Another Visit from Santa!

My afternoon friends finally got their chance... Aren't they so cute...we missed you Crew!

I want a Spiderman Watch (They all wanted watches after hearing Natalie's original request for one...so sorry guys...blame Natalie!! :) )

I want a Tinkerbell Doll...

I want a Scooby Doo watch...

I want Mariposa and a mermaid...

I want a Spiderman watch...

I want a snow globe, and a spongebob watch...the originator of the "watch idea"!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Visit from SANTA

All I want for Christmas is... A flying horse

A REAL race car

A baby

A Mermaid and Belle Dress

A flying pony

A baby

A guitar

A cowboy

A fake puppy dog

I think all the kids had a fun visit with Santa today. I apologize to the afternoon friends, but he will make an appearance Next Thursday at 12:30!!! Have a great week!

Please have your kids practice their part and Ruldolph the Red nose reindeer! Thanks!

Field Trip to the Fire Station

We had a wonderful trip to the fire station today. Thanks to everyone who participated, and for those of you who were willing to send their kids with me so that they could still go. I think they all had a great time. We missed our friends who were not able to make it. Here are a FEW pictures...if you want more let me know..it's taking forever to upload today. I have a bunch where the children aren't looking at the camera...just totally intrigued with all that's around them...maybe I'll try to post them later. I just wanted to get these up now while I have a minute!

We will see you all tomorrow. Please remember to have your child practice their part! we start practicing tomorrow! Remember to be on time and no peeking...I need to get started on Christmas presents right away...especially my morning friends! Thanks again for today! Have a great week. We will still be working on the letter "J" for "Jingle Bells" :)

Week 15...Community Helpers

We have kept with our theme of community helpers this week. We have learned about various jobs such as doctor, mail carrier, chef, construction worker, "computer jobs", and today (my personal favorite :) ) Police officers. The kids really seemed to enjoy having a real police officer there...especially with her car (Ty doesn't get to take home a car and doesn't have any of his uniform here)...so huge shout out and thank you to Connie who even went out of her way to come back for the afternoon class. Hopefully your kids were able to tell you a little about it and we didn't tell them too much information! :) We did try to stress "911" to them...have them memorize it but also remember that it is ONLY for emergencys...test them out and see if they remember.

I'm sorry our letters have been slacking. I have loved doing this unit so much that I have been just taking this time to really review with them as well as get their progress reports done (they will go home on Tuesday...I just need to finish all the comments). Also, I guess the August kit I bought was from their last years material so some of the letters they sent me for this month (and last) were the ones we already learned in August...so sorry for the confusion...then with next week being a short week, I will probably still review.

I also made a decision for that Fri vs. Mon. make up day. We are going to go on a FIELD TRIP to the fire station on Greenfield and Pueblo ( just past Southern before Broadway I believe) for MONDAY at 10:30. This is a more enclosed area so if you need to drop your child off and go do errands, that is perfectly fine...having said that they have to give the clause that it is possible that the firemen will be out on a call...which is why I like this firehouse because there is a nice big park right next to it so we can play until they return. I thought this would just tie in prefectly with all of our community helpers. Besides they invented police men so firefighters could have a hero too! :) We will also do the whole picnic lunch thing at that park. It should be a great day!

I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving next week. Here is a reminder schedule...We will have school on Tues and Wed. next week (25th and 26th). No school on Thanksgiving. School will resume WED. Dec 3rd (No school on Tuesday the 2nd) There will be school the 3rd and the 4th. THen on the MONDAY the 8th will be our MAKE UP DAY...field trip to the firehouse...then I will teach the normal T-TH. I hope that's not too confusing and doesn't foul anyone up too bad. I appreciate your cooperation with this! Have a great week!

AS always feel free to leave a comment, email or call me anytime with ANY questions you might have!!

Thanks!

Visit from a REAL Police girl!

Week 14

Where does the time go...14 weeks...Middle of November? I can't believe it. I'm sorry I missed last weeks update...life is just crazy!

