Trinity Preschool Activities for Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Willow Room- T/TH class

We read "Jack's Garden" by Henry Cole was our story today.  We asked the children if they have a garden outside at their home?

We used eye droppers to paint coffee filters which we will turn into butterflies.

We practiced our songs for Mother's Day- we are excited to sing our songs for our mom's on Thursday!

We planted radishes and talked about the parts of a plant and what it needs to grow.  We also cut our grass heads- it had grown so long already!

We brought in the light table and letters and shapes to explore.  We have some new math toys in our room too.

Oak Room:

We read "Planting a rainbow" by Lois Ehlert and "What makes a rainbow?" by Beth Ann Schwartz

We made rainbow pictures; the children put paint on paper in the order of a rainbow (ROYBGIV- Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, (indigo) and violet).  After they put the paint on the paper, we pressed a clear plastic plate on the paper to blend the edges of the colors.  They came out great.

We practiced our Mother's Day songs.

We also read "Llama, llama Misses Mamma" by Anne Dewdney

We are reviewing things we learned about this year so today we talked about the planets again.  We read "There's no place like space"

Trinity Preschool Activities for Monday, May 7, 2012

We used some of our new equipment in the gym today since is was a rainy day and we could not go outside. We have a balance beam, ball toss, tunnel, and had fun trying them out. 

All of our Luna Moths have opened up! A few Luna Moth facts!  They only live one week- they have no mouths and do not eat or drink.  You will occasionally see them in nature this far north, but down south you see them out at night.  They are nocturnal, they like the dark.

Stay & Play:  

 We read "The wonderful book" by Leonid Gore

We used sponge brushes to paint a light green on paper, then used butterfly and flower shape cookie cutters with dark colors of paint to paint on top of our background.

We did "rock like this" and used our new ribbons sticks.

We also did "Two little blackbirds" and opposites rhyme

We enjoyed some of our new equipment in the room- a lego playland set, 3 letter puzzles and some clay.

Willow Room:  MWF class

We read "Jack's Garden" by Henry Cole

We asked the children if they had ever planted a garden?

We made butterflies using coffee filters and watercolors with eye droppers.  We will make them  into the wings of the butterflies.

We had colored magnetic popscicle sticks at the easel to make pictures and shapes.

We practiced our songs for Mother's Day.

We planted a carrot and an onion and we talked about the different parts of a plant as we examined a marigold flower.

Maple Room:

We read "The Fox and the Springtime Blossom" by Julia Rawlinson 

We planted in clear plastic cups so we can see the roots as they grow.

We had flower stencils at the easel.

We practiced our Mother's Day songs.

We did letter Z activities. 

The highlight of our day was that our Luna Moth can our of the cocoon during class and we got to watch.  It makes a hole in the end of the cocoon with it's front legs and pulls itself out. It is all small and shriveled up when it emerges.  It took the cocoon and spun it over and over and around and around for quite awhile. Then, the moth climbed up the side of the mesh house and stayed there. Slowly the wings dried off and opened up, but it still looked pretty shriveled up at the end of class.     

Oak Room:

We read "Because a little bug went ka-choo!" by Rosette Stone

We painted on coffee filters to make flowers.

We practiced our Mother's Day songs, we also did 5 little flowers and the May song.

We planted some more seeds in a root viewer.  We are so amazed at how much our radish seeds we planed last week have grown and the grass we planted in a stocking is sprouting.  

We are reviewing some of the things we learned this year.  Today we talked about how the bears woke up from their hibernation all winter.

 

Art and Bulletin Boards for Preschool Fish Theme

Bulletin board for under the sea

Whales, made by adding fish shape foam pieces to blue hair gel in a zip lock bag taped to back of hole in whale shape the children cut out.

The children painted the blue background as a large mural group project, and added confetti pieces to fish and sea horse shapes.

This was painted by rolling a large piece of paper in a box with tennis balls dipped in paint.  They were then cut into fish shapes.

The children painted the mural backdrop and we added the paper plate fish, and the star fish to create and under the sea scene.

We read the story "Swimmy" by Leo Lionni and each child used a stamper to make red fish with one black fish like swimmy.  We then put them all together in the hall as a display.

