Z z zebras, zippers, and zoo

Z z zebra day:  I added in zippers and zoo too.

After singing our phonics song, which we have decided to sing in our graduation program now, we made Z's (and then a few other letters) out of old zippers.  I have a collection of them.  Of course I do.

Then we read, Milia's Big Day by Thea Feldman.  It has a fictional story of a zebra told through real photographs.  There are also blurbs with real zebra facts.  I let the leader hold my wooden zebra.  I wasn't real sure what else to do with him since I only had one.   I have had him since I was little.  I think someone brought him to me from a vacation.

Then we used the alphabet 'quilt' to sort out some zoo animals.  The kids did surprisingly well with this.  They each did two and then wanted me to do the rest.  Sometimes they loose interest so shortly, other times they can really get into an activity.  You just never know which will be the case.

At some point I read this fun story, Inside a Zoo in the City by Alyssa Satin Capucilli (who also writes the Biscuit books).  I was actually looking for a rebus story to do this activity with, so it worked out well.  As I read it, we added the animal pictures to the felt board so that the kids could help me read it.  It's a very repetitive story and they caught on quickly. 

Then we played a game similar to hullabaloo. I had cut out 30 or so large felt shapes.  There was a red, green, blue, brown, pink (only because those are the colors I had on hand) of each of theses shapes; triangle, circle, heart, square.  Each shape had an animal pictured on it.  The animals were ocean animals, African animals, pets, birds, or forest animals.  The kids started on a shape and then I called out something like... "hop to a red shape,"  then, "tip toe to a bird,"  then, "march to a circle."  After several 'moves,'  I'd say, "Who is on the monkey (or whatever animal)?"  That person would cheer and then we'd start again.  It was fun, but the kids were ready to be done, so we only played a little.  It's sad sometimes something you spend a lot of time on doesn't get much love. 

While parents arrived a the end of the day, we played with these animal feet and animal ears pieces.  they are from KidzClub.

The craft for the day was the last of the big letters.  It's a Z z zebra.  We have all of our letters done and Lou's room walls are so colorful and full of letters.  I love it!

last one- more pictures

This post keeps posting itself no matter what I set the date for, it happens sometimes.  So these pictures have been sort of posted for the weekend already.  But, now I've added a few captions. 

I'm just going to get all the rest of the pictures up and out there.  This is the last of the spring break fun.

Lou got a new scooter, like the big kids.  Bee got inline skates.  There was a lot of skating and scooting over spring break.  Both things are nice because they travel so well.

Lou does tricks on it.  He said he is like Tony Hawk for scooters.  We are constantly one crazy trick away from the ER with him.

One of the days we were in MO, we went to a Civil War battlefield.  It was the battle of Wilson's Creek.  

We used the large fields to fly kites.  

And get ticks.

Straight ahead is a tiny little cabin where the confederate commanders were staying when the union attacked.  To the backside of the cabin is now called 'Bloody Hill.'  Bee and Lou said they spotted no blood.

Lou wanted to see the cannons.

Bee looked everywhere for old bullets.  I told here there were probably some still in the ground, but we wouldn't find them.  She said if we tried hard enough, we might. 

We tried hard, but did not find any bullets.  We did find ticks.  Did I mention that? Some of us went home with ticks as souvenirs.

Another day we had a silly string fight.  Lou had been wanting to try silly string after seeing the neighbors boys have a fight with it.  When I saw some at the dollar store, I bought several cans.  We surprised Bee with it.

And then we all got to play. 

Daddy and Aunt C were having just as much fun as the kids. And then Lou thought something was not fair and he cried and then the fun was pretty much over.  It's a reoccurring things with him.  Fun keeps ending in tears.

baby hats

My current job share partner just became a grandma again.  This is her third.  She text(ed) {is text the past, present and future tense of the word?} me a photo she had taken of a computer screen that had a picture of a baby in a newsboy hat displayed.  Through this rough random photo, I knew what she was wanting.  I did a quick raverly search and found a free pattern for a baby newsboy hat at Hands Full of Happiness.  It was an easy to use pattern and being only one kind of stitch, would be a good one for a newer crocheter.

The green hat was my rough draft.  She wanted the hat (cream with wooden buttons) to be for infant pictures so I made up the infant size.  It turned out to be really really small.  It was probably either because of my gauge or yarn thickness.   I went with the next baby size up, and ended up with a hat in just the right size. 