We have moved on to our "Tiny Town" unit...talking about community helpers. We have learned about (and done projects for) doctors, construction workers, and mail carriers... We have discussed other jobs such as policeman and fire fighters, dentists and such. We also went around the circle and said what we wanted to be when we grew up...and even though I tried to explain what a job is and how you have to go to work and then they pay you money...we still had some girls wanting to be a real princess when they grew up (who knows...maybe they can work at Disneyland). We have some basketball players, doctors, policeman and fireman...and of course we have to have some "spider mans" and "Batman's". It has been a really fun unit, and I am still hoping to do a field trip to the fire station this month (just need to get my act together and call them...maybe after I finish this) and I hope my neighbor will be able to come over with her police car and talk to them for a few minutes about police work (she is on her death bed at the moment...so hopefully she'll get better soon :)).

On top of learning about the above topics we have still been working on our letters, shapes, and numbers, as well as participating in some cutting exercises, Rhyming games, and some name recognition games. They all seem to be doing really well in all of the areas...I don't see any big red flags at the moment...PROGRESS REPORTS will be sent home next week (hopefully...if not for sure before Christmas!)

I wanted to post these pictures because they were perfect of examples of how I prefer our projects to be. When I am registering children I often get asked the question of how I separate the children and how can 3 year olds and 5 year olds possibly be in the same class...and this is how...one, we don't give our children enough credit...3 year olds are capable of a lot...they can learn all their letters and sounds learn to cute, etc. They can't sit quite as long or stay on a task as long, which is why I always keep us moving. But as far as projects go...this is what I like to see in the above picture (it's not as clear as I would've liked) this 4 year old girl decided to color her pliers with a pattern, and she stuck with it on the whole side (she also knew it was a Christmas pattern...red, green, red, etc.) The other side she just wanted to do all red.

The one below is a little boy that just turned 3 a couple weeks ago. He chose random colors to color with, and couldn't quite get it all colored by the time he started to lose interest. Both are ok with me and what I encourage the children to do all the time...I always try to have them make it their own. This year is a little different because most of the projects are sent to me...I feel as if they do a good job of letting the children express themselves how they want...and I LOVE that!

I loved their little mail boxes today...I thought they turned out cute. Their goal was to go home and write a letter to someone (or draw a picture) and mail it to them. SO if you could help them with this...that would be GREAT!

Thanks for all your help with all the turkeys...I Love to see all the different ideas. If you haven't had a chance to bring yours in yet...I would love it if you could. The kids are LOVING looking at everybody's and pointing out which one is theirs!

I hope you have a great week. I have used all the letters out of the November box already, and am hoping to receive Decembers this weekend so I can let you know what letter it will be. Stay tuned! Have a great week!

Happy Halloween!

I hope you guys all had a happy and safe Halloween! we had a great party...thanks for all the contributions. I hope the pictures show up ok on the slide show...they were just taking too long to download individually and all their costumes were so cute I wanted to post them all! We made our pumpkin bags this week as well as our pumpkin shakers...other than that our week was consumed with Halloween stuff!

This week we will be moving on to the letter "E". I will also be sending home a cut out of a turkey...for homework this week I would love if you would decorate it as a family...you can paint it, color it, add legs, add a gobbler thing, add feathers, some people last year glued on macaroni, others glued on water balloons...the ideas are endless...you can make it however you want...and these will be our decorations for the month of Nov. If you could return them preferably by Thursday that would be fantastic...otherwise next Wed. will be fine (remember no school next Tuesday for veteran's day!).

Have a great week!

Holiday schedule!

If any of you happen to read my family blog (www.tylerwatkinsfamily.blogspot.com) You will know that I am obsessed with the Christmas season. For some of you it might seem right around the corner...and others of you are thinking I am crazy for even mentioning the "C" word when we haven't even had Halloween yet... but just in case you guys are overachievers and like to be prepared as far in advance as possible...or you're a crazy busy super mom/dad...I thought I would share the "holiday schedule" with you now..but know that I will give out several more reminders, emails, blog entries, etc.

