Preschool Week 32: Going Green

Opening Activity: Review sight words and phonics flip chart

Circle Time:

• Date/Time/Weather
• Practice singing songs for graduation

Lesson and Snack: Watch the movie "The Lorax" whilst eating M&M's, Almonds, Granola bars, and oranges. Then discuss the moral of the movie and how we can help to keep the Earth healthy and happy. Talk about the 3 R's- Recycle, Reduce, Reuse!

Craft: Reuse old pasta and salsa bottles to make  sparkle vases by painting them with Mod Podge and then rolling them in colored Epsom salt and sparkles.

Preschool Week 31: LAND

Monday with Arielle

Opening Activity: Sort short vowel sounds. Practice writing letters J and K.

Circle Time:

• Date/Time/Weather
• Review sight words.

Snack: bananas, yogurt, raisins, and crackers

Wiggle Time: walk around the neighborhood; notice landmarks along our path.

Lesson: What is a Map/Atlas? How can we use it?

Craft: Let’s make our own Atlas! We can draw a map of the walk we took around the neighborhood.

Wednesday with Naomi

Opening Activity: Phonics and Sight Words

Circle Time: 

• Date/Time/Weather 
• Read "Ferngully"
• Sing songs about nature

Snack Time: Fruit and Veggie Tray

Wiggle Time: Nature Walk

Lesson: What do we need that comes from the land? Plant some things in the children’s garden and build a log fairy house!

Craft: Landscape Paintings of things we saw on our nature walk

Preschool Week 30: Ocean

Monday with Arielle

Opening Activity: Word Family worksheets (Mailbox Packet)

Circle Time:

• Date/Weather/Time
• Read “The Whale and the Snail”

Snack: Cheese, crackers, bananas

Wiggle Time: Songs of the Sea

Lesson: Watch, “Why the Ocean Matters”. Discuss - How can we help take care for our oceans?

Craft: Octopus and coral reef (Pinterest)

Wednesday with Naomi

Opening Activity: Phonics and Sight Words

Circle Time: 

• Date/Time/Weather 
• Sing Ocean songs 
• Read Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle 

Snack Time: Swedish Fish in the Jello Ocean

Wiggle Time: Dolphin Olympics with the beach ball

Lesson: Planet Earth Ocean video

Craft: Paper bowl Jelly Fish

Friday Field Trip

Visit the Aquarium at Brookfield Zoo and watch the Dolphin show!

Due to flooding in the zoo (as well as the rest of the state) we were not able to attend the zoo on this day.

Preschool Week 29: SKY

Monday with Arielle

Opening Activity: "what do I need?" worksheet (Mailbox book), practice sight words

Circle Time:

• Date/Weather/Time
• Songs about the weather
• Listen to the song "Let's Go Fly A Kite" and discuss - what is the "atmosphere"? 

Snack: "Cloud parfait" with blue jell-O and marshmallows!

Wiggle Time: Walk outside and "observe" the sky and the clouds (it was very windy and all the clouds were going by really fast). What else can we see that is flying in the sky?

Lesson: Why is the sky blue? Match sight words to pictures of weather.

Craft: Make a rainbow wind-sock.

Wednesday with Naomi

Opening Activity: Phonics Flip Chart Game- "If this says "D" and this says "ug" put them together and it says "Dug"

Circle Time:

• Date/Time/Weather
• Read the book "Why the Sky is Far Away"
• Sing the Kangaroo Kite Song

Snack: Bird related foods- Sunflower seeds and boiled eggs

Wiggle Time: Practice flapping our wings while we fly around the block!

Lesson: Float, Fly, or Fall! (If ____ was in the sky, would it float, fly, or fall? Why?)

Craft: Shoe box Skies!

Preschool Week 28: Bugs AND Weather

After taking time off for sick kids and moving things around for FREE field trips, our schedule got a little messed up. So, for week 28 of preschool we had two themes. Arielle did Bugs on Monday and I did Weather on Wednesday.

Monday with Arielle

B-U-G-S-!

This preschool Lesson was made possible by the MWS Literacy Bag from our Westmont Public Library. We had a lot of fun discussing the differences and similarities between spiders and other insects. We tried to look for bugs outside...but it is still too cold here. Instead, we hid plastic bugs and played "hot and cold" then we danced like butterflies and wiggled like worms. We did some artwork using our fingerprints to make different kinds of insects by adding 6 or 8 legs.

Wednesday with Naomi

W-E-A-T-H-E-R-!

Opening Activity: Reading exercises- Sight Words, Phonics Chart, "You Read to me and I'll Read to you" book.