In fact, I've made two more identical hats this week for other new babies.  This cream yarn is just from Joann Fabric, and of course, the paper label is missing now.  It is super soft, but not fuzzy and hard to work with.  

This is going to be one of those spring/summers full of babies around here.  Not in our house, but bunches of our friends are having their third or (gulp) fourth kiddo.  There will be more hats and more dresses. 

This project also gave me some motivation to organize all my knit and crochet patterns.   

They were random and disorganized and in various locations.  They are now nice and tidy and organized.  Oh happy day.

baking soda and vinegar on a tray

I saw this on pinterst, but can't track it back to a clickable link.  Sometimes things there are just pictures taken from an iphone, so there's not a real source.  Anyway, baking soda is spread out in a tray and vinegar and food coloring are poured into cups.

The kids use eyedroppers to pour small amounts of the vinegar on the tray.  There is the usual vinegar/baking soda bubbling and lots of color mixing.

It only took my kids a few minutes though to take it to the next level.  That's the messy level.

They figured out that if you added the baking soda to the cups, there was even more fizzing.

They decided that If your whole hand got involved it got even more fun. 

Then there was pretty much chaos on the tray.  We did get 20 minutes or so of good exploring in.  There's no way I'll be doing this at preschool- some of my little friends get a little excited about a potential mess.

Easter Party- preschool style

I love party days at preschool.  I mostly show up and the fun is all ready for me. The parents bring the treats.  Lou's class was partying too, so I sent in flavored jell-o popcorn for his treat to share.  It's a recipe I found via Pinterest at Dinner With Julie.   It will give you a cavity pretty much on contact.  There's a good bot of sugar in it!  It's worth the dentist bill for the occasional making of this yummy treat.

Our class gets to play games in the hallways for about 25 minutes or so.  I didn't come up with any of these ideas, or even help set them up.  I'm taking 0 credit, just wanted to share some of these super cute ideas.

Each class rotates through these three stations;  games in the hall, outside play- sidewalk chalk,  big room play (It's our enrichment room with all the toys, etc) and the craft is there.  

A parent helps out at each little game.  Most all the parents come on party day.

Candy dig:  There are blind folds for their eyes and little candies hidden under the Easter grass.

Flower toss:  larger pom poms get thrown at these flowers,

trying to get them to land in the flowers centers.

Cross Toss:  purple Easter eggs get thrown at paper cups.

Purple paper is rolled and inserted in some cups to make a cross.  The kids try to get the eggs in the purple cups.

Jelly bean toss:  Jelly beans are tossed into the red tub.  The beans they toss are the dirty ones, they can eat one from the 'clean' bucket afterward.

The red tub has some jelly belly ice/candy molds inside.  I'm not sure where these are from, but ice-cube trays could be used too.

Frog Leap:  The kiddos toss stuffed toy frogs at the lilly pads trying to get them to land on the pads.

Cross walk:  like a cake walk, the kids walked around in a circle on the crosses to the music. 

When the music is stopped, the child on the cross with this months bible verse, says the verse and gets a sticker.

After our three rotations, we head back to the classroom for prayers and treats!

Before all that moving around the school fun, we did have a short circle time.  Some parents come for this part, others run home to fix their hair and then come back for the party part.

I read this book, The Miracle of Easter and used the resurrection eggs.  I used this same material with the kids a few days earlier, but party day is a review of the Easter story. We like to tell is in front of the parents because they may not know the story, may not know it well, or even know exactly what to say to their child about it.  This year my class is mostly all churched families, but that's not always the case.

Last year, I used a bingo sheet to retell (had the kids do most of the re-telling) the story.

The friends are older this year, so I used the same pictures, but cut them apart.  I gave them each an envelope with the pictures inside and the story on the outside (so they could retell it at home).  They all also got a blue sheet with boxes numbered 1-12.

I told them a number (in order) and a picture to find.  They were able to do the retelling using the pictures (like the items in the eggs).   

Here was our craft, a stained glass cross.  Lou kept to his favorite colors, black and orange.

I love party days.  I love enjoying all the treats that the parents bring in.  I get twice the treats since I go down to Lou's room at some point and visit!  Party snacks may be my favorite food group!