it's that exciting

Lou has some exciting news!

He asked me to take off his training wheels tonight, just to see what it was like.  While I was putting the tools back and tending to the skate removal of the neighbor girl (who thinks I'm her babysitter), another neighbor girl held Lou's bike while he hopped on and suddenly he was off.  Just like that, he's a bike rider.

Ss spider day- preschool style

I used to have a tarantula.  It was a classroom pet.  He was neat to have, but I miss him so seldom.  I did miss him on spider day.  He would have been really fun to bring in.  The kids would have been floored!   I gave him to my old classroom assistant when I had Bee.  She came to me a few years later and told me to sit down, that she had some difficult news.  Ross (formerly known as Rosie) had died.  I was clearly not as torn up about it as she had been.  I'm unattached like that to spiders, even pet spiders.  

Anyway, we had fun on spider day.  Creepy creepy fun.  It's funny, some days I don't even get one story read to the class, most days I have time for one really good one, spider day I read four.  Here are the four I read, Spiders by Seymour Simon, The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle, Diary of a Spider by Doreen Corin, and Itsy Bitsy, The Smart Spider by Charise Mericle.

I started with The Very Busy Spider.  I had scanned the animals in the story and printed them out so we could talk about the 'characters' as we read the story.  I used the word 'characters' a lot as we were adding them to the flannel board.  At the end, we used the character pictures to do some simple retelling.  This is a simple book with some repetitive lines, but I could pass up the opportunity to use it for work on characters and the retelling.

I also made up a set of little pictures for the story sticks, but we just used those at home.  I didn't have time to make a class set. I picked up the book the day before at Kohls.  It was part of their $5 Kohls Cares books.  Unfortunately, the stuffed animal that went with it was the sheep and not the spider.

Then we referred to several non-fictions for the photograph pictures.  As I showed the photos, we talked about some spider facts, spider body info, etc and worked on labeling this drawing of a spider.  

Later, I read Itsy Bitsy, The Smart Spider.  This book was so funny.  It was one I'll keep my eyes out for at book sales.  Then we worked on some rhyming matching with these spiders and webs. 

The pictures on the spiders are the same ones I used in this ladybug lesson.  They are from an old Mailbox magazine, but I've seen some color sets on pinterest, like this small set from Lawteedah, and this set from A Teeny Tiny Teacher which you can get free on her Teachers Pay Teachers site.  

 

 I passed out the spiders to the kiddos and laid all of the webs on the rug.  The kids took turns and found the web for their spider.   I made the spiders from two different sized black circle and black yard legs.  It's all laminated to keep it nice.  I was too lazy to go dig up some clear tape or a glue stick, so the pieces are taped together with green painters tape.  It was handy. 

Here was the craft.  Small black paper plates were slit along the edges and the kids wove white yarn around it make a web.  About half way through the wrapping and weaving, they strung on a black spider ring and then completed the wrapping. 

At the end of the day I had time for one last activity.  I had quickly made this web out of a piece of black felt and some white thread.  I zig zagged the lines using my sewing machine. 

I passed out these lovely toy spiders.  I have seen similar ones at the dollar store.  These are from the teacher store and were part of a math story problem pack that I used to use at Halloween time when I taught 2nd and 3rd grade.  First, I had the kid locate all of the body parts we had discussed; the head, the abdomen, the 8 legs, the multiple (usually 8), the pedipalps, the jaws and the spinnerets.

Next, each spider was given a picture card.  The spider was to whisper the word in my little friend's ear.  The spider was hopefully able to whispers it like this... "house, /h/, /h/, /h/, house."   I called out letter separately, saying I wanted to see all of the spiders with Hh /h/, /h/, /h/ words.  They brought them up and placed them on the web.   I went through and said them all aloud with the beginning letter sound and then cleared them off and called another letter.

These picture cards are from The Polka Dot Patch.  She only had 7 beginning letters on this particular printable but I suspect if I dug around a little more on her blog, I bet there are others.

Next time, I'm going to find a spider to bring in!  I might have to pickle it like I did the octopus!

art show

It's been art show time at our house again.  The kids took their art and taped it all over the house. 

They have priced it and it's available for sale.  Bee's are priced at 10 cents each.  She thinks she will sell more this way.  Last time they were 25 cents.

Bee and Lou, both entrepreneurs, even brought out the cash register to help ring up sales.

It's all for sale. Lou pulled a table and easel out into the hallway so he can keep working as well as watch his shop.

He's priced his a little higher.  $1 each picture. 

