Creative Arts and Sciences Preschool

Audrey's Last Day

2009-03-19T19:37:00.001-07:00

Audrey will be moving to North Carolina next week so today was her last day of preschool. We will miss her and I promised her Mom that I would post these pictures of myself and Mrs. Charlotte! We will miss you Audrey. :)

More Butterfly Stuff

2009-03-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

Today our REAL Caterpillers were ready to be moved to their new Butterfly Habitat because they had changed into chrysalids so in like fashion we needed to move the Caterpillars we had made into their own Chyrsalids (aka lunch bags). We'll find out in a week or so if our homemade Caterpillers emerge as butterflies just like the real ones!

St. Patrick's Day

2009-03-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

We had a blast with our St. Patrick's Day Party this past Tuesday. We started the day by painting St. Patrick's Day Hats. Then we had a lesson on the history of St. Patrick's day and we learned all about Leprechauns. At snack Time we graphed Lucky Charms Cereal and then ate some apples and fruit dip that had been dyed green by some sneaky little Leprechauns. When our hats had dried we had a St. Patrick's Day parade. For Art we learned about using Green Peppers to make a Shamrock Stamp with paint and during our Outdoor Time we went on a hunt for "Gold" chocolates that our Leprechaun friends had left for us.

Eric Carle Paintings

2009-03-19T19:08:00.000-07:00

We have been reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle and today we discussed his art work and how he uses watercolor painted paper cut up to create collages that form pictures in his books. During free play time the kids filled paper with water color and we let them dry. At the end of the day they took their paper and cut them up into shapes and then created pictures with the colored paper. It was fun to see the ideas they came up with for the pictures they wanted to create. Some of them I remember were: balls, a rocket ship, leaves, and a whale.

Butterfly Life Cycle

2009-03-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

Our second week of March we studied the Life Cyles of Butterflies. The kids were quite excited when our LIVE butterfly larvae arrived at our door during preschool one day. We had to open the package right away so they could see the caterpillars. For our art project we made our own caterpillars out of egg cartons.

Hibernation Celebration

2009-03-19T18:53:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this is our last month of Preschool! This month we have been studying animals and insects. Our first week we talked about animals that Hibernate. We focused on bears and on Tuesday we made caves for our bears to hibernate in. On Thursday we had a hibernation celebration. We came to preschool in our jammies and each of the kids got to bring a small stuffed animal to place in their cave. For snack time we made bear biscuits which you can see here. Lots of fun!

Color Day!

2009-03-02T19:12:00.000-08:00

At the end of February we decided to throw in a random day focused on Colors. It was a lot of fun to play "I Spy" and learn about Rainbows. We used a flashlight to help the kids understand the concept that you can SEE a rainbow but that you can't hold it because it's just light. I saw a few light bulbs go on as we shined the light into their hands and asked them to try and pick it up. I think the kids most enjoyed our science experiment of Color Mixing. We used playdough to create different colors. The kids started off by recording which colors we were starting with (Red and Yellow) and then they were encouraged to make a "Predicition" about what color it would make when Red and Yellow were mixed together, then they each received two small pieces of each color of playdough and had to mix them together until they saw a new color appear. They were so excited to see the results! We made Orange, Green, and Purple. Very Fun. Just as a note for anyone who may try this at home. We actually didn't have any "RED" playdough but Pink was a great substitute.

Valentines Party

2009-03-02T19:07:00.000-08:00

Due to illness we had to cancel preschool the day we were supposed to have our Valentines Party and had to postpone until the week after. The kids were troopers though and still seemed just as excited to celebrate when the time came. They had prepared their own decorated "mailboxes" the week before Valentines Day and were quite creative in their choice of decorations. I think the "Glitter Glue was probably the biggest hit.

It was so fun to see the different Valentines they brought and we ended the day by making Valentines Gifts for our Parents (you will recieve these shortly) and decorating cookies! Fun Fun.

