their homework quickly because there's a surprise (2 more kites) in the van for them. I'm itching to get back outside and enjoy the rest of this beautiful day!