No School Nov. 11-Veterans Day
No School Nov. 27- Happy Turkey Day
Dec. 11th- Hopefully a special visitor will come to preschool (Santa)
Dec. 16th- Our PROGRAM (I think I want to combine sessions this day...because my afternoon friends are so small and don't sing that loud...not quite sure where we would all fit because I have never combined for that before put plan on school being 9-11:30 that day with our program starting at 11:00) Anyone is welcome again (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) Each child will have a speaking part and we will sing a lot of the songs that we have learned, and we will end with a little Christmas program for you!
Dec. 17th- depending if we get everything done that we need to...it might be a pajama, movie, popcorn party day.
Dec. 18th-- Will be our Christmas party. I will ask each of you to bring their stocking this day (it will be returned this day of course) a SMALL stocking stuffer for each child (like candy, or a pencil, stickers, etc.) ; and then a $10 or a little less gift for a child for a gift exchange (your child will bring home a gift as well...it needs to be either unisex or for the SAME gender as your child so they can evenly be traded). IT is a lot to remember...but it makes for a really fun party...and the kids seem to really enjoy it!

This will be the last day of school...it will resume on Jan. 6th

Hopefully this will be helpful! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!! :)

Another Fun week!

It was so fun to have all of our friends back from fall break! They were missed the week before! We stuck with the letter "C" so that they wouldn't fall behind. We also brought back our "pet theme"..although the projects weren't really the greatest pets (elephant and bird). :)

The kids did a great job with their elephant sorter...hopefully they all went home and practiced some more using smaller items such as cheerios or beans...they were supposed to match the number in the elephant with the correct number of cheerios, etc. A great pre-math skill!

All of your children are getting so good at cutting!!

We also worked on our flip books that will be sent home at the end of the year. We did the letters P, C, X, triangle, and the color orange...all the things we have learned this month!

Our math bird...in case it's not obvious they were to match up the number of dots to the number on the right!!

This next we will learn the letter "Q"...random I know...but that's what comes next in the kit!! :) We will be having our Halloween Party on Thursday. Watch for the sign-ups on Tuesday. Remember to send them in their costumes and come join us in our parade the last 15 or 20 minutes of class! Have a great week!

Halloween Info

FYI... We will be celebrating Halloween on Thursday the 30th. You're children will wear their costumes to school and we will have a big party ending with a parade down my street (actually the street to the west of me, up to the park and back). You are welcome to come join them or just cheer them on about 15-20 minutes before school ENDS (11:10ish or 2:40ish). I will also have sign-ups out for treats, etc. next week. Thanks so much!

Happy October!

I've lost track of weeks...and I have been bad about posting...so here is October so far in a nut shell. We started off the month learning about pets (we did our fish bowls, doggy ear headbands, etc.) but then I wanted to jump right into pumpkins to get them ready for the pumpkin patch and Halloween. So this is what we have learned so far this month:
Letters: X, P, C
Shape: Triangle
Colors: red, blue, orange, brown
Number: 4
We have also been working on cutting...a lot. They had to cut out their pumpkins and ghosts, and the little orange pieces of paper to go on their pumpkin masks! They are doing a great job.
Here's a look at what we did this week during fall break...pumpkins, ghosts and spiders! SCARY!

Cutting and gluing their pumpkin masks

One last thing...in case you missed my tip for the "letter A". I taught the kids what a clock looks like and where all the numbers are, emphasizing the number 2 because that's where they should start for most letters (a, c, d, etc.) and for the letter "c' they learned they start at 2 and stop at 5. So if you wouldn't mind drawing a clock (or showing them a real one would be great too) and reemphasizing this..that would be a great help. A lot of friends want to start and end their letters at "6 o' clock"...hopefully this all makes sense. As always...let me know if you have any questions!! Have a great week. We will still review the "Letter C" next week since we had so many friends gone this week, and will go back and forth between Halloween things and "pet theme". Have a great week!!!

Field Trip pictures...FINALLY!

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to post. I hope you are all having a wonderful fall break. Thanks to my afternoon friends for combining to the morning...I think we had 8 kids all week even with it combined...so that is a lot more fun for them (vs. 3 or 4 in their class)

Here's a little insight of our field trip to Mother Nature's Pumpkin Patch. Thanks to everyone for helping make the day a success. Next month the theme is community helpers so I would love to do a field trip to the fire station as well as have a policeman come talk to the kids and show them around a police car, etc. I'll see if I can find a police man/woman that will do that! :)

Thanks for a great day...the pictures are taking forever to upload...if you didn't get any of your child and want me to send you what I have...let me know!! I tried to post mostly pictures of the children that didn't have a mom or dad with them.