Our Country

2009-02-05T18:23:00.000-08:00

I can't believe we are already in February! This month we are studying our Country. This week we learned about some of the Symbols of our Country. We talked a lot about our Flag and what the colors in the flag stand for. On Tuesday we made our own flags. The kids got to practice many different skills. They did a wonderful job using their cutting skills to follow a line and cut red strips of paper to make the stripes on their flags. They used their gluing skills to glue the strips and blue square into place. Then we used q-tips and white paing to make dots to represent the stars on the flag.

Some Vocabulary words we learned this week were:

Bravery

Justice

Freedom

Our letters for the week were Q and R. We practiced drawing Q's. You'll have to ask your child to show you how to do this!

On Thursday we talked about the Penny with Abraham Lincoln's picture on it, and The Quarter with George Washington's picture.

We sang a song to the tune of "London Bridges" to help us remember which president is on the Penny and Quarter.

Who's fine face is on the penny on the penny on the penny

Who's fine face is on the penny, Abraham Lincoln

Who's fine face is on the Quarter on the Quarter on the Quarter

Who's fine face is on the Quarter, George Washington

"Snowy Day" Creations

2009-01-25T17:58:00.000-08:00

This Last week at preschool we talked about snow and we read the book "Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats. Then we talked about how the author/illustrator created his pictures by making a collage of different colored papers. On Tuesday we watercolored on paper and then on Thursday (after our paintings had dried) I had the kids rip up their papers into small pieces and put them in a community bowl and then they created pictures using the papers they had all painted. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the final products before they all took them home!

And Happy Birthday Ben! We had fun Celebrating Ben's Birthday this last week. :)

Puzzle Making and Letter Writing

2009-01-18T16:59:00.000-08:00

The Kids worked really hard this week practicing their letter writing. On Thursday we practiced writing the letter N. We used our white boards and took turns tracing letters in the rice. During this time we also made our own puzzles! I've found that a lot of kids about this age are able to handle a small jigsaw puzzle (although at least in the case of my daughter they still need a lot of guidance). I've found that it's a great opportunity to practice sorting and reasoning skills, as you talk with them about the "edge pieces" the "corner pieces" and the "middle pieces" and then look for clues about where each piece goes.

Ice Waltzing

2009-01-18T16:51:00.000-08:00

On Thursday this last week we had a blast doing some "Indoor Ice-Waltzing". This would be a GREAT activity to try at home. We cut out wax paper close to the size of the children's feet and had them take their socks off so that their feet would stick a little better to the wax paper and then we introduced them to the Waltz (compliments of Baby Einstein Playtime Music Box) and encouraged them to move their bodies to the music as they "skated" around the carpet. I don't know how much "Waltzing" we actually got, but this was a wonderful Gross Motor activity and the kids ate it up since we don't get to go outside these days. And it actually works! Mrs. Charlotte and I were surprised how well the paper worked to help you glide around the room and didn't hesitate to particpate ourselves. :)

Back to school.....ICE

2009-01-18T16:38:00.000-08:00

We had our first week of Preschool for the Spring Semester. This month we are studying Winter, and our theme for the week: ICE was very appropriate since this last week was the coldest of the year!!!

On Tuesday we had lots of fun with a Science Experiment studying ice, how we get ice, and what happens when the ice gets warm. We had some of our animal friends who had been frozen inside a block of ice and the kids had to find a way to get them out. They made some great observations and hypotheses. Our first idea was to just bang the ice to get them out. We tried this but it wasn't working too well so then we talked about the snow and the ice and outside and what happens to it when it gets warm outside. Their next idea was to stick our ice block outside, but we soon decided that 3 degree weather outside probably wasn't going to do much so finally we talked about warm things we have inside the house, like the oven, the microwave and finally WARM WATER!!! As the kids started pouring water over the ice block they could see a difference immediately and got SO excited. They took turns pouring the warm water and were just thrilled when they freed their friends.

