The Library Field Trip

We had scheduled a Field Trip for Preschool not too long ago. One of the Moms had planned a Scavenger Hunt at the Park and told us to come rain or shine.

When we woke up that morning to some drizzle and overcast skies, I sighed and pulled out the rainboots, raincoats, and umbrellas.

About 15 minutes before we had to leave the house, we heard a loud crack of thunder. We looked outside to see torrential downpours, lightning, and so much darkness that there was almost no light coming through the windows at all.

We decided to move the Field Trip across the street from the Park to the local Library.

Unfortunately, I only had my iphone handy, so these pictures aren't the greatest quality.

We checked out some books. Clara liked to pick them out herself and put them in her basket.

We played with the train set.

We played some educational games on the computers. It cracks me up seeing the kids wearing these headphones.

As soon as we left the library, the sun was out and it had turned into a beautiful day.

Preschool - Z Day

This week was Z day for Preschool. It was at our house again, as one of the Moms in our group recently had a baby, and we worked the schedule to give her a few weeks off.

Here are some of the activities we did:

We were Zookeepers, and built cages for all of our zoo animals using Connectors and Straws.

As the kids put the animals in their cages, we talked about what letter each animal name starts with and what sound that letter makes. It was a good letter review, now that we're at the end of the alphabet.

Then the kids fed the animals and took care of them.

We read some Z books: ZOOM! by Robert Munsch, and 1 2 3 to the Zoo, by Eric Carle.

We glued some Zebras to coloured papers and gave the Zebras black stripes.

Preschool - W Day

Yesterday's Preschool was "W" day at our house. I was watching my friend's daughter for the day, so we ended up with 6 kids.

Here is what we did:

LEARNING: We learned about 4 different kinds of whales (blue whale, orca whale, beluga whale, humpback whale)

We went "Whale Watching". I had some hidden pictures of whales around the room and they took turns finding a whale and telling what kind of whale it was.

SONG: Baby Beluga by Raffi - We made wands using straws and had baby beluga whales taped to the ends of the wands. They made the belugas swim and dance to the music.

ACTIVITY: We did some W actions, kind of like charades.

walking

washing windows

whistling

waving or waves in the ocean

pulling a wagon

wiggles!

blowing in the wind

STORY BOOK: Where the Wild Things Are

SNACK: watermelon, walnuts, worms (gummy worms), water

CRAFT: gluing seeds onto watermelons

GAME: Whales & Fishies - One child starts off as the whale in the middle of the room. The rest are fish, and they have to cross the ocean without getting eaten (tagged) by the whale. If the whale eats you, you become a whale too. Once all the fish have been eaten, start again with a different whale.

(Optional activity - Window Writers. The Crayola markers that you can draw and erase on windows. Nathan and Samantha did this later in the day, but it wasn't part of our preschool.)

Preschool books - they are getting better at writing their letters!

Last we had a water station. I filled some plastic tubs with water and had measuring cups, spoons, and other tools to play with in the water.

Preschool - T Day

We hosted preschool this morning. Here's what we did to have some fun with the letter "T".

I had a wall full of T words and each word had an activity to do.

train - We built a train track with Geotrax and all the accessories. We also put together a large train puzzle one the floor.

tower - We built a tall tower with mega blocks.

tent - We turned off all the lights and went on a campout in our tent with some flashlights.

teddy bears - We played a teddy bear toss game, where the basket got further away on each round.

triangles - We made triangle art. We glued different sizes and colours of triangles onto cardstock.

turtle - We painted the back of a paper plate green and made a turtle craft with it. We had buttons or googles for the eyes and green cardstock for the heads, arms, and legs.

We also did some singing, had snack time, and worked on our Workbook sheets (printing and numbers) and that was all the time we had.

Next time we host it will be with the letter "W". If you have any fun ideas for this letter, please send them my way!

Preschool Crafts: Macaroni Necklace

Nathan and I have so much fun hosting preschool every month.

These colourful macaroni necklaces are from our recent "M" day.

Dyeing the macaroni is just as much fun as making the necklaces themselves.

How to make a Macaroni Necklace:

Get a bag of pasta. I suggest using something bigger than macaroni, especially for younger kids. We used Rigatoni.

Add 5-15 drops food colouring to 1 cup of rubbing alcohol. Add 1 cup of pasta to the liquid, and stir it around a bit until it's all coated. I let it sit in the colour for about 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Drain on paper towels until dry.

String coloured pasta onto yarn.