He prefers to work in marker.   Marker and sticker. 

If you come by our house, bring your wallet.  You will be hard pressed to get out without some shopping.

hockey game

Nothing to write about today.  Just some pictures from a recent trip to a hockey game.

It was so much fun. 

Same place as the monster truck show.  It amazes me that they can do both at the same place.  The dirt and trucks were right over the ice. 

Also, the price of cotton candy was $11 cheaper this day! 

more watercolor painting- older kids

I was in charge of the 'craft' for Bee's 1st grade class Valentines' party.  I looked around online and really kept coming back to more of an 'art' project. 

We made valentines for the kiddo's parents.  We gave them 4x4 ish inch watercolor paper and they drew a simple picture with a sharpie.  Then they used watercolor color pencil to add some color to the inside of the drawing. 

Then, they used water and a brush to fill in the picture.

Then they glued them to color card stock we had cut in half and wrote a lovely little note to their mama and daddies inside.

The kids had such a good time.  Some of them wanted to keep working rather than moving onto the next activity.  Oops.

This was an easy project to prep for and with some simple directions they were able to really work happily independently.  The best part was that we ended up with precious little love notes for them to give to them parents. 

Rr Robot snack and Lou's leader day

Recently, it was Rr robot day and it was Lou's leader day. I was so pumped because I had seen a fun robot snack and knew immediately what I wanted to make. The mom who was the leader in my classroom saw it too and they brought the same thing.   Pinterest!  It's two little boxes of raisins, a juice box, an applesauce, and two pretzle sticks wrapped in plastic wrap.  I didn't glue it all together, we just stacked them when we got there.

Lou gave his teachers a little treat, dried apples.

I made up these little bag tags using an image I found on pinterest and then messed around with it a bunch. 

Here was the craft, red rectangle robots.  I talked about process verse product a little the other day.  Process art is something I feel pretty strongly about for little ones, but I also think kiddos can get a good bit of pride from a nice looking finished work.  I sat with the kids during this art project while I gave them the directions; to make some kind of red rectangle robot, the rest was up to them.  Here are a few of them:

My favorite was the vacuum robot, of course after Lou's red robot on the right.

Lou loves leader day!  He loves leading the class in the morning routine.

The pledge is his favorite part.  I hear him say it in the car anytime we drive by a flag.  We live in a patriotic neighborhood.  There's a lot of pledging in the car.

Lou has two of the sweetest teachers.  Here he is sharing his huskie dog and his raccoon during his show and tell. 

These robots are not something my class did or even Lou's class.  The third class in our hallway made these adorable recycled robots.  I really want to make them next year.  They turned out so cute.  Another reason for me to start hoarding!

I've got some sewing projects coming up soon to share, I just haven't had as much time to sit and work on my blog lately.  Lately, I'd rather spend that time doing the things I like to blog about!

valentines day -preschool style

Valentines Day at preschool was a fun one.  I kept the activities simple and easy.  It made for a relaxed day- which we all appreciated.  In addition to passing out our valentines, I read a few Valentine books, specifically The Night Before Valentines Day by Natasha Wing. 

Then we played some Valentines bingo.  These were something I made up for Bee's kindergarten party last year.  I just used clipart found on google images.

Then we played some 'hot potato' with these little kissy face dogs.  When the music stopped, the children with the dogs had to meet them in the middle of the circle and put the little doggies noses together for a brief kiss.    I told the kids the dogs were married so they were allowed to give a little Valentines kiss!   They have little magnets inside and the kids thought sticking them together was pretty funny. At the end of the day several kids wanted to check out the dogs again and they stuck them all over the classroom to metal items.  I will need to do some magnet activities another day!

Then we played a heart stepping game sort of 'cake walk' style.  The kids marched around on the hearts (there are upper and lower case for a-s) while the music played and when the music stopped, they got on a heart and made sure they knew the letter.  Then I called out a few letters and those kids did what action I said.  For example, I might have said,  If you are on a Gg, wave your hands in the air, or- if you are on an Hh, snap your fingers, etc.  I used the song 'You've got a Friend in me' from Toy Story.  The kids were so excited when they recognized it. 

The craft for the day was so cute.  Lou's looked a little 'different.'  The kids hand prints  (thumb side of a fist prints really) were stamped on the paper and the kids were to add stems, leaves, etc to make roses.  I found when I was helping my kids make them that some looked better, more spiraly than others.   I think actual stems and leaves helped make it look like a bouquet of roses.  Lou said his were very thorny.