Open House

I found the inspiration online for the type of open house that I like to do for my class. This is my second year to do this project, and it is really worth the time and energy.

This year, I did full body outlines and my little friends colored in their person and tried to draw a face on it. Last year, I only did from the torso up, that seemed to work MUCH better as it was less time consuming to cut out, and the "legs" didn't curl up on me while I tried to cut them out. This is truly a shimmy shimmy project because it is only for impact when you walk in the door, clearly no one is saving this for an heirloom.

Anyway, tape the "friend" to the chair, and tape the arms to the table. I used rolled up construction paper to make the head stand up. I taped the roll to the back of the head and down the back of the neck.

I place each friend where they are assigned to sit in class. I also have sitting in front of them, their work to show off!

The other thing that I like to do is have a slide show going during open house. Forget the music, it is too loud to hear!

Our school also provides us with out of this world Kristy Cookies for the parents to munch on!

Trees

This year, I decided to do a special project that would take several weeks to finish. I found inspiration from my friend, the Urban Hen. When she taught preschool, the children did a special little book and used the poem Trees, by Joyce Kilmer, for inspiration.

I did the same sorta thing...just bigger. These are the highlights of this project. The orange tree was for fall, the kids painted their hands and arm to make the tree then dotted the tree with fall leaves for the fall. I am a little bummed I didn't get a photo of these...nor did I photo a birds nest that we made:(

Science/nature: the study of trees, types, what they provide for us, parts of a tree, seasons
Language/prereading: poetry, rhyming
craft/art: nature collage, rolled balls of model magic to form eggs, then painted them with light blue water color to make little robins eggs. We made a nest using the bottom half of a paper lunch sack. roll down the edges to make a small little nest, line with shredded paper, glue in robin eggs. The white tree, is well, white...we glued Epson salt and clear glitter onto the paper. The red tree labels the parts of a tree, the roots are twin taped on the back.

We also had been talking about God's creation when I taught this lesson.


These made grand examples of our hard work when we had our open house

Sand paper rubbings

This is an idea that a co-worker shared with me this year. You cut out sandpaper in any shape you'd like and then children can do a rubbing over it.

Pumpkin Time

Pumpkin Time went well this year. We made our usual pumpkins out of paper bags. They were okay...got to come up with something else next year. The fun thing about these bags is that my little friends enjoy tearing up magazines to stuff the bags. We paint them and then I add a little sparkle to the initials on the leaves.

Every year I also have a parent come in a carve a pumpkin while I read The Pumpkin Patch Parable. Great book. This year I had a dad volunteer, and as luck would have it, his parents were in town so they came and assisted too! It was fun to have someone else do all the messy work and have the children get to experience pumpkin fun in safe way. How would I carve a pumpkin and read at the same time?

10 Little Pumpkins by Katie Jo

10 Little Pumpkins growing on a vine, 1 got picked and now there are 9.

9 Little Pumpkins in a row so straight, a bird ate 1 up & now there are 8.

8 Little Pumpkins growing up to heaven, 1 fell down and now there are 7.

7 Little Pumpkins lying on some sticks, 1 got stomped and now there are 6.

6 Little Pumpkins going for a drive, 1 drove away and now there are 5.

5 Little Pumpkins growing near the door, 1 said, “ding dong” & now there are 4.

4 Little Pumpkins growing round a tree, 1 got dizzy and now there are 3.

3 Little Pumpkins playing peek-a-boo, 1 got grumpy and now there are 2.

2 Little Pumpkins basking in the sun, 1 got burnt and now there’s just 1.

1 Little Pumpkin sitting all alone, I put him in a basket and took him home!

Apples

Apples are by far one of my favorite themes to use with preschoolers. What child does not like apples.
So, what do I do with them? A LOT...however, I only have these little friends for a few hours two times a week, so, I don't get to do as much as I would like to.

This year, I read various apple books that have the life cycle of an apple tree. My friends literally screamed when the flower became an apple. I seriously have little scientists this year. We did an apple rubbing using a sand paper cut out apple. A teacher in our school shared this idea with me. The children really liked feeling of the sand paper and learning that it felt "rough" and compared it to other items in the room.

My favorite thing to do is to make a "10 Apples Up On Top" book. Very simple book, and I am sure I am borrowing this idea from someone else. Each child takes turns lying on their back and I take one apple and place it "on" their head (really, it is above their head but looks sorta like on in the picture). You just keep building until the last person has Ten on top.

We graphed our apples and weighed them. This was crazy funny! I got out our balance scales and they predicted which apple would weigh the most, least, and the same. They were out of control with excitement over how the apples would fair. When one side would go down they would scream all at the exact same time. Mass hysteria or group enthusiasm?

I feel like I am on candid camera. I have never had a group of children so absolutely nutty about circle time. I can just begin to sing "Time to clean up" and they are scurrying around like squirrels under an Oak tree that just sneezed.

Squirrels are next week!

Down on the Farm

Read Click, Clack, Moo and In a Barn in the Country

Have feed in a bin for children to play in and Little People barn yard set.

Let children milk a cow. I use a rubber glove with pin holes in the fingertips. I bring in powdered milk, mix it up and pour it into the glove, then tie it up. It is helpful to have a little stool for children to sit on and a it's fun to have a little metal bucket for them to "milk" into.

For positional words, make a giant barn on the floor with masking tape. Red tape would be fun, but we only had regular tape and that worked out just fine. I have enough animal cutouts glued onto Popsicle sticks for each child to have one. Then we sing "The farmer and the dell" but change the words to "The cow is in the barn" and proceed until every animal is in the barn, then switch to " Out of the barn". You could easily say beside or on top of the barn.