The children in our Pre-k room spent a few weeks learning about fish, under the sea, water, whales, turtles, and more.  We made many, many projects, only some are shown here. We made turtles using tissue paper and turtle shapes, we made jelly fish out of paper bowls, and we made sand art creations too.  We also used a salt clay with sea shells, small stones, pieces of sticks to make a sea shore creation.  We brought in shells, sea urchins, and starfish to look at.   

Trinity Preschool Activities for Friday, May 4, 2012

Stay & Play: 

We read "Mushroom in the rain" by Mirra Ginsgurg 

we used chalk on paper for art.

We did "If you are happy and you know it", "Couch Potato Pokey" and "Over the deep blue sea" for music

We brought in some new toys that arrived today-  Duplo tubes, clics, and flexibloxks. 

We also divided the children into two rooms to have choice time, then joined together for snack, music and outside time.

Willow Room: MWF class

We read "One rainy day" by M Christina Butler

We asked the children if they have the letter "W" in your name?

We painted with fun designs on "flip flops"- they look like flip flop shoes and you slip your hand where your foot would be. 

We practiced our Mother's Day songs for music..

We are having fun with the new toys in our classroom.

Maple Room:

We acted out the story of "the carrot" an old folk tale.  We also read "The big turnip" by Tatiana Zunshine

We used cookie cutters in flower shapes to make prints and we had tulip shape paper at the easel with textured brushes at the easel.

We practiced our Mother's Day songs.

We took a look at roots of plants and talked about the roots and what they do for the plants.

We put our egg carton caterpillars in our paper chrysalis to transform into butterflies. 

Oak Room:

We read "Butterfly House" by Eve Bunting

Our Luna moth opened as we arrived in class today.  We were excited to watch this.

We made "houses" today.  We have a cut off orange juice container and added a house shape to the back.  We will plant grass int eh orange juice container to be our front lawn.  We also made snips in green paper that we will attach to the front to look like grass.

We did some number games, - we used snap together number bugs and some shape matching turtles.

We just changed our room around and are enjoying exploring the room in new ways.

We are playing with modeling clay- this has a different feel than playdough and is great for developing the fine motor muscles in the fingers.

Our dramatic corner is now a veterinary clinic. 

We did an opposites match-  each child has a picture on a puzzle piece and has to find the other person with the opposite picture piece.

We practiced our Mother's Day songs.

We made a surprise picture together, each child had a numbered wooden stick with a piece of a picture on it,  they came up in order and added it to the board to create a whole picture.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Thursday, May 3, 2012

Willow Room- T/TH class

We read "The best nest" by P.D. Eastman 

We looked at some real nests too that had fallen out of trees.

We painted with these fun painters that have designs on the bottom of tools that look like flip flops.  You put your hand where the foot would go.

We practiced our songs for Mother's Day.

We have 2 containers in our sensory table- one has sand, water and plastic fish.  The children can catch the fish using a fish net.  We have a second one with dirt and rubber bands cut to look like worms.  we have tweezers to catch the worms.

Maple Room:

We read "Giraffes can't dance" by Giles Andreae 

We painted with back rollers we dip in paint and roll back and forth across paper.  They make a cool design and they also make a fun noise.

we played musical chairs and did animal action songs for music time.

We did a shape sorting activity.

 

Oak Room:

We read "Daisy- Head Mayzie" by Dr. Seuss

We did a special drawing for moms.

We did a math activity- we used measuring cards with small unifix blocks.  

We did a construction activity with dissolve-able  packing peanuts.

We practiced our Mother's Day songs.

We did a graph of how many letters are in everybody's name.

Field Trip Today

We went to the fire station for a field trip today, it was a great day!

Trinity Preschool Activities for Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Willow Room: T/TH class

We asked the children "Do you like carrots?" 

We did "The giant carrot story" using props

We made flowers out of doily's and watercolors.

We practiced our Mother's Day songs

We planted our grass seeds and we also planted carrot seeds.

Oak Room:

We read the story "Where does the butterfly go when it rains?"  The story doesn't tell us, so we need to figure out our own answer.

We also read Munch Crunch Caterpillars

We made hand prints, then we fingerpainted on trays.

We practiced our songs for Mother's Day.

We used some new bell sticks with ribbons attached for music, they are fun.  We danced with tehm and rang the bells.

We planted different kinds of seeds in a glass container and will watch the roots grow.