Circle Time:

• Date/Time/Weather
• Practice songs for graduation
• Read the book "We're Going on a Bear Hunt"

Snack: Sunshine Pudding (Idea found HERE)

Wiggle Time: Running with Pinwheels!!!

Lesson: Weather Experiments from Weather Wiz Kids

Craft: Tornado Tubes and Weather Bags

Inside the weather bag was a straw and cotton ball to show how wind pushes the clouds (blow the cotton balls with the straws), a tornado tube (swirl it and watch a tornado appear), mint life savers to show how lightning works (chew them in the dark with your mouth open and see sparks), and a brown paper bag to show how thunder works (blow it up and pop it!)

Preschool Week 27: EASTER

Preschool was cancelled this week due to many sick children, but we still wanted to post some of the ideas we'd prepared for the week.

Monday with Arielle

Opening Activity: Easter Letter Maze, Time Worksheet, review sight words.

Circle Time: 

• Date/Weather/Time
• Easter Songs 
• Read, “The Easter Egg” by Jan Brett

Snack: Bunny food (carrots and ranch)

Wiggle Time: The Bunny Hop.

Lesson: What is Easter all about?

Craft: Bunny mask out of paper plate and construction paper

Wednesday with Naomi

Opening Activity: Easter word flashcards

Circle Time:

• Date/Time/Weather
• Sing "Little Bunny Foo Foo" and other songs about bunnies
• Read the story of Easter and other books about new life and Spring

Snack: Bunny Bait (Recipe can be found HERE)

Wiggle Time: Easter egg hunt outdoors!

Lesson: Where do baby animals come from?

Craft: Easter Egg Candle Holder! (Tutorial can be found HERE)

Preschool Week 26: SPRING

Monday with Arielle

Opening Activity: “Beautiful Blossoms” worksheet (Mailbox pack), review sight words, measurements worksheet.

Circle Time:

• Date/Time/Weather
• Songs about spring (pinterest) 

Snack: Apples w/ peanut butter and honey

Wiggle Time: Wiggle time videos inside due to inclement weather.

Lesson: discuss the California Red Woods and the parts of a plant. Discuss how insects, animals, and people use plants and trees for different things.

Craft: Build a flower and label parts. Add a bee to help with pollination!

Wednesday with Naomi

(Special guest teacher, Colleen Hanks with over 20 years experience teaching preschool!)

Circle Time:

• Date/Time/Weather
• Letter of the day - "S"

Reading Development: Rotating stations with sight words, phonics charts, picture to word association flashcards, letter writing.

Snack: Fruit dipped in Peanut butter yogurt sauce

Music Time: Singing and dancing lead by Colleen Hanks and Janna Bluth

Lesson: How things grow - Soil, water, sunshine!

Activity: Plant bananas!

Preschool Week 25: St. Patrick's Day

Monday with Arielle

Opening Activity: S is for Shamrock Worksheet. Review sight words. Add, Subtract, and Estimate using "gold" coins.

Circle Time:

• Date/Weather/Time
• Read "The Night Before St. Patrick's Day"
• Sing St. Patrick's Day songs (see below).

I'm a Little Leprechaun

(Tune of I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little leprechaun (hands on hips) 

Dressed in green, (point to shirt) 

The tiniest man (hold thumb and index finger about an inch apart) 

That you have seen. (point to the other people) 

If you ever catch me, so it's told, (make a motion like you're grabbing at a leprechaun) 

I'll give you my big pot of gold. (make a motion like you're giving something away) 

Eensy Weensy Leprechaun 

(Itsy bitsy spider) 

An eensy weensy leprechaun 

Came out for St. Patrick's Day 

To look for the gold that 

was hidden far away 

over the rainbow 

was where he was told to go So, 

with a wink of his green eye 

He ran to get the gold!

Snack: Lucky charms and "gold"fish crackers

Wiggle Time: Dance and twirl to Irish music and use streamers.

Lesson: Find Ireland on the map. Discuss who St. Patrick really was.

Craft: Cut and color our own leprechaun.

Wednesday with Naomi

Opening Activity: Sight Words and Phonics Game - If this says "B" and this says "ig" put them together and it says "Big"

Circle Time:

• Date/Time/Weather
• Sing the Rainbow song
• Read books about leprechauns and rainbows

Snack: Color Tray (Red strawberries, yellow bananas, pink yogurt, green celery sticks, purple grapes, orange carrots, blue blueberries)

Wiggle Time: Hang crystals from the window, give them a spin, have the kids chase the rainbows around the room!

Lesson: Primary Colors- 3 clear jars filled with water. Add food coloring to make one red, one yellow, one blue. 3 clear empty jars. Pour combinations of the colored water into empty jars to see what colors you can make by mixing the primary colors.

Craft:  Use pom poms to glue together your own rainbow!