Sponge Painted Christmas Trees

2008-12-13T21:50:00.000-08:00

In preparation for our Christmas Program coming up, we have been talking this month about the Symbols of Christmas. Today's symbol was the Christmas Tree and we discussed how it's a symbol of everlasting life because it's needles point upwards and it stays green all the time. Then for our art project the kids got to decorate their own Christmas Tree using a sponge painting technique. It was a fun activity and the kids were very creative with their pictures. I always love to see their interpretation of things.

We are Thankful!

2008-12-13T21:43:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving a little early at Preschool by having a Pilgrims Thanksgiving Feast Complete with things Pilgrims may have actually eaten like Turkey, Grapes, and Carrots. Apparentally they would not have had potatoes or rolls! We attempted to make clothes like the pilgrims wore however I'm not sure because of the pattern I chose that anyone would be able to tell what we were going for here and the poor kids were dying to take their "Pilgrim Collars" off before eating, but they were good sports and at least let me take a picture of them first! Then at the end of the day we made a thankful tree using our hand cut outs with the things we were thankful for written on them.

Dinosaur Dig!

2008-12-13T21:35:00.000-08:00

While studying Dinosaurs in November we talked about Palentologists and Archeologists so we pretended that we were digging for Dinosaur bones today. Each child had their own bowl of rice with some (paper) dinosaur bones in them and they used paint brushes to uncover/dig for the bones because we discussed how the bones are so old that they are fragile sometimes and how the paint brush is soft and how Archeologists use brushes rather then shovels to uncover the bones since it's more gentle. The kids were very excited about finding the bones. And then once they had found all 4 bones they had to reconstruct the dinosaur on paper. We got a few interesting variations and I loved the dinosaur faces the kids were trying to make while I took their picture.

I is for Ice Cream!!!

2008-11-06T19:22:00.000-08:00

Today was a fun day at Preschool. We got to celebrate Theo's 3rd Birthday and enjoyed some yummy chocolate cake that he brought to share with the class during snack time. The letter of the week is "I" so today we had a blast making our own icecream. The kids really enjoyed getting to add the ingredients themeselves and shake the bag.

Here is the recipe if you would like to try it at home.

Large Ziplock bag

Small Ziplock bag

3 cups of ice

6 tbsp of ice

1/2 cup of whole milk

2 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp. vanilla

Add milk sugar and vanilla together in the small zip lock bag. Zip tight and place larger zip lock bag with the ice and salt around it.

Shake.....Shake.....Shake........

We are the Dinosaurs

2008-11-06T19:13:00.000-08:00

Our Theme for November is Dinosaurs. We kicked off the month with a visit from "Timmy the Triceratops" (You'll have to ask your kids about this) who was a big hit and we danced like dinosaurs to the song "We are the Dinosaurs" during music time. During free play time the kids got to dig for dinosaurs and we also learned the ASL sign for Dinosaur. You'll have to ask your child if they remember this!

For Art today we studied the art work of Henry Matisse specifically his piece of art using pieces of colored paper grouped together to look like a snail. The kids had fun cutting out their own shapes to make their own creations. It was fun to see how different they all looked.

Halloween Party

2008-11-06T18:50:00.000-08:00

Our Halloween Party was lots of fun. It was great to see all the kids in their costumes and they were all so proud. We had lots of princesses, a few Superhereos, one scary Monster and a duck and a Bee! The kids had fun decorating their own treat bag and then filling them with treats that they each brought to share. Then they counted pumpkin seeds that we had pulled out of our pumpkins on Tuesday.

Pumpkin Seeds

2008-11-06T18:49:00.000-08:00

We've been talking all month about seeds and things that grow and the kids have been really interested in opening things up to see the seeds inside. Using the pumpkins we picked from the pumpkin patch we tried to collect as many seeds from our pumpkins as we could. The kids weren't so sure about the idea of getting their hands all gooey and messy (which actually surprised me a little bit) but after giving them some spoons to help in the process they eventually all got into it!

Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

2008-11-06T18:39:00.000-08:00

At the end of October we had our first Field Trip!!! And we had a blast. Thanks to a nice 15 passenger Van, 8 car seats, parents willing to brave the cloudy weather and get their kids up a little earlier than usual everything came together wonderfully. As we had been studying things that grow all month and had been focusing on pumpkins this particular week a trip to the Pumpkin Patch was a great fit. In addition to taking a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch where the kids go to pick their own pumpkin, we also got to visit a petting zoo, and walk through the Corn Maze. We were all muddy when we returned but I think everyone had a great time.

Happy Birthday Kori

2008-11-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

We always have fun getting to celebrate a Birthday in our class! We got to celebrate Kori's 3rd Birthday in the month of October. She brought some fun cupcakes to share with the class during snack time. Fun fun!

Geogia O'Keefe Interpretations

2008-11-06T18:29:00.000-08:00

In the Month of October our Theme was "Things that Grow" During the week that we studied Flowers we studied the artist Georgia O'Keefe. We looked at some of her paintings of flowers and the kids got to use watercolor paint to do their own interpretation of a Flower. They got to look at some real flowers we had in the classroom as a model and this is how they turned out.

Unfortunately we had lots of kids sick this day and ended up with only four of us!

Letter of the Week: C

2008-09-26T18:29:00.000-07:00

Carrot Painting!!!

We learned about the letter C this week and on Tuesday the kids got to paint using Carrots! Some of them opted to refer back to our Jackson Pollock painting and attemped to splatter paint using the carrots, and others created some fun circle prints using one end of the carrot. It's always interesting to see the different creations they come up with.

This Week's Theme: Emotions

2008-09-26T18:09:00.000-07:00

This Week we studied Emotions. I had a lot of fun with the kids when I asked them to show me their best happy, sad, angry, etc. face. We used some of these pictures on Thursday in our art project. Here are our results!

Happy Faces

Angry Faces

Sad Faces

Last Week's Theme: Families

2008-09-26T17:54:00.000-07:00

Kendall
Mia
Ellie

Kori
Theo
Johnny
Audrey
Andrew

Last week our theme was Famlies. If you remember those cameras I sent home with your child on the first day of class, I developed their pictures and we used them to make Family Trees. On Tuesday we made Trees by doing footprints for the trunk and handprints for the leaves, and then on Thursday the kids got to see the pictures they had taken and got to choose some of their family members to cut out and glue onto their tree. They were all VERY excited to see the pictures they had taken themselves. Here are the trees.

Closer look at the Splatter Paintings

2008-09-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

Theo

Andrew

Ellie

Kendall
Kori

Johnny

Mia

Jackson Pollock Splatter Painting

2008-09-13T18:45:00.000-07:00

Oh Thursday of our first week of preschool we talked about the artist Jackson Pollock and they way he uses splatter painting in his art. The kids enjoyed getting to create their own splatter painting. I thought they turned out wonderful and I loved how each one turned out differently.

First Week of Preschool

2008-09-13T18:36:00.000-07:00

The first week of preschool was lots of fun. The kids started getting to know each other and our theme for the week was NAMES. We played musical chairs with our names. When the music stopped each child had to find the chair with their name on it and sit down.

On our first day we read a book called "The Name Jar" and then each child recieved a paper with a Jar printed on it and their name written in the jar. They then got the chance to trace over the letters of their name using their fingers and paint. After doing a little bit of tracing most of the kids enjoyed getting their whole hands into the project!

New Preschool Blog

2008-09-05T17:42:00.001-07:00

Preschool Parents,

I have decided to start a blog for Preschool. This blog can only be viewed by you as the parents/members of the Preschool. I thought this would be a good way to show you some of things we do in preschool each day or week, and also to post information like Calendars, Special days etc.
So be looking for future posts!